Tripped Out: A Blacktop Cowboys® Novella Read online

  “Because you were too busy working toward getting the hell out of Wyoming to bother with any of that normal teen life stuff.”

  “So why did I go out of my way to make time for you? Only you? Because you were the most important person in my life.” In pressing my point I ended up increasing my grip on her hair. “What we were to each other was always deeper than just friends.”

  “I didn’t want to just be your friend, Boone.”

  “You’d have less resentment toward me now if I’d turned our friendship into something more and then left?”

  “You didn’t give me a choice.” She twisted out of my hold and broke eye contact. “I hated you for that.”

  The knot in my gut tightened. “Hated?”

  “With the power of a thousand fiery suns kind of hatred that a sixteen year old girl excels at. After you left, I spent most of the summer in Paris with my mom. I got rid of that pesky virginity as soon as possible to a sophisticated—and experienced—French college senior named Jon-Michael.”

  I ground my teeth together.

  That’s when she glanced up at me. “The worst part wasn’t you not taking me to prom. The worst part was finding out, literally at the last minute, that you had cared about me the way I’d dreamed you would.” Her gaze searched mine. “Then you kissed me and satisfied your curiosity so you could move on.”

  “No. No,” I repeated, more vehemently, “that goddamn kiss wrecked me, Sierra.”

  She went utterly still.

  “Wrecked me,” I repeated. Curling my hand beneath her jaw, I feathered my thumb over her bottom lip. “I didn’t kiss another woman for a goddamned year because I couldn’t get this mouth out of my mind. I kept flashing back to that smile, the one that dazzled me the first time we met. Or the sneering one that pissed me off, because it managed to be cute and a little mean. I remembered how badly I wanted to bite this pouting bottom lip when you were being a brat. But mostly I remembered how your lips softened beneath mine from that first touch.”

  “Then you remember the taste of my tears, too.”

  Those words hit me as hard as a punch to the gut. But I soldiered on, continuing to gently stroke her lower lip, while inching closer. “And you know the taste of mine,” I said softly.

  That startled her. Then she whispered, “You’re right. God. I’d…forgotten.”

  “You think it was easy for me? That I just climbed on my bike and never looked back? Never thought about you, never wished my life circumstances had been different so I didn’t have to make that choice?”

  She shook her head. “But it did get easier to block it out, didn’t it?”

  No malice distorted her words. She’d been speaking for herself as much as asking me. “It did. And then there were times when I imagined what it’d be like when I finally saw you again.”

  “It’s not exactly been us holding hands, having heart-to-hearts, and hugging it out, has it?”

  “No. But you haven’t kicked me in the balls either, so I’m still ahead of the curve.”

  That earned me a smile.

  And I shamelessly caressed the bow of her upper lip with my thumb, as if I could make the touch erotic enough that she’d let me use my tongue next time. When her breath caught, I groaned.

  “Boone. What are we doing?”

  “I’m pretty sure I’m about to kiss you.” I shifted the position of my hand, lightly resting it on her throat. “Are you gonna run?”

  Sierra’s eyes were affixed to my mouth. “Not right this second. But I reserve the right to freak out afterward. So you’d better make this good.”

  PIECE OF MY HEART, book 2 in the Rough Riders Legacy series, featuring college-aged rodeo star Anton McKay, will release late fall 2017!

  On behalf of 1001 Dark Nights,

  Liz Berry and M.J. Rose would like to thank ~

  Steve Berry

  Doug Scofield

  Kim Guidroz

  Jillian Stein

  InkSlinger PR

  Dan Slater

  Asha Hossain

  Chris Graham

  Pamela Jamison

  Fedora Chen

  Kasi Alexander

  Jessica Johns

  Dylan Stockton

  Richard Blake

  BookTrib After Dark

  and Simon Lipskar

  Table of Contents

  Book Description

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Epilogue