I reach out, brushing a piece of wind-tossed hair from her cheek. "Then stop pretending."
She doesn’t hesitate. She grabs the front of my shirt, pulls me in, and kisses me like she means it.
It’s not soft. It’s not careful. It’s months of tension snapping in an instant. Her hands fist in my collar, my arms wrap around her waist, and the world tilts on its axis.
My back hits the door of the storage room and she presses against me, lips fierce and searching. I taste her frustration, her confusion, her desire, and I give all of it back.
When we finally break apart, both of us breathless and a little stunned, she stares at me like she’s just crossed some kind of line.
"I shouldn’t have done that," she whispers.
"Want me to pretend it didn’t happen?" I say with a smirk.
She hesitates. Then shakes her head slowly. "No. I want to do it again."
And this time, when she kisses me, it’s slower. Deeper. Like maybe we’re both starting to believe in something neither of us wanted to admit. Fireworks from the Rodeo are going off overhead like a sign.
Maybe, just maybe, we’re done fighting this thing between us. She turns and looks at me and says, "so, what are you going to do with me now?"
Chapter twelve
Rodeo & Fireworks
Avery
Fireworks are still going off. His lips taste like heat and adrenaline and every bad idea I ever wanted to make twice. My fingers are tangled in the front of his shirt, the fabric warm and slightly rough beneath my palms, grounding me in the heat of the moment. I don’t want to let go. Not now. Maybe not ever.
The shadows behind the rodeo grounds horse barn wrap around us, dimming the world until it’s just him and me and the storm we’ve been fighting since the day I stepped back onto the ranch.
My chest rises and falls too fast, every breath an echo of want. Cash’s eyes are dark, dangerous, but there’s a softness too, one that’s new. One that scares me.
I take a shaky step back, trying to catch my breath. “That was…”
He raises an eyebrow, lips curved with amusement. “Unexpected?”
“Intense,” I counter, voice barely above a whisper.
We’re standing too close. Or maybe not close enough. My back brushes against the cool wooden wall of the tack room. He moves with me, one hand settling on the door beside my head like he’s holding the moment still.
“Let's go home,” he says, low and gruff.
I should tell him no. That this is reckless and messy and nothing good ever comes from kissing your grumpy ranch foreman behind a barn. But I don’t. Because my heart is pounding for all the right reasons. Because his closeness feels like clarity.
I pull out my phone with slightly shaking hands and send Harper a quick message, asking her to bring Emmy home with her and I let her know that we are leaving. She text back with a big YEE HAW!!
My heart hammers in my chest as the weight of what’s about to happen settling over me like a warm, terrifying blanket. I ride home with Cash.
We end up back in our barn on the ranch. His hands cupped my face, thumbs brushing my cheeks, and in that moment, I saw it, a crack in the armor, a glimpse of the man beneath the stoic exterior. Vulnerability flickered in his eyes, a rare gift he offered only to me. I felt the weight of it, the trust it implied, and my heart stuttered in response.
This man, who commanded respect with every stride, who could silence a room with a single glance, was laying himself bare for me.
And I wanted to honor that, to give him everything I had in return. Our lips met again, the kiss deepening, heat spiraling between us. It wasn’t frantic, not desperate, but molten, a slow burn that threatened to consume us both.
His hands slid down, gently removing my clothes, then his, guiding me back onto the horse blankets spread across the hay. The rough texture scratched against my skin, a stark contrast to the tenderness of his touch.
He moved with a deliberate slowness, as if memorizing every curve, every freckle, every breath I took. His fingers traced the line of my jaw, the curve of my shoulder, the swell of my breast, each touch a silent vow.
I shivered, not from the cool night air seeping through the barn’s walls, but from the intensity of his gaze. He was seeing me, truly seeing me, and it felt like he was peeling back layers I didn’t even know existed.
