‘It’s not a rejection. I’ll be here, waiting.’
‘You’ll be dating other girls,’ she accused.
His laugh rumbled beneath her cheek.
‘It’s not funny!’
‘It’s a little funny,’ Benji countered, but his big hand circled her back, comforting. ‘We’re not even together yet, and you’re already jealous of other women. Women who don’t even exist.’
It did sound pathetic when he said it aloud, but it was too late to take the words back. ‘I can’t help it,’ Sierra whispered defensively. ‘Why wait if I’m really what you want?’
‘It’s not our time. Not yet.’ When his hand came to her face, tipping her head back so that their eyes met, she didn’t dare reply for fear of breaking the spell. ‘One day, you’re going to come home to stay. Not because you have to but because it’s the right time. And I’ll still be there. Hunt Ranch is my home. But until then, you need to go. Spread your wings.’
She hated that he was so reasonable and responsible. And she loathed that he was right. Although she’d never dare say it aloud, the ranch had begun to feel like a prison over the summer. The silence wasn’t peaceful, but stifling. It had made her miss the frenetic energy of Manhattan.
Sierra groaned and plopped her forehead on his chest. ‘I hate how grown up you’ve become. Seventeen-year-old Benji would have done something reckless and exciting.’
‘Is that what you want?’ he asked, his voice deep and low.
‘I think I’ve made that pretty goddamn obvious!’
Before she could be embarrassed over her loud, frustrated reply, Benji walked her backwards. He pinned her against the cold metal of the passenger door of his truck. And before she could speak the words climbing up her throat, he’d stolen them with his kiss.
This kiss was nothing like the innocent peck she’d given him the day before. This kiss was ruthless and unforgiving. Punishing. He took her with the urgency of a man pushed to his limits for too long. He tasted her with the reckless desperation of one perpetually deprived. Benji pressed his big body mercilessly against hers, and when she squirmed, he didn’t let up. He settled one of his muscular thighs between her legs and shifted back and forth, teasing her,torturingher.
Sierra sighed as a heavy, sliding weight gathered between her legs and moisture slicked her. She may have lied about her virginity – she had known her first time was meant to be with Benji and had purposefully discouraged any other boys who had looked her way – but she was woman enough to have brought herself release, so knew he could do it with only that, his leg between her thighs.
She moaned, and Benji stilled at the sound.
He broke away abruptly, his breath heaving, his eyes wide and unhinged.
Sierra raised one shaky hand to her swollen lips.
And still, all she could manage was, ‘Holy crap.’
Benji’s grin was slow. And cocky as hell. ‘Yeah.’ She was relieved that he didn’t sound quite steady either.
‘Holy crap,’ he said, resigned. He stepped back, suddenly severing all contact as if he were afraid of what he’d do if he kept touching her. He leaned against the truck next to her and exhaled audibly.
Sierra’s legs shook, so she locked her knees and took a deep, steadying breath. And though it hurt, she said, ‘Bye, Benji. I’ll see you soon,’ because she suddenly understood with absolute clarity why he needed her to walk away.
They were inevitable.
But not now.
Not yet.
Though his eyes were dark with emotion, he smiled. Reaching down, he grabbed the handle of her suitcase. ‘Come on. I’ll get you checked in.’ He shucked his head in the direction of the airport entrance, and though he didn’t touch her again, he walked close.
And more than the chase, or the kiss, or the fact that he said he’d wait, it was walking her to the airport gates that did it. That little gesture had her tumbling from infatuation into love with zero thought as to how things might one day go so terribly wrong.
Chapter 3
Hunt Ranch, Santa Barbara County – December, 2025
Though she tried to ignore the memory of her cruel comment and Benji’s response, Sierra was haunted for days. Every time she closed her eyes to sleep, her own words rang in her head. Every time she tried to convince herself that she had just been stating fact, her own consciousness rose to block the lie. Benji may not have been a Hunt, but the ranch was as much his as it was Sierra and Mav’s.
How many hours had he put into building the resort when her parents had died, leaving her and Mav floundering? How many brutally exhausting days had he worked to make sure that it would run smoothly in those first few years, which had been so touch and go? How many nights had he held her and let her cry when the stress and uncertainty of it all had become too much?
