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  My legs trembled, and the beginnings of a mind-shattering orgasm rolled in.

  But then he stopped, pulling his face from between my legs. I couldn’t help the whimper that escaped me.

  He stood and stepped from the bath, holding my hand as I did the same. He wrapped a towel around me, then kissed my neck. “Can’t let you come yet. I told you, I’m not done.”

  Not done? What more was there? He’d already got me to the brink of orgasm quicker than I could even do it myself. But the breather made me remember why I’d started all this. I tugged him toward my bedroom, but the hallway was long and it suddenly felt like a million miles. Halfway to my room, I spun to face him and dropped to my knees.

  His thick cock jutted out in front of me, and I closed my mouth over him before he could stop me.

  I was rewarded with a hiss of pleasure and his fingers spearing into the wet lengths of my hair.

  “Fuck, Hallie. I wanted to make you come first.”

  I ignored him, running my tongue over the ridged underside until he tightened his grip on my hair.

  “One hand, Hallie. Use the other between your legs. I want you on the edge.”

  I moaned around his cock, and his balls tightened at the noise. I did as he said, using my right, dominant, hand to grip his length while I sucked the head of his cock. The other hand fell between my legs to work my clit.

  I was so wet. My fingers slipped between my folds without resistance, and I rubbed my bundle of nerves until I was right back where I’d been in the bathtub, orgasm threatening.

  I jerked away from his cock. “Nate, I need to come!”

  He dragged me to my feet and pushed me up against the wall. His mouth slammed down on mine, his body crushing me. On instinct, I wrapped one leg around his ass, tilting my pelvis so it lined up better with his.

  “Nate! Please!”

  His dick notched at my entrance and then pushed inside. I screamed out his name again, shattering into a thousand pieces, the orgasm blacking out my vision as blood stormed around my body, taking fireworks of pleasure with it. He withdrew and drove home again, and then again, his dick stretching and filling me so perfectly it was as if we were two pieces of the same puzzle. My internal walls clenched down around him, and he buried his face in my neck.

  “God, you’re so tight. I’ve wanted to do this for so long.”

  He was saying everything I’d ever dreamed of him saying, but words said in the heat of passion didn’t mean anything. I knew that. Though it was hard to remember when he’d sounded so sincere.

  He slowed his pace, torturing us both. Our gazes collided, and there was something in his eyes I couldn’t read. One I’d never seen before, but it pierced me to my very soul and took away my breath. My chest locked up with the thought that this might be the only time I got to do this with him.

  Instinctively, I knew there’d never be sex like this again. Because no one else was Nate.

  He’d just ruined me for all other men. And he wasn’t mine to keep.

  I couldn’t bear to look at him. I turned around, flattening my palms to the wall.

  Nate reached around, finding my clit again with his fingers while he entered me from behind.

  We both groaned at the new position, but it was good. A new orgasm dawning distracted me, drawing me out of my head and drowning those thoughts with physical sensation.

  That was easier to deal with than the feelings and attachments that were wrapping around my heart.

  “Faster, Nate. Harder.”

  His fingers dug into my hips, holding me in place while he drove into me. His lips pressed to the back of my neck, and when my second orgasm barreled into me, Nate gave a groan of pure ecstasy. I splintered in half, orgasm roaring, while Nate stilled, spilling himself inside.

  His bodyweight crushed me, both of us breathing hard.

  “You okay?” he asked eventually.

  “I’m great.” Which was the truth, at least physically. I’d never had multiple orgasms during sex before. Not even close.

  Emotionally, I was wrecked. And as he pulled away, I reminded myself he’d be doing that permanently in just a few days.

  Days were all we had left.

  14

  Nate

  Hallie was gone when I woke up the next morning, but I knew she would be. She started work early and woke up before dawn, like so many other people around here did. Just like I always had before I moved away. Being on tour had made me lazy. There was rarely a reason to get up at dawn anymore. I ran most mornings, but why do that at four if you can do it at eight? There were no cows that needed milking or other chores that had to get done when you slept in a hotel and had room service just a phone call away.

  I got out of Hallie’s bed, hating that I’d turned into a city slicker. I might have ridden bulls by night, but in every other sense, I’d lost my country roots.

  I’d lost my home. My family.

  Hallie.

  Bull riding had given me fame and a paycheck that would set me up for the rest of my life.

  But then I thought about how I’d lain awake last night, staring at Hallie’s hair splayed out over the pillow like a halo, and I realized it had taken a lot from me, too.

  I made the bed neatly, another something my parents had drilled into me, but I’d had no need for while living in a hotel. I tucked in the corners of the sheets, smoothed the cover, and lined the pillows up. Satisfaction rolled through me, which was stupid, considering it was just a bed.

  With little else to do, now that Hallie was at work and Molly was being taken care of by Shep’s parents, I wandered around Hallie’s huge house. She was right about it being a dump. Her bedroom and the bathroom had been renovated beautifully, but the rest of the house was still a work in progress. I checked out all the rooms, finding each one in more and more disrepair.

  My fingers itched to get in and get dirty.

  But I was expected at the hospital, so I drove myself back to Jasmine’s place, which was how I was now thinking of my childhood house. It had really hit home for me when the Shepherd’s pointed out they’d stayed there more than I had. They lived in Australia, for fuck’s sake. It wasn’t like their place was just around the corner, and yet they’d managed to be here more often than me.

  I’d basically become homeless without really realizing it. And I didn’t like how it felt.

  I showered and changed my clothes before heading up to the hospital. There was no need for me to stop at the nurses’ station, I knew exactly where Jasmine’s room was now. I tapped quietly on the door before letting myself in. “Jas?”

  I stopped, realizing she was asleep. But she wasn’t alone. Shep’s bed had been wheeled in and set up beside her, their mattresses pushed as close together as the bedframes would allow. Shep was propped up slightly, his arm resting on Jasmine’s pillow as he smoothed back her hair.

  A lump formed in my throat at the tender way he gazed at my sister, and the gentle touch of his fingers. Jasmine’s face was free of lines, and she slept peacefully with her man at her side.

  Shep looked up and smiled at me, motioning me to his side.

  I shook my head. “I can come back later. I don’t want to wake her.” I backed up toward the door, suddenly uncomfortable.

  But Shep’s voice was regular volume as he called me back. “Have you met your sister? She sleeps like she’s dead if Molly isn’t around. And they gave her some pretty decent painkillers not long ago, so she’ll be out for a while. But I’m going stir crazy. Come entertain me.”

  I took the chair by his bedside, and he shifted away from Jasmine so he was facing me. He winced in pain.

  I gritted my teeth. I hated seeing him like this. Bandages everywhere and tubes sticking out of his arms. “Should I get someone?”

  He waved me off. “No. They only let me stay here with Jasmine if my pain levels aren’t needing too much monitoring, so it’s better if I just tough it out. I don’t want to be apart from her.”

  Jealousy hit me in the
gut.

  “Uh-oh, what’s that face for?” Shep studied me curiously. “Spill it.”

  “It’s nothing important.”

  “If it has to do with Hallie Ryan, then I beg to differ.”

  I sighed. “Am I that obvious?”

  “You look like a lovesick fool. But the good news is, apparently she gets the same look around you, if local gossip is anything to go by. So what’s the problem?”

  “How long have you got?”

  Shep gestured to his hospital bed. “Actually, I got nothing but time and a burning need for information.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Fine. I slept with her.”

  “Good?”

  “Mind-blowing. But it was more than just good sex. She’s… different.”

  “Because you looooove her.” He singsonged it, as if he were ten years old and teasing me on the playground.

  The words hit me in the gut. “Yeah, maybe I do.”

  “Whoa. I was joking. You do?”

  I threw my hands up in the air. “I don’t know! I’ve never been in love before, but I know I’ve always loved Hallie. She was my best friend, and it’s been hell these last few years not having her in my life. It’s not that I’ve been unhappy exactly. It’s just that ever since I came back, and since Hallie and I started talking again…”

  “You realized that you’re happier.”

  I nodded. “With her. Here. I know Molly hates me, but that’s because she doesn’t know me. I made a bed this morning, Shep, and felt more satisfaction in that one task than I have doing anything else in a long time.”

  “But… There’s a but coming, right?”

  I shrugged. “This isn’t my life anymore. I have a contract, and commitments. Fans. Friends on the tour. It’s what I know. It’s who I am now. I’ve changed.”

  “Nothing to say you can’t change back.”

  I slumped in my chair, the entire situation feeling like a lost cause. “And throw away everything I’ve worked for? Go back to being the penniless boy from the middle of nowhere? Hell, they’ll sue me for breach of contract, which would wipe out my savings. I literally wouldn’t have a penny to my name.”

  “I threw away everything and moved halfway across the world when I met your sister.” He smiled over at her sleeping form. “Haven’t regretted it for a second. She blows my mind every day. She’s beautiful and kind and caring. Selfless. She loves me and Molly as fiercely as I love them.” He reached over and gave me a feeble punch in the arm. “Plus she’s dynamite in bed.”

  “Oh God, Shep. Shut up.” I grimaced. “I did not need to hear that about my sister.”

  “Then get out of this hospital room and go work out things with Hallie or I’ll keep going. She does this thing with her tongue—”

  I shot out of my chair, throwing him a dirty look on my way to the door. “I’m telling the doctor to get you another head scan. What’s wrong with you?”

  His laughter followed me all the way down the corridor.

  15

  Hallie

  I worked the entire day at the ranch with a smile on my face. In my head, I just kept playing the night before over and over, remembering every touch and every look Nate had given me, and committing them to memory so I could relive them once he was gone.

  I shook my head, mentally berating myself for going there again. I wasn’t doing it. I didn’t want to ruin the time we had left by constantly reminding myself it was going to end. Maybe he’d want to do the long-distance thing. It wasn’t ideal, but the thought of phone sex was fun. We could FaceTime, and I could fly out to his rodeos sometimes…though that would set back my plans for renovating the bed and breakfast. I hadn’t exactly budgeted in flights all around the country. And sometimes, he wasn’t even in it. Sometimes he was overseas for months at a time.

  I pushed all that away with a sigh. It wasn’t the time for thinking about that stuff. I still had two nights left with him, and I wanted to make the most of them.

  Five minutes before quitting time, Summer found me brushing down the horse I’d been riding. “Hallie! There you are, I’ve been searching for you everywhere. I really need your help.”

  I put the brush down and wiped my hands on the back of my jeans. “Okay, what’s up?”

  “Someone spray-painted the bulls.”

  My mouth dropped open. “What? Who the hell would do that? And why?” Irritation prickled up my spine. “It was those bucking cowboys, wasn’t it? So immature.”

  Summer cocked her head to one side. “You’re really running with the creative swearing, aren’t you?”

  I shrugged. “I think it’s a habit now. And don’t think I didn’t hear you drop one the other day, too. Let me grab some stuff. How the hell are we going to get spray paint off a bunch of bulls? In the squeeze chute?”

  Summer shrugged, flitting around the place and throwing a scrubbing brush in my direction. She didn’t seem particularly concerned that her charges had been playing pranks. In fact, she almost seemed like she found it funny. The cowshit fumes must have gone to her head. Frost was going to have a coronary when he found out.

  I checked my watch and groaned. I was going to be late getting home. Nate and I hadn’t made any plans, but I’d definitely hoped to see him again tonight. Buck those cowboys. If I found out which one it was, I was going to spray him in red paint and lock him in Grave Digger’s pen.

  Summer linked arms with me and led me to the pens. She pointed to the first one, and I groaned. A huge red P was painted on the animal’s hind quarters.

  “P?” I asked her. “Were they trying to write their names? Which of them starts with a P?” Anger boiled through my blood. This was such a useless waste of time. I dumped my buckets on the ground and climbed the fence to get a better look at the others. They all had letters on their hides. “P. M. O. R.”

  Summer pointed to the last pen. “That one has a question mark.”

  I shook my head. “Idiots.”

  Summer’s grin widened. “Mmm. P. M. O. R. Question mark. You ever play those word games, Hal? You know where you unscramble the letters to make a word?”

  I glanced at her, then back at the bulls. I switched the letters around in my head a few times. “Prom?”

  She grinned and jumped down off the fence. “Took you long enough.” She jerked her head behind me.

  I spun around, only to find Nate in a suit, a bunch of flowers in his hands, and a shit-eating grin on his face.

  My eyes widened, taking him in. Holy hell. I’d always thought he was hot in Wranglers and T-shirts and beat-up old baseball caps. But Nate in a suit was next-level drool-worthy.

  He held the flowers out in my direction. “Wanna go to prom with me, Hallie?”

  I burst out laughing. “That was you? You painted Frost’s bulls?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, so you’d better say yes, otherwise his yellin’ will all be for nothing.”

  I stepped in closer, running my fingers down the silky material of his lapels. “What prom are you asking me to, exactly? Last I checked, we weren’t in high school anymore.”

  “I know. But I wanted a do-over. So seriously, Hallie. Summer has a dress for you in her bedroom. Go do your hair and your makeup, or don’t. I don’t care. I just wanna take you to prom.”

  I pushed up onto my toes and kissed him quickly. “I’ve no idea what you’re doing.”

  “But you like it?”

  I gazed into his blue eyes. “Yeah, Nate. I like it.”

  Abandoning the painted bovines and leaving them for someone else to deal with, I found Summer in her bedroom in the main house. She pounced on me the minute I walked through the door, her fingers gripping my arm. “Did you say yes?”

  I shook her off before she did me permanent damage. “Of course.” I laughed. “Did you help him?”

  She nodded happily. “He found me on my lunch break and told me what he was planning. It’s been a bitch trying to keep my mouth shut all afternoon.”

  “Is that why you sent me down to t
he back paddocks?”

  She shrugged. “That, and the fact there really was a fence down. But who cares about that.” She shoved me in the direction of the bathroom. “Take a shower, then come choose a dress. I’ve got shoes, and jewelry, too.”

  Ten minutes later, I was wrapped in a fluffy white towel and staring at an array of dresses laid out over Summer’s bed. “Where did you even get all these?”

  Summer had gone to our prom, but I vividly remember it being under duress. She’d always been more comfortable in jeans, and so was I.

  “I have two sisters who both went to multiple proms, plus a mother who has spent her life going to WBRA events with my dad. We have an odd amount of fancy clothes for women who work on a bull riding ranch.”

  “Well, I’m grateful for it. I got rid of the dress I wore to the last prom Nate took me to.” I still kind of regretted that. But after everything had gone pear-shaped, I couldn’t bear to look at it hanging in my closet.

  “Did he tell you what he’s planned?” Summer thrust a green number at me and turned her back so I could get changed.

  “No. He told you?” I asked, quickly pulling on my outfit. “I’m done by the way. What do you think?”

  She spun around and let out an ear-piercing wolf whistle. “I think we should all have proms at twenty-two because you fill that dress out way better than I did at seventeen.”

  I grinned at her as I studied my reflection in the mirror. It was a simple style, very Summer in that respect, with spaghetti straps. It didn’t reveal a lot of cleavage, but it had a killer split up one side and showed off the definition in my leg. “I love it.”

  Summer’s gaze rolled over my body, and she made me do a spin for her. “How do you not have a panty line in that? It’s skintight.”