Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 55305 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 277(@200wpm)___ 221(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55305 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 277(@200wpm)___ 221(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
I brace my hands against the tile and close my eyes.
This is ridiculous.
It was one night.
So, why does it feel like a shift?
I finish quickly, step out, and wrap myself in a towel. For a moment, I avoid the mirror, but eventually I look anyway.
Joelle was right.
I do look different.
There’s a lightness in my expression that wasn’t there before. A brightness to my eyes. An upturn to the slant of my lips. I shake my head, dress in simple loungewear, and move through the house on autopilot. I unpack my bag, start a load of laundry, and make a cup of tea that I forget to drink.
Normal things.
I check over my calendar for the week, immersing myself back into Janey Summer’s life.
Then, my phone buzzes against the counter.
I glance over, expecting Joelle, but the screen lights up with a number I don’t recognize.
My stomach tightens slightly as I pick it up.
You made it home?
The message is simple with no name attached.
My pulse picks up. Mason. It has to be. Brookes wouldn’t open like that. I guess someone passed on my number.
I stare at the message for a moment, my thumb hovering over the screen as I consider ignoring it. That would be the sensible choice.
Before I can decide, the phone buzzes again.
Are you still thinking about last night?
My breath catches, and I set the phone down for a second as though it scalded me, pacing a few steps across the kitchen before stopping again.
He shouldn’t do that. It was a one-night stand, but he wants to know.
Of course he does.
Heat curls low in my stomach, and I pick the phone back up despite myself.
I’m home, I type, then pause, staring at the words. They feel too neutral and careful, but I still send them.
The reply comes almost immediately.
Good.
There’s a short pause, and then another message follows.
I can still taste you.
My thighs press tightly, the memory of his tongue on my clit almost physical. I lean back against the counter, exhaling in a rush.
He isn’t going to let this be simple, and I don’t know whether I’m annoyed or relieved. I guess I’m not so easy to walk away from. Everything that affected me about our time together seems to have affected him the same way.
I type, delete, then type again.
It was one night.
His response comes quickly.
Did it feel like that to you?
I close my eyes briefly. No, it didn’t, and that’s the problem.
I don’t answer right away, and the silence stretches long enough to feel intentional before my phone buzzes again.
Didn’t think so.
My grip tightens around the phone. This is exactly what I didn’t want. I should shut him down. I should be firm and clear enough to end it before it gets any more complicated.
It’s already more complicated.
Instead, I find myself typing—
What do you want, Mason?
This time, the pause is longer.
Long enough that I start to think I’ve pushed too far. Then the reply comes through.
You.
The word sits there on the screen, a simple and direct thump to the center of my chest. My body reacts before my mind catches up. This is how it starts, if I let it. With simple messages that I don’t resist as strongly as I should.
I stare at the screen, my reflection faintly visible in the glass.
Joelle’s words echo quietly in the back of my mind.
Don’t pretend it didn’t mean anything if it did.
I exhale slowly, then type—That wasn’t part of the deal.
There’s a short pause before the response comes through.
We didn’t make a deal, Janey.
My heart stutters. He’s right. We didn’t.
That’s where I went wrong. We should have agreed on a plan and made a decision rather than tumbling into a barn to fuck. They’re not strangers. They’re Caleb and Wade’s cousins. As long as I’m friends with Joelle, they’ll be in my life. And I plan on holding her friendship tight.
I stare at Mason’s last message. We didn’t make a deal.
No, I reply. But we should have.
Chapter 5
Janey
The next few days pass in a strange blur of normalcy and secret heat. I go back to work as if nothing happened. I show up at the clinic, drive out for farm calls, vaccinate calves, stitch up a horse that got tangled in barbed wire, and smile politely at the ranchers who call me “little lady” even though I’ve been doing this job for a while and deserve a different kind of respect. On the outside, I’m the same competent, calm Janey everyone expects.
On the inside, I’m a mess.
Every time I sit down, I feel the deep ache between my legs and remember exactly how I got it. When I catch sight of my reflection in the rear-view mirror, I still see the faint shadow of a hickey on my neck that makeup barely hides, and at night, when the house is too quiet, my body remembers what it felt like to be possessed by two strong men so completely.