Gray lowered his head and pressed his lips against mine. I stood frozen, my heart clenching. He held me against his large body, his hand on my lower back, and gently applied pressure until I succumbed and moaned around the tongue he slipped into my mouth. I closed my eyes, but just as I did, Gray ended the kiss.
Rowan chuckled, his amusement clear. “It’s so great to see couples in love. And, Ozzie, when you get back from your honeymoon, if you’re not working, maybe you can help me here. You have a great eye for details, and I could work with that.”
“We’ll have to get back to you on that,” Gray said. “After our honeymoon, I plan to keep my sugar pie very occupied.”
“Okay, you two. Now I’m getting jealous, so I’ll go back to my office and give my nonexistent ovaries time to stop quivering. Tootles!”
He blew us a kiss and disappeared back inside. “Ah, shit,” Gray groaned.
“What?” I squeaked. He nodded toward Miss Jessamine, who was staring at us with a white face and a hand over her mouth. “Oh my god, do you think she saw you kiss me?”
“Almost sure she did.”
“Will she tell anyone?”
“I hope not.”
Why didn’t he seem more concerned? I stomped my feet and placed my hands on my hips, glaring. “You go right inside that office and confess we’re not a couple, Gray Magnuson.”
“Fuck. You look so hot when you’re angry,” he whispered, and the way he was looking at me sent a stream of molten lava pooling inside my gut.
You will not pop a chub on the street, Ozzie!
“I’m serious, Gray. I don’t know what game you’re playing, but this is not cool. Why would you pretend we were a couple? Heisgoing to find out you lied to him.”
“Why did you go along with it?”
“That’s not an answer! I foolishly thought you actually had a reason, so I went along with it.” I stormed off, but he came after me and caught my arm. Oh my god, more people were looking at us. We were going to be the next hot topic of conversation at the local coffee shop.
“Hey, when you went along with it, I thought it was fine.”
“You…you kissed me.”
“Because if we’d explained after the charade, we would have made him feel bad. But if you’re really worried about it, I’ll go in and explain everything to him.”
“Tell me why you did it first.”
He heaved a sigh. “It was a stupid way of stopping him from asking me out. Given some…comments he made earlier, I knew he would if he found out I was single.”
“And? You’re…in an open marriage, and he’s single—I assume. Shouldn’t you be happy? He’s so beautiful and seems like a genuinely nice guy.”
“Yeah, but I have no interest in him. I was trying not to have to turn him down, and he’d already mistaken us for a couple when I first talked to him, so I went along with it.”
The intensity of his gaze stole my breath and left me speechless. A good thing too because the question echoing in my head didn’t leave my lips.
Who do you have an interest in?
If the way he was looking at me was any indication, I might like his answer too much.
12
GRAY
“Leaving already, boss?” Clayton, one of the ranch hands, asked as I opened the door to my truck. We still had another two hours of work before we finished mending the fences along this side of the property’s perimeter. The recent storm that had forced Ozzie and me to seek shelter in the barn had damaged many sections. Since we had to carry out the scheduled vaccinations, we’d had to hold off on the repairs. We had to fix the fencing before another storm hit, so I’d directed all available hands on deck to see to it.
Then why are you taking off already?
“Yup, I need to check in with Lawson about his ranch. Daisy Mae is in charge.”
