He probably didn’t get any sleep last night. I need to leave anyway. I have my own dinner to eat and an email to send my dad about our progress today. But I am most definitely not telling him about my deal with Wes. Not yet, anyway.
I stand up, and Wes does too. Movement in the front window catches my eye. Jessie waves. I wave back and spot Warner and Wyatt sitting in the living room.
“We have interested eyes,” I murmur, and he chuckles.
“So we do. No time like the present, I guess.” Wes palms my lower back as he walks me out. Warmth spreads through me. It feels like his hand was always meant to be there, which is really annoying because it’s only there for the benefit of people who are almost definitely peeking out of the window watching us.
I look up and my breath sticks in my throat. The sun set while we were talking and now stars blanket the dark sky, shimmering like the sunlight on the lake the day we met.
“I know,” he murmurs. “Stunning, isn’t it? Light pollution doesn’t exist out here.”
We reach my car and I stop, turning back to look at him. “For the record, I can see why you love this ranch. I understand why you’re willing to marry for it.”
His face is partially illuminated by the light shining through the large front windows. “It’s easy to be fooled by the beauty of a night sky, or the sunrise behind the steam curling up from your morning coffee. Loving the ranch doesn’t come from those experiences. Loving the ranch comes from the hardships she puts you through. The dust, the mud, the blistered hands, the aching back from spending a day in the saddle. Never knowing what she’s going to put you through next. She’s beautiful and unpredictable. She’ll knock you flat on your ass and make you fall in love with her on the way down.”
A strand of hair blows across my lips and he tucks it back, leaving his fingertips against the space just below my ear. My breath hitches, but it only serves to madden me. His touch is a ruse, and I need to start remembering that.
“That’s a lot of human traits for an inanimate object,” I say, my voice stilted.
He smirks. “She’s not inanimate. Just look.” He turns me around suddenly and steps into me, catching me with his body and giving me a place to steady myself. He keeps one hand on my hip and his face over my shoulder. Pointing, he says, “Look at her move. Blades of grass swaying in the breeze. Cottonwood leaves shifting.” In the stable, a horse whinnies.
My eyes close and I soak up the late afternoon sun, the breeze, and the man pressed against me. Just this once, and then I’ll stop. But, wait… all this touching me gently and pressing against me, is just an act. And since I’m supposed to be selling our new relationship…
“Wes?”
“Hmmm,” he rumbles, and I feel it everywhere.
I spin around, and I’m still in his arms. “We’re going to have to start hanging out immediately.”
He tenses, then relaxes. “Right.”
“As in, tomorrow night. And every night, if you want it to be believable.”
“I can come by after work and get you. We’ll go somewhere to eat.”
It’s the most depressing planning for a first date in the history of first dates. But I mean, really, how exciting do I expect it to be?
The curtain moves again. Wes’s back is to the house, and he’s so big he covers me completely. I let my arms run up his back and into his hair and press my lips to the space right beside his mouth. Whoever is watching will think we’re kissing. When Wes walks back in there, he’ll be answering some questions.
“Dakota?” His voice is low, asking for me to explain why I’m mauling him this way.
“We have an audience,” I explain.
He clears his throat. “Right.”
I end our fake embrace and open my car door. I’m lifting one foot into the car when his hand encircles my wrist and pulls me into him.
He doesn’t say a word, but he doesn’t have to. His lips brush over mine, and though they are barely touching the electrical current is there. I drag my lips away to suck in a much-needed breath.
“We might as well give them something good to ask me about when I walk back in there.” He lets me go as suddenly as he seized me.
I climb into the car, feeling frazzled. Frankly, I feel like I was just grabbed and kissed. Oh wait, I was.
Before I close the door, he says, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
My body flares with excitement, but I’m careful not to show it.
When I’ve driven far enough away from the house, I let out a wild yell to release some of the adrenaline, then I laugh like a howling, deranged coyote.
