Page 73 of My Cowboy Trouble
"Do you? Look at me like that?"
"Every damn day. From the moment you stepped out of that rental car looking like you'd rather be anywhere else, to right now, sitting here with hay in your hair and dirt on your face, looking like you finally found home."
She kisses me then, soft and sweet, nothing like the desperate heat we've shared before. This is different.This is dangerous. This is feelings neither of us are ready to name.
When we pull apart, she's smiling but her eyes are sad. "Nineteen days."
"Stop counting."
"I can't. If I stop counting, I might forget this has an expiration date."
"Everything has an expiration date. Doesn't mean we can't enjoy it while it lasts."
"Is that your philosophy? Enjoy it while it lasts?"
"No." I jump down from the fence and offer her my hand. "My philosophy is, take what you want and worry about consequences later."
"That's a terrible philosophy."
"It's worked so far." I help her down, keeping her close, feeling her body warm against mine. "Got me you, didn't it?"
"For now."
"Then I'll take now." I kiss her again, harder this time, like I can convince her to stay if I just want it enough. Like I can change her mind with my mouth and my hands and my desperate need to keep her here. "Come on. We've got a gate to fix."
"We do?"
"We do now."
The gateto the south pasture has been broken for months, held together with baling wire and what Gavin calls "cowboy engineering" but is really just hope and duct tape. It's been on Trent's list forever, but somehow never makes it to top priority. It's the perfect excuse to keep Kenzie to myself for a few more hours.
"This is a disaster," she says, poking at the rusted hinge with obvious disgust. "How is this even standing?"
"Spite, mostly. This gate's too stubborn to fall down completely."
"Sounds like someone I know." She grins at me. "So what's the plan? Or are we just going to stare at it until it fixes itself?"
"First, we remove the old hinges." I hand her a wrench. "Then we pretend we know what we're doing until something works."
"That's your plan? Fake it till you make it?"
"That's my life motto."
"That explains so much." She takes the wrench, testing its weight. "You know, I fixed a fence with Gavin. He actually knew what he was doing."
"Gavin knows about fences. I know about gates. Totally different skill set."
"Sure it is." She starts working on the first bolt, her tongue poking out slightly in concentration. It's adorable and sexy and makes me want to kiss her senseless. "This is really stuck."
"Here, let me?—"
"I've got it." She puts more muscle into it, and the bolt finally gives. "See? I don't need a big strong man to save me."
"Never said you did. But sometimes it's nice to have help."
"Sometimes," she agrees, moving to the next bolt.
We work in comfortable rhythm, and I try not to notice how her tank top rides up when she reaches for tools, exposing a strip of skin that's somehow more tantalizing than seeing her completely naked. There's something about the tease, the suggestion, that's almost better than the real thing.
