But after dinner, when it’s still light out but Bellamy’s in bed, Hope casually grabs the baby monitor and says she’s going to join me for evening chores.
My pulse is thick with awareness as we walk side by side to the barn, our hands brushing. Halfway there, I catch her fingers in mine and hold on tight.
As soon as we get to the tack room, she pushes me against the door. I grab a leather strap hanging on a hook and wrap it around my own wrist, leaving one of my hands free to touch her as she kisses me.
She doesn’t complain.
Her mouth is as sweet and lush as it was our first kiss. Heaven couldn’t be better than this. It’s a hungry press of tongues, warm desire crashing into hot need. Building to something fast and furious, something sparked by herliking what she saw today, and me opening that door.
I’m hers if she wants me, and yes, she fucking wants me.
She winds her arms around my neck and presses up, climbing my body with her own. She’s wearing something new tonight, jeans that mould to her curves and a t-shirt that ends at her belly button instead of hanging down to her hips.
It’s all very touchable. My free hand slides into her back pocket, and the soft shape of her ass in my palm is enough to make me spill a little seed in my shorts. Fuck.Fuck.
Tipping her hips toward my body, I ease my thigh between her legs and brace myself against the door behind my back.
She makes the most delicious sound as she kisses me and hitches herself against my leg. Tiny little grinding motions that don’t get her there, but do get her worked up.
My cock stretches, testing the tight confines of my jeans as her hip brushes my erection with each rocking motion.
But as we make out, her breathing doesn’t soften and turn languid, it tightens up. Anxious is the last thing I want Hope to be.
“Hey hey, it’s okay,” I murmur as I let go of the strap.
I scoop both arms around her and slow her grinding hips, gentling her until she stops. My sweet filly girl. Despite the fact that she’s a mother, I don’t think she’s very experienced.
So the tack room is not the place for this, as hot as it is.
She gives me a frustrated little huff. “Why did you stop?”
“Because it’s time for bed, City Girl.”
“What do you mean?” Her breath is ragged and her eyes are glassy, her pupils blown wide.
“I’ve got chores to do. And you…” I sweep my gaze down her body to where our legs are still tangled. “I think you want to be alone. I know you want to be here, too, pressing your hot body against mine. And I like that so much. You’ve got me hard as nails, can you feel that?”
She moans.
“That’s what you do to me. But I don't think you’re ready for me to reach into your jeans and help you get to where you need to be tonight, are you?”
She doesn’t argue with me.
We’re getting there. But we aren’t all the way there yet.
“Go to Dax’s room,” I whisper. “Curl up under my blanket on his couch, and touch yourself if you want to. Think of kissing me and touching me. Can you do that, Hope?”
She nods, her breath fast and shallow.
“Good girl.” I bow my head and breathe in her sweet scent one last time. Feel her shudder. Know that I’ll be replaying that over and over again, all night long. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
Chapter 26
Hope
But in the morning, for the first time in a week, Zane isn’t in the kitchen for breakfast.
Instead, Ridge is the one pulling bacon out of the oven.
