Page 63 of Wounded Cowboy
“Fuck, here it comes.” His hips stuttered against her, and he groaned as he filled her with his release.
Kelsey’s breath sobbed in her throat as her climax rolled over her. Her body shook and her inner muscles clenched around his shaft, impaling her as wave after wave of ecstasy crashed over her.
Together, they collapsed onto the rug and lay there, panting and spent, their bodies still joined.
“Wow,” she breathed.
Spring kissed Kelsey’s neck, his voice thick with emotion.“Thank you, sweetheart,” he whispered, spooned against her back. His hands slid up to cup her breasts.“I’m gonna miss you when you leave.”
Kelsey smiled, pleased by his admission.“Me, too. But it’s not over yet,” she reminded him. She laced her fingers through his.“We still have a few days left. Let’s make some good memories, okay?”
∞∞∞
Three days later
The wind, laden with moisture and the promise of rain, whipped around Spring as he rode alongside Rory, guiding the ranch’s Angus cattle from one pasture to another. The sky overhead was heavily overcast, matching Spring’s mood.
Ever since that disastrous family dinner, Spring had been wrestling with his selfish desires.
He should’ve expected Grandma Abigail to try and get Kelsey to reconsider her planned departure for Los Angeles. His grandmother had mentioned more than once that she hoped Kelsey would change her mind and stay in Snowberry Springs.
Since then, his thoughts had been in a tailspin, buffeted by desires he had tried to bury. And it wasn’t just the deliciously dirty rounds of sex, as much as he enjoyed those. No, he craved waking up next to Kelsey each morning, seeing her smiling face at his breakfast table, then falling asleep beside her each night.
High atop his horse, Spring scanned the moving herd, his posture as steady as his internal world was tumultuous.
Here, out in the open, surrounded by fresh air and the lowing of cattle, with the whip of the wind tugging at his hat brim, Spring was finally forced to admit to himself that he’d fallen hard for Kelsey.
His girls were subdued and unhappy, too. They’d repeatedly begged him to make Kelsey stay, and he’d been forced to tell them no, he couldn’t do that. Because it wouldn’t be fair to ask Kelsey to give up her dream just to make their lives easier.
It was a hard lesson, and his heart ached to see April and Abby learn that sometimes, you had to say goodbye to someone you loved.
He wanted Kelsey to stay. God, more than justwanted—heneededher.
But he told himself it wouldn’t be right to hold her here when she yearned for the city lights and opportunities of Los Angeles. After Laura’s death, he’d sworn not to marry again. He’d had enough heartbreak to last a lifetime.
Even now, he still suffered bouts of grief that sometimes clutched so fiercely they choked him. These days, the intervals between these ambushes were longer than it had been. His therapist assured Spring it meant he was making progress. But the wounds of guilt were deep, and would never fully heal.
Could he really ask Kelsey to wait for a man who might never be whole again?
And even if I asked her and she said yes, how will she feel in six months? Or a year? When I can’t even promise her tomorrow, let alone a lifetime?
Turning his horse to head off a stray calf, Spring decided then and there what he must do. He had to let her go.
Kelsey deserved the freedom to chase her dreams, not be tethered by his limitations and fears. She deserved better than a messed-up man like him.
He’d talk to Kelsey after dinner and end their arrangement cleanly, so she could move forward in her new life without him.
It was the right thing to do. He knew it, even as his heart cracked with the weight of that decision and the pain of her impending departure tightened around his chest. He knew he would miss her laughter, her warmth, the light she brought into his life.
She would never know how much she had helped to heal him over these past weeks.
With a heavy sigh, Spring directed his horse back to the rear of the herd to guide the stragglers.
Tonight, he would set Kelsey free, not because he wanted to, but because he believed it was the only right thing to do.
Chapter 17
Parting Gifts
