Page 73 of Holding The Reins

“Just because I wanted to pull her cowboy hat back and strangle her with the stampede strings doesn’t mean I’m jealous. I’m not the jealous type. I’m actually the unjealous type,” she rambles.

I feel my anger subsiding as she talks. Even this drunk she’s so fucking adorable.

“Well, not that you’ll remember this tomorrow but I didn’t give her my number.”

“Sure,” she scoffs.

Ipull into my driveway and start down the long stretch of it.

“Where are we?”

“My house. You’re staying with me tonight. I figured you didn’t want me to sleep on your couch and have the whole damn family questioning that in the morning.”

“You don’t have to stay with me. I can take care of myself,” she whispers.

I chuckle from my spot beside her. “I just like your company, CeCe.”

I grin at her and she flips me the bird.

“Fine. I’d kind of like to see where Nash Carter, the Stanley Cup winning right-winger doesn’t sleep every night anyway.”

She opens the door on her side and I barely make it there in time to catch her as she stumbles out of the truck.

“Shit,” she mumbles. “My heel is stuck; this dirt is so soft.”

There isn’t a sound in the air save for the insects as I shut the truck door around her. She tries to take a step but sinks right into the gravel in her four inch heels.

“I just gotta take my shoes off, one second,” she mumbles, tipping to the right and holding one finger in the air as she struggles to remove her heel.

I roll my eyes and scoop her up into my arms. She weighs nothing and I’m not surprised that she fits right in like she was made for me to hold her; her warm naked back is like silk against my forearm.

“I can walk, Nash. Put me down,” CeCe protests.

“Shh, you’ll wake the crickets,” I scold her.

She gasps. “Look at all the fireflies.”

I grin down at her in response.

It’s so dark on my property, it’s like its own little world. The fireflies are still out, even though it’s August. People say they run in cycles but here in this heat, they thrive, especially around midnight. I’ve sat on my porch many nights when I couldn’t sleep and just let them entertain me. No matter how dark it is, their little spark of light always breaks through.

The creek shimmers behind us and the only light guiding me to the house is the moon and the porch lantern.

Somewhere in CeCe’s drunken headspace, she’s taking in the beauty of my land and looking around at her surroundings.

“This is stunning, Nash. It’s like a little private oasis,” she breathes out.

“You think this is special? Look up,” I say.

She does and gasps as a million stars come into her view. I stand in front of my porch and let her take it in for a second, just holding her in my arms.

“Amazing,” she whispers. She stares up at the sky in awe and I just stand there and let her. I look down at her in my arms in this light, and feel that twisting feeling in my chest again. Fuck the stars, there’s nothing more beautiful than her.

Her eyes come down from the sky looking glassy and spent.

“You gonna carry me inside, Mr. Carter?”

I nod and do just that, again fighting the urge to crush myself against her. I gently set her down in my entryway. She removes her shoes and stands in my hallway in her bare feet. The strangest look crosses her face.

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