“Fine then, I don’t want to talk about it.”
She clenched her teeth. “Well, that’s too bad. You can’t give me the silent treatment without telling me why. It’s not fair.”
“Is that so?”
“It’s an unwritten rule. You’re supposed to tell me what’s wrong, I apologize, and then you’re not mad anymore. That’s the way it works.”
He gave her a withering look. “Drop it, Charlie.” His tone was deadly quiet.
“No, I won’t drop it because—”
And then he was there. His lips crashed into hers, demanding, delicious. His hands swept over her face. Strong fingers threaded through her hair. He was all over her. Inside her, outside her, and still she couldn’t get close enough to him. She pressed in.
A volt of electricity ran through her, making her dizzy and dumb. Within seconds her breaths came in gasps. Her heart fought to burst from its confines. His touch was wild and wonderful. She’d never felt so alive, so charged.
He jerked away.
She whimpered, so far gone she didn’t even regret the needy sound.
Their breaths fell heavily in the quietness of the stable. Their shoulders heaved. The air between them crackled with tension. He’d put a good foot between them. It wasn’t enough. It was way too much.
His eyes pierced hers, holding her hostage. “It’s not like it is with you and me.”
Her head was spinning. Her body throbbing. She couldn’t think past the residual sensations. Good heavens, what in the world had he done to her? She gave her head a shake, trying to make sense of what he’d just said. “What—? What do you mean?”
“You know exactly what I mean. There’s no chemistry between you and him.”
From some other corner of the universe, the memory of Kyle’s kiss—Kyle’s bland, meaningless kiss—materialized. “You—you don’t know that.”
He pinned her with an unswerving look.
He could read her as easily as he read the horses. She flushed hot. Had he seen that good-night kiss on the porch? Was that what had gotten him so riled?
So Kyle’s kiss had been lacking. She winced at the understatement. On the heels of that explosive kiss with Gunner, it had been downright lame. It didn’t even deserve to be called a kiss. Nothing she’d ever had before deserved to be called a kiss.
Kyle didn’t set her heart racing. And he definitely didn’t make her body buzz like a live wire. But come November when Gunner was long gone... Kyle would still be here.
Somehow that didn’t seem like enough of a reason anymore. It never had been. Brianna was right. She’d been using Kyle as a buffer, and that was unfair to him. And obviously not working because...
Gunner stared at her in silence across the space, his eyes hot and maybe a little dazed. She’d done that to him. And if he’d been angry after witnessing Kyle’s kiss, did that mean he was jealous? Some part of her went soft and mushy inside.
His gaze fell to her lips and lingered there for an unbearable moment.
She felt the look like a touch. Her lips tingled with want. She pressed them together, trying to erase the feeling. Hopeless.
Then the sound of rushing water broke the silence.
Thirty-Two
Before the sun even peeked over the horizon, Charlotte awakened, got ready, and headed out to the barn.She usedawakenedloosely as she’d hardly slept last night. After Daisy’s membranes ruptured, her labor had been quick and routine. A good thing since Gunner’s kiss had fried the wiring in her brain.
They’d worked as a team to bring the foal into the world—Daisy, Gunner, and Charlotte. She’d placed gentle traction on the foal’s front legs, and Gunner had cleared the nose.
Moments later the colt slid from the birth canal into the clean straw. He was a chestnut just like Daisy but sported a white blaze. He was beautiful. Charlotte used the stethoscope to check his heart rate and lung sounds—all good.
Daisy got right to her feet and began bonding with the foal. The colt stood on his spindly legs at the thirty-five-minute mark and began nursing soon after. Mother and foal seemed healthy. Charlotte was relieved (for more than one reason) that she didn’t have to call Kyle.
But now that it was morning, the vet would need to take ablood sample and check the placenta and colostrum. There was no reason to delay any longer. But since he might not be awake yet, she just sent a text telling him of the foal’s routine birth.
