Page 6 of Parading the Cowboy Billionaire (Bluegrass Ranch 4)

“I didn’t.”

“You broke your phone, then.”

“No.”

Ginny’s desperation spiraled out of control, and she couldn’t stop herself from looking at his mouth. Oh, that mouth. It had claimed her so completely, and she couldn’t comprehend what could’ve happened to drive him away.

He’d kissed her like no man ever had, and Ginny wanted him to do it again right now.

Without thinking or second-guessing herself, Ginny put her hands on his shoulders and tipped up onto her toes. She pressed her mouth to his and kissed him, a sob working its way through her stomach.

He stood very still for a moment, then two, then his hands ran up her arms and into her hair. A growl started somewhere in his throat, and his mouth softened, receiving hers and kissing her back.

The rough version of Cayden disappeared after a few seconds, and he turned the kiss sweet and sensual, dragging it on and on until he finally pulled away, his chest heaving as he breathed hard.

Her heartbeat sprinted in her chest, and she couldn’t open her eyes and look at him. If this was all she got of Cayden Chappell, she wanted it to end with a kiss like this. One filled with passion and yet respect, with love and desire, and with all the tenderness of a man who cared about her.

She dropped her hands from his face and opened her eyes, and he cleared his throat and stepped back. She wasn’t going to apologize, because she wasn’t sorry for what had just happened.

“The only other thing I could come up with was that you’d been in a terrible accident and had been in a coma the last few months.” Her voice hardly sounded like hers, especially at the end when her emotions got the best of her.

“Ginny,” he whispered, stepping into her personal space again and gathering her right against his chest.

“Here you are,” she said. “Obviously not in a coma.” She wanted to push him again, but instead, she sank into him. He smelled like leather and horses, sunshine and freshly laundered cotton. Blast Olli for her perfect male scents.

“If I tell you, you have to promise not to do anything.”

“Do anything?” She pulled back enough to look up at him. “What does that mean?”

“You’re going to be very angry.”

Ginny’s pulse pounded, and she needed a clear head to hear what he was going to say.

“Because you obviously don’t know.” He pressed the tips of his fingers together and turned around. “Dear Lord, is this a mistake?” he prayed right out loud.

Ginny watched him with wide eyes, fear running through her now. “Just tell me,” she said. “Because no, I don’t know.”

He took his sweet time turning back to her, and it should be illegal for a man to look as good as he did. Long legs clad in black slacks. Bright blue dress shirt, open at the throat. Dark leather jacket, black cowboy hat, with a little scruff on his face since he hadn’t shaved since that morning.

He wasn’t wearing a tuxedo, but this look was so much better.

He ground his voice in his throat as he removed his hat and put it back on. “Your mother asked me to stay away from you.” He nodded once, like that was that.

Instant fury roared to life within Ginny. “She didwhat? When?”

“At the New Year’s Eve party,” he said. “After we kissed. She said horses and whiskey don’t mix, and that if I respected you at all, I’d break things off between us.”

“I am going to kill her.” Ginny had never felt such rage.

“That’s not quite right,” he said, frowning. “She said if I respected you at all, I’d make sure that that night was the last time we were seen together.”

Ginny didn’t care what wording her mother had used. She’d overstepped her bounds—again. Ginny stepped around Cayden, her destination the mansion in the middle of the family land.

“Whoa, whoa,” he said, darting in front of her and blocking the door. “You’re not going back out there.”

“Yes, I am,” she said calmly. “Get out of my way.”

“I said you couldn’t do anything if I told you.”

---