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For so many years, I had wanted the kind of soft and hardy love that my mom and dad had, and the kind of steady relationship Rose and Oliver showed me every single day, though it was never something I thought I could have and so I brushed it off. I wanted to be able to belong to someone and for them to belong to me completely. Connor was the last sort of man I would have expected myself to fall in love with, but he was the only man that I wanted now.
“You love me,” I breathed, my voice soft against the length of his collar bone. “You’re in love with me?”
Connor let out a breath and I felt his lips press against the top of my head and my tousled hair. “You know that I do—that I am, Sadie.”
“So this is…” I started, unsure of how I wanted to ask the question that waited at the tip of my tongue. “What’s between us is…”
“It’s real, yeah,” Connor replied softly, and his hand brushed idly over the underside of my breast. It was strange to have him touching me so casually as if we had been this way all along but only now had taken full advantage of it. He touched me like we had always been together, moving as one, like it was as easy as breathing for him. Connor’s warm breath brushed against my hair as he continued. “What do you think?”
“About what exactly?” I asked him, confused as his sudden change of subject seemed to come out of nowhere. I sat up a little where I was, watching Connor’s face as I leaned on his warm chest on the blanket.
“You know what, Sadie.” Connor sighed, letting his hand fall from my chest to rest on his belly.
I missed the warmth and familiarity of his wide hand almost immediately. I knew what he was asking, and I also knew what he wanted me to say. If I told Connor how I felt and how deeply my attraction for him was, I knew that there was no going back to the way we were before. Connor had already admitted that he was in love with me and now the ball was in my court. We had slept together and for some ridiculous reason, the emotional part of it all was what made me nervous. I opened my mouth, ready to rattle off whatever love-filled nonsense came out of my addled brain. Suddenly a sharp, cold wind whisked through the little meadow, chilling me under the blanket and making the fire shudder. I smelled rain and that was all the warning we got before a light drizzle began to fall, arching over the trees to pour down on us in the meadow. I jumped from the blanket quickly, tugging on my clothes faster than I ever had before.
Connor looked around as if there was some unknown assailant that was coming for us. He jumped, looking into the bushes and the trees.
“What? What is it, Sadie?” he asked urgently, jumping to his feet with the blanket wrapped around him and looking like some fairytale bandit.
“You don’t feel that?” I called over the rush of wind that swept through the trees, trying not to laugh at the way he looked. My mind was set on getting out of there. I stuffed everything into the saddlebags and ran to tuck them over the horses’ saddles quickly while Connor stood watching with that same look on his face.
“Feel what?” Connor called, yanking on his clothes with a wide-eyed expression and a confused tilt to his mouth. I could tell he had no idea what I was talking about and I could understand why. He had grown up in the city, sheltered by the towering skyscrapers and his father’s cold embrace.
“There’s a storm coming, it’s about to hit right over us,” I told him, glancing over to the west where heavy black clouds gathered forebodingly on the horizon. “It’s moving pretty fast, actually. We have to get out of here,” I said as I kicked dirt onto our little fire.
“I—" Connor stared at me like I was some kind of deity worthy of worship. “That’s amazing. How did you know that?”
“Connor,” I laughed at his slack-jawed expression. He obviously was not someone who could live off the land, but he had me for that, so it didn’t matter. “You can feel it, city-boy. You can smell the rain and when the temperature changes.”
“Alright then, Miss Stormy Weathers,” Connor grinned at me, walking over quickly to grab Strawberry from where she was munching on crunchy grass and patting her roan coat like they were old friends. It warmed my heart to see him so soft and caring, just like he seemed to be with Sammy.
“Here, let me put their bits back in, and then we’ll get out of here quick,” I told him, putting both Merlin and Strawberry’s bridles back onto their heads and letting them drop the half-chewed grass from their mouths. I helped Connor put his foot in the stirrup and helped him jump on Strawberry and then swung myself quickly onto Merlin.
