CHAPTER 15 #2
Of me and Cole. Here.
Gone.
Tears fell as we walked, almost at the gate that led up to the higher pastures, the same route we’d taken for the cattle drive. I decided to keep going, not knowing how to go back, but as I did, another sound built in the quiet, despite the wind, and I glanced around, wiping my tears.
Cole thundered towards us, Domino flat out, her black spots and white coat blurring. Jasper stepped sideways as he heard, turning to face them.
‘Steady,’ Cole said as he approached, pulling Domino up as she fought him.
‘What are you doing?’ I asked, wiping roughly at my face, the urge to grieve alone fighting with the equally strong urge to be as close as physically possible to him.
‘Honey, you can’t just ride off like that,’ he said, bringing Domino closer to us, Jasper’s ears flattening as she approached. ‘Jesse spotted a black bear and her cubs up here just a couple of weekends ago.’
‘Oh,’ I said, suddenly feeling just like the ‘city folk’ he’d once accused me of being.
‘Look, it’s okay,’ he said, face creased with concern as he caught my expression. ‘If you want to be alone, I get it. I’ll ride behind, leave you be. I just . . . I need to make sure you’re safe.’
I nodded, aware of the tug of my heart, trying to capture my attention.
‘I’m sorry,’ I said, taking off my hat a moment, the wind whipping my curls up and around me. ‘For all of it. I’ve made this whole situation a lot worse, haven’t I? And now . . . you and Lil, everyone . . .’
His jaw tightened. ‘We’ll find a way to fight it, Lottie. Ain’t no rolling over here – that asshole will get what’s coming.’
‘Don’t do anything stupid,’ I blurted, a sudden image of Cole being led off to jail flashing through my head. ‘I want you to be safe too.’
He didn’t reply, just looked down at his saddle.
‘You still want to ride, or go back?’ he asked, not quite able to meet my eye.
‘Ride,’ I said, wanting to reach over to him, hold him. ‘Come with me, though, don’t hang back.’
He nodded, moving off but keeping Domino at a safe distance from Jasper. I rubbed my horse’s neck.
‘Quit being grumpy,’ I said, almost smiling as he snorted in return, ears flicking back to my voice as though he understood.
‘Where you headed?’ Cole asked as we went through the gate, looking up the hillside. ‘Much further and there won’t be a lot of daylight left to ride in.’
‘I don’t know,’ I admitted, desperate not to turn back. ‘I just want to keep going.’
He nodded, then paused. His face was hesitant, his eyes fixed on mine.
‘Unless you want to stay out? We keep a few supplies at the top, where we camped before, by the pools.’
At the mention of it, a warmth spread through me. I knew what that meant.
He knew what that meant.
My lips parted, willing instinct to bring the right words to the surface, feeling the knife edge we walked along. He stared at them, eyes darkening.
‘Let’s go,’ I whispered, words lost to the breeze, but the intensity of his stare didn’t let up as he read my lips perfectly, as though I’d whispered them right into his ear.
Without another word, he turned Domino in one smooth motion and spurred her on up the hillside, Jasper reaching after her, his long legs covering the ground with ease.
Within a couple of hours, sun blazing between the jagged peaks in the distance, we made it to the river, the steam from the pools already visible. Taking his lead, I jumped down and secured Jasper just far enough from Domino to prevent them from fighting.
‘Why do they dislike each other so much?’ I asked, enjoying the sight of a smile appearing on Cole’s face, breaking the pensive expression he’d held all the way up here.
‘Well, Jasper here only tends to like who he likes and Domino just ain’t one of them. She’s the sweetest girl,’ he said, rubbing her neck as he loosened her cinch, ‘but she likes to be in charge and he won’t have a damn bar of it.’
I scratched Jasper’s neck, wondering at how this gentle soul could kick up such a fight.
‘You’re a natural with them, aren’t you?’ he said, walking up the slope, past where the campfires had been lit for the drive. ‘Not many cowpokes know how to whisper to horses.’
I rolled my eyes but smiled at his tone, waiting as he returned, his arms full of supplies, rolled up canvas and a huge bag that jangled as he walked.
‘Whole camp in one. We built a shed up here a few summers ago, just in case.’
I watched him dump it down, right in the spot he and Jesse had camped in before.
‘I’ll do it later – come with me.’
We walked up to the lake, the wind rippling across its surface, the sun reflecting across it, flames dancing in unison over the water.
‘It’s something, huh?’ he murmured, waiting for me to catch up. I stopped a few feet short of him and the sun caught his jaw, his whole face lit up in golden light.
I felt it again. Right there. Three words forming in my heart that would change everything, born of nothing but pure feeling, as deep in my gut as the call to fly out here in the first place had been. I knew he would go anywhere, do anything for me and without question, I would do the same.
He turned to meet my gaze, his brown eyes turned amber in the light.
‘What now?’ I said, only just daring to ask, my heart picking up pace as he walked towards me with measured, careful steps.
‘Whatever you want,’ he replied, voice soft, close enough to lift my chin with his finger as my hand came to rest on his shirt, feeling the ridged definition of his abs underneath. His heart was beating with a similar ferocity to mine, fuelled entirely by raw need.
Our eyes locked as I reached up and he leant down, and right there, the sun forcing my eyes closed, I found his lips. Soft but firm, opening to receive my tongue, meeting it with his as his hands grasped my waist and lifted me right up, pulling my legs back behind him until I was hooked around him.
I gasped, breaking off.
‘No one to interrupt this time,’ he said, walking us over to the pools. ‘Shirt off.’
I raised my eyebrow at the new gruffness to his tone, his need loud and clear.
I dropped my jacket and started on my shirt buttons as he moved his lips up my neck, across my jaw, then gradually, slowly, found my mouth again, the urgency building for us both.
I couldn’t focus, my fingers sliding off the buttons and clasping his face instead, brushing the stubble on his cheeks, my other hand in his hair.
He groaned at the touch and as we reached the pools, pulled back and allowed me to finish the job, my shirt fluttering away to the ground beside us.
Setting me down gently, his hands brushed up my waist and lingered over my breasts.
He waited as I shivered, noting the goosebumps that followed with a lazy smile before he began to work on his own buttons until I intervened, moving his hands out of the way.
‘I figure,’ he breathed, moving to my jeans instead, my own breath hitching as I exposed his broad chest and pushed his shirt down over his shoulders, ‘there’s only one way to do this and stay warm.’
I glanced at the pools just as he did, biting my lip as I smiled.
‘Remember when I found you here before?’ I said, watching as his eyes fixed on my mouth.
‘I haven’t been able to think of much since, Princess,’ he growled, pulling down the zip of my jeans.
‘I couldn’t decide if you hated me or not,’ I breathed as his fingers skimmed across the waistband of my underwear, dipping just inside the lace at the top.
His fingertips were cool against my skin, drifting back out to allow me to step back and take off my boots and shimmy out of the jeans, finally standing in front of him in just my underwear, my hair drifting across my face in the breeze.
‘Or whether you really wanted to turn around when I was standing here like this.’
Before he could reply, I slipped down the straps of my bra, unhooked the back and threw it down onto my shirt.
Stunned, he simply stared. I moved back to him, reaching up to find his mouth, shivering under his touch, aching in every part of my body for him.
This kiss was deep, the line crossed. As his own clothes dropped away, his fingers snagged on my pants, working them down slowly, letting them fall.
We stood perfectly still for a moment, pressed together, each dip and curve of my body in line with his. He kissed me again, one hand running slowly down my side, slowing over my breast, continuing down to my hip.
‘You really are perfect,’ he whispered, voice stripped raw, drawing in a breath as I did the same to him. ‘I knew you were perfect that night too. And fuck yes, I wanted to turn around and watch you strip.’
He turned me to the side, lifting my hand and guiding me into the bigger pool. The heat of the water was a welcome relief from the lake’s cool breeze, but as he climbed in after me, I stopped noticing anything else at all.
There was just Cole, drawing me into him, dropping down into the water to level out our height difference.
‘I never hated you,’ he began, his breath uneven as our bodies aligned again. ‘I think I just knew how hard I’d fall for you. How I couldn’t avoid it, wouldn’t be able to cope, if you didn’t feel the same.’
I gazed at him, my words falling away as his arms locked behind my back. This time I wrapped my legs around him myself, smiling as I did it.
‘And what if I do feel the same?’ I whispered, forgetting how to breathe as he kissed my collarbone, then moved down further, his hand and mouth on my breasts. The sensation was overwhelming as I gave myself entirely to him. I knew how I felt about him, had known for a while.
‘Cole, I—’
But he put a gentle finger to my lips.
‘Why don’t you just show me, honey?’
So I did.
Mouth on his, I reached down between us, grinding my hips as my hand gripped his cock. He moaned as I stroked him, slowly, moving him ever nearer to me, the sound in our mouths driving him harder until he slid into me with ease.
The feeling was unlike anything I’d ever known. To be this attracted to someone, to know what was building inside and now to have him on me, in me, groaning as we moved together was a kind of intensity I’d never felt before.
‘You are so fucking beautiful,’ he whispered against my ear, his tongue tracing the edge of it, kissing the soft, sensitive skin behind.
I shuddered, hearing him moan as I gripped harder with my legs, returning his kiss, starting at the top of his jaw and working slowly down his neck.
I wasn’t able to put into words the way he looked to me, the way I felt like I was being slowly dissolved by him, becoming part of him. That I wanted nothing and no one else.
We drifted towards the edge of the pool, my back against the smooth stones, and every thrust he made was intense, a kind of wonderful agony against the feel of his tongue in my mouth, the way his finger idly circled my nipple.
‘Don’t stop,’ I whispered as I felt him begin to slow, knowing that if he came, I would too. There’d be time for moving slower, but now wasn’t it. Not after what had felt like an eternity of waiting. ‘Cole, I want you . . .’
‘I’m yours,’ he breathed, our movement building, desperate. I gasped as it happened, gripping his hand, his fingers slipping between mine as they had before, leaning back as my eyes closed, an explosion of heat and fire ripping through us both.
As it faded and I tried to catch my breath, he pulled me to him, holding me like we were the only two people in the world.
I rested my head against his shoulder as I slowly returned to myself, turning to lay a single kiss on the smooth skin there.
His heart was beating as fast as mine as he returned it, his lips pressing against my temple.
We said nothing, but there was no need.
We both knew what it meant.