Page 28 of Breaking the Cowboy's Rules

She liked the sound of that. It was both thrilling and scary.

“Such as?”

“What’s your pleasure? We have a week in what I consider to be my hometown. Ballantynes have been in Marietta five generations. We aren’t founding families but nearly so.”

He, too, had a long legacy that spun out behind him, anchoring him, but he seemed proud, wanting to plant his roots deeper, help his family. She had chafed against her family expectations underneath where no one could see, and when the chips were down, as her mother told her scathingly, she’d turned on them, bitten the hands that fed her.

And she’d run.

Bodhi wanted to stay. So again, what could she possibly teach this beautiful man?

“Have you decided what you want from me this week?”

“Fun. To live in the moment. Experience Montana.”

“Good thing we’re getting started.”

“I’m a visitor here, and you set the parameters of the game, so what’s next?” Nico bounced up on her toes, feeling ready for just about anything.

“Tonight? I thought we’d start with letting me show off one of my masculine skills of stone skipping, then scientific knowledge of stargazing, accompanied by my planning ahead for sophisticated Spanish coffee sipping.” He spread out his arms, palm up as if offering himself up as a gift.

She wanted to unwrap him. Bodhi was disturbingly tempting. Sexy in a way she didn’t usually find men. She’d always thought something had been missing in her body chemistry, but maybe, just maybe, her heart gave a happy hop, it was the men who had been lacking.

“Then if you’re willing, I thought I could take you for a plotting breakfast where we can make our Rodeo Bride Game rules.”

“So we can break them.”

“You don’t seem like a rule breaker to me,” he said, curling a lock of her hair around one finger.

“Perhaps that’s a skill you can teach me this week.”

“My pleasure.”

“And my pleasure will be learning about the very masculine art of skipping stones,” she reminded him.

His eyes lit with amusement. Nico felt like they were in on the same joke. She felt part of something. No longer on the outside.

“Find a stone,” he said. “It needs to be flat, fairly even, and fit in your palm so that you can hold the edge with the cradle of your thumb and forefinger.”

That was pretty specific. Bodhi and she used their flashlight apps to find a collection of stones.

“Now what?” she asked eagerly.

He demonstrated the hold and helped her adjust without taking any advantage or turning the moment sexual. Apparently, when Bodhi went into teacher mode, he was focused.

What would it be like to have him instruct her in more sensual arts? Nico’s body stirred. What would make him ache with desire? Did she have the confidence to find out?

Her mouth dried when his hand skimmed over hers as he adjusted her hold. Was she really going to go there—she who always felt too awkward, too tense, too self-conscious to enjoy sex—and try to seduce Bodhi? Go from the boardroom to the bar then the bedroom?

Anxiety burbled in her stomach. It would be better to play it safe, be enigmatic, the one who got away—not the one who bored him in bed.

He showed her how to stand facing the smooth lake at a slight angle, one leg forward, foot planted, weight distributed on her back foot.

“Pull your arm back like you’re going to throw a sidearm pitch,” he instructed.

“Okay.” Nico licked her top lip, nervous. Did everyone know how to throw a sidearm pitch but her?

He lined up her body. “Stay loose.”

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