He helps me to my feet, steadying me when my legs wobble. “You okay?”
“My dignity might never recover, but otherwise yes.” Looking down, I start absently dusting off the dirt from the well.“When you said ride…?” I add with a pointed look at his horse.
“Well, your car’s probably a mile or so back, you could walk…” He pauses, that mischievous glint appearing in his eyes. “Or… I could give you a ride?”
A longing to pull him close and drown in his scent makes me weak. And against all the better choices—all the little voices telling me to say no, to proceed with caution, to keep my distance—I don’t.
“Sure.”
Even though there’s absolutely no reason our fake-dating arrangement requires private time together, a thrill of anticipation races through me anyway.
SIXTEEN
jake
Charlie: You need to talk to her. Really talk to her.
Jake: I know.
Beau: All of it. No half-truths this time.
Jake: What if she can’t forgive me?
Charlie: She’ll forgive you…
Charlie: But even if she doesn’t, at least you’ll know where you stand.
Beau: It’s not hard.
Jake: Easy for you to say. You didn’t break her heart.
Charlie: No, but we’ve all got shit to make up for.
Beau: Whatever happens, rookie… don’t fuck it up.
Jake: Great. Thanks, asshole. That really made me feel better.
Charlie: For fuck’s sake, just say you’re sorry. It’s not that hard.
“Mine,my Alpha hums in my chest, watching the play of emotions on her beautiful face as she tries to keep it blank.
She pulls her bottom lip between her teeth—a tell she has when she’s trying to put her emotions in order. But all I can think about is how her lips used to taste, how she felt beneath me, how it felt to be inside her.
Fuck, it’s killing me. I can’t stop the wave of need that races straight to my cock and my heart and all the other places.
I just want her. All of her.
Now, as I watch her bend down to brush off the last of the dirt from her jeans, I don’t know how I ever pretended that there was any other person for me. My Alpha knows it, like a surety. She is it for me.
“What’s with that look?” she asks as her eyes meet mine.
I just shrug, because fuck if I know how to put what’s churning around inside me into words. So instead, I walk toward the big paint I rode out here. I swing up onto Pato’s back and am pleased to see she followed me.
“Yeah, the east fence. I need to check it anyway after that storm last week. No one’s had eyes on it yet.”
“Jake, I really should?—”
“Should what? Go back to the clinic? Wouldn’t you rather take a scenic detour, help me check the fence, and maybe talk a little?”
