Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 64880 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64880 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
So when he saw her head upstream along the rocky creek bed with her scavenger hunt sheet, he gave her a few minutes’ head start before following after her. The stones beside the bank were smooth and slick and made for slow going. Pike nearly slipped twice before he caught up to Tulsi just as she tossed her hat and boots onto the bank and waded barefoot into the stream. He watched as she cupped the clear water in her hands and splashed it onto her face and neck before standing and lifting her hair as the water streamed down her throat.
Pike’s mouth went dry and his blood pumped faster, his body responding to the sensuality of the moment even before Tulsi lifted her face to the sunlight filtering through the trees and let out a sigh so sexy he felt it like a physical caress. That sigh affected him the way Tulsi’s touch always had. He could still remember the first time she’d stripped off his shirt while they were kissing, the way she’d explored his bare skin, her fingertips whispering over every dip and hollow, branding him with her touch before she pressed a kiss to the center of his chest and pronounced him the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen.
That’s what she’d always called him—beautiful—but he’d never asked her to choose a manlier adjective. He knew why she’d chosen beautiful. What they’d had was too special for words like sexy or handsome. With Tulsi, it had always been about more than getting off. Her touch was a blessing that healed every hurt and there was nothing finer than the moment they came together, when he slid inside her and was surrounded by her sweetness, her love, and her good, good heart.
Almost every woman he’d slept with before or since had been more experienced, but none of them had rocked his world the way Tulsi had. Being with her was being naked in every sense of the word. Her body drove him crazy, but it was her vulnerability, the way he could look into her eyes and see a love big enough to save the world, that shattered him. Shattered him and then put him back together again, making him something better than he’d been before. He had been his best version of himself when he was with her, and a part of him had been chasing the perfection he’d found in her arms ever since. But no amount of fame or beauty or accomplishment on the part of the women he’d dated could make them live up to Tulsi. For him, she was in a class by herself.
He supposed some people got a second chance at love, but he had a feeling his one shot at forever was standing in the water a dozen feet away, humming beneath her breath as the sun caught her honey-colored hair and made it shine like a halo.
“You look beautiful,” he said, not regretting the words even though he hadn’t consciously decided to say them. But it was time to stop letting the past define the present. He didn’t want to walk away from this woman and he was sick of pretending he didn’t want Tulsi in his arms more than he wanted his stupid knee to heal.
Tulsi turned with a soft intake of breath. She didn’t speak, but she didn’t tell him to get lost, either, and he decided to take that as a good sign.
“I’m sorry I was an ass Monday,” he said, walking into the water.
“You’re going to ruin your boots,” she said when he stopped in front of her, close enough to catch the heady scent of her sun-warmed skin mixed with the musky-sweet smell of horse, a scent that brought back a hundred sense memories. When they were together, they’d spent every second they weren’t in bed on a horse. He still couldn’t smell a warm barn without thinking of Tulsi, at least for a moment.
“I don’t care,” he said, his voice rough. “The way I treated you was wrong. You deserve better.”
She crossed her arms, her cautious gaze shifting from his face to his chest and back again. “What do you want, Pike? Why did you follow me?”
“I heard you were breaking horses for your dad,” he said, because it was the truth and because he needed to buy himself time to figure out how to say all the other things racing through his head. “Sawyer told me you were thrown and hurt your hip, but it could have been a lot worse. You could have died, Tuls, and your life is worth a lot more than the few hundred dollars a month you’re clearing saddle-breaking those animals.”
“I appreciate the concern, but what I do to make a living is none of your business.” She frowned, but her mouth remained soft, making him think she wasn’t really mad. At least not yet. “Is that all?”