Page 53 of Cowboy Don't Go

He seemed taken aback by her comment. “Thanks. I did most of it. It needed freshening up after all those years. The guy who was renting it wasn’t much in the way of housekeeping, but I enjoyed working on it before my father came home. Pulling it into the twenty-first century.”

“Who knew you had interior designer instincts lurking behind those green eyes of yours.”

He laughed, pulling a jacket from the front hall closet before ushering her into his father’s room. “I wouldn’t go that far and never let your brothers hear you say that. I’d get kicked out of the cowboy union.”

“Oh, I doubt that.” She scanned Ray’s bedroom with its big bed and cozy bedding. A wall of blue cupboards that looked newly built stretched across one wall with a wall-mounted TV in the center. “Where’d you learn to do all this anyway? Surely not on that ranch you worked at?”

He pulled a handful of shirts from his father’s closet. “Let’s just say I had a lot of spare time on my hands when I wasn’t working horses. During the pandemic, I got sucked in by a home repair website and had a lot of the renovations clear in my head before I even got here.” He shrugged. “Filled the hours.”

She tilted a look at him. “Lonely hours?” She almost bit her tongue for asking such a personal question. He met her gaze with brief uncertainty. “Sorry, none of my business.”

“Truth?” he answered, dumping the shirts onto the pile he’d laid on the bed. “Yeah. There were lots of those. I wasn’t in a place to date, really. So, I kept to myself. By choice. And besides, I had this secret crush that I, honestly, never intended to act on.”

Shay felt her face get warm. “Oh?”

“Yeah. See, there was this girl, back here in Marietta . . . you wouldn’t know her. I almost didn’t recognize her.”

Her heart fell. “Oh.”

“She was kind of out of my league, and she didn’t have any idea about this crush of mine. Mostly because I never told her. But once I came back here, she’d made it pretty clear she wanted nothing to do with me.”

She grinned, realizing he was talking about her. She opened her mouth to disagree but he went on.

“Then, you know, things happened.” He moved closer, sidling up to her until his hips were touching hers and his fingers slipped around either side of her jaw. “And she kissed me up in the mountains and I thought maybe there’s hope after all.”

His mouth hovered above hers for a moment before he kissed her, lightly. Just long enough to start heat curling in her belly. “I wish…I wish you’d said something. All those years ago.”

His lips just brushed against hers again. So soft it was like a whisper that made her crave something . . . louder.

“Maybe,” he said against her cheek, “it wasn’t the right time for us, then. But now—” He kissed the side of her neck, instigating a flash of heat inside her that threatened to explode into a full-blown torch.

She tipped her head back, giving him better access. “Now?”

“Now, it’s up to you.” He ran his teeth along her neck, nibbling her there before turning his attention to her mouth. “You decide if you’re ready for this.”

This? As if she wasn’t sure exactly what he meant.

With her good hand, she dragged his hand down from her shoulder to her breast and lower, against her belly until it found its destination between her legs. “Ahh, yes,” she whispered.

A sound—a groan—escaped him as he cupped her there.

“Yes,” she breathed again against his ear.

A shiver ran through him that he couldn’t disguise. He claimed her mouth then, fully, without holding back, as if he could devour her and gladly allow her to do the same to him. Not the tender, curious kiss they’d shared before. No, this one was hungry and unapologetic.

Without lifting his mouth from hers, he walked her back until her knees collided with the bed, then fell with her against the soft mattress, catching his weight before he crushed her there.

She wasn’t even afraid of that. It felt divine, his weight against her. To be held so completely. She wrapped her legs around his hips and drew him closer as they plundered one another’s mouths, teeth scraping, tongues lashing in their almost frantic need to get closer still.

He tugged at the button on her jeans and undid the zipper and she fumbled one-handed with his as well. He tugged her jeans down over her hips, then dispensed with her lacy panties as well. The buttons on her blouse were next and he slid the fabric aside to access her breasts.

For a moment, he simply stared down at her breasts with a shaky breath. “Beautiful.” His thumb teased her nipple through the fabric of her bra.

“Take off your shirt,” she told him. “I want to see you, too.”

He obliged, ripping off two of his buttons when they wouldn’t budge.

A nervous laugh escaped her. “Now you’ve done it.”

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