Page 173 of Ride a Cowboy

“Were you sad?”

He tilted his head. “Probably. For a little while. She was a nice girl. We got along. It just wasn’t our time.”

“What about now? There’s nothing stopping you from going home and contacting her.” Sienna cursed herself for the suggestion. She hated the thought of him leaving Compton Pass.

He reached over with his free hand, lifting her leg to place it over one of his. She should have protested. She was too open, unable to squeeze her legs together for that tiny bit of relief.

“She got married about a year ago, around the same time as my accident. I’d actually planned to go home for the wedding, but life got in the way again.”

He’d kept his hand on her knee, but as he spoke, it drifted higher on her thigh. What the hell was he going to do? She’d foolishly worn jeans. Tight jeans. From now on, it was nothing but skirts for her.

“So the two of you are still friends?”

He nodded. “I guess you could say that. Couple emails a year, occasional phone call to catch up. That’s it. I haven’t seen her since the day I hopped on the plane and headed to Denver seven years ago.”

She turned her head to glance around the crowded bar. While the booth was secluded, there was no hiding the fact that she was practically sitting in Daniel’s lap.

“Look at me, See.”

Her gaze returned to his handsome face. Sometimes at night, when he slept, she’d study his features, trying to figure out what it was that made him so fucking hot. There was a slight crook in his nose that indicated it had been broken once. Hell, maybe more than once. There was a razor-thin scar above his left eyebrow. His jaw was chiseled to the extent that it was almost too sharp, too pointed. His beard grew fast. Though she knew he shaved every morning, right now, his five-o’clock shadow was thick and black. And his eyes were dark, so dark she sometimes struggled to find his pupils amidst the deep brown.

Yet, somehow, when all those features were put together, the result was Daniel. And he—quite simply—took her breath away.

He was ready to leave, anxious to drag them out of here, to find somewhere private. She could see it in his eyes. It was hunger. Pure and simple.

“Is there anything else you would like to know?”

Unfortunately, there was. While she wanted nothing more than to escape to the Neverland of his bed, to shut out the world for another night, there was still one question burning in her mind. “Why hasn’t there been anyone else?”

“Time has a funny habit of creeping away. I’ve spent years, traveling around, never finding a place to put down roots. To try my hand at a real relationship.”

It was ironic when she considered it. Sienna had never wanted to be anything other than an adult. She’d tried to escape all the childish things in her rush to be settled. All of her attempts had failed. She was as inexperienced as Daniel. “Now that I think of it, I’ve never tried that mature relationship thing either.”

He tilted his head, studied her face for just a moment. “No,” he said at last. “I don’t think you have.”

His hand stopped moving on her leg, the conversation distracting them both. She was tired of games. Sick of pretending.

“I hear there’s a New Year’s Dance at the fire hall.”

Sienna nodded, surprised by Daniel’s abrupt change of subject. “Yeah. Vivi and Mom are on the planning committee. It’s all they talk about these days.”

“Go with me.” It was so like him. He never asked. Just demanded. She told herself she only let him get away with his imperiousness in the bedroom because it turned her on. Truth was it was fucking hot everywhere.

Still, she didn’t believe in making things too easy. “Is that a request?”

He shook his head. “No. I’m not taking a chance that you’ll refuse.”

She laughed. “So what is this? A date?”

“Yeah, Sienna. A date. I’d like to go out with you.”

Her heart pounded hard at his request as a tiny nugget of fear crept in. Dating wasn’t part of this. She was supposed to be going with the flow, not making more of those cursed future plans. Hell, she hadn’t fully shed the last boyfriend. Was she really ready to invite a new guy into her fucked-up life?

“When’s the last time you had a quickie in the front seat of a truck?”

Sienna laughed at his unexpected question. He always knew how to take her off-guard, surprise her. “Um. Never?”

Daniel reared back. “Seriously?”

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