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“Justgetting byis depressing.” Wyatt’s jaw tics.

“Exactly.” I step forward on unsteady legs. Hold up the cigarette. “You can have this back. But I’m not gonna stick around to watch you smoke it.”

His nostrils flare as he looks from me to the cigarette and back again. I need to make sure he wants to cross this particular Rubicon too. Actions speak louder than words. And so far, all he’s given me are, well, admittedly very sweet, alarmingly sexy words. But still, they’re just words. He also hasn’t made a move.

“Take it.” I press it into his chest. “I’m sorry I said that about kissing. I’ve already asked you for too much.”

He grabs my wrist, my blood rioting at the firm, confident way his fingers grip me. “Don’t do that.”

“Don’t do what?”

“Assume that the answer’s no before you even ask the question. Ask the damn question, Sally.”

My lips twitch, even as I wonder vaguely if I’m going to faint. “Assuming does make an ass out of you and me.”

“Ask.”

Now it’s my voice that shakes when I say, “Kiss me?”

“How do you like it?”

“I don’t know. How everyone likes it?”

He sucks in a sharp, short breath through his nose. “I ain’t asking you again, Sal. You gotta be specific, or you ain’t gonna get what you’re lookin’ for.”

I think for one panicked heartbeat, then another.Stay out of your head.Go all in.“I…want to feel something. I want to feel like time has stopped and I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be. Like I don’t want to be anywhere else, with anyone else, because the experience of the kiss is so freaking delicious. I want to fall into it. I just…yeah, I want tofeel.”

“Ah. So you just want transcendence, then.” He uses the knuckle of his first finger to tip back the brim of his hat, the way he did inside.

The teasing gleam in his eye makes me feel slightly less shaky.

“Something like that, yeah.”

Since when did leaning into this man feel so natural? We don’t normally stand this close.

Then again, we don’t normally talk about kissing each other after a very flirty, touchy-feely game of Texas Hold’Em either.

Tonight is a night of firsts, that’s for damn sure. Which is kinda cool. I feel like I’m getting a shot at my firsts all over again in a way. First date. First time meeting the parents.

And now, first kiss.

“Lucky for you”—oh God, oh God,Wyatt is slipping a hand onto my face, using his palm to angle my mouth up toward his—“I’m tight with God, and I’ll have you saying his name often. Eventually though, I’d like you to say mine instead.”

I love how this man seems to know when to make me laugh just when I need it.

My blood is rushing, and my head is spinning, and I’m so nervous that I feel like I’m literally going to burst. But there’s something about this touch—the gentle, easy caress of his palm against my skin—that is both calming and wildly, indecently arousing.

I laugh, and then he’s leaning in. The gorgeous, masculine slant of his neck is the last thing I see before he presses his lips to mine, his bottom lip positioned expertly between my own.

CHAPTER 12

Sally

COWBOYS MAKE BETTER LOVERS

Wyatt capturesmy laugh in his kiss.

His slow, soft, deliciously warm kiss that’s already so exquisite two seconds in that I have to close my eyes, overwhelmed by the sensation ofbeing kissed by Wyatt fucking Rivers.