Page 19 of Merry & Wild

“By truck, absolutely.”

“Then, I’m in.” She tugs on her socks and then saunters over to me for a kiss. She boosts up on her toes, and I still have to bend down a bit to reach her lips.

“Or we could stay in,” I suggest.

“I need fresh air,” she says with a laugh, pulling away from me. “And a small break from all of sexy time.”

“Did I hurt you?”

“No.” She shakes her head and takes my hand in hers. “You didn’t hurt me. Let’s see the ranch andthenhave more sex, okay?”

“I like that itinerary. You’ll need to dry your hair first. I have a blow dryer in the drawer in the bathroom.”

“Cool.” She bounces off to the bathroom, and I hear her rooting around in the drawer, and then the dryer starts.

While she does that, I pull out more clean, warm clothes before putting all the dirty ones I wore through the night into the washer and get it started. Then I grab my keys and go outside to start my truck, silently thanking heaven above that I had the block heater installed on it last summer.

It’s going to pay off this winter.

The truck starts like a dream, and I turn the heat on full blast before walking back into the cabin.

“Truck’s heating up,” I call out down the hall.

“Almost done,” she calls back.

Even though the heater works well in the truck, I grab a blanket to toss over our laps, just in case, and fill a thermos with hot chocolate.

I’ve just taken those supplies out to the warming truck and come back inside when she appears in the living room, looking like she should be on the front of a magazine.

“You look…fantastic.”

She smiles widely. “Thanks. It’s amazing what a shower and a blow dryer will do. Of course, I keep hairspray in my purse.”

“Of course, you do.”

“It’s the eighties. I have to have big hair.” She laughs and pulls on her coat. “Okay, are you ready? Should we take some coffee or hot chocolate?”

“Already done,” I inform her. “I’m prepared.”

“I’m impressed.” She hurries out the door I’ve just opened for her, and around to the passenger side of the truck. Once we’re both in, she smiles over at me. “This is fun.”

“We haven’t even gone anywhere yet.”

“It’s already fun,” she informs me. “I can’t wait to see everything.”

“Well, we’ll see as much as we can drive to. My four-wheel drive should get us pretty much everywhere.”

“What if we get stuck?”

“Then I’ll be hoofing it back to get help.”

Joy frowns. “No, I don’t like that idea. Maybe we should just stay at the cabin until it’s safer for a tour.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t take you anywhere that it’s not safe. I know this ranch better than I know your body, and that’s saying a lot, seeing as how I spent a lot of time memorizing every single gorgeous line and curve you’ve got.”

She blinks over at me. “Wow.”

“Yeah. Wow.”

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