Page 206 of Hold Me Until Morning

“I wanted to tell you goodbye.” It was coarse coming from his tongue.

He was so handsome it was hard for her to speak. “Are you done for the day?”

Mirthless laughter rolled from his throat, and he shoved his hands into his jeans’ pockets. “No. I’m done here, Hailey. With the job. With the ranch.”

Anguish jumped into her consciousness.

Sharp and gutting.

That tightening in her chest twined so tight she felt a piece of herself break.

“Oh.” Her teeth clamped down on her bottom lip as she fought the moisture that instantly burned at the back of her eyes and raced the length of her trembling throat.

“Fuck,” Cody grunted when he saw what was so clearly written on her face. She couldn’t hide it. Not right then.

He crossed the three feet that were separating them, and one of those big hands she’d been dreaming about came to her face. He cupped her cheek, his thumb stroking along the hollow of her eye. “Don’t cry, darlin’. It fuckin’ kills me to see you sad.”

She shouldn’t be.

She had no right to be.

Sad.

But she tasted that sorrow like a bitter pill.

A tear streaked free, and the words were dropping without her permission. “I don’t want you to go.”

An emotion passed across his face that she couldn’t discern. “I don’t want to go, either.”

Hailey got brave, and the brush in her hand dropped to the ground as she curled both hands into his tee. “Then stay.”

His forehead dropped to hers. Pain poured from his being. She’d gotten good at reading him. When he was torn or sad or struggling. And he was struggling right then.

Just as she had been since the moment that she’d first seen him standing across that field.

Struggling with what she felt.

His aura was all around her.

Spice and cedar and earth.

She wanted to slip into it. Disappear. Give herself over to something that called to her like she’d been missing a piece of her soul and it had finally found its way back to her.

Insane since this man could never belong to her.

He shifted a fraction.

Their mouths were so close to touching.

His breaths pulled into her lungs the same as hers were given to him.

A war went down in his eyes, and his hand curled tighter on her cheek when she whispered, “Cody.”

“I can’t do this, Hailey.”

She was jarred back when he suddenly pulled away with an agonized groan, and the man turned and stormed out without giving her an explanation.

Shaken, Hailey watched him go, that piece of her she was just recognizing splitting in two.

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