Page 47 of The Cowboy's Forbidden Bride

And having experienced being one, with him, Cat understood deep down in her bones that she could never go back. She could never bejust heragain.

Some time later Wilder showed her the rest of the cabin. He took her on a tour, but it took an awfully long time, because they kept getting distracted in each and every room.

Later still, he wrapped her in blankets and they sat out on his porch, looking at the Milky Way like it was putting on a show, just for them.

And in the morning, she woke up and found herself in her husband’s bed.

Wilder Carey, her husband.

Cat smiled sleepily, then stretched, and her body felt both nothing like hers and more likeherthan it ever had before.

She sat up, pushing her hair out of her face. She was sure that it was everywhere, and wild, but she couldn’t bring herself to care about that one bit. When she looked around, there was a bright light coming in through the skylight and the mountains felt as if they wereinsidethe room, and it took her a few moments to remember that the suitcase with her things was probably still in the back of his truck.

What a tragedy that she would have to wearher husband’sclothes instead.

Cat crawled out of bed, enjoying the little shiver the colder air of the room gave her. She picked up the button-down shirt that Wilder had tossed aside last night and wore it like a dress, padding out into the main part of the cabin in only that.

Somehow, she wasn’t at all surprised that it was warm. Even if Wilder liked his cabin on the cooler side, she’d somehow known he would keep it warm for her.

And she found him in the kitchen, sadly dressed, and making what looked like an extraordinarily complicated cup of coffee.

“I never would have taken you for coffee purist,” she said when she came and stood beside him, looking down at all his…coffee things.

“A man has to have some standards, Cat,” Wilder said.

And she thought he sounded… odd, maybe. A little rough. Or maybe it was simply that she’d never seen him in the morning before. Maybe this was what he was like in the morning light.

He presented her with a large, hot mug and then steered her toward the front door. On the way, he grabbed a thick throw that was really more of a blanket from his couch and draped it over her shoulders, and she understood why he took her outside to the porch. The cold had come in hard overnight, and Wilder made sure she was wrapped up tight, bare feet and everything, then sat down beside her on the step.

When he didn’t speak, she took a sip of the coffee he’d made her and found it just about the silkiest, best coffee she’d ever tasted.

Really, she didn’t know why she was surprised.

“Wilder,” she said with a sigh. “If this is the first day of the rest of our lives, I have to say that I think you’re starting it off beautifully.”

Next to her, he put his mug down on the step with athunkand blew out a breath.

And she had an inkling, then. A prickle of something like foreboding. She told herself she was catastrophizing, because surely—

“Cat,” he said, in a somber voice. In thattone. “We made a terrible mistake, but we can fix it. I’m going to file for divorce.”

And, somehow, it was both a shock and yet not a surprise at all.

She couldn’t tell if she was reeling from that, or from the combined experiences of the past twenty-four hours—not to mention the weeks before that since they’d run into each other at the Wolf Den. And she didn’t know what reaction he was going for, but it probably wasn’t the one she had.

Because Cat laughed.

She laughed so hard that her coffee spilled on her hand, and she had to put it down. And then, when she felt tears on her cheeks, she had to wipe them away, and that meant there was coffee everywhere.

Which struck her as perfect and ridiculous and it only made her laugh more.

And when she finally stopped, he was looking at her in a kind of frozen astonishment, as if she’d really gone off the deep end.

“I’m serious,” he said.

“I know you are.” Cat leaned closer, reaching over so she could put her coffee hand on his face, to hold him there, all wounded dark eyes and that set to his jaw. “Wilder. Don’t you know by now? I’m the love of your life.”

Chapter Eleven

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