Page 37 of Homebound

“Patterson.”

My eyes fly open. “What?” I ask in a voice garbled with sleep. “What happened?”

Dakota’s hunched over in front of me, shaking my shoulder, but she drops her hand when she sees I’m awake.

She’s so close I can see the faint scar on her forehead from when she banged her head from one brutal bull ride, and I sat with her for hours in the hospital waiting room. That’d been torture for me. On instinct, I reach out to stroke it, needing to feel her warmth beneath my touch. Her lips part for a moment.

“You fell asleep,” she says, backing away from my touch.

I rub my eyes with both hands. Wait. Two hands? I stare down at my hands, and that’s when I realize Vienna’s not in my arms.

I whip my head around the barn, searching for her. “Where’s Vi?”

“Don’t worry. She’s snoozin’ in her new bed. I set it up in your bedroom with the baby monitor and even hooked it up to your phone. Your password is still my birthday? Why? You really need to change that. I didn’t go through any of your sexy messages though, don’t worry.”

“That’d be hard to do, considering I don’t have any sexy messages,” I blurt out, embarrassed she caught the birthday thing. I always say the stupidest shit around this woman.

She arcs a brow. “You sound like you want to have sexy messages.”

“Oh, uh, no,” I stammer. “It’s fine. That’s what porn’s for.”

Fuck me.

I wish I could take those words back, but they’re out there now.

“That’s what porn’s for?” she repeats like I admitted to being a world-renowned serial killer.

I clear my throat. Then, I clear it again for no good reason. “No, obviously, I don’t watch porn. I mean, I have watched porn, but a below-average amount for a man… It’s like a treat.”

Christ, Patterson. It’s like a treat?

I blame the lack of sleep for that one.

“So, you’re a porn-for-dessert kind of man then, huh?” She stifles a laugh.

I stifle a groan. “Occasionally.”

She lifts her fist to her mouth, biting her knuckles as she tries to contain her throaty chuckles. “Patterson?”

I pinch the bridge of my nose, trying to erase this moment from my memory. “What?”

She cocks her head, lips lifting so one dimple flickers in a tease, and that right there makes the embarrassment worth it. “Want me to leave you some sexy messages so you can cut back on the porn treats?” Another flush of heat rushes to my face at the idea, and Dakota chuckles, raspy, rich… sexy. “Goodness, look at your face. I’m only teasing you. No need to get all flustered, summer boy.”

That only makes the fire prickle higher, and now I’m grateful I haven’t shaved because at least my scruff provides some needed coverage.

“It’s just hot in here,” I mutter lamely. “Can we stop talking about porn? All it does is remind me that I haven’t had sex since Vi’s mom, so I’d probably screw a horse at this point.”

As soon as those words are out, we both cringe. Great. It just keeps getting worse.

“You’d…” Her lips are caught somewhere between a grimace and a full-blown chortle. “What?”

Blood boils in my face. “No, that’s not…” I mutter a curse, giving my head another hard jerk. I need to pull my shit together. “That’s not what I meant. Obviously, I’m not into animals.”

“Obviously,” she laughs.

“Obviously,” I nearly growl.

She jerks back, seeming a little caught off guard by my low tone. “Sorry, that wasn’t funny,” she coughs out.