Page 59 of Mustang Summer

“I don’t…I didn’t know…” Hell, how was he going to explain?This conversation was starting to resemble the ones that had ended his other short-lived relationships.

His stomach roiled and his chest tightened.Was Josie going to walk if he didn’t say the right things?Before, the breakups had left him saddened.He’d lose himself in work and move on.But if Josie ran out of his life like she’d charged out of the barn the day he tackled her… He swallowed hard.

She flattened her hand over his heart.“It’s okay, Brock.”Her lovely, chestnut eyes rose to meet his.“Are you autistic?”

She sucked in a breath like the question startled her as much as it did him.

Part of him wanted to sit up, shove himself back into his pants and avoid this inevitable conversation.The other part rejoiced that he could finally talk with someone that wasn’t his mother about it.

“They used to call it Asperger’s, but yeah, it’s still autism.High-functioning autism.”

She licked her lips and took her time forming her next question.“Is that why your basement is the way it is?The colors and the candles?”

He threw an arm behind his head and stared at the wispy, white clouds drifting by.“I went through a lot of therapy as a kid.I had—still have—sensory issues, but they’re not as bad.”Not after all that treatment.“I don’t need to go down there much to hang out, but I keep it that way—just in case.”

“I hope you don’t mind, I looked it up because I thought… You’re different, but not in a bad way.I just wanted to know.”

He frowned.“Wanted to know what?”

“About your routines.How you talk to me.How tense you got during the storm, stuff like that.I wanted to know you, but I was too afraid to ask.If we’re going to be, um, anus, then I think we should be open about it.”She hovered over him to block his view of the sky and force eye contact.“Are we a couple?”

He didn’t have to think about it.“I want to be.”

She smiled.“Me, too.”

Was this the revelation his mother had feared his whole life?Because it hadn’t been painful, and Josie wasn’t leaving yet.

“My family doesn’t know.”

Josie frowned.“They don’t?How could they not—you grew up with them?”

“My mom was afraid I’d get treated different, by my family and people in town.She was super protective and all our trips to Fargo were a contentious issue between her and my uncles.”

“Because they didn’t know it was for therapy?”

He nodded.“It cost money and took both of us away from work on the farm.”

“Why wouldn’t she just tell them?What are your aunts and uncles like?”

“Like my parents.There’s a mental health clinic in town and Mom assumed they’d demand she quit spending money on a Fargo therapist and go there.She said if we went there, it wouldn’t matter how confidential they kept things, our family business would become Moore’s business.”

Josie considered him so long he began to wonder what he’d said wrong.

“Hmm.Are you going to tell them?”

Brock sucked in a long breath and slowly released it.“No.She’s right.I don’t want to be treated different.Not by them.”

Josie cocked her head.“I can see why.But…I don’t think it’d matter.”The corner of her mouth tilted up.“You all seem pretty protective of each other.”

“We are.But I’m not telling them.”

She blinked and her smile dropped.“Okay.”

Damn.Had he gone and ruined the moment?Should he say something?Apologize for… He wasn’t sure, but he hadn’t wanted to hurt her feelings.

His worries were wiped out when she dropped her head for a kiss that went from sweet to smoking.His body had recovered from their encounter and blood rushed to his shaft.

She straddled him without breaking their kiss and the press of her naked body turned him hard as stone.Without delay, she slid down his length and rode him hard until he was barking out his second orgasm of the day.

---