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“Come with me.”
—and her jaw dropped.
“Come on,” he said, taking her hands in his. “I know you have other clients, but you can fly back to Austin to take care of anything you can’t manage on the phone. Besides, if I’m going to become some big hairy star, you’ll probably have to devote more time to me anyway, right? Make sure I’m behaving myself, staying out of trouble.”
“You are the least troublesome client I’ve ever had,” she said with a sigh, dazed by his offer. “But yes, even after I hire a full-time publicist, and a part-time finance manager—which I’m doing as soon as we send in your tour contract—I’m still going to have to devote more time to you.”
“So why not devoteallyour time to me,” he said, smiling as he wrapped his arms around her waist, drawing her close before adding in a suggestive voice, “I promise I’ll be a good return on your investment.”
She shook her head. “You’re terrible.”
“I’m not, I’m in love,” he said, making her heart flip. “And I want you with me. That way we don’t have to put off all the fun things I was dreaming about last night for my one or two days off a week.”
She knew she should say no, that she wasn’t going to let any of her other clients go, or leave behind everything she’d built in Austin to put all her eggs in the Robert Lawson basket. But instead, she found herself saying, “I’ll call my roommates, and tell them I’m moving out as soon as we get the contract sent off to Eugene this afternoon.”
“That’s my girl,” Robert said, swooping her off her feet with a whoop, spinning her around until she begged to be put down and the horse huffed in irritation.
“You won’t regret it, babe,” he said, kissing her cheek. “I swear you won’t. I’m going to make you happy.”
She hugged him tighter as he kissed her other cheek, her chin and then slowly and deliciously claimed her mouth, his tongue stroking sensuously against hers. He tasted like coffee, maple syrup, and dreams coming true, and in that moment, Marisol was already so happy it was hard to imagine bigger happiness waiting down the road.
But she had a feeling if she stuck with Robert, he would teach her a thing or two about big happiness, big dreams, and an even bigger love.
CHAPTERTHIRTEEN
This wasn’tthe first time Bubba had fallen in love. He remembered the first time with complete clarity, the way one day that girl in his chemistry class he always ended up talking to, when they were supposed to be filling beakers, was suddenly the most fascinating person in the world—at least to him—and how all he could think about was kissing her. He’d known Casey for a long time before he’d fallen, but once he’d fallen, he’d gone down hard and fast, like a steer getting hogtied at a rodeo.
It had been fierce, sweet, innocent, overwhelming young love, and he knew it would have aged into something finer if Casey had stayed in Lonesome Point and kept loving him back.
When Bubba gave his heart to someone, he handed it over completely, no strings attached, no safety net. He believed love was for the long haul, and wasn’t something you could do halfway. He’d die for any one of his friends or family, and a part him would always love Casey, even though she’d started a new life in a city thousands of miles from their hometown. For him, love wasn’t something he could turn off. Once he loved someone, it was forever.
When Casey had told him she didn’t love him anymore, it had hit him hard. For a few months there, he’d seriously thought he might die. Sure, he’d been younger, and everything seemed to hit harder when you were stuck between being a teenager and a grown man, but that had only been part of it. The thing that scared him the most was that he’d been certain he would never find someone who felt as much like home as Casey did. Unlike other twenty-year-old boys, he hadn’t wanted to get out and sow his wild oats. He’d wanted to keep sowing oats with Casey, learning new ways to give her pleasure, discovering things together, getting closer every time they made love.
Losing her had thrown him off balance for years, and falling for Marisol made the way he’d fallen for Casey seem like a sweet little crush.
He wasgoneon this woman. The long, swift slide had started the first time they wrote music together, and ended last night when he made love to her one last time before they’d headed back to the ranch. He’d been lying beneath her, feeling her hands braced on his chest as she rode him with long sensual strokes that scrambled every thought in his head except one—mine.
She was his. She belonged to him. It felt like she had been made for him, and vice versa, and he never wanted to say good-bye, not even for a few months. Asking her to go with him on the tour was impulsive in a way that wasn’t like him, but it felt right. Everything about being with her felt right, and every moment they spent together gave him something else to love.
Like when they finished their tour of the ghost town and sat down in the shade to eat their apples and Marisol spent ten minutes making calls to DJs throughout the state to help get the word out about the concert. As soon as she hung up with a radio station in Dallas, she called her friend who was helping book last minute acts and confirmed booking on Ghost Town Double Wide, an up and coming Southern band she’d convinced to play the benefit for a fraction of their usual fee and the chance to do a photo shoot in the ghost town the day after the show.
Marisol didn’t have to help Mia, especially free of charge, but she’d done it without a second thought. She even suggested they head into downtown before they rode back to the ranch, so that she could fill Mia in on the developments in person.
“I want to throw a few more ideas by her, too, while we’re here,” Marisol said, dropping her granola bar wrapper into the plastic bag Bubba had brought for trash. “It will be harder to help her out once you and I are out on the road.”
“Damn, I like the sound of that.” A wave of happiness and anticipation rushed through his chest and Bubba couldn’t resist the urge to curl his fingers around the back of Marisol’s neck and pull her in for a kiss. The moment their lips touched, sparks flew, the way they always did, and he had a feeling things were only going to get more electric between them as time passed. Their chemistry was like a force of nature, something too powerful to be denied…or completely controlled.
Within moments, their sensual kiss had turned sexy as hell. Marisol’s fingers clawed into his shoulders as Bubba backed her against the wide trunk of the shade tree, gripping her ass in his hands before hitching her legs around his waist, groaning as he felt her heat through her jeans and his cock leapt inside his. He had just pinned her to the tree, and was kissing a heated trail down her neck, when a car horn blared and a chorus of male voices hooted encouragement from the road.
Bubba pulled away, breathing hard, setting Marisol on her feet before he took a few threatening steps out of the shade to glare at the pickup truck full of workers. As soon as he made eye contact with the driver, the man with the sunburned nose and shaggy brown hair sticking out beneath his ball cap accelerated toward the ghost town, but Bubba had already gotten a good look at all of the men.
“I hate that hooting crap,” he said, still glaring at the truck as it drove away. “I’m going to tell Sawyer some of his workers have trouble minding their own business.”
“We were kind of making a spectacle of ourselves,” Marisol said as he turned back to her, blushing as she wiped her hand across her lips. “Maybe we should keep the making out behind closed doors unless we know we’re somewhere we can be alone.”
Bubba’s breath rushed out, his anger fading. “You’re right. I don’t want anyone else to see that look you get on your face.”
She cocked her head. “What look is that?”
