Page 277

Floored, I back off.
Then, she slides her fingertips over my shaft, finding the end of the condom. As she rolls it up, I catch ahold of her wrist and still her.
“Zee?” I caution, panting because her touch is not only driving me crazy, but the promise of what she’s doing makes me want to blow my load.
Her eyes lock on mine. “I’m ready, Colt. And I know you are too.”
She’s not wrong.
The past couple years have been hectic but great.
Clyde’s sentence for first-degree murder and insurance fraud was thirty years. If he only serves twenty-five of them, I’ll be pissed, but some of my vengeance for the shitty father we got will be appeased, even if it doesn’t come close to righting the wrong that was losing Loki, Betsy, and our other horses. I know Zee feels the same because getting him behind bars at all was worse than a dogfight.
After his arrest, Lydia’s victims came forward. Turns out Marcy’s diary housed a lot of secrets—those were what pinned Clyde down. His big drunken mouth was the source and they fed Lydia’s blackmail operation. And itwasan operation because she extorted enough people to cover the debts on her house and more.
Clyde threw Terry under the bus and a welter of other officials in an effort to reach a plea deal too. At least we’re down one corrupt cop in town.
The breeding program is up and running, and my brothers are doing… well, they’redoing.
Mom’s practicing as a vet again after she went through the process of renewing her license, and she and Mrs. Abelman finally stopped hiding what they mean to one another.
After Juliette’s passing, the triplets moved in with us, bringing their brand of mischief along as I attempt to teach them how to ranch—they declared a ceasefire with Callan, though they exist at opposite ends of the house.
The Bar 9 and the Seven Cs no longer exist—we merged in more ways than just our marriage, and now we live on the Bar 7.
But we still haven’t fulfilled the contract because neither of us needed to.
Our marriage may have started by uniting two ranches, but it became about us.
Holding off on having a baby was our way of reclaiming our relationship.
Today’s wedding was about Zee’s reintegration into Pigeon Creek—she would never have gotten married in the church there before.
But this isn’tbeforeanymore.
It’s now.
Now, Pigeon Creek is her home.
By choice.
And on our second anniversary, it seemed only right to renew our vows in the town where our ancestors were enemies and where our descendants will be family.
“You sure?” There’s no withholding my grin.
It’s loaded with my joy.
Sure, this is a topic worthy of discussion, but hell, I love her more than I did yesterday, and raising a family with her is all I’ve ever wanted, without knowing that’s what I needed.
Her grin is as wildly joyous as mine. “I’m beyond sure.”
I remove my grip from her wrist and let her fingers draw off the condom.
As she drops it on the floor beside the bed, I find her and slot the tip into her pussy.
Sinking back in, skin on skin, something we haven’t done since that day at the lake, a shudder wracks through me at how damn good she feels.
“Oh, Colt,” she cries, her hands at my shoulders, nails clawing at me again.