Epilogue
One year later...
“Damn, woman, you’re killing me!”
Seth leaned his head back, his spine pressed against the shower’s cool tile, his body tense with need.
A ragged groan escaped him while Shylo knelt on a soaked towel at his feet, taking his cock deep into the heat of her mouth.
His fingers threaded through her wet hair—not to guide her, but simply because he needed something to hold on to while she set the pace.
Each passing moment pushed him closer to the edge, stealing his ability to think about anything except her. He wanted to watch her, to memorize the sight of her beneath the spray, but he couldn’t keep his eyes open.
What he’d expected to be a quick shower to wash away the dust and grime from a long day at the rodeo had become something else entirely.
Moments like this reminded him how lucky he was.
After years of avoiding serious relationships, convinced they weren’t worth the complications, he’d never imagined finding a love this deep or a partner who fitted him so completely.
Now, he couldn’t imagine his life without her.
When they’d first become lovers, Shylo had let him take the lead while she discovered what she enjoyed.
Over the past year, her confidence had grown until she initiated their intimate moments as often as he did.
Every time she reached for him first, he was reminded how completely she trusted him, and that never failed to make him fall a little more in love with her.
Releasing him, she lifted her gaze, and he tilted his head to meet it. She smirked. “Ready for me to blow your mind?”
He huffed out a laugh, loving her playfulness, but needing her to continue what she’d started. “Like you haven’t already? Uh... yeah!”
“As you wish.”
Wrapping her hand around his length, she drew him back into her mouth, abandoning the slow, teasing pace she'd kept until now.
As she cupped and rolled his balls while devouring his cock, his eyes slammed shut again as his head fell back against the wall with a thunk.
His body hurtled toward a climax with an intensity that threatened to shatter him.
With a roar, he bucked his hips and came hard.
She swallowed in rapid succession, refusing to waste a single drop.
His mind short-circuited, and he slapped a hand against the tile as if it could keep his shaking legs from giving out. Every muscle in his body quivered in the aftermath, his chest rising and falling in ragged breaths.
He was barely aware of her standing, but when she pressed against him and nuzzled his neck, he wrapped his arms around her.
After a few moments, she shifted to step beneath the shower spray, but he growled. “Uh-uh. I’m not done with you.”
She let out a squeak when he spun her around and gently guided her flush against the wall, face first. He held her there with one hand splayed across her back while the other slipped between her thighs, finding her drenched—and not just from the water.
A quiet moan escaped her as she spread her feet wider, silently inviting him closer. The instant he eased one finger, then a second, inside her, her body welcomed him. He smiled when she rose onto the balls of her feet and rocked her hips, chasing every slow thrust.
“More...” she breathed.
He reached around her hip, finding the swollen bundle of nerves that never failed to make her come apart. The moment his thumb found its rhythm, her breathing hitched, and satisfaction coursed through him. After a year together, he knew exactly how to touch her, exactly how to make her unravel.
She gasped and dragged her hands down the tile as though searching for something to anchor herself.
“Please, Seth! Harder!”
Who was he to deny her?
He curled his fingers until he found the spot that made her cry out, “Yes!”
Watching her come apart beneath his touch never got old. Knowing she trusted him enough to surrender completely only made it better.
Her body fluttered and clenched around his fingers. He kept the steady rhythm until she shattered with a shout of his name, her whole body shaking against his. Only when the tremors faded did he slow, easing his hand free before wrapping both arms around her as she leaned back against him.
He kissed her ear. “I’m not sure which part of this shower I loved best—you on your knees or coming apart for me.”
Laughing between gulps of air, she said, “I think... it was... a tie.”
A little while later, Seth lay on his back, one arm draped around Shylo as she rested against his side, her fingers tracing absentminded circles across his chest. The air conditioner hummed softly in the background, keeping the bedroom cool despite the July heat.
The Triple-R had finally quieted after another long day of the Rodeo Bonanza.
Dawn would come early, bringing morning chores and one last day of events, but for now, everyone had earned a few hours of sleep.
He couldn't remember the last time he'd felt this content.
Maybe never.
A year ago, he was convinced committing to one woman was the fastest way to ruin a perfectly good life.
The ranch hands had given him hell for months after he'd broken his self-imposed rule, claiming they'd found proof hell had frozen over.
Eventually, the jokes faded. Not because they ran out of material, but because everyone could see he didn't mind being the butt of them.
Truth was, if anyone asked, he'd tell them exactly what had happened.
He'd fallen head over boots for one hell of a woman.
Shylo tilted her head enough to look up at him, a sleepy grin tugging at the corners of her mouth. “You're smiling, and it doesn't look like your 'I just got a blowjob' smile. What are you thinking about?”
He laughed. “I have an 'I just got a blowjob' smile?”
“Oh, absolutely. It’s similar to your ‘I just got laid’ smile. And even though you did get a BJ, that's not why you're smiling. So what's going on in that head of yours?”
He hesitated for a moment, searching for the right words. “I'm just... happy.”
“Happy? About what?”
“Everything.” He shifted onto his side and brushed his knuckles along her cheek. “You. Us. The ranch. The family we've found.”
Her gaze softened. “Mmm. Me too.”
She leaned in to kiss him. When she finally drew back, she nestled against his chest again, her eyes closing.
Knowing she was exhausted, he held her and let her rest as his thoughts drifted back over the day.
The Rodeo Bonanza had become one of his favorite weekends of the year, but this one would stay with him for a long time.
Watching Tucker ride his final bronc had been worth every sunburn and aching muscle that came with setting up the event.
When the buzzer sounded and Tucker dismounted with another winning ride, the applause from the packed grandstands had nearly drowned out the announcer.
Then came the surprise no one outside the family had seen coming.
Tucker had tipped his hat to the crowd, announced his retirement, and dedicated the buckle to his family before lifting Ashley into his arms and making one final lap around the arena.
Shane, Paige, and Arianna walked beside him, waving to the applauding crowd while Paige cradled little Jude.
At seven months old, he was too young to understand why thousands of people were cheering.
Wearing oversized hearing protectors over his tiny ears, he beamed at the sea of smiling faces around him.
Lou had done Hazard Falls proud too. It was also the final rodeo of her career, and she finished second in barrel racing, missing first by less than half a second.
Tomorrow, one of the Triple-R's ranch hands, Finn McAllister, would have his chance to bring home a bull-riding buckle and prize money.
Afterward, everyone would head to the annual after-party to celebrate another year of the Rodeo Bonanza.
Beside him, Shylo let out a contented sigh in her sleep, and he smiled again.
A year ago, she'd spent most of the rodeo asking questions about every event and cheering mainly because everyone else was. Today, she'd explained saddle bronc scoring to a couple of tourists before he'd even had the chance.
She'd become a rancher.
The transformation hadn't happened overnight, though.
She'd spent months learning the day-to-day operation of the ranch office from the staff before Shane began teaching her the responsibilities that fell solely on his shoulders.
When Linda Carmichael retired as the Triple-R's longtime office manager three months ago, Shylo was more than ready to step into the role.
Lately, Shane had taken her on a few business trips to meet with clients and attend cattle sales, giving her firsthand experience with every facet of running the ranch that had been in the Wilson family for five generations.
Shane had also contacted the family lawyers to restructure the Triple-R’s ownership to include Shylo. Her name was now officially on the letterhead.
Watching the two of them work together still warmed Seth’s heart. When she first arrived in Hazard Falls, she believed she'd have to fight Shane for what was rightfully hers. Instead, she gained the big brother she'd spent her whole life wishing for.
But Shane hadn't stopped there.
He'd offered to build Shylo a house on the Triple-R from the beginning.
Once she'd finally felt comfortable enough to accept, construction had gotten underway almost immediately.
Nearly finished now, it sat less than a quarter mile from the main house, tucked beneath a stand of old cottonwoods overlooking one of the east pastures.
After spending most of the past year sharing Seth's apartment, she asked him to move into the new place with her.
If everything stayed on schedule, they'd be sleeping in their new home before summer gave way to fall.
Home.
The word had meant a lot of different things over the years.
For most of Seth’s life, it had been a place more than a feeling.
Then, living on the Triple-R had changed that.
Now...
Now it meant waking up beside the woman he loved on a ranch that had become more than a place to work.
It meant Arianna proudly introducing Shylo as her aunt whenever they met someone new and Ashley shouting, “Aunt Sylo!” every time she spotted her, even if she'd only been gone for five minutes.
It meant little Jude recognized her the moment she walked into the room, rewarding her with a wide grin and outstretched arms.
It meant family. The kind neither of them had ever expected to find.
Seth's thoughts drifted to another summer night after last year’s rodeo, when he'd stood beside Shane beneath the trees at the edge of the property while a small hole waited in the ground between them.
Neither man had said much. They hadn't needed to.
Shane had carried the urn. Seth had handled the shovel. When the ashes were covered, Shylo had stood there with tears slipping silently down her cheeks, and for one terrible moment, Seth had worried she regretted everything that had happened.
Later that night, she told him the tears hadn't been for Troy. Not really.
She'd been mourning the brother she'd spent thirty years hoping he might become.
The loving brother she'd never had.
Thankfully, life had a way of surprising people.
Because while she'd lost Troy...
She'd found Shane.
Seth understood what that meant better than anyone.
A year ago, he'd never imagined he'd be talking to his father every week. Stacy, the older man’s wife, ran off with a guy closer to her twenty-one- and nineteen-year-old daughters' ages than her own, leaving their dad to pick up the pieces. Disgusted by their mother’s actions, the girls chose to stay with him, and somewhere along the way, the walls between father and son had finally begun to come down.
Seth and Shylo had flown to Oregon for Thanksgiving last year, and although the visit had felt awkward at first, by the time they headed back to Kansas, they'd become a family who’d found one another again.
In a few weeks, his father and sisters would visit the Triple-R for the first time before the girls returned to college.
It was funny how life worked sometimes. When you thought something was gone forever, it sometimes found its way back to you.
His gaze drifted toward the closet. Hidden inside the pocket of his heavy winter coat was a small velvet box he'd checked at least a dozen times over the past month. In a few weeks, on Shylo's birthday, he planned to ask her to marry her.
Shane was the only other person who knew. After asking for his blessing, Seth had sworn him to secrecy, and somehow Shane had managed to keep it.
If everything went according to plan, by the time his father and the girls arrived at the Triple-R, Shylo would be his fiancée.
She thought the custom saddle he'd given her for Christmas would always be the best surprise he'd ever come up with.
She was about to find out she'd underestimated him.