Page 191 of Scent to the Feral Cowboys

I imagined taking her to all my secret places in the wilderness.

We’d walk through the clearing in the small, wooded area not far from here, where wildflowers bloomed in impossible abundance, some even persevering through our Wyoming fall and into the beginning of winter. I’d take her to the cliff face, technically past our property line, where you could see the entirety of the ranch. She’d see how the light touched every part of it, how it was truly a heaven on Earth. I’d take her to each place I’d left a bit of my soul not his land, not just the lake. I wanted to watch her by campfire light and see her copper hair spilled across my bare chest as we watched the sunrise over Sagebrush.

In my mind’s eye, I saw the near future. I saw our Nelly.

She was wild and free, laughing as she confidently rode Ghost. They raced across the pasture, flashes of snow and ribbons of fire. I rode behind her on Behaichi, marveling at them both.

Her pale, freckled skin had become lightly tanned under the Wyoming sun.

The highlights in her hair would multiply.

Then I imagined five or ten years from now.

Nelly was exactly as she was, yet different. Altered by happiness, by her time here. Smile lines. A few silver strands added to her copper hair. Did we have children? I imagined a precocious little boy like Cooper. Maybe a smart as hell little girl like Levi; she’d be a whiz at math, always beating dad to the solution. Would we have twins? What would we name them?

Would there be a kid that looked like me too? Would Nelly want that?

Whatever she wanted, I’d make it happen.

Whenever she needed me, I’d be there in an instant.

Whoever hurt her, I’d destroy them.

My reverie broke as Nelly reached down, cupped my face, and tilted it up so our eyes collided.

"More," she whispered that one word again, and it contained the universe.

I rose to my feet, towering over her small frame once more. Cooper and Levi stepped back slightly, making room as I cupped her face in my hands. For a moment, I simply looked at her—this fierce, beautiful creature who had come into our lives like a fallen star. She’d chased away hurt I thought I’d healed already. She made me not want to disappear for days on end, though if I did, I’d take her with me.

I leaned down, pressing my forehead against hers, feeling the heat radiating from her skin. In that moment, I knew with absolute certainty that nothing would ever be the same again.

She was like Larkspur.

She’d taken root in our hearts with such tenacity that we couldn’t drive her out.

46

LEVI

I couldn't stop calculating. Five point seven inches between her breasts, measuring from nipple to nipple. The left slightly higher than the right by approximately three millimeters, giving a beautiful asymmetry that made my fingers twitch with the need to verify the measurement. Numbers always steadied me, gave me control when emotions threatened to overwhelm. But now, as I stared at Nelly's naked form, bathed in dusty light filtering through the barn's ancient roof, even mathematics failed to anchor me against the tide of desire pulling me under.

The slope of her hips formed a perfect curve, one that could be expressed through a complex equation if I had the presence of mind to work it out. The ratio of her waist to her hips was divine proportion, not the manufactured ideal plastered across magazines. No, it was more natural, more real. Her skin was milky pale, interrupted by constellations of freckles that demanded to be mapped and memorized.

I counted seventeen tiny dots across her right shoulder, twelve visible on her left. How many more were scattered across her body? I wanted to find every last one of them, to press my lips against each spot of darker pigment, to create a catalog of Nelly that would be mine alone.

"I want to count them all," I whispered, more to myself than anyone else. "Every freckle. Every night for the rest of our lives."

I hadn’t meant to say it. I was usually good about keeping my less rational thoughts to myself. Warmth flooded into my cheeks. What a stupid thing to say.

Nelly’s eyes found mine, a soft smile curving her lips.Did she understand what I was offering?Not just tonight, not just release from the biological imperatives driving us together, but for all time. Infinity, though I’d never been found of that symbol. Because forever is objective. Unless each of us lived the exact same number of years, months, days, minutes, and seconds, our infinity was varied.

But, still, I would give Nelly a commitment as precise as possible. I would calculate a guarantee and try to prove it accurate.

It’s the least she deserved.

And there was no ‘most’. There couldn’t be.

Around us, my pack brothers moved with purpose, creating a loose circle around Nelly. I watched as Boone's large hand cupped her cheek, as Cooper's fingers traced the line of her collarbone, as Wade and Wyatt positioned themselves on either side of her. We were planets witnessing the birth of our very star and responding to it.