Page 38 of Waiting for the Rancher
The horse whinnied, as if telling Hazel something in return.
Hazel bent in and pressed a kiss to the creature’s cheek.
Maverick homed in on Hazel’s lips, the hunger only pulsing deeper inside, awakening the need to kiss her—which he was finding was all too easy to awaken.
This woman was amazing. She was more than amazing. She was everything to him.
He pressed a hand over his heart. He’d never believed a heart could feel so much joy and pain or love and sorrow at the same time. But here he was, battling more emotion than he knew what to do with.
As Candy strained one last time, the foal finally slipped into the grass. Though it had dark hair, Maverick guessed it would gradually lighten and spots would develop just like the other Oakleys.
Giving the mare a final stroke, Hazel rose. She’d tossed aside her hat, or perhaps the branches of the tree had knocked it loose. Whatever the case, he loved seeing her fair hair and her pretty face more clearly.
She checked the foal, but with everything progressing now as it should, she glanced around as though looking for him, clearly having blocked him out while working—which was as it should be.
Now her gaze landed on him where he was leaning against a boulder in the shade. Her smile widened, and she started to cross to him, her bronze eyes so light they were almost gold. “She just needed encouragement. That’s all.”
“Reckoned she needed your soothing presence too.”
Hazel didn’t stop when she reached him. Instead she leaned into him and wrapped her arms around him, squeezing him tightly with her excitement.
Excitement. That’s all it was. She was happy at the outcome of another foaling. She was relieved she’d made it in time to help Candy. And she was trying to share this moment with him... as friends.
Somehow, even though he gave himself the mental rebuke, his body didn’t get the message. It reacted with a surge of desire all its own. His arms came right up to surround her. One hand slipped to the small of her back and flattened there. The other rose to the back of her neck, to the messy knot of her hair.
As he let the loose strands slip through his fingers, he almost groaned. Instead, he bent and kissed her hair, feeling the silk against his lips and drawing in a floral scent. Hopefully, the kiss would distract him from his longing for more.
But as his lips lingered, desire only swelled all the more.
His arms tightened around her, and he pressed another kiss to her head, this one harder and longer.
Her breathing stilled as though she sensed the change in him.
How could she not? Not when he radiated such intensity for her.
He shifted and kissed her temple. But the moment he tasted of her skin, he was suddenly famished and needed more of her. He kissed her forehead. Then he dropped to her cheek.
Every tiny kiss was like getting a little bit of heaven itself.
As his lips brushed at the spot beside her mouth, near her chin, he could hear her drag in a choppy breath, as if she was trying to breathe but couldn’t.
The plain truth was, he’d stopped breathing the moment she’d leaned in and wrapped her arms around him.
Heaven almighty. He desperately wanted to kiss her lips again, wanted to show her how much he adored her. But with bent head, he forced himself to hold still, his cheek against hers.
“Maverick?” Her whisper near his ear was filled with a hundred questions. Questions about his reaction to her, about them, about what his intentions were, about how he felt, about how she should proceed...
Even though she didn’t ask a single one, he could sense her confusion, especially after the past week, and he didn’t want to make her more confused. But he couldn’t stop himself from giving her another kiss, this one against her ear.
All of the emotion swirling through his chest swelled with such force he couldn’t hold back. “I love you.” The words tumbled out in a whisper so soft he wasn’t sure he’d even said them.
But at her rapid intake of breath, he guessed he had.
He closed his eyes. Blast it all. What was he doing?
He was overstepping the line Sterling had drawn, that’s what. Not only was he overstepping it, he’d leaped right over it and was strolling around in forbidden territory like he planned to stay and live there.
Even without his vow to Sterling to consider, he couldn’t just go around telling Hazel he loved her when he’d only recently figured out his feelings. It didn’t matter that he’d probably loved her for years. He was moving too fast for himself, not to mention he’d probably scared her.
