Desired by Kelly Elliott
I was ready to head down to the water and cool off. Even though it was the end of April, it was hot as hell out.
“Only a few more weeks, and it’s summer,” Jeff said with a huge smile.
“You still planning on surprising your sister with a graduation party?” I asked, pulling the fence tight.
He nodded. “Yeah, I think she’ll like that. I just need to make sure no one hits on her.”
I chuckled. “Well, you already know Josh will be trying.”
Jeff stopped working and shot me a dirty look. “That bastard is not to go anywhere near my sister.”
Holding up my hands, I let out another roar of laughter. “Dude, I’ll be surprised if you even let any of us go to the party.”
He huffed. “I might not.”
“It wouldn’t surprise me if you didn’t. Speaking of, isn’t Ellie coming over Monday night for something?”
Jeff pulled off his work gloves and made his way over to the tailgate of the ranch truck.
“Yes, so don’t forget to be gone.”
I rolled my eyes. “Dude, seriously, don’t you think this is getting to be a little crazy? Your sister is almost graduated, and doesn’t she have a boyfriend?”
Jeff pointed to me. “She’ll take one look at you, Mathews, and her brain will go foggy.”
I stared at him with a blank expression. “Her brain will go foggy?”
“Yes. I’ve seen it happen plenty of times. A girl takes one look at you, and she goes all weak in the knees. You’re the classic charmer.”
I scoffed. “Well, I’m not sure who you’re talking about because I haven’t gotten laid in a while.”
“Crysti is always up for the task.”
Snarling my lip up at him, I shook my head. “Speaking of . . . you hook up with your favorite fuck buddy Rebecca lately?”
Jeff shook his head. “Nah. Haven’t been in the mood for her and her clingy ways.”
“I don’t know how Josh does it. How he can hop from bed to bed. That shit would get old for me.”
“Yeah well, I think there is more behind it than just Josh being a manwhore. He’s got deeper issues. Commitment fear maybe?”
I nodded and grabbed a water from the cooler. “Probably. I can see it in his eyes he wants something more.”
Jeff jumped up and sat on the tailgate. “I think that’s what scares him so much. The fact that he does want something more. The key is finding the someone for the something more.”
I held up my water to his, and we tapped them together. “Ain’t that the truth.” I sighed. “He won’t find her jumping from bed to bed.”
Jeff agreed. “No, but he’s having a hell of lot more fun than we are.”
“Yeah, the bastard sure is.”
“Drew, why don’t you and Jeff go into town and have a bit of fun?” Grams proposed as I stared down at the dominoes.
“I’m good, Grams.”
“Me too. I’m not really in the mood to go out,” Jeff added.
“Leave them alone, Emma. Can’t you see we’re buried in a deep game here?” Gramps said.
Grams rolled her eyes and huffed. “Fine. I’ll make up a batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.”
Jeff groaned. “I’d live here for the rest of my life if I could.”
“You trying to steal my girl there, Jeff?” Gramps asked.
Holding up his hands in defense, Jeff chuckled. “No, sir. I would never dream of it.”
Grams headed off to the kitchen, and for some crazy reason, my mouth opened, and I started talking before I actually thought about what I was saying.
“When did you know Grams was the one?” I asked.
Jeff looked up at me and then directly to Gramps.
“The first time I laid my eyes on my Emma.” Gramps smiled wide. “Lord, she was a pretty little thing. I think the thing that struck me most was her smile. Maybe her eyes.”
Gramps closed his eyes. You could tell he was brought back to that moment.
“And you knew she was the one?” Jeff asked this time.
He looked back at Jeff. “I sure as hell did. Not sure if I wanted to admit it so much, but I knew she was it for me. The chase was fun.” He wiggled his brows.
Jeff and I both laughed.
“I can’t imagine Emma not giving in to your charms right away,” Jeff stated.
Gramps waved off Jeff. “Trust me, son. She gave me a run for my money. It made winning her all the better. Knowing that she put up a bit of a fight.”
The three of us remained quiet for a bit before Gramps started talking again.
“You’ll know. You may not know right away, but something about her will be different. You’ll feel it with this.” He patted his chest. “Instead of that.” Then pointed down. She’ll make you feel things you’ve never felt before. Like that weak-in-the-knee moment.”
We both stared at him.
“You boys have never felt weak in the knees when looking at a girl? Never?”
“No, can’t say I ever have,” I said.
Jeff cleared his throat and looked away. A dead giveaway that he’d felt that way. Probably the mystery girl he had a thing for.
Gramps stared at Jeff. “You have, though, haven’t you, son?”
He shrugged. “Maybe. I’ve for sure felt something for one girl that I’ve never experienced with any other girl.”
Gramps pointed to Jeff. “Then there ya go.”
“What if she doesn’t feel the same way about you?”
“Well, then I guess you’ve got yourself a pickle. How have the dates been?”
I chuckled. “Gramps, I think this is Jeff’s mystery girl.”
Gramps’s brows raised. “Mystery girl?”
“Yeah, the one he admires but from afar.”
“Well what in the hell kind of fun is admiring a girl from afar? Jeff, you’re a good-looking kid. Get in there; sell yourself for Christ’s sake.”
Jeff laughed and shook his head. “It’s complicated.”
“Bullshit. Nothing worth having comes to you easily.”
I couldn’t help but watch Jeff as he let Gramps’s words settle in.
Who in the hell is this girl he liked?
The conversation was changed by Gramps. He must have sensed Jeff needed to focus on something else.
“Are you boys excited about your last year of college?”
Jeff shrugged. “I am, and I’m not. I have no clue what I actually want to do when I graduate. I have a few ideas, though.”
“Well, it’s a no-brainer for me. The ranch is in my future,” I stated.
Gramps’s smile warmed. “Have you spoken to your mother or father lately?”
He just ruined my warm fuzzy. “No.”
It was a simple one-word answer that he knew not to pursue. My relationship with my father was not a good one. Never had been if I’m to be honest. I missed my mother something fierce, though. I’d talked to her a few weeks back. She had begged me to come home for a visit, but I couldn’t do it. The thought of seeing my dad made me physically ill. I wondered if his soldiers felt the same way when they saw him walk in.
The rest of the evening was spent sitting in the living room watching old westerns and eating Grams’s oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.
It was heaven on earth.
Chapter Fifteen – Gunner
“Gunner? Gunner Mathews?”
I glanced over my shoulder to see a pretty girl with light-brown hair smiling at me.
“Yes. Do I know you?”
She giggled as her face turned bright red. Okay, clearly she knows me. Shit. I would have remembered if I had gone out with her and hooked up. For the life of me, I couldn’t place her.
“Madison. Madison Miller.”
Feeling like a complete asshole, I silently said a prayer I hadn’t slept with this girl in a drunken fit and forgotten. I was usually not the type of guy to do that.
“I’m sorry . . . I’m not placing you.”
Her cheeks flus
I smiled, and I swear the girl swayed.
Josh soon was pushing past me, taking Madison’s hand in his and kissing the back of it. “You’re an asshole, Gunner. I would have never forgotten a beautiful face like this.”
The poor thing looked like she was about to pass out when Josh let his lips linger on her hand a few seconds too long.
Pushing Josh out of the way, I stood in front of him. It slowly came back to me who she was, and she was right. We flirted hard-core in that class, but I never did ask her out.
“I do remember, you know. You have an obsession with notebooks.”
Her smile grew over her face, and her pretty hazel eyes lit up like the fourth of July.
“Yep! That’s me. How have you been?”
The way her eyes moved over my body gave me the feeling she wasn’t just interested in what I had been up to the last few years.
“I’ve been good. Busy with football and school. How about you?”
“School and horseback riding.”
My brows lifted as my interest was kicked up a notch or two.
“Horseback riding?” I asked.
With a nod, she replied, “Yes, my parents own a small ranch outside of Buda. It’s a camp for kids with special needs. One of the things we do there is horseback riding. The kids love it. I’m one of the guides for them when I’m not busting my butt at school.”
There was a certain amount of charm to Madison. She tried pulling off the innocence act, but I had a feeling the girl was far from it. Especially with the way she was eye fucking the hell out of me.
“That’s awesome,” I stated with a little bit of a bigger smile.
Madison chewed on the inside of her cheek and dropped her eyes to the ground as if trying to build up the courage to ask me something. When her hazel eyes met my blue, she licked her lips and went for it.
“Are you busy later? Maybe we could meet for a drink or something?”
My cock should be jumping in my pants at the idea of a beautiful woman asking me out, but it didn’t. I wanted it to. I hadn’t had sex in so long I was about to lose my damn mind.
It didn’t jump because the only thing I could think about was the goddamn blue eyes that had been haunting my dreams. My mystery dream girl who had caused me to wake up more than once with my hand wrapped around my cock.
Before I could stop my mouth, I replied, “Nope, I’m not busy at all.”
Her smile grew even wider. “Great. Where do you want to meet?”
Josh leaned in and whispered, “Her place.”
I elbowed him. “Fado’s?”
“That works.”
“Want to say around eight?”
She bit down on her lower lip and nodded. Glancing past me, she looked at Josh. “My cousin, Jen, is in town.”
As she pointed behind her, I looked to see a tall blonde in a short, barely there dress standing a few feet away, talking on her cell phone.
“I can see if she’d like to join us if you’re free . . . Josh, was it?”
My brows drew together. I didn’t remember saying Josh’s name.
“Hell, yes, I’m free tonight.”
Madison’s eyes darted back to mine. “I’ll see you later tonight then, Gunner.”
It wasn’t lost on me how she purred out my name like I had just sunk my dick into her already.
“See ya later,” I replied.
Once Madison was far enough away, Josh slapped my back.
“Looks like we’re both getting laid tonight.”
I laughed. “Pretty positive the cousin is going to sleep with you, huh?” I asked as I continued zipping up my backpack in the back seat of my truck. We had been getting ready to head back to my and Jeff’s place for an evening of pizza, beer, and movies.
“I’ll bet you a hundred bucks I’ll be fucking Jen before the clock strikes midnight.”
My eyes rolled as we both climbed up into my Ford truck. “Christ, dude. Don’t you ever get sick of whoring around? I mean, don’t you get tired of having sex with women whose names you don’t even remember five minutes after you’re done?”
Josh looked at me like I had just lost my mind.
“What kind of sick question is that? I don’t hook up with a woman unless she wants it too. Who am I to turn down a beautiful woman when she tells me she wants me to ride her until she screams my name? They’re just as bad. Hell, the other day I stopped to pick up my dry cleaning, and the girl behind the counter started flirting. One thing led to another, and the bitch was calling out Jack as she rode my dick like a bucking bronc rider. I didn’t give a shit she got my name wrong. For all I know, she was fantasying I was some dude she has a crush on.”
“And that doesn’t bother you?”
He actually looked like he took a few moments to think about what I was asking.
“No. Not at all.”
I frowned. His eyes were saying he was lying through his teeth.
“So let me ask you something, Mathews. If this Madison offers herself up for sex, are you going to turn her down?”
Now it was my turn to think on it. “Hell, I don’t know. I know two years ago, I would have fucked her in a heartbeat; now I’m not so sure.”
He laughed. “What’s changed?”
My grip on the steering wheel tightened. “I have no damn clue, but I think it has something to do with this stupid dream I keep having.”
“About the girl?”
I nodded.
“Still no clue who it could be?”
Shrugging, I answered him, “I have no fucking clue. All I see are the most beautiful blue eyes, and she’s begging me to help her. Like I need to save her from something. The first few times I had the dream, I blew it off. Now that I’ve had it a few more times, I feel like there really might be someone out there needing my help. Someone I care very deeply about.”
With a quick glance to my right, I saw Josh staring at me. He seemed to be taking it all in and thinking about it. I was waiting for him to make some sort of joke and threaten to tell the entire football team I was pining over a girl who only existed in my dreams.
“I have a similar dream.”
Nearly slamming on my brakes, I took in a deep breath. “What? You’ve had the same dream?”
“Not really the same, but I have it every fucking time I fall asleep at a girl’s place after I’ve just had sex with them. It’s a faceless girl who’s crying. It makes me feel like she’s crying because of me. It’s totally fucking with my head.”
My left leg bounced a little as we sat at a red light. “Maybe it’s our subconscious trying to tell us something,” I finally said.
Josh shrugged. “Maybe. I wish the son of a bitch would just send me a dream that was a little clearer than a woman crying.”
I laughed. “Tell me about it, dude. Tell me about it. Maybe having mindless sex with someone is what I need.”
“Trust me, it doesn’t work.”
We rode in silence back to my house. Neither one of us brought up our dream again.
“There they are,” Josh stated, his finger pointed in the direction of two women sitting at the bar. Both were dressed in short dresses that showed off their long legs. Long legs that went right down to red fuck-me shoes.
Madison turned and waved when she saw us, prompting her cousin, Jen, to do the same. The dresses left nothing to the imagination. Jen’s cleavage was practically on full display.
“Oh yeah. We’re getting laid tonight,” Josh said with a slap on my back.
I forced a smile and made my way toward Madison. There was no doubt in my mind that my body was attracted to this girl. I was pretty sure I could walk up to her, take her by the hand, and take her back to my place and have hot sex all night long.
Was that what I wanted, though? My hardening dick was screaming yes . . . my head w
“Hey, you look beautiful,” I said, kissing her on the cheek.
“And you look handsome.” Her hand landed on my chest, where she dug her nails barely into my black T-shirt.
“Thank you,” I replied, motioning to the bartender. I’d never seen this one before, so she must have been new. Patty was working on the other side of the bar and appeared to be training someone.
“What will you have?” she asked.
“Jack and Coke,” I replied.
I could see Josh whip his head over to look at me. After I gave him a look that said I needed something stronger than beer, he focused back in on Jen. She was already all over him, her hand currently running up his chest.
Hell. Midnight? I’d be surprised if this girl lasted an hour before she was calling out his name.
We all moved to a table, and Madison and I quickly fell into an easy conversation. She was funny, quick-witted, and knew how to place her hand on my leg just far enough up that it made my dick jump from the almost contact. Of course, the endless Jack and Cokes I was drinking were helping. I’d already noticed Josh had switched to water since I was clearly hell-bent on getting fucked up tonight, which was very rare for me.
I had more than a buzz going on when Madison leaned over, her hot breath hitting the skin beneath my ear.
“I want to fuck you, Gunner.”
And there it was. My dick, coming out to play. Turning, I flashed her what was probably a toothy grin. To say I was halfway to drunk would be an understatement.
“Is that right? What if I want to fuck you?”
She giggled, and I groaned inside.
I fucking hated it when woman giggled. At least, I was hating to hear Madison giggle, and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why.
“I’m down with that too,” she whispered.
Standing, she reached for my hand, and I stood. We walked down the hallway and back to the restrooms. I needed to take a piss, so I told her I would meet her back out in the hallway. I wasn’t two feet into the men’s bathroom when she was pushing me into a stall and down onto a seat. Her fingers worked quickly to undo the button and then the zipper on my jeans.
“Whoa. Hold on a second there, Madison.”
“I’ll suck you off if that’s what you want, Gunner. Then I need to feel you inside of me. I’ve been daydreaming of this moment since you first sat down next to me in class.”