Chapter 14
Amelia
Henry had changed. It wasn't just that he was touchy about Caleb.
I could tell something was different with the way he was looking at me.
Henry apologized for not talking to me when he first saw me in the barn, and I could tell he meant it.
He was happy to see me and a little jealous of my friend.
Caleb was not my boyfriend, nor was he in the running to be.
We worked well together, and that was it.
My feelings for Henry were something totally different. And I was definitely having feelings for him. It was dimly lit in Candice's stall. Candice was quiet and happy, and I was in a good mood, touching her and flirting with Henry.
He was the most handsome man in the whole world.
I wasn't just saying that because we seemed to be having some feelings for each other.
Henry was objectively an extremely good-looking man.
He was the all-American strapping male—complete with a broad chest and broad smile.
I had never met anyone who looked like Henry.
I could hardly glance at him without feeling waves of attraction and desire.
"Henry?"
"Yes."
"I'm nervous about the series, and I'm happy you're here. I'm thankful to have Candice and the others in here. You guys make me feel comfortable and happy. I was freaking out a little before we came, but now… I feel like acting in the series is going to be a piece of cake."
I glanced at Henry. He was leaning against the wall, watching me pet Candice.
It was a large stall, and we all had plenty of room.
She was just standing there quietly, looking the other way.
Henry was a masculine presence that I could not ignore.
His big body propped against the wall was a sight to behold.
He made my chest feel funny. Just being around him had me all stirred up inside.
He was different than usual, too. Something had changed with him, and I could feel it.
"You're looking at me," I said.
"I know I am," he returned with a little smile. "You're looking at me, too."
"You know what I mean," I said. "You're, like, looking me over and stuff."
I was smiling and looking shy, and he was leaning back and staring at me in an unabashed way.
"You're still doing it," I said, after a pause. "What are you thinking?"
"I'm not telling you that," he said, grinning at me.
"You have to. If you don't, I'll assume the worst."
"Well, don't do that," he said simply. "What I'm thinking isn't bad. It's just skipping ahead too far, that's all."
"Then I might assume the wrong thing."
"That's okay," he said. "We assume the wrong things all the time."
"Just tell me what you're thinking," I said. I made a face at him. It was a playful look of defiance, and I was clearly flirting with him. By this point, I had forgotten all about Candace. I was standing next to her, but I was looking at Henry, and my attention was focused on him.
"I told you it was too far ahead in the future."
"Is it about me?" I said.
He gave me a grin that caused a warm, liquid feeling to happen in my body. "Yes, it's about you."
"And it's good?"
"It's good," he said. His smile was full of mischief, and his voice was low and sticky. The whole moment was sticky. The tension was thick, and our stares were so loaded that I didn't even know what either of us was feeling anymore.
"How are we going to spend time together these next few months?" he asked.
I shrugged. "This seems like a good spot to catch up. We can hear if anyone's coming, and it'd be believable that you're in here, showing me the horses."
"Yeah, because what else would we be doing in here?" he asked.
"Exactly."
He opened his mouth and then bit his bottom lip like he was going to say something and he changed his mind. I wanted him to say it. He was looking at me like he wanted to reach out and touch me, and I wanted him to go ahead and do it.
"What?" I said, taking a small step closer to him. There was about three feet of space between us. Two now. He reached out and put his hand on my arm, and I came even closer.
"Come here," he said.
I stepped closer still, and he pulled me to him, holding me near with a light touch.
His big arms were around me now, and he brought me in, touching my chest to his.
I felt like I might burst with anticipation.
I glanced up at him, and he pulled back far enough to focus on my face.
He held me and looked at me, and I felt like he was really seeing me.
I had Henry's affection, I could tell by the way he held me.
This man didn't hold onto just any woman.
He liked me. He was choosing to like me, and that was a huge compliment coming from him.
I glanced at the stall door. "We'd hear if anyone was coming," I said as a statement, even though I was asking him.
"Yes. We would."
"This is a great place to meet, then. I'm not going to come into her stall without you. I trust her, but I thought about it, and you were right the first time. I shouldn’t have been in here on my own."
"That makes me feel better, even though I do trust you."
"I hope we can find time to run into each other in here without anyone noticing. Not even Josh."
"I'm telling Josh," he said. "I have to tell him because I'm giving you a key. He's cool. He won't tell anyone—not even my parents."
Part of me felt a slight stab of some kind of hurt that he wouldn't want to tell his parents. But I knew we weren't telling anyone. I tried not to skip a beat when he said it.
"Not that I wouldn't want them to know," he said, reading my mind. I glanced up at him. "You have to understand… they'd freak. I live on a ranch where my chances of meeting an eligible woman are low. Plus, I've never shown interest."
"I thought you go out every weekend," I said, acting serious but obviously joking.
He smiled. "Exactly. Which is why we can't tell them. My mom would flip out and start pinching your cheeks and oversharing."
I wanted to say that I wouldn't mind having my cheeks pinched by Mrs. Sutter. But he continued speaking, shaking his head at the thought.
"She would go too far, trust me. It'd be a distraction for you while you're trying to work."
"Yeah, maybe we should stick to just telling Josh," I said, even though I now wanted Mrs. Sutter to find out just to see if she would act that way toward me.
He was right, though. We needed to focus on our responsibilities.
I had to become my character, and he had a lot of work to do with the horses.
He stood to grow his business from it, and he wanted to give it his all.
Our lives were about to get really busy, and stolen moments in stalls with horses would have to do.
He took one of his hands off my back and placed it on the side of my face.
I leaned into his touch, relishing the feel of his fingertips on my skin.
"I want to try to have you all to myself," he said. "That's my goal."
I felt a little surprised, and I pulled back a little, looking into his dark, endless eyes. "You never said that was your goal."
He let his hand drop from my face and put it on my back again. "Does it change anything, now that you know it?"
"Yes, it does," I said. "It changes how I think about things."
"Well, don't you want me all to yourself?" he asked, squinting and looking so serious that I grinned at him.
"Yes, I do, but I'm too shy to say that," I said.
"You just did."
I placed my hand on his chest, and I could feel the hardness of the muscles under his shirt. My heart was going crazy. I wanted him so bad that I ached.
"Henry?"
"Yes?"
"I like you," I said. I was at a loss for words, and that was all I could come up with.
His smile broadened.
"How much?"
"So much that… I'm shaking." My voice came out sounding as vulnerable as I felt. I glanced down, and he moved, not hesitating.
"Come here," he said. "I know another place. Bye, Candice."
"Bye, Candice," I repeated, reaching out to pet the girl as we left. "Is there a chance I can ride her sometime?"
"Yes," he said. "For sure."
"Is it okay for me to do that sort of stuff with you?"
"Yeah, we'll make all that seem natural. You can mention it to me in front of others. Judd said some others will be asking me about rides."
I followed Henry to another stall. He didn't hold onto me.
I just followed behind him. This stall was full of supplies and had no horse.
There were bales of hay stacked on the far end.
All sorts of horse supplies were organized in neat rows, and Henry took a wool blanket off a stack of four or five others.
He started to take off, but he turned back and grabbed a second blanket and tucked them both under his arm.
He climbed onto a bale of hay. Then he manhandled another bale so that it was blocking us from the door. He spread the blankets on the flat surface.
"This is cozy," I said, seeing that he was now sprawling out on the blanket like the bales of hay were a couch.
"It is. I take naps back here sometimes."
He sprawled out onto his side, crossing his legs and looking comfortable. He propped his arm behind his head.
I sat beside him, looking down at him. "It's dark in here," I said.
"I know. Can you find me?"
I laughed. "Yes, I can. Barely, but I can."
"Prove it," he said.
"How should I?" I asked, smiling.
"Find my mouth… with your mouth."
"Find your what?"
"My mouth," he said. "Find it with your mouth."
"That would be me kissing you," I said.
"That's the idea," he said with a nod.
I drew closer to him, hovering.
"I was looking at it as proving that you can see me. I'm still not sure if you can."
"I can see you," I said
"Yeah, you've shown no real proof of that."
I was propped over him, looking down at him. This perfect man.
"I see you, I'm just nervous."
"To put your mouth on my mouth?"
"Yes," I said.
"Why? We've done it before."
"I know. I just… I wanted you to do it first."
He pulled me close with his hand on my arm, and I went to him, letting my weight fall onto him as our mouths connected.
It was such a relief to be next to him. It was a relief to feel his mouth on mine.
Henry held me, and he kissed me softly. He opened his mouth to me, and the contact was scorching. He pulled me in, holding me close.
That pile of hay in the mostly dark supply stall might as well have been the Ritz-Carlton.
I might as well have been in paradise. Henry was full of desire toward me, and the way he toed the line between showing me that and holding back was romantic and poetic.
He was a manly man—a guy who spent most of his day in barns or in pastures steering around thousand-pound animals.
He was comfortable with being in control—so comfortable that he knew how to give up his control.
Henry was always making the next best move, even if that meant not making a move at all.
He would stop kissing and talk to me or adjust how we were positioned.
But then he would kiss me again, and it seemed to come at just the right time, not a second too soon.
Being with Henry was natural and perfect, and I was already starting to dread the moment when we would wrap production on the series and go home.
"That's months away," I said out loud when I had the thought.
"What's months away?" he asked.
"Leaving. Finishing."
He kissed me. A sticky kiss on the side of my mouth. "So, don't," he said.
"Don't leave?"
"Yeah," he agreed lazily as if that were an option.
"I, at least, won't think about it," I said with a smile. "But I know I have to because we've got shooting to do in California after this."