Page 96 of The Cowgirl's Secret Love
“Oh. That. You’re welcome.” She gave him a love tap on the shoulder. “You’re a terrible present opener. Get going.”
The box from Levi and Chelsea contained cards from the kids— typical small people productions made of crayon scrawls and hearts—and a picture frame.
Levi and Chelsea sat on the front porch of the house Finn had grown up in, surrounded by their family. The kids wore matching outfits with cowboy hats and boots. The three little tykes looked happy and well loved. His brother had an arm wrapped around Chelsea’s shoulders, the smile on his face sheer perfection.
The house itself had a new paint job, and somehow it looked a lot shinier than the last time Finn remembered being there.
He carefully put the frame aside, soaking it in as a new memory to help wash away some of the bitterness of the past.
Then he worked on the next present, warmth growing in his chest.
“Zach got me a new deck of playing cards. Probably figured the other set we use is marked, considering how bad he’s been losing lately.”
“You shouldn’t be so mean to your best friend.”
“Hey, if he wants to help finance our next vacation, I have no problem taking money from him.” He opened the bag from Josiah and laughed. “The man gave me a jar of Bag Balm.”
“That should help with all the chafing you plan to get,” she teased.
They grinned at each other.
He picked up the package from Tamara and gave it a shake. Something slid inside. “You want to wait and open this when we get home?”
They were still a good forty-five minutes from the ranch. “Keep going. This is entertaining,” Karen told him.
Inside the paper was an old-fashioned tobacco tin. “She wants me to take up bad habits,” he informed Karen. He wiggled off the lid, and laughed out loud. “Scratch that. Your sister just gave me a couple dozen condoms.”
“Get out.” She glanced over quickly as he tilted the container toward her. “She’s terrible.”
“She’s brilliant,” Finn said. “Now I can be prepared for the days ahead.”
Only when the present from Lisa also made the same suspicious sliding noise, Finn started laughing even as he tore the paper off. “Oh, look. Another tin. I wonder what’s inside?”
“I’m going to kill my sisters.” But her laughter joined his, and when he poured the contents into his open palm, the colourful packets like a rainbow, she tossed him a dirty grin.
When she pulled off the road and headed down a gravel path toward who knew where, Finn sent up a thank-you to the heavens.
“Tell me you have some ulterior motive in taking me for a ride.”
She pulled the truck to a stop on a narrow path hidden between tall trees. “You think you can handle that missionary stuff in the back of the truck?”
He met her at the tailgate in under three seconds.
She hopedthis wasn’t going against everything the doctor had warned Finn about, but they were both too eager to wait.
He took the blanket she’d grabbed from the back cab and, with one firm snap, spread it out in the truck bed. Then he caught hold of her and pulled them together, lips meeting eagerly, hands moving freely as they gave in to desire.
He got her jeans undone, pushing them and her panties off her hips seconds before he lifted her to the surface of the open tailgate.
Hands on either side of her legs, Finn leaned in. “Hold on tight. I’m about to take you to church.”
Which meant it wouldn’t be long before she started singing with the choir. The thought made her giggle, the sound turning into a moan as Finn opened her knees and pressed a kiss to her inner thigh. Another one, higher, hands stroking in advance of his mouth until his thumbs teased against her core.
Soft, slow strokes that ignited her senses and built a spiral of need deep within her.
The warmth in her heart was rock-solid—the connection to this caring, giving man had grown steadily over the past couple of months. It seemed a mere whisper of time but was compounded by their earlier summer and all the moments over the past five years when she’d thought of him. Hoped for him.
Wished for him to be with her—and now it was real.
