Stud in Texas (Rugged and Risque 4)

“You could make a girl forget her own name,” she said. “With just a kiss.”

No one was around—she surmised they were all working in the corrals—so he went for another kiss. A long, slow, deep, hot, wet one this time.

Sky wrapped her arms around his neck and tangled her fingers in his hair. Sam held her tightly, their bodies pressed together. Nothing had ever felt so right. She could have stayed in his embrace all morning. Well into the afternoon, truth be told.

But the clearing of a throat made her tear her mouth from Sam’s. He groaned and shifted his gaze to the intruder—a smiling Caleb.

“Sorry,” the vet said, “but I do have to make my rounds. Y’all can keep at it…though it sort of helps for me to hear the horses’ progress reports direct from Sam.”

Sky untangled herself from the hunky cowboy and said, “Think I’m needed elsewhere, anyway.”

One corner of Sam’s mouth lifted in a casual grin. “Don’t go wandering too far. Have dinner with us tonight.”

“Okay.” Really, how could she resist?

Caleb said, “You realize I’ll never hear the end of how Reese set you two up, right?”

Sky laughed. With extra pep in her step, she headed out, but stopped along the way to give Caleb a friendly peck on the cheek.

“What’s that for?” he asked.

“Just ’cause.” She sashayed her way out of the stable and to the inn, thinking she’d finally found a place where she belonged. If only she could keep the trouble of Mac Willet at bay, far away from the utopia she’d discovered.

* * * * *

Sam couldn’t stop grinning, and his brother seemed to find it amusing.

They walked over to the first stall and Caleb consulted the horse’s medical chart, though he kept stealing glances at Sam, one of his brows crooked.

Caleb dropped the chart back into its slot outside the stall and asked, “Did you get laid last night?”

Sam shook his head. “Nope. Just a very hot make-out session. The repeat of which I would have enjoyed moments ago, had you not interrupted.”

With a snicker, Caleb said, “You do have a cottage not far from here.”

“We’re not moving that quickly.”

“Could’ve fooled me.”

Caleb stepped into the stall and started the examination of the white Arabian they’d brought in the previous week.

Sam leaned against the entryway and asked, “Can we be serious for a minute?”

Glancing up, a shocked look on his face, Caleb said, “You know we can. The fact that you’re asking tells me you’ve got it pretty bad for this woman.”

“I do. Like, right off the bat. I saw her with Reese when she first arrived and everything inside me went haywire. Then she walked into the stable, taking an instant interest in the horses and… I don’t know. All I could think was…she just might be the one.”

His brother straightened from inspecting a hoof and said, “You never talk like that.”

With a shrug, Sam said, “Who have I been serious about? Other than Charlotte. And that was many years ago.”

“Huh.”

He went back to examining the Arabian, but Sam could tell his brother was contemplating the current situation.

Caleb checked all four hooves, the horse’s front legs and then his vitals. He stepped outside the stall to make notations on the chart, and then turned to Sam.

“You’re not usually one to talk about your feelings to som