He thrust into me, filling me completely with his final, deep grunt rumbling in his chest.
We melted together, my loose muscles relaxing onto the blanket while Pete’s relaxed on me, his entire body going slack. We caught our breath, chests moving against each other, racing hearts slowing to natural more rhythms.
He rolled off of me, dislodging himself. I moaned again, satisfied, and let my legs slide down onto the blanket. I stared up at the stars, the gentle breeze licking the sweat from my body.
He turned to press a kiss to my cheek. “I’ve never had this much fun up here.”
I giggled, still a little breathless. I smoothed my dress over my hips and legs. “It’s been over a year since I was with someone.”
He nuzzled my neck, the tip of his straight nose rubbing my over my skin. “You can stay the night tonight. There’s room in my bed for two.”
“I can’t,” I said, the words rushing out before I could think better of them. “I have to get back home.”
His lips moved over my neck to respond, the words hot and moist. “Are you sure?”
I wasn’t, actually, but I’d said it — and I was stubborn. “I should go home. Thank you for dinner. And dessert.”
He lifted his head, and we kissed again, slowly and sweetly. His soft lips and tongue in my mouth were stirring up those warm, prickly feelings between my legs.
We dressed and went down the ladder. As soon as my feet hit the floor of the barn, I regretted coming down from the roof. But I let Pete walk me to my car. I kissed him again, on my tiptoes. Then I climbed into my car and drove away.
Chapter Nineteen
Pete
Monday
Early morning found me on the porch, waiting for Emma to arrive. Lacey got there first, which didn’t happen often. She walked over to join me on the porch, her cowboy low on her head.
“Morning,” she grumbled. She got up early in order to put in a full day’s work, but she’d never been a morning person.
“Howdy, Lace.”
She sank into her seat. “You and Emma seem to be getting along well.”
She didn’t waste time getting around to what was on her mind if she had something to tell you. It was one of the best things about her. And, one of the worst.
“I reckon we are.” I couldn’t have been happier with the way things had gone over the last two weeks. Emma and I had gone to breakfast every morning, always sitting with the old timers and playing the numbers game. We went out a few nights a week, too. She wouldn’t come inside on work nights, but that didn’t stop me from kissing her as deeply as I could before she drove off in the direction of her little house a few miles away.
“I like seeing you happy like this,” Lacey said. “Even if it does mean putting up with you grinning like a moron all day every day.”
I chuckled at that, grinning like the moron she’d just called me.
“Has Emma brought me up much?”
I looked over at her. The sun wasn’t due to come up for a good hour, but there was enough light to see how serious she was, her brown eyes fixed on my blue ones and lips pressed nearly flat. She’d taken her hat off and set it on the floor next to old Riley. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a tight braid to keep it out of her face.
“She mentions how easy the two of you work together, if that’s what you mean,” I said.
“It isn’t.” She narrowed her eyes the way she did when I got to acting thick. “Has she brought up how strange it is that I’m always around?”
I frowned, my eyebrows trying hard to meet each other above my nose. “What?”
“Goddamn it, Pete,” she said, exasperated. “Has she questioned why we’re so close to each other?”
“Why would she do that?”
Lacey’s face tightened, and she looked even more disappointed in me. “She will at some point. It’ll become an issue.”