Page 100 of Over the Line

“Which is why she drives hours out of her way to see you? Why she treks up here all the time?”

“Sex.” Mind-blowing sex. “Nothing more.”

“You’re nine kinds of fool if you believe the bullshit you’re feeding yourself. The woman looks at you like your mama looked at your father.”

Michael sat back.

The love between his parents had been amazing, to the point the two of them had seemed to exclude the rest of the world. Following his mom’s death, his father had become a shadow of his former self.

“Pull your head out of your ass, son. Think about what happened from Sydney’s point of view.”

He scowled. Jeb knew nothing about Sydney, or Michael’s relationship with her.

“Do you recall nothing I taught you about horses?”

The things Jeb had told Sydney returned to Michael.

“Takes a lot of patience and dedication. Establishing trust. Spending time with it, grooming it, asking nothing in return.”

“That time with Bandit?”

The rescue animal was now among Michael’s favorite horses. Bandit had been on a ranch, neglected for years. By the time the gelding had arrived at Eagle’s Bend, he was as skittish as he was ill-tempered.

Bandit had required months of intense work, but now he was solid, with an even temperament. Michael would trust Bandit with the newest of riders. “What’s your point?”

“You gave him what he needed.”

Like a thundercloud, aggravation closed in around him. “You’re suggesting I didn’t behave that way with Sydney?”

“Did you?” Jeb countered.

“I never pressured her.”

Jeb didn’t respond.

“Expecting nothing in return.” Right up until that fateful night, Michael had never demanded more than she wanted to give. And once he had…

“Something made her cry when she left.”

Shit.

That information was a deep, jagged stab wound.

Michael pushed back from his desk and strode to the window. He could have done without having that image seared into his mind.

Facing Jeb again, he said, “I didn’t demand she give up her life.”

“Does she know that?”

“Look, it doesn’t matter. Better I find out now. Right?” Who am I trying to convince? “At some point, I need a wife. And a family.” No sense spending time on a woman who didn’t want the same things he did.

“On your terms.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“Figure it out. No one likes ultimatums, son.”

“Who said I gave her one?”