Page 32 of Rogue Cowboy
“What’s your paw-paw’s plan?”
Her eyes shone bright with curiosity.“Don’t tell me he’s going to try his hand at matchmaking?”
Her smile charmed him, and her laugh made his evening.
“Pretty much,” he admitted, getting into his story himself.“He and my maw-maw Marie are going to make up these challenges, sort of like a bingo card, and then at the pre rodeo parade and festivities, they are going to have a bachelor auction and the town matches some of my cousins and a few other single cowboys with the new single docs who arrive to work a three- or six-month stint and let the games begin.”
He wondered if it sounded as horrifyingly dumb to Riley as it did to him.She pressed her lush lips together, likely hiding a laugh, and her eyes shone like polished gems, making Cole happy he was sharing the stupid plan.
“I didn’t picture you as a coward, Cole.”She laughed.“Running to me for cover when you could be doing a good deed.”
“I’m not a bachelor,” he said.
“Only technically.”
“I’m not single here.”He touched his chest.
Her eyes widened, and she tripped a little.“Cole,” she whispered.“You have to stop.”
Then she turned on her heel and walked away.Her cute ankle boots, a buttery caramel, clicked down the sidewalk of the historic town’s blocks.Cole could have caught up.Though her stride was long, fast and determined, she was shorter than he was, and he liked this view.Riley was small, very slim, and beautifully made.The way she moved was sexy and compelling, though he knew she wasn’t trying to attract him.
He expected her to cut right past the courthouse and over the footbridge, but instead she turned left and started around the building.
The riverwalk through the park.
Another dip in the river to cool off?It was pretty chilly, and he began to shrug out of his Carhartt farm coat.
Cole cut around the stately courthouse and crossed the lush green lawn, clearly irrigated over the summer—tax dollars at work.He dodged around the crews stringing lights through the trees and setting up a stage and headed down toward the path, pulling up short when he saw her.
Riley had already kicked off her boots and peeled off her socks, which she tucked into the boots.Then she rolled up her jeans and waded into the river, stretching her arms up to the sky and arching her back so that her beautiful platinum waves fell to the small of her back, shining like silver in the starlight.
He held still, not wanting to break the moment.Then he saw the tears, glittering, tracking down her cheeks.
Cole took off his own boots and socks and rolled up his own jeans and waded in.
He didn’t ask permission.He just wrapped his arms around her, and after wanting to hold her for so many years, protect her, cherish her, it felt more like home than he’d ever imagined.
“I can’t do it,” she whispered against his shoulder.“I can’t be a wife.”
His heart clenched at the ache in her voice.“What is it you think a wife is?”
“I… This is going to sound dumb and old-fashioned.But I wanted to be a virgin when I got married.”
Cole nearly choked on his spit, but she had been young when he’d met her.A conservative, small-town, church-going ranch girl, and then she’d gotten stuck.
“And now I’m not, and I can’t…be with anyone ever…again.”
“Ahhh, baby.”He tightened his hold just a little and dragged in a deep breath.Went with his gut.“You were never with anyone, not intimately, not ever.What happened to you was an assault.It was a power play meant to hurt, humiliate, demean.They wanted to feel strong because they aren’t.They wanted to steal your power and your shine.”
Don’t let them.
He wanted to scream it out to the sky, to God, who hadn’t answered his prayers when he’d been a kid, or when he’d been in a firefight somewhere and one of his team members had been hit, and he couldn’t stop the bleeding no matter how many pressure bandages he’d slapped on.
He kissed the top of her head, her hair like silk against his mouth.His lips lingered, and he held his breath, wondering how she’d respond.He didn’t want to scare her, but he needed her to reframe touch.Intimacy.
“It wasn’t sex,” he whispered, drawing the word out.“It wasn’t intimacy, and it was on the other side of the planet from love.”
She jerked in his arms and then settled as he brushed his lips against her temple, her cheek, and then he rested his chin on the top of her head, wanting her to feel safe.Cherished.Desired without expectations.
