Summer Fling: Compass Girls, Book 3 (4 page)

“Lucky you,” Boone grumbled. “I still have to see it every day.”

Liam laughed. This was the second June in a row he’d headed off into the mountains with Jade, her Compass girl cousins, as well as Daniel, Wyatt, Clayton, Boone and Jameson. It was a fun group. They’d loaded the horses up with tents, food, too much beer, and this year, Boone had insisted on dragging his guitar along. Situated next to a small lake, the campsite provided cool water, beautiful views and complete privacy. They could crank up their music as loud as they wanted and get rowdy without anyone complaining.

Jameson sighed, realizing he was trapped. “Fine.” He threw the knife. Resigned to his fate, he didn’t even bother to aim. He hit the bull’s-eye. “Holy shit!”

Jade laughed loudly. Her noisy, animated laughter had pierced Liam’s eardrums many times in the past. Jade didn’t do anything quietly and for years he’d considered wearing earplugs whenever she was around just to dim the sound a bit. Lately, though, he noticed it didn’t seem to bother him as much. In fact, he’d started to like the sound.

Dammit. He needed to get his head out of his ass and start thinking logically. Jade had given him a wide berth since his impulsive kiss outside Spurs last weekend and he’d been reading himself the riot act for it ever since. He still wasn’t sure what had gotten into him that night.
 

He’d woken up the next morning with a slight headache and had considered chalking it up to one too many beers. However, it wasn’t anything that innocent. Jade had laid down a challenge with her teasing kiss, and being the arrogant fool he was, he’d reciprocated, intent on giving her a taste of her own medicine.

He’d intended to simply kiss her, but somewhere along the line, the plan backfired until his cock was rock-hard and his hand was in her bra.
 

Now Jade kept eyeing him with a suspicion he didn’t care for, all because he’d let things get way out of hand.
 

At some point tonight, he’d pull her aside. They’d clear the air, laugh about it and then life could go back to normal, with them firmly standing in the
just friends
realm. There was no way in hell he was going to change
that
status. He couldn’t date Jade Compton. She’d run roughshod over him, drive him nuts, wear him out with her crazy antics.
 

And that loud laugh. That blow-your-eardrums-out, joyful, husky, sexy laugh.

He reached for another beer.

Sienna pulled the hot dog she was roasting on the flames toward her to inspect it. “Here’s another hot dog if anyone’s still hungry.”

Daniel reached for it, but Sienna pulled it away quickly.

“Another one, Daniel? That will be your fourth.”

Daniel laughed, then snuck a quick kiss from his fiancée. Deepening the embrace, Daniel distracted Sienna just enough that he was able to claim the hot dog.

She pulled away from him when she realized what he’d done. “Hey. You tricked me.”

Daniel shrugged, unrepentant. “I’m hungry, See.”

“You realize the tuxedo has been ordered. You better fit in it come August.”

The date for Daniel and Sienna’s wedding was set. It would take place at the end of the summer. Liam had jokingly referred to this outing as one of Daniel’s last chances to make a break for it before he was trapped forever. Told his friend he could hide in the mountains for the next thirty years or so until it was safe to come out.

“It’ll fit. Don’t worry.”

Jade and Jameson reclaimed their weapons, finished with the game. Jade walked over to him. “Thanks for loaning me your knife, Liam.”

He took it. She tried to turn and walk away from him, but he grasped her wrist and tugged her toward the log where he was sitting. “Take a load off, kiddo. I want to talk to you.”

She resisted his pull briefly, then gave in. “What’s up?”

“I haven’t seen you much this past week. You didn’t stop by the ranch on Tuesday.”

Shortly after their meeting on her sixteenth birthday, Jade had ridden the horse her uncles kept for her on Compass Ranch over to his spread. She was fascinated with the training of bulls and broncs for the rodeo and he had allowed her to watch him work with the animals, answering all her questions. After that, she’d become a regular at the Circle H Ranch.
 

Nowadays, just a few miles spanned the distance between his house and the one Jade shared with her cousin Sterling. Originally all four Compass girls had lived in the small cabin tucked in the woods. Their fathers had built it for them—probably so the overprotective dads could keep a close eye on their rambunctious adult daughters. However, Sienna and Daniel had already moved into the new house Seth and Jody had given them as a wedding present and Hope had moved in with her boyfriends, Wyatt and Clayton.

A path had formed between Compass Ranch and his home as Jade rode her horse over to visit. He’d finally put a gate in between the two properties four years earlier, so Jade would stop jumping the fence. She rode her horse too fast as it was. The last thing he needed was for her to get thrown mid-leap with no one around to help if she was hurt.

She stretched out her legs, not bothering to look in his direction. “I’ve been busy.”

It was on the tip of his tongue to apologize for kissing her, but he wasn’t sorry he’d done it. No matter how ill-advised that kiss had been, his body told him it wouldn’t mind expanding on the experience.
 

She studied the fire intently. He’d been worried about her lately, well aware of her recent depression.

He’d marked it down to a combination of stress over Vicky’s illness and Sienna’s wedding until she’d mentioned being bored with her life. Jade had never been the type to play by the rules. She always colored outside the lines. Obviously she was hungry for adventure. Unfortunately he knew damn well what that meant. While she’d joked about jumping the creek on her motorcycle, part of him suspected she was seriously considering doing it. She was too reckless, and he wished he could find a way to help her rein in all that energy without her running the risk of breaking her neck.

He had noticed a hint of Jade’s wildness on the very first night they’d met. After all, what sixteen-year-old girl sneaks out of her house in the middle of the night to visit her dead twin brother? Most girls her age wouldn’t have dreamed of stepping foot in a cemetery alone after dark. And yet, there was Jade, sitting next to the grave as if it was the most natural thing on earth. He’d been impressed by her bravery, but even more so, Liam had been touched by her obvious love for the brother she’d never known. He’d heard some of the things she’d spoken to George and promised himself he’d keep an eye on her for the brother who couldn’t be there.

“I could have used some help with that new bull, Fearless.”

She eyed him, distrustfully. “You were going to let me work with him?”

He nodded. “Sure. Why not?”

“Is he ready to be ridden?”

Liam laughed. “Not yet. And not by you. I’ve got plenty of dumb rednecks working on my ranch who don’t mind the risk of breaking their necks.”

“I don’t mind that risk either.”

“It’s not gonna happen, kiddo, so forget it.”

She harrumphed and fell silent once more.

Most folks in town looked at Jade and saw a hard-ass bitch, a tomboy through and through. She cursed like a sailor, drank like a ranch hand and drove way too fast on her Harley, while sporting tatty jeans and a leather jacket. If he ever learned that her hair had seen a curling iron, he’d eat his hat. Jade didn’t do fancy hairstyles or wear makeup. She didn’t need to. With her wavy blonde hair, bright blue eyes and wholesome complexion, she was a natural beauty.

Over the years, as Liam got to know her better, he’d come to understand the tough exterior didn’t reflect the inside accurately. Underneath it all, Jade Compton was as soft and sweet as butter in the sunshine. She cared deeply about her family and friends. She had never failed to show up at the cemetery on her birthday, though for the past few years he wondered if her appearance there was more for his sake than hers. She’d made him chicken soup when he’d gotten a killer case of the flu last year and she spent every single Wednesday afternoon, without fail, visiting with her grandmother.
 

Liam could always tell which Wednesdays had been good—with Vicky lucid and telling stories about JD—and which had been bad. There were too many afternoons nowadays where Vicky couldn’t remember who Jade was. It was on those days Liam watched Jade struggle to fight back tears. And yet, he’d never seen her let a single one fall.

Time to break the ice. He wasn’t a fan of the cold shoulder. Especially when it came from her. He’d actually missed her this week.

“You don’t have to keep avoiding me, Jade. I don’t have any plans to corner you and kiss you again anytime soon.”

For the first time since she sat down, she actually looked at him. “Why did you do that?” There was no accusation or anger in her tone. Instead, she seemed genuinely confused.

“You kissed me first.”

She gave him a dirty look. “That was a joke and you know it.”

He did know it. But he was hard-pressed to explain why he’d taken things so far. She deserved an answer, but he didn’t have one to give her. Not one that made sense anyway. The truth was…something had sort of sparked for him. She’d pressed her lips to his, and for the first time, he wasn’t seeing the young girl he’d befriended in a cemetery. Suddenly she was an attractive woman whose touch made his cock hard, whose soft lips felt just right pressed against his, who made him want to do dirty, dirty things to her. The blinders had fallen away, revealing a Jade he hadn’t noticed before.
 

Of course, there was no way in Hell he was confessing all that to her, so he went for the cop-out. “I have no idea why, Jade.”

The worst part was he wanted to do it again. However, given her reaction, it was obvious she didn’t want a repeat performance.

“It was weird.”

He laughed, spying a way to put them back on solid ground. “No, it wasn’t. It was fucking hot. You’re not a bad kisser. I could probably give you a few pointers on some ways to improve, but overall—”

“Not bad? Are you kidding me? I rocked your world, cowboy. And don’t even bother trying to deny it. I felt what you were packing in your pants. You wanted me.”

Liam shook his head, relieved that the conversation was traveling familiar paths. Taunting and teasing was second nature to them. Mercifully, the kiss hadn’t destroyed that. “Don’t flatter yourself, kiddo. I’d had a few too many beers and you have to admit, there were some hot buckle bunnies at Spurs that night. I’d been sporting a woody for close to an hour before I kissed you.”

“You go to hell for lying, Liam.”

“Well, I guess we’ll never know the truth. It was a one-time thing and I’m not planning to go in for seconds.”

“Good.”

Her grin made him long to erase some of the smugness he saw there. With another kiss.
 

Not a good idea. He took his hat off and swiped the sweat at his brow. “Goddamn, it’s hot.”

Jade released a long breath. “You can say that again. It’s only mid-June and it’s already a scorcher. Wish we could get some rain to cut through the heat.”

“Weatherman said we might be in for a bit of a drought.”

“Great. If the grass gets any drier, we’ll be fighting brushfires before too long.”

He and Jade both volunteered as firefighters, pitching in to help whenever a fire got out of hand or was too big to be contained by the two full-time firemen. “Yeah. I was thinking the same thing. Two more weeks of this heat and we wouldn’t have been able to have our campfire.”

Wyatt and Clayton threw a couple more logs on the fire and for a long time, they all sat, passing around a bottle of Jack, chatting and listening as Boone strummed his guitar. Night had fallen, the brightness of the fire casting shadows around the campsite.

After nearly two hours, Sterling stood and tugged at her T-shirt. “I’m freaking hot. Who’s up for skinny-dipping?”

“What do you say, See? There’s no way we’re going to fall asleep tonight unless we cool down first.” Daniel rose, reaching down to help Sienna stand.

“You’re just saying that so you can see me naked.” Sienna started to unbutton her jean shorts.

“Sweetheart, it’s my plan to see you naked every night for the rest of my life. That view never gets old.”

Daniel and Sienna clasped hands and walked along the path, away from the campsite.

Wyatt, Boone, Hope and Clayton hopped up as well.
 

“I’m in.” Jameson pulled off his shirt and rushed to catch up to Sterling as the others walked to the lake. Within seconds, they’d disappeared into the darkness.

“You game?” Liam wished his cock wasn’t suddenly thickening at the thought of a naked Jade. What was the matter with him?
 

Maybe it was a lack of sex. It had been a few months since he’d hooked up with anyone. Daniel had accused him of sprouting morals, suddenly wanting a relationship rather than one-night stands, but Liam was fairly certain that wasn’t his problem. He’d tried to forge a happily-ever-after once before with Celia and all he’d gotten for it was unbearable sadness and an ache in his chest that had taken years to fade. As far as he was concerned, bachelorhood might be a bit lonely, but it was far less painful.