She turned on her side and reached an arm over his chest, pressing her face against him and inhaling deeply, like she wanted to lose herself in his scent. He knew just how she felt. They had been apart for so long, it seemed as though they had so much catching up to do, so much of this passion to enjoy.
“I can’t believe it took us so long to do this,” she murmured, running her hand over his chest so she could feel the beating of his heart. He couldn’t remember how long it had been since he’d been with someone—since before he came to Warrior Peak, at least—but he hadn’t wanted anyone else, anyway. Only her.
“I know,” he replied. “But you know the trouble it would have gotten us into if we’d done this before.”
“Mmm,” she agreed, and she closed her eyes for a moment. Of course, if they had done this before, he might not have been able to send her away when he needed to. It would have made his eventual betrayal of her—no matter how well-intentioned—hurt even more deeply than it already did. This was the right time for it, the time that made sense, and he was glad it hadn’t happened before now.
“Yeah, everyone would have thought I was sleeping my way to the top,” she remarked, grinning.
“Hey, if you’re that good at it, it would probably have worked,” he joked back.
She burst out laughing, burying her face into the pillow.
“Hey, glad you appreciate my skills,” she said flirtatiously, turning to face him. A huge smile spread over her face as she looked at him, and he raised his eyebrows at her.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Nothing,” she replied, shaking her head. “I just… I just thought about this a lot when we were first working together. I guess I had come to terms with it never actually happening, but…here we are.”
“Here we are,” he agreed, and he reached out to wrap his arms around her and pull her in close. Closing his eyes, he pressed his face into her hair, breathing in the scent of her deeply. Like her, he’d long since had to let go of the thought of something like this ever happening between them, but now it seemed like the most natural thing in the world.
He listened to the sound of her breathing as she began to doze off in his arms, and he just lay there for a while, enjoying the feeling of finally having her in his arms. After all this time, they were both right where they needed to be.
He wasn’t sure how long this newfound peace was going to last. But he would take as much of it as they could before their pasts caught up with them again. If anything, this was only going to bring them closer together, make it easier for them to work alongside each other once more.
His eyelids started to feel heavy as he drifted off to sleep. Contentment settled in for the first time in what felt like forever. All because of her.
Bailey.
Finally, they had cleared the air and were mending what he’d broken all those years ago. They had finally admitted their attraction to each other and were able to act on it.
They’d made their way back to each other, despite everything.
And now, they had to take on the corrupt cops who had driven them apart in the first place.
Chapter Thirteen
“Can you help me with these?” Hannah asked, holding up a bunch of flowers so big she could barely see out over the top of them.
Bailey couldn’t help but smile at how ridiculous she looked, but she nodded at once.
“Of course I can,” she replied, scooping a few of them from her hands. “Where are these going?”
“We’re planting them up next to the paddock,” she explained. “Aaron’s done such great work there, and now that he’s finished, we want to add a splash of color to finish it off.”
“Sounds awesome,” Bailey replied, perking up as soon as she realized it meant she was going to be able to see Wheatie again. And maybe Aaron, too. It had been only a couple of days since their night together, and she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him. But it wasn’t the same confusing mess of emotions she was used to dealing with when it came to him. Instead, it was excitement, the thrill of a new romance, and the incredible heat of their chemistry.
She and Hannah headed out toward the paddock, where the sun was beating down on the fresh green grass sprouting up around the new fences Aaron had put up. They both kneeled down at one corner, laying out the freshly uprooted flowers, ready to replant them—or they would have been, had it not been for Wheatie cantering over to see what they were doing.
“Wheatie, no!” Bailey exclaimed as the horse dipped her head down to take a chomp out of one of the flowers. She chewedthoughtfully for a moment, as though trying to decide whether she liked them or not, and then dived in to take a few bites out of the rest.
“Shoo! Shoo!” Hannah yelled, waving her hands at Wheatie to try and chase her away. But it was no good—the horse had already decimated at least half of the flowers.
“Wheatie, go away!” Bailey told her, but she couldn’t help but laugh at how ridiculous this situation was. Wheatie could fit her head easily through the fence, and as soon as she had laid eyes on the flowers, she had seen her lunch.
“Look, I’ll try to lead her away,” Bailey told Hannah, and she scrambled over the fence, trying to gently direct the horse out of the chaos she was currently causing, but Wheatie just politely brushed her off, as though she was nothing more than an annoyance. Hannah burst out laughing, shaking her head.
“I think it’s a lost cause,” she told Bailey. “Don’t worry about it, we can get more flowers. We just need to have a better defense system against Wheatie next time around.”
