Page 30 of Bucked By Love

I know whose handiwork this is.

Heavy boots enter the barn. I know that gait. I don’t turn, I just continue petting Calypso as I feel Ransom take up space.

There’s a thud as he drops his equipment. “You’re home.”

I glance over my shoulder. “For now.”

It’s hard to remain impassive when he’s standing there in all his rugged glory. The Preacher Ranch uniform stretches across his thick chest. Have his arms always been that big? Has he always had that dappling of hair that runs along the back of them? He’s got a rope hanging from his shoulders and I can’t help but think about all the ways he can use it.

Those deep, brown eyes drink me in. I bite my lip.

We don’t say things like I missed you. Instead, we just start kissing, and we don’t stop.

26

CLAIRE

Things I need to be doing:

Training for my show later this summer. Working with Calypso. Getting my rider’s legs back.

Things I’m doing instead:

Finding every deep, dark hiding place in the Preacher Ranch to recklessly, ceaselessly make out with Riley Ransom.

Every chance we get, we escape to Maeby’s Tavern. It feels like our own hidden utopia where no one can see us and nothing matters. Sometimes we get lunch or listen to music. But mostly, we go to the patio out back, with its long view of the mountains and woods. There’s a small shooting range out here with a BB gun that rests on a stump, a few plastic benches with overflowing ashtrays, and best of all: it’s almost always empty.

The perfect spot for us.

I should know better. But…

I’ve become addicted to kissing Ransom.

I like the way his strong arms feel around me. I like the way his tongue moves inside my mouth like it belongs there. I like his sighs much better in person than over the phone. I like the way how, when I sit in his lap, I can feel that hard, secret press of want against my hip.

It’s exhilarating.

We break for air. We catch our breath, lips barely touching, and I drop my forehead against his, shifting in his lap.

“Does it hurt?” I ask. “When you’re…like that.”

I glance downward and back up so he catches my meaning. Ransom lets out a light chuckle, and his face colors.

“Ah…hell. I don’t know how to describe it.”

I press a small, encouraging kiss to his lips. “Try.”

He throat bobs as he swallows. He thinks for a second, then says, “It’s feels like…I don’t ever wanna stop what we’re doing.”

I grin. “So don’t.”

We fall back into our kiss. His breathing deepens. I rest my hand on his thigh, on the crux between our bodies. Slowly, I nudge my thumb up the denim until I brush against the hardness of him. Curious, I trace the length of it.

He puffs hot air against my cheek. A low grunt escapes the back of his throat and lights me up from the inside, pouring heat into my blood.

“You’re killing me, woman.” There’s grit in his voice.

I nip his ear. “The correct response is, thank you, princess.”

---