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“I remember.” Drew’s voice was quiet, but there was heat in it, and the reference was clear. All at once, that night in Vegas—the one Maisie could remember, in startling detail, as opposed to the one she didn’t recall at all—flooded not just her brain but all her senses.
That was Drew.Maisie knew this intellectually, of course, but their situation had changed so drastically since arriving in Wyoming that Las Vegas seemed like nothing more than a fantasy, something that had happened to two different people, not to them. Yet it reallyhadbeen them, and they had not only a collection of scorching hot memories but the marriage certificate to prove it.
“Yeah. Huh.” Maisie tried to leave it at that, but the memories kept tickling her, like a scab she knew she shouldn’t touch. Shouldn’t but couldn’t resist. “Should we talk about that?”
Not that she wanted to talk about it. Except, she was kind of curious what Drew would have to say. Did they both remember things the same way?
“I think I’d rather go back to you telling me how stubborn I am,” Drew mumbled. She reached for an old bellows, giving the fire several puffs of air until it was roaring. “There. It’s already getting hot in here.”
“Sure is.” Maisie wasn’t sure if Drew hadn’t heard her or was ignoring the comment, but either way, there was no response.
“Sorry about the picnic,” Drew said, heading back to where she’d stowed the saddlebags. “We still have the food, though, if you’re getting hungry.”
“Starved,” Maisie admitted.
“We can’t have that.” Drew reached into the bag and pulled out an assortment of containers, setting them on the counter one by one. “I’ve got potato salad, coleslaw, some cold fried chicken, and cinnamon bears, of course.”
“You do have a knack for making sure I stay fed. Any beef jerky?” Maisie knew she was pushing her luck with another Vegas reference, but now that it was on her mind and they were all alone, she felt compelled to get some things out in the open. After all, what good was a scab if you couldn’t pick at it a little? “I love beef jerky.”
“I remember that, too.” Drew raked her eyes up and down Maisie, sending a shiver clean through her. There was no need to ask if that was all that Drew remembered. The answer was written in the hungry look in her eyes, a hunger their picnic lunch would do little to assuage, and one Maisie shared. “I’m really not sure what we’re doing right now.”
Truth be told, neither was Maisie, but damn it felt good, and she didn’t want whatever was brewing between the two of them to end. The picnic could wait. “Look, Drew—”
“It’s okay. You don’t have to explain.” Drew forced her eyes to look away but not before Maisie made out a flicker of pain. “You were curious. It was Vegas. I mean, what happens there, stays there, right? Neither of us had any expectations to see each other again.”
“Drew—”
“I know you’re not looking for a wife, not me or any other woman. Your reaction back in Milwaukee with your friends asking if you were gay made that crystal clear, and that’s fine—”
“Drew—” Maisie raised her voice this time, fearing if she didn’t, Drew wouldn’t stop until they were both dead.
“What?”
“For a woman who doesn’t like to talk, sometimes you don’t know when to shut up.”
Drew frowned. “Have I missed something?”
“Yeah. You drive me crazy.”
Drew’s frown deepened. “In a good way or a bad way?”
“Both. Equally.” Maisie’s head was spinning, thoughts crowding in faster than she could let them out. “You’re stubborn, and you’re cocky. You wouldn’t know how to listen to save your life. But when you talk about me, when you tell me how you see me, you describe this person I wish I could be. And you look at me like no one has ever looked at me in my life, like you believe I can do anything.”
Drew was looking at her now in exactly that way, the light from the fireplace dancing in her eyes. “I can’t ever picture you giving up on anything once you put that devious mind to it.”
“Devious, huh?” Maisie crossed her arms.
“Yep.” The desire in Drew’s eyes sprang to life, roaring up like another log had been tossed on the fire. It was then that Maisie realized the position of her arms had doubled the prominence of her breasts. She only wished she’d thought of doing it sooner.
“You’re the one who took me on a picnic when a storm was blowing in.” Maisie offered her own version of a shrug and deadpanned, “Oh look, now we’re all alone in a cabin, with a roaring fire and a cozy bearskin rug. Whatever shall we do?”
“You think I planned this?” Drew studied Maisie as if trying to read her mind. Frankly, if the woman couldn’t figure out what she was thinking, Maisie guessed there wasn’t much hope for either one of them.
Maisie took a step closer, deciding to spell it out for her instead of taking chances. After all, hadn’t she told Drew she wished she had some of her confidence? It was looking to be a good time for a test drive. “I think if you don’t kiss me right now, Drew Campbell, I might lose my mind.”
The next moment, Drew pounced like a lioness. Her hands tugged at Maisie’s shirt, freeing it from the waistband of her jeans to caress the bare skin beneath Maisie’s bra strap. Maisie grabbed the brim of Drew’s hat, knocking it off and grasping a handful of the ponytail beneath. She may have hesitated when it came to pulling the horse’s mane earlier, but she had no such compunction now.
Their mouths crashed together, bodies pressed together as fingers, tongues, and lips searched for whatever they could take. There was no room for timidity, just the surrender to red-hot desire.
