"I go where you take me," I said.
And as he led me to his truck, I couldn't deny how true it was. I'd have gone anywhere he wanted to take me.
The sky was a blanket of diamonds, lighting up the night just for us.
At least, that's how it felt.
We'd watched the sunset over the lake, talking and joking about my first week in Whitmer, about the night I'd schooled him and Rick on bourbon, and how funny it was that a girl who'd never had a job before was somehow the best bartender The Side Pocket had ever seen.
But now night was upon us, and the sky had never looked so brilliant.
There is nothing that will make you feel like the world belongs only to you like standing in the middle of a valley, by a glittering lake, in the middle of the night in Montana. I'd never felt so small and so infinite all at the same time.
Without saying a word, I could tell he felt it too.
"I can't believe what I'm seeing," I said, as I gazed up at the endless universe above us. "I've never in my life seen something as beautiful as this night."
"I have," he said, looking at me knowingly. I rolled my eyes.
"Huck Calloway did not just throw a cheesy pick-up line at me," I teased. He smirked.
"I don't do pick-up lines," he remarked. "Never needed to."
Damn. I loved his self-assuredness.
"So what is something you've seen more beautiful than this?" I asked, waving my hand up at the sky.
"Besides you?" he said, pulling me toward him. "My momma. How's that for cheesy?"
I touched his melancholy face, which I was falling so hard for in that moment. Booze had nothing on the intoxicant of a Montana night. I would have confessed anything to him.
But it was clear he was the one who needed to do the confessing.
"Tell me," I said, pulling him down to the soft earth to sit next to me. "I want to know."
He wrapped one of his massive warms around my shoulders and didn't say anything for a moment. I could almost hear the gears turning in his beautiful head. Then he spoke.
"She was tall. She died when I was nine, so to me, she will always be the tallest person I ever knew. There was something regal about her, but that's probably just nostalgia playing tricks on me. In my dreams she's a queen. That's how she held herself. She had dark, wavy hair that she always tied back by noon, right at the nape of her neck. And a laugh that still haunts me. It was melodic. She was like the mother in a Disney movie."
He paused for a moment and stared out at the lake. "When my brothers and I were small, she'd take us out here where we're sitting now. She knew the name of every flower, plant, flora, animal, bug, and critter that lived on this land. She loved it second only to us. And she made me love it too," he said. He was staring up at the sky now.
"She sounds so lovely," I said, to fill the silence.
"She was more than that," he said. "She was perfect. And I have missed her my whole life. When she passed away something obliterated inside me, and it's never filled in again." He looked at me now. I had tears in my eyes, but as usual, Huck was expressionless.
"I'm so sorry," I said. "I can't imagine how painful it was to lose someone like that."
He nodded. "It was definitely the worst thing that ever happened to any of us. Sometimes I feel like my life just spins around that time … that day. Nothing ever feels like it's completely whole. Not that I feel that way every day. The older you get, the less it hurts. But the dull ache of it is always there. It probably always will be."
I understood what he meant. The dull ache of the past. I felt it, too.
We sat there for a long time, just listening to the night. In all of my life I'd never known such a peace. There was nowhere in all the world I wanted to be than where I was in that instant. And no one I'd rather be with, than Huck Calloway.
"Tell me why you're here," Huck said. "How does a girl from Kentucky end up in Montana? The truth."
I stared out at the lake, watching the moon's reflection on its glassy surface.
"The truth is," I slowly said. "I'm running away from my life."
"And why is that?" he asked.
How much could I really tell him? He'd already made assumptions. He figured I was a rich girl with rich girl problems. He'd referred to me as a princess. And I'd allowed him to think it, because it was easier than owning up to the true mess that was my life in Kentucky. Huck had watched me fall apart before his very eyes. I couldn't let him any closer than that.
Although I desperately wanted to.
Instead, I let him assume whatever he assumed.
Sometimes it's easier to allow people to believe what they want to believe.
"Freedom," I said. "A clean slate. Why else do people run away?"
"Fear," Huck replied without missing a beat. "They're scared to face things."
I nodded. "I guess that would be true for me, too."
He ran his rough fingers up my bare arm, making goosebumps rise on my skin.
"Let's forget about the things we don't want to face," he whispered into my hair. "Just for tonight, Belle. Let's just be you and me. Let's be people without a past or a future; just the present, just this night. We could make it the best night of our lives if we really wanted to."
I believed him. It was already turning out to be one of the best nights of my life, even before his proposition.
He kissed me then, a long kiss that I never wanted to let go of. His lips and his mouth tasted so good, the smell of his manliness and his essence was intoxicating.
Huck Calloway was all man and that included everything physical about him. The way his hands were so rough on my soft, genteel skin; the feel of his sandpaper chin on my face as he lifted me up into his arms. His large hands ran through my wild hair and I moaned under his mouth.
All I wanted were his hands to touch every part of my body. All night.
"I'm going to fuck you," he growled into my ear. "And then I'm going to worship your body. Until the sun comes up. You'll beg me to stop, but I won't, Belle. Once I have you, I can't stop having you."
I was already on the verge of begging and we hadn't even begun yet.
"Anything," I said. "Have me any way you want for however long you want me."
His hands ran up my legs and underneath my sun dress.
"First," he said. "Your panties."
Before I could even protest, he'd hooked a finger into the waist of them and yanked them off, causing me to yelp.
"They're wet," he said. I threw my head back, slightly embarrassed.
"I couldn't help it," I said.
"I've been thinking about doing that," he continued. "Since the night I met you."
"You have?" I asked, as he pulled me toward him by my hips, my legs still lewdly spread open. "What else have you thought of?"
"Tasting you," he said, running his hand up my torso, making me shiver.
His head disappeared under the hem of my dress and I laid back onto the grass, looking straight up at the moon as he softly kissed my inner thighs.
"You smell so fucking good," he said. "Just like I imagined. But better."
I didn't even know what to say. I was on the cusp of losing my mind if he didn't lick me soon. Where I needed to be licked. Where I was desperate to be licked.
Suddenly I felt him flatten his tongue against me. Right on my clit.
God. Yes. Yes. Yes.
As he devoured me I slowly pulled my dress up my body (trying hard not to interrupt his work) and slid it over my head. I was now completely naked under the stars, save for my bra.
I arched my back as I came, calling out his name as he sucked on me, coaxing out a powerful orgasm. The feel of his rough face against the tender parts of my sex was such a turn on that my body immediately craved him again.
"More," I whispered, but he had slid up my body now, his mouth on mine.
"Taste yourself on me," he said as he pressed his tongue against my own. My flavor mixed with his had me bucking. I needed more of this. Always.
"Please," I said, almost whimpering. "Make me come like that again."
"I need to fuck you first," he said. I kissed him hard, my arms wrapped around his neck as he undid his belt buckle with one hand. He kicked off his jeans and boxer briefs. His erection sprang free and I could feel it immediately lying against my stomach.
I broke our kiss for a moment to look down at what he had to offer.
Oh. My.
Of course Huck would have a huge cock. It only made sense. You didn't have his kind of coolness and self-confidence otherwise.
It was as if he could read my thoughts. When my eyes met his again there was a smile in his expression.