Page 40 of Meant for You

“Like you’re any better,” Bull muttered back.

I stood there while Bull and Cal gave each other shit, smiling like a jackass.

Fuck, it was good to be home.

* * *

I rolled my bike to a stop by the barn at the ranch.

Dusk was an hour away, and the sky was streaked with oranges and pinks. Perfect time for a ride.

And to cross another thing off Eves’s list.

The sound of hooves against packed dirt had me turning around.

Jesus.

Everly was on the back of her horse, galloping across the field, auburn hair streaming out behind her, a huge smile on her face. She was an image of pure joy. The exhilaration she felt in that moment was impossible to miss.

Fuck, I wanted her.

All of her.

Her gaze finally found me, and my heart did this weird pause-then-explode-into-action thing.

Then it did it again, but for another reason. Instead of climbing off her horse and opening the gate, she fucking jumped it.

I lost ten years off my life in that moment, but Everly looked alive, eyes bright, that smile still there. Her laughter rang out as she slowed the horse to a walk and headed toward me.

I wanted to yank her down and tell her to never do that again, that I wasn’t okay with her risking her neck like that. I wasn’t that stupid, though, and neither was Everly. She knew what she was doing, knew how to ride and how far she could push her horse.

Instead, I focused on calming my breathing down as she got closer. Not just because she’d scared the shit out of me, but because she was so fucking beautiful she took my goddamn breath away. The old me wouldn’t have had the same restraint.

“You’re here early,” she said, jumping down from her horse.

“Am I?” I said, or more croaked.

“Let me just take off Aiko’s saddle and brush her down, then I can get changed.”

“I’ll do that,” Cassy said, walking out of the barn. “You go have fun.”

I wanted to hug the shit out of my sister-in-law right then because I was kind of desperate to get Everly on the back of my bike.

“Are you sure?” Eves said.

“Of course. Now get out of here.”

Cassy led Aiko away, and Eves tilted her head to her quarters. “Come on. You can wait while I grab a quick shower.”

“I can think of nothing I would rather do,” I said, grinning, already picturing her naked and wet and slippery. Shit.

She gave me a shove. “Smart-ass.”

We walked into her room, and my eyes slid to the bed all on their own, to the rumpled sheets. An image popped into my head of Eves lying there in that old thin tank top of mine and nothing else. Hard not to when it was currently lying on the covers where she’d obviously taken it off that morning, tormenting me.

She opened and shut drawers, getting stuff out, and I watched her trying to see if she was pissed at me or worried after seeing me and Tanner spar. Well, I was sparring. Tanner had been trying to take my head off. Prick.

The mystery was too much for me. “So you ran out of the gym kinda quick the other day.”