Page 60 of Wild, Wild Cowboy

How the hell was she ever supposed to feel safe again?

24

HANNAH

Ihad no idea how long Zack had been standing there before I noticed him, but it was long enough for that genial mask he always wore to slip from his face. When I spun away from the bookshelf with a book in my hands and found him watching me with dark intensity, I startled us both.

“Zack! Geez, you scared me.”

He blinked a few times, then sauntered closer with is familiar easy grin. “Sorry about that. Having a good time, duchess?”

“Very much so.” I hugged the book to my chest as I looked around the cozy library. It was my favorite spot on the ranch.

Zack looked around, too. “Jeremiah built this for you?”

“Not exactly. Mercy River Ranch didn’t start taking guests until after I left for college. Before that, this room was empty. Then they renovated the ranch to make this the main lodge, a place where guests could come and hang out when they didn’t want to be alone in their cabins or out hiking, hunting, or fishing. At first, the only thing in here was one bookshelf, a chair, and a pool table. After a while, Jay noticed that even guests who claimed they didn’t like to read would eventuallyfind their way to the library and curl up with a book. So, he started frequenting the used bookstore in town, getting a little something of everything.”

“There must be a thousand books here,” Zack noted.

I nodded. “He’s been at it a couple years now. He built all these shelves, too. The ladder was my idea. I told him if he was going to build a library, it needed to rival Belle’s inBeauty and the Beast.”

“So you could live out your Disney princess fantasy?” The warmth in his tone, the way he smiled…he wasn’t making fun of me. He said it like this was something he liked about me.

“Exactly.”

His large hands spanned my waist as he picked me up and set me down on the ladder with a laugh. “All right, duchess. Let’s take you to your favorite book.”

I did not even try to stop the wide grin that spread across my face. I did, however, manage to check the girlish sigh that would have informed him my underwear had melted clean off my body.

“Left three shelves, sir, if you please,” I commanded.

“As you wish, duchess.”

He kicked up the brake, set one foot on the lowest rung, bracketed me with his arms, and pushed off, sending us rolling across the bookshelves. And I?—

I squealed with delight. I did. I couldn’t help it.

“This one.” I pulled a slim novella from the shelf. “I have a lot of favorites depending on my mood and what I read recently but this one…This is myfavoritefavorite.”

He glanced at the cover. “Are all your favorites romance?”

“I read fairly widely, but yes. My favorites are romance.” I pushed up my glasses and braced for his response. I was used to people making fun of romance books. I’d heard it all. Mommyporn. Unrealistic. And the one that made me want to set things on fire:a harmless break from real literature.

“Why?” he asked, like he actually wanted to know.

My gaze dropped to the book in my hand. To the woman in her yellow ballgown on the cover. “Becauseshewins. Do you know how rare that is in books? In life? Women don’t win. But they do in romance books. She might have to overcome terrible things. She might evendoterrible things. And still, she wins. She doesn’t have to die so a man can fulfill his hero’s journey. She doesn’t have to be punished for enjoying sex or stepping outside of the box society built for her to prove some morality point. In romance books, she doesn’t have to be perfect to be worthy of love. In the end, she wins. No matter what.” I traced the folds and swirls of her ballgown with my finger. “It gives me hope.”

I lift my gaze to his face and found him watching me intently. With me on the ladder and him now on the floor, we’re the same height and I can look him straight in the eye. “It’s funny how people say the most important thing in life is love. Loving your family, your friends…that’s the best thing you can do. No one ever looked back on their life from their deathbed and thought,gee, should have spent less effort there. But the second a woman writes a book about it, it’s suddenly silly and meaningless.”

“It’s not silly.” His voice was rough. He touched my hand while I touched her dress. “It’s not silly at all.”

“Not all romance books have sex in them, but I think sex is part of the reason they’re not taken seriously. Women aren’t supposed to enjoy sex the way men do. But I think…I think sex like that…mind-blowing sex with someone who cares for you…I think that’s part of winning.”

He took the book from me. For a long moment, he said nothing while he stared down at it with an inscrutableexpression. Then he set it aside—in the wrong place, but I fixed that—and looked at me.

“I want you to win, Hannah. You deserve the world. Everything you ever wanted. I want you to fuckingwin.”

I didn’t have a chance to ask what he meant by that because Zack leaned in and kissed me hard enough to send my head whipping back against the wooden ladder rung, but his hand got there first, cupping the curve of my skull with gentle tenderness.

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