vibrated against her back as he tightened his arm around her midsection and nudged the gelding into a slow walk. “I promise you’re safe, sweetheart. I won’t let you fall.”
She knew he was talking about a fall from the horse, but what was going to keep her from falling for the man holding her so securely against him?
Fee quickly relegated the thought to the back of her mind as Dakota carried them from the barn out into the night and she gazed up at the sky. Billions of stars created a twinkling canopy above and the moon cast an ethereal glow over the rugged landscape.
“This is gorgeous, Chance.” She shook her head. “I’ve never seen so many stars in the night sky before.”
“That’s because of smog and too many lights in the city to see them all,” he answered, his voice low and intimate. He tightened his arms around her. “Are you chilly?”
She could lie and tell him that she was, but she suspected that he already knew her tiny shiver was caused by their close proximity. “Not really,” she admitted, leaning her head back against his shoulder. “It’s just that something this vast and beautiful is humbling.”
They rode along in silence for some time before she felt the evidence of his reaction to being this close to her against her backside. So overwhelmed by the splendor of the night, she hadn’t paid attention to the fact that her bottom was nestled tightly between his thighs. But it wasn’t his arousal that surprised her as much as her reaction to it. Knowing that he desired her caused an answering warmth to spread throughout her body and an empty ache to settle in the most feminine part of her.
“Chance?”
“Don’t freak out,” he whispered, stopping Dakota. “I’m not going to deny that I want you. You’re a desirable woman and I’m like any other man—I have needs. But nothing is going to happen unless it’s what you want, too, sweetheart.”
Before she could find her voice, Chance released his hold on her and slid off the horse to his feet. He immediately reached up to help her down, then wrapping his arms around her, gave her a kiss that caused her toes to curl inside her boots before he set her away from him.
Disappointed that the kiss had been so brief, she tried to distract herself by looking around. Something shiny caught her attention and taking a few steps closer, she realized it was the moon reflecting off of a small pool of water. Surrounded on three sides by cottonwood trees, she could see wisps of mist rising from its surface and the faint sound of running water.
“Is that a natural spring?” she asked.
“It’s actually considered a thermal spring even though the temperature never gets over about seventy-five degrees,” Chance said, walking over to stand beside her. “I used to go swimming in it when I was a kid.”
“It’s that deep?” she asked, intrigued. Even with just the light from the moon, she could see a shadowy image of the bottom of the pool.
“It’s only about four feet deep over by the outlet where it runs down to the river.” He laughed. “But to a ten-year-old kid that’s deep enough to get in and splash around.”
Fee smiled as she thought of Chance playing in the water as a child. “I’m sure you had a lot of fun. I used to love going to the beach when I was young, and my grandmother’s house had a swimming pool.”
“We always had a pool up at the main house,” he said, nodding. “But it’s not as much fun as this. Have you ever been skinny-dipping?” he asked.
“No.” She laughed. “Besides not really having the nerve to do it, I would have hated causing Mr. Harris next door to have a coronary, or scandalizing his wife to the point where she refused to go to the senior center with my grandmother to play bingo.”
He gave her a wicked grin and reached down to pull off his boots and socks. “I will if you will.”
“Skinny-dip? Here? Now?” She shook her head. “Have you lost your mind? Aren’t you worried someone will see you?”
He tugged his shirt from his jeans and with one smooth motion released all of the snap closures. “Sweetheart, it’s just you, me and Dakota out here. And since he’s a gelding, all he’s interested in is grass.”
She glanced over at the horse. “What if he runs away and leaves us stranded out here?”
“He’s trained to ground tie.” He reached to unbuckle his belt and release the button at the top of his jeans. “As long as the ends of the reins are dragging the ground, he’ll stay close.” His grin widened. “Are you going to join me?”
“I don’t think so.” She wasn’t a prude, but she wasn’t sure she was ready to abandon years of her grandmother’s lectures on modesty, either.
“Now who isn’t being adventurous?” he teased.
“Trying a different flavor of ice cream is completely different than taking off all of your...” Her voice trailed off when Chance shrugged out of his shirt.
The man had the physique of a male model and she had firsthand knowledge of how hard and strong all those muscles were. She thought about how every time he helped her into his truck or lifted her onto one of the horses, he picked her up as if she weighed nothing.
Unable to look away when he unzipped his fly and shoved his jeans down his long muscular legs, Fee felt a lazy heat begin to flow through her veins. “I can’t believe you’re really going to do this.”
“Yup, I’m really going to do this,” he repeated as he stepped out of his jeans and tossed them on top of his shirt. When she continued to stare at him, he grinned as he hooked his thumbs into the waistband of his boxer briefs. “I’m not the least bit shy and don’t mind you watching one little bit, but unless you want to see me in my birthday suit, you might want to close your eyes now.”
“Oh!” She spun around. “Let me know when you’re in the water.”
“All clear,” he announced. When she turned back, Chance was standing up in the pool. The water barely covered his navel. “You really should join me. The water is the perfect temperature.”
“I can’t,” she said, shaking her head as she avoided looking below his bare chest. “It isn’t deep enough.”
“You know you want to,” he said, grinning.
She didn’t believe for a minute that he would keep his eyes averted as she was doing, but he was right about one thing. She was tempted to throw caution to the wind and go skinny-dipping for the first time in her life.
“I don’t have a towel to dry off with.” Her statement sounded lame even to her.
“We can dry off with my shirt,” he offered.
“And you promise not to look?” she asked, knowing that his answer and what he would actually do were probably two different things.
“Scout’s honor I won’t look while you undress and get into the water,” he said, raising his hand in a three-finger oath.
“Then close your eyes,” she said decisively as she reached to pull the tail of her T-shirt from her jeans.
When
