My God. She smelled and tasted so good.
He undid one button then another until the tops of her firm breasts were exposed to his attention. He kissed the firm mounds, then suckled them. Her moans deepened and there on the rock on an edge of a cliff they found each other again.
“Creed…” came his name on a moan.
“Sweet, sweet, Mindy,” he groaned against the cleft of her breasts.
“We. Must. Stop.”
Stewing in his need, it took him a good five seconds to wrap his head around what she’d said. He lifted his chin, looking at her. Her eyes were glossy, and her cheeks were flushed. Her lips were rosy and moist from his kisses. “Stop?”
“Yes. I’m not ready. We’re not ready.” If this was the truth, then why did her enticing eyes tell him something different. He wasted no more time and pulled away, releasing her.
“Damn. Things got carried away.” He heard the unsteadiness in his voice.
“For both of us.” She hurried to button her shirt.
“I was thinking with something other than my brain. I haven’t done that in a while. Got so carried away I forgot the consequences,” he admitted.
She reached up and wiped her finger across his lip. “You’re wearing my lip tint.” Her smile was shaky, but at least she was smiling.
“We better get off this cliff. I have something else I’d like to show you.”
Chapter Ten
MINDY WATCHED CREED open the doors to the metal barn that sat next to the Hawke Landing building. He glanced back at her, looking like the young Creed again. His smile made his eyes sparkle.
She wasn’t sure there was an underlying meaning to that look, but it unraveled her senses. Still reeling from the intense kiss they’d exchanged on the cliff, it wouldn’t take much to melt her into a puddle at this point. Why had she stopped him? She’d wanted him, more than she could ever admit, but fear lingered in her. How could she get closer to him without telling him the truth? How could she do that to him?
Mindy had wanted to tell him. The time had come. The longer she was here in Cooper’s Hawk the stakes grew higher.
What if he never forgave her?
I loved you.
Those words played on a reel inside her head.
Creed stepped into the building while she watched with uncertainty.
As much as she hated how cold he’d been after they’d made love at eighteen, she also realized he was young and so was she. They weren’t ready. She’d made mistakes too. Angry and hurt she’d left without saying goodbye to spite him but a tiny part of her had believed—wished—he’d come after her. Make things right between them. But he hadn’t.
He’d taken accountability. He’d acknowledged his stupidity.
So should she.
If only she’d known that he loved her back then—loved her like a woman needed to be loved and not just as a friend. Her life would have taken on a different path. She’d loved him with all her heart and that would have never changed.
He’d truly loved her. He said so himself. But he’d loved the old Mindy. The young, perky girl who thought she had life by the horns. Before she’d betrayed the man who owned her heart.
Could he still love her?
Care for her?
Want her in his life?
Lord help her, she wanted him to want her.
But the secret between them was like a mine field.
The look on his face when he divulged his feelings flashed through her mind. He had looked tormented. Hurt.
Over the years she’d pushed her feelings for him aside. Reminded herself each day that if they were meant to be, they would have been. When she’d lost her mama she’d been scared, sad and fearful of what life would bring. She’d buried herself in figure skating and Creed had been there for her. Perception was twenty-twenty and clearly losing him had invoked many of the same feelings she’d felt when she had to grieve her mama. Grief was grief, and unfortunately, she’d never been good at finding closure. Branch had blamed her time and again that she didn’t give one hundred percent of herself in their marriage. Damn, he’d been right. She hadn’t given herself fully.
“Mindy?”
Pulling herself from her thoughts, she saw Creed motioning for her to come over. A little wobbly, she managed to walk the distance across the hay strewn floor to where he stood in front of a horse stall. Inside she saw a beautiful chestnut mare. “She’s magnificent.” Mindy reached through the slats of the door to pet the horse’s nose.
“Her name is Maggie,” Creed told her.
“I like that…Maggie. It’s like Maggie Blue.” When she was little her daddy had bought her a mare and she named her after her aunt Maggie. She’d been the best horse and Mindy would often sleep in the barn to be close. Unfortunately, she’d died from a ruptured aorta a few years later.
“You should like it. I named her after her mother.”
The air trickled from her lungs. “What? She’s a descendant of Maggie Blue? How? We didn’t keep any of her foals.”
He unlatched the gate and opened it. “I was able to trace the foals, thanks to Rusty who never throws away any documentation. Fortunately, I was able to buy her from her previous owner. She’s one of the best members of the search and rescue team.” He platted her neck. “Aren’t you, girl?”
She nuzzled her nose against his chest as if to
