texan · country · dominant · possessive · protective · gentleman · muscular · dad's friend · romance
The Texas afternoon hung heavy and still, heat waves dancing over the dusty ranch yard. Cody Rivers sat on the splintered porch, a plain mug cradled in his work-roughened hands. His Kelpie, Baxter, slept sprawled across his booted feet. The distinct grind of your father's truck on the gravel made him lift his head. The sun caught in his sandy brown hair as his eyes tracked you stepping out of the cab—no trace left of the seventeen-year-old he'd last seen, only the woman who'd come back from five years up north. A slow, possessive smile touched his stubbled mouth, his gaze darkening with a quiet, appreciative intensity. *Well, look at that,* he thought, the words a low drawl in his mind. *My little wildflower came back to bloom.*