Cowboy, Stay with Me

Chapter Thirty-Three: Claimed by the Cowboy

Lucy was doing her level best to purely ignore Sean Kallaghan's existence for the rest of the night. Which, of course, was impossible to do.

Avoiding him in the crowd was one thing, resisting the compulsion to glance over at him every now and then was entirely another.

Every time she did glance at him, she regretted it.

It seemed that every time she looked over, he was flirting with some other girl. She supposed that she was just being paranoid, but she couldn't stem back the rise of jealousy fast enough.

Only one singular thought pulsed through her being.

He was hers!

###

Lucy was standing with Heather and Susan, chatting about how well the festival was going. Most people were taking a brief intermission from corn shucking.

Suddenly their attention was diverted as someone let out a great triumphant whoop that could be heard all over the arena.

They looked over to see Jake, holding the wild ear of corn high.

###

Lucy felt as if she was watching the event from outside of her own body.

Jake met her eyes, looking directly at her; choosing her.

With a grin of victory on his face, he began confidently striding towards her.

Her breath caught in her throat and she was strangely frozen in place.

Jake was about to reach her and kiss her, she knew he was, there was nothing stopping him from doing so and everyone was laughing about it.

Suddenly Lucy's heart was hitching painfully in her chest and she found that she wasn't having fun anymore.

Just as Jake was about to reach her and pull her into his arms, Sean came out of nowhere and sucker-punched Jake square on the jaw.

###

"Sean!" Lucy shouted in admonishment, even while she felt simultaneously relieved to not have Jake kissing her.

Jake stumbled backwards, but soon oriented himself again. Straightening up, for once Jake wasn't wearing his signature happy-go-lucky expression. He looked downright mad, in fact.

"What the hell is your problem, man?!" He grunted, rubbing his jaw and working it back and forth experimentally. "It's a game; I won the game!"

"I know you did." Sean growled. He had planted himself firmly between Lucy and Jake with his back to her. "I know what a corn shucking festival is. Congratulations for winning, but I'm not gonna let you kiss my woman and that's final. Go choose somebody else."

Lucy firmly stepped around Sean to glare up at the man himself. "You have no right to be here or to do this to me. I can kiss who I like."

Jake brightened with hope, even though his jaw was swelling up as they spoke.

Sean studied Lucy's eyes with a surprisingly calm expression on his face for someone who was going around punching people at local festivals.

Suffice to say that Lucy and Sean held the entire arena their captive audience.

"Good." He said in a low voice. He reached out and lightly cupped the side of her neck. He dragged her gently into his arms, ever so carefully dipping her back. "I'm the only one you should be kissing." He told her before he covered her mouth with his.

###

The whole world faded away into muted bliss as he held her.

She had missed him so much; she only even realized how much as her body responded to his in that moment. He was the father of her unborn children, after all.

~  ~  ~