Page 60 of Buck Wild Orc Cowboy
“How so?” Curling forward, I nuzzled my chin on the top of her head, breathing her in. “Big, dangerous, and cuddly?”
“Exactly.” She twisted to look at me over her shoulder, her eyes bright with mischief. “All muscle and scary on the outside. All soft and sweet underneath.”
I grinned, feeling cockier by the second. “Soft?” I lowered my voice as I pressed against her lower back. “You sure about that, little lady?”
She flushed but didn’t look away. “Totally.”
My palms went damp. I hadn’t thought I could get flustered anymore, not after everything I’d been through since coming to the surface. But she made me come undone, and I only wantedherto put me back together again.
Her voice dropped into a wicked whisper. “Maybe you’re not softeverywhere.”
I groaned under my breath, tightening my hold on her, aching for everything. “You keep talking like that, and we might not make it all the way home.” Eat her out again? Yes, please.
She laughed. “Better pick up the pace, then, cowboy.”
Challenge accepted.
I urged Zist into a faster trot, the ranch house rising in the distance as the sun finally dipped below the edge of the world. After bringing him to a stop in my side yard, I helped her off and tapped Zist’s side, urging him to follow me over to the gate. Once opened, he strolled inside, joining the others.
Rather than go inside like usual, Holly followed me, leaning against the rail to watch the creatures sniff Zist as if he wasn’t the same old sorhox they pastured with each night.
“It’s so pretty here,” she said, gazing around. “I don’t think I’ll ever get enough of it.”
“You don’t miss the city?”
“Not at all. I mean, there are good things to say about cities. Libraries. Exhibits open free to the public. But I don’t find I miss that here. I like the quiet feel of Lonesome Creek.”
I couldn’t imagine living in a city. “Even in the orc kingdom, I lived at my family ranch some distance from where the majority of my people live. I like wide spaces around me, being able to see something coming long before it reaches me.”
“Totally agree.”
She’d see that as a safety factor, and I did too. But it was more than that. “I’ve come to appreciate the feel of the sun on my face. The sound of rain pattering on the ground. Even the wind feels and smells different here.”
I settled my arms on the rail beside her, close enough that we brushed every so often.
Holly smiled up at me. “You notice everything.”
“It helps when you don’t have a lot of noise around to drown it out. City life… You can’t turn it off. Out here, you can actually hear yourself think.”
She nodded, her gaze sliding back to the wide, open valley. “I think I spent so long using all that noise to hide that I forgot what it felt like to actually live.”
I studied the side of her face, the way the last rays of the sun caught the lighter strands of her hair. “You’re doing more than hiding now.”
Her throat bobbed as she swallowed, and when she looked at me again, her eyes were shining in a way that made my chest ache.
“You make it easy,” she whispered. “I feel free here in a way I never have.”
I couldn’t speak for a second. I just watched her, wanting to soak in every bit of this moment. Something about her being fully herself made me feel reckless. I wanted to hand her myheart and say here, keep this. Keepme. Everything about her, from her laugh, to her stubborn lift of her chin, to her big heart, felt like something rare. Something a male might spend a whole lifetime searching for and still die without finding.
“I want you to feel safe and happy all the time,” I said, meaning it with everything I had.
The screen door banged behind us.
“Mom. Sel.” Max barreled down the steps and ran toward us, his hair sticking up like he’d woken from a nap.
Holly turned and opened her arms wide. He crashed into her for a hug, and she laughed, ruffling his hair. “When did you get taller than me?”
He shrugged, grinning. “I’m eating like a sorhox.”
