CH 46 - #torn
#torn
Madison
Song: “Come A Little Closer” by Dierks Bentley
“Thank you,” I said after Luke handed me a glass of our preferred bourbon whiskey.
“You’re welcome. Would you like to sit in my living room or on my front porch?”
“How about right here in the kitchen?” I grinned and sat on the counter behind me.
“Alright.” Luke then got on the counter across from me and held up his glass. “Cheers.”
“Cheers to you,” I said, holding up mine and taking a sip.
“I’m guessing it’s okay for you to drink alcohol while you’re nursing Beau.”
“It is as long as it’s in moderation and two hours before I nurse him. I’m only having this glass. It’s the first one I’ve had since before I got pregnant with Beau.”
“How does it taste?”
“Divine.”
Luke chuckled and took a sip of his Buffalo Trace. “Would you like me to play some music?”
“For old time’s sake?”
“However you want to view it.”
“Sure, play some music.”
“I’m just going to stream a country station.”
“Sounds good to me.”
We kept sitting across from each other and talking, but one question was weighing on my mind.
“I want to ask you something, but I’m afraid it’ll spoil what we’re doing here,” I said.
“Only if we let it. What do you want to know?”
“If you’ve seen Sierra since that night at Midnight Rodeo last year.”
“Nope, I haven’t.”
“Have you talked to her?”
“Only by text after that night. I cut off all communication between us.”
I studied Luke’s eyes. He was telling me the truth. “Okay, I have another question for you.”
“Ask it.”
“Have you seen any other woman or women since we ended?”
“Nope.”
“Why?”
“Because the only woman I’m interested in seeing is you, although I know you won’t have me again.”
“It isn’t that I don’t want to because I do, but…” I sighed.
“I know, Madison. You won’t do it because of where we live and how different you think our lives are, even though they appear exactly alike as you and I sit here.”
“I can understand how you would see it that way. It’s been easy for me to fall back into this country lifestyle.”
“Because at your core, it’s who you really are. It’s in your genes like it was for your dad.”
I stared at Luke. “Maybe.”
“I have a question for you now. Before you found out you were pregnant with Beau, had you started dating anyone?”
“Are you kidding me?”
“I’m not.”
“I didn’t have enough time to get over you before getting involved with another man.”
“Are you over me yet?”
“Are you over me yet?” I shot back.
“Nope. I never will be either.”
“You’ve got to move on.”
“Hard to do, especially with you being back here, us doing what all we did yesterday and today, and now.”
“Should I leave?”
“Don’t you dare.”
Luke downed what was left in his glass while keeping his eyes steady on mine. I downed the rest of my whiskey next and set my glass beside me on the counter.
“Now what?” I asked.
“You tell me.”
As Beau’s ruggedly handsome daddy and I stared at each other, Dierks Bentley’s song “Come A Little Closer” came on.
I cussed it to myself, while fully loving it, especially the intro lyrics, “Come a little closer, baby. I feel like layin’ you down on a bed of sweet surrender where we can work it all out.
There ain’t nothin’ that love can’t fix.
Girl, it’s right here at our fingertips.
So come a little closer, I feel like layin’ you down. ”
What I was feeling toward Luke as his flickering hazel eyes stayed on mine, his muscled chest rising and falling, was fucking me up, but I suddenly didn’t care.
I slid down off the counter and stood next to it, my heart beating so fast. Luke did the same.
After a few more seconds, he held out his hand.
“Dance with me, Madison.”
I naturally walked toward him and took his hand. He pulled me to him, wrapped my arms around his neck, and embraced my waist, holding my body to his. We began swaying to the music while gazing at each other, Luke’s sweet whiskey breath blowing across my face.
As the lyrics, “I want to touch you like a cleansin’ rain and let it wash all the hurt away. So come a little closer, baby. I feel like lettin’ go,” played, Luke reached up and stroked my hair, then ran his fingertips across my cheek, swallowing hard.
“I want to kiss you so badly, but won’t step over that line,” he said.
“We already have with each other by what we’re doing now, so kiss me.”
This cowboy, who still owned every bit of my heart, leaned his head down and pressed his warm lips to mine.
I closed my eyes and breathed him in like he was doing to me.
Our tongues touched, then our kiss grew deep and hungry.
My fingers were in the back of Luke’s hair while he clenched my waist with his hands.
Feeling things quickly reaching a point of no return between us, I pulled my lips away from his.
“We need to stop,” I said, dropping my arms at my sides.
Luke let go of my waist and searched my eyes. “Alright.”
“I-I…”
“Madison, don’t overthink this.”
“I can’t help it. As much as I wanted you to kiss me, I’m not certain you should have.”
“I am. There was no lie in how you kissed me back. You still want me as much as I want you. You still love me like I love you too.”
“I do, but none of that changes our living circumstances.”
“You told me that you’re staying here indefinitely to help your mom. Culberson Ranch is two hours away. I could come home to see you, Bella, and Beau every weekend.”
“Luke…”
“This could work between us if you would stop fighting it.”
“We’re too different.”
“No, we’re not. You fit me, I fit you. We’re like two puzzle pieces, and I’m going to convince you of it one way or another.”
He grabbed my face and kissed me again. We spun round and round in the middle of his kitchen, clinging to each other. Feeling the sexual scale between us about to tip, I stepped away from Luke, both of us breathless and staring at each other.
“You’re ready for me to take you back to the ranch house, aren’t you?” he asked.
“Nope, but it’s best.”
After we arrived, he walked me to the front door. I turned to him, both of us quiet. He reached for my hand, raised it to his mouth, and kissed the top of it.
“I’ll see you and our kids tomorrow, Madison.”
Shit, he really just said “our kids.” I know he loves them both so much, as they do him.
“Okay.”
“I hope you have sweet dreams.”
“You too.”
“I will because you’ll be in them.”