Page 62 of Captivated
The silence after wasn’t awkward. It was… tentative. New. It was a simple exchange of words, but Nate was aware of what lay beneath it, entwined around it, the impossible tug of safety and danger, of whatwasand whatmight be.
Whatever came next, he knew one thing: the lake had stripped something away. Not clothes. Not fear. Something older, deeper.
Something worth stepping into the cold for.
Chapter Eighteen
They didn’t speak muchon the ride back to the trailhead parking lot.
Zeeb took the lead, letting Bailey pick his way along the narrow trail while Nate followed, the reins loose in his hands, his gaze fixed somewhere between the curve of Zeeb’s back and the trail ahead. The quiet was companionable, not that Nate felt any compulsion to talk. His mind was occupied with glances that lingered a second too long, touches in the lake… Every time their shoulders had brushed in the water, every time Zeeb had ducked his gaze or smiled too long, it had all looped in Nate’s mind like a song he couldn’t stop humming.
Zeeb had registered in Nate’s subconscious. Thus far he’d been the man who’d been there for Nate, the one who’d stood between Nate and the rest of the hands, a welcome barrier to keep him safe.
But now Nate saw him for the first time as an attractive man, someone who stirred Nate’s senses in a way no one had stirred them before.
It was scary as hell.
It was also exhilarating.
By the time they reached the horse trailer, the sun was dipping low. The light had gone syrupy and golden, stretching their shadows across the asphalt-covered parking lot. Between them, they got the horses into the trailer, then set off for Salvation, Zeeb behind the wheel.
Yet more silence.
Maybe I’m not the only one with a head full of stuff.
Zeeb was the first to shatter the quiet.
“Y’know, I haven’t done that in a long time.”
“Skinny-dipped?” Nate still couldn’t believehe’dbeen bold enough to strip off in front of Zeeb.
Be honest. You liked the idea of him seeing you.
That shocked him into stillness.Was I… flirting?Not that Nate had ever flirted with anyone his whole life.Is that what I was doing?
Zeeb chuckled. “That too. But I meant just… let go. Laughed. Played.”
Play… It had been so long since Nate had indulged in play, it was almost an alien concept.
“Been a while for me too.” What flitted through his mind was chasing Bethany through her daddy’s barn, both of them laughing and shrieking. Rescuing her from an imaginary dragon, Nate brandishing a stick as if it were a sword.
Bethany’s box, full of cast-offs she would dress up in…
And just like that, Nate’s library of memories closed with a dullclunk.
Not going there, remember?
Not now.
Looking forward, not back.
More silence.
“You looked like a different person out there today,” Zeeb remarked.
Nate’s heart gave a nervous flutter. “Good different or…?”
“Free,” Zeeb said simply.
