“Depends who’s asking,” I replied, and she laughed.
“Hmm,” she said, taking a sip of her coffee, “you can make good coffee too. Impressive.”
“Careful. Compliment me too much and I’ll start making breakfast for you every morning.”
“Careful,” she said, pulling herself up to sit on the kitchen counter, her long, tanned legs swinging back and forth and shelooked at me, her sleepy gaze flicking up and down my bare chest, “I might just let you.”
A smile played on her mouth, and before I knew it I was smiling too.
Jesus, what’s happening?
Am I flirting with her?
Is she flirting with me?
I looked away, turning off the stove. I piled her plate with food and handed it over. She jumped down from the countertop and sat down at the wooden table. Picking up her fork she scooped up some food and took a bite before groaning in a way that made my dick tingle and my throat go tight.
“Any good?” I asked, trying to hide the way my jeans were growing tighter by the second.
She rolled her eyes. “Yes, cowboy, it’s really good, thank you.”
I shrugged like it was nothing, but inside my chest my heart was beating hard and fast, and when she grinned at me, looking up through her lashes, I thought I might have a heart attack.
It was madness, but in the middle of everything that was happening, even I could recognize that I was turning soft for this beautiful fucking woman, and I had no clue how to stop it.
Worse still…I wasn’t sure I wanted to stop it.
We ate quietly for a few minutes, sunlight slowly filling the kitchen. I caught the pleased look she tried to hide when she took her first bite. My chest felt full and heavy and I cleared my throat and looked away, finishing my food and coffee.
Rowan wiped her hands on a napkin as she finished up. “So what’s the plan for today?”
I leaned back in my chair. “First we’re checking the fence line.”
“In case whoever set the fire came through there?”
“Exactly.”
She took a sip of coffee. “Well, after that I’ve got work to do with the horses.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Training?”
“Something like that. What about you?” she asked.
“I’ll check in with the club and then I’m all yours.”
“All mine?” she asked, pressing a hand gently to her chest. “Well, what am I going to do with you?”
The silence echoed between us for long moments, neither of us looking away. I didn’t move an inch. Didn’t breathe. Didn’t blink. All I could do was stare into her eyes and try to keep control of myself instead of grabbing her like I wanted to and bending her over this table so I could take her hard and deep.
A slow smile crawled up her face like she had read my thoughts and she stood up. My throat constricted as I watched her, my mouth watering at the thought of how good she would taste on my tongue.
“I’m going to get dressed. I’ll see you outside on twenty minutes, cowboy.” And with hat she walked out of the room.
It was only as she left that I found I could breathe again.
Twenty minutes later we were bouncing down a dirt path in Rowan’s pickup truck.
The ranch unfolded around us as we drove. Wide pastures stretched in every direction, broken only by old wooden fencesand patches of wildflowers. The mountains rose in the distance, hazy and blue against the morning sky. Cattle grazed lazily near the creek and birds circled high overhead.
