Her mouth twitched.“Depends.If one more person asks for cranberry sauce, I am burning the whole thing down.”
He barked a quiet laugh with his ribs easing at the threat.“I will haul you over my shoulder and claim self-defense.”
“You would break the china,” she murmured.
Her laughter, small and strangled, rattled against his sternum.For a minute they stayed locked together with Kyla’s body curled in so tight even memory faded behind the present.
Titus ducked his head with his lips brushing her cheek, her jaw, then settling at her mouth.She met him there with the first touch hesitant while both of them checked for an audience.Nothing but old jars and secrets.
Her hands snuck into his shirt and pressed hard enough to drive out the cold he had not known he carried.He kissed her slow and deep and let the noise outside dissolve into a rhythm he could control.A careful sort of hunger.
Kyla’s hands stilled at his chest with her fingers curling just beneath the collarbone.He wanted to linger and taste the moment down to the last drop, but she pressed closer and stole the air between them until all that remained was the catch in her throat and the shudder in his chest.
On the far side of the door, laughter spilled from Juniper, half-teasing, half-command.Plates passed.Chairs scraped back.Roscoe yelped after a loose ham bone.Kyla froze with her lips resting against his as if she asked for another minute behind closed doors.
Titus trailed a thumb under her eye along the line where her smile threatened to break loose.“Family can wait,” he said, more promise than fact.“We can sneak out for a bit.”
She snorted, stepped away, and gathered her hair into a loose knot with her fingers less steady than usual.He missed her weight before she had even moved.
“We make a good team,” she said, not quite looking at him.
He reached out, curled her fist inside his, and kissed the tips of her fingers one at a time until her eyes darted up and her mouth finally eased open with a little sigh.They slipped back into the dining room just before the dessert plates came out.
Juniper arched an eyebrow but did not say a word.For the rest of the night, every time noise threatened to tip Kyla off balance, Titus touched her wrist or brushed behind her chair, a quiet sign that behind any doors he stayed on her side.
Chapter 15
Late May
One Year Later
Sun bore down on Kyla’sbare forearms as she stood at the edge of the branding corral, boots sunk in dust, air thick with smoke, hide, and the sour edge of fear.Sweat slid beneath her shirt collar.
Calves bawled.
Fence boards moved under her palm.Voices rose and broke behind her, but she kept her eyes forward.This was her place now.She had crossed too much ground to pretend otherwise.
