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“Look at me.”
When she did, he took her mouth in a hard, relentless kiss. He poured every confusing thing he felt for her into every tilt of his head, every slide of his tongue, every shifting caress. His need for her coalesced with affection, propelling their kiss higher and hotter until he had to force himself to pull back so that he didn’t end up taking her here and now.
“To be continued,Bomboncita.”
“I’m gonna hold you to that.” Her voice was soft and a tad breathy, which pleased him. It was nice to know he wasn’t the only one affected by what was blooming between them.
Twenty minutes later, she stood in the barn, wearing an old pair of his uncle Julio’s work jeans and a plaid button-down. She’d tied the bottom halves of the shirt at her waist in an adorable mockery of the top she’d worn when she’d first stepped into his office. She tucked the jeans into boots that swallowed her feet.
“I look ridiculous,” she said, but a smile curved her lips.
“No,Bomboncita, you look stunning.”
She eyed him, her left brow shooting up.
“Okay, maybe stunning was over-the-top,” he said, “but I still want to take a big, greedy bite of you.”
Her gaze dropped to the barn floor, and her arms wrapped around her middle. Inwardly, he sighed. She still had a way to go before the woman’s and the lawyer’s confidence were on the same level.
He held out a hand to her. At least, she didn’t hesitate to take it or to look around as if checking to see if he was offering it to someone else.
Baby steps.
“I want you to ride Rosa,” he said, motioning to the brown-and-white Quarter Horse who’d stuck her head into the corridor for attention. He ran his thumb over the white spot of fur between her eyes, and she bumped her nose against his shoulder. “She’s much gentler than Outlaw, so she’ll be a much better mount for your first ride.”
“Outlaw? I’m guessing he’s a bit of a wild one?”
“Not wild, more like willful. He and I are still getting to know each other, and we’re locked in a battle of wills.”
As he saddled Rosa, he gave Emma a basic primer on horse etiquette: how to use the reins, how to properly mount, how the feet should be positioned in the stirrups, et cetera.
Despite Emma’s instant rapport with Rosa, he kept a close eye on them as they rode. Emma delighted in every minor miracle they passed, like the two sparrows they disturbed and sent flying. In the rabbit that darted across the trail. In the hawk that circled lazily overhead. She seemed as at home here as she had in the courtroom.
He tried to imagine Bridget riding with him, or any of the women who’d come before her, but imagining them was all he could do, as he’d asked no other woman to accompany him on a ride. Like his home, his rides were for solitude and sanctuary, not romance.
Then came Emma.
“I hear water.” Reverence weaved through her words. “Is there a creek or something nearby?”
He nodded. “You’ll get to see it just over this hill.”
“Does it have a name?”
“Mamáalways called it Bluebonnet Creek because of the flowers that grow along its bank. It starts in the hills just beyond my property’s edge and flows all the way to the ocean—or so the seven-year-old me used to believe.”
She tossed him a glorious smile. “You lived here as a kid, too?”
“Sorta. This entire area has been Whitlow land for nearly a century. My parents deeded the land south of the creek to me when I’d wanted to build my home.”
“Did you ever discover if the creek flowed all the way to the ocean?”
He shook his head. “I thought about finding out once, but then decided I didn’t want to know.”
“That way, it can forever be the ocean in your fantasies?”
“Exactly.”
She tossed him another glorious smile. “Well, for what it’s worth, all creeks, rivers, and streams eventually empty into the ocean. I mean, it may not get there directly, but the water will end up there. It’s part of the water cycle. Ocean water evaporates into the sky and becomes rain. The rainwater fills the rivers and lakes, and then, slowly, it finds its way back to the ocean.”
