Page 16 of Claimed By A Cowboy
His words hit me like blows to the chest. One right after the other. Knocking the wind out of me. I cannot breathe. I push at his shoulders, dropping my legs from his hips. He backs up, letting me stand on my own two feet.
Wylder watches me the way he watches the scared horses. Afraid I am going to buck him off. Going to race away from him when he reaches out to touch me. And I am ashamed that I feel like a frightened horse. I pull back when he reaches for me, closing my top with shaking hands.
“Who do you think you are, cowboy?”
“No one, honey. I am no one really. At least, not to anyone else. I could be somebody for you, if you wanted me.”
Wylder watches me for a moment, earnestly offering himself to me. I do want him. I would love a thousand more days like today. Us riding into the sunset, quite literally, getting dirty on the ranch together. I have never stopped long enough to even imagine something like that.
“What do you want from me? What is this?”
“Honey, I wantyou,” he husks gently, coming closer to me again, sliding his hands around my wrists. He brings my hands to his mouth, gently kissing the palms roughened by the work we did today. Flattening them to his chest, he puts them over his heart. “I want you to stop running for just a little while. Just long enough to give me a chance to be something to you. To be somebody that can matter to you.”
I take a step closer, drawn into his warmth the way I have been since we met yesterday. How was it just yesterday that I found this man? That he found me? Can I do this? Could I just stop running from the loneliness that has chased me for so long?
“I…I don’t know how to, Wylder. Even if I want to. I have never…I have never been in one place more than a few weeks. What if this changes in a few weeks? What if this is all it is, this pull between us, the two of us wanting one another? What if in a few weeks, it’s not enough?”
“It would be enough for me, honey. Even if it’s just a few weeks with you, they would be the best weeks of my life. I know it could be more. I have never felt the way I do when I am with you.”
“What if….what if it was not enough?”
Wylder looks at me for a moment, head tilted as he really hears my words. I don’t know how to be with someone. I don’t know how to share my life with another person. I have spent most of my life on the run, he called it. And I don’t know how to just stop. How to just stand still.
“I don’t know how to do this,” I whisper, going to him, my hand cradling his face. “I wish I could, for you, Wylder. I wish I knew how to be what you need.”
Pushing up on my toes, I press a kiss to his mouth. He lets out a painful sound, his hands grasping my arms. He tries to hold me close, tries to keep me in his arms. I push away gently, my head bowed in shame as I walk away.
Back at my bunkhouse, I am thankful it is empty. Maybe all the other girls who shared the space with me found the same thing I am walking away from with Wylder. Lying in bed, I pretend I am fine. I pretend that I will still be fine when I leave this place tomorrow.
Until the tears come. Then for a little while, I stop pretending I am fine.
Wynn tours the entire place with Wylder, pitching in and getting dirty. At the barn they have a hot moment but she pulls back.
Chapter Eight
Wylder
Walking away from the hard stuff is what I am good at.
After I was sent to jail, I walked away from all the people who had betrayed me. I walked away from the town and the home I had grown up in. I walked away from the man I had become who risked everything.
On the rodeo circuit, I could have been really great. I was good with the horses, I was good with the bulls. I was not good with the attention or the party lifestyle. I walked away just from a seven-figure contract because I had gotten tired of it all.
Walking away from what I have just found with Wynn is not a possibility. Even if she is scared, hell even if I am scared—because I am, this woman makes me question everything I thought I knew—I won’t give up on it. I won’t give up on a chance at us having something special.
Wynn has spent most of her life running. I guess in a way, I have too. I never stuck it out when things got too hard. No matter how far we both ran, we found ourselves just as alone, just as lost as we’ve always been.
“Wynn is scared,” I whisper to Hyde as I brush her out after Wynn stormed off on me. “I am too. Just like you, sweetheart. Afraid to let someone get too close. Afraid if they get too close, they have all the power. To hurt us. To let us down.”
Sighing, I give her the last apple in my pocket, smiling when she makes a pleased nicking sound. As soon as she finishes it, she nudges at me. I chuckle and rub between her ears, but she nudges me again. Hard. I frown before I realize the horse is smarter than I am.
“I’m going girl, you convinced me.”
Just as I step one boot out of the barn, it starts pouring. The skies were crystal clear all day. Grinning against the downpour, I run across the fields towards the bunkhouse. Throwing the door open, I take a moment to catch my breath as the rain pours behind me.
“Oh! Wylder, it is awful out there, come inside,” Wynn urges, jumping from her bed to cross the room towards me.
Two big steps close the distance between us. I gather her up in my arms, lifting her off her feet. Her soft little gasp makes my dick jerk. I want her and she wants me. I know we can have more than one night, more than just a few weeks.
