Page 49 of The Cowboy’s Intriguing Love

“Ty?” She was afraid that he was going to pounce on them and let out a sigh of relief when he turned to look at her. As soon as his gaze met hers, he visibly relaxed.

He jerked his chin, indicating that she should go into her room. She tugged his sleeve again and only moved when he came with her.

Once they were inside, he closed the door, turned the deadbolt and put the bar over.

When he finally turned back to her, she couldn’t read his expression.

“Are you all right?”

He blew out a sigh. “Yeah, sorry about that.”

“About what? You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“No, but I almost did. Areyouall right? Did they scare you?”

She stared at him. She hadn’t been even a little bit afraid of them – how could she be with him there?

“Shit! I’m so sorry, Shay!Iscared you, didn’t I?”

“No! You didn’t scare me. I was a little bit worried about what might happen if you kicked the crap out of them, like you obviously wanted to, but I wasn’t scared of you.”

He blew out a big sigh. “Good.”

She went to him and slid her arms around his waist. “Relax. It was nothing, and now it’s over. You were going to tell me something before we came inside.”

He frowned, no doubt trying to remember what he’d been about to say. Then he smiled. “Oh yeah. You invited me in, and I wanted to be clear about something first.” He stepped away from her and looked around, as if only now realizing that he was in her room. “I … Jesus, I hope I don’t mess this up. Before I came to meet you, I made a deal with myself that no matter what happened, I wasn’t going to sleep with you this weekend. Shit, that sounds arrogant of me, doesn’t it? I had no idea if you’d even consider sleeping with me, I just wanted to give myself some ground rules.”

He gave her a rueful smile. “You have no idea how much I’m kicking myself over that right now, but … I don’t want to rush this, Shay. I … I don’t know where you stand on that kind of thing. You don’t seem like the kind of girl who’d sleep with a guy on a first date. But … well, this is going so much better than I hoped. To say that I’m attracted to you doesn’t even comeclose to describing how I feel. You seem like you think that I’m passable, too.”

She laughed. “You know that’s not true – passable? Ha! You know how I feel.”

“Yeah, and that’s why I wanted to spell it out. The attraction’s there. The chemistry’s there – in a big way. But I’m a man of my word – even when the only person I gave my word to is me. I’m not going to make a move on you, no matter how much I want to. And … I’d hate for you to think that it’s because I’m not interested – I am.”

He reached down and adjusted the front of his jeans. She couldn’t help watching – or noticing the sizable bulge that he was trying to accommodate.

“It’s going to kill me, but …”

“It might kill me, too, but I’m glad you spelled it out. You’re right. I’m not the kind of girl who’d sleep with a guy straight away. Although, I might just reconsider that if you asked.”

“Fuck!” He ran his hand over his face.

His pained expression made her laugh. “Seriously though, Ty. Hopefully, we’ll have more time together after this weekend – more chances. And I’m grateful you told me, because after things have gone so well, I think I would be wondering what I’d done wrong if you didn’t make a move.”

He nodded. “That’s what I figured. But we’ve promised each other we’ll be honest. So … now you know.” He chuckled. “You know that I’m a damn fool! And with that, do you still want to invite me in? Even though I’m already here?”

“I do. We can just hang out, right?”

He nodded, and she loved the way he smiled as he stalked toward her.

“What?” she asked. “What’s that look for?”

He chuckled as he cupped her face between his hands. “Just because I’m not going to try to get in your pants yet, doesn’t mean that I can’t …”

He claimed her mouth in a kiss that left her breathless. He slid one hand into her hair and the other down her back until he was holding her ass. She looped her arms around his neck and moaned when he held her closer, crushing her against his hard chest.

When they finally came up for air, she met his gaze and held it. “That you can’t what?”

He pressed a peck to her lips. “Kiss you.” Then, he ran his hand over her hair. “Get to know you better.”

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