“You’ll manage it.”
“I will not,” she insisted.
“Rose, can you not make a spectacle out of this,” he said when he got down to the bottom step. “You’re going to get my ass kicked.”
“I... I... He’s not here anyway,” she said, meaning Ryder, since that was who he had obviously meant was going to do the ass kicking.
“He could be back any minute. I’m not in the mood.”
“You can’t just walk away from me,” she said. “We had a bet, Heath.”
He stopped, then turned to face her. “I have to walk away from you. Or I’m going to do something that we’re going to both end up regretting.”
“I already regret things. But you didn’t ask. I’ve never...” She tramped down the steps, stopping right in front of him. She lowered her voice, looking at him earnestly. “I’ve never been kissed before.”
He chuckled, bitter and angry, and not at all with humor. “Honey, I know. Believe me. I know.”
“Why? Because it was bad?”
“No. Because that’s how innocent you seem. Because I’ve known you your whole damn life. Because I’m just a little bit too familiar with the daily schedule of your whole existence. But it’s not the first time I’ve ever kissed anyone. And that’s why I hadn’t done anything until today. I shouldn’t have done that. Just leave it alone.”
“Leave it alone?”
“Yes.”
“You said you were going to teach me if I lost the bet.”
“Not like this,” he bit out. “It was never supposed to be like this.”
“Logan, I didn’t even know that I was attracted to you until the other day. I didn’t even know that I... That I could be. And then you kiss me, and now you just want to walk away? Now you just want to...”
“It’s not about what I want. It’s about what’s best.”
“Best would have been to never come near me at all.”
“I know. But I can’t fix that. So I’m making it right now.”
“I didn’t ask you to make it right,” she said.
“Doesn’t matter. You don’t have to. I’ll do it all on my own.”
“Why? Because of my brother? Is that what this is about?”
“No. It’s not about that. It’s about me. I’m not your knight in shining cowboy boots, Rose, and I’m not going to be. And yeah, our relationship, the relationship that I have with your brother, makes that a problem. If you were a different woman? Well, then, maybe we could just have some fun. But what we have here is worth too much to compromise it for something that stupid. It always has been. It’s why I have never touched you before. I slipped up today. It’s not going to happen again.”
He turned and began to walk away from her.
“You’re wrong, though,” she said.
Her words, as soft as her lips, had the same effect. They hit him square between the shoulder blades like a knife, and twisted hard.
More powerful than a shout ever could have been.
“It will happen again,” she said. “I’m sure of it. Because nothing has happened, for all these years, and now two things have happened, and now I know. I know what you feel. And now, I understand a little bit of what I’ve been feeling, too. If it wasn’t going to happen, you would have never touched me in the barn. If it wasn’t going to happen, you wouldn’t have kissed me in the kitchen. Sorry. But I don’t believe it won’t happen again.”
He closed his eyes, let out a long, slow breath.
“Honey, it won’t. Because there’s only one other place for it to go.”
“Coward!” she shouted. “I didn’t take you for someone who’d welch on a bet. I thought you were better than that.”
“Rosie, I’m trying to be better than this. Don’t make it impossible.”
She didn’t have anything to say to that, and because she didn’t, he walked away from her. Feeling like an absolute ass. Not so much because he wished it hadn’t happened. That would have been better. No. He felt like an ass because he didn’t regret it. Because the taste of Rose Daniels would linger on his tongue until the day he died.
Because she was as sweet as he’d imagined. Sweeter, even. Everything he had ever wanted and more. He wished that he could regret it, but he couldn’t.
And if his friend ever found out... Well, he would kick his ass.
And Logan wouldn’t blame him.
But he would still hold on to the memory of that kiss.
His one taste of the illicit. His one taste of the forbidden.
It would only ever be one taste.
And it would have to be enough.
ROSE WAS SALTY. She had been ever since that day in the kitchen. Somehow, she and Logan were supposed to do a blacksmithing demonstration, when they were circling around each other like two angry cats. She didn’t know how that was going to work.
She wished that she had someone to talk to.
Somebody other than one of her sisters.
She’d felt awful when she’d told Iris about Elliott. Her sister’s face had drained of color, and the look of absolute humiliation and horror on there would stay with Rose forever. She still felt so guilty and there was no way she could talk to her about the fact she’d kissed Logan.
She’d been kissed. She didn’t think Iris ever had been.
Somehow, Rose Daniels had two men interested in her. And that hadn’t been her plan at all.
Not that Logan was interested interested. But he had kissed her.
Maybe she could talk to Pansy. Yes, she would have to swear Pansy to secrecy, but she was much better off talking to her than, say, Sammy, who would immediately run and tell Ryder. It was a shame too, because she knew that Sammy had a lot broader knowledge when it came to sex and sexual attraction. Pansy... She was pretty sure the only man her sister had been with was her fiancé, West. So she probably wouldn’t exactly be... Well, she probably wouldn’t be pro jumping in and experimenting just for the sake
