Page 23 of The Cowboy's Best Friend

He could feel himself, too, hard and ready.

But he also knew two things, whether he wanted to know them or not.

One, she didn’t understand what she was doing. Sierra wasn’t licking her way into his mouth. She was kissing him, yes, but with a closed mouth. There was no way she was ready for the response he could feel building inside of him.

He doubted she had any idea those feelings in him existed. How could she? He’d gone out of his way to make sure she couldn’t, didn’t, and never would.

Responding to this withhisfeelings wasn’t right.

And more to the point, two—like hell was he going to be some kind of consolation prize for a douchebag like Matty Quealey.

So even though it felt like he was breaking his own bones, he eased her off of him and set her down on her feet. He didn’t let go of her, because he wasn’t sure she was steady on her feet.

But Boone said nothing. He just waited.

She was out of breath, and she looked dazed. Then she laughed. And then her whole face went red. He felt split in two, as part of him found her as cute right now as he always did. Because he pretty much thought every single thing she did was cute.

Like making his cows their own social media account that he pretended he didn’t know how to access when he did.

But the other part of him, who’d been in love with her his whole goddamned life and who worked so damn hard to keep that from her so she would never have cause to feel anything but safe around him, was pissed.

He dropped his hand from her arm.

“Who are you kissing?” he asked her. More bluntly than was maybe necessary. “Because it didn’t feel like me.”

Sierra blinked. She shook her head a little bit as if she had to clear it. “I know who you are, Boone. Why wouldn’t I?”

“I’m glad that you’re finally divorced,” Boone told her, and his usual filters didn’t seem to be working. “I’ve spent what feels like a thousand years managing not to talk shit about Matty, but he was never worthy of you. I’m not sure he was ever faithful to you, Sierra, and you deserve better. I’m glad you’re done with him.”

“Um.” She was frowning. “Thanks, I guess?”

“Someday you and I are going to sit down and have a long conversation about why you spent all of these years on that guy. You’re going to have to tell me what you got out of it.” He could hear his voice getting gruffer by the word. “What thepointwas.”

Sierra’s frown deepened. “I don’t have those answers for you, Boone. I don’t think I have any answers, period.”

“In the meantime, I’m going to need you to do me one favor.” He stepped closer to her, and since this was apparently a day for throwing all the rules right out the window, he reached over and wrapped his hands around her upper arms and pulled her closer. But nottooclose. He hadn’t lost complete control of himself. Not yet. “Don’t kiss me again unless you mean it.”

“What are you…?” Again, she looked dazed, and in any other moment he might have taken pity on her. He might have let this blow over. But she’d put her lips on his and she might already have forgotten it, but he Boone knew he never would. “I did mean it. I meant it as a kind of toast to a new life.”

“If you kiss me again, Sierra, it better be with intention,” he told her in a low voice that he hoped sounded more controlled than he felt. “I’m not a party favor. I’m a grown ass man and I’ve been your best friend for half your life.” Her eyes went impossibly green, but he didn’t stop. “If you want to shift that relationship, I’m going to need you to think that through. And I’m definitely going to need you to make absolutely certain it’s not some reaction to that piece of shit whose name you never took, I assume because he wasn’t all that nice to you, and who you shrugged off pretty easily after all these years. Do you understand me?”

She looked wide-eyed and stricken, and Boone cursed himself for that. But he didn’t take anything he said back.

He made himself take his hands off her, and that was another Herculean battle. He stood up straight and he looked away from her, though he couldn’t see his land or even the trees. He could still taste her—

Boone ran an abrupt hand over his face.

He took a breath and tamped it all down the way he always did. He shoved it all back in that lockbox and when he faced her again, he was confident that she could only see the same Boone she’d always seen.

Though if he wasn’t mistaken, she was a little warier now.

He probably should have regretted that. But he didn’t.

“I’m glad you’re done with all of that,” he said. Calmly. He hoped. “I hope it was as simple as it seemed.”

“He told me I have three days to get the rest of my stuff,” Sierra said, though she made a soft kind of noise that was a little too derisive to be called a laugh. But what he really noticed was that she was also hugging herself, studying him as if she wasn’t entirely sure what had just happened between them.

Truth was, he didn’t feel too bad about that either.

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