Doubt?
Maybe a sex toy would have been more fun, but it was time to fess up. I’d held back too much, too long. That hurt her, and it was nothing that I ever wanted her to experience again. “I’m not here for a visit, Eve. I’m here to stay. If you want me.”
Eve wasn’t the only one with doubts.
“If I want you?” Her laugh had a brittle edge to it that sliced at my heart.
“I don’t have to stay, and I don’t want to take anything away from you,” I murmured, easing back a little. “I’m not here to steal Red Hart away from you. I have my own place, but that’s back in Texas. You know that.”
The gap between us broadened, filled with a weight of guilt I hadn't known I’d carried.
It had taken me far too long to get back to Red Hart, to get back to Eve. Too many hours working, trying to tie everything up perfectly before I left Texas for good. But nothing as ever perfect, could ever be. And now, waiting might have cost me what I’d spent sleepless months working towards.
Eve’s hands gripped me firmly, her nails digging into my shoulders. “You’ll stay?”
It was a half demand, half question, and all Eve.
I wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I resigned my commission. In Texas,” I added helpfully.
Eve’s mouth dropped open. “You gave up being a Ranger?”
That never really happened, but I wasn’t about to burst her bubble.
“I officially handed the unit over to Andy the day I climbed in my truck and drove here to find you.”
Eve shook her head, the rest of her body as stiff as a board. “But Archer, you’ve spent twenty years working on your career there?—”
“A career I’ve fulfilled and pushed as hard as I can.” Nothing I said was a lie.
I’d spent as many sleepless nights in the office chasing an endless stream of cases and furthering the careers of the rangers in my unit as I had hours trying to return to Eve after last Christmas's calamity.
“—and your unit. I know Andy.” She chewed on her lip, looking at me through her hair. “He’s super sweet.”
I grinned at what she didn’t say. Andy Matthews was ‘super sweet.” she’d nailed his personality. But I’d also seen the man develop from a raw Texas Ranger into an authoritarian figure the rest of the unit respected over the last few years.
“I’ve been trailing Andy and Ethan to take dual control. One has the smarts; the other has the heart. They’re both loyal as hell. I have no doubts, Eve.” I traced a cinnamon dark curl that looped beneath her ear, running my fingertip along the line of her chin to draw her mouth to mine. “But it’s okay if you do.”
The curls swayed from side to side as she shook her head, her lips brushing mine. “I don’t. I promise. I didn’t want to push you. And you're just so. Damn. Stoic!” She punctuated each word with a finger poke into my chest.
I raised an eyebrow. “Ma’am, I think you’ve held that stoic card yourself for a while.” Winding my hand around hers where it pressed into my pec, I kissed the tips, then folded her fingers over mine and brought them to my lips. “Hard times, good times. I’m here.”
Eve’s forehead pressed to mine. “Stay. Please,” she whispered. “And thank you. It’s perfect. I have something for you, too. But now might not be the best time.” A shrill giggle escaped her.
“I’m intrigued.” Slipping the recipe book that held most of my family history — birthday cakes, Sunday roasts, bean and chicken lunches that Texas was raised on, Christmas feasts—onto her bedside table, I slid my hands along her back, over the curve of her ass.
“Let me go, Archer.” She wiggled against me.
I let her go with a groan. “Christ, firecracker. You’re a tease.”
“Says the Ranger who invented flirting.”
I opened my mouth to tell her I wasn’t a Ranger any more, but she was gone and it was a moot point.
Laughing softly to myself, I leaned back on her bed, one arm tucked behind my head. My eyes shuttered as the exhaustion of the last two weeks of driving and working the land for her with several partial night’s sleep caught up with me. I was halfway gone when something soft, then not so soft, slammed into my midsection.
“Fuck, Evie,” I muttered, wrapping my hands into her hair as I caught my breath. “You sure know how to kill a man.”
