He needed to show her how he felt, but he was quickly losing control. Avery was hot, wet, coaxing him with the movement of her hips until he hung on by force of will.
She was soft but insistent. Yielding but strong. Every fiber of his being focused solely on her need, he increased his pace, doubling the sensation, nearly succumbing to it.
Not yet.
“Avery.”
She opened her eyes, and he read the hunger there—and the love.
He hoped she knew he loved her, too. Knew how much he craved her. Every touch of her hands, the brush of her breasts against his chest, the pulse of her hips against his, all sent sensation burning straight through him.
“Will you marry me?”
Her gaze filled with love. “Yes.”
He crushed her to him, burying his face against her neck, pumping inside her, unable to hold back any longer.
He wanted to spend forever like this, but that wasn’t possible. His body wasn’t having it.
Avery arched back and gave a cry that swept away the last vestiges of his control. He thrust again and came with a groan half frustration, half blessed relief. As his release swept through him, he bucked against her, her cries sweet in his ears until they both were sated.
Afterward, they lay together in a tangle of limbs under the strong sun, and Walker stroked Avery’s hair. She was thinking—
And he was afraid of what she’d say. Would she change her mind?
When she turned to him, he traced a hand down her shoulder to her back and over her bottom. Every curve of her body entranced him. What he would give to lie here with her forever.
“This is heaven,” Avery said, gazing up at the sky.
“This is.” He kept his gaze on her. Kissed her again.
“I wish we could stay.”
“You mean that?”
“Of course. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be than here with you.”
“Exactly how I feel.” He reached for the backpack. Rummaged through it until his hand closed around a small velvet box. He pulled it out. Opened it. Showed the ring inside to Avery.
The ring he’d bought the first week he’d known her.”
“Walker,” she breathed.
“I love you. I’ve always loved you.” He took out the ring, slid it on her finger.
“It’s perfect.” Avery held it where she could see it, tears sparkling in her eyes. “Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m sure. I knew you were going to be my wife the moment I saw you.” His mouth found the base of her neck. Traced along her collarbone. For several long minutes he lost himself in her again. He knew time was ticking away, though. They had to be ready for James’s return.
“We have to go back.”
“Why?” she complained, running a hand over his shoulder. “I want to stay here.”
“I know, but this isn’t over yet. I might not be marrying Elizabeth, but I still owe her—and I owe Sue, too. We still have to play our parts.”
A memory flashed into his mind. His father sitting on the end of his bed at Sue’s house, a photograph in his hand.
“You’re the only good thing left,” Joe had told him. “My son. The question is—why are you even here?”
At the time, Walker had thought he was in trouble—he’d snuck into his father’s room when he was supposed to leave Joe alone. His father was always a moody man on his infrequent visits home. Sue was forever telling him to be quiet—to leave his dad alone, let him rest.
Now Walker thought the words had a different meaning. Why was he there? In other words, why was he even born? Why had Joe deserved the gift of a son when his mistake had taken the lives of two people he loved?
Walker had thought he’d been born to right his father’s wrongs. To play a small part, then stand on the sidelines as everyone else took center stage.
Now he knew he had a different role. He was Avery’s leading man. He was meant to share her days. Her happiness and pain. Her triumphs and tragedies.
He wasn’t a bit player.
He wasn’t relegated to the sidelines.
He had his own life to live.
“We have to go back,” he repeated to Avery. “But this is only the start of what we’re going to do together.”
“I suppose I can’t wear this yet.” She held up her hand and touched the ring.
He hadn’t thought about that.
“I’ll wear it like this.” She sat up, removed a locket she wore around her neck. Its chain was long enough that the locket slipped under the edge of her bodice. Avery threaded the ring onto the chain, too, and replaced it around her neck.
Walker helped her with the clasp.
“There,” she said. “I’ll have it on all the time, but no one but us will know.”
“Good,” he said, but he couldn’t wait for the day when he could tell everyone he was marrying Avery.
James Russell picked them up right on time. If he noticed a certain disheveled appearance about them, he didn’t mention it. He was downright chatty on the drive home, talking to them over his shoulder, paying so little attention to the roads Avery thought it was lucky his horses seemed to know their own way. Before she was ready, they were back at the ranch, being let out in the parking lot near the bunkhouse.
She knew immediately something was wrong when she spotted most of the men gathered together near the fire pit, so when Riley saw them through the bunkhouse window and came to meet them, she had already braced herself.
“Someone tried to kill Elizabeth!” Riley was pale, a hand on her belly as if determined to protect her baby at all costs. “Gabe thought he’d got him, but the guy still got away, and now we’re not sure.”
“Got him?”
“Shot him,” Riley clarified. “Did you know he was carrying?”
She didn’t, and by the look on his face, neither did Walker, who strode away to confront the other man.
“It was terrifying,” Riley said. “We were outside, gathering for lunch
