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“Not long now,” she said.
“No. Mid-November. It’s all coming together.”
“It’s amazing. Really. What you’ve put together here.”
“It’s not just me.”
“Well, maybe it isn’t just you. But, I have a feeling it has a lot to do with you. A lot to do with who you are.”
“You give me a little bit too much credit, Alaina.”
“Or maybe you don’t give yourself enough. I heard what your brother said. About how you read to them. And rescuing kittens.”
“You already knew I rescued cute kittens,” he said. “Didn’t you, mite?”
“If you mean me...”
“I do.”
She pretended to scowl, but she didn’t mean it. It pleased her. The way he’d confirmed the link between the two. It made her feel connected to him.
She urged her horse forward, loving the way the golden light flooded the trail. It made everything look rich. Deep. This shaded glow all around. And when she looked at Gus, he was all gold too. It was likely no one ever had called him an angel. Not with a craggy face like that, and a big burly build that made him look more mountain than man. But in that moment, he felt a bit like her angel. A guardian one, with a big sword of fire, but an angel nonetheless.
But when his lips curved, it all went wicked, and that place between her legs started to ache.
Good grief. Never had anyone put her through so many emotions in such a small space of time with so few words. With just the tip of his mouth. But Gus McCloud had a hold on her like no one else ever had.
“I’m not a kitten,” she said.
“But I bet you’d like it if I scratched you behind the ears.”
An arrow of arousal shot straight through the center of her thighs. “Not fair,” she said.
“What’s not fair?” he asked, his expression comedically innocent—he was nothing of the kind.
“You’re being dirty.”
“Yeah. But you like that. I figured that one out. The rest... A little bit less so.”
“I think you have me pretty figured out,” she said. “You took me out last night.”
“And I made the wrong decision with the dancing.”
“I would have sat with you at that table and I would’ve been happy. Just to be with you. I was glad that we danced. But we didn’t have to.”
“That’s awfully forgiving of you.”
“You know, it’s funny, Gus, I didn’t really spend a lot of time fantasizing about getting married. I’m finding out what I want a little more every day.”
And what she didn’t say was that she was also learning she didn’t want just a husband. She wanted him.Hewas the thing. He was what she wanted, not a generic husband. Not a generic marriage.
But him.
And that meant it was easy—or at least easier—to deal with things when they weren’t some kind of romantic ideal.
And she might ache a little bit to experience the casual touching and other things that she saw Elsie getting to have.
But Elsie didn’t have Gus. So at the end of the day, Alaina couldn’t be jealous of her.
