Today I was the early bird, but I wasn’t looking for a worm. I needed an answer to this tension between Colton and me. The heat between us had been building since I got here. At first, it was the kind of heat that made me want to explode in anger, but somewhere in between, it turned into the heat that made me want to explode in ecstasy.

Bumps rose from my skin just thinking about his lips next to my ear. His sexual innuendos was the best type of foreplay.

I leaned against the wooden post of my porch and nibbled the edge of my Pop-Tart. In the distance, he appeared on his porch. Tugging on a jean jacket and a Stetson. No matter what he claimed to lasso, Colton was a cowboy through and through. He had the truck, the boots, the hat, and the attitude.

A blur of yellow jumped into the bed of the silver truck, and the engine roared to life. A thick black cloud spit from the tail pipe. Diesel made no sense to me. It always burped black smoke and yet it was supposed to be better for the environment. Some things defy explanation.

“Ready?” Colton rolled down the window and smiled with his eyes—eyes that could chill me with frost or heat me with fire. Today he was all about the heat.

I reached for my camera and skipped to the passenger side of the truck. “Morning.” Climbing inside the cab was like trekking up a mountain. I was height challenged, and the first step was the toughest. One powerful lunge and I flung myself into the truck headfirst into his lap.

“Easy darlin’.” He didn’t shift or help me up. He placed his hand on my back and rubbed it in soothing circles. This wasn’t right, but it felt right, and for a moment I turned my head toward his knees and rested my cheek on the worn denim of his jeans—jeans that smelled like fabric sheets and aftershave. “While you’re down there…” He shifted, and I could feel the outline of his growing arousal.

I popped my head up straight into the steering wheel. Hard enough to see stars, but not enough to keep me in his lap. “Shit.” The more I rubbed the knot forming on my head, the more it hurt. A blush of embarrassment heated my face. Ever since I met this man, I’d been a one-woman wrecking crew.

“You okay?” He pulled off my Dallas Cowboys cap and ran his hand over my scalp. His fingers caught in the beads of my extensions. “You’ll be feeling that for days.”

“I’m not this klutzy.” I sat up and pulled away from him, but mortification overtook me when I saw the clumped of hair left in his palm.

“You’re molting again.” He held up the chunk of hair and swung it like a pendulum in the air. “This happen often?”

“Never.” I yanked it from his hand and tucked it into my pocket. “I think it may be the hat or wearing a ponytail. This is so embarrassing.” I needed to get to the beauty shop pronto. “Tell me about Ten and Molly, they seem nice.”

Colton put the truck in gear, and we were on our way. “They’re great people. Ten owns an energy farm they call Thunder Hawk. It’s how I ended up investing in this land. There’s a lot potential for clean energy.”

“He said something about money troubles. Is your business okay?” It wasn’t any of my business, but I was curious. “Does this have anything to do with Cara?”

Colton’s whole demeanor changed at the mention of her name. The deep crater that furrowed his brows indicated things didn’t end well for them. “Leave Cara out of this.” The force of his voice rattled the windows.

“Sorry. None of my business.” I scooted next to the door and rested my head on the sun-warmed window.

When he spoke again, his words held warmth. “Nik, I’m sorry. It’s complicated.”

I turned in my seat as far as the belt would allow. “I’m not trying to pry into your relationship. I get complicated. It’s my surname.”

“How is your life complicated? From where I sit you seem to have it all.” He turned right and drove toward the massive turbines and solar panels that dotted the landscape.

“That’s because you’re sitting on your brain.” He stopped the truck, and I jumped out. A field of solar panels spread seemingly for miles. I grabbed my camera and walked between two rows of glass-like boxes leaving him behind. The solar panels seemed to suck the sun's rays straight from the sky. Refractions of light danced above the black glass.

I pulled my camera to my eye and took in the beauty of a single pane and the rainbow of light that billowed above. Looking only through the lens, I walked the length of one row as the shutter clicked at breakneck speed. A leaf. A bug. A Bird. Juxtaposed against the hard cold surface proved that invention and nature could mix seamlessly to create beauty.

“Nik.” His voice broke through my reverie, and I was no longer in my photographer’s world but back in my reality. Colton stood beside me, a look of confusion on his face. “I called you several times.”

His expression was soft. Not the hard man who barked at me minutes ago but the sexy man who whispered in my ear last night. This was the man I liked.

“Sorry. The camera has always had that effect on me. I look through the lens, and I’m lost.” I pushed the camera toward him and scrolled through the shots I’d taken.

“Amazing. Why don’t you do this for a living?” He took the camera in his hands and scrolled through at least fifty frames. His eyes lit up the same way mine did when I saw something worthwhile.

“My parents considered it a frivolous hobby.” I took my camera back and let it hang from my neck.

“I don’t get it. Your parents are in the film business, so why would photography be so low on their list?” He looped his arm in mine, and we walked toward the white spinning turbines. “What do you do for a living?”

I breathed in the scent of wildflowers and hot plastic. A giggle bubbled from my chest. “Up until last week, I looked at still photos for my parents. I was part of their promotional team. Now I have no idea. I came here to find myself.”

“Sounds complicated.” His comment wasn’t meant to be condescending. It wasn’t belittling. It wasn’t a way to toss our early argument back at me. It was an acknowledgment that he understood, and maybe we weren’t so different.

Nothing Colton did looked complicated. He chopped through firewood like a hot knife sliced through butter. He approached everything I’d seen so far with confidence. “What’s your story?”

He bent over and picked a long yellowed blade of grass that he stuck out of the corner of his mouth. “You got a week?”

“I’ll give you three months.”

“That should do it.” He adjusted his hat and continued to walk, his arm never left mine. Something told me this was a defining moment for our friendship.

“I’m a Becket. That might not mean anything to you, but it does to everyone living in Texas. My family is big oil, and I mean big oil.”

I looked around and didn’t see a pump jack in sight. I grabbed tighter to his arm and pulled him closer. “You and I might be more alike than different. Black sheep?”

He kicked at a rock in our path. “The blackest. My brothers played football. I played hockey. They rode horses. I rode dirt bikes. We both farm for energy. I do it differently. My father is not happy.”

“You don’t need him. Look at what you’ve done?” I lifted my cap and swept my hand in front of me. “All of this is yours.”

“Not really. I lease the land. Ten is a friend that introduced me to the Gages, who leased me the property with the agreement that I’d put a turbine on every acre. It’s a profit sharing venture. Cara and I entered this together, but she left.” So it came down to a failed relationship. Damn community property states.

“She left you and abandoned your furry kid.” I looked around for Bo and found him chasing a butterfly down the row. “Divorces are tough stuff.”

Colton dead stopped and twisted his head to the side. “Cara and I aren’t a thing.”

I mimicked his body language and cocked my head to the opposite angle of his. “But you said you missed her, and she left you.”

Colton laughed. “Yes, I do miss her. We’ve been together since birth. We shared everything including a womb.”

I choked on my laughter. “She’s your twin. Oh shit. In my mind, I had you hot, sweaty and naked with her.”

He rested his hands on my shoulders. “You were thinking about me hot, sweaty and naked?” He reached up and tucked my hair behind my ear. I held my breath hoping he wouldn’t come back with another handful of strays.

I rocked back and forth with nervous energy. The truth was I’d pictured him all kinds of ways in all kinds of places. Hot. Sweaty. Naked. Top. Bottom. Shower. Couch. Front porch. Garden.

A vision flashed through my head of our limbs tangled beneath the solar panels in a naked heap. I chewed my lip and nodded.

“I’m flattered and grossed out at the same time. I like you thinking about me naked. But I wouldn’t be hot … naked … sweaty with my sister.” He leaned in and whispered in my ear. “You, on the other hand, are a different story.” His lips skimmed my jaw and brushed against my lips. “I’ve dreamed of these lips.” He nipped and sucked at the bottom lip but he never truly kissed me.

My breath caught in my chest. Trapped without a place to escape. My lungs filled, and my chest grew tight and tense. I forced the words out in a squeak. “You dream about my lips?”

“Hmm,” he hummed. Moving from my bottom lip to my chin then lower to my chest. He skirted the neckline of my T-shirt. My nipples tightened and sent a signal straight to my sex that said, “wake up.” And it did in the most glorious of ways. Throbbing and aching until my knees grew weak. “Your lips on every part of my body. Mine on yours. Would you like that?”

“Hmm,” I hummed back, but my hum sounded more like a moan than an affirmation. I sank to my knees in front of him, and he followed me down to the grassy earth. In seconds my hat was gone. His lips were on me like fire licking the plains.

“Can I kiss you?” His words stunned me. Wasn’t that what he was doing? His lips had traversed my neck, my chest, my chin, and my ears, but not once had he pressed them fully to my lips.

“You better.” I flipped his hat from his head and gripped his hair between my fingers. One pull and the full weight of his body fell on me. His lips devoured mine, and I melted into the earth.

A calloused palm slid under my shirt and cupped my breast. How long was it since I’d been pinned below a groping man, panting for my next breath? Too long.

I succumbed to the domination of his lips. His kiss sang through my veins. There was a dreamy intimacy that promised more and I wanted everything.

One moment I was lost in his kiss, and the next he was gone, replaced by a yellow fur ball and a slobbery tongue.

“Get off.” I wrestled from beneath Bo and sprang to my feet. He bolted down the row and disappeared beneath a panel. Colton grabbed his side. I wasn’t sure if he was laughing or hurt. “Are you okay?” I ran my hands up and down his body. Bo’s impact was fierce and could have injured him.

Colton pressed my hands to his chest. “Will you keep feeling me up if I say no?” He dropped my hands and bent over to pick up his Stetson and plopped it on his head.

“I’m not feeling you up.” The truth was, I kind of was, and I enjoyed every pass my fingertips took over his muscles. “I was making sure you were okay.”

“Is that what you call it?” He looked toward the wooded edge of the property. “We should go. Someone could be watching us.”

I glanced around us but didn’t see anyone, but then again, I never saw them. The paparazzi were ghosts with telephoto lenses.

“Great, all I need is another scandalous photo, and I’ll be couch surfing for sure.” I finger combed my hair and pulled the baseball cap down to shadow my face. It was a lame disguise, but the bill covered my face from prying paparazzi. If I didn’t see them, they couldn’t exist. But of course, they existed, candid shots of me were posted daily, and once it got out I’d disappeared, the stakes would be raised. A single shot could net a photographer a huge paycheck.

“What do you mean?”

“Do you think I ended up in the boonies by accident? My parents are cutting me off if I don’t find something to do with my life. I needed quiet and clarity. There was too much distraction in the city. I needed this place to figure my life out.”

Colton slapped the side of his leg, and Bo came running. “This is a good place to think.”

“It was.” I scowled at Bo who stopped obediently in front of me.

“And now?”

“Now I’m distracted.” I hurried to the truck.

Colton beat me there and opened my door. “Bad distraction?” He placed his hands around my waist and helped me into the cab.

I looked into his eyes and swore they changed from slate blue to sapphires. “The Jury is out.”

He gave me a quick peck on the lips and shut the door. I watched him run around to the driver’s side, and I questioned my sanity in getting involved with a man like him. He was hayrides, and I was high fashion. He was pickup trucks, and I was Porsche. Who was I kidding? He was sexy, and I was interested.

“I’ve got to run into town. Do you want to come with me, or do you want to stay behind at the cabin?” He turned the key, and the signature black cloud enveloped the car.

“How long are you going to be?”

“A few hours. I have a meeting with the banker, but I need to drop Bo off first.”

“I’m in, I need to take care of this molting problem.”