Page 34 of Tate (The Montana Marshalls #2)

Ford had a wide back, strong arms, and rode easy, like the horse might be one with him. He took them down the dirt driveway, then cut up around the far pasture, and back along a coulee behind the house on a trail that both he and the horse seemed to know well.

She heard a rushing that sounded deeper than wind. “Is that a river?”

“Yep. The bottom of a falls that winds into Geraldine. It’s got a few cool caves and a swimming hole.”

“Just for the record, I’m not going skinny dipping.”

He laughed, and his entire body rumbled. “It’s also the best place around to star gaze.”

He pulled up the horse, then held his arm stiff as she swung down. He landed beside her and dropped the reins.

“Will he stay?”

“She, and yes.” The mare turned toward them and nudged her with her soft muzzle. Scarlett lifted her hand, a little unnerved by the teeth, but drawn in by the giant, doe eyes.

Ford took her hand and pressed it on the horse’s nose.

“It’s so soft.”

“Mmmhmm. Their mouths are actually very tender, which is why you don’t need much to give them direction. A good horse will respond with just your legs and the slightest movement of the reins.” He ran his hand down the mare’s face. “You remember me, don’t you, Georgia?”

Oh, why did this man have to be a teammate?

He glanced at Scarlett, and she spied something in his eyes that might have been the same question. As if asking the question, he reached out for her hand.

Despite her better sense, she took it.

He walked her out to the edge of a glistening, silver river, maybe twenty feet wide, the moonlight cutting through it like a ribbon.

Rocks jutted out from dark depths, and a ledge careened out over a section of froth and gentle rapids.

He climbed up the ledge, pulling her up behind him, then let her hand go as he walked out to the edge.

“Farther down the river there are a number of caves. I got lost in one, once.”

She came to stand by him. “Scary.”

He nodded, quiet. Took a breath. “I didn’t know how to get out. Eventually, I found a ledge above water and sort of climbed out and stayed there, terrified to get back in, pretty sure I was going to drown.”

She tried to imagine him, a skinny kid, shivering in the darkness.

With Ford standing next to her, bold and strong, she struggled to wrap her brain around the image.

“The worst part was that my sister was with me. We were trapped together, and you’d think it might be easier, but it was actually worse because I kept thinking…

if I left her behind to get help and couldn’t find her again, she’d die in that cave. ”

He turned to her then. “That’s a little how I felt at your mother’s place, Red. I feel like I brought you into this mess—it was my idea for you to go home, and I practically dragged you there, and now…I don’t want to leave you alone with it.”

“No man left behind.”

He didn’t smirk, nothing on his face. Just silence as his chest rose and fell.

Finally, “The worst part is—I’m insanely angry. At Axel, at the idea of you leaving the team, and I know that makes me a total jerk, but…” He looked away, into the distance where the town glittered in the valley below. His voice emerged a little pained. “I like you in my ear, what can I say?”

She drew in a breath. Swallowed. But his gaze turned back, and he must have read her face because he shook his head.

“And I like you in mine,” she whispered. She met his eyes and drew in a breath.

His breath shuddered out. “Aw, Red, I’m in a dangerous place here?—”

“Kiss me, Navy.”

He blinked at her, as if, for the first time, he didn’t know what to do with her information.

She’d surprised herself, actually, but it felt honest and right and… finally.

“What—”

“You heard me. Kiss me. Right now.”

He drew in a breath. Made a chest-deep noise of surprise, or maybe satisfaction.

And then he smiled and became the man she knew. All in. A hundred ten percent bringing it to the mission. He wrapped his hand around her neck, pulled her to himself, and dove in. Not needing her voice in his ear to tell him what she wanted.

Him. Closer. Holding her. Because for some reason when he was with her, the world didn’t feel quite so out of control.

Maybe for him, too, because he was practically inhaling her, as if he had also been telling himself a thousand different ways why this shouldn’t work and no longer cared.

Fact was, she’d wanted Ford Marshall in her arms since the day she’d seen him walk onto the deck of the USS San Antonio for his rookie op.

Kitted up, looking dangerous and powerful, his mouth a grim line of determination, so much fierceness in his expression—if anyone could get it done, it was Ford Marshall.

He made her believe, all over again, in honor.

So, as he kissed her, she cast aside all the noise in her head and wound one arm around his neck, the other under his arm, molding herself to his lean, work-honed body. Warm, powerful, and everything she’d imagined.

He tasted of the champagne they’d toasted with and smelled of his aftershave, and she liked the way he had no whiskers to slow her down. Truly, there was probably no romantic finesse to the way she moved her mouth against his in a sort of desperate urgency.

Wow, she needed him. Wanted him. And she didn’t care if she might be breaking rules and breaching walls and turning to shambles any hope of rebounding back to just friends.

Oh, who was she kidding? She wanted Ford’s arms around her like she wanted her next breath.

Teammate.

Coworker.

She slid her arms around his back, pressing her hands against those wide shoulders.

He ran his hands into her hair, drew his thumbs down the side of her face in a soft caress, then dropped his hands to her shoulders, leaning back from her. “Scarlett.” He swallowed, breathing hard. “Um, okay…”

He backed away, holding up his hands as if suddenly afraid to touch her. “You gotta know that I’ve been thinking about that for a very, very long time. And I’m all in…as long as you are.”

Her heart was thumping, the desire to pull him back to her nearly taking possession, but somehow his words thrummed through.

All in.

Wait. What was she doing ? She had plans. A new career waiting for her.

No, she couldn’t get involved in a tug-of-war between love and career.

Career had to win, if she wanted to live a life different from her mother’s.

Especially since this was Ford Marshall. Oh, this could be a very bad idea because she knew Ford. When he went all in, it became a get ’er done mission for him, no backing down, and the last thing she needed was him telling her how to live her life.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, backing away. “I shouldn’t have?—”

“Wait—Red. Listen. I get it. It could get complicated, but I can do complicated?—”

She held up her hand. “No, Ford, it’s not that…or only that. I…uh…” She sighed. “I put in a package to transfer rates to Rescue Swimmer. It’s a five-week certification in Pensacola. If I want to, I can go on to be an Aviation SAR and deploy from a chopper.”

He was such a warrior, he barely stiffened, barely drew in a breath at her words.

Barely. But she felt it.

Then, a hard swallow. “So that’s what that chatter about the SEAL training was about.”

He shook his head and walked away from her.

The air rushed in, chilled by his distance.

“Why?” He turned and stared down at her, so much concern in his eyes, it rattled her.

“Because I…I hate sitting on the sidelines?—”

“You’re hardly sitting on the sidelines! You’re my eyes out there. You saved my life, Scarlett. That’s hardly doing nothing .”

“I…want to do more. Be more. I want to…”

He blinked at her, and no, she couldn’t say it because it sounded crazy.

So he said it for her. “ Protect me?”

She looked away.

He wrapped a hand around his neck. Shook his head.

“It’s not crazy?—”

“It is crazy. It’s…” He rounded on her. Held up his hand. “Listen, I know that plenty of female sailors are rescue swimmers. And yeah, you could do it but…” His mouth opened. Closed. And then he looked away.

“What?”

“I don’t want you to!”

He looked at her, his eyes fierce. “It’s a dangerous job?—”

“You have a dangerous job.”

“I’m a SEAL!”

She recoiled. “No, what you mean is that you’re a man. And I’m a woman. And women shouldn’t have dangerous jobs.”

He tightened his lips. Shook his head ever so slightly.

She didn’t believe him. And maybe he didn’t believe himself either, because he closed his eyes and walked away from her.

Overhead, the stars spilled out, a brilliant cascade across the velvety night. He was right. This was a beautiful place to watch the stars. To hope in dreams and a future.

To find herself in the arms of a man she…okay, yes, cared about.

But not enough to lose herself.

Not enough to become her mother.

Although, maybe she didn’t have to give her heart away to find happiness.

He stood there, his wide back to her, his arms folded, and she couldn’t stop herself from walking up to him. Putting her hand on his back.

He didn’t look at her. Finally, he said into the darkness, “Never mind how I feel about this. What do you want, Red?”

She looked up at him, and her breath caught with the answer. You. I want you.

In fact, she wanted the whole darn package. She wanted to be the teammate, the warrior, the protector, and the pretty girl who just wanted a hero. And to be one back, perhaps.

Maybe in the end, she was a romantic dreamer, just like her mother.

I want the happy ending.

She even wanted the sappy wedding.

If she were to face the truth, people like her never got the happy ending.

Prudence said she should probably disentangle herself from his arms, ask him to take her back to the ranch before she did something stupid like fall in love with Ford Marshall.

What did she want? Right now, right here? “I want this. Just this, right now.”

He glanced at her, closed his eyes. “I’m not that guy, Red.” Then he opened his eyes. “But, let’s go back before I turn into him.”

Oh. Her throat tightened.