Page 30 of Snowed In with the Rancher

She blinked at him when he stood again. “Um … thank you.”

He nodded.

She pulled up her panties and jeans, tucking her gorgeous hair behind her ear. Her eyes were bright and her lips gorgeously puffy. Tilting her eyes to him, she smiled. “So …”

“I …”

“No, let me speak … please.”

He nodded. Was she going to say this was a mistake? Worry blazed an ice-cold trail through him.

“So … um … I’m going to eat my oatmeal and drink my coffee, then we’re going to do that again. And again. And again. Is that okay?”

All he could do was nod, but his smile nearly broke his damn face.

Chapter Eleven

“This is amazing …” Triss sighed, settling back against Asher’s chest in the hot tub later that night.

They’d done just as she’d said. She finished her oatmeal and coffee, then he took her again in the barn, this time face-to-face and up against the wall before they ran to the house and jumped into his bed. Which was where they stayed for several hours.

But eventually, she needed to shower, they needed to eat and so did the animals.

He said she didn’t have to come back out to the barn, but she was already extremely attached to the animals, so of course she’d want to visit Tilly and Carolina. And then of course, Macklin got jealous and started stomping his hoof when he knew she was in the barn and not showering him with affection. So she had to give him a solid twenty minutes of scratches and love. Not that she was complaining.

Asher made a sexy rumbly groan sound behind her and offered her the joint between his fingers. “Do you smoke?”

“Haven’t in ages,” she said, accepting it from him and putting it to her lips. She inhaled deep, held it in her lungs for several long seconds, then released it. She coughed a few times because her lungs weren’t used to the smoke, but the almost instant peace and calm that seeped through her was decadent.

They were naked in the tub and how Asher could be hard again after how many rounds they’d gone that day already was a mystery to her, but not one she cared to uncover. The fact that he could do it was all that mattered.

Wiggling in his lap, she giggled when he growled and nipped her shoulder. “Careful,” he said, taking the joint from her and putting it between his lips. “Start something and you’ll have to finish it.”

“Is that a threat or a promise?”

He passed her back the joint, then grabbed the lowball of whiskey from the deck behind him and sipped. “It’s an absolute. You make it hard, it’s yours to take care of.”

“Have I neglected it so far?” She blew out a cloud of smoke, then put the joint back to her lips for another hit.

“No.” His cock twitched beneath her and she laughed. “Just letting you know the rules.” He accepted the joint back and took a hit.

Closing her eyes, she settled deeper into his solid frame, his dog tags rested against his chest and brushed against her ear. She reached up with the hand she’d let be in the water and touched them. “I won’t pry any further than this, but who did you serve with?”

“Navy,” he said gruffly. “Special forces. Nate and I were SEALs.”

“Oh. Thank you for answering.”

He grunted and his free hand came up from where it’d rested on her thigh and he cupped her breasts, rolling the nipple around between his fingers and making her moan. “You wanna talk about the breakup with that tool?”

“Not really.” He didn’t seem like the kind of guy who would want to talk about that kind of stuff anyway, so the fact that he asked struck her as strange. But maybe he was trying. She had to give him credit for even bringing it up. The fact that they’d had sex in a dozen positions and he’d spent the better part of the afternoon with his face between her legs, didn’t take away from the fact that they hardly knew each other.

He didn’t have to be her sounding board.

He grunted again. “You’re better off. Guy was an idiot.”

She smiled into the dark. “Be that as it may, I don’t think I’m upset about losing Lorne so much as I’m upset over the fact that I wasted three years of my life with him. Three years of my life where I could have been looking for or with someone else. Someone I’m supposed to be with. My eggs aren’t getting any fresher if you know what I mean? I wasted three very viable egg-laying years with him.”

“Are you a chicken? Have I been having sex with a chicken all day?”

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