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I breathe steadily, evenly, aware of the way the fresh morning air hits the bottom of my lungs. The sun’s heat pours over my skin.

Maria nickers beneath me as she quietly munches on the grass. Cowboys laugh somewhere nearby.

I know this feeling. The sun, the calm.

The sense of amazement.

I remember feeling it, riding with Mom and Dad when I was little. Dad rode a brown filly, but Mom had this gorgeous gray Andalusian she named Storm.

We were up early back then because, well, ranch life. Sometimes, I’d stay back at the house with Mom. Other times,when Mom felt like riding, she’d take me out to watch Dad work cattle with the other cowboys.

More than anything, I remember feeling this incandescent sense of happiness. I loved being with both my parents. Made me feel special.

I also loved being outside, on the ranch, on a horse. Made me feel like I was part of something bigger. The action was exciting. And the attention I got from my parents was…everything.

“Pretty, ain’t it?”

I open my eyes to see Cash on his horse beside me. He’s wearing gloves, his forearms already glistening with sweat.

He’s also wearing chaps today.

Honest-to-goodnesschaps. They’re brown leather and held together by a clasp that’s placed distractingly front and center over his crotch.

Words can’t adequately describe how delicious he looks in those things. And the easy, confident way he handles his horse? The hopeful way he asked at breakfast if I was staying on the ranch?

I roll my hips, hoping to alleviate the insistent pressure between my legs. The motion just makes it worse. The seam of my jeans glides roughly over my center, making me want…more.

It makes me want Cash there instead. But that’s not happening, so thank God for vibrators, I guess?

Cash and I rode mostly in silence in his pickup truck to this pasture a little while ago, towing a trailer full of horses behind us. He said we’re about five miles from the barn. Now we’re on horseback—I’m riding Maria, and Cash is on his big black horse, Kix—and his brothers and the other ranch hands are arriving in several Lucky Ranch Dodge Rams behind us. We’re about to start the day’s work.

I smile. “Last time I saw the sunrise, I was walking homefrom a bar. I was too hungover to appreciate it then. This is…something else.”

“You dirty stayout,” he teases.

“Hell yeah, I was a dirty stayout. Where do you think I learned to dance?”

“I was hoping at cotillion or your dance recitals or some shit.”

I laugh, even as my pulse blares. Cash remembered that I took dance. “I learned there too.”

“You gonna be okay?” Cash nods at Maria. “Holler if you need help.”

I shift in the saddle. “It’s like riding a bike, right? Just need to practice, and it’ll all come back to me.”

“If you say so.”

I reach over to give him a shove. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

“Mollie Luck, if there’s one thing you don’t need, it’s someone telling you what you can’t do. You know what you’re capable of.” Looking at me, he screws one eye shut against the brightening sun. “So get out there and do the damn thing.”

Smiling, I sit up straighter. “That was a surprisingly great little speech, Cash.”

“Thank you kindly.” He touches his fingers to the front of his hat, looking so much like Brad Pitt fromLegends of the Fallthat I can only stare, heart lodging itself somewhere in my throat. I half expect Anthony Hopkins to show up and chastise me about ogling his best-looking son.

Are there really no bears out here?

This whole thing would be a lot easier if Cash wasn’t so fucking gorgeous.