Page 39 of Charming the Cowboy
“I’m not sure if you’re trying to talk me into this or out of it.”
“Neither,” she said. She sighed. “Well, out of it. I just don’t want you to think that you’re sparing me because I’m fragile. But also, you can’t have me. Because nobody can.”
He reached across the space, and suddenly, she found herself being hauled out of her seat. There were people there, just a few feet away at the next bonfire, and he jerked her onto his lap, cupping the back of her head. “Let me tell you something,” he said. “I don’t believe in curses. And even if I did, I wouldn’t let it tell me what to do.” Then he cupped the back of her head and closed the distance between them. He kissed her.
She’d been kissed before. But never like this. His kiss was like something out of a movie. Something out of the steamiest romance novel you could imagine. His mouth was firm and hot. His lips a revelation. She thought that maybe she was dying. He slid his tongue against hers, and her stomach went into a freefall.
He was kissing her like he didn’t care if people knew. Kissing her like she was precious. Kissing her like he had something to prove, and so far, a wave hadn’t taken them away, a seagull hadn’t pooped on them, nothing disastrous had happened.
She wanted it to go on and on forever. She didn’t want it to ever stop.
But they were in public, so they really did have to stop. She pulled away from him, and took a deep breath, she thought her heart was going to beat out of her chest. “Oh,” she said.
“Do you want this?” he asked.
“You just gave me a hundred reasons that I’m not allowed to want it, and that you’re not going to let me have it, so why should I answer that question?”
He fixed his gaze on her, clear and focused in the firelight. “Because I’ve decided. I’m going to break that goddamned curse.”
Chapter Seven
She could only stare at him, her heart going crazy, her whole body buzzing. “You… you can’t! No one can!”
“None of those other men could. But I can.”
“And what makes you think that?”
“Because. Because I wanted you for a long time, you’re right. That time the horses got out when we were talking… I wanted to kiss you. I was about to kiss you. I’m going to take the horses back to the ranch. I’m going to put them away. And then I’m going to book us into the Remington Suites, because you and I are going to spend the night together.”
“What?”
“You heard me. I’m going to book us there because then nothing can bother us. If the horses get out, not my problem. If there’s a seagull tangled up in your Christmas lights, we won’t know about it. You’re going to turn off your phone, I’m going to turn off mine.”
“Godzilla is going to rise out of the sea and eat us.”
“Nope. That’s not going to happen.”
He was staring at her, intense. Intent.
And she felt like she was under his spell. She did want this. She wanted it more than she wanted her next breath.
“What am I supposed to do for the next half-hour while I wait for you?”
“Pack an overnight bag, and work on a list of fantasies.”
Oh, she didn’t have to work on a list. She had them. All of them. She knew exactly what she wanted from him. Because this had been something that was part of her desire for a very long time. It wasn’t new.
But then, there was always the risk that he was going to get in a car accident before he got back to pick her up. Oh. Was he going to pick her up from her house?
“Are you just going to… come over and…?”
“Yes,” he said.
There was something so sure and determined in his voice that it made everything inside of her shimmer. “Well, what are my mom and grandma going to think?”
“Probably think that you and I are going to spend the night together.”
“Marcus might kill you.”
