Page 97 of A Rancher's Bride
“I don’t really have to answer, do I?” Kelli took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I love you too.”
That was the part he’d forgotten before, but damn if she just didn’t keep on being perfect for him. “That’s been there for a long, long time, even when I was too stupid to say it. I love you,” he repeated, pushing everything inside him into the words. “I think I always have.”
“I’m very lovable,” she pointed out.
He laughed as he picked her up, kissing her hungrily as he pressed her against the wall of the pen.
On the other side of the wood, Pepper nickered, and Kelli laughed against his lips. “She says congratulations.”
“I believe you.”
Only Luke didn’t need a horse, or anyone else, as a witness to what he wanted next.
He carried Kelli across the hall, sliding into the tack room and closing the door. “We need to talk about so many things—”
Kelli’s hands were at the button of his pants, as eager as he was to strip away layers. “Later. Not too much later, but for now I need to make sure I get my twenty bucks worth.”
He stiffened before putting two and two together. “Dammit. Lisa made a bet with you.”
“You should’ve taken me to the hayloft,” Kelli teased, and then her hands were on him, sliding on protection from somewhere, thank God. And they were moving together. Full of life and energy and happiness as she made it very clear that her answer was a one-hundred-percent, fully engaged, Kelli-endorsed, enthusiastically-acceptedyes.
Her fingernails dug into his shoulders, and her legs wrapped around his hips as he cupped her ass and moved her against him. Together in this place where they’d been a million times.
And while he didn’t know what was going to happen in the future, somewhere along the line, whether it was here at Silver Stone or at another ranch, he was pretty sure they’d be finding places to make love wherever they ended up.
“I love you.” He whispered the words against her ear as they rocked together, physically connected. Her eyes were bright in the dim light shining through the small side window. He said it again, because it tasted so perfect on his lips. “I love you, Kelli James.”
“Thank goodness,” she whispered back. “Because it’s far easier, this loving stuff, when it’s the two of us in the same pile of trouble.”
23
It wasn’t as if everything changed overnight, but in all the really important ways, it did.
Kelli was living in Luke’s house. Not because it was convenient to have a place where they could easily fall into bed, but because it wastheirspot. He’d brought all her things from the bunkhouse, which barely made a dent in the spacious new living quarters.
Having her stuff in a drawer next to his put a smile on her face every time she realized it.
This was real. This was not just a feverish dream where things would escalate to heat and pleasure, but it was moment by moment, day after day for a long line of days that would lead into a year.
Years. Always the next thing, and she was pretty fine with that.
Tough moments poked their head into her perfect happiness, but they were made easier because Luke was there, by her side.
Like now. Timothy Carlyn stood on the doorstep, hat in hand as he waited to be invited inside.
Kelli hesitated briefly before opening her arms and offering a hug, emotion squeezing her as tightly as his arms before her grandpa patted her on the back awkwardly and turned to shake Luke’s hand.
She spotted the moisture in the older man’s eyes.
They settled in at the new dining room table, the broad wooden surface shone to a high gloss. It contrasted sharply with the randomly shaped chairs she and Lisa had scrounged from the local thrift shop the day before.
Luke sat in the chair next to her, his grin widening. “Go ahead and tell meI told you so.”
Her grandpa lifted a brow in inquiry.
Kelli laughed. “It’s not that entertaining. I just told Luke since we have the second house on the Silver Stone land, it’s only fair we host some of the family dinners. That required a table and chairs, and”—she gestured with a hand toward him—“we already have a reason to be thankful for a place to sit.”
He nodded firmly. “Luke’s got himself a bit of a treasure in you, my girl.”
