“GOT ANY PLANS TONIGHT, GOLDIE?”
I smile at Cade, admiring the way his arms look in his current position. He has them hiked over his head, holding on to the top of the entrance to Dolly’s stall. He leans forward a bit, his shirt straining against his growing muscles with the position.
My hand drifts over Dolly’s mane before I run a comb through it. “It depends,” I answer, my voice lowered. I think all of the stable hands have gone home for the night, but you can never be too sure. Pippa is gone for the weekend, at some workshop in Denver for aspiring pastry chefs, so at least I’m confident that she won’t hear the conversation between her brother and me.
Cade clutches his chest, his lips turning down in a dramatic frown. “Depends on what?” he asks carefully.
I shake my head. I like this slightly playful side of him. The more time we spend together this summer, the more I’m learning that even though I thought I knew everything there was to know about Cade, I didn’t.
There’s so much I’ve learned about him this summer. Which makes the move-in date for college freshmen that’s right around the corner even harder to face.
Cade’s arms wrap around my middle, pulling me tight against his body. He nips at my neck. “Be very careful with your answer, Goldie.”
Leaning into his touch, I continue to brush Dolly. She happily chews on the sugar cubes I’d given her when I started. “It depends on your plans,” I respond.
I turn around, wrapping my arms around his neck and pulling his head down until his forehead rests against mine. The whisper of a smile on Cade’s lips makes me feel giddy all over.
I know he doesn’t smile for just anything. Even the hint of one is a win, a reminder that I’m no longer the only one lost in the feelings between us. “Good answer,” he says before pressing a kiss against the tip of my nose.
My nose scrunches. “Why are you always doing that?”
He squeezes my hips before taking a step back. He grabs Dolly’s water bucket and sets it in the opening of the stall. Reaching over the stall-door, he grabs the hose. Cade’s eyes find mine as he puts fresh water in Dolly’s bucket. “Why am I always doing what?”
“Kissing the tip of my nose. You’re doing it more and more often recently.”
This time he actually does smile. It’s sheepish and sweet, something I don’t see often from Cade. “Oh, that’s an easy answer. I’m kissing your new freckles.”
“What?”
Turning the hose off, he tosses it back over the top of the stall before returning Dolly’s water bucket to its hook. He closes the distance between us, wiping his hands off on his jeans before his fingertips softly brush over my cheeks. “When I was a kid, I’d always thought about the new freckles that popped up on your face with each hour you spent outside. I’d always felt like they needed a proper welcome now that they were part of a face as beautiful as yours. So now that I can, I want to kiss them hello.”
His words steal my breath, and the next one. The comb falls and lands with a soft thud as I leap into Cade’s arms, totally trusting that he’ll catch me. “You’re something else, Cade Jennings,” I mumble into the crook of his neck. It’s not exactly what I want to say. I want to tell him how much I love him, how much I’ve always loved him, but I hold my tongue.
The naive part of me is hoping that he’ll be the first one to utter those words between us.
I inhale his scent that surrounds us. Even after being out on the trails all day, clearing the pathways after the big storm we got earlier this week, he still smells divine. It’s the scent of his soap, the outdoors, and the scent of him that wraps together in something so manly. I’m intoxicated by it.
I’m intoxicated by him.
It’s probably why I’ve already written countless chapters of a novel I hope I’m brave enough to release one day. A story whose characters are incredibly similar to Cade and me. Something I’d never admit to anyone but myself.
Cade gives me a squeeze, holding me as tightly as I hold him. It’s wild that at the beginning of the summer I was still head over heels for him, and he’d still been pretending like he wanted nothing to do with me. So much has changed, except one thing. The fact that I’m supposed to leave soon.
My legs wrap around Cade’s middle on instinct. I like the height the embrace of our bodies puts me at. It allows me to sneak in and kiss him anytime I want, not having to count on him leaning down to take what I want.
Cade’s hands move up the backs of my thighs, his palms cupping my ass. It sends fire throughout my body. I’ve been desperate to experience what it’s like to do more than kiss Cade, but he hasn’t let it go that far.
If he wasn’t so steadfast in how much he desires me, I might take it to heart. Why won’t he be intimate with me when I’ve heard him talk with his friends about what he’s done with other girls? But Cade has squashed any worries I could have about how bad he wants me. He says he just doesn’t want to rush things.
I, on the other hand, am more than ready to speed things up. I want to know what it’s like to be consumed by Cade Jennings. He’s already consumed my mind and soul, I’m ready for him to have my body as well.
Feeling bold, I slide my hips up and down, grinding against him. He sucks in a large gulp of air, his hands tightening on my ass. I love the feel of his fingertips biting into my tender skin. He grips me so tight, preventing me from being able to rock my hips again.
“Goldie,” Cade says tightly, keeping me pinned against him.
Dolly lets out a noise behind us. If it weren’t for the horse bearing witness to this, I’d try and push his buttons further, to see if finally he’ll stop trying to be a good guy and actually touch me. Cade walks us a few feet until he places me on the top of the stall door.
“You’re killing me,” he says through gritted teeth. Even though he no longer holds my weight, he stays standing between my legs, his palms pressed to the tops of my thighs.
I steal the hat from his head, placing it on the top of mine. “I’m killing you? You’re killing me. I just want to know what it’s like to be touched by you.”
Cade straightens the hat on my head, even though I know it probably bothers him he no longer wears it. If he’s on the trail, he normally wears a cowboy hat, but whenever he’s off the trails, he always wears the Jennings Ranch ball cap. I don’t know which one I prefer. What I do know is he isn’t typically found without one or the other on. “Fuck, all I want to do is touch you, Mare,” he finally answers. The look in his eyes tells me that he means what he’s saying, but there’s about to be a but that follows that sentence.
I prepare myself for whatever excuse he’ll give me this time when his lips part to say something else. “But I’m trying not to rush you. To rush this, or us.” He seems like he wants to say something else, but he doesn’t end up saying it.
“You can’t be rushing me when I’m the one begging for it.”
The corner of his mouth twitches. “I kind of like the idea of you begging, Goldie.”
I gasp, playfully pushing his shoulder. “I repeat. You’re something else, Cade Jennings.”
“Want to know what else I am?” he asks, his tone getting more serious.
My boots kick against the stall door as he plucks the hat from my head. Traitor. He was distracting me with his intense, broody, copper eyes. “What?” I still ask, wanting to know what his answer will be.
“Yours,” he answers simply. He traces half a heart over his chest.
Before I can tell him how much I am his, he’s clapping his hands and changing the subject.
“Now back to the reason I tracked you down in the first place,” he begins, lovingly scratching Dolly’s chin for a moment. “How about we go for a ride tonight? I know a place,” he teases.
I hop off the door, excitement coursing through my veins. “I’m ready when you are.”
