Page 15 of Branded Mine

He didn’t give me any indication he wanted more than just to be beside me.

But I needed more.

I leaned in, and there was no hesitation. His hand came up to cup the side of my face, his thumb brushing away a tear, and my mouth met his.

The kiss was slow at first, almost careful. I knew Ryder was giving me every chance to pull away.

But I didn’t.

I wanted more and curled my fingers into his shirt.

The kiss deepened with all the years of distance, emotional vulnerability, and quiet longing neither of us had ever named. We didn’t rush. There was no frantic tearing of clothes or desperate hunger. It was just the warmth of his body against mine, the steady beat of his heart under my palm, and the quiet way he held me like I was someone worth protecting.

In that moment, we were both emotionally exposed, raw and real, and for the first time, I felt truly seen.

When we finally pulled apart, we stayed close, our foreheads resting together, breathing the same air. Neither of us spoke for a long time because there was no need.

For now, this was enough.

8

Iwoke the next morning with the memory of Ryder’s mouth still pressed against mine.

For a few quiet seconds, I remained beneath the covers and stared at the pale ceiling while everything from the night before came back in pieces.

Childhood drawings, my mother’s ruined photographs, and the grief I had carried for so long finally breaking open.

In my mind, I saw Ryder sitting beside me without asking questions or trying to make the hurt smaller than it was. Then I kissed him.

I could still feel the rough scrape of his thumb against my cheek and the careful way he had held my face, as if I were something fragile even though he knew I had survived far worse than a broken heart. The kiss hadn’t been frantic and messy. It had been slow and deep, filled with all the things neither of us knew how to say.

And I had been the one to start it.

That should have been the part bothering me most. Instead, I couldn't stop thinking about everything else. I had come back intending to sell the ranch… the one Ryder had spent yearsprotecting. I had kissed him knowing I would eventually leave, and somehow, that felt dangerously close to a betrayal.

The worst part was that I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to leave anymore.

That realization should have embarrassed me. Instead, warmth spread low through my stomach as I remembered the way Ryder had responded without hesitation, his control wrapped so tightly around him I could almost feel the strain of it.

I rolled onto my side and pressed my face into the pillow, letting out a muffled groan. “What the hell am I doing?”

The empty room offered no answers.

At some point after the kiss, Ryder had helped me off the floor, cleaned up the scattered papers and photos, and set them in the dining room while I washed my face and tried to pull myself back together. And that whole time afterward, neither of us mentioned what had happened between us.

He stayed until the worst of the emotion passed then left with nothing more than a quiet good night and one long look that followed me upstairs.

Now, morning sunlight pushed around the edges of the curtains, and I found myself listening for the familiar sound of hammering. But all that greeted me was silence.

I lay there for another minute, waiting for the scrape of lumber across the porch or the rumble of Ryder’s truck speeding up the drive. For the last several mornings, he had appeared before I could rub the sleep out of my eyes, moving around the property as if tending to the Shaw Ranch had become part of his daily routine.

But the house was quiet.

I finally pushed the blankets aside and got dressed, pulling on old jeans and a faded shirt before twisting my hair into a loose knot. Downstairs, yesterday’s mess still covered half thedining room table. Boxes of loose papers sat beside stacks of photographs, and the county tax receipt lay right at the top.

I picked it up and stared at Ryder’s company name again. The amount still made my stomach tighten. He had paid thousands of dollars to keep the county from taking land that didn’t belong to him, and he had done it without telling anyone.

Without telling me.