Page 19 of Oops I Fell For The Rancher Next Door

"I'm saying this wrong." He opens the box. Silver band with a thin line of turquoise through the center. Simple. Perfect. The color of the valley sky on a clear morning.

"I don't want a property line between us anymore. I don't want two separate cabins and a fence I keep finding excuses to cross. I want one life. With you. On this land."

"Are you asking me to marry you?"

"I'm asking you to be my wife, Shelby. I'm asking you to let me stop being your neighbor and start being your family."

The ring is warm from his pocket. He holds it out, not sliding it on, not assuming. Offering.

I take it. Slide it onto my finger myself.

"That a yes?" His voice is rough.

"That's a yes."

His mouth covers mine. Warm, certain, his hands pulling me against him. Coffee abandoned in the grass. His body solid against every curve of mine, hip to chest, his arms locking behind my back. He lifts me off the ground. My legs wrap around his waist. He carries me across the open grass, no fence, no boundary, straight toward my cabin because it's closer.

Through the front door. Down the hallway. My back hits the mattress with his weight over me. His mouth moves to my neck, my collarbone. My shirt comes up. His follows. Bare chest against bare skin. The heat of him everywhere.

"Been thinking about this since five this morning," he says against my throat. "You were asleep and your shirt rode up and I spent twenty minutes not waking you."

"You should've woken me."

"I'll remember that." His hand slides down my stomach. Unbuttons my jeans. Pulls them down with my underwear in one motion, mouth dragging along my hip as the fabric clears.

He kneels at the edge of the bed. Pulls me to him by the thighs. Buries his mouth between my legs.

Slow. Devoted. His tongue tracing my clit with the same patience he brings to everything, reading every response, adjusting pressure until my hips lift off the mattress. Two fingers push inside me, curving, and my hands grip the sheets so hard my knuckles whiten.

"Cade. God, right there."

He groans against me. The vibration sends a bolt of heat through my core. His free hand spreads flat on my belly, holding me open while he works. Licking, sucking, his fingers stroking that spot that makes my thighs shake.

The orgasm builds fast and breaks hard. My whole body arching, his name spilling out of me in a voice I don't recognize. He doesn't stop. Works me through it until I'm gasping, pulling at his hair, oversensitive.

He kisses my inner thigh. Stands. Strips the rest of the way, his cock thick and hard. Reaches for the nightstand. Condom on in three seconds.

"Come here." My voice is wrecked.

He covers me. Braces on one forearm. Guides himself in with his other hand, slow, steady, my body stretching around him. Both of us exhale when he bottoms out.

"Look at me," he says.

My eyes find his. Gold flecked with dark, pupils blown wide. His jaw is tight. His arms are shaking. This man who carries two hundred pounds of feed without breaking a sweat is shaking because he's inside me.

He rolls his hips. Deep, grinding strokes that press his pubic bone against my clit with every thrust. My legs wrap around him. My nails drag down his back. The headboard taps the wall and neither of us cares because the nearest neighbor is a herd of Angus and they don't gossip.

"Harder."

He drives in faster. His hand hooks under my knee, pushing my leg higher, changing the angle. Deeper. Fuller. I cry out and he catches it with his mouth, kissing me while he fucks me, swallowing every sound.

My hand reaches between us. Fingers on my clit, circling fast. His eyes drop to watch, and his hips stutter before he locks back into rhythm.

"Come on my cock, Shelby. Let me feel it."

The words push me over. I shatter around him, clenching hard, his name caught in my teeth. He follows three thrusts later, burying deep, forehead pressed to mine, a low sound pulled from his chest.

We lie tangled. His weight half on me, half on the mattress. My fingers tracing the muscles of his back where my nails left marks. His mouth pressed to my shoulder. Both of us breathing hard.