“Amber.” My name was a warning. For him? For me?
A truck horn blared outside.
Dalton’s jaw clenched. His hand fell away from my face, but he didn’t step back. We stood there frozen, both breathing too hard, both wanting what we couldn’t have.
The horn blared again.
“That’s Cade with the tractor part,” he murmured.
“Yeah.”
But still, neither of us moved.
His eyes were still on my mouth. His hand was still gripping mine like he was afraid to let go. I could see the rapid pulse beating at the base of his throat, could feel the tension coiling through his entire body.
The horn blared a third time, followed by Cade’s voice. “Hey bro. I could use a hand here.”
The spell broke.
Dalton released my hand and took a step back. Then another. Creating distance between us even though everything about his body language said he didn’t want to. “I need to help Cade.” He stopped. Swallowed hard.
“Yeah.” I turned and walked toward the door on shaking legs, my entire body still humming with unfulfilled want.
“Amber.”
I stopped. Looked back.
He was standing exactly where I’d left him, hands clenched into fists at his sides. For a moment, I thought he was going to say something. Ask me to stay. Pull me back into his arms. Kiss me the way I was desperate for him to kiss me.
Instead, he just shook his head. “Nothing.”
The word felt like a lie.
I walked out into the cold, my skin still burning where he’d touched me, my lips tingling from the ghost of a kiss that hadn’t happened.
This was bad.
This was so bad.
Because I wasn’t just attracted to him anymore. I wasn’t just noticing the way he looked or the way he moved.
I was falling for him.
For a man who’d made it perfectly clear he didn’t want to let anyone in. Who pushed me away every time we got close.
A man who was going to break my heart if I wasn’t careful.
I looked back at the barn. Dalton was standing in the doorway, watching me. Even from this distance, I could see the tension in his shoulders, the rigid set of his jaw, the way his hands were still clenched. Our eyes met across the yard. The air between us felt charged. Electric. Like one spark would set the whole world on fire.
Then he turned and went back inside, and I was left standing there in the cold, aching and wanting and wondering what thehell I was going to do about the cold-hearted cowboy who was making me feel things I’d sworn I wouldn’t feel again.
Did he realize he wasn’t the only one who had a huge dislike of Valentine’s Day and all it stood for?
CHAPTER FIVE
Dalton
I fucking hated coming in from the cold.
