Page 106 of Homebound

I freeze in my tracks.

“Get the hell out,” Dakota’s voice rings, clear and sharp. “I told you to leave, Boone.”

42

FIVE TIMES THE MAN

DAKOTA

“Really, Boone? You’re just showing up unannounced? We’re busy,” I cross my arms, pissed off that he has the audacity to strut up to my dad’s front porch.

He takes that damn toothpick out of his mouth. “I need my jacket for a rodeo this weekend, so I thought I’d stop by. I warned you.”

“Well, I don’t have it with me, so go on, now.”

He rocks back in his boots, frowning a little like that comment hurts him, and I have no clue why he looks like that. I don’t trust that look. “I just want to talk, Kodie.”

“The last thing I want to do is talk to you,” I cut out. “We’re done.”

The unmistakable heavy thud of footsteps thumps behind me, and instinctively, I know it’s Wyatt. I’ve memorized the sound of his reassuring cadence over the years.

The heat from his body meets mine, and he places a steady hand on my lower back. I’m not sure if it’s meant to be possessive or reassuring, but either way, his silent support is comforting.

“When a woman tells you to leave, you leave,” Wyatt rumbles in his dad voice. That’s what I call it when his drawl takes on that deadly calm tone.

It’s my favorite voice of his.

And the sexiest.

“Patterson,” he scoffs. Boone’s eyes flick between Wyatt and me, his jaw tightening. “Of course you’d be here. Figures you’d finally move in on her. You never could stay away from her every summer.”

There’s a pause.

“What can I say?” Wyatt rasps, confidence rolling off him in waves as he pulls me closer. “I’ve been obsessed with this one for a while now.”

I just about rip his jeans right off. I don’t know why him claiming me in front of my ex is the hottest thing that’s ever happened to me, but it is, and I’m relishing in this moment.

Boone scoffs. “That much was obvious, man.”

Wyatt’s body tenses behind me, a ripple of protectiveness radiating through him. Then, he wraps his arms around my shoulders, his chest to my back, drawing me against his muscular frame.

I feel his breath tickle my skin before he presses a gentle kiss to my neck, and I lean in. Partially to seek more of his warmth and partially to drive the point that we’re together home.

“You want him to go, honey?” he replies nonchalantly, looking down at me with tender eyes, but his jaw is tight.

“Yes,” I say, not even having to think about my answer. “You best be going home. We’ve got to get back to our poker game.”

Boone’s expression hardens, and he opens his mouth, but before any words can escape, Wyatt’s voice cuts through the air, silencing him mid-breath. “You heard her. Go on, now.”

“Well, I’ll be damned.” Boone smirks, annoyingly calm as his eyes linger on the way we’re wrapped around each other. “Didn’t know you had it in you, Patterson.”

He narrows his eyes in my periphery. “Didn’t know I had what in me?”

Boone ambles closer until he’s right in Wyatt’s face like he’s about to deliver the blow of all blows. I never realized how much taller Wyatt was until this very moment.

“Oh, nothin’ really,” he sneers. “It’s just that I never pegged you for a guy who’d steal another man’s girl. Looks like you’ve actually got a backbone after all.”

We both rush forward, but I’m smaller and quicker, so I move faster. I pull myself out of Wyatt’s grasp, getting all up in Boone’s face. I might let shit roll downhill when it comes to me, but disrespect the people in my life?