“Lay lines maybe. Mineral deposits. Not my thing.”
It’s not his words that intrigue but the spaces between them.
“Will you at least stay for lunch?” I counter, feeling down to my bones the rightness of his presence, though I can’t explain why.
“Staying is dangerous.”
“So is rambling. Besides, I haven’t given you the full ranch tour yet,” I say, raising my chin defiantly.
“Don’t matter how fancy your bunkhouse is, Miss,” he says too fast.
“Oh, that old thing. You wouldn’t stay there. The house has a guest bedroom. Much nicer.”
“The barn. I can sleep there. Or maybe the stables.”
“Never,” I protest, throat tightening.
He lowers his voice. “You don’t know what you’re asking for.”
I don’t know if it’s machismo or something else. It emboldens me. “I do.”
That hits him hard enough to steal his breath.
He leans back into the chair, crossing his arms. “Still growing alfalfa on the back forty?”
“Maybe you’re the one who should be giving the tour,” I say before thinking.
Silence hangs, thick between us.
“You don’t want that.”
But he doesn’t push back his chair or round the table. He doesn’t walk away either. Instead, he stares at me hard, deliberate as if he’s trying to figure something out between us.
Heat curls low, twisting my belly when our eyes meet again.
“Lunch. But that’s it.” It comes out unmovable.
“Fair enough,” I answer, already sensing he’s staying, even if he won’t admit it.
Chapter
Seven
KAEL
“You look like you could fall asleep,” the woman across from me croons.
The words slide beneath my skin. Not used to being noticed. Not used to caring when I am.
I pat my stomach, leaning back in the chair. “Can’t recall the last time I ate that well.”
A pleased smile captures her thick, pink lips. God, I can’t look at them, my ruin.
The throb pulses through me again, skin heated, fire threading through the veins of light. It’s enough to put a man in his grave. Maybe that’s what makes me want to stay.
Or maybe it’s the way the sunlight through the curtains casts a faint, golden glow across her cheeks, making her freckles dance.
Our eyes meet, hers dark and warm like molasses. That’s when I realize she’s caught me staring.
