I smirked, but my voice was soft. “Weird is one word for it. Terrifying is another, but also… kind of nice.” “Yeah, well… I was definitely supposed to play it cool. Keep things casual. But instead, I’m over here knowing the rhythm of your breathingbetter than my own playlist.” He shook his head, grinning. “And there you go; you’ve somehow got me saying stuff I didn’t even know was in me. So…nice ambush, sweetheart.”
I tried to act like my heart wasn’t doing cartwheels. “You really suck at casual, you know, and for the record I love the stuff you say?”
Gunner’s smile was slow and sweet and worth every moment of our rocky past. Every argument, every misunderstanding had led us here.
I felt the warmth of his palm still lingering at my waist. “Seriously though, sweetheart, you did good out there,” he murmured, his voice lower than before. When our eyes met his expression changed, something that made my breath catch. Something that promised so much.
“Uncle Gunner!” Bertie’s yell broke the spell. “Lucas wants to know if he can trot.”
For a moment our gazes were locked, his eyes holding mine for more than one more charged moment before he sighed and stepped back.
“Duty calls,” he said with a rueful smile.
As he turned to rejoin the kids, his hand brushed mine, brief, deliberate, a promise of later when we were going to be alone.
I watched him go, his large body blocking the pale sun casting him in shadow and I felt something settle within me. When he turned and caught me staring, his smile softened and I knew then that it was this ranch, these people—him. Somehow, when I wasn’t expecting it, it felt like I’d found family again.
Chapter 27
Speechless – Dan + Shay
Cassidy
“Damn those kids were excitable,” Gunner said as he passed me a jar of pesto. “I could have cooked, you know?”
I grinned at him over my shoulder. “I know, but I wanted to do it as a thank you for the riding lesson. And yes the kids were excited about the funfair. Even Billy and he probably had no idea where he was going.”
“I think he could sense Bertie and Lucas were about to pop.” Gunner propped his chin on my shoulder. “That looks good. I’m starving.’
“It’s only chicken and pasta.”
“Still looks good.” He gave me a quick kiss on my cheek. “I’ll get the dishes.”
As I emptied some sour cream in, I watched him take two plain white pasta bowls from the cabinet. As he reached up his t-shirt rose giving a hint of tanned back. A thin slither just above the waistband of his briefs. It was also an opportunity to lookat his ass, which was incredible in the soft, worn jeans he was wearing. When we finished the riding lesson and came inside he nipped upstairs to shower, appearing a little later, barefoot and in an old gray t-shirt, and the ends of his hair damp. As he came into the kitchen where I was talking with Lily it had to have been obvious the effect he had on me. I could barely breathe for one.
Continuing to set the table for dinner, his movements were confident and fluid, strong and masculine. He was all man. Deep veined hands that gripped two glasses and placed them on the table. When he filled a water jug from the faucet I couldn’t stop looking at his tanned forearms and the strength in them borne from years working on the ranch.
“I can feel your eyes on me, sweetheart,” he said, his attention still on the water jug.
“Am not,” I lied, warmth filling my belly.
“Yes you are.” He chuckled. “Can’t keep them off me, in fact.”
I turned off the stove and spooned some pasta into each of the bowls, an extra serving for Gunner. Placing them on the table, I went to the oven and pulled out the bread rolls that I was keeping warm.
“Food’s up.”
Gunner pulled out a chair and waved for me to sit down. “After you.”
As I sat, he helped to push my chair closer to the table and then moved around to the other side to take his own seat. When he sat, he gazed down at the bowl of food, inhaling the steam.
“Smells incredible.”
I shook my head. “Seriously, it’s pasta.”
His gaze lifted to mine from beneath dark lashes and my blood heated. My feelings for him had gone from zero to, ‘I need you naked’, in a short time. He had gone from an overbearing idiot to sweet honey.
As we both tucked in, Gunner moaned around his fork. “This ‘seriously, it’s pasta’ is seriously good.”
