Page 80 of Chasing Home
She exhales a long breath, her muscles loosening slowly as she sinks back into my embrace. I splay my fingers over her stomach and rest my chin on her head, waiting for her next words.
They don’t come for a long time. We spend the next few minutes in silence, nothing but the crunch of hay, horses breathing heavily, and the wind picking up outside to keep us company.
And just when I’m about to tell her that we can leave, thinking that I really did overstep here or that I read the signs wrong, she grabs my hand and spins in my arms before I realize what she’s doing.
She tips her head back, gazing up at me while pressing my hand to her chest, between the generous swells of her breasts. The steady thump of her heart engrains itself inside of me.
“Can we go for a ride?”
27
AURORA
I should know better than to expect anything when it comes to Johnny. Every time I think he can’t possibly do something else to blow my mind, he goes and proves me wrong.
They certainly don’t make men like him where I’m from. Every day I spend with him, I become surer that I’ll never find one like him again.
“We’re not taking Joker?” I ask when he lifts the matte-black saddle from the hook in front of Frost’s pen.
Yeah, Frost’s pen. Because she’s here, on Steele Ranch, in a pen that looks tidy and cozy. With her own saddle.
“I am, but you’re taking Frost. She’s completely saddle broken. I’ve ridden her a few times this week to make sure for myself before I put you on her back. She’s got the temperament of an angel, if not a stubborn one sometimes. Just don’t let her get her teeth on any of the wild raspberry bushes out there, or she’ll come back with a juice-splattered mouth. She’s goddamn addicted to them.”
I nod along with his words but continue to stare at him in wonder as he sets the saddle on her back and starts to fiddle with the straps and clips. Frost watches me, a sense of calmness radiating off her. She doesn’t move an inch as he gets her ready to go.
“I don’t blame her. I could eat cartons of raspberries at a time,” I say.
Johnny grins over her back. “Oh yeah? Note taken, darlin’.”
“Do you like them?”
“Yeah, but I prefer melons to berries.”
My laugh comes out louder than I intended it to, far from ladylike. The suggestive wiggle of his eyebrows only makes me laugh harder as my stomach starts to cramp.
“What’s so funny?” he asks, batting his lashes innocently.
I come up to Frost’s side and gently place my hand on her side, feeling her strength. “Don’t play innocent.”
He swipes a hand through his hair. “Fuckin’ love your laugh, Rory.”
The admission sobers me as my laugh trickles off. My stomach fills with flapping wings. “Do I thank you now?”
“I also fuckin’ love how you never know what to say when I tell you shit like that.”
I shrug. “Nobody’s complimented me so much before.”
His expression tightens, growing serious as he reaches over Frost’s back and strokes a knuckle down my cheek. “Good. You’re mine to compliment. Now, let’s get you up on this girl’s back so we can go.”
“Is it hard?” I blurt out.
His eyes snare mine, crinkling at the corners as he smirks. “Around you? Always.”
“Johnny!” I ignore the heat flooding my cheeks and try to appear serious. “I meant riding.”
He comes around Frost’s front and gives her nose a gentle rub before stopping a step from me. My eyes are drawn up his body, over the wide expanse of a strong chest crafted from long, long hours on the ranch and shoulders that I’ve dug my nails into more than once and have fantasized about seeing above me, slick with sweat. Heat settles between my legs the longer I look at him, checking him out without a care in the world.
My fingers twitch with the desire to touch him and explore the body I can’t look away from. He’d let me, I know he would. I’d let him explore me too. The realization of that isn’t scary but relieving. I’m falling for Johnny more and more every day, and I’ve been holding myself back from taking a step further with him out of fear. But the more time we spend together, each day revealing something new about him that I can’t help but love, the harder it is to keep up my façade.