Page 17 of Found Forever

They stood there in the field, staring at each other for a while. He was relaxed,Joanna, not so much.

“You uh, want to sit and stare at the clouds with me?” he finally asked, settling back down into the grass then reclining to his back. Macklin made a noise of piqued interest, like he was considering sitting on Decker again, but then he nuzzled Joanna instead.

She was quiet for a moment.

He’d closed his eyes since the sun had shifted and was no longer being blocked by a cloud.

But his SEAL ears kicked in and he heard her shuffle through the long grass toward him and, bringing the sweet floral scent of perhaps it was her shampoo or conditioner, she reclined down in the grass beside him, leaving a half-a-person width between them.

“Do you do this often?” she asked. “Lay down and do nothing.”

“Sometimes,” he replied, not bothering to open his eyes. “When I need to calm my mind.”

Theclop clopof horse hooves on the ground growing nearer forced him to pry one eye open.

Macklin was standing at their feet, staring down at them.

“What do you want?” Decker asked him.

The big brown horse stood there for another moment, weighing his options—whatever they were. Then, like the idiot that he was who thought he was a lapdog and not a behemoth quadruped with metal shoes, he flopped down to his side and shimmied his way between them, shoving them further a part. He was like a toddler in his parents’ bed, kicking his father in the back until dear ol’ dad finally got the hint and went to sleep in the guest room.

Joanna laughed, but Decker was more than a little pissed.

“What the fuck, buddy?”

Macklin lifted his head and gave Decker the stink-eye.

“He just wants to snuggle,” Joanna said, stroking the horse’s neck.

“He knowsexactlywhat he’s doing. Notice how his feet are pointed towardme? That’s not a mistake.”

She giggled again, and his ire eased slightly. Reaching across the horse’s wide neck, she beckoned. “Grab my hand.”

He did and together they laced fingers overtop Macklin’s neck as he tried to avoid getting a hoof in the nuts.

“I think you have competition,” she said, a giggle still in her voice.

“I think so.” He gave her fingers a gentle squeeze. “Good thing this dumbass can’t fit in the bed.”

Her laugh was like music and it was a tune he knew he could easily listen to on repeat for the rest of his life.

Maybe he was getting a little ahead of himself. But something told him Joanna Fernsby was more than just someone he was going to get to know for two weeks. She was someone he was going to get to know for two weeks, and then keep for a lifetime. He just had to figure out a way to help her see it too.

Not even a fingerbang this time.

Kisses? Yes.

Plenty of them.

And they were all great.

But other than some handholding, a butt squeeze, and lots of delicious kisses, Joanna went to bed that night without another orgasm from Decker.

He truly wanted to get to know her before they went any further, and that was so different from any other guy she’d met, that she was still struggling to accept that he was the real deal.

Mieka, of course, dogged her for information on their “date.” She wasshippingJoanna and Decker pretty hard.

“You guys would be so great together,” she said as the two of them sat at the kitchen table drinking wine later that night. Her sisters had all dispersed to their cabins, RVs and houses for the night, so it was just Mieka and Joanna. Nate was in the barn doing “something horsey” as Mieka put it. While Asher was at home with Triss and their son on the other side of the property.

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