Page 61 of If You Loved Me

Oh no.This is it.

My breath caught as I readied myself for the blow I knew would land as he told me he wanted nothing to do with me. That there was no way he would continue building a relationship with a liar.

Maybe it was my own self-loathing that made me gasp as he framed my face with both his hands. “Sarah, the only thing that makes me mad about that story is the fact that you felt so cornered by your own mother that you went against your better judgment and started seeing a man you had no feelings for. Do I wish you would have told me sooner? Yes. But that’s only so that I could have convinced you that giving in to someone like your power-hungry mother will only lead to your demise.”

I gaped at him. “Wait, so you’re not angry at me?”

His fingers came to grasp my chin and as he tilted my head back, he brushed his lips against mine. “No, sugar. I’m not. I couldn’t expect you to fully dedicate yourself to me when we’d only been on one date. That wouldn’t be fair, especially since we’d never talked about being exclusive.”

He wasn’t mad. Maybe I hadn’t screwed this up after all.

He kept my chin snug between his thumb and forefinger while he snaked his other arm around my waist, drawing me so close to him I could feel the hard planes of his body even through our coats.

His eyes shifted into a molten storm of blue and silver ashis tone deepened an octave. “But now that we have everything out in the open, let’s make one thing clear. From this moment forward, you’re mine.”

My toes curled in my boots as his lips came down on mine with a kiss that nearly brought me to my knees. Everything I was, he took. And I gave willingly. Opening up to him, baring my very essence to him like I’d never shown anyone before. His kiss explored every facet of who I was and I relished in how he took his time, gently nipping and suckling against my lips. His tongue rolled against mine in languid movements.

He was right. I was irrevocably his. When we parted, our breaths becoming one, I looked into his eyes and knew that he was mine too.

Chapter 26

Ranger

The roar of the rushing river was no match against the thrumming of my pulse in my ears. It took every bit of my restraint to not lay Sarah in that field and claim her right then and there.

I’d heard what she said to Deacon over the phone a few weeks back about being a virgin. While I wanted nothing more than to bury myself inside of her right this fucking second, I also didn’t want to act like a wild man and scare her off. We’d have plenty of time for that later. Our first time, I wanted to savor.

“Have you ever gone skinny dipping?”

I groaned as my cock immediately hardened at her question. Looking over at her riding Honey Blossom next to me.

“Here I was trying to be a good boy and not let my thoughts stray to dangerous topics and then you wreck my plans with that question, sugar.”

Her quiet laugh sent a jolt through me. It was the best fucking sound I’d ever heard. I knew at that moment I wanted to make her laugh for the rest of our lives if she’d let me.

Fire shimmered in her gaze. “Well, have you?”

“Of all the wild things I’ve done in life, no. I haven’t gone skinny dipping.”

Honey Blossom stopped walking as Sarah pulled the reins back slightly. “What’re you doing?” I asked, turning Hank around before cuing him to stop.

“The craziest thing I’ve ever done is wreck my parents’ plan of having a perfect daughter who married a rich man. I’m thirty years old and I have very little to show for it, Ranger. I want tolive.”

The gleam in her eyes had my chest fluttering as I slipped off the saddle and followed her to the bank of the river. “Living is one thing, Sarah. But jumping into a cold river in the middle of fall will only give you hypothermia. Get your ass back here.”

With a wink over her shoulder, I watched as she shed her jacket and hastily lifted her long-sleeved top over her head. Those long curls bounced with the movement, cascading over her bare back where only the strip of her lacey pink bra remained.

“Fuck me,” I groaned under my breath, immediately feeling the strain of my cock against my jeans. She was beautiful. The feminine muscles of her back worked as she lifted her hands to unclasp her bra. The swell of the side ofher breast made my palms ache to reach out and touch her, but I couldn’t fucking move. She was a vision under the dim twinkle of stars and I didn’t want to look away. Icouldn’tlook away. Not as she bent over to take off her boots and socks before shimmying out of her jeans.

“Sarah,” a guttural growl ripped from my chest when her thumbs hooked into her tiny thong and she pulled the fabric down, tossing it on top of her discarded jeans.

“Come on, cowboy.” She looked at me over her shoulder again with a come-get-me swagger I didn’t know she had. Then she dashed into the water.

I looked up at the stars for a brief moment, wondering how the hell I got so damn lucky to end up in this exact moment when I got to chase a very naked Sarah Williams into a river. Truth be told, I didn’t care how I got here. I was just thankful that I did.

With lightning speed, I shed all my layers and walked to the edge of the river bank. Sarah’s sultry gaze landed on me as she swirled her arms through the water. This part of the river was shallow, the current moving at a leisurely pace around her. Her eyes slid down my body and I was thankful for the pure masculine desire that kept the cold from shriveling my manhood.

Frigid water hit my skin and I hissed at the contact, but kept pushing forward to where Sarah was wading in the middle.

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