Page 9 of Wild and Unruly (Three Rivers Trevors Ranch #3)

bonnie

I couldn’t believe how lively this place was. When I originally researched this little town, it didn’t look like much on a map, but when you’re in the thick of it, you see how much this community comes together. Everyone treats each other like they’re either great friends or even family.

As I step into Bottle Grounds tonight after being invited out by Dani, I smile at the rowdy crowd that is all around the bar and dance floor, singing at the top of their lungs to some old country song.

I can’t help but laugh at the antics I see, and for a split second, I see Stetson and Logan, plus a few of the other people who work at the ranch, singing with their arms around each other. I wish I had my camera on me to capture the moment.

Making my way through the crowd, people politely move out of the way, giving me smiles and friendly waves even though I know none of these people. It was a one-eighty from how you’re treated in the middle of a big city .

Finally making it to the bar, I lean against it and get the attention of the tall girl in all black. She looks a little out of place in the setting, but she also gives off a confidence that frightens me a little. I clear my throat as she gets closer.

“What can I get you?” Her tone is casual, but she eyeballs me like she knows who I am and…doesn’t like me.

My mind goes blank. Like…white noise is playing in the forefront of my mind, and I lose the capacity to actually speak. “Oh. Uh.”

“Do you not want one?” she asks, raising a speculative eyebrow, and I get distracted by some sort of tattoo that goes around her forearm and disappears under her sleeve.

I swallow and mutter. “Beer.”

“Beer? Just…beer? Any particular kind you would like?”

I let out an awkward chuckle and sputter. “Sorry, no, can you make a paloma?”

She raises her brow and nods. “Any tequila preference?”

“Anything as long as it’s not mixed with Triple Sec.”

She smiles and says, “Good call.”

I nod, and she goes about making my drink. I see Thea come by and talk with her. Then it clicks for me as Thea looks over and nods at me with a smile. That must be her sister. They look so much alike.

The woman walks back over to me and sets down a pretty dark pink-colored drink, and I hand over cash before I take a sip of the drink. I hum in delight. “This is perfect, thanks!”

I take a bill and stuff it in her tip jar, fully intending to turn around and find a place to sit, but she stops me.

“You’re the reporter, right?” My startled look at her must give me away because she nods. “You’re Bo. ”

“Um, I’m Bonnie.” The only person who has called me Bo is Stetson. Is he going around telling people that I’m here?

“Right, I’ve heard a lot about you.” She keeps her hands busy, wiping out glasses and stacking them somewhere I can’t see. Seamlessly, someone orders a drink, and she makes it without breaking eye contact.

“I’m not sure that’s a good thing,” I finally reply, taking another generous sip.

“So far, so good.” She gives a slight smile and inclines her head to the dance floor. When I peek over there, I see Stetson staring at me from his spot in the group and he raises his hand high in the air in greeting.

I smile and lift my glass at him, turning my attention back to the bartender.

“Stetson’s a good guy.” She pauses for a moment as if thinking carefully over her next words. “He doesn’t need to be jerked around, but if you show even the slightest interest, he’ll come after you.”

I blink at the woman. “Excuse me?”

“I’m just saying, judging by the way he’s talked and the goofy grin he has on his face staring at you right now, I would say the ball is already rolling.”

Shaking my head, I take another sip and turn on a slight glare. “What did you say your name is?” What, is this some kind of ex-girlfriend protecting the boyfriend thing? Because if that is the case, I have no interest in getting involved in that kind of drama.

“I’m Annmarie, and I’m Stetson’s friend.” She levels me with a hard look. “Nothing more. Just friends.”

I retract my claws just a little, accepting her answer. For now.

What was I even talking about? Stetson and I were nothing. We weren’t about to start going at each other in the middle of the bar or anything. He was working for the people I was doing a story about. That was the extent of what we were to each other.

But I felt defensive still at the thought of this woman warning me off.

“Well, you don’t have anything to worry about,” I start, slamming the rest of my drink and sliding it over to her. “We’re not even friends. I’m here for work.”

Without a word but with a wary glance, she takes the glass and starts to make a fresh one, not even asking if I want another.

Which I do. And apparently, I need one if I’m going to get through my time here.

Suddenly, arms appear on either side of me, trapping me against the bar. I turn and am not surprised to see Stetson there, grinning down at me.

“Hey there,” I say, willing my arms to stay back. I rest my elbows on the bar and pretend to have a casual stance without being too awkward. He holds his arms out straight, giving me room to breathe. Damn, his arms are long.

“Hello, gorgeous Bo. What are you doing here?”

I chuckle a little and nod in the direction of his friends. “Dani invited me.”

“She did?” He looks behind me and nods. I turn and see Annmarie has left my drink there and walked away. Damn. I need to pay.

I half turn to Stetson, who has let an arm drop, moving so he can stand in front of me and look me in the eye. “She did,” I confirm.

“That was nice of her.” He rolls his neck, and I see his tongue slick over his teeth. “If I had invited you, would you have come?”

“Believe me.” I smirk, taking a sip from my drink. “It takes a good amount of effort to make me come.”

For a split second, I try to play that sentence off, but the beating pulse in my wrist and the heat spreading to my cheeks can’t be denied.

“Well, good thing I like a challenge then, isn’t it?” Stetson has leaned in so close that I can feel his breath on my face. I turn, and he gives me a cocky smirk, obviously loving that I put my foot in my mouth far too often.

“We’re just going to pretend you didn’t hear me say that.”

“I don’t know, I’ve got a pretty good memory.”

I take a healthy swallow of my drink. “Do you know where Dani is?”

“Out dancing, I assume.” He nods toward the dance floor, but it’s too crowded for me to see her.

I stand a little straighter, feeling the tequila really starting to warm up my blood and take one last sip before waving at Annmarie, who doesn’t notice me.

“What’s wrong? Need another?”

“No,” I answer, still trying to get her attention. “She didn’t let me pay.”

“I put it on my tab.”

I turn, surprised, and frown at Stetson, who’s still got that goofy grin on his face. “You did? Why?”

“I wanted to buy you a drink, and I didn’t think you’d let me.”

I let myself look him over again. He gazes down at me like he wants to say something, and I wait patiently, unsure if I want to actually hear what he might say.

“I would have let you.” My words come out softly, but he hears them, and when I feel him moving closer, I feel a thrum of anticipation course through my belly.

Then, a song comes on that makes the whole bar erupt in cheers, and I smile at the beginning notes, tilting my head to look at Stetson.

He grins. “You wanna dance?”

“I do.” But I ignore his outstretched hand and quickly weave my way through the crowd before finding the dance floor. I see Dani, and she nods at me, smiling broadly at the song and the people lining up to start a dance I know very well.

I find a spot, and Dani finds one next to me, CT on her other side, and I think CT’s sister-in-law is next to him. We all start moving in unison, and I’m grinning and laughing while we all dance, stomping to the beat of the music and moving fairly flawlessly to the music.

I let myself get lost in the song, remembering a time when I was able to be a little more carefree in my life, when all I had to do was please my dad with my showing, and then the rest was up to me.

When Mason and I would head out to the local country bar and go dancing three times a week, him finding several willing cowgirls, and me…

well, mostly, I kept to myself with a few random partners in between.

The feeling that courses through me has me feeling all of that nostalgia that I’d been missing, and by the end of the song, I catch Stetson’s eye from where he watches all of us on the side of the dance floor.

The look in his eyes should scare me. It should warn me away and make me tuck tail.

Instead, I do something reckless and bold. I hold out my hand to him as the song changes, and it’s not three seconds before he’s grasping my hand in his. The heat from his body overwhelms me, and I suck in a lungful of his cologne.

Tonight, he’s got on his full cowboy attire: the shiny boots, the Wranglers, the button-down, and the cowboy hat. He’s everything I’ve tried to avoid, but he’s the only person in so long that I’ve felt completely comfortable around.

Pulling me in, he wraps his arm around my waist and starts to lead us in a two-step.

I keep rhythm with him, holding myself just enough away from him to stay appropriate.

But he turns me out and back into him, flushing our bodies together and looking down at me like I’m something delicious he wants to devour.

It makes me flush all over.

I can feel the tequila making me hot, and the dancing with so many bodies in the room feels stifling. I turn to go as the song ends, and he grasps a hand around mine, following close behind me.

We make our way out of the crowd, and he pulls me into a secluded hallway. I assume it leads to the bathroom, but I don’t pay much attention as he turns me, pressing my back against a wall and tilting my chin up with a finger.

“I’m kissing you now.” His words almost sound like a question, but I don’t think he’s asking.

I feel my head nod before I can think it all the way through, and his lips slam down on mine so hard my head hits the wall, but I don’t really care.

My hands find his muscular shoulders, and he wraps an arm around my lower back, practically pulling my feet off the ground. I’ve never had a man do that with me before.

I feel no sense of self-consciousness. Not in the way I normally have. I don’t like talking about my weight, but I have wide hips and cellulite, I have a large chest and a soft belly, and yet, Stetson makes me feel like I’m a supermodel fresh off the runway.

He holds me tight, his other hand holding my jaw firmly and guiding my head the way he wants, positioning me where he wants me to be and running his tongue over mine. He pulls my tongue into his mouth, kissing me with a ferocity that I’ve never felt before in my life.

I moan, and it spurs him on. His hand that holds me up grips me harder, and his other hand slides down my neck while his mouth slides down my jaw and the other side of my neck, sucking and kissing me until I’m sure I’ll have a hickey. In that moment, I just don’t really care.

His hand finds my breast, and I lose all train of thought as he kneads it, making my entire body shake.

I realize then that my hands are still on his shoulders, lost in the feeling of what he’s doing to me, and just as I’m about to move them, a loud cheer rings out in the bar, startling me and realizing we’re still in public.

Stetson must come to the realization as well, and he settles down, pressing light kisses to my neck and making his way back to my lips. I let him kiss me gently for a minute, trying to catch my breath.

“I was about to move my hands.”

Stetson pulls back slightly, frowning a little. He’s breathless as he asks, “What?”

“My hands.” I tap his shoulders. “I was going to move them.”

“Oh.” He smiles at me and leans forward, kissing me again. “I like your hands where they are.”

“Yeah, but your hands were everywhere, and my hands stayed put.” Why am I still talking about my hands ?

Oh, right, because he just ravished whatever brain cells I have.

“I’d like both of our hands to be everywhere, but we’re still a little exposed.” His words send another thrill through me, and I have to tell my body to settle down.

“Ah, right. I should head home.”

“I’ll take you. You’ve been drinking.” He wraps his hand around mine and pulls me through the crowd. I don’t take my hand off of our clasped hands, following his lead until we’re outside in the fresh air.

“Wait, you’ve been drinking too,” I say, pulling him to a stop.

His golden-brown eyes catch mine and he pauses, then smiles. “I have an idea.”

We make our way through the side alley and to the parking lot where my truck is. Right next to it is an older model of nearly the same truck, and I frown at the coincidence. When he unlocks it and goes around to pull the tailgate down, I let my mouth fall open.

“This is your truck?”

He grins and shrugs. “Funny, huh?”

“Yeah, funny,” I say, then smile at him. He gestures to the truck bed, and I see where he’s going with this. “I don’t know…”

“We’re not gonna do anything,” he starts, taking my hands in his. “I just wanna lie with you until we’re sober enough to drive.”

I nod my head, trusting in his words. Then I run to my truck, open the back door, and grab my emergency blanket I keep there.

“Here.” I hand it to him, and he hops in the bed, laying it out for us to lie on. Then, he reaches down and grasps my hand, pulling me up into the bed of it with him.

We lay there, side by side, and just…be.

For hours, our gazes move between each other and the stars high above us. Stetson only goes as far as letting me use his chest as a pillow and tracing my lips with his finger.

We talk about anything and everything, laughing at stories from our past and listening to plans of the other’s future.

It may just be the best night of my entire life, and as I gaze up at the stars, watching and praying for one to shoot across the sky, I know exactly what I would wish for.