“We don’t even have the results yet.”
“Science.I ride by instinct.”
“BS.I saw how all of you analyzed the moves of the bulls and broncs.”
“Guilty,” Cash said.“But you’re still coming.What better way to build memories than to grit it out on a survival course designed by our former Special Forces cousin and his sadistic buddies?”
He slapped Telford’s back, rocking him a little.“I’ll take your silence as a yes.”
“I didn’t say yes.”
“You will.You’re here.You’re my brother.You’re all in.”
*
An hour laterthey were on the road headed back to town, steeped in silence.
He took each curve in the road carefully.He’d finished a beer, had a couple sips of a second one.More than usual.But they’d been at the ranch—the dinner after the practice runs to judge how the new bulls and broncs bucked for nearly two hours.And he’d eaten.
Ayana’s hand was on his thigh, fingers splayed.Connecting them in a way he hadn’t anticipated.It still shocked him that he’d proposed.That she’d accepted.And now they had a countdown.Desire tugged at the edges of his awareness.He’d tried to ignore it, but tonight he wanted to fuel it like the bonfire at the ranch.
He paused at the bottom of the road, right under the sign proclaiming the Telford family ranch.He needed to turn right, head back to town.Instead, he sat in the beautiful quiet of the night.
“Big night,” she said.“Yet look at the moon.It’s nearly full and dwarfing us.”Ayana’s hand stroked down his thigh, curved around his knee in a reassuring squeeze.She laid her head on his shoulder.“Sometimes I feel so small and as if my problems are so large, but then I see the moon—so elegant, predictable rising again and again, controlling the tides so far away—and I remember there is such beauty in the world.”
He lowered their seats so they could watch the moon rise in the east and sail above the Jeep’s open sunroof, the chill night curling in.
“This feels like a moment I want to bottle,” he said after a long while.
She turned to look at him.“That’s a perfect description.”She smoothed some hair back from his forehead.“And this sounds like you—not how Cam would see it.”
He blinked at the unexpected sting in his eyes.Then worse, there was moisture on his cheek when a tear fell, followed by another, before he could wipe it away, embarrassed.
“Am I betraying his memory?”
“No, you are making new ones,” Ayana said softly.She kissed his cheek, catching the tear, and chasing another with her lips.
He turned toward her and into the kiss, with a small moan of pleasure and relief.
Chapter Fifteen
The kiss wentfrom comfort to fire between heartbeats.Ayana’s lips parted, and she leaned into him, spearing her fingers through his hair and tugging him close even as she leaned over the Jeep’s console.
Her sigh encouraged him, to explore her mouth, her sexy collarbone that had been tempting him when the shawl she’d worn in the arena would slip down low on her back, exposing her off-the-shoulder lacy T-shirt with the little buttons and poufy sleeves.Her clothes teased and revealed even as they covered.Visually, she was a distractingly sexy feast, but her spirit was what reached out and grabbed him by the throat—punched into his chest and planted something he’d never thought possible.
Connection.
She could wrap him around her body, her heart, her soul, and he would feel part of something again—but more of a side-by-side walk and run through life rather than following.
She’s only yours for a year.
If that.The thought jarred him, and denial rose fast and hard.He held her tighter, burying his face into the hollow of her shoulder and inhaling her intoxicating scent.
“I want you,” he said.He bit back the wordforeverbefore it exited his mouth.“I want you now.”
“Yes,” she said, her lips teasing his, “although I’m not sure we want to test our nimble acrobatic skills at the end of your family’s driveway.Never know when a sheriff’s deputy will be cruising by.”She laughed, a little edgily.
But he was getting a double message because her hands had already unzipped his chore jacket—ridiculous name as he hadn’t done any ranch chores since he was eight—and untucked his T-shirt.
