As if he can feel me thinking about him, Wyatt rides up like I conjured him with my thoughts.
“Hate to break up the party with your boyfriend here,” he says, lifting his chin toward Lucifer. “But I was hoping we could take a ride.”
I can’t even pretend to contain my excitement. “Yeah? Where are we riding to?”
He jerks his head toward the mountain range. “Up to the summit. It’s the highest point on the property. It’s a long ride and kind of rough but you can see the entire ranch from there.”
“I can handle kind of rough,” I tell him with a flirty grin.
He grins back. “Don’t I know it.”
I’m so excited, I do a little happy dance as I wait for him to saddle a horse for me. I try to talk him into letting me ride Lucifer, who I’ve began calling Lou for short, because let’s face it, Lucifer is a villain’s name and my sweet, wounded boy is no villain. He’s just guarded. But Wyatt insists on saddling Sunny for me.
At the base of the mountain, he pauses beside what looks like a large pond next to a smaller one.
“When we were kids, we’d jump over the creek, into the pond from the rope swing,” he tells me, nodding toward higher ground. “Even when it was freezing. Luckily there’s a hot spring.”
“A hot spring? Show me.”
“It’s right there, near that grove.”
“I meant, show me, as in let’s get in it.”
He frowns. “You’re serious?”
I nod. “I’ve only got so much time left,” I say softly. “I want to experience everything.”
With you.
He sighs softly but ties his horse’s lead line to a tree, then helps me off of Sunny and shows me to the small spring. It’s barely the size of the hot tub on the cabin’s back porch. From the surface, steam rises in slow tendrils, twisting into the cooler mid-morning air.
When I turn back to look at Wyatt, he’s standing at the edge like he’s contemplating making a run for it.
I grin and start to strip my clothes off. “Come on, rancher. Live a little.”
“I live plenty.” His arms are crossed, biceps flexed. He looks deliciously stubborn, lips pressed in a firm line, his dark eyes locked on me, like he’s trying to outlast whatever spell I’m casting on him.
He’s stubborn, but there’s a crack in his resistance as he eyes my naked body. A sliver of temptation I can see in the way his gaze dips, trailing over my bare skin as I lower myself into the warm water.
“Suit yourself.” I let my fingers glide over the surface of the water, stretching like I don’t have a single care in the world. “I mean, I figured a big, tough guy like you wouldn’t be scared of a little skinny-dipping.”
His jaw tics. “I’m not scared of skinny-dipping.”
His fingers twitch at his sides, like he’s warring with himself, and then—finally—he lets out a low curse and tears off his shirt. I watch closely as he undoes the fly of his jeans, then removes his boots. His jeans and briefs are discarded in one fluid motion.
It’s not the first time I’ve seen him naked, but the sight of his bare chest, smooth skin, ridges of muscle sculpted by years of hard work steals the breath from my lungs.
When my eyes fall on his dick—thick, proud, and perfectly proportional to his massive body—I nearly forget to breathe.
He watches me watching him, shaking his head, like he knew this would happen. Like he knew the second he gave in, I’d eat him alive with my eyes. I quickly look away, biting my lip to suppress the giddy laugh bubbling up in my throat. The water ripples as he steps in, hissing under his breath when the heat sinks into his muscles. He moves toward meslowly, dark eyes locked on mine, and suddenly, the teasing edge between us shifts into something heavier.
Something more.
My pulse kicks up as he stops just in front of me, water swirling between us.
Reaching up, I run my fingers over his jaw, feeling the rough scrape of stubble beneath my palms. His breath catches, his eyes darkening with something dangerous.
I wrap my legs against his waist, rocking my core against his solid length. I feel like a teenager—no, better than a teenager because I wasn’t allowed to have this back then. But here and now, I can. And I want it—want this—so damn bad.