Page 31 of A Forever Kind of Rancher

And all those things combined to make her feel free.

And she knew what she wanted to do with that freedom.

Nothing was holding her back.

And for the first time, she reached out and she touched Boone Carson.

Chapter Five

Wendy’s hand on his chest was so much more erotic than anything he ever could’ve imagined. His heart was pounding so hard he thought it was going to go straight on through his rib cage. And then she would be able to hold it in her delicate hand, and that would seem about right. That would seem like the appropriate fee for this gift. This gift of her delicate hand against his body.

They had been foolish to think it wasn’t going to end here.

Maybe they had needed to be that foolish, for a time.

God knew he had.

He had needed to construct a ladder made of lies so they could climb up to this moment.

Because the truth would’ve sent them both turning away.

Thank God for the lies that had brought them here.

He wanted to savor the moment.

This moment before. When it was like storm clouds were all gathered up ahead, swollen with the promise of rain, but not a single drop had fallen. Where the air had changed to something thicker, more meaningful. Thick with promise.

The promise of her mouth on his.

In only a few moments he would taste her. And when he did, he was going to part her lips, slide his tongue in deep.

But he hadn’t yet.

And it was the promise that kept him poised on the edge of a knife. That kept him on high alert. The promise of strawberries, the forbidden, and the need that had been building in him for fifteen years.

He was in no rush for the first raindrop to fall.

He could live in this moment forever.

Except then her touch shifted. Except then, she moved her hand up to curve around the back of his neck, the touch erotic, purposeful. Glorious. And the minute her fingertips made contact with bare skin, it was too much. It was electric. And all his control snapped.

The rain began to fall.

He wrapped his arm around her waist and brought her hard against him so she could feel him. Feel his need. Feel the way his heart was beating almost out of his chest, feel how his cock had gotten hard.

For her. His breathing was ragged, pained. And he knew she could hear that, feel that. The way his chest hitched, the way his breath tried to cut his throat on each and every exhale.

She swallowed hard, and brought her hand around just beneath his jaw, traced it, down to the center of his chin.

“Wendy,” he whispered.

She licked her lips, and that was it. He lowered his head and brought his mouth down onto hers.

The impact of her mouth under his was shocking. He had kissed any number of women. More than he could count. Innumerable.

But that had never been this.

No woman’s mouth had ever been this.

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