“It did?”
“Yeah. You were...you know, barely nineteen. Pretty as hell. You were around all the time and then...then it just changed and I couldn’t change it back.”
“When?”
It suddenly seemed imperative to know. When things had changed for him. For her it had been in stages. There had been that change when she had suddenly realized, not that he was a man, but that she was a woman, and that meant that him being a man didn’t put him off-limits. There was the wanting him. And then there was the slow realization that the feelings that lived inside of her were love. That they always had been, but when they were mixed together with desire, naked bodies, and laughing beneath the covers, it created alchemy that spun connection into love.
Being in love.
Not just the kind of love you had for a family.
And suddenly she wanted to know. Where the changes had happened for him. And what they had turned into now.
“You smiled at me.” He shook his head. “We had just delivered a calf. You were covered in blood and other things. We were tired, it had been a long night, and when we walked out of the barn, the sun was rising. You turned and looked at me, and the sunlight caught your hair. You smiled. I felt it right here.” He pressed his hand against his stomach. “And after that, it just wouldn’t let go. And I did everything I could to turn away from it. To let go of it and you. But it only got worse. It got to the point where I couldn’t just go find another woman to take the edge off.”
She gritted her teeth against that portion of the admission. She didn’t like to think about him with other women. She never wanted him to be with another woman again. She wanted him. And she wanted him to be with only her.
“And I told myself that I couldn’t do anything about it out of respect for Ryder. And then I realized, that he had nothing to do with anything. Our relationship is ours. You don’t need his permission. Any more than I do.”
“I never really thought about whether or not I was pretty. I never really worried about it. I’m really glad that I was to you.”
“I think you’d be pretty to the whole world.” He pulled her into his arms and brushed her hair out of her face. “But then, I’m biased. Because I know how pretty you look without your clothes on.”
“You’re the only one who does,” she said fiercely.
It was a promise. That he would be the only one ever who did.
She had never given that much thought, either. She had assumed that she would have to date a few people, when she was ready to start. Had never given a lot of thought to forever or marriage. And it wasn’t marriage that she thought of primarily now. It was just... They were bonded. Deeper than skin. Deeper than paperwork. There was no question about dating a few people. There was no question of there being anyone but him.
And that was when his intensity seemed to reach the boiling point. He hauled her against his chest and kissed her. This was no sweet, tentative meeting. Nothing like the sweetness they’d shared after he’d given her the necklace. This was something else entirely. It was fearsome and frightening. Wonderful.
Electric and explosive.
She was all right with it being too much. All right with that sense of being overwhelmed. Because she wanted it. Wanted to be overwhelmed by him. Wanted to be consumed by him.
She wanted to pour all of the feelings that she had into him. Because she wanted to add that layer that he left out. That shift that had occurred inside of her.
From the discovery of want to the inevitability of love.
This love that was just right there for them to take, for them to claim. She wanted him to claim it, too. She wanted it so very, very badly. She worked the buttons on that shirt that was mostly open, moved her hands over his muscles, his hard torso.
He was a thing of masculine beauty. The most incredible of God’s creations in her opinion. Sculpted perfection. He had taught her. He had taught her passion. He had taught her how to move to please herself, to please him. He had taught her to love this part of herself. This wild, unrestrained, passionate creature that only he had unlocked.
He had taught her to recognize these feelings. These moments.
And now, she was unleashing it all on him.
Now, she was holding him at her mercy.
Now, she wanted to show him something.
She wanted to show him her heart. How she felt. That great, driving need that existed inside of her.
She wanted to show him all of that and more.
He undid the zipper on that dress, and it fell down to her hips. She wiggled out of it completely, leaving her only in the strapless bra she had bought just for the wedding, and a pair of seamless underwear that were a bit more brief than she typically wore.
Judging by the fire in his eyes, he approved.
It made her want to get herself a variety of underwear. Different colors. Different shapes. Lace.
Anything to find new ways to tease him.
Suddenly, a whole lot of things made sense to her that hadn’t before. But wasn’t that the theme of all of this?
That life with Logan took on new dimension, new meaning. As their relationship did.
He made quick work of the bra, his hot mouth finding her nipple unerringly, sucking it in deep. She loved it when he was like this. When he didn’t treat her like she was fragile, or younger,
