Page 51
“Dakota Rae Cutler, don’t you dare—”
I leap onto the rope and swing out over the creek.
At the peak of the arc, I let go, plunging into the cool water below with a hearty splash. The water is deep enough that my toes don’t touch the rocky bottom.
I pop my head back up to see Wyatt jumping in after me, and then he breaks the water surface, shaking off the droplets that cling to his hair. The sunlight catches on the strands, turning them into a shimmering halo.
For a second, I just look at him, forgetting about the PBR and everything else. My life has always been so fast-paced that I want to appreciate this slow moment.
“I told you not to jump,” he teases, shaking his hair.
“What’re you going to do about it?” I challenge.
He catches my wrist, dragging me through the cool stream into his warmth. “Keep you close. I’m not letting you get away this time.”
He moves through the glittering water until his bare chest brushes mine, and every breath of mine brings my chest closer to his. Wyatt grabs my waist, then trails his hands down my thighs to hook around the backs of my knees, guiding my legs to wrap around him beneath the sparkling water. I’m so surprised by the motion that I let him handle me. I can feel all the places our bodies are touching—and all the places they aren’t.
“What’re you doing?” I breathe out.
“Holding you.”
“Why?”
“Because I want to.”
He captures my gaze, and the cicadas, the rushing water, it all sounds quiet compared to my heavy gasps. He was always a physically affectionate man, but something about this feels different. I want to swim away from him almost as much as I want to stay wrapped around him.
“I missed this place,” I whisper, clinging to his wide shoulders. “It’s been a while since I’ve been back here.”
“Me too. Did you ever take anyone else here?” he asks, swaying me in the stream. “To our spot?”
“Never. This is our spot. I didn’t want to bring anyone else here after you left.”
He pauses, frowns. “Not even Boone?”
“No. I’d never take Boone here.”
Wyatt stares at me, a pinch in his brows as he seems to wrestle with a question, until he finally blurts, “What happened between you two? I never knew why you ended things.”
I don’t want to have some deep conversation about the hardest parts of my past. It’s exhausting. I’d rather crack open some chardonnay with Lana and watch a random dating show than talk about my broken engagement, but Wyatt’s asking, and he has a way of making the deep things feel lighter.
I focus on the minnows nibbling my toes rather than his penetrating stare. “Boone and I… We were too competitive with each other. When he got offered a spot on the Vegas Stampede PBR team, he asked me to move with him. He wanted me to give up my dream and gave me an ultimatum. Him or bull riding. I chose bull riding, and he didn’t like that, so I called it off.”
It surprisingly wasn’t a difficult decision, which made me realize we were never destined. I got caught up in the passion and thought that meant the flame of love would burn forever.
Wyatt’s arms wrap around me in a solid embrace, urging me forward until my head is tucked beneath his chin. “I’m sorry, Dakota. It’s never easy to make a big decision like that.”
I interlace my hands behind his back, locking him against me in the water, feeling at peace in his arms despite my racing heart. “It was for the best. Any man who asks me to choose between who I love and what I love isn’t the man for me, but that’s not even the worst thing he did…”
His back muscles are taut under my touch. “What else did he do?”
“After I called things off, he was pissed. Real pissed. He did an interview for the PBR and made this comment about how I’d never be a threat to anyone ’cause I’d never make it in this sport. He said I didn’t have what it takes, and never would. Some of his biggest fans came after me, and that’s why everyone started calling me Cowboy Killer, since it was clear from his attitude that I broke his heart.”
Wyatt goes quiet, which he always does when he’s angry, so I continue. “But it still put all these doubts in my head. After that, I questioned everything. Whether or not I could really do this. If I had what it takes. It’s really thrown me off my game, and I hate him a little for putting all those fears in my head. I think he broke me. Bull riding requires a lot of mental resilience, and that’s why I can’t stay on now because there’s all this doubt in my mind.”
His fingers dig into my waist. “You don’t need me to tell you this, but you can do anything, Dakota Cutler, so don’t listen to a fucking word out of that prick’s mouth.”
Well, shit.
