Page 45 of Take Me Away, Cowboy

She nodded, but her hand gripped the doorknob so hard that her knuckles turned white.

“I probably shouldn’t be up, but I knew it was you and I wanted to steal you before everyone else did.” He looked down at her from behind curious eyes, his head tilted slightly. “I wanted to do this,” she said, stepping up on her toes.

The movement clearly cost her, but she feathered her lips on his. He reacted on autopilot. His body bent down so she didn’t have to reach. His free arm wrapped gingerly around her waist. He fought against the urge to pull her into him, throw her against the door, never letting her go again. Instead, he rubbed his thumb along her jawline, kissed her softly again before taking a step towards the edge of the porch.

“That came out of nowhere,” he said. He was out of breath and had to adjust the way he stood so she couldn’t see the way his erection pushed against his jeans. “Not that I’m complaining,” he added. He almost came when she smiled up at him, lips swollen with desire.

“I was wrong to send you out of the hospital room without giving you a chance to tell me what you wanted,” she told him.

“You were.” He ran the edge of his hand along her cheek. “You know I wantyou, right? Not for a one-night stand, Paige. I want you for as long as you’ll have me.”

She gave him a soft smile and leaned into him. He pulled her into him as carefully as he could manage, holding her there for what seemed like hours, the tray of corn on his other hand, balancing like an anvil. He couldn’t have cared less. He’d have endured the throbbing that built in his forearm for days if it meant he could keep Paige close.

“Can I ask you something about that day?” she asked him, her breath shallow.

He nodded, mumbled a “yes” against her head that smelled of coconuts still. He’d never been a fan of the darned things, but now he couldn’t get enough. There was something else, too. Lemons? No, it was lime.

“How did you know before anyone else? That’s why you were so quiet, right? Because you knew?”

He nodded again.

“I did. I was heartbroken, but didn’t know what to say when the rest of you didn’t know.”

“Yeah, buthowdid you know?” she asked, pulling her head back to look at him. He pressed it back against his chest, took a deep breath and tried not to smile.

“The doctor assumed I was your husband. I didn’t correct him.”

She shook against him. He looked down to see her laughing and a weight lifted. He’d been afraid of how she would react to that little secret he’d been harboring.

“Sneaky, aren’t you?”

“I’ve got some tricks up my sleeve,” he told her. “How are you feeling, though?”

His chin rested on her head. He kissed the part in her hair, inhaled her scent so that it became a part of him.

“I’m okay. Like a stampede of buffalo stomped my stomach and chest, but otherwise like I could run a marathon.” Her breath ignited like flames on his chest and the warmth spread to the rest of his body.

“And now you’ve got many marathons in your future.” For some reason, the gravity of what Paige faced hit him head-on and tears burned the back of his eyelids.

“Yippee.” He looked down at her, worried by the tone in her voice, until she looked up at him and offered a weak smile. “That’s maybe not the thing to tell a girl who can’t get from here to the fridge without a walker.”

“Good point. Then let me be the first one to tell you how many of these you have in your future.” With that, he leaned down and lifted her chin so that her lips met his. Paige collapsed into him. He caught her, almost dumping the corn, but didn’t mind the near miss. He had everything he wanted, corn be damned.

“Hey, you two lovebirds, time for dinner. Paige, you shouldn’t even be up.”

They shot apart to see Brad standing in the doorway. Paige stuck her tongue out at him, but he just jacked his thumb towards the house, a serious look on his face. She obliged her brother, a scowl on her face, but based on the way she stumbled, how her arms braced much of her weight on the random pieces of furniture strewn in her path as she moved towards the kitchen, she was worse off than she let on.

“Owen, you mind hanging back for a bit?” Brad asked Owen.

He nodded. What choice did he have?

“Last time someone asked me that, though, it wasn’t good. Should I just hand over the corn and make my way back home?”

Brad shook his head, and if Owen was seeing things right, a hint of a smile pulled at the corners of his lips.

“No. My sister, my parents… hell, all of us want you here. I just wanted the chance to say I’m sorry. As you can tell, my sister is perfectly capable of making bad decisions on her own.”

Brad looked over his shoulder at Paige as she slid into an overstuffed armchair someone had moved to the dining room table. “I know how much you’ve been beating yourself up over this, but I also know it somehow took hurting her to save her life, so thank you. I guess.” Owen’s chest loosened and his shoulders relaxed.

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