Country Girl / City Boy (Closed)

“Son of a bitch,” Ashton griped, as the panel of his convertible Nissan 370Z lit up. Rolling around a corner, he shifted down a couple gears and tried to peer over the hood. Already, white smoke began to float up through the inlets with increasing thickness. The main light, the one that let him know the car was overheated, was the final nail in this rolling coffin. “Son of a Bitch.” He repeated, and looked up ahead to a dirt entry into a field, calling as the only good place for him to pull off.

Popping the hood, Ashton moved over to see the damage. Steam seemed to be pouring out from everywhere. He had to step back to let the wet heat burst past him. A few waves of his hand to let it pass by, and he could see the culprit. A hose heading to the radiator was still belching steam and water. “Son of a bitch,” Ashton repeated.

Sliding a phone out of his pocket, he tried to see if he could get a signal, but it was spotty at best. His face reddened feeling the anger itch into him. It was part of that bloody Irish heritage that brought out that color, accented by a dusting of freckles across his cheek and highlighting the redness in his hair. Ashton McGinley’s parents were both mostly Irish, so both can be blamed for the light complexion, and to be thanked for his tall structure and beaming smile. Yet out here in the countryside, they weren’t in a place to help him either.

The problem was, he had no idea how to fix the hose out here. Ashton was way too far outside of the city to hope for his regular service group to come fix the car. He didn’t trust his signal to make a call to anyone anyway. So his only real home was to drop a text to Ben. Ashton was out here because his old college buddy was getting married. Ben and Ashton spent their first three years in college as roommates, which was always good for a laugh. Ashton, who hadn’t seen anything outside of downtown until he hit college - and Ben who hadn’t seen a building bigger than a barn. But they hit it off, maybe not best friends, but good enough that he came down for a holiday once. Chances are he won’t get to spend much time with Ben with all the getting married and stuff, but without much for hotels down his way Ashton will at least get to crash at his parent’s place for the run.

So with a text off to Ben, Ashton had to wait. Wondering if his old friend was free enough to get some help his way. Or if he would just have to wait until someone comes out of the hills with whatever the farmers out this way have.

She’d gotten the text from her brother Ben when she was rushing back with her truck bed full of flowers. There were all kinds, some were still planted, big bunches of sunflowers were laying down taking up as much space as possible. But the bride wanted them, what the bride wanted she'd have and The youngest sister of the groom’d been sent to fetch them. Lucy stared at her phone and rolled her eyes a little, apparently Ben’s friend Ashton from college was drive there and had run into some trouble. The text wasn’t specific, car trouble, and Lucy tossed her phone back on the long seat next to her bag, her small hands on the large steering wheel of her lovingly restored 1970 Chevy C10 longbed. It was the classic farm truck, orange and white. It was her baby. The engine had been completely replaced, it purred like a kitten and kept on ticking like a son of a bitch.

She could see that there was a was an agitated redhead up ahead of her, and a trail of dust behind her, so Lucy started slowing as she came up to the steaming front of the convertible. She tried think back to the last time she’d seen him; it had been a bit ago. Christmas, she’d been in high school and somehow they’d ended up under the mistletoe together. It had been freezing, a punishing winter, but the city boy had seemed to enjoy the vast emptiness of their ranch. Well, all but the waking up at dawn part. Lucy Blade was all well-bred country, they had cattle, tourism and land, all of which equaled money. An ancestors of Native American heritage had given her mocha-tanned skin, and the trappers that had first entered into the wild lands that she was a part of had left her with light brunette hair, highlighted by the sun, and bright green eyes with thick lashes. Her work kept her lean, but it was her sense of humor that put the cheshire grin on her face as she leaned across the cab to hand roll down the window.

“Howdy, Partner.” She drawled it out slowly, taking a finger and pushing up the bill of her ball cap that held her long ponytail. Her bare thighs squeaked a little as she pushed her stick into park and went to lean out the window, on her knees so her breasts were hung up on her folded arms, straining against the worn white shirt.

“Looks like you chose a bad place to break down. Don’t you know this whole state doesn’t have as many people as your downtown, City-Boy?” She couldn’t help her laughing, wondering if he’d recognize her without her braces. “Well, you want a ride, Handsome?” She pulled the handle to open the door from the inside, kicking the heavy thing with her boot and sliding back over to her side.

“Well, I hate to tell you this, but here in Wyoming you never ride for free.” Lucy raised her eyebrow apprising him, “Gas, grass, or ass my friend.” She pressed her pink lips together to keep from laughing, staring out the window for a long moment, trying to look solemn and serious, but failing. “Ben is worried about you, Ashton. He was fully predicting you’d start to walk, get lost and I would spend the rest of my night trying to find you. And most likely would with the grill of my truck. I however had more faith in you. How've you been?"

It takes a lot to leave Ashton speechless normally, but this was one of those rare exceptions. As he hoped, someone crested the nearest hill and immediately began to slow in their old pick-up. Preparing himself to try to explain to one of the local cowboys about what excuses a high end car had to be here, and how he would have to likely talk about the people he knew so they wouldn’t have run him off like some sure sign of trouble; the truck seemed to be filled by a woman which made his options a lot more different. Thing was, when that truck stopped and the window rolled down he was flabbergasted by the beauty that sat inside. It was everything sexy about a women to him, from the naturally tanned skin, to the flowing hair, to … and no guy will ever convince you that this isn’t high on his list .. great breasts straining their way through her old t-shirt.

If that wasn’t enough, he knew that girl.

Sliding a hand up over his sweaty brown through his red hair he laughed happily. “Holy hell, Lucy! Look at you!”

As pissed as he was at his car, he couldn’t stop smiling. That infectious grin she had when he first knew her hadn’t disappeared, and now it forced the crappy way the drive had ended turn into a ray of sunshine.

“Let me grab my stuff here real quick, we have to get where I can call for a tow or something. Looks like a blown hose.” He danced around to the back of the car, popped the trunk and started to grab the bags.

He thought quickly of her little joke and shifted jokingly his backside towards the truck. Over his shoulder he yelled, “Here’s the ass for you.” To help, he flipped up the back of the tail of his button down casual shirt to show off the stretch of the cotton cargo shorts. “Enough for you or do you need the second cheek.”

He pulled the suitcase, a backpack, and the garment bag for the wedding outfit and found a spot in the bed of the truck for it all through the rest of her sunflowers and things before finding his own place in the cabin. Getting back into the cabin, he had a second to really take Lucy in. The last time he saw her she was just a kid, still in highschool and going through that time when kids don’t know what they are going to be like. Not that she wasn’t cute, she was just … Well … Ben’s kid sister.

“Holy hell,” he repeated again, now sitting back in the cabin leaning against the door and able to take her all in from her side of the seat. “When’s the last time we seen each other … it must have been … I don’t know … you look.” He was trying not to stammer, trying not to sound like an idiot, but the way she looked in that full on country feel was tough. “Man … you grew up Lucy!! Look at you!”

“Holy hell, Lucy! Look at you!”

That had her smiling bigger, her tongue running over her straightened white teeth and resting on a canine as she laughed over Ashton’s reaction to seeing her. She wouldn’t have admitted it out loud but when her almost sister in law told them all about the wedding plans, and Ben told her that Ashton was going to be a groomsman, Lucy had, had a bit of a double take. After all, when she’d been younger, she’d had it for the ginger, bad. He’d been different from all the boys that she’d ever know. And when girls are young, ready to run a bit, nothing is more ideal than different.

So she’d chased after him some, feeling like she’d almost walked in her brother and his friend’s tracks the whole time that he’d been visiting. And for a while she’d thought that maybe there had been a spark, but he’d gone and for as much as she knew, he’d never given her a second thought. There was still some residual embarrassment, helped along by her older brother who used to tease her mercilessly about the crush.

“Let me grab my stuff here real quick, we have to get where I can call for a tow or something. Looks like a blown hose.”

“Yeah, Ben is going to text Danny, the other groomsman. He’ll pick up the car and bring it to the ranch. I’ll take a look at it.” She promised, grabbing her own bag, and pulling it closer to her side so there would be room for her brother’s friend, whenever he stopped flashing her his cargo shorts and decided to hop in. Though she was trying to be serious, Lucy rolled her eyes and gave him a small wolf whistle in response. Leaning back and pushing the stick into drive once Ashton was in the cab.

“Holy hell,”

That exclamation made her look back at him, an eyebrow climbing upward with an unasked question. But as he continued on, Lucy’s shoulders relaxed, as she shifted further back against the long seat cushion on back of them.

“When’s the last time we seen each other … it must have been … I don’t know … you look. Man … you grew up Lucy!! Look at you!”

“Yeah, that tends to happen.” She giggled, “Started at U of Wyoming last fall.” Lucy had to bite down on her tongue to stop the words from flowing further, somewhere there was still a part of her that wanted to impress him, tell him that she had plans to become a lawyer, not just ranch and restore cars with her Dad. That she was home for the summer. But she knew she babbled, and knew that Ashton knew it too.

“And as for the last time? Well, I think that would be the time that you came for Christmas and went ahead and gave me my first kiss.” Lucy winked at him, before giving a pout. “And then left me to freeze my ass off in the barn while you and Ben went off to town for beers. A real let down, I’ll tell you. You’ll have to make it up to me, one day, you know.”

“Wyoming,” he exclaimed. “Why didn’t you go to Northeastern? If your dumbass brother can get into a Boston school, surely you could.” He shooked his head with a laugh, yet still couldn’t draw his eyes off of her.

“Well, I think that would be the time that you came for Christmas and went ahead and gave me my first kiss.”

Ashton felt a little floored at that moment. He remembers that kiss, remembers that night just as much. The little apple cheeked teenager who let him steal one under a mistletoe seemed pretty happy about the experience, that was for sure. Yet now that she confessed it was her first kiss left him stunned. Ashton wasn’t an idiot, wasn’t completely an asshole either, he knew what that meant to a girl or for that matter a guy.

“Your first kiss,” he started, the cheeky smile leaving his face to something more straight. “Wow. I have to apologize then. I didn’t mean to let you down like that. I didn’t know really. If I did … well. I kind of feel honored now, lucky really.”

He scratched his head, and realized something. “Weren’t you like, fifteen or sixteen or something then?” He changed the tone of his voice slightly to try to teasingly sound ‘western’. “They didn’t cloister you out here away from all the cowboys until then did they? Surely there was a barn raising or some ice cream social that some boy who caught your fancy. Come riding up on a horse in their ten gallon hat or whatever and sweep you into his arms to ride off into the sunset … just for a kiss of course.”

“I could have gone anywhere I wanted.” She said, especially when she was compared to her brother. Whom, as a little sister saw in him, all the things on the planet that were made to annoy her. “I don’t know what I would do in the city. Ben says everyone is crunched into small spaces.”

The brunette turned, her ponytail sticking out of the back of her ball cap swished with the sudden movement. “Well, I don’t mind small spaces too much, with the right people. With the wrong ones? I need all of Wyoming.” She grinned back at Ashton, as he was expressing his remorse, taking a hand off the wheel to smack at him, hitting his shoulder.

“Oh my God. No, stop.” She was giggling, hiding her face from his view with the hand that had just lashed out at him, covering up her peripheral vision, not unlike a horse with blinders to forget about the crowd. “Honored? Really? So lame.” But there was pink rising from her neck on up, embarrassment abounding, when he asked what age she’d been.

“Fifteen, perv.” She shifted, only looking out the window, though every so often her eyes would glance toward the man in her truck.

“You are making the Ranch sound like some musical.” She snorted at the imagery he tried to conjure up. Of where she was kept as pure as snow on the porch while she watched some boys and girls do a twostep to a five-piece band. She snorted when he ended his picturesque view of her life with ‘just a kiss’.

“I’ll have you know I do like cowboys.” She threw back at him. “It just so happens, I like city boys too. To kiss.”

For a short time, all he could think about was Lucy riding a cowboy. The girl, no longer a girl, mounted up in that same faded shirt, a pair of chaps, and her ball cap replaced by something more western as she spun her arm around as if with a lasso on top of the hips of a faceless guy.

With a deep breath he relaxed back on the bench seat of the truck with a smile. His cargo shorts tightened as they rode up his thighs and hips. He wiped the sweat growing off his brow in the old truck.

“I just hope you don’t judge me is all,” he kicked back. “I will make it up to you, I promise you that, however that will be. But I just don't want you to think us guys from Boston are a bunch of drunk idiots who piss off our girls and leave them be. Especially when you are going to college too, right? It’s only that I know how we must be a bunch of idiots being from the city is all. Just because we don’t know how to poke a cow - or milk a bull. Whatever that means.”

He yanked on the shorts to keep them a bit more comfortable. Part of it was a choice to remind himself he was talking to a his buddy’s little sister … by proxy his own little sister. Even if she wasn’t his sister, and definitely no longer “little”.

“I just hope you don’t judge me is all,”

Lucy was kicking up dust at an alarming rate, her boot happily steadying the gas pedal as the road in her rear view mirror obscured. They hadn’t had rain in a while, but that was to be expected for this time of year. Still, it made the trip a little muggier as she had to roll up the windows. The green eyed brunette looked over at her brother’s friend and smiled. He was going on about what she must be thinking about city boys.

Of course she didn’t think that he was some ‘bro’ who had left her to go get trashed in the nearest town. He’d been nice, practically sweet really, from what she remembered of his trip. And he was kind, she liked that. Oh, and attractive, that was also appreciated. Her eyes were raking over him, even while he continued to extrapolate and explain what she must think of him and all city folks.

“Well, I know for certain that you don’t know how to poke a cow properly.” Lucy joked, easing onto the brake pedal, pulling the stick in her hands down several gears until it was in park. Though her seat belt stuck between her breasts as she leaned over one hand slid its way toward his thigh, then across his shorts to the next, until Lucy was leaning in, biting her bottom lip, inches from his face. Green eyes twinkled with mischief.

“You want to start to make it up to me, cowpoke?” The girl purred, her free hand pulling the handle on his door, pushing it open as she leaned against his arm. “You got to open the gate.” After the door was open she didn’t immediately move away, liking the cushion of him against her side once her free hand was braced on his knee.

“You know, once we are on the property it’s all wedding central.” It made her grin in spite of herself, whatever it was about Ashton had her both wanting to tease him, and also wanting him to continue the way he looked at her. Soon they were going to be swarmed with people, who wanted to send her out for errands or welcome him back into the fold.

“I could show you my milking technique…” Green eyes looked forward and back then out her window and his open door.

“Jesus, get your shit together, Ashton,” he told himself as a shaky hand unlatched the gate after a couple tries. He looked back over his shoulder at the farm girl waiting for him in the cab, all while he walked the metal frame to the edge of the road and out of her way. Her green eyes seemed to sparkle with a mix of playful teasing and confidence. That was part of the problem, of course. She clearly knew what she was doing, she clearly wasn’t a kid anymore; but played the game like she damn knew the consequences of it all too.

Ashton still was blaming himself for this. Eight and a half months since Simone broke up with him, and not even a whisper of another a skirt since then leaves a guy who has a hard time turning off turning on the brain when a woman comes along. Lucy could have been a bitch to him; but her ability to wear that t-shirt and let the ponytail speak for the rest of her, and he would still be trying to unsnap those blue jeans. As she drove past him with that beaming smile, he almost forgot again what is wrong with all of this.

“What the fuck is wrong with it,” he poked himself as he went to move the gate back to close behind the truck.

“For one thing, you totally forgot about your car,” he mumbled. “For another you totally forgot about Ben. For another you totally forgot she’s just a kid.”

The car will be fine. It won’t get jacked, and it isn’t that he’d need it for a while.

But not just a kid anymore.

Fifteen … when he gave her her first kiss. But that was years ago, and she ain’t that kid anymore.

Ashton opened the door to the cabin and looked down as the seat belt crossed over her torso and accented those well developed breasts. He tried to not let his eyes linger on them, but when he looked up at he with he guess she could have caught him staring.

Ben would understand.

“For what it’s worth, I’m in no hurry to get to wedding central .. but this milking technique better be worth it.”

She laughed, when he agreed that milking sounded like a good idea. There wasn’t a cow around as far as the eye could see, they were in their spring pasture, fattening up on grass there before calving season began. Had to keep the heifers pregnant if they wanted to produce milk. This thought crossing her mind would have made her chuckle more, but Ashton was looking at the seatbelt crossing her chest with intense interest and her eyes didn’t spy anyone around them.

“Unzip your zipper.” Lucy prompted, leaning on her hand and shifting toward Ashton. “If you want to see my handy work, you are going to have to give me something to milk.” Her tone was light, airy even, and she let her green eyes fall toward the front of his short, a cascade of brunette hair falling over her shoulder only half as long as it would have been without it being tied up.
Lucy didn’t know if Ashton would do it, there was a spark in her that was practically daring him, another part of her was purely curious to see how this scenario they’d created would turn out. They’d been in each other’s company for only a short time, but Lucy knew that any private time together was fleeting. He’d be writing best-man toasts and she’d been elbows deep in flowers and decorating.

She wished she had a drink, just at that moment when her mouth started to feel dry. Instinctually the tip of her pink tongue darted out to wet her lips.

“You sure you are still interested?”

“Unzip your zipper.” “You sure you are still interested?”

“Holy, shit,” Ashton blurted in response. “Now who is the perv!”

As much as he was laughing at the forwardness of the comment, he definitely was interested. Or at the very least, the blood rushing to his ‘other brain’ was interested. He shifted in his seat, the shorts siding on him uncomfortably, leading him to tug at them to keep positioning what kept moving on it’s own down there.

“Is that your secret to keep those cowboys at bay? Show them your milking abilities and it keeps their hands to themselves? Is that all it takes?”

He had a cheeky smile, but couldn’t get the picture of Lucy working her hand on him.

“Or do you let them milk you as well, because for my zipper to come down that shirt has to come off.”

Ashton couldn’t really believe he was having this conversation this conversation with Ben’s little sister.

But even through all the direct, blunt talk; he knew that if this was going to happen then things had to fall a certain. Hell, he was on his way to the house of an old friend, brimming over with family and friends busily getting ready for what maybe the wedding of the century for this country-side place. Sharing a bed, a shower, a bar, or even a dark corner will be damn near impossible the next few days. Not without knowing the situation.

“How many people, exactly, are around there at Wedding Central? Cause all I know is it’s going to be a madhouse, isn’t it.”

The giggle that bubbled out of her when he swore wasn’t the most glamourous thing she could have done in that situation. But Ashton’s surprise was too hilarious to even attempt to hold it in. He looked like he was seeing a ghost, who was offering him a hand job. He’d probably thought that both that situation and this were equally as possible. When he asked her who the perv was, Lucy shrugged her thin shoulders, taking off her ball cap and tossing it his way, pulling out her ponytail and letting her long dark hair frame her face and her grin.

“You’re assuming that I offer to show cowboys.” Lucy started to feel a little jittery. Butterflies in her stomach and nerves were making everything just a bit funnier. She hoped that she wasn’t sounding shrill like it was her to ears. Maybe she sounded sophisticated like she hoped. “No, they all know how to milk themselves, I’m just offering to show you, City-boy.”

“How many people, exactly, are around there at Wedding Central? Cause all I know is it’s going to be a madhouse, isn’t it?”

When he gave her the ultimatum while they sat at the open fence that was the one entrance down to her family’s ranch, Lucy considered it. Again, her eyes roamed around her, out the back window of the truck, out the front, over her shoulder. Once she knew it was clear, she didn’t remove her shirt all the way, merely pulling it up above her breasts, to rest on the shelf of pert flesh, and with much more moxie than she thought herself capable of, fingers reached for the cups of her bra, pulling them down to make a frame for the tanned flesh and dusky pink nipples.

“Oh, there is a lot. A whole lot, not a silent moment to be had. Everyone coming and going…” Lucy took the opportunity to rest a hand on his thigh, curling toward where his zipped was and then back again. Teasing. Testing.

“This is it, City-boy. We cross this threshold and there is chaos.” Her next movement toward him on the long bench seat had her breasts momentarily brushing against him. A pink tongue darted out to run itself along her bottom lip, teeth catching the flesh as she smiled. “We have a few minutes, up to you what we do with them.”

When Lucy started pulling up her shirt, only one thing flashed through Ashton’s head … Holy shit, this is happening. Needless to say, there wasn’t much out that Ashton thought about after that point.

He made a couple turns to look around the their area. The truck sat in that gate just idling as if it had nothing to do but block the road. But it wasn’t like there was anything around the area, not like anyone was going to come across them, not like anyone was coming.

… not yet that is …

When he looked back at the girl, she had exposed her nipples for him. Wedged into the tight clothing, it was not like she freed the girls from their prison, but they stood out lovely and beautiful. She talked about a threshold to cross, but seeing those beautiful little nubbins meant to him whatever threshold needing crossing was now behind them, and anything or everything laid ahead.

He quickly reached down to his shorts, unbuttoned the waistband, and pulled the zipper down. Beneath lie black boxers that sprung outward from the released pressure yet still kept his erection in place. By now she was close enough to reach out for her, and that was his immediate need. His hands encirled her bare sides, feeling the muscular abs ripped from farm life. His large hands spread feeling his thumbs move up her ribcage and nearing where her bra lay pushed below her breasts.

His blood was boiling with his need. He lost grasp of the reality of who she was and why he was here. It had been so long since he been with a woman that his mind focused more on getting there and getting her; then who it was. Now her lips were close enough, he reached with his to kiss her, forgetting that the last time he did so she was just a sparkle eyed teenager. All he wanted to was to feel this hot blooded woman against him, and all he could do was treat her just like that.

And nothing was going to stop him.

It was at that moment ... the horn from the truck behind them blared.

Lucy watched with a curious and keen eye as Ashton tilted himself on the seat to unbutton the top of his shorts, then let loose the fly. She’d already had her hand on his thigh, so it wasn’t much of a reach to caress the front of his boxers. They were slick and slippery, and was the only barrier to what she’d been waiting to investigate. The girl shifted further on her knees, as both of Ashton’s hands started to tickle along the slopes of her ribs, it was a slow investigation, but after she’d freed his erection, she relished their kiss. Her mouth was eager, her hand worked with the rhythm of her tongue tentatively touching his then retreating.

The brush of her nipples against his side, having him in her hand and the way their tongued clashed and clung. Lucy was trying to think of the last time she’d been so bold. School boys didn’t interest her much, they were bumbling, boring. She wanted a steady hand, hot kisses and someone who could give as good as they got. Lucy was always in charge, she wanted someone who would make her body electric so she couldn't even think. This made her hips twitch, rocking back and forth with excitement. She’d wanted to encourage more exploration, but her predictions had been true. They wouldn’t be able to find a quiet place to themselves.

The moment the horn blew, Lucy jumped so high with surprise she’d just missed the top of her hea, hitting the roof of her truck. Simultaneously, she’d pulled down her shirt, not wasting a second to adjust her bra, when the voice yelled out of the cab of the truck behind her.

“Get your ass in gear, Lu!”

“Shit! Shit…Wes!” She rolled down her window further to wave at her other older brother, to signal that she had heard him and wasn’t in any distress.

But the moment she shifted the truck into drive and had both hands white-knuckled on the steering wheel, Lucy cast a momentary look at Ashton.

“Oh god, that was close.” Though she didn’t seem to mind, her lovely dark eyes still cast themselves toward his crotch, smiling.

“Do you get that excited for all the farm girls?” Lucy asked with a grin. “If so, I think you’re going to have to spend a lot of time hiding behind the flower arrangements.”

“Shit,” Ashton repeated as he scrambled to zip up his shorts. It was a hell of a challenge, because packing himself back in was not easy. Not that his was a monster, but the way Lucy had him going it sure did feel like one.

“I hope they are big flower arrangements,” he laughed cheekily. “Pfft … and all the farm girls. You make it sound like the city if full of them. And my guess, none of them are too into groping a guy in their truck typically.”

He looked over his shoulder, sweating the fact that a family member was so close to catching them. “You don’t think he saw us …” The guy Lucy called Wes was still back at the gate. Someone had to close it, so looks like Wes was the one. Still it’s not like that automatically means get their privacy again. The guy will be in his truck in no time, so stopping was out of the question.

Turning back slightly, seeing the flushed farm girl still looking disheveled, Ashton had another idea. He put a hand onto her thigh and sat back on his seat. Even if the guy was along side of them, that clearly won’t be seen. Wickedly, he thought maybe he can get her a little worked up too.

“Though I bet, farm boys wouldn’t mind the chance to do a little groping, do they.” With that his hand slid higher up her leg, testing her to see how far she was going to let him go with it.

Lucy was laughing as Ashton made a show of trying to haphazardly push his raging hard on back into his pants like they were two teenagers who’d been caught by an usher at the theater with her giving him a handy in an empty tub of popcorn. Her green eyes did look at him and downward and back toward the road, while with one hand she tried to pull her bra up over her breasts once more. No more nipples pointing straight head like they were lighting the way. It was fun, this, disheveled and shocked. Her smile didn’t even falter when he asked about the flower arrangements and told her about city girls.

“Not there Dumb-Dumb.” It was cheeky, teasing. “Here, there are going to be a lot of cowgirls around, and some may not take kindly to you pointing at them.” Her own pointer finger was aimed at the milk-teat substitute. “Just sayin’.”

“You don’t think he saw us …”

“Wes? Nah, he doesn’t notice much.” Lucy very much wanted her eldest brother to get back on the road so she could extend her own welcome home to him in the form of her middle finger. But resisted, and only just. Life was tough being a little sister to a bevy of older brothers.

“Though I bet, farm boys wouldn’t mind the chance to do a little groping, do they.”

“Oh, is that how we are playing, Farm Boy?” Lucy looked down at his hand, drifting over her thigh as she drove. Fingers moving ever so slightly toward the frayed edges of her cut off jean shorts. Her green eyes gave him a sidelong look, she too was wondering how far Ashton would take this game. She’d never actually thought that he’d whip out his cock for her, that had been an interesting turn of events, not one she regretted because in all honesty, she’d wanted to see it. Though, maybe there could have been another time and place. But the two of them seemed to be playing a game of truth or dare, and since middle school Lucy had been the Dare champion.

“So, you think that all us country boys and girls are getting down on the farm?” She asked, amused.

“Maybe that’s all you boys and girls do; but honestly, I absolutely have no idea what you country folk do,” he smirked. “You have no baseball stadiums, no football stadiums, no clubs, no pubs, no pub crawls, no coffee shops. Options seem to narrow down for the best of my knowledge.”

There are worst things to be other than left handed. Sure, you have to have special scissors and all, but sometimes it just works in your favor. For instance, when you are sitting in the passenger seat of a truck, and you want to do some exploring. Having your much more agile and dominate hand towards the target sure does help out.

They barely got far up the road, and his fingers started to sneak under the hem of Lucy’s shorts. They weren’t so tight that he couldn’t get into them, but it wouldn’t take much from her to casually move her leg and cut the blood from his finger tips.

“I don’t mean to suggest that’s all you do” he clarified. “I’m just assuming that as cute as you are, you have no problem convincing a cowboy into keeping you busy.”

Once his fingers were inside the hem, he made no bones about where they were headed. The casual brushes became more direct. Then at all at once he felt three things on his fingertips. The smooth crevice where her leg touched her hip, the obvious texture of her panties, and an unmistakable warmth.

Lucy gave an exaggerated gasp of insult when Ashton started to list all the things that they didn’t have in the Wyoming ranch lands. Most of what he said was wrong, because there was plenty to do out in the sticks, maybe not at the ready like he had in the city. But he was dead wrong about the situation around him.

“We have football! Every Friday night. Don’t you know you are in high school football country?” Lucy grinned, “And we have a farm team now for the Rockies, one of the guys went to the all-stars for baseball last summer high school, that was a big day.” Lucy reminisced for a moment, before thinking of a few more things to correct him on.

“And we have bars, and honky-tonks.” In the city, she doubted that she’d have been allowed into any of the sorts of places that Ashton was talking about, there was the fact that she wasn’t old enough to legally drink yet. But here, that wasn’t such a big problem. Most people had known her all her life, and if she came in to put a few back with friends, there were plenty of eyes to make sure she didn’t get into too much trouble. However none of those eyes were here currently, and Lucy looked over at Ashton, sucking on her bottom lip so as not to give up the game when she felt his fingers slip along the edge of her panties under her shorts.

“You remember how many brothers I have, right?” She asked him, wickedness hadn’t left her eyes, but it was a bit of a show. His touch made her nervous, it was alright when she was in charge, but this wasn’t the ball in her court. Of course she still had a crush on him, but he'd been her first kiss, and she thought that maybe he'd be her first...something else. And the butterflies in her stomach were fluttering. “I have five and one isn’t even half a mile away.” Lucy had been sure of her teasing before, acting the part well enough, even enjoying it. But now she pressed her thighs together and looked out toward the road. As they came up on the house she shifted into park, with one more look and a smile Lucy slid toward her door and opened it to run around to the back of her truck. A few of the flowers had shifted a bit, but it wasn’t too hard to stand on the bumper and reach over to get one of the larger bunches to turn toward Ashton.

“Hey, think his one is big enough?” The dark haired girl beamed, holding the flowers out to him.

Ashton felt a bit frustrated to start off with, but then eased into just confusion. Maybe he underestimated the girl. In some ways she was the still the same cute little girl who let him steal a kiss under the mistletoe a few years ago. But she was definitely full grown woman with all the great features that come with that. Just a few minutes ago, she had pulled her breasts out to him getting ready to do God knows what to his junk. Now that he sneaks a finger into her shorts, she turns cold and shuts him down. He crossed a line, but what line exactly was still beyond him.

Some of that was pulled into perspective when the truck pulled up to the house. There it was, the home of his old friend, and the sharp reminded that he wasn’t just playing on a girl back home, but someone’s sister. The sister of a guy who was practically a brother of his.

Of course, that didn’t stop him from keeping it going.

“Hey, think this one is big enough?”

He took the plant from her and hung it at waist level. “I think this will do in a pinch. But I think you are only asking for an excuse to look at my crotch again.”

Just then a shout came from the house, “Ash!! It’s about time!”

He spun and saw his old roommate coming out of the house. With a grand smile he put the plate in one hand and moved quickly to meet up with him. “Ben,” he laughed, “Least thing you could have done was gotten married a little closer to home.”

“This is home, jackass,” he laughed, and the two embraced in a dude hug. “How’s the car?”

“Broke,” Ashton replied. “Looks like I blew a hose.”

“I don’t need to know about your dating life, Ash.”

“Fuck you,” he laughed.

“Lucy didn’t fix it for you?” Ben asked looking towards where his sister was hauling flowers up to the house.

“Nah, you know … she’s just a girl …” He gave Lucy a wink as he teased her.

“I think this will do in a pinch. But I think you are only asking for an excuse to look at my crotch again.”

“Maybe I am.” The brunette grinned down at Ashton when he lowered the stems toward the front of his pants, it made her laugh, but that was quickly quieted by her soon to be married brother as he bounded out of the house in such a way that a labrador retriever would have been proud of. The obvious love for Ashton was displayed with clasping his back, Lucy scooting around them to get to the front door herself to deposit her flowers in the house. But she heard her brother’s surprise that she hadn’t fixed the car for his friend, and Ashton’s rejoinder.

“A girl that could have repaired it if you hadn’t been so excited to help with the floral arrangements. He’s dying to do it. Told me himself.” Lucy fibbed, walking inside to place her blooms on the counter of the kitchen and she called for Ashton. “Go get your bag I’ll show you to your room!”

That was the best part of coming home to their sprawling ranch, here there was room to spare, literally, ten in the main house, with a guest home build not too far down the road, not to mention the ranch hand’s quarters. Lucy was sauntering back to her truck, meeting with Ashton again when she took more flowers.

“You have the room next to mine.” She whispered “But, also next to Benny’s, so don’t go mixing up those doors, I don’t think his fiancée would like it.” The words were murmured near his ear as she walked. “We’re going to have to share a shower, but maybe not alone?” Lucy walked to the back of the house, after handing over her burden, reaching for the handle of the door she turned it to show him a lightly furnished room, clean and with just a few knickknacks.

“This one is yours, you going to freshen up before dinner?” That was a casual attempt at small talk before she pushed Ashton a little into his room so she could join him, with a smothered giggle.

Going the through house put Ashton a little in his place. Lucy was right, complete Wedding crazy place. No sooner did he say hello to Ben, he was pulled into something by an aunt or a cousin or some random woman from off the street that needed to know something about ham sandwiches. There was a growing buzz of conversations, preparations, and random nonsence. Getting to the back corner of the house began to be a welcome relief.

As she pointed out the rooms, Ashton couldn’t help but to smirk thinking about how close he would be to the girl. Just as much to how she was so quick to point out how close they would be. Lucy seemed to be part flirt, part sexy beast, but part good girl. While it was confusing, it was also exciting. In a way, it became as much of a game as anything.

“Boy, I think I can these rooms apart,” he replied to the little tour. “Don’t go into the one that smells like Ben’s ass. Don’t go in the one that has the dollys and pretty pretty princess toys. Just go into the one that screams ‘guest bedroom’.” He skipped over alluding to the shower situation, if only to not recognize the elephant in the room (or the eager one in his pants); but wandered into his assigned bed and dropped his bag.

”... you going to freshen up before dinner?”

“Yeah,” agreed while looking around the space. “Think either I need to wash off the road, or take a cold shower for some strange reason.” With the last bit he looked over his shoulder at her with a smirk. “Feel free to watch if you want, I have awesome lather rinse repeat technique.”

Lucy couldn’t stop that bubbling of laughter that came on the tail end of Ashton’s comment about the rooms. Her white teeth flashing with amusement, a hand reaching out to push at his shoulder playfully.

“I do not have dolls. And the toys I have in there certainly aren’t for princesses…” The door was still open, they were inches away and yet, they may as well have been miles. Still, her fingers itched to touch him again. He excited her, made her heart beat faster and had her blood singing. But instead, she pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, thinking a little on what exactly she did have in her room, and how exactly it could be used between them. The image of Ashton’s hand creeping along her inner thigh, dipping into her shorts and touching the edge of panties was such a strong one that she almost had to shake her head to knock it loose before that became the imagine that made her turn to her toys.

“Think either I need to wash off the road, or take a cold shower for some strange reason.”

He had turned away from her to venture about the small space, so when he looked over his shoulder she had already crossed her arms under her breasts, cocking out her hip to the side.

“How long has it been?” She’d heard Ben and Ashton’s conversation in front of the house. “I mean, I think I should know if you’re going to be splashing dust across my chin.” There was no way to keep a straight face as she nudged the door to close a bit with the toe of her boot. Lucy moved so she was standing next to him again.

“Feel free to watch if you want, I have awesome lather rinse repeat technique.”

She pressed her lips together to suppress another laugh, but her eyes danced with amusement, crinkling a little at the side, and she prodded him with her elbow.

“I may just have to do that. I think mine needs a little refining.” Lucy played the game, her back to the door and looking out the window at all of her father’s land, flat until grass hit mountains in the distance. “I told Benny I’d keep you occupied. Apparently, there was a girl who broke your heart a bit, he doesn’t want you to be uncomfortable.” Her dark eyebrow quirked in his direction, punctuating her unsaid question, wondering if he was still hung up on her. Though he’d not shown her much remorse when she’d been urging him to take his dick out so she could suck it.

“Want me to take you riding tomorrow?” The murmur of it was sultry, something sinful and dark like chocolate, looking up at the man with her from under her lashes. “I do mean horses, but not just the horses.”

Ashton liked the closeness of the girl after she closed the distance between them, enjoyed letting her her talk as he dug some of his shower stuff out of his bag and hung his clothes, and loved the play she was giving him. So much to file away in the never ending rolodex of picking points for the girl. He was just about to serve back on when the time comes.

Then somewhere between the half ton to quarter ton of bricks fell, and they were joined by the perverbial elephant in the room.

“I told Benny I’d keep you occupied. Apparently, there was a girl who broke your heart a bit … Then the rest of it seemed to wash away.

Ben is a great friend, at one time none was closer to him. Growing out of the ‘mandatory roommate selection’ phase of their college lives hasn’t meant that they had lost touch. They were still close enough that they could see how the footsteps left behind by their emotional ghosts could rise up behind them. Ashton met Simone when he & Ben were wrecking hearts as a team; so Ben knew her well enough. He knew Ash well enough that when he said he would come to the wedding alone that a long conversation grew from there. They danced around the topic, Ash felt he ensured that the topic would be dead by the time he arrived in Wyoming. Ben seemingly knew what tattered pieces of Simone would likely drive into town with him.

Whether or not Ben knew that Lucy was a pathway out of Simone’s shadow was questionable at best. Sure, he could use some company, and Lucy sure didn’t seem to have suggested that she would have a date for the wedding herself. But the weekend of a wedding was no time for this deep of a discussion with the groom on matters that had nothing to do with his big day.

Ash finally responded to Lucy, and did the best to deflect as he did with nearly everyone who asked. “Benny probably meant Simone. Or has he called her, ‘Bitchy Bitchy Bitchy Simone.’” The name rattled off in quick fire. “Yeah, we broke up a few months back. Got Ben all twisted up why my RSVP didn’t say I’d have a ‘plus one’. You know how it goes.”

Even Ashton wasn’t convinced by his response. So he tried to move quickly on.

“But yeah … it be kinda cool to go riding. Don’t think I ever ridden high in the saddle before. At least not on a horse. Just as long as we keep it slow, because I hear going too fast will lead to chafing.” With a smirk trying to make sure that they were back on more playful terms, “and that would make playing with your princess toys painful, I suspect.”

Lucy’s features softened from her intentionally teasing him, when she asked him why her brother was so concerned that Lucy keep him company while he was in town. They were best friends and Lucy hadn’t really asked much when Ben had made the request, after all she’d been wanting to show Ashton how grown up she’d gotten since he’d slipped her his tongue in the barn way back during her first kiss. But she paused now, giving him a half smile when he answered her.

“Benny probably meant Simone. Or has he called her, ‘Bitchy Bitchy Bitchy Simone.’ Yeah, we broke up a few months back. Got Ben all twisted up why my RSVP didn’t say I’d have a ‘plus one’. You know how it goes.”

“Ah.” Lucy didn’t quite know what to say to that. She’d asked so she supposed it was her fault that she was bringing up terrible memories for him, and it made her feel bad that it seemed like he was trying to insist that he was over it, but her brother had tried to take the sting out of not having a plus one.

“So, are you going to ask me if I’ll be your plus one?” The brunette tried not to sound over-eager, said it with a grin, something to put them back on even footing. “You can fetch a few drinks for me because the heels the bride picked out would probably be better for hookers than bridesmaids. You may have to carry me around by the end of the night though, fair warning.”

“But yeah … it be kinda cool to go riding. Don’t think I ever ridden high in the saddle before. At least not on a horse. Just as long as we keep it slow, because I hear going too fast will lead to chafing. and that would make playing with your princess toys painful, I suspect.”

She laughed, she couldn’t help it. Her eyes twinkling at him as she tried to stifle the sound from behind her hand. “God, you are really a good Samaritan, looking out for your fellow human beings without a care for your own well-being.” She laid the sarcasm on thickly with a grin, giving his shoulder a bit of a push. “Go take your shower, I’m going to go check and make sure my toys are in working order.” She threw him wink and walked to the door, unfortunately it wasn’t to do just that.

Lucy had work to do with so many people in the house. Of course, there was helping in the kitchen with her mother and her sister in laws, and one soon to be. There was roping off one of the main bathrooms to put the flowers in there, keeping it cool enough that the blooms wouldn’t wilt too soon. The men of the house were setting up the tents outside, they’d have one more full day to get ready for the wedding, preparing the tents and strapping them down now would cut the time tomorrow that they’d have to set up the chairs and tables and all sorts of accoutrements that the bride had dreamed of all of her life.

But Lucy had plans other than washing dishes when it came time to do it. She’d sat next to Ashton at the table, enjoying the conversation that bubbled around her, between her brothers and the visiting man. However, she’d murmured that they should try and get to the barn tonight to check on the horses for the morning. Under the guise of brushing them down. And while she waited for her partner to show she sat down on one of the hay stacks, putting her boot up on the fencing trying to look enticing, and shifting again, wondering if she didn’t want to be too obvious. While she considered this one of the barn cats came to see what she was up to, and she was scratching the scraggly thing when a shadow stretched across the floor in the lamp light.

“Hi.” Lucy smiled, forgetting about any of the poses she’d been thinking about, brushing at her backside and her thighs to ride herself of any lingering hay.

“For a city boy, you can hold your own with a house full of cowboys.” It was a sort of backhanded compliment, and she gave him a smile. “Do you own a pair of boots? How are you going to keep yourself in the saddle if you don’t?” Dark eyebrows arched themselves over tanned skin. “Think we should practice before tomorrow?”

Dinner should have put him in his place, and in someway it did. Fresh and clean, feeling more normal from all that travel, he sat down around a table of good people sharing stories, laughs, and joy. Most of the jokes were at the expense of Ben, which he should get since he was the whole reason everyone was here. But like any good loving family, everyone got picked on at some point. Lucy wasn’t given any slack, even if she was the girl amongst brothers. But this is what brought Ashton back to a clear realization what he was messing around with. Grown woman, yes, but only just - and everyone in her family still saw her as that little girl they all had to protect. And here comes this City boy, holding his own just because they saw him as a friend … something that could change if he threatened that little girl.

To restate, though, she was a grown woman. That’s what he told himself when she suggested checking on the horses. That’s what he told himself as he approached the barn. Yet he took a moment to check himself before going in. He paced outside of the barn for a little bit, trying to convince himself to leave the girl alone … grown woman alone.

That’s when something caught his eye. Through a window, he could see Lucy on a hay bail. She sat there looking as though she was waiting for someone … well … him. She would put her leg up on a fence, and pose in something right out a glamor mag. Then she shifted again, trying a different look. Then tried again. It was sexy, not in a way that she would pull off that sophisticated sexiness of pictures and movies - more sexy in a way that her trying so hard made him feel wanted. That’s when the last of his resistance melted.

He walked into the barn, and she seemed to jump to clean the hay from her.

“For a city boy, you can hold your own with a house full of cowboys. Do you own a pair of boots?”

Ash laughed and shook his head. “I am sure I can borrow some, and if not I have a nice pair of italian loafers that have to be just as good.”

“How are you going to keep yourself in the saddle if you don’t? Think we should practice before tomorrow?”

He walked across the space until he stood directly in front of her. His hands extended and cupped her hips. “Practice?” he mocked. “I would think we would be ready to just go fully in without anymore practice. But if you think we need to just practice …” He looked down and noticed a stray piece of straw she missed. It hung on her hip, just at the line where her leg ended and her mons began. .Unapologetically, he grasped the straw and let his fingers linger there so close to her most intimate before tossing it aside and refinding her hip, “... we can just practice.”