Chapter 9 #2
“So, now what?” I ask him.
He sighs, tucking his hands into his jeans. “I need you to trust me.”
I smugly laugh, not taking him seriously.
He takes slow steps towards me. “I’m serious, Sadie. For your own safety, I need you to trust me.”
He stops inches in front of me, and I swallow hard. “Can you do that?” he softly asks. There is something genuine in his eyes as he towers over me, but there’s only one person in the world I truly trusted—my brother Jax.
And I don’t think that would ever change.
My eyes drop to the floor. “Trust and I have a difficult relationship,” I admit.
“Well then, that’s another thing we have in common.”
Two people with trust issues. Well, that explains a lot about the friction between us.
“Can you at least try to trust me?” he asks. “When it comes to the rules on the ranch and your safety here?”
“Is it necessary?”
He frowns. “Sadie—”
“Yes, Cowboy.” I could try at least.
“Good.” He chews his lip for a moment, lost in thought. “Do you give this kind of grief to Blake, or am I just lucky?”
A laugh breaks from me. “Just you.” Blake wasn’t such a pain in the ass.
He sighs. “Look, no one can know what really happened today. Especially Blake. If anyone found out that you can’t swim and… Well, it would be my ass, too. We found them in the woods and brought them back, and that’s it. Simple as that. Got it?”
This isn’t easy for him, but I’m thankful for this moment of trust between us. Fragile as it is. “Thank you, Kit.” I grab his strong forearm, brushing his skin without even thinking about it.
He glances at my hand, still resting on him. “Is this what it takes for you to call me by my real name? Fear and recklessness?”
My fingers trail along his skin. “I think we both know you like it when I call you Cowboy.”
His eyes move to my mouth. “I do not.”
“Lies. You nearly smile every time I say it.”
“I do not,” he repeats louder, deeper as he frowns at me.
I laugh, biting my lip. Finding his frustration sexy in a way I never realized before. “Are you now wishing you’d let me drown in the river?”
“Only wishing you’d somehow magically lost the ability to run your damn mouth.”
But it’s my mouth he constantly stares at, so I know that’s not true. “Speaking of my mouth, I—”
“Still not the time,” he snaps, pushing past me to grab his navy Carhartt hanging by the fireplace.
“Well, when is the time?” I ask, frustrated as hell that he won’t just talk about it with me.
“Sadie,” he scolds, threading his arms through his coat, shrugging it on. “Look, you were drunk. There’s nothing to talk about.”
“Yes… I was,” I smile, taking steps towards him.
Closing the distance he put between us. Heart racing with every step.
“But you weren’t,” I smirk, stopping in front of him.
Close enough that with one more step, my breasts would be pushed up against him.
And damn, I want to. “Yet I recall very clearly how hard your dick—”
He puts a finger to my lips, stopping my words.
Startling me at first, but soon the feeling of his rough finger against my mouth and the sound of his deep, warm voice begins to build heat in my core, numbing the chill in my body.
The hue of his blue eyes softens as he grazes his eyes along my face.
“We’re not talking about it, Sadie. Because if we talk about it, I’m going to end up doing something we’ll both regret. Do you understand?”
I slowly nod, feeling his warm breath on my skin.
“Good,” he pulls his finger away, staring at me for a long second like he’s considering going further. A fraction of a moment before something shifts in his eyes, and he heads for the door.
But I’m not ready for him to leave yet. I was just starting to thaw out that hard exterior he liked to put on.
And let’s be honest, getting under Kit’s skin has become a new hobby of mine.
One that I found delightfully entertaining.
I cross my arms and smile. “So, what you’re saying is that you want to. ”
He gives me a pointed look. “You should take a hot bath. Wash all of this nonsense out of you before I decide to throw you back in the river,” he barks.
“Or you could just kiss me, Cowboy.” I graze my bottom lip softly with my teeth. He watches me with a look that says he’s thinking about it. “You know you want to. And it would be much easier than trying to haul me down to the river.”
I’m very familiar with the look in a man’s eyes when they want something, and Kit has been wanting to kiss me for a while now. Of course, he’ll never admit it, but I know it’s something he’s thought about often.
Something he thought about five seconds ago when he held his finger to my mouth.
His eyes drop to the floor. “You don’t want me, Tequila.”
“What?” What does he mean?
“Trust me,” he murmurs. With that, he opens the door, letting in falling snow from the storm, filling the heated room with a cold chill.
Except I did want him.
I wanted him in ways I didn’t quite understand, in ways I probably shouldn’t, considering my past. But something about Kit and this thing between us feels different.
He feels safe. Safe enough to want something more with him.
I’ve been very clear and honest about my intentions since the start. Too honest.
Does he really feel that way?
“Kit—” I call after him, but he’s already gone.
Perhaps I’ve finally cracked him, because that look on his face is the most honest he’s been with me since the start. It’s the same tortured look he gave me when he told me why he moved back to Aspen Hollow. Whatever happened to him in California still haunts him, and I’m not sure why.