Page 59 of Promise Me a Forever Texas Love

Cadee had decided to give Huck a second chance, but she didn’t know if she was ready to relive that night . . . the night she conceived Camden . . . the night she lost her best friend.

“You don’t need to prove anything, Huck. Now put me down before you kill us both.”

“You need to trust me, Catydid. I’ve climbed these steps a mil—” His boot slipped off one of the two-by-fours attached to the trunk and she squealed. But he didn’t drop her. He held her firm as he grabbed onto a step above them and continued to climb.

When they reached the top, she prepared to feel all the feelings she’d felt that night. Her overwhelming grief for her daddy mixed with her overwhelming love for Huck. But Huck didn’t give her a chance to reminisce. Instead of setting her carefully on her feet, he tossed her onto the air mattress where she bounced around like a kid in a bouncy house until she settled in a sprawl of legs and arms with her dress up around her waist and her hair covering her face.

She pushed it out of the way to find Huck standing there grinning like a fool.

“So, Catydid, how do you like my stache now?”

She laughed as she realized that eight long years away from each other hadn’t changed anything. Huck could still make her laugh through her tears. He could still charm her out of her sadness. And her fears. Because as much as her heart was terrified of being broken again, it was no match for Huck’s dimpled smile.

She leaned up on her elbows and squinted at his mustache. “Hmm? I guess it’s okay.”

He ran his pointer finger and thumb over it, his eyes twinkling devilishly. “Well, then I’m just gonna have to try harder to get you to like it.” He slipped his western shirt off his broad shoulders and Cadee forgot to breathe.

She’d seen his bare chest while he’d been building the tree house, but only from a distance. Now, she had all the time in the world to look at the stacks upon stacks of muscles that belonged to Huck Hennessy. Knotted ones in his arms and two nipple-topped ones on his chest and rows of compact ones on either side of his stomach that flexed as he toed off his boots.

Huck was hot. Much hotter than he was as a teen. He now had a man’s body. Mature. Virile. Hard. He pushed down his jeans and underwear, revealing just how mature, virile, and hard he was.

The night they’d made love she’d been too scared and self-conscious about her own body to take a good look at Huck’s. Now, she understood why sex had hurt so much. It was more than a little surprising to realize her best friend had been carrying around something that impressive for all these years and she never had a clue.

“I hurt you that night, didn’t I?”

Her gaze snapped up to see Huck watching her intently.

“I hurt you that night . . . physically as well as emotionally.”

Her heart squeezed at the regret and pain in his eyes. “We were young, Huck. Neither one of us knew what we were doing.”

He shook his head. “Still, I should have been more careful, Cadee. I shouldn’t have let my needs come before yours. I’m going to make sure that doesn’t happen again.” He reached down and pulled up his boxer briefs.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m doing what I’ve been wanting to do for what feels like forever.”

She stared at him with confusion. “With your underwear on?”

His gaze wandered over her body. “I’m not going to lie. I want to make love to you again in a bad way. But that’s not what I’ve been dreaming about the most.”

He grabbed one of her boots and tugged it off before doing the same to the other. Then he picked up the quilt at the foot of the bed and, with a snap of his wrists, billowed it out over the mattress and Cadee. He crawled in next to her.

“Come here, Catydid.” He pulled her against his chest, tucked the blanket around them, and released a long satisfied sigh.

When long minutes passed without him trying to kiss her or remove her dress—with him just holding her close and resting his cheek on her head—she realized what he’d been dreaming about forever was holding her.

Tears filled her eyes and there were no words for the emotion that consumed her. Just like always, he read her so easily.

“No more tears, Catydid. Not when we’re exactly where we were meant to be.” He buried his nose in her hair and sighed again. “Together.”

How could she disagree with that?

She snuggled closer. “Together.”

She woke with desire rolling through her in thick, sumptuous waves. It took the canopy of leaves overhead with stars sparkling between them to figure out where she was and what caused those waves. She glanced down to see a head of chestnut brown hair nestled between her spread legs . . . with one wayward strand shooting up. She went to smooth it down but ended up gripping it in her fist when Huck sucked her clit into his hot, wet mouth, his mustache tickling the sensitive area above.

Her body begged for release from the sensuous fire he ignited, but she refused to give into his skilled mouth. The next time she reached orgasm, she wanted Huck with her.