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“She’s in a good place.” A tremble worked through her voice. “I’m taking care of her—feeding her, keeping an eye on her wound. What’s wrong with being confined if you’re with people who care about you?” What was freedom when you were alone? she wanted to ask. Is that what Silas wanted? To be alone for the rest of his life?
“It’s time for her to rejoin the herd,” he said firmly. “Look at her. Her nose is healing up good. And she’s clearly miserable here.”
Miserable? Was he miserable in Star Valley? Had she made his life miserable by relying on his help and his friendship? Tears stung her eyes but she held them back. “It’s not time. It’s too soon. And besides that, there’s no guarantee the herd will accept her back now. And she won’t make it out there alone.” No one could thrive when they were alone. “Isn’t it okay to be stuck if you’re in a good place, surrounded by good people?”
The man slowly turned to her and regarded her with an unyielding stare. “She is in a good place. But maybe it’s not the best place for her.” He seemed to have picked up on the fact that they weren’t discussing Legacy anymore.
Well, good. Because she’d never excelled at speaking in code. “Are you leaving Star Valley?” she asked directly.
Instead of avoiding her gaze this time, Silas’s intensity seemed to lock their eyes together. “Not permanently, no. But I’m joining Conrad Fletcher’s group for a recon mission next month.”
Tess recoiled. He might as well have punched her in the gut. “You’re going back over there?” To the same place where Jace had been killed? “Howcouldyou?” The words came out breathless and seething. “How could you do this to the people who care about you?” To her?
“Being a soldier is what I know, Tess,” he said quietly. “It’sallI know. It’s who I am.”
No.She wanted to shake her head at him. Maybe that’s all he had been before he’d come here but over the last two years he’d become more. He’d been her helper and her protector and her friend. Along with Thatch and Aiden, he’d lifted her up and carried her along until she’d regained her strength. He’d become a part of her life.
But she couldn’t say those things to him. They’d spent one night together. With no strings attached. He didn’t owe her anything. Not even an explanation. But fury rose up inside of her anyway.
“What about Willow and Morgan? You can’t leave them.” She let herself into the pen through the gate. “They love you.” And her. What about her? Tess held on to her anger so she could withstand the wave of sadness that threatened to come crashing over her. “Aiden is right. You do whatever the hell you want without thinking about how it’s going to affect anyone else.”
“Maybe Iamthinking about you.” Silas’s tortured gaze bore into hers. “Maybe that’s why I have to go.”
The quiet admission immediately disarmed her. She stood there in front of him feeling as naked as she had been That Night.
“You know all the reasons I can’t stay here, Tess. You know why I can’t be this close to you. Not anymore.”
Who cared what she knew in her head? In the last two years, her heart had only beat like this for him. And if he spent months away from her—if he left and something happened to him—her heart might never beat like this again.
“I have to go. I have to get away, or…” He shut his mouth and shook his head.
“Or what?” Tess stepped toe to toe with him. “Orwhat?” she asked more forcefully.
A decisive smolder took over his eyes. He reached for her, sliding his hands around her waist, pulling her close to him, making her heart sigh with pure relief.
“Or I’ll do something reckless,” he murmured, dropping his hungry gaze to her lips. “Something I haven’t been able to stop thinking about doing for one damn long month.”
Then just do it already, she tried to tell him with her eyes. But he was taking too long. Way too long. So Tess touched her lips to his, ending the anticipation and welcoming the rush of desire. God, his lips were even better than she remembered, firm and demanding and teasing too. And that scruff on his jaw lightly scraped the edge of her cheek, sending a ripple of goose bumps down her right side, tingling on the surface of her skin.
Tess pushed her hands into his chest and backed him up against the fence post, fitting their bodies together the way they’d been That Night. The night she’d finally felt something again. When the sparks had consumed her for the first time in forever.
A groan hummed from Silas’s throat, and he brought his hands to her low back, urging her in closer. “Yes.” She needed more. Tess ground her hips against his, feeling him against her—all of him—and she lost her breath in a sharp intake of air.
Silas skimmed his lips across her cheek and then pressed them to the edge of her jaw, working his way down her neck, his breath hot against her skin, while she clutched his shirt in her fists and whimpered.
She couldn’t tell him she didn’t want him to go. She couldn’t ask him to stay, but she could kiss him. She could show him how she felt. Placing a shaking hand behind his neck, Tess brought his face back in line with hers, looking into his darkened eyes, letting him see her. He had feelings too. They were there. Right there trapped in his eyes, as powerful and vivid as her own. But he couldn’t seem to speak either.
So Tess kissed him again, willing him to understand—how she wanted him, why she couldn’t have him… though she seemed to be forgetting all that stood between them herself.
She seemed to be forgetting everything but the faint minty taste of his mouth, the way his tongue grazed hers, igniting a fire that burned low and deep—that burned forhim.
A kiss could say so much. More than words. More than—
Noise. Engine noise. Tess separated from Silas, gasping for air, lifting her eyes in the direction of the truck barreling down the driveway.
“Shit. Your brother’s here.” Silas strutted away from her and leaned over the fence with his head down.
“I don’t think he saw,” she squeaked. Aiden probably couldn’t have seen them kissing from all the way down the driveway. But he’d see now. He’d see her face red, her lungs gasping, her hair all over the place from when Silas had roved his hands through it.
