Page 126

Although she appreciates that part of me plenty.

I grab her hips, which bracket my legs, and give them a squeeze. I’m smiling hard enough for it to hurt, and I don’t care. “I stand corrected. Maybe the mess ain’t so bad.”

“I like the mess. It’s real.” She leans in to nip at my mouth. “And the bubbles make it fun.” Leaning back, she scoops some bubbles into her hand. Gently starts putting them on my face, like she’s applying shaving cream. “You know, if you’d’ve told me that first day you brought me to your placethat I’d end up in this tub again, only this time with you, I would’ve laughed in your face.”

I love watching her concentrate. There’s a tiny crease between her brows. Her lips are all pouty, eyes alive with interest. Laughter.

Despite how hot the water is, the tenderness of her touch makes my arms break out in goose bumps.

“Why? You like the bath. I like the bath. I like you.”

She pulls her lips to the side in a sly grin. “You have a funny way of showing it.”

“I’ve shown you plenty.” I rock my hips, my cock meeting with her center.

Her breath catches, eyes going dark. “How are you not dead yet?”

“I work on a ranch. I got stamina.”

Although this level of stamina is new, even for me. Since last Friday night, I haven’t slept more than three hours at a time. My hunger for Mollie is so fierce, it wakes me in the middle of the night. I can’t go back to sleep until I get my fill.

Thankfully, I’m able to nap on the weekends for the first time in…forever. Last Saturday, I fell asleep fast and hard after our breakfast and sex in bed. I woke up in the middle of the afternoon with Mollie asleep on my chest.

When I checked my phone, I didn’t have a single missed call or text message. I had called Wyatt while I had my coffee that morning and told him he was in charge that day.

He was silent for a full minute before asking, “Who is this, and what have you done with my brother?”

I’d laughed and hung up on him.

Shit must’ve gone sideways at some point. Always does on the ranch. But whatever went down, our crew apparently was able to handle it without me.

Feels…nice. And weird.

And really fucking nice. Despite my lack of sleep, the mental weight of carrying the world on my shoulders is gone.I feel like I can think clearly—breathe deeply—for the first time in fucking forever.

The one thing that rings clear as a bell? I want this girl to stay. I want more lazy evenings like this. I want to do what Iwantto do. Not what I should do.

Not what everybody else needs me to do.

This time is my own. Feels like I’m finally taking it back. Taking what should’ve been mine all along.

Mollie dabs bubbles onto my mustache. She pulls back to examine her work. My heart turns upside down when she smiles, the kind that touches her brown eyes. “You make a cute Santa Claus.”

“Santa Claus?” Laughing, I run my hands up her sides, my thumbs finding her nipples. “I was hoping it was more of a handsome Dos Equis guy look.”

She wags her eyebrows. “Say it. Ho, ho, ho.”

We’re both laughing now. The silliness of this moment, the lightness of it, is completely foreign to me.

It’s fucking lovely.

I swipe the bubbles off my face and smear them across hers. She tries to dodge my hand, but I grab her, tickling her side while I scoop more bubbles onto her face. She silently heaves with laughter, and the fact that I can make someone this happy—laugh this hard—has a steady kind of certainty taking root in my gut.

I need to lighten the fuck up.

Nothing bad has happened while I’ve been away from the cowboys. And nothing bad is happening now that I’m letting myself have a little fun.

I don’t feel dread right now or guilt. I feel…fine.