Cocky: A Cowboy Stepbrother Romance by Kaylee Kazarian Page A

breeze, as I stomped down the back steps into the night. A vicious little thrill ran through me at the way they creaked in protest from the heaviness of my footfalls. Or maybe that feeling in the pit of my stomach had more to do with Jay than with getting away from his mother’s stifling gaze.
     
    Here she was calling me a boy, and I’d gone so far as to wear a sundress and a little makeup to the party for Jay. I wasn’t really the type to dress up. I had always been one of the boys, more willing to go play in the dirt than to sit around and get my nails painted.
     
    But this was a special occasion. With both of us grown up and out in the world, I didn’t get to see Jay much anymore. Knowing that his birthday party was coming up, I’d started daydreaming about what I would do when I saw him again.
     
    Those daydreams ranged from things as simple as leaning in to give him a hug and savoring the smell of his aftershave, to far more complicated fantasies that left me with an ache inside of me that touching myself in the bathtub couldn’t satisfy.
     
    But the one thing that all of those fantasies had in common was me wearing some pretty little dress and drawing his attention away from everyone else. I must have spent hours in the department store, trying on every dress they had in my size. Nothing was right. It was either too frumpy, or too slinky, or too…something. I knew what I wanted, and it wasn’t sitting on any rack.
     
    It was sitting in the back of my closet, though. Pressed and dry-cleaned and still beneath that plastic bag where I’d put it after Jay’s graduation. I had come to think of it as ‘his’ dress, and when I’d pulled it over my head and stood in front of the mirror in my bedroom, I’d known that this was exactly what I was looking for.
     
    It made me feel tingly, like I was doing something forbidden, wearing something just for Jay. I knew that even if nothing came out of wearing it, I’d still enjoy myself. It wasn’t much, just a white dress patterned with little yellow flowers and some lip gloss, but it felt like a big deal to me.
     
    And if the look Jay had been giving me from across the room was anything to go by, it was a big deal to him too. I could still feel it, like a brand against the hollow of my throat, the way he looked at me.
     
    Jay had been tall and lanky when I’d first met him, all knees and elbows. But at eighteen, I hadn’t really thought he’d grow out of it. He was supposed to be grown by then anyway, wasn’t he? An adult. Yet Jay had done like he always did and gone against the grain.
     
    At twenty-five, he had filled out considerably, with biceps that looked like they were carved from stone, and washboard abs that could make a nun’s mouth water. With a dagger tattooed over his heart and a skull tattooed on his neck, Jay cut an impressive figure. He was one of those guys who didn’t care what you thought about him, and that confidence showed in everything he did.
     
    “Callie. Wait up. Girl, wait up!” I could hear the honeyed drawl rise up in agitation as Jay took the steps two at a time behind me, but I kept going, hurrying across the yard. I wasn’t really all that surprised at the howling of the hinges as the screen door slammed shut. Jay had always tried to act as a buffer between me and his mother.
     
    For as big and intimidating as he was, Jay was a big old softie at heart. At least when it came to me. An older stepbrother wasn’t something I’d ever wanted, but it was something I truly enjoyed having. It was hard to be scared of the world when you had a big, strong shadow.
     
    I didn’t want to stop. Because if I turned around, I knew Jay would talk me into going back inside. He always had a knack for talking me into things, no matter how many good reasons I had before the conversation started. So I kept walking. Right along into the barn with hurried footfalls until I could start climbing the ladder to the loft. I could still hear Jay