Motherbucker

Chapter One - Abel

 

I watched her from the back of the wedding I’d crashed. 

It was hot out, the summer sun unrelenting, but while everyone else smiled at the bride and groom reciting their vows, all I could see was a bridesmaid’s fight to stay conscious. She swayed, sweat beading on her brow, her face taking on a green tinge.

I took a step forward, ready to sprint up the aisle and break her fall. This was going to cause the biggest scene, but there was nothing inside me that could let a woman pass out and not attempt to catch her.

She caught herself, sucking in a deep breath, and forcing her lips into something that was probably supposed to be a smile but came out more like a grimace.

I stepped back, shrugging some of the tension out of my shoulders. She needed water. Someone to get her out of the sun. Couldn’t anyone else see how badly she was suffering? This was going to end in disaster, I could just see it. She was going to pass out right as the groom leaned in to kiss his girl.

Wouldn’t that be a romantic moment? Your first kiss as a married couple with a bridesmaid passed out at your feet.

The officiant droned on, announcing the pair man and wife. Cheers erupted around me, the crowd all rushing forward and engulfing the new Mr. and Mrs., their calls of congratulations ringing out across the ranch.

Nobody else seemed to notice the bridesmaid slip away.

My feet were on the move, following, before I’d even registered a decision to go after her.

She stumbled across the patchy, uneven grass, zigzagging for the shade of the prettily decorated barn where the reception was taking place.

It was all too little, too late. She’d made it through the ceremony, but the heat had done a number on her. Horror speared through me as she gave up the fight and tipped toward the ground.

I got my fingers around her upper arm, right before she face-planted into the dirt, and hauled her back up onto her feet. “Shit, you nearly hit the deck.” I steadied her, gripping her shoulders tightly for fear she’d stumble again. “Are you okay?” I ducked my head so I could check her expression.

I would never be able to explain what I felt in that moment.

The wave of pure attraction hit me so hard it was like I’d been struck by lightning.

The pounding of my heart changing from adrenaline to desire.

I didn’t believe in love at first sight, but lust? Absolutely.

Up close, she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.

Big brown eyes stared up at me, blinking rapidly, trying to focus. Her confusion settled on my face for a moment, like she wasn’t quite sure where she was, or why some stranger had her in his arms, but then her gaze cleared.

Just as quickly as lust had overcome me, it filled her eyes too. She studied me, gaze sweeping over my face, my chest, my shoulders. Lingering.

Fuck, that was hot. The way she looked at me was everything.

“I’m fine. I think. Maybe.” She wobbled slightly again.

Fine, my ass. “You were standing in that sun for the best part of an hour. Come ’ere. You need to sit.” I couldn’t seem to remove my hand from her arm. I told myself it was purely to be sure she didn’t fall, but the truth was, an electricity pulsed between us, one I didn’t want to stop.

She was going to think I was some creep, if I kept staring at her the way I was. I took my jacket off and laid it out on the grass at our feet.

“Oh no,” she protested, watching me place it down carefully. “I don’t want to get your jacket all dirty.”

The jacket had been stifling in the heat anyway. “You’re doing me a favor. I was roasting. Sit.”

She did, slowly sinking onto my jacket and smoothing her dress around her knees.

I couldn’t walk away. I was glad she could no longer fall, but she’d nearly passed out twice. “Mind if I sit with you?”

She gazed up at me, already looking better for sitting in the shade. “I’m on your jacket, so I think it’d be pretty rude if I said no.”

I shook my head, not wanting to make her uncomfortable. We’d had a moment, or at least I thought we had, but maybe I’d read it wrong. “More than happy to stand six feet away, if you prefer.” God, she was pretty though. The cowboy boots with the crimson-colored dress were sexy as hell. If she wasn’t sick, I’d be thinking about exactly what she was wearing underneath. I really did not want to stand six feet away. I wanted to sit beside her, inhale her scent, ask her name, and if she had a boyfriend.

Fuck. I hoped there was no boyfriend.

She patted the spot beside her. “You can sit.”

I dropped down, sprawling my legs out in front and leaning back on my hands. “I’m Abel, by the way.”

The color was returning to her face rapidly. “Callie. Nice to meet you. Are you a friend of Dom’s?”

“No. Actually, I don’t know the couple at all. I’m a bit of a crasher. My brother and his wife dragged me along. I know a few people from the bull riding world, so they thought it would be a good idea for me to get out of the house and socialize.” Rem had badgered me until I’d agreed. I hadn’t seen our friends—his friends really now, since I hadn’t stayed in touch—in over twenty years. I’d spotted Bowen, Frost, and Johnny in the crowd, all as fit as they had when we’d been on tour together, but with the addition of a few gray hairs.

“Is it? A good idea to socialize?”

A wry grin lifted the corner of my mouth. “Not really. It isn’t really my thing anymore. I leave that up to my brother these days.” It had been a shitty year, and my lackluster attitude had been better kept to myself. I didn’t want to be a burden on anyone.

“Well, I appreciate you turning up, if only to save me the embarrassment of passing out in front of everyone and ending up with a face full of road rash for the rest of the photos. That would not have been a good look.”

I snuck a glance over at her. “I think you’d pull it off. The blood from your broken nose would have matched nicely with that dress.”

She smiled at me curiously. “So you ride?”

In this crowd, she meant bulls, not horses. Though I’d been on the World Bull Riding Association Tour once upon a time, I’d never been a rider, so I shook my head. “Nah. I’ve had a go, back when I was young and dumb. Wasn’t much good. But I worked on the WBRA tour for a few years as a rodeo clown.”

“Bet you were hot in face paint.” As soon as she said it, pink flushed her cheeks, and she coughed. “I mean, everyone looks good with red circles on your cheeks and overdrawn lips, right?”

I laughed. They didn’t even call them rodeo clowns anymore. They were the bullfighters. “Face paint was optional.”

“Did you ever get gored by a bull?”

My fingers ghosted over the old injury to my thigh. “Yeah. Hurts. Leaves a nice scar too. You?”

She grinned. “No, not recently. I know to stay out of their way. Not like you guys who jump right in front of them. You’re all crazy.”

I shrugged a shoulder at her assessment. “It was good fun at the time. Didn’t think too much about the consequences. Too old for that shit now though.”

“What do you do now?”

“Same thing everyone does. Work. Sleep. Eat. Repeat.”

“No wife?”

Interesting question. I liked that she wanted to know. “Not anymore.”

She cringed, glancing down at her hands. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be. I’m not.”

Music started up in the barn behind us, and the stomp of people on the dance floor rang out. Callie’s gaze lifted and locked with mine. I couldn’t turn away. The draw between us was thick and strong and completely undeniable. Mutual attraction at its finest.

“Do you dance?” she asked.

I raised an eyebrow, the question taking me by surprise when I’d been so lost in memorizing the exact color of her eyes. “Be more specific.”

“You know…” She wriggled her shoulders to the beat floating out on the air. “Dancing. What you do when there’s music playing.”

“There’s a big difference between a waltz and a head bob at the bar when your favorite song comes on the jukebox.”

“How about something in between?”

I cocked my head at her. “You asking me to dance, Callie?” The thought of pulling her onto a dance floor was a big fat hell yes. It was an excuse to take her into my arms again, to feel her close against me. To watch her move and smile up at me while I spun her around the floor, getting braver with every step, closing the distance between us until she was all I could see.

“Don’t think I’m in the headspace for dips and spins, but if you’re up for a slow shuffle…”

Heat flashed in her eyes, a promise there I so wanted to take up.

It spoke of getting too close in a darkened corner. Of taking her lips with mine. Of finding somewhere private, where I could get to know her better. With our clothes on.

Fuck, she was a siren with those big doe eyes and a body made for sin. Too fucking tempting.

I got to my feet and held my hand out. “I think I can handle a slow shuffle.”

It took no coaxing to get her in my arms. She came so willingly it was nearly impossible not to sweep her right off her feet and go find somewhere to be alone.

I wanted to kiss her. To know what she tasted like. To run my hands over every inch of her naked body and to lick between her thighs.

Like she could read my mind, her eyes practically begged me to do it. She pressed herself against me, hardened, turned-on nipples against my chest.

“Callie!”

The two of us jumped apart like we’d been caught in the act of something debaucherous.

Frost had been a good, solid, loyal, and dependable friend when we’d been on tour. He strode over, his face serious, as it always was. But he only had eyes for Callie, his expression full of concern. “Are you okay? You didn’t seem well during the ceremony and then you disappeared. I’ve been searching for you.”

“I’m fine, Dad.”

The world slowed down, to where that was all I could hear. I choked on the word. “Dad? You’re her dad, Frost?”

Horror over every dirty thought I’d just had flooded me. My palms burned from where I’d been touching her.

Frost put his arm around her shoulders and kissed the top of her head. “You two didn’t meet yet? Callie’s my middle daughter. I’m not even sure we’d had the twins the last time I saw you?” He turned to me. “Abel was on the tour with me, once upon a time. He’s your uncle Rem’s brother.”

“Uncle…” I was sure I was as green as she had been earlier. Obviously, she wasn’t blood related to my brother. I would have known about her if that were the case, but fuck, did it even matter? She was my friend’s daughter, and clearly younger than I’d thought. I’d assumed she was late twenties, but doing the math in my head, she had to be younger. More like twenty-three, maybe? At best. I wiped the sweat from my palms on the back of my jeans.

Frost motioned Callie to go into the barn. “Cal, we need to go inside. You’re needed for a family photo.”

She nodded at her father, then turned back to me. “Thanks for that.” She held my jacket out.

Her voice was suddenly polite and distant, where moments before it had been deep and husky with need. I wasn’t sure I could do the same. Just flick that attraction off like it had a switch. I nodded without making eye contact and reached for the jacket.

Our fingers touched.

That electricity between us was undeniable. Sparks may as well have exploded.

I stared at her, eyes wide, matching hers.

She’d felt it too.

But her family was waiting. Without another word, she followed her father into the barn.

I ran out of the wedding like my ass was on fire.

The summer night air was still too warm for my liking, or maybe that was the flames of Hell lapping at me, because that was definitely where I was headed. Straight down to see the Devil.

“You’re a fucking asshole,” I muttered to myself, crunching over dry grass and weaving my way between the array of pickup trucks parked around the Hunts’ yard. The soft, romantic music playing inside the barn where the reception was taking place followed, each note reminding me I’d very nearly taken Callie Hunt into my arms and swayed around a dance floor with her.

Twenty-something-year-old Callie Hunt who I had most definitely not recognized as one of my oldest friend’s daughters.

Until she’d gone and called him “Dad” right in front of me.

Asshole really didn’t even come close to how bad I’d just fucked up.

I found my pickup in the sea of similar vehicles and slid behind the steering wheel. For a moment, I just sat there, letting the darkness engulf me while my entire body burned. I wished I could have written it off as embarrassment.

But the fact was, even hearing her call him Dad hadn’t done anything to extinguish the heat inside me.

I’d never experienced an instant attraction like that.

Hell, I’d once married a woman I felt less for than when Callie had turned big brown eyes on me and quirked her lips in a small smile.

I needed to leave before I did something stupid. Like walk back in there, throwing all care to the wind, just so I could hold her hand.

Instead, I shoved my key into the ignition and turned it so sharply I was surprised it didn’t snap. Sliding the gearshift into first, I made myself steer the truck along the gravel drive and out onto the road.

Every inch of my body wanted to do anything but. My every instinct was to spin the car around and storm back through the wedding to find her. To finish what we’d started.

She’d felt it. I swear, the whole ranch had to have felt it.

I pushed my foot down harder on the accelerator, racing along the quiet country roads, putting distance between me and a woman who would never be mine.

Not for a night. Not for an hour. Not even for a moment.

Callie Hunt was temptation wrapped up in the prettiest of packages.

With a label clearly written for someone else.