Page 30 of The Texas Cowboy's Lady

She finished the bite she had just popped into her mouth, a thoughtful look crossed her face, and then she looked at her watch.

“Let me remember the time and day and moment that Jaxson Hawkes actually made an apology.”

“There you go,” he responded. “That’s a habit of yours. You put up a wall and use your sarcastic wit to reinforce it. A defense mechanism I can understand now.”

“You do have a way of making people feel a bit inferior around you. I was determined to not let you do that to me and yet, I did just that—let you take up too much space in my head doing battle with you.”

“And here I thought it was because you really liked me but didn’t want to admit it.”

“We seemed to react like oil and water for sure. I usually don’t have any problems keeping those who annoy me well out of my way. But here I am back where I began, and you and I can’t say that even Texas is big enough for the two of us. What’s the likelihood of us burying the hatchet between us? In order to survive on these half million or so acres?” She tilted her head. “Did I say something amusing?”

“That’s the second conversation I’ve had today about burying a hatchet someplace. But never mind.” He stood up and carried the empty plate over to the sink. She followed.

“You don’t have to do that.” She watched as he pulled out dish soap and turned on the hot water.

“You cooked and I can clean. This is a democracy on this ranch if you recall.”

“I could have sworn it was a dictatorship. First, my grandmother and then it fell to you. Although, you were more like a prime minister or something. You did try to smooth over the sharp edges of the barbs she threw around daily.”

His hands stilled as he stopped washing the dishes she had used to prepare their nachos. “I guess between the two of us, you felt ganged up on. It was probably the best thing for you to leave.”

Her eyes widened as she met his gaze.

“You can say thatnow? You were always the one who tugged on me the most to stay here. Even Grandmother finally gave in and literally ended up pushing me to spread my wings in the last couple of years before she died.”

“I was being selfish. She chose not to be.”

“She had her moments. But why would you say you were selfish?”

Jaxson shut off the water and took the towel out of her hands. He took his time drying them before he finally turned to face her, a hand resting on the cabinet beside them and the other on his hip.

“Now I think you’re fishing. You know perfectly well. I laid out my guts to you on the last day before you left me standing at the airfield again. I was just the cowboy who had worshipped at your feet for the last decade or so. And finally got up the courage to ask you to stay here with me and not fly away. And you very politely told me that—”

“I remember the words,” she said, stopping him. “I’m not proud of the person I was in that moment. I’ve thought about a lot of things since I left the last time. I wish I had done many things differently, but that’s the darn thing about the past. You don’t get to turn back the clock.”

“Would you if you could? Would your words have really been any different?” The fire crackled louder in the silence. The rain had quieted outside.

Jaxson waited in absolute stillness. He could see there was a definite tug-of-war going on inside her. Would she say words that might change things for them?

Chapter Thirteen

“We don’t getto turn back time. We just have to try to make the best of things going forward. I came back to Texas. And I am not flying away again—except on business—and then I will return because this is home.”

“And what if Sean doesn’t want to always stay here in this foreign country, as he has called it a few times so far? Making a spouse happy in a marriage—that might make you have to rethink your statement.”

A shadow passed and dimmed her blue gaze. Was there something she wasn’t saying? He got the feeling there was. It touched something inside him, and he acted first and thought last. His hand reached up to softly cup the side of her face. His thumb made a slow pass over her skin from the corner of her mouth to her jawline. The fact that she didn’t turn or jerk away from his touch emboldened him.

“If I am sure of anything in this world, it’s the fact that you and Sean are totally not a match. Maybe you’ve been in the land of pretend too long, but there’s no mistaking the real thing when it comes along.” He lowered his head to hers, and she did not pull away. It was a gamble, a jumping-off-the-cliff moment, his brain was telling him. He might hit bottom and die. He rolled the dice.

Their lips met in a tentative hello... a shared truce. Then he was lost in their warmth and softness and his hand slid slowly from her chin to rest beneath her thick hair on the back of her head and draw her into him. Kissing Laurel was the slice of Heaven he knew it would be. From their first fumbling attempt as teens in the hayloft one summer day to the adult one on her last night before she left for California the first time, the passion was still there, having grown into a wildfire blaze consuming his rational thoughts and taking them both along in its charging wake.

Her hands slid over his shoulders, and his other hand moved around her waist and gathered her into his length, his need to feel every inch of her against him feeding the flames. Yet something held him in check, for fear all would dissolve into a puff of smoke. His need was obvious, but he didn’t want to break whatever the spell was that had woven itself around the moment. It was too fragile.

His kiss laid open his heart and all it held for her in that moment. There was no use pretending or dancing around the truth that had always remained the same. He had given his heart and mind and soul over to this woman many years before. And that was a fact that would never change as long as he drew breath in his body.

His tongue teased along the line, and her reply was to let him in to the warm confines he sought. Her arms locked behind his neck, and he felt, then heard, the soft rumble of a sigh of sweet ecstasy from within her. She arched into his arms, her body seeming to crave his as much as he did hers.

His lips moved across her jawline and teased the soft skin of her earlobe, bringing forth another sigh, more like a groan from within.

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