Page 45 of Apple of My Eye

I pressed her thighs higher and changed the angle, and the noise she made hit me hard, pulled everything in me toward the edge I had been keeping at arm’s length. I paused before I could combust.

“Don’t you dare stop,” she breathed.

“Not a chance.” I reached between us and fondled her clit. Her whole body wound tighter beneath me, and I drove her through it even higher. There was no warning when she broke, but a scream of my name. Her walls tightened around me and that was it, control snapped, and I fell with her over that perfect edge.

I collapsed on her, but careful not to press full weight. For a long, shuddering minute neither of us moved, just heaving chests catching air. I rolled to my side and pulled her against me, her back to my chest, her breathing still uneven and warm against the arm I had curved around her.

“You knew it would be like this between us the whole time,” she whispered. Not quite an accusation.

“I had a strong suspicion,” I chuckled, more than pleased that I was right.

The huff of laughter that moved through her shook the bed, and I held her a little tighter because I could now. She let me. One hand wrapped around my forearm, and she went quiet.

“Are you okay?” I murmured into her hair.

“Better than…” She nodded, drifting off.

I lay there in the dark of her bedroom in her farmhouse at the edge of her orchard, listening to her breathe, staring at the ceiling, and understood with complete clarity that I was in serious, irreversible trouble. Had been for a while.

Waiting and watching and showing up and telling myself that whatever she was willing to give me was enough—it had been enough, because I made it enough. The alternative was walking away from a woman I was already too far gone on to walk away from cleanly.

Now this. Her warm and sleeping body lay trusting in my arms. Us in her bed, in the middle of her busy life. The one she had been carrying alone for so long, she had almost convinced herself it was how things were supposed to be.

Not anymore. I wasn’t going anywhere. And sometime soon I would have to say that out loud so she could understand my intentions, not file away ordeflect or cover them with a quip about friendship. She deserved to hear it plainly, from a man who meant every word, that this was more than friends, so much more.

Daisy slept. I stayed awake a good while longer, watching over her, and I did not mind that either.

Chapter 13

Forest Grove Gossip Gal

Fifth Edition

Forest Grove GossipGal

Your anonymous source for everything happening in Silver County.

Love,Wood, and a Very Interesting Truck

Posted: Mid October, Forest Grove, MT

I hopeeveryone in town has had a restful fall, because I certainly have not, what with all the “observing” I have been required to do on your collective behalf.

There is a lot to cover. Buckle up.

FIRST THINGS FIRST: THE TRUCK…

Now, I want to be very clear that I am not the kind of woman who notices what trucks are parked where at what hours of the morning.

Except that I absolutely am, and let’s just say the evidence is overwhelming.

A certain long-haired, broad-shouldered cowboy from the Off-Duty Rescue Ranch has been spotted—on multiple occasions, by multiple witnesses, at multiple hours of the earlymorning—parked in the driveway of a certain red-headed farrier.

Twice in one week. That we know of.

Now, I want to be fair. There are many innocent explanations for a man’s truck to be parked at a woman’s property before sunrise.

I cannot think of any right now, but I’m sure they exist.