Page 138 of Sunrise & Serenity

With a soft sigh, she shifts closer until there’s barely any space left between us. I kiss her again. Slow enough this time that the urgency burns itself down into something deeper.

She rests a hand on my chest. Right over my heart.

“You know,” she murmurs sleepily, “you’re not nearly as grumpy as you pretend to be.”

A quiet laugh escapes me before I can stop it. “Don’t spread it around.”

Her smile curves faintly, her eyes drifting shut again.

But in the quiet afterward, with her curled against me, the thought returns.

Stay.

It would be so damn easy to ask.

She shifts again as the night breeze rustles through the trees outside.

I let the moment pass. Maybe tomorrow.

CHAPTER 35

SAGE

By the time we roll up to the ranch house the next morning, sunlight is spilling across the valley. Even after the coffee Holden made me, I’m exhausted.

Too little sleep. Too much Holden.

The memory of last night flashes warm through me—my mouth on him in the dark cab of the truck, his body covering mine beneath the night sky, the way he filled me so completely.

Heat licks across my skin. God.

Holden kills the engine, one hand still loose on the steering wheel while he looks out toward the pastures. Neither of us moves right away.

“What are you up to today?” he asks finally.

I tuck my hair behind my ear. “I need to finish culling the branding photos and sketch layouts for the lodge wall.”

He nods, his attention drifting over me, and my stomach flips. Lips tilting up, he reaches over, brushes his fingers along my jaw, then leans in and kisses me once. Soft this time. Unhurried. Nothing like last night, but still enough to make my pulse stumble.

“We should probably stop doing this in the truck,” he murmurs against my mouth.

I smile despite myself. “Probably.”

Neither of us sounds especially committed to the idea.

Eventually, we climb out into the morning heat. Holden grabs his hat from the dashboard while I collect my laptop bag and camera case from the back seat.

For a moment, we stand side by side near the truck, as if neither of us wants to part yet. Then voices drift faintly from the direction of the horse barns—reality intruding.

Holden exhales quietly through his nose. “I should go. Chance asked me to help with the yearlings.”

I nod. “Right.”

With a hand on my lower back, he presses a kiss to my forehead.

I don’t protest. After what happened at the bar last night, there doesn’t seem much point in pretending anymore.

I turn and walk toward the main house, telling myself I won’t look back. I fail after about six steps, glancing over my shoulder and finding him standing right where he was, watching me with his hands shoved in his pockets.