She looks toward the stairs, but when she sees me, she stops short and shuts the door behind her.
“Tell me to stay,” she demands, and my heart squeezes hard in my chest. She isn’t asking—she’s telling me. It’s everything I’ve wanted for a while now, and now that it’s standing right in front of me, I feel scared… but ready.
I walk up to her and stand as close as I possibly can without touching her. I’m afraid that if I do, I’ll take it somewhere it shouldn’t go before we’ve said what needs to be said.
“Stay,” I say. “Stay with me.” I blink trying to steady myself as tears start to brim in my eyes.
“What took you so long?” she asks in a whisper, a small smile lifting her lips. I work not to gather her in my arms—but damn it, I can’t hold back. I wrap my armsaround her waist and pull her closer, her arms circling my neck.
“I needed to get my head out of my ass,” I tell her, and she chuckles softly.
“At least it’s a cute ass.”
I laugh, then turn serious. “I can’t promise I won’t be difficult. I have a lot of things I haven’t fully worked out yet, but I know I want to—with you,” I explain—and promise. “I love you.”
She closes her eyes, but it doesn’t stop the tears sliding down her cheeks—or the wide grin spreading across her face. “I love you, too,” she says breathlessly.
“I promise to be patient and help you however you need,” she adds as I brush my nose against hers, wanting to stay in her presence, in her space, for as long as I can.
“You already are,” I reply. “I just didn’t want to make the decision for you. I wanted you to choose to be here,” I admit—and even as I say it, it hits me how close I came to letting her go without choosing us.
“I wanted you to choose me.”
I nod. “I will stand up to anyone and anything for you,” I tell her, and she shudders in my embrace. I pull back just enough to look into her eyes, still in awe that she’s here—that she’s mine.
She smiles warmly at me.
“We need to figure out what to do with the land liens. They expire in a few days,” she says, and for once, I don’t want to talk about the ranch—but I still have my news to share with her.
“Yeah, about that.” She frowns. “I took care of those, partner,” I add, and her eyes widen in shock. I nod so she knows what’s going through her head is, in fact, exactly what happened.
“All of Bell River knows, too. It’s pinned on the feed store,” I reply, and she shakes her head in awe.
“I don’t know what to say,” she whispers, and I stroke her cheek gently with my thumb. She leans into it.
God, I love this woman. Her beauty is blinding, her gentleness welcoming—but then there’s that strong will, sexy and enticing, too. She’s perfect in all the ways I could ever imagine the woman I want to share this life with to be.
“This ranch is yours, Sloane,” I tell her, confirming it once more. “It always was, but after everything you’ve done to keep it thriving, it only confirmed that the land was always meant to be yours,” I add as she pulls my face closer, her lips ghosting over mine.
“Ours,” she whispers. “It’s ours.”
“I like the sound of that,” I reply just as softly. She smiles once more before pressing her lips to mine, and I sighdeeply into it, feeling complete after being without this feeling for far too long.
Kissing her has become like a drug, fueling me to wake up and keep going. It feels unreal—and without it, I feel incomplete and empty. I never want to lose this. I don’t think I could survive if I did.
Her hands gently caress my neck, and I tug her closer, pressing my fingertips into her sides. She moans softly, nipping my bottom lip. I groan into her mouth, the kiss growing more heated—but just as I’m about to slide my hand up her shirt, she pulls away.
“Oh, wait.” She’s breathless as she places her hands on my chest to stop me. “Sheriff Riggins called,” she says.
“Really? We’re bringing up the sheriff right now?”
“He tried to call you, but apparently you weren’t picking up. They caught the contractor,” she continues, and I smile wider.
“He said he confessed to the break-in, too. Horizon was behind the whole thing, so it looks like the sheriff is looking to press criminal charges against the developer."
“And once the county got involved, Horizon wouldn’t be able to bury this with money.”
I never thought I’d hear these words, but here they are. If someone had told me six months ago that my life would be shaping up this way—with my ranch intact and thewoman I love at my side, running it with me—I’d have told them they were damn fools.
