Page 22 of His Cowboy Heart

With that one move, it was all gone. I could see Jules’s physical retreat, but I could feel it a thousand times more. He was taking the removal of my hand from the gearshift as a rejection, which it definitely hadn’t been. I’d done it to protect myself from all the unwanted feelings he’d stirred up within me using nothing more than the gentle touch of his fingers. And just like in the stall, I’d driven him away to save myself.

Before Jules could finish straightening so he’d be staring straight out the front window, I blurted, “My horse’s name is Banana Jammies!”

I could practically feel the heat crawling up my neck.

Seriously, Flynn,that’swhat you come up with to talk about?

“What?” Jules asked in confusion. He’d stopped turning away from me, but I didn’t dare take my eyes off the road to look at him directly.

Just leave it at that. Just stop talking. I shared.

“Obviously I don’t call him that in public, but when it’s just the two of us at night, I call him that instead of just ‘BJ.’”

“When it’s ‘just the two of you at night’?” Jules asked, shock mingled with confusion.

I replayed my words in my own head before saying, “What, no, it’s not like that?—”

“Good talk, Flynn,” Jules said awkwardly. “I’ll just let you, um, focus on the road, ’k?”

I hit the brakes on the super-responsive car just a bit too hard because instead of the gentle halt I’d intended to bring the vehicle to, it instantly stopped, throwing both of us forward. I was able to catch myself, but poor Jules wasn’t in the best position to do the same. In fact, he slammed his burned arm into the dashboard and immediately let out a little cry of pain. I had enough sense to pull the SUV off to what little shoulder area there was before I quickly released my seat belt and leaned across the console.

“Fuck, Jules, are you okay?” I practically bellowed. I gently examined his arm as Jules hid his face in his shoulder. His body was trembling as he desperately tried to stifle his sobs of pain.

“Shit,” I said helplessly. “Jules, sweetheart, I’m so sorry.” My gut kept twisting into tighter knots the more Jules tried to get himself under control. I couldn’t help but reach for his chin. “Baby, look at me,” I whispered. I carefully turned his face toward me. I owed him an apology for so much more than just the additional pain I’d caused him with my reckless driving. I’d been a dick to him from the moment I’d overheard his conversation with Brooks.

Jules’s eyes were squeezed shut, but the tears sliding down his cheeks were proof enough of his physical state.

“Jules,” I whispered as I ran my thumb across his damp cheek. “Talk to me. What can I do?”

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting him to say, but it didn’t really matter because I wouldn’t have been able to guess it even if I’d been given the opportunity to try. Instead of lambasting me for my idiotic driving that had caused him more pain, Jules snorted.

Actually snorted.

Right before he burst into a fit of laughter that rattled through my ears. What the hell?

“Jesus,” I breathed, more out of relief than anything else. If the man could laugh his ass off at me, then he surely wasn’t dying from the pain. “Asshole,” I muttered, but before I could draw my hand away from his cheek so I could get us back on the road and moving, Jules’s hand from his uninjured arm came up to cover mine. He buried his face in the leather seat and continued to laugh so hard that he was crying.

“You dick, do you know how badly you scared me? Fuck, I thought you were going to lose the damn arm,” I groused. It was the only way I could cover up my own embarrassment.

I once again tried to draw away from him, but he refused to release me, and I didn’t want to risk hurting him by jerking my hand from his cheek. Instead, I turned my humiliation into anger. “Are you done yet because I’d like to get the asshole who spilled stew on himself?—”

That was all I got out before Jules pulled me down and lifted himself at the same time. When his lips closed over mine mid-tirade, it caught me by such surprise that I immediately ripped my mouth from his.

“I’m sorry,” Jules said, still laughing and crying at the same time. “‘When it’s just the two of us…’” he repeated in a voice that I supposed was intended to mimic my own when I’d been trying to explain about my horse’s unique name. Jules was caught in the kind of fit of giggles that only got worse the more you tried to stop them. “I’m sorry, Flynn. The look on your face when I said I’d let you focus on the road?—”

I should have been pissed. I should have been telling him what a prick he was for making fun of what had been true terror for me. Of course, he wouldn’t have known that. Just like he probably had no cluewhyI’d been a prick about him not being strong enough to carry the pot of stew.

“If it helps,” Jules managed to say between fits of laughter, “my arm hurts like a motherfucker.”

I couldn’t take my eyes off him. There were drops of moisture clinging to his eyelashes and his cheeks were bright pink against his pale skin. But that smile. Damn, I could live a thousand years on the image of just that smile.

Completely uninhibited and one hundred percent pure. My entire body was already on point because of that kiss he’d voluntarily laid on me, but the sight of his joy made me feel like the most powerful man on the planet. To have been able to give him those few moments of laughter… well, it would have been nice to do it in a way that hadn’t caused him more physical pain, but the more he tried to talk his way out of the situation, the faster he was plucking at something inside of me… scratching an itch that I’d never noticed before.

Jules must have recognized my intensity, but he didn’t know why it was there. The energy in the vehicle changed instantly. He was no longer laughing or crying, and I had yet to remove my hand from his cheek.

Just like he had yet to remove his fingers which were holding mine in place.

With our lips just inches apart, I forced myself to admit something without really admitting it. “Jules, tell me there’s no Stewart,” I murmured. “There’s no guy from the motel who’s coming back?—”

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