Must Love Horses by Vicki Tharp

Author:Vicki Tharp [Tharp, Vicki]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2017-11-27T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

The sun hadn’t fully set, yet with the storm, the back of the cave where they’d stored their gear got swallowed by the darkness. Sidney went to retrieve their bedrolls, making Bryan stay put because she didn’t want him to have to put his leg back on until the morning. The hard rock floor would be an unforgiving mattress, but it beat sleeping out in the rain. Well, it was more of a drizzle now, but that wouldn’t make sleeping in it any dryer.

“How do you want to set them up?” she asked when she returned with the gear. Then she noticed the saddles had been cleared to the side. “I thought I told you to sit tight.”

He stood on one leg near where he’d moved the saddles. “I can help. I have a sore stump, that doesn’t make me an invalid.” His voice didn’t have to be raised for her to be singed by its heat.

Her heart tripped on a lumpy beat. “I didn’t mean— I was trying to let you rest, I wasn’t trying to—”

“Sorry.” He grimaced. “That was uncalled for.”

Hopping over, he took the bedrolls from her hands, dropped them on the ground, and cupped her cheek. “I know you were trying to help. I appreciate it. Help is…” He swallowed hard, then continued. “Difficult to accept sometimes.”

“Yeah, I get that.” She pressed her cheek into his hand, liking his gentle strength maybe more than she should.

Stop. It.

She wasn’t going to think like that. They’d called a truce for the next couple of days and with that, she was calling a truce with herself as well. No more feeling guilty for liking a guy who had “heartbreaker” tattooed across his chest.

No. That was inaccurate.

She’d seen his chest. That expanse of tanned skin, the mat of black hair, and the thick muscles that created sweeping hills and enticing valleys, and there were no words of prophecy marring his perfect skin. He was just a man. A man with issues. Though she would be the worst hypocrite if she dared say his were any worse than hers. She wasn’t perfect. Not by a long shot.

“So how do you want to lay the bedding out?”

His smile was slow and sweet and grateful. “By the fire. Together.” The resonance dropped out of his voice when he said “together,” but it still came out sounding like a dare.

He traced her bottom lip with the pad of his thumb and raised a brow, waiting. For acceptance, or protest?

He pressed a light kiss to the corner of her mouth. A zing of arousal lit her nerves and danced in her belly and made her mind up. “T—” The single letter squeaked as it came out. She cleared her throat. “Together.”

The way he looked at her, she expected him to kiss her again, and much more, but instead he pulled her into his chest and held her tight against him. There wasn’t anything sexual in the embrace. He didn’t grab her ass or grind against her.

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