Page 44 of Second Chance With a Cowboy

“But you didn’t even give me the choice, or the chance, to stay.”

“I know. Because you might have stayed. For a while. You might have given it all up and stayed here. With me. But eventually, you would have regretted that decision, resented me, and left anyway. So, it was easier to push you away, to make you think I didn’t love you anymore, to make you leave.” He closed his eyes and pulled in a breath. “I take that back. It wasn’teasier. Pushing you away was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.”

He reached up to cup her cheek in his palm. “But I would do it again. In a heartbeat. I would sacrifice everything, if it meant giving you a chance to make your dreams come true.”

“That’s so unfair.”

“Is it? Why? You left. You went to that fancy school. You’re doing the things you always dreamed of. That makes it worth it.”

Her sister, Duke, and now Chevy himself, were all telling her that the reason he broke up with her wasforher. To give her a chance to follow her dreams. How could she hate him for that?

“I hate that something I did made you cry,” he said, rubbing her cheek with his thumb. “I should have told you about Jolene sooner. I’m sorry that it made you so upset.”

Finding out that Jolene was a horse was a blow, but her reaction to it, the soul-wracking sobs, was about more than just Chevy’s deception all those years ago.

She peered up at him, at the blue eyes she’d looked into so many times. “I think I was upset about more than just the horse.This whole thing, being back here with you again, has brought up a lot of feelings, and I think some of that came out in my reaction. What happened with us changed me, and I’ve spent a decade building this fortress around my heart…brick by brick…keeping people at a distance. Especially men. And then I came back here and in less than a week, I’m back in your life, and in your bed, and those bricks felt like they were starting to crumble. But then I found out this big thing that I’ve believed for so long, that has formed parts of my identity, was just this weird false lie, and all those walls shot up again. I didn’t know what to do with all those feelings. Except let them out in anger and tears.”

“Sometimes it helps to get it out instead of keeping all that bottled up inside. But I feel awful bad that some stupid idea I had when I was practically a kid changed how you felt about yourself. That was never my intention. I wanted you to fly, to go into the world and realize how amazing and smart you were and to be so successful and happy that you never looked back.”

She offered him a rueful smile. “I did do some of that.”

“I’m glad. And I’m really glad you came back to Woodland Hills and that you gave me a chance to show you how much I still care about you. I don’t want those walls up between us anymore.”

“I’ve spent years protecting myself with them. You can’t just tear the whole thing down with one amazing afternoon at a cabin.”

His face broke into a slow smile, and he tilted his head, offering her a huge heaping helping of that Chevy Lassiter charm. “We could always go back up and try to see if asecondamazing afternoon at a cabin would work any better…”

The rest of her anger slipped away as a smile tugged at the corners of her lips. “You’re an idiot.”

“Yeah, I am. I’m an idiot for ever letting you believe you weren’t enough.” His teasing charm was gone as his gaze boreinto her with a new intensity. “I haveneverstopped thinking about you. I still can’t believe I get to hold you again.” He took a step forward, pushing her back against the door as he leaned in to brush his lips against her neck. His warm breath on her skin sent a shiver down her spine, and she swallowed. “To touch you again…” he continued as he ran his fingers lightly up her arm, across her shoulder and up the side of her jaw. He lifted her chin and grazed the edge of his thumb over her bottom lip. “…to kiss you again.”

She sucked in a breath, heat and yearning surging through her body as he moved his mouth closer to hers, the scruff on his cheeks scraping the edge of hers, then his lips skimmed over hers, just the barest touch, enough to make them tingle with anticipation seconds before he captured her mouth in a hungry kiss.

The kiss was deep and demanding, and she tilted her head as she invited him deeper.

Her arms went around his neck, and a soft whimper escaped her as she kissed him back, hard, with a fierce passion as she lost herself in the essence of him.

His body was pressed against hers, and she could feel how much he wanted her. His hand was in her hair, and he cupped the back of her neck, holding her in place as he feasted on her lips. His kisses shifted from her mouth to her neck to that spot just below her ear.

His voice was husky as he spoke into her ear. “If your family wasn’t here, I swear I’d take you against this door right now.”

Chapter Twenty-One

All her normal logic and reason left Leni as she was consumed with wanting this man. “My familyisn’there,” she said, in between another kiss. “Elizabeth took them out to lunch. We’re alone.”

A growl emanated from the back of his throat as his hand slid down her side, over her hip, and cupped her ass. His kisses grew hotter, hungrier, as he ravaged her mouth, her neck, her breasts—demanding surrender but promising pleasure.

Then he had her wrists captured in one hand, her arms held over her head and flat against the door, as his other hand slipped under her skirt and pushed aside the thin strap of her thong panties.

This wasn’t exactly the hayloft she’d imagined, but it was still hot as hell.

Panting his name, she tipped her head back, her shoulders meeting the resistance of the door, powerless against this man, her thoughts only on the bliss of his lips on her neck and his hand between her legs. Stroking, caressing, pulling at the need and desire building inside her.

Her whole body surrendered to him, every part wanting and aching for his touch, desire coursing through her like the flames of a wildfire.

This felt out of control—and Leni was all about control—but at this moment, with her back against the door, her nipples tight and aching, and Chevy’s hand under her skirt, she didn’t care. All she cared about was the feel of this man against her and the swirl of heat building at her center—a swirl that had her crying out as she writhed against the tantalizing friction—frantic for release as he stroked and rubbed and then…yes…yes…now…she succumbed to the pleasure as the sensations rocketed through her.

She sagged against him, trying to catch her breath, a little in shock at the frenzied heat and reckless abandon of what had just happened.

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