We ended up taking a nap. Before that, I insisted on seeing the cattle. The devastation of her main home and several buildings was obvious, but for my own knowledge, I had to see everything. She climbed in next to me on the Kubota and we drove the pastures, double-checking the cattle and destruction. We fed the goats, gave them fresh water.

We’d come back later and bury the animals we lost, but fortunately, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I’d imagined.

New animals would be purchased. Stuff was just that. Stuff. It could be replaced.

She didn’t have electricity. That had been lost well before the cell phone service and who knew when it’d come back.

Plus, exhaustion was finally setting in. We needed food and sleep.

I didn’t sleep a single damn wink on the plane. Adrenaline and fear coursed through me, kept my eyes peeled on the weather channel. I was a fucking storm spotter last night, tracking eight different websites, both local and national watching the devastation occurring as it happened.

And I’d never been as terrified as I was, flying thousands of feet in the air, everything completely out of my control.

The flight attendant kept my coffee mug hot and fresh the entire flight and by the time the plane landed, I was on the verge of passing out and sleeping for eight hours or running a marathon. I hoped like hell I didn’t crash and pass out behind the wheel and got moving.

Rebecca insisted on staying and starting to clean up.

I insisted we get food and rest.

We argued. Her stubbornness cute despite the purple rimming her eyes and my inability to speak without yawning.

I won.

She grabbed the bag of clothes she’d taken with her to the cellar and we headed to the Carlton Golf Resort and Spa.

Ten minutes after we arrived, we were checking into a one-room suite.

Two minutes later, we were stripping down our clothes and climbing into a hot shower.

Twelve minutes later, we were asleep on the bed, naked and tangled together, clean and safe.

I woke up to Rebecca’s hand on my chest, her fingers playing with my hair. My hand covered hers. Thank God.

“I never rode a storm out alone in the cellar before,” she whispered. Her lips were at my shoulder, her warm breath wafted over me. Her hair was still damp, pressed against the pillow, my chest, it was everywhere. I pulled her closer.

“You’re safe, Rebecca. And thank fuck. I’m glad you’re okay.”

“All I wanted last night was you with me.”

Jesus. A spear to the heart couldn’t hurt worse than hearing her lingering fear.

“I sat there, listening to the storm, knowing how bad it was and all I could think about were all the people in my life I’d lost well before I was ready to lose them, all the things I didn’t say to them when I had the chance, and I couldn’t get ahold of you—”

“Shh.” I shifted us, rolled so I was on top of her, and my intent hadn’t been sexual in the least, I just wanted the weight of my body on hers to know I was there. We were fine, everything else would be fine, too. “I’m here. You’re here.”

“I know.” She nodded frantically, pressed her hand to my cheek. “But you’ve been gone a month, and all this time, all I’ve realized is that I didn’t need that month apart from you. I didn’t need the time. I was just being stupid and scared, but I love you. And I don’t want a minute to go by when you doubt it. Ever.”

“I don’t.” I pressed my lips to hers, and she opened immediately. I kissed her slowly, relaxing more of my weight onto her. Her body responded, legs shifted to make more room for me and I settled my length against her center. I needed to feel her. Make love to her. Touch her and treasure her. “I won’t,” I whispered, sliding my mouth to her jaw, her throat, that spot right by her ear that always made her fingers dig into my ass. “I need you and I don’t have a condom.”

“I went on the pill.”

I was almost to her breasts, my mouth watering to taste her, slide my tongue around her nipples until they hardened and she’d arch her hips into me. “What?”

She grinned that sheepish little smile she always had when she was embarrassed or nervous. “When you were gone. I didn’t want the next time we were together to have anything between us.”

“Shit.” I rested my forehead to her chest. Just the thought of being with her, bare, her needing that as much as I wanted it almost made me come.

Her hand slid up my back. “Was that okay?”

I laughed against her skin. Lips kissed every area of her I could reach and I shook my head. Crazy woman.

“Yeah, Rebecca,” I murmured, my tongue finally seeking what it so desperately desired. I slid it over her nipple and she gasped. “It was okay.”

I took my time with her. I moved down her body with my mouth and my hands until I reached her ankles, kissing, touching, caressing every inch of her. Memorizing the feel of the curves of her calves, the sweet, soft skin of her inner thigh, and then I moved back up to her stomach, the flare of her hips, the swell of her breasts.

I tasted and teased her entire body before my balls grew too tight with the need to be inside of her. And then I took her, slowly. My elbows by her shoulders, I gave her all my weight as I slid inside of her, moved like we had all the time in the world. Our gazes locked, our bodies molded together, we rode the wave of ecstasy together, stealing each other’s groans, swallowing my grunts and her cries, until we reached our peaks. I followed her over the edge shortly after I ensured she fell first.

“I love you.” Her fingers were at my scalp, brushing through my hair, my head was on her shoulder. We were sated, breathless, a fine sheet of sweat coated our bodies. “I never want to be without you.”

“You won’t be.” It wasn’t a promise. It was a vow. One I’d ensure I never broke for as long as I lived. “I love you, too.”

---

“I want you to come back to Los Angeles with me.”

The raspberry Rebecca was about to pop into her mouth froze at her lips. We’d showered again and were dressed in robes. While she worked on drying her hair, I ordered room service, a full menu of breakfast and lunch because I’d lost complete track of time. The food arrived quicker than humanly possible which meant Jordan had rushed it. I gave the staff who brought it up to us all the money in my wallet as a tip. Hundreds, probably. I didn’t care.

I needed to eat and I need them gone, so I brought the food in myself and set it up at the small dining table.

Her brow furrowed and she set down her berry. “I can’t leave the ranch now, Cooper. There’s no way.”

I’d been prepared for her rebuttal. While she showered, me insisting she went first and that we took them separately so I had time to order the food and not become distracted by her, I’d come up with a plan.

“I can push back the start of filming for a week or two, but no longer. They can even start without me, filming scenes I’m not in if they need to. But it’s too late to walk away from this movie.”

“I know you can’t walk away. I’m not asking you to, but—”

“We just promised we’d never be apart, Rebecca. Hear me out, please?”

She popped the berry into her mouth and chewed. “Okay. What’s your idea?”

I set down my silverware I’d been using to cut my steak. A delicious, Kansas-grown filet that was succulent and already half-gone. “First, you have to know, this will be the last movie I act in.”

“What?” Her eyes went wide. “You can’t.”

“I can and I will. Last night before I headed out here, I made plans. From now on, I won’t be acting, but I’ve talked to the head of the studio producing this current film. They’ve agreed to hire me on as a producer. Mostly, I’ll be in charge of securing financing for future projects. Maybe I’ll help with casting. It’ll require traveling, but the trips will be short, and I can figure out logistics of all that later.”

“Cooper—”

I reached across the table and took her hand, squeezing it. “I want this, Rebecca. I want you and our life on the ranch, but I love the industry and I can’t give it up completely. I want all of it, and maybe that’s selfish, asking you to understand that.”

“I would always want to support you in whatever you want.”

“Then why do you look so damn terrified at the idea?”

She laughed and shook her head. “I have it all as long as you’re with me, Cooper. That’s all I need. If you want to act, do it. You’re amazing at it.”

She’d finally watched my movies. In the month we were apart, she confessed to watching all of them, further confessing she watched the ones where I spent half my time shirtless repeatedly. Needless to say, Rebecca had become my biggest fan.

My favorite one, too.

“I want to do something different, stretch myself. And I don’t want to spend the months apart from you.”

“I don’t want that either,” she admitted, smiling softly. “I just want you to have everything you want. However that comes and as long as I’m a part of it.”

Good God, this woman undid me. I pushed away from my chair and pulled her to her feet. Then I yanked her into my lap and kissed her, brushing her hair off her face and behind her shoulder.

“I love you. You’ll always be the most important, and the best part of me.”

Blush stained her cheeks and before she could say anything, I continued with my plans. “We stay as long as we can and help with clean up. We call your insurance immediately and get that ball rolling. Then, we hire someone to take care of the animals while we’re gone. You said yourself once the fair is done, your work slows down and the fall becomes about maintaining and the calves birthing.”

I waited for her rebuttal and took a bite of my steak, washing it down with iced tea. The sweetness made me cringe, and in my lap, Rebecca laughed. A beautiful, soft sound that went straight to my dick and my heart. “Okay.”

I grabbed her bowl of fruit from across the table and pulled it closer so she could reach it.

She let that one word linger and when she didn’t say more but took a bite of more fruit, I continued. “It’s ten weeks. Whoever we hire can stay in the guesthouse. By the time we leave, electricity will be back up, I’ll make certain of it. Whoever you trust, we’ll find someone.”

“Kelly and Ryan,” she said, nodding once. “She’d do it, I know she would. Plus, they’re close enough to town they can both get to work easily and keep an eye on their own house. And I’d trust them. Or Jordan, but he has the resort. And I’m sure the Whitman’s will be okay with Tomas still doing a lot of work.”

A tight band that had been wrapped around my chest while I came up with this idea loosened. She wasn’t fighting me on it. Instead, she almost looked excited about it.

“We’ll only be gone ten weeks. Twelve at most. And while we’re gone, we can start rebuilding the house.”

Her fingers pressed against her forehead. “God. I hadn’t even thought…it’s so much to think about. I don’t have the money—”

“I do.” And she’d take it even if I had to force her to.

“But—”

“Are you going to someday be my wife? Make a family with me? Love me until we no longer walk this earth?”

She jerked in my lap and tilted her head. One corner of her lips lifted. “Are you proposing?”

“No.” I popped a kiss on her crooked smile. “When I do that you won’t have to ask. Now answer the question. You going to do those things with me?”

Her smile disappeared and something soft took its place, muting all the expression on her face. She looked at me like she’d never been more certain of anything in her life. “Yeah. Yes, of course I am.”

“Then it’s your money. We’ll make the plans together. I pony it up, you need to give it back, we’ll do that once insurance comes in. But this isn’t a difficult decision, Rebecca. It’s just us, moving on with life.”

Her eyes turned dreamy and she pressed her hand to my chest, leaning in so her lips were almost on mine. Whispering, she repeated my words. “It’s us. Moving on with life.”

And this time around, I had no doubt it was going to surpass all the dreams either of us ever had.