“Linney?”
“Hmm?” I answer, rubbing my hands over him.
“How long do you need?”
“For what?” I lick my lips when I feel him grow harder, the length of him no match for the denim covering it.
“Baby.” He laughs.
I blink, looking from his chest to his face. “Don’t laugh at me, mister.”
“You loved me hard, Linney, then you still let me take you slow. My cock shouldn’t have anything left, but with you lookin’ at me like that it damn sure does. How about you answer me and I can get you home, in our bed, with my cock buried deep.”
I feel his words dance through my body, lighting a fire of need in their path, wetness dampening my panties.
“I forgot the question,” I tell him honestly, breathless for him.
“How much time,” he starts, pressing his mouth to mine quickly, lifting his head to smile down at me, “do you need to plan our weddin’?”
“None,” I hum, pressing myself closer and shifting my hands to glide over his skin until I’ve got a palm against each side of his neck and my face tipped up to look into his. “I don’t need any time, Clayton. I just need you.”
“Baby,” he responds thickly.
“I don’t want anything big, Clayton,” I say. “Your family, Lucy and Luke. That’s it, honey. I don’t want to wait weeks, months, years. We’ve both wasted too much time in our lives while we dealt with our ugly in order to find our beauty. I don’t need to continue to waste time now that it’s even more precious. I just want you. You and me and whatever blessings we find together.”
“You sure you don’t want somethin’ big?”
“Why, Clayton? You have your brother and sister, their families, and I have Lucy and Luke. There aren’t grandparents; my parents and yours didn’t have siblings. I don’t want the town turnin’ our weddin’ into somethin’ crazy because they’re just nosy. All we need is a small ceremony, our family together, and us.”
He drops his forehead to mine, smiling. “I like that, Linney.”
“I don’t want to wait,” I reiterate.
“Then don’t. I wouldn’t have asked you to be my wife if I wasn’t ready to make that happen. You aren’t the only one not wantin’ to wait, darlin’. I don’t want you lookin’ back and wishin’ you had some big weddin’ though either.”
“I would never.”
“Then, Caroline, don’t wait.”
“The whole town’s goin’ to think you knocked me up. They went crazy when news got out about us livin’ together, I can only imagine what they’ll think when they hear about us bein’ engaged.”
His eyes flash, something I don’t quite understand flickering there for only a second before vanishing. I feel his heart thundering against my chest as the silence continues. His throat bobbles when he swallows.
“Clayton?”
He clears his throat.
“I don’t want to rush you,” I finally say when it becomes clear he isn’t going to stop staring at me mutely. My words get his attention, but I keep going. “I’d marry you tomorrow, but I don’t want to rush you.”
“Tomorrow will still be longer than I care to wait.”
“What?”
“Caroline,” he breathes, “I’ve had that ring for damn near the whole time we’ve been together. I had you one night and it took everything inside of me to walk away. I might be a foolish man, but when I saw you at the girls’ baby shower, I knew I wasn’t strong enough to walk away a second time. Every single day since, I’ve been ready, and every day from this moment will feel like it’s not soon enough. Trust me when I say there isn’t a damn way to rush somethin’ that every second you don’t get it feels like a lifetime.”
“Oh,” I say lamely.
“Take the time you need to plan the weddin’ you want. Small, big, or in between. Just don’t take that much time, darlin’.”
“I won’t,” I mutter.
“That’s good, Linney. That’s damn good.”
He lets me go with a short kiss. Silently, we finish cleaning up and stacking the things he’ll pick up later on top of the table. I take one last look at the land around us and feel lighter than I’ve ever felt in my life. His words from earlier return and I can almost see our future kids running around the green grass. One day, one day that’s going to be ours, and I can’t hardly wait for it.
The ride back to the ranch is a lot easier—Onyx proved himself to be trustworthy already. I imagine it will take some time for me to get over my fears, but I no longer look at Onyx as part of that. He’s been patient with me and I know, deep down, that Clayton was right when he said there’s a bond between the dark beauty and me. During the time I’ll have to wait to reopen The Sequel, I hope to learn more from Clayton when it comes to riding. A horse as perfect as Onyx deserves that.