Page 32 of The Cowboy's Best Friend

He was hot and beautiful and it was like he took up all the air in the room. Sierra felt breathless. She felt a strange kind of pulse that not only ricocheted in her veins, but seemed find its way deep between her legs.

“I thought you were a celibate monk,” she told him. “I was sitting at a table in town, talking about how sweet you are. How kind and angelic.”

“Time’s up,” he told her. “I’m afraid you’re going to have to choose, baby. You can have your kind, sweet, gentle angel. If that’s what you need, that’s who I’ll be.”

But Sierra knew better now. She couldseehim now.

“What if I want to see what’s on the other side of that?” she asked, tipping her chin up and too aware that his mouth wasright there. “The other side where everyone seems to know everything about you, but I don’t. The other side where you’re a completely different person.”

“Oh, you can have all the sides of me you want,” Boone told her, his hazel eyes darkening and turning into some kind of gold. “But the usual rules don’t apply to you, Sierra. So I need you to listen carefully.”

“I don’t—” she began, and she couldn’t really breathe any longer, but for some reason, she didn’t view that as a catastrophe surely was. “I don’t know—”

“Listen,” he said again. This time it was an order.

And she knew him so well. She knew this face of his, but she’d never reallyseenhim, had she? She’d never seen an expression like this on it.

Especially not when he reached over and fit his hand over her mouth. Every single part of her seemed to contract… thenexplode—but she didn’t do a single thing but stare back at him, his hand like fire against her flesh and the funniest part was, she was pretty sure she liked it.

And that he knew she did.

Then he started talking in that dark, low way that was another fire all its own. “There are rules for everybody else, but not for you. If you decide to do this, there’s no going back. If you decide you want to know what’s on the other side of that door, there’s no unknowing it. You’re probably going to hate it, think it’s too messy, and run from it, Sierra, because in the end, I think that’s what you do.”

She took exception to that, but he didn’t remove his hand. And there was something about how easily he was holding it there, keeping her from talking but not hurting her. She knew that if she made a sound of distress, he’d let her go immediately.

But because she knew he would, she didn’t.

“Everything you heard about me is true,” he told her matter-of-factly. “I’ve never been available to anyone for more than a night and I made certain that those nights were memorable, but you don’t get one memorable night from me.”

He leaned in closer and his eyes were fierce and beautiful. Sierra was filled with pulsing sensations, and her blood was too hot inside her body, and she was flushed and uncomfortable and she didn’t entirely understand any of this. All she could think about was what it had felt like to kiss him on his mouth, even though she knew it had been the polar opposite ofnuclear. She could still feel his hands on her, as if he’d left marks. As if they were inflamed, somehow.

And she couldn’t stop seeing how darkly gorgeous he was, so big andhotand tough and still, somehow,Boone.

“Here’s another secret you don’t know, but everybody else does,” he told her. “This is the big one. I’ve been in love with you since the day we met.”

Sierra jerked, there against the door, but he was merciless. He didn’t shift his hand. If anything, he simply moved closer so that the way he held her mouth closed was like a caress. She could feel it like a lick of flame, shooting everywhere, storming through her—

But had he really just said…?

He clearly read her mind and he nodded, slowly. His eyes never left hers. His stern, beautiful mouth was a solemn line.

“I have always loved you. I have always beenin lovewith you. That has never changed and it will never change. But now you know. I told you to leave those lines where they’ve always been, but you didn’t want to do that. I need you to remember that, going forward. This is a secret I was perfectly happy to keep.”

“But—” she said, muffled against his palm.

And she watched as a kind of shiver seem to work over him, too.

“So this is the choice you have before you,” he said in that voice that made her tremble, too. “I’m not going to play games with you. If you keep pushing this, you should know, I’m already in it. Hundred and ten percent. If you cross this line all the way, I’m not coming back. So you need to decide if that’s what you want.” His intense gaze searched hers. “But I’m not your ex, Sierra. This isn’t an ultimatum. Maybe you feel better getting on one of those apps and looking up ranch hands over in Livingston. Ease in. Go wading in the dating pool. Because if it’s me, it’s not going to be the shallow end, baby. It’s not going to be anything like that at all.”

Only then did he remove his hand, though he didn’t shift back away from her. For a long moment, then, the whole world was the sound of her ragged breath there between them, his intent gaze, all the things he’d told her.

And the fact he kept calling herbaby, like it fit.

Her body kept reacting like it did.

“Boone,” Sierra managed, softly, her voice so raw it hurt a little. Then she whispered his name again, almost like a prayer.

“I won’t blame you if you want to turn around, walk back out of this door, and pretend this night never happened,” he told her. “If that’s what you need to do, do it. I’m not going anywhere.”

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