Page 49 of The Cowboy Complication

“Same.” Isla’s head tipped back, her smiling face beaming up at him. “Now all I have to do is find a car. Then I can sneak over to your house when you’re not there and play with your chickens and lay on your unreasonably comfy couch.”

“I’ll make sure you have a key.” He’d never given any woman a key to his place, but he’d chew one into shape with his own teeth for Isla. So she could always have a place to go. Crazy shit happened—he saw it all the time—and he never wanted her to be in need of a safe space.

“Thatwillmake it easier.” She gave him a wicked little grin. “And I won’t have to peek through the windows when I want to come watch you sleep at night.”

“Maybe princess is the wrong nickname for you.” Without thinking, he leaned down and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Maybe psychopath is the more appropriate P word.”

Isla wrinkled her nose. “I don’t think I like that one as much.”

“Of course you don’t.” He smoothed back her hair as the wind pulled a strand across her face. “You’ve got everyone fooled into thinking you’re sweet.”

She scoffed, mouth dropping open. “Iamsweet.”

“I don’t know.” He tipped his head, pretending to consider. “First you cut off goat toes, now you’re watching people sleep at night. Things are starting to add up in a different way.”

Isla’s grip on him shifted, one hand planting against his chest in a playful shove. “You take all that back.”

“I don’t think I will.” He returned her grin, enjoying the friendly interaction. Embracing it. “I think I’ll tell everyone I know that Isla Weber isn’t nearly as sweet as she seems.”

He’d do no such thing because it wasn’t true. But even if it was, he wouldn’t share shit about her to anyone. Everything he knew about her was hard-won. He’d earned it. It belonged to him and no one else.

Just like she should.

Where the fuck did that come from?

Nowhere good. But now that he’d thought it, there was no getting it out of his head. No ignoring the gnawing desire to make her his.

“You better not.” Isla pushed him again, laughing as he stumbled back.

He gripped her wrist, encircling it in a careful hold as he tugged, taking her along as he moved out of sight from anyone inside the house. When he stopped, she kept going, momentum bringing her body flush to the front of his.

Isla let out a breath as they came together, her pupils dilating as she looked up at him, full lips barely parted, her cheeks flushed. It was the same way he’d held her seconds ago when she hugged him, but this was different.

There was no audience possibly peeking out the windows. There was no teasing. No joking. No banter.

Just tension so thick it would take a chainsaw to dig into it.

“I would never tell anyone anything about you, Princess.” His blood was fire in his veins as her eyes softened, lids getting heavy. “Your secrets are all mine.”

Isla’s gaze dipped to his mouth and the tip of her tongue peeked out, wetting her lips. “Speaking of secrets.” She swallowed, the delicate column of her neck working before she continued. “You owe me one.”

There were so many he could offer her. A million confessions he could make. But he was already dangerously close to crossing a line he’d never be able to come back from, so he went with something safe. Something simple. Something truer than she’d ever know.

“I’ve only been in love once.”

17

Isla

“YOU LOOK ANGRY.”

Griselda’s voice startled her. Sent her spinning from the sink to face her grandfather’s girlfriend where she stood on the opposite side of the island in Grady and Evelyn’s kitchen. “What?”

“I said, you look angry.” Griselda’s eyes narrowed. “Is it because of that idiot you were dating in New York? Your grandfather said he sent you a letter.”

“Oh.” She’d forgotten all about the letter. All about Eric, honestly. “No. I don’t care about him.” She realized her omission could be seen as an admission, so she added, “And I’m not mad. Just focused.”

Focused on who in the hell Cooper had been in love with. Probably some gorgeous, sexy, educated, successful woman who was great in bed and learned how to drive at a normal age.

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