By ninety, my brain has decided to replay every moment Caleb spoke tonight. Quietly. Thoughtfully. Like each word cost him a lot.
By seventy, I’m imagining what else he might say if he ever stopped holding back.
By fifty, I’m restless enough to kick the blankets off.
At some point, exhaustion sneaks up on me and drags me under.
The last half-lucid thought I have is that my brain should be fixating on the actual problem. The one-night stand with Silas, who I now have to eat breakfast across from, or the fact that my new boss is tall, stern, and exactly the kind of authority figure I swore I’d never fall for again.
Instead, I’m in the barn.
The moonlight spills through the open doors, catching on saddles, railings, and coiled ropes, turning everything into silver and shadow. The floor is cool beneath my bare feet. The air tastes of hay and horse and soap.
Caleb.
I don’t know how I got here. My breathing is too loud. My pulse thrums high in my throat.
“Delaney.”
His voice comes from behind me.
Low. Rough. A command more than a word.
I turn.
Caleb stands in the aisle, half in shadow, sleeves shoved to his elbows, throat exposed, hair falling messily over his eyes like he’s been running a hand through it too many times.
He looks… wrecked by restraint.
And I’m the thing he’s restraining against.
My spine hits a stall door I didn’t realize I was backing toward.
“You shouldn’t be here,” I whisper.
He steps closer, the floor creaking under his boots as if it can barely take his weight.
“Probably not,” he says.
Another step.
“But you are.”
His presence hits me, solid, consuming,hungry. The barn shrinks around him.
“You’re off limits,” I try again.
He huffs a soft laugh. “You keep saying that.”
He stops just in front of me, tall enough that I have to tilt my head a little to meet his gaze. His eyes drag over me, down my throat, down the line of my shirt, down to my bare toes, and back up.
Heat pricks over my skin.
“I haven’t said it out loud,” I murmur.
“You don’t need to.” His voice dips, dark and smooth. “Your body says it.”
I open my mouth, but he’s already lowering his hand toward my face.
