CHAPTER 12 #2
I nodded, barely listening, still looking at my phone and already playing with the edit.
‘You enjoy this stuff, don’t you?’ he said, a light hold on my shoulder as he guided me back to the truck, then opened the door for me.
‘It’s not bad, especially when your subject’s easy on the eyes.’
He shut the door and walked round to his side, getting in and watching as I cut up the clips, put them in order and added some easy country music – a trending Riley Green song – with the caption ‘ POV – cowboy forgets his shirt ’. Replaying it before I posted it, Jesse shook his head.
‘I mean, I’m biased but that looks . . . good,’ he said, shaking his head.
‘And . . . posted!’ I replied, waiting a few seconds for it to upload. Clearly Elk Creek also had the resources to ensure perfect phone signal even halfway up a mountain.
Clicking my phone off, I turned to him.
‘Thanks, and I’m sorry. Think I’m just about the only person here that would turn you down.’
‘You’re welcome. Maybe you could invite some of your friends out here instead? What about your girl, Hestia?’
I laughed as we swung out of the ranch and headed back onto the interstate. I imagined her here, actually picturing her in a black felt cowboy hat, ripped jeans . . . Yeah. It’d work – and she would LOVE Jesse.
‘That’s not a bad idea, actually,’ I said. ‘Maybe I’ll invite her out sometime.’
He glanced at me as we roared down the road, a knowing smile on his lips.
‘That mean you’re staying?’
I shrugged.
‘For a little bit. See if I can make this work,’ I said, holding up my phone. ‘But I need to get a job again – living in London is expensive.’
He nodded, slipping into thought.
We arrived back and pulled in to see Cole and Bailey standing by the corral as Lil rode Bambi. The sound of the truck made her skitter sideways, but Lil easily corrected her.
Cole turned, continuing his conversation with Bailey but glancing over as we got out. Jesse and I began walking over to them.
‘Could we do a bit more filming before we lose the sun?’ I asked as we approached. ‘The sky over there looks heavy; we might lose the light soon.’
‘Need me to change, or we not bothering with clothes again?’ he asked, winking, right as we reached Cole and Bailey.
‘Goddamn, what was that party at Elk Creek?’ Bailey asked, breaking off from her conversation with Cole, eyebrows raised. She had dirt smudges across her cheek, and more dirt on her chaps and jeans.
‘Lottie just getting frisky is all,’ Jesse teased, elbowing me as Bailey grinned.
‘I’m filming him for social media,’ I clarified, braving a glance at Cole, but he’d already turned back to the corral. ‘Maybe some roping?’
He nodded.
‘I’ll get set up.’
‘Okay – I just need to go up and grab my charger. Meet you back here in ten?’
Back up at the ranch house, I dived into my room for the portable charger and plugged it in. My phone suddenly lit up, a dozen or more notifications on the screen.
As I tapped into them, then opened the social apps, my mouth fell open.
The video of Jesse had somehow already been viewed almost 500 times, a bunch of comments ranging from emojis to exclamations already there.
Quickly checking the link in the ranch profile was correct, I turned the screen off and walked out of my room at speed – right into Cole.
‘Hey, sorry,’ I said, stepping back. ‘I was just—’
‘I’m not sure about all this filming stuff,’ he announced, folding his arms. His face was impassive, but his body language screamed at me.
I raised an eyebrow, standing just as firm.
‘Filming generally, or filming Jesse?’
His jaw tensed and his eyes hardened. A silence developed, and the space between us suddenly felt small, charged.
‘Is there anything going on with you two?’
The words were abrupt and as I opened my mouth to tell him to mind his own business, his expression stopped me. There was a sadness to it.
‘No, of course not.’ I slumped, shrugging. ‘I’m just trying to help the business, help Lil. But why does it matter?’
He studied me, nodded. Mentioning Lil stirred the same feelings in me as it had earlier – the complications that arose from even standing here like this with him.
‘I need to go,’ I said, moving to the side, trying to walk around him.
‘Lottie, wait.’ He moved to block me, gentle hands on my arms. The feel of his touch sent my heart into overdrive. ‘We can’t keep dancing around each other, it’s—’
‘It’s too complicated, Cole,’ I replied. ‘It doesn’t matter what we feel, there are other people to think about.’
‘Who?’ he asked, moving closer, forcing me to step back against the wall.
I couldn’t answer. His proximity was setting off every instinct, every deep-seated desire rising to the surface.
The door to my room was open, the huge bed beyond it like a beacon.
‘Because from where I stand it’s just you and me, right now. ’
‘I like you,’ I whispered, biting back a groan as his fingers found mine, his face perilously close. ‘But I’m in the middle of a mess at home . . . and Lil, I don’t want to hurt her.’
His forehead creased as he studied me. ‘Lil? This isn’t about her right now. And whatever’s across the pond isn’t here. I am.’
I gasped as he tilted his head down, his lips grazing my ear, moving down my neck.
‘Cole . . .’ I started, my breathing hitching as his hands grazed my waist, moving up. ‘Not here.’
He stopped, glancing at my room. I bit my lip.
‘I know that kiss yesterday was real,’ he began, slowly moving me backwards and through the doorway. ‘And I’m generally a very patient man, but I can’t get it out of my head – can’t get you out of my head.’ I stopped any pretence of resisting, letting my hands grip his shirt.
‘You barely know me,’ was all I could say, shivering as his fingers began popping open my shirt buttons.
‘Then let me get to know you,’ he whispered, moving me back further still until I hit the bed, sitting on the edge as in one smooth motion he knelt down right in front of me. ‘What’s your favourite colour?’
I smiled despite the intensity of his gaze, his cowboy hat still in place.
‘My favourite colour? That’s your most pressing question in getting to know me?’
He smiled back and I reached over to touch his lips, tracing the curve of his mouth, not missing how his eyes darkened, a feral quality taking over.
‘All right,’ he growled, reaching up and slowly taking off his hat, running his fingers through his long dark hair. Gently, reverently, he placed it on my head. I felt the rush of blood to my cheeks. ‘What’s your favourite way to ride?’
Before I could stop myself, I pulled his face closer.
‘Slowly,’ I began, feeling him peeling back one side of my shirt, my bra strap falling. ‘With the door locked and a guarantee of no interruptions for hours.’
‘Hours, huh?’ he murmured, smiling as he reached over to kiss my shoulder, lips tracing lower and lower. ‘I’m not sure it would be enough.’
I closed my eyes, committing the feeling to memory, but they were startled open again as I felt his lips on mine, teasing them open with his tongue. Unable to stifle it, I moaned as he kissed me, his fingers brushing my nipple as he moved into my bra.
Everything began to move quickly with the urgency of his lips, the pure, burning heat between us.
He removed his hat from my head, cupping my face in his hands as I moved to his shirt buttons, then made way for his fingers as he undid them more quickly than I could.
Just as I reached for his belt buckle, pulling it back to loosen it, the front door of the ranch slammed shut.
‘Lottie?’
Lil’s voice echoed down the hall and Cole leapt off me, moving up and wedging himself behind the door with surprising agility for a man of his size. His shirt hung open and my eyes lingered for a few seconds too long.
‘Yeah, hold up, just getting changed,’ I lied, taking off my shirt and ignoring the pointed look from Cole at my entirely exposed bra. Grabbing a fresh shirt from the closet, I swung it on and started doing up the buttons, walking over to the doorway to prevent Lil from walking in.
‘You’re not gonna believe this,’ she said, finally appearing, holding up her phone to show me. ‘An email – someone asking about availability for the cabins this winter! They said they saw us on social media.’
Focusing on my buttons, I hoped her own excitement would distract her from my own, feeling it stamped across my cheeks like a blazing trail.
‘Told you!’ I smiled, tucking my shirt in and turning back to my bed to look for my hat, then realizing with horror that Cole’s was still lying there instead, right by the scrunched-up mess of my bedcover, all but revealing the imprint of our bodies from moments before.
‘I’ll be out in a moment, just need the bathroom, okay? ’
‘Oh – sure, sure,’ she muttered, reading through the email and heading back towards her office. ‘I’ll call them back now, check for any other messages.’
With a sigh, I closed the door behind her, watching as Cole finished buttoning his own shirt.
‘That was . . . umm . . . close,’ I said, smiling, scuffing my boot against the floor.
He surveyed me for a moment as he tucked in his shirt, his eyes on my mouth as I bit my lip. There definitely wasn’t enough room in his jeans.
‘We’ve got this the wrong way round,’ he started, keeping his voice quiet. ‘Lottie, would you go out with me, on a date?’
‘A date?’ I repeated, eyes widening. ‘After that , you just want a date?’
He stifled a laugh, moving forward to stand in front of me, very consciously keeping his hands to himself.
‘No,’ he said, voice soft. ‘I want you on that bed, wearing nothing but my hat and doing everything I’ve imagined and then some.
’ He paused, grinning at my embarrassment.
‘But you’re right. I’d love to know more about you, and you about me.
So come out with me, somewhere without any interruptions.
A well-behaved, good ol’-fashioned date. ’
I raised an eyebrow, desperate to say yes but knowing I’d have to speak to Lil first, get whatever was or wasn’t between them straight.
‘Even if I’m not staying?’ I whispered, watching as his face fell.
‘Even then. I’ll take whatever time I’ve got.’
I felt it then, a jolt, deep down. As though a fissure had appeared, threatening to tear me open.
Stepping to him, I reached up on tiptoes and kissed him again.
This time it was gentle, a question and answer twining together.
His response was sweet, slow and full of the promise we’d almost made on my bed.
‘Okay, a date,’ I said as I drew back eventually. ‘Just one condition.’ He raised his eyebrows. ‘No whiskey. Slippery slope.’