Page 95 of Paper Horses

“So, I guess if you’d come after me days later, I may have wavered, but I don’t know that I would have gone back. I owed it to my brother and my mother’s memory. And if you’d come months later, well, you would have found a very different woman and likely have turned and walked away from me.”

I tucked a curl behind her ear. “Like the woman who showed up a week ago?”

A smile formed as she sniffled. “Yeah, like her.”

“I think I dealt with her, although I did think about leaving my door locked when she couldn’t get a ride. Pictured her standing out there all night bitching about how the bugs were biting her. Maybe added a coyote to the mix.”

She slapped my chest, and I caught her wrist, dragging her onto me. “I wasn’t that bad.”

“Yeah, you were. Spoiled and nasty.” Her mouth twisted, flames dancing in her eyes. “But so fucking sexy with that pouty mouth and those damned spiked heels.”

Her laugh cascaded over my skin. She pushed up on my chest and sat, a position that was too tempting and had me yanking her forward so she was straddling me. Bad move because her brow arched perfectly when she noticed what she did to me.

“So you want me to wear the heels instead of the boots?”

I reached up and tugged her hair loose, letting her curls cascade over her shoulders.

“What I want is to stop talking about the past and relish this moment.”

“You brought it up,” she said, rocking her hips and causing a groan to come from me.

“No, you brought it up, and I didn’t let it go.” My hands pushed at her shirt, finding skin and following the path up her stomach until her breasts sat in them. Pert and perfect.

“Take your coat off, Olivia.”

Her lips parted, a breath escaping, a moment passing before she shrugged it off and I shoved her shirt up. My lower body rebelled even when goosebumps pebbled on her skin. I’d warm her up before she could even contemplate shivering.

“No more looking back,” I said, sliding my hand around her back and unhooking her bra. “The past is gone, and we’re not getting it back. Neither of us can change any of our decisions.”

I dragged the bra from her, hissing when her breasts popped free. Taking her hair in my fingers, I pulled her to me, letting her mouth hover over mine and locking eyes with her.

“Understand?”

“Yes,” she breathed, and my unruly dick leaped.

I wanted to make her promise that we would only talk about the future, but the future was still unsteady, and bringing it up would ruin the moment. “We live for now. That’s all. This moment and the ones that follow, we stay in them.”

She exhaled, the air sweeping over my lips like a gentle caress. The sweet scent of jasmine lingering with it.

“Can you do that for me, Olivia?”

Soft shades of gold and chestnut sat in the depths of her irises, a band of sage within them. Mesmerizing and deadly, her eyes had always been my downfall.

“Yes.”

“Good. Now be a good girl and take those pants off so I can fuck you.”

I captured her gasp before she could free it, kissing her like it was the last and first time, treasuring the sensation of her skin in my hands, her lips against mine, her mere presence after going for so long without it.

“You look fine,” I told Olivia as we walked through the town square. “If you tie your coat one more time, the thing is going to rip.

“It’s not sitting right,” she barked, and I shot her a glare. “Don’t give me that look.”

“I’ll give you any look I want to. In fact, if you keep up that mouthy attitude, I’ll flip you over my shoulder and fuck the brattiness out of you behind that building.”

Her lips thinned, eyes growing a richer shade closer to brown. I was finding I enjoyed riling up the bitchy side of her. It was fun to get her worked up. The resulting sex wasn’t a bad consolation either because when she was in one of those fiery moods, she came even harder. I shifted my pace, adjusting the sudden discomfort in my pants.

“I’m not being bratty, and watch your language.”