Page 144 of The Brothers at Horseshoe Ranch

“It’s not just for high schoolers. It’s a way for us to get to know each other better.”

“Does it really matter? If we’re not really looking for anything anyway?”

“I want to get to know you, Olivia, each and every part of you. So yeah, it matters.”

“Okay,” she said. “Who goes first?”

“You can go first.”

“Okay, let me think. Hmm. Give me a couple of minutes. Okay?”

“That’s okay. I’m thinking as well.” I could feel her heart beating through her hand, and I could smell her scent as we lay there. I wanted so badly to lean over and seduce her. I knew that if I slipped my fingers into her panties and sucked on her lips and then her nipples, it was a good possibility she would want to make love. But I knew that her mind wasn’t ready yet, even if her body was willing. And that was important to me. If we were to make love, I wanted her to come to me one hundred percent with no hesitation. I wanted her to be in—completely in. And until that moment, I would let it go, because no matter how badly I wanted her, I wanted her to know I valued and respected her desires even more.

Chapter Forty-Seven

Olivia

I could hear Beau breathing next to me as we lay there. His hand held mine tightly. It felt warm. And even though it wasn’t the most comfortable of positions, I liked it. My room was dark, but I didn’t want to turn on the light. It was almost as if we were outside, without having to worry about the elements.

“So, my first question, Beau.”

“Yes, Olivia?” His husky voice made me want to kiss him all over again.

“When you heard about Arya, was there a moment that you thought she was your ex and that Eloise was your daughter?” I asked. I wanted to know more about his past relationships, but I didn’t want to be too invasive.

“When I heard about Eloise being here and that she was supposedly my daughter, I was concerned,” he said thoughtfully. “I didn’t think she was mine because I’ve never been one to skip protection when I make love. In fact, I’m always very diligent about it. Obviously, sometimes protection doesn’t work; it’s not failproof. But when I thought of the women I’ve dated in the past, I couldn’t think of one person who could have had a baby by me. Not that there have been millions of women.”

“So you kind of knew it wasn’t yours?”

“I did. But there was still that wonder in my head. Maybe. Why?” He turned his face to look at me. “Did you think she was mine?”

“I did,” I said, turning to look at him too. “There was this pretty young woman coming with this gorgeous little kid. I totally thought she was yours.”

“Were you jealous?”

“I don’t know. It was a weird feeling to know that the man I’d just been making out with had a baby show up on the doorstep.”

“Eloise isn’t quite a baby, Olivia.”

“That’s true; she’s not a baby. But you know, had a kid showing up. It was weird, and fine, I’ll admit it, I was a little jealous.”

“I can see that.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I don’t know. I guess I can just see that. Okay, my turn,” he said. “Do you want to have kids one day?”

“What?” I blinked. “That’s a weird question.”

“Why? We were just talking about them.”

“I thought we were going to ask random questions, not personal questions.”

“Who plays twenty questions to ask random questions?”

“I guess.” I decided to be completely honest. “Yeah, I’d love to have kids, but I don’t know if I can. I have PCOS, and people with my condition find it a lot harder to have kids sometimes. But if I can, I’d like to have as many as possible.”

“You want a large family, huh?”

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