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“Do wha—”
“Look too deep, this can’t be deep.” I shake my head. Hard as it is for me to admit, I like this girl’s spirit, the last thing I wanna do is break it.
“I’m not going deep.” She laughs at me cutely. “I’m trying to understand you.”
“Well stop tryin’. I don’t even understand myself,” I tell her honestly. “We just gotta take this for what it is.”
“And what is it?” She creases her forehead together.
“It’s two people with a physical attraction to each other who ain’t gonna let it get beyond that. I told you that you can’t fall for me, Savannah.” I hear a slight fear in my voice and hope she doesn’t pick up on it.
“Maybe you should worry more about your own feelings. I’m a very loveable person. I’ll bet you fall first.” The smile that twitches onto her lips softens the tension I’ve created. “I’m gonna teach you how to have some fun, Cole Carson.”
“Oh yeah? And how ya gonna do that?”
“Just wait and see. Be prepared for the unexpected.” She kisses my lips before I can argue, then slowly presses her lips over my neck, sinking lower and lower down my body until her head disappears under the covers. I gasp in shock when I feel her teeth slightly graze against my already hard cock and have no doubt in my mind that this girl can read my fuckin’ mind. It scares the hell outta me, but I’ve never been one to run away from fear.
I pull up at the ranch just before sunrise so we avoid getting seen and when she steps up onto the porch, she smiles when she reaches the door and notices me lingering.
“You got something you wanna say?” she asks, looking mighty pleased with herself.
With the full intention of wiping the clever grin off her lips, I march onto the porch, grab her face, and pull it onto mine, kissing her the same way I did the night I started dropping my defenses with her.
“I could get used to these cowboy kisses,” she tells me, rubbing her lips together as I pull away.
“Good night, Red.” I slowly back off the porch and head toward the bunkhouse, hoping not to wake anyone up as I strip off my clothes and get into my bunk.
I slide my hand into the inside of my pillowcase and pull out the picture I have of Aubrey from inside it. It’s one that got taken of us both when we were teenagers and she was mine. It ain’t surprising that she’s smiling in the photo. Aubrey was always smiling back then. It was a time in her life when she’d never known tragedy and shared the same dreams for the future as I did. I got swept up in all that happiness for a while, she made me forget how cruel the world could be. Which is why when everything shifted, it felt more painful than ever. I won’t be led into that false sense of security again.
Tucking the photo back inside my pillowcase I rest my head, hoping that I'll find better strength tomorrow.
“You must have been late coming home last night, I didn’t hear you come in.” Leia rests her ass against the kitchen counter and takes a bite of her toast
“I wasn’t too late.”
“I take it you both had a good time?” She continues to scrutinize me while I stir the eggs in the pan. “Come on, you have to give me something. I can’t imagine Cole on a date.”
“It wasn’t a date.” I roll my eyes and feel relieved when Wade steps into the room.
“Mornin’, ladies,” he greets us cheerfully. “Mmmm, what are we having?” He helps himself to a bite of Leia’s toast and then pulls a face.
“What the hell you got on that?” He swallows hard and then attempts to rub the taste off his tongue.
“Mustard.” Leia frowns at him as if that's a perfectly normal thing to spread on toast.
“Mustard?” he repeats.
“Yeah, mustard.” She kisses his cheek before taking a seat at the kitchen table. “I thought maybe we could spread our search a little wider today, knock on some doors on the outskirts of town, and ask if anyone saw Esme around the time she disappeared.” Leia folds out the huge map onto the table. “There are somereally good viewpoints north of town, then there’s Gallard Lake on the west, that’s usually popular with tourists too. There are some houses nearby we could visit.” The smile drops off Wade’s face and he gives me some stern eyes as Leia starts circling some locations with a marker pen.
“I can’t do anything today, but if you keep marking out some places, we can go tomorrow.” I throw a sarcastic grin back at her boyfriend. He may have a point about Leia’s Dad, but she’s feeling helpful right now and it’s having a positive effect on her. I’ll speak to her sister today and see what happened the night Zayne took them home, hopefully, I can clear any doubt that the Mayor was involved in this.
“You need help with anything?” She looks up.
“No, this is something I gotta do by myself.” I plate up the eggs and take them into the dining room where Garrett is sitting at the head of the table reading the paper.
“Morning, Mr. Mayor,” I snigger as I tuck into my rubbery eggs. “When’s Josie back on breakfast duty?” I ask when he ignores my attempt at a little humor over breakfast.
“Josie’s helping us with something else right now.” He folds down his paper and takes a sip of his coffee.
