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They galloped together across the vastness of the Colorado plains. Stars sparkled across the clear sky, and the full moon illuminated the majestic Rockies in translucent indigo against the horizon.
Oh, she had missed this.
After an hour of hard riding, they stopped to let their horses rest.
“I should see you home, Catie,” Chad said. “It’s nearing two."
“I know,” she said softly, “but it’s such a beautiful night. I’m not sure I want to go in. I don’t want to lose the magic of it.”
“Silly,” he chuckled. “Colorado has a night like this once or twice a month. We live in the most beautiful land in the world.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“If it’s so beautiful, why’d you stay away so long?”
“Mmm. Don’t know.”
“I think you do. You said you’d tell me sometime.”
“Maybe I will. Maybe I won’t.”
“How about now?”
“How about we ride back?” she said, climbing atop Ladybird.
“All right, I can take a hint. It’s late, and I’m going to see you safely home, sugar.”
“Not necessary.” Though she was secretly ecstatic to spend a little more time with him. “I know this land like the back of my hand.”
“As do I, and I’m coming with you.”
“If you insist.”
“I do.” He climbed on Eclipse and they rode toward the Bay land, keeping the horses to a canter, and not saying much.
Catie reveled in being with him. The man she loved.
They reached the Bay barn and Chad helped her curry down Ladybird and get her bedded.
“Thanks for riding with me,” she said. “I sure had fun.”
“Me too, sugar.”
He grinned, and her heart stopped. God, he was so handsome. Always had been, but now…he damn near robbed her of breath.
She expected him to get on Eclipse and high tail it out of there faster than a jackrabbit, but instead he took her into his arms and gave her a brotherly hug. The warmth of his body, flushed from the excitement of the ride, made her tingle all over with prickly needles.
And then the hug was no longer brotherly. His lips pressed to her neck in moist kisses. “Why can’t I keep my hands to myself around you, sugar?”
“Mmm,” she said. “I don’t know, but I’m glad you can’t.”
“All I want to do,” he rasped, sliding his mouth over her cheeks, her eyelids, her forehead, “is finish what we started in your room today. But it would be a powerful mistake.”
“Mmm. Why is that again?”
“Because you deserve more than a roll in the hay.”
Catie erupted in giggles.
