Unbridled Read online

  With a gentle touch of my upper arm, he guided me to the chairs. “Want a drink?”

  “I’m fine.” Alcohol might imply I was all in, but uncertainty kept me from accepting.

  He’d already stepped toward the door but regrouped to take the chair beside me and forced a laugh. “What was that you were saying about interruptions?”

  We both stared straight ahead, maybe studying the stars as they dotted the sky, maybe avoiding awkwardly looking at each other.

  I owed it to both of us to be honest. “I heard what Travis said. If you’re expecting a… call, I can go.”

  Luke

  I whipped my head toward her, wishing there was some way to undo the phone call, and she withdrew her arm when I reached for it. A heavy weight crushed my chest leaving me as desperate to explain as I was to breathe. “Don’t leave. You were the only call I was expecting, but not that kind. I don’t even know who he was talking about. My brothers like to give me grief.”

  Her gaze dropped to my clenched fist. “My sisters do the same. No matter what I do, I’m always Baby Daisy, although I’ve finally gotten them to stop using the nickname in public. Guess that puts me a step ahead of you, Little Luke.”

  If there was a way to slide between the deck planks and disappear, I would have done it. Having Little Luke running through her mind was totally embarrassing. “I think they’re afraid I’ll steal their spotlight.”

  Daisy shifted her petite body in the oversized Adirondack chair, curling her legs up and facing me. Was she giving me a chance to salvage her trust? Could she understand I adored her? Her fingers curled over the edge of the armrest inches from mine. “I thought I would shed the Baby label when I got my M.D.”

  “Ha! Sorry, if riding bareback isn’t enough, an M.D. isn’t either.”

  Her hearty laugh gave me confidence, healed my worry.

  I continued. “For a while I tried learning jokes so I could be more like my dad, but you can be thankful I realized it was his thing, not mine.”

  She laughed again and locked eyes with me from under her lashes. I brushed a hand over hers and she jumped up. “Can we go for a walk?”

  How was I supposed to take that? Rejection? Why didn’t she just leave? “There’s a path around the pond. Did you bring a jacket?”

  “No. Do you have a throw blanket I could wrap up in?”

  I stepped inside to grab a blanket then led her through the trees to the pond behind my house. Could I pick back up where we left off? “Everyone assumes being the baby of the family means we have it easy, but they don’t realize how hard it is. No matter what I do, they think I’m either vying for attention or copying my brothers.”

  “Same. As if I don’t do anything just because I love it.”

  I let her words hang in the air. Even though it wasn’t said to me, love, was the most beautiful word coming from her. Stopping, I tugged on the blanket she’d draped over her shoulders. Face to face, with the full moon reflecting on the calm surface of the pond beside us, I drank in her beauty. “You really get me.”

  Her eyes flicked up to mine then she gathered the opening of the blanket and held it tighter. “Do people kid you about the Dukes of Hazzard, Luke Duke?”

  “Sure do, and you must be my cousin Daisy Duke.” If I could take back my words, I would have. I’d gotten so excited about our connection, I pointed out a blood relationship, albeit fictional. Stupid move. Finding common ground for conversation was a good thing, but the family comment hit me with awareness. We were alike. We got each other. She’d friend-zoned me. How had I not seen it coming. I mentally cursed my brothers as I could hear them taunting me, laughing, and chalking it up to experience. I’d continue to be the outgoing Little Luke who never met a stranger. And never met his true love, no matter what his heart was telling him.

  Daisy

  Luke’s sad smile ripped through me. “The wind’s picking up. Why don’t I walk you back to your truck?”

  He was a nice guy. He had the same struggles as me. He made me feel seen, heard, and if my gut was right, loved. I’d worked hard to get to this point with him and at the moment it should have been hitting a high, it was crashing.

  What was I doing wrong? I’d asked for a blanket instead of a coat so we’d have something to spread on the ground in case I decided to go for it. I had a jacket in my truck, always did. Evenings got cool, everyone knew that.

  My hands hurt from squeezing the blanket, from nerves, from worrying I was going to come across as either nothing or a sweet thing booty call, although I wasn’t sure that was a terrible option.

  That was it, I’d gathered the blanket around me so tightly, Luke had to think I was protecting myself. That I didn’t want him.

  “Wait. How about we stay here for a while.”

  His brows furrowed but I tossed the blanket down and smoothed it over the grass. He jumped in to help, giving me a sly smile.

  I crawled into the middle of the blanket, keeping my boots off the fabric like I’d been warned to do my entire life.

  Luke loomed over me. “Should I help you with your boots?”

  Finally, a chance with the guy I’d been dreaming of. Confidence bubbled through me. I set my hands behind me and leaned back. “I don’t have anywhere else to be.”

  Luke skirted the blanket and knelt, removed one boot, carefully placed my sock-covered foot on the blanket, then did the same with the other one.

  He took his own off and positioned himself at my feet. Working his fingers and thumbs into my sole, and over my entire foot, he made me feel wanted.

  I eased myself down, flat on my back, and stared at the beautiful round moon that never got credit for making its own light, but only for reflecting the light of others. Like Luke and me.

  I shifted my gaze to Luke. The booty call comment weighed on me. It wasn’t entirely wrong. But I wanted so much more. What I felt for Luke wasn’t temporary, satisfied in one night, or replaceable.

  “Did I mesmerize you with my magical touch, or are you way too deep in thought?”

  “Trick question. Your touch is pretty magical. But I was in my head.”

  “Bounce it off me. Whatever you were thinking.”

  I chose a different thought. “Did you know you were the reason I started volunteering as a doctor at the rodeo?”

  He chuckled. He’d worked the massage up my calf then stopped a couple inches above my knee and started the other leg. “I was not aware of that.”

  “I didn’t want you to consider me a stalkerish groupie.”

  “But you really are?” He sat alongside me and tilted his head my direction. While I welcomed being shoulder to shoulder with him, I seriously missed the massage.

  “Maybe I should have rethought this. I could have claimed to be your number one fan and stolen a kiss from you while I had you autograph my chest.” I leaned in before he could process what I’d said and planted a kiss on his lips.

  Exhilaration raced through me. I surrendered myself to the kiss that had started passively and swiftly escalated.

  His hand rose and his fingers threaded into my hair.

  I retreated, warning myself that if I went further, I risked being the booty call. Who was I kidding? I either had to trust myself or not, but I couldn’t give mixed signals.

  “I could live with being your celebrity crush. And I’ll sign anything you want.” He hooked a finger into my shirt and brushed it over my breast, lighting my world on fire.

  “I didn’t bring a pen.” If I was a booty call, I was damn sure going to enjoy it. I reveled in the stroke of his finger over my sensitive skin before mustering the courage to go for it. I straddled his legs and placed one hand on his chest while running the other over his strained jeans. My entire body grew sensitive… a gentle breeze blew my hair away from my face, my nipples beaded in my bra, and my jeans were far too abrasive and constricting.

  He leaned forward, trapping my hands between us while he embraced me and kissed the crook of my neck. “Are you sure you want
this?”

  “I’ve wanted you ever since you walked into the medical unit, looked really confused, stuttered incoherently, then rushed out. Technically before that, but it was the first time I was close to you. The first time it morphed into something greater, and I thought I was crazy. Watching all those women drool over you for the past year, I had to bide my time. Make sure you were interested in me for the right reasons.”

  He rolled us over, laying on top of me, his chest pressing me into the ground. “It’s no secret I get judged in eight second intervals. But those few seconds when I first saw you… I was captivated. Those were the most important eight seconds of my life.”

  I wiggled my arms free and grabbed his head, guiding him into me for a kiss. His tongue slid between my parted lips. Could I be his booty call, and his forever? Everything? I craved laying naked under the moonlight, being taken by Luke, the man who’d walked into my trailer and become my soulmate.

  I wedged my hands between us but couldn’t get his pants undone. He rolled off of me and we sat up facing each other. “I don’t have any condoms with me, they’re at the house. I wasn’t planning…”

  Disappointment rolled through me. The pressure between my legs wasn’t willing to wait but I couldn’t be careless. “I’m on the pill and I’m healthy. I haven’t been with anyone since the day you came into my trailer.” I sunk my head hoping he would be honest, not place fear of judgment above safety.

  He lifted my chin with a finger. “I’m clean, too. Daisy, that day I got lost in your eyes, and mumbled like an idiot, I inherently understood there was more to a woman than sex. The loudest cowboys brag about their conquests, but in that moment, I wanted more than bragging rights. I wanted more than a one-night-stand. I wanted you.”

  Luke’s declaration drew me in for another kiss. I held him close. The luck of the draw could make or break a cowboy’s ride. Fleeting seconds changed a person’s status from healthy to injured to dead. Snap decisions changed life courses. No matter how much we prepared, life intervened. Had that brief encounter really changed our course? “What did you come to the trailer for?”

  He rested his forehead against mine. “Daisy, I haven’t been with another woman since then.”

  “But why were you there? I’ve always been curious.”

  The thud of his racing heart pounded against my breasts. His deep breath warned of his anxiety. “I was going to ask for a condom. My friends thought it was funny to make me ask the doctors for one instead of sharing. But I promise, when I saw you, it was like I understood who I was meant to be with. It was terrifying and confusing. I’d never heard a man say love hit him that hard. I wondered how I could have gotten luckier than everyone else.”

  “Love?”

  He sat back and stared at me intently. “Yes, Daisy, I love you, and I have from the first moment I laid eyes on you, and through every interrupted conversation, and I will the rest of my life.”

  “I love you too, Luke. Think we can do this without getting interrupted?”

  Tugging my shirt from my jeans, he unfastened each button in turn then gently folded the material back, letting it drop from my shoulders. He covered my neck and the top of my breasts with tender kisses.

  My white skin shone under the moonlight when he paused to strip the rest of my clothes. Seconds later he joined me in my exposure, relieving my worry someone could see us. My focus went to him and the act I’d been craving for the past year. Proof I wasn’t crazy, that two people could fall madly in love at first sight, even if they were too afraid to admit it.

  I ran my hands over his bare chest, across his broad shoulders, and down the muscular ripple of his arms. “Make love to me, Luke.”

  “That’s the sweetest thing anyone’s ever asked me to do.”

  One of his arms snaked around me and the other braced against the ground as he lowered me to my back. He continued, “I have to make you mine, right now, but I promise I’ll take my time later.”

  I nodded. For all I’d ever been taught about being my own woman, I wanted to be Luke’s more than anything.

  His leg nudged between mine, pushing outward.

  My core trembled as I yearned for him to fill me.

  His erection grazed my thigh as his other leg settled between mine.

  Lover Luke, that’s what the LL I put in my phone could stand for. I wrapped my legs around his thighs, eager to keep him close, feeding the urgency while anticipating the contact.

  Heat and slickness met me when his tip pushed against my entrance. My own wetness, and I suspected some of his, slicked our connection. More pressure and his thickness eased into me slowly and gently, testing our union, waiting, then moving farther.

  Our soulmate status culminated in complete belonging as he fully seated himself and let out a deep breath over me.

  I scored my hands across his back, losing my sanity with how right he felt, making me whole. His cock, his torso, his lips… he was where he belonged. I was where I belonged.

  Slow pulses of his hips left me hungry for more.

  My hips bucked, craving the carnal slide of his length in and out of me. I was dangerously close to climax, digging my fingernails into his back, grabbing his ass, and making love to him from below.

  “Wait,” he cautioned, but I wasn’t in control anymore.

  My pussy clamped around his shaft as I lost myself to him.

  “Fuck.” He thrust hard, meeting my contractions. His hot breath poured over my ear as his head dropped beside mine.

  The evening stars consumed my vision but one more hard pump and my orgasm spiraled into white heat. All-consuming.

  Luke’s groans penetrated my bliss and I was faintly aware of his body weighing heavier on me as he quieted. Gentle kisses in my hair helped me focus.

  “Thank you for waiting for me.” His words meant everything, and nothing, our bond was too deep to explain.

  “I would have waited forever, but this is how I want to spend eternity.”

  THE END

  Want to read about the rest of Daisy and Luke’s families? Be sure to check out the other stories in the 8 Seconds to My Heart series!

  #1 UNBROKEN

  #2 UNBRANDED

  and coming up next… UNTAMED

  Check out my author page: https://amazon.com/author/barbracampbell

  If you love dirty-sweet short stories, check out my others…

  Tattoos, Firefighters, Magical Coffee, Billionaires, or School Teachers