CHAPTER TWO

I watch her step onto the porch. The moon is so bright tonight it almost feels like day. Everything glows midnight blue.

Her hips sway as she descends the steps. She’s in that little, blue printed sundress that makes my heart pound. It falls off her shoulder and the fabric is tight over her breasts. The soft swell of her cleavage spills over beautifully.

Her eyes dart up in a coy glance. She knows what she does to me.

My dick twitches in my pants. It’s Sunday night and I’ll make her pay for teasing me later.

I stand in the yard, waiting. She draws up beside me, her bare feet noiseless, and I take her by the throat to kiss her mouth.

God, she tastes like heaven. A little bit of sweetness still on her tongue. I lick it off and kiss up the side of her neck. Her head falls back, spilling brilliant red down her back.

She’s breathing heavily when I let her go. Her fingers dig into my arms.

“It’s Sunday night,” I say.

Her throat bobs and her lashes flutter down. Pink blossoms over her cheeks and cleavage. “I know.”

I pull her soft body against mine. My lips rest on her hair, breathing in that familiar scent. “Let’s take a ride first.”

“Where?”

“Anywhere,” I say. “It’s bright out, and cool for once.”

She nods and I use my head to push hers to the side, pressing my mouth to her throat. Her hand comes up, digging into my shirtfront. Between our bodies, fire crackles. She moans and rubs her hips against my thigh.

I’m hard, I want her again, but I can hold back.

For now.

I take her hand and lead the way to the barn. Shadow is still awake, his head hanging over the gate. On the other side, Angel is already asleep. The stall beside her houses Angel’s son, Starlight.

He wasn’t broken until a year ago. To my surprise, he was the easiest horse I’ve ever trained. He took to it like a fish to water. Within eight months, I felt comfortable letting Keira up on him.

“Angel’s asleep,” she whispers. “I don’t want to wake her.”

I smile. She’s so sweet with how deeply she cares for the animals.

“Take Starlight,” I say. “You can ride him bareback.”

She nods, tiptoeing around to open his door. I open Shadow’s stall and click my tongue and he walks out so I can slip his bridle on. Without the stirrups, Keira can’t get up on Starlight, so I help her mount up. Then I swing my leg over Shadow and we head out.

We ride quietly through the yard. I glance at her, soaking in the sight of my wife as she should be. Her soft, freckled thighs are bare, her skirt hitched up.

She’s free, beautiful, and mine.

I have never loved anything so deeply as I love this woman. It started small, like a controlled burn. Her heat and sweetness ate up all the dead parts of me, leaving me charred, but ready for new growth. Now she’s the most peaceful wildfire I’ve ever known.

“Do you want to run?” she asks.

“Starlight can’t keep up with Shadow,” I say.

She clicks her tongue and Starlight shifts into a trot, then a canter, and finally a smooth gallop. For a second like a picture burned into my brain. I see her hair whip as she looks over her shoulder, flashing a smile.

“Come get me,” she calls.

I shift my weight and Shadow thunders after her. Starlight is smaller, but he puts up a chase. Our horses tear over the field, making a wide circle to move through the place where the Garrison land once touched my ranch. We head down until we cross the road and enter the new plot I purchased after our marriage.

I’ve worked this land in the last six years. The grass is green now, the stream is dammed into a small pond. In the fall when the upper fields are dry, I’ll rotate most of the cattle through here.

She pulls to a halt and I do the same, dismounting. Shadow shakes his mane and wanders off to graze. He knows enough now to give us privacy. I reach up and she lets me grip her waist, her hands going to my shoulders as I lift her to the ground. Starlight makes himself scarce.

I take her in my arms and lay her out on the grass. On her back with her skirt falling up to flash her naked thighs. Our mouths meet, and every color of the sky and mountains and the valleys in between, flashes through my body. Like the northern lights lie on her tongue.

We break apart. I brush her hair back gently.

Her eyes glitter, deep blue made black by the moonlight.

“I want another baby,” she whispers.

Her words don’t surprise me. The other day when I got in from chores, I found her in Cash’s old nursery, folding blankets in the closet. All the baby things are already packed away. She didn’t have any reason to be there, but she was. When she heard me, she mumbled something about having lost something and hurried out.

I see the way she watches Cash grow up. Proud, but with a little ache like she might cry.

Bending, I press my lips to her forehead.

“You want a baby, redbird, let’s have one,” I tell her.

Her eyes light up. “Really?”

“Really.”

She bites her lip and then she smiles. It’s breathtaking and I’m lost in it.

“When?” she asks eagerly.

“Anytime.”

She laughs, like she’s excited and nervous all at once. Her lashes glitter wet. I trace the palm of my hand down between her breasts and rest it on her lower belly. Before Cash was born, I put that little wooden foal on her stomach and dreamed of what our lives could be with a child in them.

Now I know how good it is. Sometimes it’s hard, but, God, it’s so fucking good.

“What do you want?” she asks.

“Hmm, girl this time,” I say. “But whatever it is, that’s fine.”

She nods. “I’d like a little girl.”

I wonder what a daughter of mine would be like. Cash is a carbon copy of me and I know how to manage that. I’ll raise him to work the ranch and he’ll fit into my world like a puzzle piece. But I know being a woman is harder, it’s more dangerous. Keira is proof of that.

The notion that my daughter might suffer sparks an ugly rage in me. If she’s like Keira, she’ll be too sweet for this world.

For tonight, I tamp my worries down. First we’ll have joy, then we can navigate the rougher waters.

So I turn my mind off and kiss her because the world is quiet tonight.