She struggled to get a breath, the heat of his bare skin against hers canceling out every thought in her head.
He bent, nuzzling her throat, the brush of his mouth light and teasing. “Dad finally gave me the deed to the ranch and I . . .” He stopped. Raised his head and met her gaze, his blue eyes brilliant. “I quit my job.”
Mia drew in a breath, trying to resist the urge to lift her hips against the distracting hard ridge that was pressing between her thighs. “You quit?” she echoed stupidly.
“Yeah.” The look on his face was bright with excitement and anticipation, like a boy on his birthday morning. Except there was a heat underneath it all that was very much not boyish. “I mean, I like my job, but it’s never been what I really wanted to do. The ranch is where I’ve always wanted to be. I needed to get it put in my name first, though, and now it is. Now I don’t need to be in New York anymore.”
Something lurched in her gut and instinctively she pulled her hands from where they were crushed between them and put them on his shoulders, as if she was hanging onto him. As if she didn’t want to let him go. “Oh?” The word was husky and a bit shaky, and she hoped he didn’t notice.
But of course he did.
His smile deepened. “Don’t look so tragic, sweet thing. How do you feel about a vacation in Wyoming?”
The lurching thing in her gut lurched the other way, like the deck of a ship in a storm. He wanted her to go with him? He wasn’t going to just leave her here? Desperately, she tried to school her face, to not let anything of the little glow that began to flicker into life where only tightness had been before.
She didn’t like the thought of being here alone, not one bit.
“You want me to come with you?”
“Of course.” He lowered his head so his mouth brushed hers, the lightest kiss. “So what do you think? It’s very different there. Think blue sky and mountains and horses.”
She could hardly imagine it. New York was all she knew.
It doesn’t matter where you go. Especially not if it’s with him.
No, hang on. She couldn’t get ahead of herself. She had her own plans and they didn’t include a ranch in Wyoming. They were much more practical, much more basic. She needed those documents, then a place of her own.
Mia found herself stroking his shoulders unconsciously, loving the feel of his powerful muscles beneath the hot velvet of his skin. She paused her movements, trying to get more air in her lungs, the breathless feeling increasing. “I’m not sure, Xavier,” she said slowly. “What about my birth certificate? My social security number? You were going to help me get those. And then . . . my home.”
His smile was like the sun coming out on a cold winter’s day. “We can get them in Wyoming. I mean, people there generally seem to get theirs.”
He was teasing of course, but she didn’t feel like smiling. This wasn’t a joke to her. “And what about a home of my own? Not that I need you to get that for me but—”
“We’ll get you that too. Wherever you want to live. New York, Wyoming . . .” A curiously intent expression burned suddenly in his eyes. “As long as your home is with me, I don’t care where it is.”
With him? He wanted her home to be with him?
A feeling rose suddenly inside her like a bubble about to burst, pressing against the inside of her ribs, displacing her lungs, her heart . . . everything. She didn’t know what that feeling was. It hurt and yet at the same time it made her feel as if he’d handed her the entire universe on a plate.
“You want. . . . me?” Her voice sounded hoarse and shaky. “To live with you? Seriously?”
Xavier shifted, his hands moving to cup her face gently between her palms, his thumbs gently stroking along her cheekbones. The expression on his face made her throat tight and her eyes feel all prickly. “Yes, sweet thing. I want you. I want you to come with me. We can try it out in Wyoming and if you don’t like it, we’ll figure something else out.”
Once you do this, there’s no going back. You can’t just run out of the building and back to your alleyway.
No, and good things never lasted, did they?
His hands were warm, his touch making her shiver. “What about if you don’t want me around anymore? Where will I go?”
“Hey,” he murmured soothingly, his thumbs moving to trace her lower lip. “I will never not want you around, understand me? So that’s not even a question.”
He wanted her. He really wanted her.
She was afraid to let herself believe it and yet . . . God, she wanted to go to Wyoming with him. She wanted to see horses and mountains and blue skies, all the things that a couple of weeks ago she’d never even conceived of.