Page 27 of My Rancher Valentine

He rolled his eyes. “Anyone with eyes can tell you really don’t like being here, and I saw your eyes light up when you asked me about the exclusive. Plus, you’re too good a writer to be happy doing this. You’ve also been getting the same soda for years.”

“And Austin?”

His cheeks turned red. “Your mother might have mentioned it to my mother.” He put his hands on my waist. “My point is, I do know you. Maybe not well enough to get married, but I know I want to know more. I’ve always wanted to know more.”

“What about the deal?” I questioned.

“Fuck the deal.” He pulled me in for a kiss that had so much possessiveness and passion in it, I had to hold on to him to stay standing. His tongue pushed at the seam of my lips until I opened for him, and he slid in. His hands moved easily from my waist to my lower back and further down.

“Beau,” I whispered out when he kissed his way down my neck, his teeth pulling at my ear.

“I want you.” He lifted me into him and took a few steps until I was pinned between his hard chest and the wall behind me. “I want you in my life. I want you in my bed. I want you in my future.”

“I...I...” I couldn’t think. Not with him kissing me like this, and his hands kneading my ass. I could feel his hard cockpressed into my stomach. My desire for him was just as strong as what he was giving off, and it was all way too overwhelming. Falling in love or lust wasn’t part of the plan.

“I have to go.” I pushed at him. I needed to get away. Needed a moment to think about everything. “I can’t.” I pushed harder.

Beau let me down. “Why?”

“I just. I have to go.” I ran to my car as fast as I could and headed home, where everything made sense.

Chapter 10

Beau

Against my better judgment, I waited thirty minutes before knocking on Madison’s door. Kat had said that she was going home, and I assumed that meant Bliss, but I was hoping she might have stopped here to talk to Maddie first, and I could catch her and figure out exactly what went wrong.

Maddie opened the door and invited me in, but Kat wasn’t there. When I asked if she had talked to her, Maddie told me that the last time she saw her was before they left the arena. That would have been earlier in the evening.

I didn’t stay long. I kicked myself for not getting Kat’s number. That should have been the first thing I did. Without it I had no way of getting a hold of her, and it didn’t feel right to ask Maddie for it. I suppose I could have asked her to call, but I didn’t want to hear Kat’s voice secondhand. I wanted to talk to her myself. I wanted to know that she was alright and home safe. Hell, what I really wanted was her here with me.

My next stop was my sister’s room. Daphne knew something wasn’t right the instant she opened the door and ushered me in. I paced back and forth as I told them about Devon and the fight, for lack of a better word, that Kat and I had before telling them how she ran off. I need to know why she left. Did she really not want to be with me that much? Had Devon been right? Maybeshe knew I wasn’t good enough for her too, but she didn’t know how to say it.

“I really fucked this up, and I don’t know how to fix it.” I shook my head.

“Well.” Daphne dragged out the word. “We might have helped.”

I stopped and looked at them. They both looked about as guilty as they used to when we would sneak ice cream out of the test freezer as kids.

“What did you do?”

“We thought we were helping.” Hailey’s voice went a little higher, a sure indicator that she had done something wrong. At least something she thought was wrong.

“We told her about how you had a crush on her back in high school,” Daphne said.

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