Just Desserts
LAINEY
I started this job wondering how Colton convinced anyone at any time to fall in love with him.
Now I’m wondering how everyone isn’t kind of obsessed with him.
Him, the man who’s kissing his son’s forehead before turning out the lights.
“Night, buddy. Don’t let the spooky ghosts bite.”
Dean turns his head to look at the completed LEGO set I placed on his bedside table and smiles. “Ghosts don’t bite you, Daddy. They haunt you.”
“Ah. Right. Well, hope the ghosts don’t haunt you, then.” Colton cuts me a look, his brow furrowed and his eyes wide. “Seems kinda dark, but whatever.”
His confusion is adorable. So is the way he literally tucks in his son, pushing the comforter underneath Dean’s arms and legs so that he’s wrapped up tight in warm blankets.
“Love you, Dean.”
“Love you, Dad. And you too, Lainey!”
My heart squeezes. “Thanks for letting me hang out tonight.”
“Can you come back tomorrow? Can she, Dad, please?”
Colton straightens, running a hand over his face. “Lainey’s got a life, you know.”
“I actually don’t,” I say with a smile. “Not here in Hartsville anyway. I’ll find you tomorrow, Dean. Don’t worry.”
“Good,” he says, closing his eyes. “Night night.”
“Night.” Colton turns off the light, and together we tiptoe out of the room. He slowly—quietly—closes the door behind us, letting out a sigh of relief.
“You really didn’t have to stay to help with bedtime.” Colton keeps his voice low. “Dean can be kinda shameless when he’s asking for stuff.”
“Please. It was an honor.”
I mean that. It was an automatic yes when Dean asked if I wanted to stay for dessert and more LEGO building and another yes when he begged me to help his dad read him bedtime stories.
Honestly, what the hell else am I gonna do on a weekday night in the middle of nowhere?
And yeah, maybe I’m enjoying myself. A lot. In a way I never anticipated I would with Colton. His house just has this energy—this warmth—that’s hard to resist. It makes me realize how lonely I’ve felt since graduating.
I don’t want to leave.
Speaking of. I’m hit by a new wave of nerves as Colton and I head back out to the kitchen. He turned off the music, and the snap and pop of the fire in the family room fills the silence.
The windows have gone dark. I watch our reflections move through the space with an ease that I absolutely do not feel.
What I do feel is aroused. Interested. Achy.
Full in all the best ways.
“Would you like another beer or…?” Colton lifts an arm to dig his hand into the hair at his nape. His bicep bulges, his shirt lifting to reveal a sliver of his flat stomach.
Yup. Gonna do something very stupid if I don’t leave very soon.
Last thing I want to do is overstay my welcome. Sure, Colton was kind and very flirty tonight. And yes, he did mention continuing our enemies-with-benefits situation. But are we even enemies anymore? It sure as hell doesn’t feel like it.
If not, what the hell are we now? Because he also asked about my family and my life and my job, and my heart skips all over again at the memory of the look in his eyes when he said that doesn’t sound like you.
But that does not mean Colton wants me to stay. In fact, I imagine he wants to fall face-first into bed. He looks tired.
He always looks tired.
I’m not gonna be the reason he misses out on any sleep.
“Thanks, but I think I’m gonna head out.” I grab my bag from the console table behind the family room couch.
Dropping his arm, Colton looks at me for a beat. I can’t read the expression in his eyes. He’s not squinting at me. He’s not checking me out. He’s more like…
Searching me. For answers. Do I really want to go? Or do I want to stay?
Does he want me to stay?
Please, please ask me to stay.
But what if Dean hears us? What if, I don’t know, it’s not as good as I remember?
What if it’s better?
“All right.” He drops his fist onto the nearby countertop.
“Thank you for the LEGO set, Lainey. That was really cool of you to think of Dean. Even cooler of you to spend time with him. Us. I feel like I’m always so busy doing other stuff…
” Colton shakes his head. “I don’t know, I worry I don’t sit down and play with him enough. Tonight was fun.”
Be still, my beating heart.
“It was.” I loop my bag over my shoulder. “Kinda shocked by how much fun we had, to be honest.”
He chuckles and starts walking toward the door. “For the record, I still don’t agree with you being here. Not here here but on the ranch.”
I follow him, my body throbbing with an awareness of just how close he is. How good he smells. “And I still don’t agree with you not agreeing with that. Mark my words, cowboy, I’m gonna knock your socks off.”
He cuts me a look over his shoulder. “You were so cool, until you weren’t.”
“Told you I was a nerd.” My face hurts. That’s when I realize it’s from smiling so much all night.
The ache in my core intensifies.
“How’re things?” I lower my voice. “With your sister and Ryder?”
Colton runs a hand over his mouth. “I spoke to my therapist about it today. I’m working on acceptance. Part of that is accepting…well, that I may be jealous.”
My pulse skips several beats. “You’re in therapy?”
“Can’t you tell by how well I handle stress and you and, well, everything else?” He grins. “Yes, I’m in therapy. Working through some stuff.”
I lick my lips. Never would’ve guessed this gruff cowboy would be doing that kind of digging. But he is. And I respect the hell out of him for it.
“Good for you,” I manage. “So, wait, you think you’re jealous of Billie and Ryder’s relationship?”
“Yeah. That they found each other, you know? And maybe made better choices than I did.”
I want him to tell me about those choices. At this point, I’m dying to know this man’s story. But my instincts are telling me not to push too hard. He’ll tell me if—when—he’s ready.
“Good for you working through that stuff,” I say. “Just so you know, men going to therapy is kind of the sexiest thing ever.”
He opens the door, a pleasant gust of warm evening air greeting us. Crickets pulse in the background.
He lets out a low chuckle as he reaches up to curl his hand over the top of the door. “You think I’m sexy?”
Tugging on my bottom lip with my teeth, I nod. “A little, yeah.”
“Just a little?”
Christ, can we fuck already?
“Fine. More than a little.”
He groans. “Text me when you get home?”
“Since when do you care whether I get taken out by a bear?”
“Since my son became obsessed with you. And yeah, bear maulings are bad for business.”
“You would say that.” God, I wish I could quit smiling. Must. Go. Now. “Thanks again for dinner. This really was a treat.”
“You need to get out more.”
I step through the door. “No shit. You need to be less grumpy like this all the time. Although I get it.”
He follows me outside and closes the door behind him. “Get what?”
“Why you’re grumpy. It’s because you’re angry.” I turn my head, and our gazes do that colliding thing. The air between us crackles. “I’m not afraid of it, you know. Your anger.”
“Oh, Dallas, I know.”
“But I’m starting to understand it. Maybe because I’m angry too. I could probably work on accepting some things in my life too. Wow, Colt, do I actually have something to learn from you?”
The expression in his eyes morphs. Becomes hungry.
“You just used it,” he says. “My name. The one I like.”
I hadn’t even realized it. “Oh. You’re welcome.”
“I’m teachin’ you to ride.” His eyes flick over my body. “But that’s not the only thing I got expertise in. I got plenty to teach you.”
I dig my teeth into my bottom lip, fighting a smile. “I thought we weren’t going to tee each other up anymore?”
“When the hell did we ever agree to that?”
“I…okay, fine, I don’t think we did.” I clear my throat.
“Anyway. You have a lot on your plate. Doing all this”—I glance back at the house—“all by yourself is unfair. You didn’t ask for things to be this way.
But you’re making the best of it, even though it’s gotta be overwhelming and hard and just—yeah, so damn thankless sometimes. ”
He doesn’t say anything. My pulse thrums in my ears. For a second, I think I’ve overstepped. Maybe he just wanted to keep flirting instead of getting real or deep.
“And you.” His voice is husky. “You’re angry because you’ve been taught to put everyone else first. Which implies that they have more value than you do. No one deserves to come second in their own lives, Lainey.”
My mouth has gone dry. This cowboy is smart.
Sensitive.
He gets it. And he goes to therapy.
Sexiest. Man. Alive.
“Women deserve that,” I reply, a little breathless. “To come second, I mean. That’s what so many of us are taught anyway.”
He turns and takes a step toward me. “Why do you think I insist you come first when you’re with me?”
I step back and to the side a little, my shoulder blades meeting with the siding next to the door. “That was once.”
His gaze glimmers in the light from a nearby window as he rests a hand on the siding right beside my head. “Care to make it twice? I am a giver.”
His scent overwhelms me. I drop my bag, which lands with a small thump on the ground.
“I like that about you. Makes me feel…good. Really good.” Like I matter.
He husks out a laugh as he does the lean. The one that’s wildly, obscenely sexy, his face an inch from mine.
“Happy to hear.” He ducks his head to kiss my neck, nicking my jaw with his teeth. The scrape of his scruff against my skin sends need bolting through me. It lands with a decisive yes between my legs.
I let him know I’m in by slipping a hand inside his shirt. His rock-hard stomach caves at the contact. I marvel at how smooth and warm his skin is, my thumb catching on a trail of wiry hair that arrows down his middle.
“Gimme a yes, honey.” He nips at the underside of my jaw.
I run my palm up the length of his side. His skin is hot to the touch. “You really need me to say it again?”
“Yes.”
“Yes.”
“There’s my good girl.” His mouth works its way across my jaw. “Tell me why you won’t let me kiss you.”
So hot.
So, so hot when he calls me his good girl.
“Aren’t we enemies?” I pant. “Enemies don’t kiss.”