“Yeah, does that bother you?” I asked, teasingly. I had planned on at least dressing, brushing my hair and my teeth.
“No, but every guy will be trying to hide a hard-on as you pass, and I will be there holding a baseball bat to keep them away.”
I laughed, and he winked.
He sat up, grabbed my legs, and pulled me back down on the bed, right on top of him. He was still woody.
“Serious talk,” he said, looking into my eyes.
I didn’t have a chance to answer before he said, “I just want to say thank you for yesterday. Letting me borrow Athena was a huge show of trust in me, and I want to thank you for that, for this. I am the happiest I can ever remember being. At the center of all of that is you.”
The intensity of his words and gaze sent fireworks straight to my bloodstream. I didn’t have words to say. What could I say to something like that? I felt happy, too.
For so long, it’d just been me and the horses. I never felt anything but lonely, grief-stricken, angry, or tired. Riley made me feel something I never expected to: happy, cared for, loved.
These were new things for me, and I wasn’t sure how to voice them. Instead, I lowered my mouth to his and showed him with one, two , five kisses. Every time I came up for air, he grabbed my hair and tugged me right back down, still smiling. Our limbs got tangled up in each other and the sheets. I felt my blood getting super-heated, and my body sent clear messages about what it wanted to do with Riley, and he noticed.
I sat up before he could take my body’s traitorous reactions as permission to continue.
“If I don’t stop now, I won’t be able to.”
“Then why stop?” he asked with a sexy smile that almost melted what was left of my willpower.
“Because that’s the past piece of me I have left. The last piece of me you haven’t taken over yet. I just want to hold onto that for a little bit longer,” I told him, hoping he would understand.
“So let me get this straight. You want to do the full dance, right here and now. The problem is you are afraid once we do, I’ll change my mind about you?”
I smiled at him.
He leaned backward, making himself comfortable under me, as I was still straddling his waist.
He sighed.
“I get it, I do. That’s a line you can’t uncross. If this all went bad tomorrow, we could walk away with a small broken heart and some hard feelings. But if we sleep together, there is no coming back from that.”
I’d walk away with a large broken heart, but he got the gist of it.
“Yes,” I said breathlessly, not expecting him to have understood.
He was a guy, and most guys wanted to move ahead full throttle, not understanding the consequences of pushing this too soon.
“I get it. Take the time you need.”
I let out my breath.
“But Emma, the moment you tell me that you’re ready, I am jumping your bones. We will see who is the better rider.”
My face turned all kinds of red at the suggestion and the mental images that flashed through my head. He was making it so difficult to keep my self-control.
Breathe, Emma. He’s watching your reaction.
We might be together, but I wanted to be the one with the upper hand. He wanted something from me that he couldn’t go to anyone else for now, and I liked that power. I could get drunk on how he expressed that he wanted me, but when I was ready.
“You will be the first one to know,” I told him.
“The only one to know,” he growled.
He rolled me over so he was on top of me. He pressed a kiss to my forehead, my nose, and then my lips. Then because he was Riley and he had to make me want to hate him, just a little, he kissed my neck and trailed his mouth to my collarbone before pushing off of me and walking toward the bathroom.
