Page 128 of Westin

“We’ll do this again next week,” Maddie says as she gathers up the empty dishes.

I don’t say a word in protest. We clean up, and I stand in the door and wave as they head back to the ranch house. Then, I call Billie in from the barn over the hill and feed her by the fire.

She stretches out. I’m so sleepy, all I can do is put a bowl of leftover chicken and dumplings in the microwave for Westin and head upstairs to bed.

It’s dark when I wake to his boots on the bedroom floor. He sinks down on the edge of the bed and sighs. Sleepily, I roll over to touch his lower back, and he turns.

“I didn’t mean to wake you, darling,” he says.

I push myself up on my elbow. “Where were you all day?”

He turns his body, looking down at me. He’s a shadow, but I know by the lines of his profile that he’s serious.

“In the city,” he says.

“Why?”

“I had business,” he says. His hand slips in the pocket of his work pants. I hear change, his keys, then a crinkle. He takes out a candy and holds it out. I open my lips and let him put it on my tongue.

Sweet, chewy lemon—he remembered my favorite.

He clears his throat. “My father always brought my mother candy when he came back from town,” he says, his voice low.

I swallow. “That’s sweet.”

He looks down at the wrapper in his palm. “Yeah, it was.”

Something is going on with him. Usually, he hides behind his barricade. Tonight, he feels naked. He shifts, sinking down to his side so our faces are inches apart.

“I went to Carter Farms,” he says.

“What? Really?”

“Really.”

“Why?”

He bends in, and his lips brush mine. “So that when you wake up, you can go down to the barn and find two horses named Sunshine and Gracey waiting there for you.”

My heart melts. It falls right out of my chest and into his hands. I wrap my arms around his neck and he laughs softly, lifting me into his lap.

“You got my horses,” I whisper, trying not to cry.

“Stole them,” he says. “But yes.”

A broken part of me shifts into place. His beard is rough on my temple. His broad arms encircle me like a fortress, his hands steady as they hold me.

“Are they okay?” I whisper.

“Safe and sound.”

I wipe my face and lift it, stretching to kiss him. The kiss deepens, and my eyes close, a little moan working its way up. He gives me a hint of tongue, and I let him know I want more, parting my mouth so he can consume me. When we break apart, we’re both breathless.

“Have me,” he says, voice low and urgent.

The words are mostly a demand. Maybe if he wasn’t hard beneath my thigh, there’d be some question in them.

“What does that mean?” I whisper.

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