His mouth pulls tight.
“Hey, really, it was nothing.”
“Does Summer talk to you like that?”
“What?No!Of course she doesn’t.”
“And Aunt Phyllis?”
“No.Okay, so Yosemite Ranch is different than the real world.”
“It is?”He raises his eyebrows.
“Yes.It’s perfect.And anyway, those women think you’re hot.”
He winces.“I dated them both in high school.Maybe even at the same time.”
I laugh.“Well, there you go.That explains why they don’t like me.”
He tips his head in curiosity.
“No, of course I didn’t say anything.I just think—”
“You’re too beautiful.They’re jealous because you’re just too fucking beautiful.And you know fancy French words.”He strokes my hair.“Tell me one.”
“Um, crème fraiche?”
“Holy shit, that’s sexual.”I feel his hot hand slide up under my shirt and press into the flat of my belly.He pulls down the elastic neck of my peasant blouse and leaves a string of nibbles on my shoulder, my neck.I throw my head back and surrender to him.
“You better hurry and get me back to the ranch,” I tell him.
Somebody honks their horn at us.I have no idea how long the light’s been green.
CHAPTER 55
Finn
Perfect.
That’s what she said.She thinks Yosemite Ranch is perfect.And since I’m part of the ranch, does she think I’m perfect, too?
I look over at her pretty face lifted to the sunshine, her hair whipping behind her in the wind, and I can’t help but feel Emma’s holding something back from me.What we’ve been doing together goes beyond sex and squarely into intimacy.I know her—what she tastes like on my tongue, the look in her eyes when she’s about to cum all over me, the whimpers she sometimes makes in her sleep.
I can’t deny that I have feelings for her.I think it’s the same for her.But that doesn’t change the fact that overall, she’s still unknown to me.
That she’s not telling me the whole story.
I turn the SUV off the main road from town onto a dirt road just beyond the ranch’s gate.Emma remains silent, staring out the window as I go about forty along the rough vehicle trail through the wilderness.We bounce and shake our way north.
She doesn’t ask where I’m taking her because she trusts me.
I’m not sure what to do about that, since she’s not the only mystery.
I haven’t been completely honest with her either.In Emma’s mind, I’m perfect.And that’s not anywhere near true.
She knows about Amy, how she died in childbirth.And she knows how it crushed me, left me not knowing what end was up in my life.But I haven’t told her about my culpability in Amy’s death.
She needs to know just how far from perfect I really am.
