exposure after the rodeo Hendrixx had competed in. Too many drinks, too many people egging us on, and we found ourselves walking down main street stark naked, except our cowboy boots and lassos. By the end of the fifth story, Farron had tears in her eyes from laughing so hard. My heart about burst at the sight of seeing her so happy and relaxed with me. I knew she had this notion that nothing could happen between us, but I was hoping that spending time with me, and not me sitting in the corner staring creepily at her, she might see a different side of me.
Maybe even see I was worth the risk.
“What’s that look?” Farron suddenly asked, breaking me out of my thoughts.
“Huh?”
“Just now, your expression went from light and happy to dark and brooding,” she noted, quirking her pouty lips at me. Lips I couldn’t wait to taste.
“Truthfully? I was thinking that hopefully, you will change your mind about what I said to you at the farm and again at your place today.” I wasn’t about to skirt around the issue or pussyfoot with my words. I wanted Farron, and I know she felt the same way about me.
Her sassy smile slipped from her lips, and back was the worried expression from earlier.
“Nixx—”
“Fuck baby, I love how you say my name, so breathy like you love saying it,” I murmured, leaning my forehead on hers. Aware that people in the restaurant might be watching and that Dillion was in the kitchen, so this wasn’t the time to fuse my mouth to hers and kiss the shit out of her. Instead, I breathed in the scent that was purely Farron, a combination of peaches and woodsy from the wood-fired pizza ovens.
“Please Nixx, don’t do this, don’t make it hard to say no to you.” Her voice was breaking like she didn’t mean a single word that was coming out, her grip on my biceps told me she didn’t mean it, and the fact that she was pressing her forehead tightly against mine, wanting to stay close. To stay with me.
“Fuck that shit baby, I am not going to make this easy for you to walk away from this. I get that you had a shitty marriage, I understand you weren’t appreciated as a wife and as a woman, I do understand that. But that wasn’t me Farron, this is me.” Rubbing the tip of my nose down the bridge of hers, I stopped a breath over her lips, hoovering mouth-wateringly close.
Brown eyes the colour of the richest coffee stared back at me, iris’ that speckled with gold and shining with something I believed was hope.
“Nixx, this is very new, this … chemistry between us. It’s hot and full of sparks, but how can I know it’s real? I think I need some time, and I have a son—”
“No!” I growled, hating that she was trying to find an excuse to push me away and using her son? I don’t think so. Wanting time away from me? No fucking way.
“Don’t use Dillion to hide behind Farron. I grew up with two brothers, I know teenage boys, I understand them.”
“As for the time, well, that is a hard fuck no also. I am not giving you time to talk yourself out of getting to know me or letting me get to know you. But, I will give you space in the form of a compromise. I will back off with the asking, but that is it. I’m still coming in for dinner every night, only now it will be me at the bar and you on the other side talking to me when customers allow. You bring Dillion out to the Triple H during the week, give him some time on the bikes and paddock cars too.” Sucking in a deep breath, I attempted to refill my lungs with some much-needed oxygen. I couldn’t help the panic overtaking me, thinking she wanted to walk away, just the idea I couldn’t set my eyes on her hurt like hell. An ache settled on my chest, almost suffocating me.
I watched intently as Farron bit her lip, her teeth grazing the plump morsel doing me in once and for all. Groaning an apology, sorry that I couldn’t wait, not for what I was about to do, I dropped my mouth at the same time, I dragged my thumb down her lips, releasing her teeth’s captive.
The second my lips settled over Farron’s, the erratic beating