Page 22 of The Christmas Cowboy

Liam knelt beside the dog, a mutt so dirty she couldn’t tell its color. “It’s okay, buddy. We’ll take care of you.” He looked at Val. “You did good.”

And that was when she fell in love with Liam.

Liam had looked at her and asked, “Do you want me to take him with me?”

He’d been riding his horse. Probably checking fences or some other chore. Val looked at the dog and decided then and there that he was hers. “He needs a vet,” she said.

“Yeah. I think his leg is broken. I can take him with me if you want.”

“No. If you can carry him to my house, I’m sure my mom will help me.” Her mother was an animal lover and could never turn away an animal in need. In fact, they’d quit running cattle and put everything into breeding the paints on their mother’s urging. It was one thing her father had bowed to their mother about. For one thing, their paints had quickly become more profitable than the cattle.

“Val, is something wrong?”

She came back to herself with a start. “No, why?”

“You stopped walking a quarter of a mile back.”

“Oh, sorry. I was thinking about Murphy.”

“He’s okay, isn’t he?”

Liam had never forgotten the dog either. She knew from Riley that Liam asked about him from time to time and always petted him when he came over to the ranch. “He’s good. Just getting older. I was wondering if you mind me bringing him with me.”

“Why would I mind? There are plenty of dogs at my place. Besides, you know I have a soft spot for Murphy.”

“I know. He loves you too.” And so, unfortunately, did she.

*

Trying to bepatient was going to kill him. Val clearly had no idea that he was having a hell of a time keeping his hands off her. The limited contact made him crazy. Touching her, kissing her, but doing nothing after that, when he wanted to strip them both until they were naked, put his hands all over her, then bury himself inside her, was driving him mad.

He’d known he was attracted to her, but he hadn’t realized how much until they were alone together on their honeymoon. He’d thought he could handle waiting until she was ready with no problem.Shows how stupid that idea was.He could handle it but it sure as hell wasn’t easy.

“Are you warm enough?” There was snow, but only in patches. The temperature, however, was hovering in the teens.

“I’m fine,” Val said. “I’ve got so many layers on I’m getting hot.”

Damn, there I go again thinking about stripping those layers off of her.And it was plain she had no interest in sex with him.

I should have known better.Val had married him because she was pregnant and telling her father was out of the question. Hell, he wouldn’t want to tell Mr. Fletcher. But she hadn’t married him because she wanted him. Maybe that talk about not wanting a sexless marriage had been just that. Talk.

He wasn’t in love with Val. But he was sure as hell attracted to her and they were married. And apparently, he was fated to have blue balls for who knew how long.

Thanksgiving was coming up soon. And after that all the Christmas stuff started. The people of Marietta loved Christmas. There were parties and parades, tree lightings and a festival of lights. Christmas carols, decorations on Main Street and, starting it all off, Marietta’s Christmas Stroll. He realized he had no idea what Val thought about the Christmas season.

He had a feeling he wouldn’t be able to ignore most of it as he usually did. He’d been to the Christmas Stroll, Marietta’s main event of the season, once since Caroline dumped him. They had planned a November wedding and since then you could say he lacked the Christmas spirit. But it wouldn’t be fair to Val if he were to not at least try to enjoy the season.

It was stupid, really. He was long over Caroline. Had been since shortly after she jilted him. The problem was the public humiliation, which she was bound to have done on purpose. Who wouldn’t feel like a loser after being left at the fucking altar?

He’d had lovers since then. None from Marietta and none for very long. But enough to know he wasn’t totally unappealing to the opposite sex. After a while, though, he’d gotten tired of basically meaningless sex. And then Cici had come to town and that sure as hell hadn’t worked out. For him, anyway. The upshot was he hadn’t had sex in well over a year by the time he married Val.

Maybe he was going about this all wrong. If Val had been someone he dated he’d have known what to do. Women liked romance and he’d always been decent at that. But with Val they’d done things backward. They hadn’t dated, hadn’t even kissed until he’d asked her to marry him. They’d talked about having sex in the abstract, but there was nothing abstract in what he wanted to do with Val.

So…he needed to romance her, show her she meant something to him. Show her by his actions that he thought about her and she wasn’t simply a convenience. Just because they weren’t in love with each other didn’t mean they didn’t care about each other. He needed to show her that he cared.

Or maybe he just needed to seduce her.

Chapter Ten

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