“This place is beautiful. It’s romantic. You might get lucky and laid. Hey, I’m just trying to honor your sister’s request here.”

“My sister said you,” Colt said with a piercing look that sent shivers up my spine. “I’ll do whatever it takes to help, but sex is off the table with the other women.”

A small part of me danced at that. He only wanted to have sex with me. I stomped down on that victorious thought before I could let the excitement settle further. No men, Cheyenne. Just horses.

“Whatever you are comfortable with,” I managed to say, reaching for my water glass. “Thank you for doing all this for me. I can leave if you—”

“Cheyenne, stop it. If I didn’t want you here, I would tell you. Listen, I want you to stay.”

My heart raced when the pitch in Colt’s voice lowered. This was a bad idea, coming back here alone with the frail expectation that nothing would happen. I pushed my plate away, my appetite gone again, then rose from the table on wobbly legs.

“I—uh—”

Colt stood up as well. I wanted to believe it was a habit of his. Whenever I rose from the table, or a seated position, he stood up too. This time, however, I could see from the darkening color in his irises that he had every intention of coming around the kitchen table.

Run. Run.

“Cheyenne—” He took a step forward, one hand extended towards me. I was tempted to reach out, and feel those strong hands cradling mine again, but I knew what would happen. I knew that letting his hand touch mine would lead to more, and I just couldn’t allow that to happen.

“I have to go,” I said, backing away from the table. “I’m sorry, Colt. Coming here tonight, uh—it was a bad idea.”

I turned on my heel before he could say anything and darted up to the guest room. I had to get out before he convinced me to stay.

Chapter Ten

Colt

I could hear the sound of Cheyenne’s footsteps dashing up the staircase and into the safety of the guest room. Not that I blamed her for wanting to run. A sudden rush—an impulse—had come over me. It had all started with the way Cheyenne had looked at me with that feminine approval.

It took all of my restraint to avoid rushing up there to convince her to come back down. This wasn’t who I was, but I was bursting at the seams for this woman. I wanted her—badly. I didn’t know how much more I could possibly take with all this alone time. Tiffany would be in the hospital for another couple of days, and then she would have to stay near the hospital to do physical therapy.

We were going to be alone for almost a week. An entire damned week of wondering what it would be like to see Cheyenne without any clothes on whenever I heard her turn on the shower. My entire body was going to be blue by the end of this week. I could already feel it.

Grabbing a glass of water, I swallowed the icy liquid, trying to calm the fire within. It took a few minutes before I regained control over my body again, enough control to feel confident enough to go up the stairs and knock on the door of the guest bedroom.

“Cheyenne?” I called out, listening to her footsteps halt. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

“You didn’t make me uncomfortable, Colt. That’s the problem.”

“How is that a problem?”

Footsteps approached the door, but she didn’t open it. I leaned against the wood to hear her response.

“Because I told myself a long time ago that I couldn’t be with anyone,” she whispered, her voice trembling. “I don’t even know you, but you’re so kind and compassionate to help me out like this. I don’t want to lose that from you, or Tiffany.”

“You wouldn’t lose either one of us,” I said, frowning. “I know we don’t know each other, but if you give me the chance—”

“I don’t have the time, Colt. The sanctuary was burned down. I have to rebuild, even though I don’t want to. I want to go back to Portland, to be honest with you.”

I could hear the tears in her voice now. An indescribable panic filled my chest when I thought of Cheyenne leaving Green Point.

“You can’t run away from everything that goes wrong in your life,” I said, resting a hand on the door. “You know, I did that too when things went to shit here at the ranch. I wanted to run away when my parents were gone, to go back to the city and get back to my old life.”

Cheyenne was quiet for a moment.

“Why didn’t you?” Her voice was quiet, her emotions just under the surface.

“Because I wasn’t achieving a damn thing by running,” I said, resolutely. “I knew that the more I ran from everything here, the worse it would be when I had to come back. You can rebuild the barn, Cheyenne. You can keep the sanctuary going. I’ll help you do that dinner thing you talked about downstairs if that will keep you here.”

Tags: Claire Adams Romance
Source: readsnovelonline.net