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His eyes widened. I kissed his lips.
“I became the Ice Queen, had meaningless, emotionless sex, didn’t have relationships—I did all that because I didn’t want to get hurt. Since you’ve been back, I…laugh.” I smiled. “All the hands are razzing me about it.”
He relaxed at that.
“And you did come home, Duke. You came to Wildflower Canyon.”
He let out a bitter laugh. “After wasting a decade being a selfish son of a bitch.”
I reached for his hand, threading my fingers through his. He gripped me tight like he needed something to anchor him.
I looked up at him. “The past is done. We’re not who we were.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed. “You sure about that?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
I wasn’t that girl waiting in the barn for a boy who’d never come back. And he wasn’t that boy running from something he didn’t want to face. We’d both lost ourselves once, and now, we’d found our way back.
He groaned out a breath, and then, without saying a word, he pulled me into his arms.
He held me like I was the only thing keeping him from falling apart. I wrapped myself around him, pressing my cheek against his chest, listening to the steady, solid rhythm of his heart.
“No more fear,” I said to him and myself, too, I guess. I pulled away a little so I could see his face and gave him a teasing look. “When I got here and sat at that bar…and by the way, who the hell charges three sawbucks for a whiskey?”
He laughed at that. “You’re so fuckin’ beautiful.”
“That’s it. I’m not. I looked at all those women, and I thought Duke is used tothat. He’s gonna take a look at me in my non-designer jeans and button down and let’s not even get into the boots situation, and he’s gonna think he’s lost his mind being with someone like me.”
His eyes narrowed. “You really believe that?”
I shrugged. “Yes and no. I know you love me, but I have insecurities, I havefears, just like you do. I think you’re going to look at my barely high-school graduate ass with your business degree from an Ivy League and think you can do better.”
“Fuck no!”
“See,” I said triumphantly.
He nodded. “Yeah, baby, I see. And, if you cantolerate my over-educated ass, I think I can make it with your barely high-school graduate one.”
I thought about that for a moment and then said, “You know, I have an important question.”
“Yeah?” he asked seriously.
“Do you think my ass is too big?” I asked.
He burst out laughing.
I licked my lips. “Since we’re in this fancy hotel, I was wondering if we could haveroom service.” I dropped my voice. “I’ve never had room service.”
He chuckled.
“Andafter,can we use the jacuzzi? Never been in anything but a wooden tub with an immersion rod rigged together by some cowboys. I think the thing you have here has jets.”
The darkness fled from his eyes, and they filled with warm amusement instead. “Anything else?”
“Yeah, can we fuck in the tub?”
“Sure, why the hell not,” he said, feigning surrender, and just like that, the hollowness in his voice was gone, and the ache in my heart subsided.