Her Cowboy Lover (Pleasure Ridge Ranch) (8 page)

In that moment, she fell in love with him. Hopelessly, irrevocably in love, no matter how that didn’t make any sense whatsoever.

She closed her eyes as tears pooled and spilled out the corners.

"Hey now, don’t cry," Connor said as he wiped away her tears.

She opened her eyes and noticed the look of honest concern on his face. "You mean that? It’s not just because I’m paying you?"

A flash of hurt or anger or maybe both swept across his eyes. "I could give you every scent of your money back, and I’d say it to you again, however often you needed to hear it until you believed it."

The way he said it almost made her believe they could have a future together beyond these few days, ones that were flying by much too quickly.

"You have no idea how much that means to me. How weird to find someone who doesn’t know who I am."

"I know who you are, Lily. It just isn’t that person they plastered all over the news because they knew it would get them viewers. You’re the woman in front of me, beautiful inside and out."

She smiled while she lifted her hand and placed it against his cheek. "You’re not so hard to look at yourself, Connor..."

"Langston."

She rubbed the pad of her thumb over his cheek. "Langston. Sounds like a good rodeo cowboy name."

His eyes dimmed. "I’m not a rodeo cowboy anymore."

She gave him a mischievous grin. "Seems to me you still ride pretty well."

He snorted. "Is that right?"

"Question is, are you only a nocturnal rider?"

He lifted a dark eyebrow. "That sounded like a challenge, Miss Gibson."

She shrugged. "Take it how you like."

With a growl, he pinned her hands above her head and lowered his mouth toward hers. "Hope you weren’t planning on going anywhere today."

* * * *

Over the next couple of days, they spent almost every moment together other than one trip home for him to get more clothes and to check on his mother. Connor felt more alive than he had since before that horrible night when the bull had ended his career. He and Lily spent a lot of time in bed — well, really, quite a few surfaces — having mind-blowing sex.

But that wasn’t all. They took walks on the trails. They played board games he hadn’t played since he was a boy. He marveled at her talent as he watched her paint, then again when he tasted the meal she insisted on making for him. To make her feel better about her scar, he showed her all of his. He told her the stories that went with each one, including the granddaddy of them all — the one that ran nearly the length of his right calf, where Fire Breather had crushed his leg.

And now, they were making their way up one of the trails astride a horse, Lily’s first time on horseback. It felt so right, his arms around her as they swayed with the movements of the horse’s gait. He had something to tell her, and it was all he could do to wait until they reached the top of the trail, the point at which you could see for miles and miles out across the Sierra Nevada.

When they rounded the final curve before the lookout point, Lily gasped. "Oh, Connor. It’s breathtaking."

He slid off the mare’s back then helped Lily down to her feet. They walked hand and hand toward the edge of the cliff. "I thought you would like it."

"I do. Thank you so much for bringing me here." She shaded her eyes and looked out at the expanse of beauty before them.

All the beauty he wanted to look at was her. Sometime in the past week, his entire outlook on life had changed. And he had this beautiful, amazing, brave woman to thank for it.

"I wish I had my painting supplies. The view here was made to be painted."

"We can come up here again."

She glanced at him. "That would be nice, but I won’t have time before I go home."

He swallowed and rubbed his sweaty palms against the front of his jeans. "You could always stay longer, maybe find more inspiration for paintings."

She smiled. "I do okay with my paintings, but I’m afraid I can’t afford to stay at Pleasure Ridge for as long as I’d want to capture all the natural beauty here."

"You could stay somewhere else."

She met his eyes, a thousand questions in hers.

His heart rate kicked up a few notches. "I don’t want you to go, Lily." With a deep breath, he reached into his pocket for the package he hoped would show her how he felt better than any words he could ever cobble together.

* * * *

Lily’s heart was surely going to beat out of her chest. What was he reaching for? What did she want him to be reaching for?

It turned out to be an envelope, which Connor extended as he walked toward her.

"What’s this?"

He lifted the envelope toward her hand. "Open it."

Lily took the envelope and opened the flap. Inside were several cash bills. "I don’t understand."

"That’s equal to the portion of your stay here on the ranch that would have come to me."

She felt her forehead scrunching as she lifted her gaze to him.

"I don’t want what happened between us this week to be marred by the taint of my being paid," he said.

Lily lifted the envelope toward him. "But you need this for your mom."

He took another step toward her and gripped her shoulders gently. "I don’t." He smiled. "I got another job today."

"Today?" They’d been together all day, except... "The call you got when the horse was being saddled?"

He nodded, and the happiness in his eyes lifted her heart. "It’s a ranch foreman position only about half an hour from where I live."

"Connor, that’s wonderful." Already, she could tell such a big difference in him. That haunted look that she’d seen hiding in his eyes was gone. And truth be told, she wanted to be around to see what this new life brought him. What it might bring the both of them together. Down the road, it was possible they might not work out. But something inside her said that wasn’t true. That as absolutely insane as it might be, Connor was worth giving them a chance.

She stepped away from him and turned to look out across the vast vista stretching out toward the horizon. "You know, tomorrow is my birthday. This week was my birthday present to myself." She glanced toward Connor, saw a pinched look on his face, like he already knew she was going to leave. "But I’ve decided I’m going to give myself another present."

"What’s that?"

She turned to face Connor. "Us a chance."

Slowly, a smile tugged up the edges of Connor’s mouth. And then he rushed forward and lifted her into his arms, spinning her in a circle, causing her to laugh.

He finally returned her on her feet and smoothed her hair back behind her ear. "I love to hear you laugh. I’ll do my best to make sure you laugh often."

He left her without words, so she showed him how she felt by lifting onto her toes and kissing him. "My friends will be so jealous when I tell them that I got a cowboy lover for my birthday."

"What do you say we go back to the cabin and let me make sure I live up to that title?"

"I’d say that’s a very good idea."

* * * *

Thank you for purchasing this novella. I hope you enjoyed it. Watch for more Pleasure Ridge Ranch stories coming soon, and be sure to check out the first story of the series
, In the Cowboy’s Bed.

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www.avaflynnromance.com
for all the latest news on Ava Flynn titles.