Page 18 of Claimed By the Cowboy

I move to stand beside her, close enough to catch her scent—something clean and floral that makes me want to bury my face in her hair and breathe her in.

“Darker,” I say, my voice rougher than it should be. “More permanent.”

She glances up at me, and something flickers in those warm brown eyes. Awareness. Recognition of the double meaning in my words.

“Permanent is good,” she says softly.

The moment stretches between us, loaded with everything we can't say. I’m close enough to count her eyelashes, to see the faint freckles scattered across her nose like gold dust.

Close enough to kiss her.

The thought hits like lightning. All I’d have to do is lean down, cup her facein my hands, and taste those soft lips that part slightly when she’s nervous.

“You’ve got paint on your nose,” I murmur.

Her hand flies up to swipe at it, but she misses by a mile, smearing a streak of color across her cheek instead.

“Better?”

“Nope.”

“Ugh.” She laughs and tries again, making it worse.

“Hold still.”

She does.

Gently, I reach up and brush my thumb across the bridge of her nose, wiping away the paint. Her skin is warm beneath my touch, her breath hitching slightly.

“There,” I murmur. “Back to beautiful.”

She blinks up at me, eyes wide and soft. “You’re not supposed to say that.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re marrying my sister.”

Her words are soft-spoken but land with the weight of truth.

God, I want to claim her. Crave tasting her mouth, marking her as mine, and showing her exactly what she does to me.

I should step back. I should say something safe. Something neutral.

But I don’t move.

Neither does she.

The wind stirs her hair, blowing a loose strand across her cheek. I tuck it behind her ear instinctively, my fingers brushing the soft curve of her jaw. She leans into the touch like she can’t help herself.

“I’m not supposed to feel this way about you,” she whispers.

“Me neither,” I murmur.

That should be the end of it. Thisis the part where we should both walk away, pretend this moment never happened.

But when her eyes flick down to my mouth and back up again, something inside me snaps.

I close the last inch between us.