Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 63469 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 317(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63469 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 317(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
I had a feeling we were talking about more than his body, but I had a confession. “Maclain?”
“Yes, honey,” he said gruffly as he ground into me, deep, increasing his rhythm, stroking me faster, his breath hitching.
“I like it like this.” The words tumbled out of me as I came over his fingers and wrist. “I love it like this.”
NINE
In the morning I woke up sore everywhere, but it was amazing, the change to my outlook when I lifted my head up off Mac’s chest to look into his gorgeous eyes.
“Yeah, all right,” I allowed, grinning at him. “This is the best way to start a day ever.”
And he kissed me, morning breath and all, and even better, hugged me tight to his heart and buried his face in my hair.
“Monday afternoon around six I need you there, on the Red, when I come in from the stockyard.”
“I wouldn’t miss it.”
“You swear?”
He was worried that away from him I would change my mind about us, and that was a slice of heaven right there because it was me who mattered and that was brand sparkling new.
“Yes, baby, I’ll be there.”
“Oh yeah, that’s good. I will most certainly be your baby.”
“So tell me, where’s your family? I’ve always wanted to know.”
He brushed my hair back from my face. It was already getting to be a habit of his, even in so short a time. “When I told everyone at home in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, that I was bi, they wasted no time in throwing me off the ranch.”
I drew him into my arms and squeezed him tight because what words could I offer him that would come close to helping?
He sighed, cuddling tight. “I suspect that if my mother were alive, that would not have been the case, but she passed when I was ten, and that was the last we saw of my father’s heart. I think he buried it with her.”
He and I had so much more in common than I could have ever guessed. “Jesus, Maclain, I’m so sorry.”
“It’s all right. Sheridan Gentry has five other sons to take care of him, so he ain’t missing me.”
“I would,” I blurted out, tipping his head back to kiss him. “Miss you.”
It was scary how ready we both were to belong to another person, to start a relationship. It was like we’d both been waiting for the other to notice that forward, together, was the place we both wanted to go.
“Well, what I’m hoping is that we’ll get to where missing me will never cross your mind because you can’t even imagine letting me go at all.”
“I don’t think you have to worry about us getting there.”
His smile was wicked. “Well, well, now, ain’t we a pair, gettin’ attached so fast.”
Fast was an understatement, so the time apart after Everett picked me up to take me back to the ranch was probably a good thing.
Later that afternoon, as Everett’s truck sped away, I felt…wrong. The goodbye hadn’t been good. I’d thought…well, it was stupid what I’d thought, but overthinking was my specialty, and on top of that, I never did it just for me. I made certain to overthink for everyone else as well. So even though Mac never said that we should keep things under wraps and not tell anyone, that was what I assumed he’d want. Those words had never passed his lips, yet somehow I ended up assuming for both of us based on nothing, because clearly, I was a crazy person. But in my defense, I’d gone to Mac’s tent one way the night before, and left with him the next morning, for breakfast, a completely changed person. So instead of saying all that when I left, I blurted out things like not wanting to pin him down, and keeping things quiet for now, and that he was free to change his mind about anything.
His scowl was dark. “I know I can,” he grumbled, speaking to me like I was nuts. “I don’t need your permission to make my own choices.”
“Yeah, no, I know,” I agreed, not even sure what I was saying at that point. “I just don’t want you to think that I would hold you to anything you said after sex.”
“But you should,” he said, his voice hard. “Because I meant it.”
“It’s important that you know you have an out.”
“Why would I want that?” He was exasperated by that point, and I was only trying to be thoughtful, to put his needs before mine.
But as we drove away, it hit me that all my words could have been interpreted like I was the one who wanted an out, when that was not at all my intent.
“Stop,” I told Everett. “I need to go back.”
He whimpered because he wanted to get home to his family. “Why?”