Chapter 20 Lucy #2
He shows me how to properly check a horse's hooves, how to read the weather in the way cattle cluster together, how to move through a herd without spooking them.
When we break for lunch, he leads me to a common area where several ranch hands are already gathered around a large wooden table that's seen decades of use. They're polite but curious, and I can feel them evaluating me, trying to figure out what I mean to their boss.
"About time you brought some decent company around here, boss," says an older man with weathered hands and kind eyes that have seen plenty of seasons.
Beau actually blushes, color rising in his cheeks as the other men chuckle. "Mind your own business, Dutch."
"Just saying it's good to see you smiling again," Dutch continues, winking at me conspiratorially. "Been too damn long since this place had a woman's touch."
The casual assumption in his words, that I belong here, that I'm going to be a permanent fixture, should probably worry me. Instead, warmth floods my chest .
The afternoon passes too quickly, like all good things do. Beau shows me parts of the ranch I haven't seen before, tells me stories about his grandfather and the early days of building the operation, shares pieces of himself that I suspect he doesn't often reveal.
By the time the sun starts to sink toward the mountains, painting everything in shades of gold and amber, we're both vibrating with tension that has nothing to do with the evening's plan and everything to do with the way he keeps finding excuses to touch me.
A hand at my elbow when we navigate uneven ground. Fingers brushing mine when he passes me something. His palm warm and steady against my back when he guides me through doorways. Each touch burns through my clothes like a brand.
The drive back to Gabriel's feels different from the morning trip. Heavier. Loaded with possibility and want and the knowledge that something is going to happen between us, something that will change everything just like the kisses with Colt and Gabriel did.
Beau parks in Gabriel's driveway but doesn't immediately move to get out. We sit in the gathering dusk, the truck's engine ticking as it cools, neither of us ready to break the spell of the day we've woven together.
"I should go," he says finally, but he doesn't move toward his door handle.
"You should," I whisper, but I don't reach for mine either.
"Lucy." My name in his voice is different than it sounds when Colt says it, different from Gabriel's careful pronunciation. From Beau, it sounds like something precious, something he's been saving up to say just right.
I turn to face him completely, my breath catching at the intensity burning in his gray eyes.
"Today..." He stops, runs a hand through his dark hair, messing up the careful style. "Today was perfect."
The simple honesty in his voice undoes me completely. Before I can think better of it, I'm leaning across the console, my hand finding the warm line of his jaw, and then somehow we're kissing.
This kiss is different from Colt's gentle exploration, different from Gabriel's claiming possession.
Beau kisses me like a man who's been holding his breath for years and I'm his first taste of air. His hands frame my face with a reverence that makes my chest tight, and when his tongue sweeps across my lower lip, I open for him with a soft sound that makes him groan low in his throat.
The kiss deepens, becomes desperate, and I find myself twisted awkwardly in my seat, trying to get closer to him despite the truck's interior.
One of his hands slides into my hair while the other grips my hip like he's afraid I might disappear, and I can feel the barely leashed control in his touch, the way he's holding himself back from taking more.
When we finally break apart, we're both breathing hard. Beau's eyes are dark, almost black in the dim light, and there's something wild in his expression that makes my pulse race like a thoroughbred.
"I have to go," he says, his voice rough and low. "But this isn't over, Lucy. Not by a long shot."
The promise in his words sends heat racing through me like wildfire, and I nod because I don't trust my voice not to beg him to stay.
He climbs out of the truck and comes around to help me down, his hands lingering at my waist longer than necessary, thumb brushing against my hip bone through my sweater. At Gabriel's front door, he pauses, looking down at me with those intense gray eyes that see too much.
"Be careful tonight," I whisper, reaching up to touch his face one more time, memorizing the feel of stubble against my palm.
"I won't take unnecessary risks," he says, but there's something soft in his expression as he covers my hand with his. "I've got too much to come back to now."
Then he's gone, leaving me standing on Gabriel's porch with my lips still tingling and my heart racing like I've just run a marathon uphill.
Inside, the house feels too quiet, too empty. I sink onto the couch with Tyson, my fingers unconsciously tracing my mouth as I replay the day, the kiss, the way Beau looked at me like I was something worth treasuring instead of something temporary.
Three men. Three completely different ways of making me feel alive, desired, protected. Three different kinds of danger to the careful walls I've built around my heart over the past two years.
In a few hours, they'll be putting themselves at risk to catch the people who hurt me.
And I'm still lying to them. Still hiding the truth about who I am, what I'm running from, why I can't stay even though every day makes leaving feel more impossible.
The guilt sits heavy in my stomach as I listen to the grandfather clock tick in the hallway and wait for them to come home safe. Because that's what this place has become, what they've become. Home.
And I'm terrified I'm going to lose it all.