“Bossy little thing,” he murmured. Then he went silent, watching with wide eyes as she stuck one booted foot into the shortened stirrup and swung her opposite leg over the saddle—and his lap—to park that foot in the other stirrup.
She ended up in the saddle backward, facing him and straddling his lap. Bracing her hands on the wall, one on either side of his head, she leaned in to kiss him—small, teasing nips that drew groans of frustration and approval from Ty. Rolling her hips back and forth resulted in a delicious sexual tension as her sex rubbed over the underside of his shaft and drew even deeper sounds from him.
Kenzie deepened the kiss at the same time she managed to slide the tip of Ty’s arousal home, slowing sinking down his length until she took him all the way to the hilt.
Ty let his head fall back with a shout. He reached for her, but she slapped his hands away.
“Hands on the skirt or this stops. Now.”
He glared at her, dark eyes wild. “Don’t drag this out.”
“Impatient much?” she teased.
“Kenzie...”
She rose as high as she could without losing him, and leaving one hand on the wall and gripping his shoulder with the other, she took him in again. Moving with controlled grace, she rodehim hard, leaning forward to whisper in his ear all the things she’d dreamed of doing with him, to him and for him since they’d been apart. She was graphic.
He obviously didn’t mind.
She rode him harder as the wave of pleasure grew within her, taller and wider and so dense it blocked out all thought, all reason, all sensibility.
“Let me hear you, baby,” he ground out, clearly fighting to hold out as long as he could.
That wave of pleasure crested, hung suspended for the briefest second before crashing down and dragging her under. He was her point of reference, her anchor, her true north in all matters of the heart. She hated him for it as much as she loved him.
And love him she did.
He followed her into the abyss, seemingly willing to drown with her.
She buried her face in his neck and mouthed the one thing she most needed him to know and most needed to hear in return.I love you.
That she couldn’t say it aloud infuriated her. She was better than that.
Sitting up, she knew she had to tell him, even if for no other reason than he should hear it before they talked about where they’d gone wrong. He deserved the truth. She took a deep breath at the same time he reached out and ran two fingers down her throat and paused between her breasts.
He looked up, a sea of emotion churning in his gaze. “Kenzie, I... You need to know that I...”
She held her breath. If the Fates were fair in any way, he’d tell her first, would admit his heart was hers.
He glanced down, coughing to clear his throat. “I never thought this would be so hard.”
“Go on,” she encouraged.
He gave a short nod. “Sure.” When he looked at her, the depth of his emotions hadn’t changed, but the flavor had. “There are things I have to understand, questions only you can answer.”
She all but fell out of the saddle, fighting not to run for her clothes.
Her heart sang him a love song; his couldn’t even manage to hum the chorus in tune because he wasn’t interested. Answers meant far more to him than anything else.
That was when she knew she’d never get what she needed most from him.
Love.
TYLEANEDAGAINSTthe tack room wall, the rough wood of the planks snagging loose strands of hair as he sagged. It was cold in the little tack room, but it wasn’t totally miserable thanks to the small portable heater they ran in the heart of winter to keep things from shrinking. He tilted his head back and grinned into the darkness of the high ceiling. The heater had done its job for him, too.
No shrinkage here.
He loosed a soft chuff of laughter. Even though the words were issued internally, he found the testosterone-fueled pride in them funny.