I melted into him, my hands sliding up his chest, my fingers tangling in the hair at the nape of his neck. He groaned into the kiss, his body pressing closer, and I could feel him hardening against my thigh.
Then he pulled back, just enough to rest his forehead against mine. “We should talk about last night.”
A flicker of unease ran through me. “If you’re about to tell me it was a mistake?—”
“It wasn’t a mistake.” His thumb kept moving, slow and deliberate. “But we did figure something out about the land, and about the horses.”
I exhaled, some of the tension leaving my body. Right. The ledger. Bad Habit. The missing piece that connected everything. “We did.”
His hand stilled. “You think your family knows?”
I considered it. “If they do, they’ve never said anything. But Lois knew. She had to.” I thought of the empty file folder, the careful labels, the way my aunt had always been more observant than she let on. “She was looking into it. That’s why she left me the house. The land. She wanted me to find it.”
Torin was quiet for a moment. Then, “You’re not just settling an estate, Claire.”
I met his gaze. “No. I’m not.”
Something passed between us… an understanding, maybe. Or the weight of what we’d uncovered. The feud, the land, the way the town had built its stories on half-truths. And now we had proof. Proof that could change things.
Torin’s hand slid down, his fingers tracing the curve of my waist, then lower, over my hip. “What happens now?”
I should’ve been thinking about the land and the records. The way this would ripple through Mustang Mountain. But with his touch burning against my skin, his body warm and solid against mine, I couldn’t focus on any of that.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “But right now? I don’t care.”
His mouth found mine again, harder this time, his tongue sweeping in with a hunger that matched my own. I rolled toward him, my leg hooking over his hip, my body pressing against his. He was already hard, his cock thick against my stomach, and when I rocked against him, he groaned, his hands gripping my hips.
“Claire—”
I nipped at his lower lip. “We’ll figure it out later.”
He didn’t argue. Just flipped me onto my back, his body covering mine, his mouth trailing down my neck, past my collarbone, and over the swell of my breasts. I arched into him, my fingers digging into his shoulders, my breath coming faster as his teeth grazed my nipple.
“You’re gonna kill me,” he muttered against my skin.
I laughed, the sound turning into a gasp as his hand slid between my legs, his fingers finding me already wet, already ready. “Then it’ll be a good way to go.”
He growled, his mouth crashing back to mine as his fingers worked me, slow and deep, until I was writhing beneath him, my hips lifting off the bed. I reached for him, my hand wrapping around his cock, stroking him in time with his touch.
He pulled a condom from the nightstand where he’d set an extra the night before and rolled it on with a speed that made my pulse spike. Then he was back, his body settling between my thighs, the head of his cock pressing against me.
“Are you sure this is what you want?” he murmured, his voice rough.
I wrapped my legs around him, pulling him closer. “Yes.”
He thrust into me in one deep stroke, filling me completely, and I cried out, my nails raking down his back. He didn’t stop. Couldn’t stop. His hips moved in a rhythm that was almost brutal, each thrust driving me higher.
The world narrowed to the way his body moved inside mine, to the way he was watching me like I was the only thing that mattered.
I came with a broken cry, my body clenching around him, and he followed with a groan, his release tearing through him as he kissed me like he never wanted to let me go.
I didn’t want him to.
I pressed a kiss to his chest, my fingers tracing the steady beat of his heart. “We should probably get up.”
“Why?”
I smiled against his skin. “Because if we don’t, we’ll just keep doing this.”
