Page 64 of If You Loved Me

Vibrators be damned, I’d never had anything as good as Ranger’s tongue licking my clit like I was a damn buffet of his favorite dessert.

The cold wind on my wet hair did nothing as my body still clung to the heat of my climax, even as the lights of his home came into view.

But it was more than that. Tonight, he’d shown me a sacred place he once shared with his mother. He’d told me that despite my fears, he wanted to give me the life I never let myself live.

I was falling hard and fast for him. The man who was bornan outcast from my society. The one who protected all others, even if it cost him his freedom. Ranger was more than just my childhood crush now. He was the one I wanted to experience life with. The person I chose to share all parts of myself with.

“Thank you,” I said to him as he steered Hank towards the barn on the left side of the house.

“For what?” His shoulder-length curls were still damp from the river water. I hoped he wasn’t too cold.

“For sharing everything with me tonight. I feel…different. Like tonight helped me discover what I truly want for myself. I don’t think that would have happened without you.”

A smile parted his lips and crinkled his eyes. “I didn’t lie when I said I wanted to give you the world. Tonight was just the start of that.”

Something that had long been broken inside of me started to mend from hearing his words. I realized then that maybe I wouldn’t have the perfect relationship with my parents. That they would never approve of who I am and what I wanted for myself. But I had a choice in who I allowed to impact my life. I could let my parents continue to meddle in my business and berate me for my choices. Or I could lean into what Ranger and my best friends provided me. A found family of sorts. Letting Willow, Johnny, Deacon, and Ranger fill the void my parents left.

As we rode the rest of the way to the barn, I felt everything in me shift.

I couldn’t stop smiling.

“Why is your hair all wet?” Callie Rose asked her brother before he could say a word as we made the final step up to the back deck.

Ranger looked down at me, eyes blazing with the secret we shared of what transpired between us earlier. I felt my cheeks redden and my heartbeat kick up.

“We had a little adventure. Nothing for your nose to be in,” he shot back at his sister.

Her dark brows rose toward her hairline, but she didn’t pester him anymore. “Sarah, you know my sister.” I nodded, giving her a warm smile. Her lips were tight as she looked me up and down, assessing me. I swallowed the lump in my throat. “And this is Miles.” He gestured to the man sitting next to his sister. Miles was just as big as Ranger, taking over the entire Adirondack chair, legs stretched out long. His light brown hair flared out a little bit around his ears and the back of the baseball hat he wore backward. Stubble lined his sharp jaw and freckles dusted the bridge of his pert nose and cheeks.

He rose from his seat and stepped toward me, hand outstretched. I took it, thankful for the moment of warmth against the cold. “It’s nice to finally meet you, Sarah.” His accent was thick, like he was born in the backwoods of the Blue Mountains. I noticed Callie Rose eyeing our interaction.

Damn, she’s intimidating. She’d always beenreally quiet in school, but then again I wasn’t dating her only brother back then.

“It’s nice to meet you too, Miles.”

With a quick glance at Ranger, he settled back into his seat. “Do you want something to drink?” Ranger asked me.

Before I could answer Callie Rose lifted a large canister. “I made fresh hot chocolate.”

“Ooo. That sounds amazing. Thank you.”

She grabbed two metal mugs from the side table to her right. One was red speckled with black and the other was cream speckled with blue. She poured the hot chocolate into both mugs and handed them to Ranger and me before we settled into the empty chairs around the firepit.

Raising the mug to my lips, I went to take a sip of the hot liquid and immediately stopped as Callie Rose asked, “So, what are your intentions with my brother, Sarah?”

Ranger choked on the gulp he’d just taken and I was thankful I hadn’t drunk anything yet.

When I looked at Callie Rose, there was no humor in her eyes. She was dead serious. I had to give the girl props. If it was my brother, I’d be grilling the girl he was dating too.

“Come on Cal, you don’t need to do that to her,” Ranger said giving me deja vu from when Willow asked the same question to him.

I placed a hand on his knee. “No, it’s okay. She has every right to ask that question.” He gave me an apologetic look like he was desperately sorry that his sister was about to put me through the ringer.

Shifting my attention back to Callie Rose, I told herexactly what my intentions were with her brother. “I’ve gone through most of my life feeling unsure about my decisions. I tend to question everything I do and I think that’s because I never had parents in my corner cheering me on. What I feel for Ranger is one of the very few things I’ve been certain of. I can only speak for myself when I say that I’ve never cared for anyone the way I do for your brother. So, I intend to continue caring for him and showing him just how wonderful I think he is.”

Reflections of the dancing flames from the fire pit burned in Callie Rose’s eyes as she considered my words. Her face was unreadable for what felt like countless minutes ticking by. And then…a slight tilt of her lips shifted upward and I loosed the breath I’d been holding.

“Caring for him is all a sister could ask for.” Her faint smile turned into a grin as she took in her brother next to me. A quiet exchange happened between them and I only hoped it was her approval.

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