Page 66 of Reins

Shock rolls through me. “That’s crazy! I’ll tell them you were here with me the whole time!” Panic makes my pitch elevate into a shrill squeak.

“Ros, it’s okay.” He drops his hand to rest on my knee. “There’s nothing we can do about it. I’m not going over there today, that’s for damn sure.” Rolling his wrist, he squints at his watch. “It’s four in the morning. Go get some rest, I’m going to go down and talk to Pete about taking care of the horses for us.”

“What? Why? Are we leaving today?” I’m hesitant to get up.

It would mean I’d have to pull away from him.

“Not today, but soon. We’ll go to Helena and get all of your stuff taken care of. I just—” His chest twitches as he fights another heave. “—I can’t stay here now. I need to get away. You can stay or come with me, I ain’t gonna force you. Pete will make sure you’re taken care of.”

“I-I don’t know him.” My fingers curl over his forearm where it rests on my lap. With my thumb, I trace one of the small lines indelibly marking his skin. “I trust you more than anyone else.” I bite back the begging that quivers on the tip of my tongue. “So if you want me to stay here with Pete, I will.”

When his hand stills and his narrowed eyes reappear, I know I messed up.

“Rosalyn,” he growls. “Just tell me what the fuck you want to do. Own it, remember?” He raises his arm to point at my chest. “Choose for yourself, not for what anyone else picks for you.”

I guess no matter what I’m screwing up, I might as well be honest. “Then I pick you. I don’t want to stay anywhere near my brothers. I want to go wherever you go and…and…” I focus on the tiny hairs on his arm between the scars, smoothing them down with a light caress. “I like being able to touch you.” Tears blur my vision when I finally look back up. “I don’t remember the last time I had any contact with another person.” Biting my lip brings the tang of blood when I break the scab. “I didn’t know how badly I missed it. You make me feel like a human…like for the first time someone actually wants me around.”

Droplets tickle down my cheeks, stinging when they hit the freshly re-opened split in my mouth.

With a groan, he pulls me back down against his chest, squeezing me so tightly it almost hurts.

I hope he never stops.

His jaw rests on the top of my head and his throat moves against my cheek as he talks. “I was hoping you didn’t want to stay but I’d respect the hell out of your decision.” His warm, rough palm moves onto my bare elbow and pauses. “I missed this too,” he whispers.

I stay there, glued to his chest listening to the steady beat of his heart until I’m startled back awake by his phone ringing on the coffee table.

“Yea?” His arm over me doesn’t move. “Yes I did.”

I can barely hear the tinny sound of a voice at the other end but not the words.

“Yes.” He repeats, then clicks his call off.

“Apparently my credit card thought me buying women’s panties was fraud and wanted to double check.” He shakes under me with a chuckle. “I guess to them it’s more plausible I got hacked.”

“Did I get you in trouble?” My mouth almost brushes the stubble over the pulse in his neck.

Circling me with one last squeeze, he then pats my shoulder gently. “They’ll just have to get used to it.”

Chapter 32 - Cade

She wants to be treated as a human. That sentence makes my guts roll that she’s never been afforded such a simple thing before.

It just reaffirms she’s stuck with me until she doesn’t want me around any longer.

Besides, I enjoy this just as much. It’s becoming a guilty pleasure to touch her.

I have to keep reminding myself that she’s been starved for any decency. That this won’t be anything more than a nurturing friendship, no matter how much my jeans protest.

She deserves to have at least one person in this entire world who doesn’t want to use her.

But there’s also a side of me that aches for any sense of distraction from the horrible realities of my family.

Mom and Dad are dead. I went over a decade without seeing them because of the same doubts that keep me away from the ranch even now.

They’ll blame me again for something I didn’t do.

Anger and frustration has me pulling Rosalyn even tighter until my fingers knot in her golden locks to press her against my heart.