Page 6 of Ash on the Range
CHAPTER THREE
CASSIE
A callused hand cupped over my lower face, tugging me backwards, until I leaned into a hard frame I was starting to know well.
“Don’t wake her,” Will murmured. “She works hard, and I don’t think she’s had any help for a long time. Travis isn’t good at any of the stuff she does, and the boys wouldn't have the first clue how to do what she does. Not that boys can’t do what she does, but… not these boys, anyway. Eve is…kinda special.” Will’svoice held a wistful note, and my stomach, that had knotted when he placed his hands on me, plummeted.
“I figured that.” I twisted in his hands, batting them away from my white knit. “How dirty are you, cowboy?” The moment the words fell out of my mouth, I heard the invitation in them.
So did Will.
He took a step forward, crowding me against the bench. “You wanna say that again, Cassie?” he asked softly, not relinquishing his grip on my waist. His thumbs slipped beneath my knitted hoodie, tracing over the lace beneath. Warmth met barely covered skin and heat rose in his gaze. “Take this off for me later, before you go to bed.” It wasn’t a request.
I swallowed. “Alright.” My hands rested on his forearms, tracing the corded muscle there. “Is everyone coming in now?”
He didn’t move, resting his weight against my body, keeping his voice low. “Not just yet.” Those thumbs traced circles over the lace just above my hips. “I wanted to spend a few minutes with you first. It’ll cost me some hard work tomorrow, but you’re worth it.”
His mouth grazed mine before I could think, and then his kiss consumed me.
Thiswas the cowboy I’d been infatuated with for the last week, the one who I'd run away with on the chance of freeing myself from my family and my brother’s overpowering reach. The cowboy who placed me before anyone else. For the first time in my life, someone wasn’t telling me who I was or what I needed to do, unless it was by my choice to be here.
And he was intoxicating.
Will’s mouth slanted over mine, his tongue brushing across my bottom lip, but mine were already parted on an easy sigh, granting him all the permission he would need. And he took that, one hand rising to cup the back of my head as he pressed our bodies closer together. My heart beat faster, my attentionscattering as I sank into the sensation of kissing him back. Even on our drive across states we took everything slow. It was like being here brought an edge out in him I hadn’t seen since our first night together. Even then we hadn’t done more than fool around. Not that we had time before we were interrupted. But this?—
Will’s kiss was fire, consuming me. A soft breath left me as he squeezed me tight and then drew back, gliding his fingers through my hair.
“Hell, girl. If that’s how you kiss a cowboy, I swear I’ll do anything to come home to that every night,” he rasped.
Dark brown eyes bored into mine as I clung to his shirt. The thought that he was filthy and I was clean struck me, but I didn’t try to get away from him. Somehow, none of it mattered. All I wanted was him closer. I fiddled with the top button on his shirt, flicking at the edges.
A soft laugh tore from him. “Cassie.” His hand closed around mine, stopping the action. “Don’t tease me.”
I looked up at him through my lashes, my breaths fast and shallow. "Who's teasing?”
We never talked about sex, and we only ever took it slow. I didn’t know why. I got the impression that there was nothing virginal about the cute as sin cowboy who every girl at the rodeo loved because he had the looks and the manners to go with the whole package. Everything, except the money.
Good thing for me, that last part didn’t really matter. I figured working for it mattered, and earning from the bottom up mattered. And Will—he worked hard. I might be looking at life from a skewed lens, but even though I came from money, that funding wasn’t always as readily available to me as it seemed.
Will’s hands flexed on my hips. “If this was our place…” He licked his bottom lip, and I remembered the taste of him on my tongue. “Smaller, yeah?” He grinned, and I knew what he meant.Red Hart was grand. Too grand. This was a place to stay. Not make our own.
I offered him a shy smile as my legs shook a little. What started out as a simple tease—what he called me out on—fast turned into a deeper conversation. “Smaller is good,” I whispered. “Smaller is really good."
He watched me carefully. “Even for a rich girl?”
It was the first time he called me out on it. His thumbs never stopped their gentle massage, his touch reassuring. So many things had changed today and I wasn’t sure exactly what he was asking.
“I’m not the person you think I am.” I offered him instead a truth of my own, if ambiguous, wishing he’d place those addictive lips back on mine. My head swirled with need for him while wanting to walk away from the house and keep talking. Wishing we’d talked this way for the whole week.
What did we do for a week of travel?That’s right, we slept, curled in each other’s arms, talked of nothing and everything. All the inconsequential stuff. We built trust and for the first time, I felt less like someone’s possession, someone’s trophy, and just…
Was.
Besides Will, I was just there. And I liked being there with him. That’s what I wanted. What I wanted to keep happening. And in one short day, so much of that had changed.
And some of it hadn't.
“Kiss me?” I begged softly. So quiet that I wasn’t sure I spoke loud enough or even at all until his mouth covered mine in the sort of kiss that relocated entire mountain ranges in a heartbeat.
