you do that?” To her it seemed like the worst kind of torture for him to be close to something he wanted but would never be able to have.
“I guess. I can’t imagine being grounded permanently.”
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“Don’t be. I haven’t taken the medical yet.”
* * *
THE WATER HAD started to cool, but Ace didn’t want to let Molly go. Not yet. He stood up, lifting her with him and put her on her feet next to the tub.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m not ready to get out yet, but it’s getting cold,” he said.
He bent over to drain and then refill the tub. He felt her fingers tracing the last part of his tattoo, the word go. “You are very bold,” she said.
“Why?”
“Because you test your limits in space, for everyone’s benefit. You don’t let anything stand in your way, do you?”
“Not for the things I love,” he said, glancing over his shoulder at her.
She was gazing at his side, biting her lower lip, and her fingers were lightly moving over him. She looked...sad again. He had made it clear from the beginning that he had one foot in this world on the ranch and the other in his gravity boots, ready for the next mission, but that didn’t make it any easier for her, he imagined. He knew it wasn’t easy for him.
“You don’t love very much, do you?” she asked, glancing up, blushing when she realized he was watching her.
“No. I’m discerning. A bit like you, I’d say.”
She nodded, dropping her hand to walk over to the shelf where she kept the scented bath salts. He considered it lucky that he wasn’t going to Houston until tomorrow. Her salts and bubble bath were both lavender-scented. And while the smell was soothing, he didn’t even want to contemplate the ribbing he’d get from the other guys if he showed up smelling like flowers.
She dumped a small handful of the salts in the bath and then looked over at him.
“What?”
How could he put into words that just watching her move turned him on? The last five weeks had been long. Too long. He had dreamed of her each night and had then been tortured during the day as he’d watched her just going about her routine. There was something inherently sexy about everything she did.
He shrugged.
He didn’t want to say anything that would make the situation between them even more impossible than it already was.
He wanted her. He liked her. He wanted to protect her. But he was leaving. No matter what, he was going to find a way to go on the Cronus missions and if he let her get any closer, it would be harder to leave.
He flicked off the faucets as the water reached the correct level and then turned his back on her. Didn’t want to look into her eyes with that knowledge in his own.
He held his hand out to her and she took it hesitantly.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said. If he said it enough, maybe the words would eventually become true. Faking it. He’d been faking it for so long, trying to be like the men who had inspired him. Like Mick, here on the ranch—acting like there wasn’t anything he didn’t know. Like Dennis at the space center—pretending that nothing about the universe and the unknown scared him. And...well, like every image of the perfect lover, for her. He wanted to give her everything when inside he wasn’t sure he had that much to give.
“Kiss me,” he said. He needed to be lost in her. Lost in her kiss, which had the power to make him stop thinking and just feel alive and complete. He felt like he was enough when she was in his arms.
She stepped closer, pressing her naked body to his and wrapping her arms around his torso. Leaning back for a moment, she kissed the center of his chest then moved to the left, tracing his tattoo with her tongue. Then she looked up at him. Their eyes met and he realized he wasn’t fooling her.
The expression in her eyes seemed as ageless as the land the Bar T sat on and as vast as the universe he wanted to explore. Sometimes he honestly felt like everything he’d ever been searching for was found in her.
“You boldly go,” she said. “Don’t forget that, Ace. You came from the streets and made it to the stars. Nothing is going to keep you grounded. Not your bone-density problems, not this ranch and, I promise you, not me.”
He couldn’t speak as emotions grabbed him by the throat. He tangled his hands in her hair and brought his mouth down hard on hers. The kiss was intense and powerful. A punishment, because she saw too much of him. Saw too clearly what he didn’t want anyone to see. But there was no hiding from Molly.
Holy hell. When had she slipped past his guard? When had that happened?
Her fingernails dug into his side and she bit his tongue lightly, returning the fervor of the embrace.
He pulled his head back, looked down into her eyes and wished he hadn’t. The intensity in her gaze made him realize that she already cared more than was wise.
He wished for a minute that he was a different person. The kind who could see this health thing as a chance to change directions, but he wasn’t that man. He’d given his soul to NASA a long time ago and he realized that Molly was okay with that. She knew who he was and she expected him to break her heart.
That should be enough to make him leave the bathroom en suite right now. Get dressed, head to Houston and never come back. That kind of unconditional acceptance would have scared him before—it still sort of did—but what Molly couldn’t know was that he felt an equal draw to her. So instead he put his hands on that tiny waist of hers and lifted her off her feet.
He put her down in the deep tub that was filled with bubbles and smelled like summer. Like a summer that wouldn’t end but was flying by. It had been just over six weeks since he’d first arrived at the ranch; in six more weeks this would be over. He got in, too, and sat down, the water rising to his chest and sloshing over the sides as he cradled her in his arms. She kissed his arm lightly. He wanted her, wanted the sunshine of Molly and not just the vastness he’d always used to define who he was.
She shifted more, but he held her where she was. He wanted this time with her to last forever. This moment when everything was still possible. She was curled against him and, when she moved her legs, he felt her thigh brush his cock and his blood started to feel as if it were flowing more heavily in his veins.
In response, she turned around to straddle him. She watched him with those serious eyes of hers. And he realized that, though she’d said she was lost six weeks ago, she wasn’t anymore.
She had found her peace in the land around them. While he’d been running and planning, she’d found her strength.
She put her hands on his shoulders and twined her legs around his body, locking her ankles behind him.
“This is better. I can see you,”
