The Cowboy's Texas Heart (The Dixons of Legacy Ranch 3)

Her eyes met his, thick lashes, amber gaze that glittered golden and brown in the lights, shimmery lips from her gloss that made those plump pads of flesh look watery.

Falling. Falling.

He took her hands and jammed them back on his body where he wanted them. Palmed the small of her back. He suddenly didn’t want to two-step with a width of space between their bodies. He wanted to roll into her, raw and uncensored.

He slid his palms down her thighs as his lap undulated against her ass. Nuzzled her neck and littered love bites on her skin, relished her giggle that resonated against his chest as she reached up and dragged her fingers alongside his face, raked his hands into her hair, pulled her snug to him as he dipped his head and captured her lips and felt the room neatly, nicely, two-step around them, fading into a blur as he bumped his Stetson out of alignment. Tongues danced with tongues as he leaned over her. He pulled her snug against his burgeoning erection, needing the contact. He sank into the kiss that he didn’t care if people saw—

She pulled back, her hand now patting his pocket, just as he, too, felt a vibration. She slipped his phone out and held it up to him. He shook away the daze, noting her swollen lips and excited eyes—

Lust vanished. Ice water shock.

His heart plummeted to his gut. Dad brain kicked in. It was suddenly too damn loud in here. He gripped Heart’s hand and on a hard swallow, pulled her from the dance floor, out the side door, into the crickets as dull sounds of the music buffered through the slat board walls near the train tracks.

He swiped the answer button, steeling his nerves to hear whatever news was coming at 10:15 on a Friday night.

“Tyler Dixon,” he said.

“Hi, Mr. Dixon,” Mandy’s chipper voice sung in his ear.

Heart looked at him with a furrowed brow. He inhaled hard. Exhaled hard.

“I’m so sorry. Seth was caught sneaking through the computer lab window tonight, looking through some questionable websites that triggered the camp’s IT security.”

“What kinda websites?” Tyler nearly growled, his mind running wild with possibilities. Was his kid looking up drugs? Or weapons?

“Um, he was looking at, uh, women,” Mandy said with an uncomfortable laugh.

What the hell did she mean by something so vague, yet ominous?

“Like porn?” Tyler grunted out. Heart’s eyes widened on him. He finally succumbed to raising his eyes heavenward at the sheer absurdity, slouching his hand on his hip, chewing his cheek. Leave it to Seth to choose right now to get curious about the opposite sex. This was, of course, shit timing, but it’s not like it was all that strange for boys his age to look that stuff up.

Mandy made another uncomfortable laugh at his blunt words. “Not exactly. Just, scantily clad models on some European website. I’m afraid he’s hit his three warnings tonight. You’re going to need to come get him. He’s in the lodge, whenever you can get here.”

Tyler mulled over that answer, ready to dismiss it, except something nagged at him as he tapped off the phone. Maybe Seth’s motives were something else entirely, and a rock settled in his gut. Models on a European website? “I know her name… I remember what she looked like…”

Tyler scoured his face. “I gotta go get Seth,” he bit out, jaw so tight it might crack.

“Yes. Go. You have to.”

“I’ll take you home—”

Heart was shaking her head. “Don’t worry about it. Charlie and T.R. can take me. But, do you want me, to, uh…book a hotel?”

He squeezed her hand, eyes bouncing back and forth between hers, took a deep breath, and took a leap of faith, leaning in to kiss her. “No. You’re where you belong. But you’re about to get a crash course in my family.”

She smiled up at him, cupping his cheek and running her thumb over it fondly. “We’ll make it work. Just take off and worry about him, okay?”

The centerline stretched down the back-country highway like a ribbon in front of him, as the minutes ticked into hours, until he drove down the tree-lined drive to the camp lodge just after one in the morning. Seth wanted answers. Had Seth found his mother? It had already been a long night. And it wasn’t over yet.