Page 33 of The Cowboy's Best Friend

Sierra knew that was exactly what she should do. She had no idea what she’d thought she was doing, storming in here like this. She was standing right on the edge of breaking the only thing that really meant anything to her in this world, and for what? Because other women knew him in ways she didn’t? Because there was a nuclear version of Boone and she didn’t know it?

She was being childish.

But even as she thought that, there was something else moving through her and there was nothing childish about it. It felt like the kind of age-old feminine wisdom that she’d always heard some women had, but had never felt herself.

Yet tonight there was a voice inside that suggested, firmly, that she’d known exactly what she would find here.

That she’d come right over, as fast as possible after she’d dropped Cat off, because something that had long been dormant inside of her had finally woken up.

Because there had to be reason that she’d kept this man so close all this time.

And maybe he’d let her stay oblivious.

But now that she knew, there was already no going back. Now that she knew this much, though she was afraid think too closely about the implications, she wanted to knoweverything.

So she blew out a long breath. Then she closed the distance between them, slid her hand around the back Boone’s head, and tugged his head down so she could kiss him.

And this time, she did it right.

Chapter Eight

Boone couldn’t reallybelieve this was happening.

But he knew that he wasn’t asleep. That this wasn’t a variation on the same dream he’d had a million times before.

He was wide awake. He’d heard her pull up and he’d steeled himself, but then she’d come in hot, clearly agitated, and he’d wondered what it would take to soothe her. Sometimes it was a hug. Sometimes she just liked to sit on his couch and breathe him in a little, though he knew better than to describe it that way to her. She would deny it.

And as sharp-edged as the last few days had been, Boone knew himself well enough to know that he wouldn’t deny her. He never denied her anything and he doubted that was going fro change.

But then it all… escalated.

And now the love of his life had her tongue in his mouth and he thought that his head was about to explode.

Was pretty shocked it hadn’t already, if he was honest with himself.

It took every bit of restraint he’d ever even dreamed of having in all his life to slow himself down. To move carefully as he slid his own hand up to finally, after all these years, sink his fingers into all of that glossy brown hair. He didn’t make a fist no matter how much he wanted to, though he did hold her fast.

He let her play with him. He let her taste him the way she wanted, to approach and retreat. When he couldn’t take it any longer—when he could feel that restraint about to slip—he took control instead.

Boone pressed her back against the door and he ate her alive.

He kissed her deep. He taught her hard and then he taught her gentle, if dirty.

He kissed her again and again and again.

Boone kissed her with all of the carnal thoughts that he’d ever had about her in his head. He kissed that teenage version of her that had about knocked him over the moment he’d seen her in his first homeroom. He kissed the version of her who had gone off to college—so smart, so bright, so impossibly fascinating that he’d been sure she was never coming back.

He kissed the version of her he’d seen on her wedding day, not nearly as excited as he would have thought the bride should be—though it was true he’d taken some small measure of pleasure in that. It was also true he’d tried his best to hide it. She had been dressed in a white dress that she looked uncomfortable, though he’d told himself he just wanted to believe that because she’d been walking down the aisle to a man who wasn’t him.

He kissed her a little harder, a little deeper, then. Because that still stung.

He kissed her with all of the unrequited love he’d been carrying around with him and this maddening need for her—for only and ever her—that had been a part of him forever.

And Boone had wanted her for so long, in so many different ways, that the fact that he was kissing her like this at all made it easy to slow down. To be something likecontentwith this, because it was more than he’d imagined would happen tonight.

Or ever.

He’d never thought they’d ever kiss likethis, having pull away to gasp for breath because neither one of them wanted to stop. Kissing messy and wild and making noises against each other’s mouths, gripping each other hard, and then going back for more.

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