Page 54 of Apple of My Eye

“Youare a cowboy.” Her mouth twitched despite herself.

“I’myourcowboy. Different thing entirely. And I won’t even look at another woman unless it’s you.”

She chuckled and finished the log, setting the book aside. I trapped her there against the desk, an arm on each side of her.

“Got some time for me?” I asked, nuzzling her hair, inhaling her lavender. We’d only grown closer since she told me everything.

Her mouth curved, and she glanced past me down the barn aisle, the afternoon light low through the slats. Not a soul in sight. “The guys are out?”

“Pasture rotation. I drew barn duty. Till three or so.”

“What time is it?”

I glanced at the clock above the desk. “Half past two.”

“That’s not much time.”

“It’s enough. I’ll always make the best of what you give me.”

She nodded toward the straw storage. “We need to add fresh straw to their stalls.”

“We do,” I agreed. My blood rushed south to my cock as I followed her around the corner into the room.

She reached for the nearest bale of straw. I came up behind her, both hands bracing against the stack on either side of her waist, and dropped my mouth to the curve of her neck.

“Knox. I really am only getting a bale of straw.”

“Oh, I know what you’re getting.” I kissed her just below the ear. My hands moved to her hips, pulling her back against me where she could be in no doubt of my intentions. “I think I’ve got exactly what you need.”

She turned in the small space I’d left her, back against the straw stack, and looked up at me with those clear blue eyes I’d spent most of my free time trying to figure out. “Here?”

“I’m all yours, darlin’.” I held her gaze. “We’d better hurry.”

Her chin came up. “If you don’t like to rush, then wait until tonight.”

“Didn’t say that.” I kept my voice even. “But we both have that barn dance committee meeting tonight with Ivy, and you mentioned this morning over coffee that you’re having dinner with your sisters afterward. It’ll be a late night when I finally show up on your doorstep.”

“That’s life, cowboy.” Her eyes held mine, challenging me. “You want to be in mine, you get what you can get.”

“Am I?”

“What?”

“In your life. Really.” Damn. Wish I hadn’t said that out loud.

“Of course.” Her eyes narrowed.

“Only in secret.”

“For now.” She got worked up, pulling back and shutting the door I’d only recently opened if I didn’t think of something quick. And here I was with need coiled tight in my groin and my patience genuinely shorter than I wanted it to be.

I let it go. Slid my hand slowly up her side instead, thumb tracing the swell of her breast through her shirt. My mouth dropped to her pulse, pleased to find it raced. “Be a good girl for me? Let’s do it right here. A little something to last until later.”

She exhaled a surrender. Her hands closed around fistfuls of my shirt and tugged it up and over my head. I couldn’t help but smile, because without a word, she proved she needed me too.

I kissed down her cleavage and pushed the hem of her tank top up slowly.

The simple white cotton bra she wore was so purely Daisy that something moved through me that had nothing to do with desire and everything to do with knowing her. This woman, who had no time for the unnecessary, who ran herself to the bone for everyone else, who showed up and never once asked for anything. So practical. So entirely her.