Home > Show-Off in Spurs (Crossroads #5)(9)

Show-Off in Spurs (Crossroads #5)(9)
Author: Em Petrova

He looked inside and pulled out a big box. For a moment, he didn’t speak and then he glanced up at Theo. “Boots?”

“Yeah. Since you won’t come with me to town to have you fitted, I guessed at your size. The clerk brought it to my attention that those boots aren’t my size.” He slanted a grin at Jordy, who dipped into a crouch to set the box on the ground.

He opened the lid and touched the leather of the heavy, solid work boots. “These are great. I appreciate it, Theo.”

He gave a gruff nod. “Try ’em on now. If they don’t fit, I’ll take them back and exchange them tomorrow.”

The rumble of a truck engine had him striding to the door. “Be right back. Watch yourself, just in case.”

Jordy nodded and picked up the box, slinking into the shadows where he stayed hidden during the evening hours when Theo would bring him supper, and today, boots.

He stepped out of the shed and drew the door shut behind him. Cort rounded the corner, nearly stopping his heart in his chest. If he walked into that shed and found Jordy…

“I was lookin’ for you,” his boss said.

Theo positioned himself in front of the shed door in the event he had to block Cort’s way of getting into his own shed.

He raised his jaw a notch in a questioning gesture. “Oh? You need somethin’ done?” he asked.

“You got a visitor.”

Theo’s brows pinched. Nobody visited him at work. Even his parents stuck to themselves, settling for the occasional phone call to rag on him about returning to college.

“Who?” Theo asked.

“That friend of Dom and Jada’s. They threw the party for her.”

“Sadie?” His heart set off at a fast clip that made his ears ring with the thuds.

He started away from the shed, only realizing after a few steps that Cort could go inside before he stopped him.

Right then, Huxley rounded the new hay shed with Sadie at his side. Theo’s stare latched on her—the sway of her hips and the way she wore her hair today, pulled into a ponytail dangling over one shoulder. The top of her head reflected the auburn highlights that had caught his attention from day one.

She was also smiling pretty wide and then she laughed at something Huxley said. Son of a bitch. Why did she run from Theo and joke with Huxley? Theo suddenly felt a snake of jealousy, and he was never jealous. Not ever. He figured if a woman’s eyes wandered elsewhere, then she wasn’t worth having anyway, let alone fighting over.

This woman, however…

He snapped back to attention, glancing around to see Cort walking in the other direction toward the pasture that flooded a few weeks before.

He glanced back at Huxley. Sadie looked up and caught Theo’s stare.

Why did his heart give that tug whenever he looked at the woman? At the winery, in the back seat of his truck and then the party… Was it his imagination or was that tug getting stronger, now resembling something more like a yank?

“Looks as if we found him. Thanks, Huxley.” She separated herself from the ranch hand, which shouldn’t make Theo want to grin and give his buddy obscene gestures but it did.

He started toward Sadie, reaching her fast with his long legs. Hell, had she always been so pretty? She was and he knew it. Dammit, he wished his body would shut down when it came to being around her. His cock was already starting to swell.

“You’re looking for me?” he asked her.

She tilted her head back, meeting his eyes. There it was again—it felt as if she held the end of a rope that’d been lassoed around his ribs, and every time she pulled, he felt his chest walls flex.

“Hi, Theo.”

“Sadie.” His voice came out as a roughened scrape.

Her eyes dropped to his mouth and then shot to his gaze again. “I hope I’m not bothering you. I didn’t know how to get ahold of you any other way than to stop in where you work.”

She glanced around and then crossed her arms over her middle as if holding herself together. What was that about?

Fragile, he reminded himself of Dom’s description of the woman. Though he didn’t see fragility in Sadie as much as he saw a woman who couldn’t hide her emotions. Whatever she was feeling passed over her features, or such as now, ran through her body.

“You’re not bothering me,” he said.

“Well…good.” She swallowed hard and stared at his chest for a moment. He wondered if she ever thought about laying her head there after she screamed out the last of her orgasm—an orgasm he’d given her. He knew how to make her body shiver, shudder and peak.

She cleared her throat and continued on, “I got your name from…” She broke off for a minute, seeming dazed.

He ducked his head to catch her eye. “Sadie?”

“Yes. I mean…Jada and the real estate agent both said that you lay flooring.”

He blinked, not quite keeping up when his brain lived in another hemisphere at the moment—in fact, he’d call it south of the belt. In his pants.

“Flooring,” he repeated and then nodded. “Yeah, I’ve done some odd jobs. Why? You need something laid?” He couldn’t resist teasing her simply to see if she’d smile.

And she did, dipping her head to hide the prettiest smile he’d seen in ages. Maybe ever.

“Theo…”

“Sorry. I couldn’t resist. Man, remember?” He pointed to his chest, and she stared at it for a moment, brows screwed up.

Giving herself a visible shake, she chuckled again, forcing this one. “Um, yes, I do need some flooring laid. Hardwood.”

“Laminate?”

“The real stuff.”

He arched a brow. Of course Jackson Jesse James wouldn’t allow his widow to skimp and struggle in the event of his death, and a man who rode bulls for a living would have taken out a hefty life insurance policy. So it didn’t surprise Theo that she had some money to spend on good flooring.

“Where’s the flooring going?”

“In my new house.”

“Where’s that?”

“The old schoolhouse!” she burst out with a happy cry.

He damn near fell to his knees. The joy beaming from her face and radiating out of her every pore stole all thought from his head. He realized he’d taken not one step closer but two, which brought her head back farther to stare at him.

“The schoolhouse. Pretty cool place to live.” He heard a noise and tossed a look toward the shed.

“Yes.” Her chest gave a heave. “So can you do it?”

Kiss her? Hell yeah. Wrap her in his arms and lift her off her feet, guide her curvy thighs around his hips so he could rub his bulging erection into the V of her legs? He’d like to meet the man who tried to stop him.

He snapped back to reality.

Floor.

Fuck.

Schoolhouse.

Bend over.

“Yes. I have some free time in the evenings, but it’ll be late around seven or eight o’clock, after I finish evening chores.”

She opened her mouth to speak but several booming shouts drowned her words.

Hell, now what happened? His first thought was Jordy. If it wasn’t a fire or flood, maybe the kid had brought down locusts on the ranch?

The shouts grew closer, and he realized the ranch hands were running this way. Theo held up a hand for Sadie to wait a minute, but right then a horse careened around the barn, barreling straight at her.

Hot Books
» House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City #1)
» A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire
» From Blood and Ash (Blood And Ash #1)
» A Million Kisses in Your Lifetime
» Deviant King (Royal Elite #1)
» Den of Vipers
» House of Sky and Breath (Crescent City #2)
» The Queen of Nothing (The Folk of the Air #
» Sweet Temptation
» The Sweetest Oblivion (Made #1)
» Chasing Cassandra (The Ravenels #6)
» Wreck & Ruin
» Steel Princess (Royal Elite #2)
» Twisted Hate (Twisted #3)
» The Play (Briar U Book 3)