AllFreeNovel
Share Us
They were at The Tranquil Pool, part of the Maravilla Natural exclusive spa experience. They had walked down an overgrown flower-filled path leading to a warm stone-edged plunge pool beside a cool stone-edged river complete with a fire pit built into the side.
He sent a splashing wave toward her, hitting her square in the face and disrupting her commune with nature. “Buck!” she said, splashing him back. He didn’t even flinch. “Maybe you should go run a few miles and climb some trees.”
“I’m no damn monkey,” he growled. “Besides, you’re giving me a damn good workout.”
Mari looked at her husband and was suddenly thirsty. She wanted to lick the water droplets off his beautiful body. God bless the military for sculpting her husband into a gorgeous, muscular specimen. “Stop looking at me like that or the only thing I’m going to be communing with is your delicious body.” Mari smiled.
“First, we had to bathe in the river and then meditate to immerse ourselves in the sounds of nature. Now, we’ve got an hour of sitting in this herbal bath. I’m just not cut out for…ah…immersing. Unless it’s the ocean, I’m swimming toward bad guys, and at the end I get to rock and roll with my M4.”
“Okay, I get it, my warrior love. But I wanted you to experience what my family’s hotel is all about.”
“It’s beautiful here,” he said, grudgingly. “I’m sorry if I’m messing with your aura.”
“You always mess with my aura,” she murmured, and his mouth kicked up in a knowing smile as a pretty blue butterfly settled on his shoulder. She shook her head. Her big, bad warrior and a delicate butterfly. He noticed it but didn’t displace it and her heart just melted for him.
She closed her eyes and said, “Maybe if I scrounge around, I can find a ball for you.”
Before she realized he’d even moved he was on her. “I can find a couple of balls for you, right now.”
She smirked. “Big, brass ones, if I’m not mistaken.”
“You are good with comebacks when you’re relaxed and immersed,” he said, kissing her neck.
She sat up in the water. “I don’t want you to be unhappy. We can leave if you want.”
“No, that’s not fair to you. Can we cuddle and mix our auras or is that forbidden?”
She chuckled. “No, it’s not forbidden.” They spent the rest of the time holding each other in the bath.
Back at the hotel, she had her shower, and Buck, surprisingly, had fallen asleep on the big king bed. Her parents had comped her a room, all amenities, so that they could have a proper honeymoon.
She grabbed up her tablet, went onto the balcony to read, and fell asleep, too. She woke up when Buck settled in behind her and pulled her to him.
“So, we’re really relaxed,” he said. She nodded.
“Tell me something that no one knows,” she said, “and I’ll tell you something no one knows.”
He sighed. “I was deathly afraid of horses when I was five years old,” he said. His voice was subdued and wary like he expected her to laugh at him. She turned around to look at his face. She could tell it wasn’t something that had been easy for him to admit, and it was tied up in his whole persona. She knew something about that, and she didn’t find it at all funny.
“Tell me why,” she asked.
“I had an uncle?—”
“Colton.” His mom had told her about her brother-in-law, and everything she’d said about him made her think of Buck.
He smiled, gratified that she had been listening to his family talk. “Yeah. He was the best,” Buck said, his voice strained. “A great cowboy, fearless, tough, and strong. I looked up to him and my dad with pride, wanting to be just like them.”
“I know he died,” she said, lacing her fingers through his.
He nodded. “He got kicked in the head by a horse. It was awful. He died right on the spot. I was traumatized, and I didn’t want to go near horses again, or cattle.”
Easing a breath past the aching fullness in her chest, she gave him a little hug. “What changed your mind?”
“My grandfather. He was ruthless. Figured the adage: ‘if you get thrown, get up, dust yourself off, and go again.’ would work for me.”
“Obviously, you overcame it.”
“Because I didn’t want to fail my family.”
