By the time Cal pulled his truck up in front of Jesse’s house, she was so ready to be done that she almost couldn’t get the door open fast enough. It had been great to see Cisco and Met and to know that they were so willing to drop everything and lend a hand. Yet right now, the only thing that Jesse could think about was solitude.

The twilight was just shading into night. It was going to be a beautiful night on the front range. Jesse could see her horses grazing in the front pasture. Someone must have let them out. Obviously, it was a lot easier than cleaning their stalls when some poor ranch hand had to draw the short straw to come over here and do her chores. Since the weather was good, it didn’t make any different to Jesse or the horses.

She automatically walked in that direction. The peace and quiet of that tranquil scene was exactly what Jesse needed. She hooked her boot heel on the bottom rail and watched the horses meandering around the pasture.

“You okay?”

“Just glad to be away.” She didn’t bother to expand. She wouldn’t have been able to explain what she meant anyway.

But Cal turned to walk back to his truck. “Then, I guess I’ll take off. I don’t want to encroach if you need some peace and quiet.”

“Are you stupid?” She managed to snag his arm before he made it very far. “I don’t mean you. I’ve never had a problem feeling like you’re encroaching. And who uses that word anyway? Seriously! You don’t stress me out.”

“But everyone else does?” Now he sounded amused.

She sighed. What was she feeling? It was back to that roller coaster effect. “It just seems like everything is so up and down and up and down, and I just want the ride to be over. When can we go back to just living?”

He sighed and rested his forearms on the top rail of the fence. “I know what you mean. It would be nice just to wake up one day and not have to think about stolen stock or missing stock or what the Flying W is going to do. I want to think about breeding another crop of good broncs. I need to replace my bull. And now I’d like to focus on exactly what I need to do with Widowmaker to get him nominated for the pro finals this season.”

“Widowmaker,” Jesse moaned. She put her face in her hands. “Is it not messed up that you’re worried about furthering the bucking career of the bronc that ended your brother’s rodeo riding career?”

“I stopped thinking about that years ago when Met started riding the pro circuit.” Cal nudged her shoulder. “Come on, now. I think Met has made peace with it. Can’t you?”

“I suppose I could.” She sighed. “Maybe I’m just chasing rainbows or something.”

“Because you want a ranching career to be filled with cute calves and spindly legged foals?” Cal stood up and gently pulled her into his arms. “Sweetheart, ranching is hard, thankless work. We get stomped on from sunup to sundown. Maybe the only thing that makes it possible to think about going from morning to evening is the promise of someone to share it with.”

There was no more threat between them of biological relation. At least not in Jesse’s mind. She’d seen enough today to put that to rest. Now there was just the usual bit of nervousness and insecurity. Great.

“Are you sure you want someone like me in your life?” she asked suddenly. “I’m a mess, Cal. I can’t even figure out what I want my ranch to be—as you were so gracious in pointing out. What if I never get my act together? What if you spend the next twenty years rolling your eyes at me because I can’t get it right and manage to support myself or even make a go of this place?”

He lowered his face to hers and brushed a gentle kiss over the tip of her nose. “Best twenty years I would have ever spent. I promise.”

“You can’t promise that!” Jesse protested. “You can’t know how you’ll feel at the end of that time!”

She would have kept right on protesting except he started kissing her and she couldn’t remember what she was going to say. Cal wrapped her in his warm embrace and kissed the breath right out of her. He kissed the thoughts from her head and the doubts from her heart. She knew nothing but the feel and taste of this man as he lightly ran the tip of his tongue over the seam of her lips.

With a soft sigh, she opened her mouth. He slid his tongue deep inside her mouth and rubbed it alongside hers. He made love to her with his lips and teeth and tongue, and she could not have protested if she’d wanted to. Her brain was mush, and her heart was full to bursting.

The light breeze ruffled her hair. Every inch of her skin felt utterly alive. She flung her arms around his neck and tangled her fingers in his hair. Pushing his hat off his head, she heard it hit the ground and didn’t care. They were outside under the sky, and the first stars were twinkling overhead. It was the perfect moment, and she never wanted it to end.

The hunger she felt coming from Cal was in every single press of his fingers against her skin. He cupped her face and lightly touched her jaw before sliding his hands lower. He wrapped his arms around her body and then gently stroked her back. As his kiss deepened, she felt him pull up the hem of her T-shirt.

His touch against her bare skin was electric. He splayed his hands across her back and growled lightly against her lips. He pulled her shirt up until it came off over her head. The feel of the breeze against the bare tops of her breasts made her shiver. It was naughty and exciting all at the same time. Yet she felt safe here on her own property. There was nobody but Cal within twenty-five miles. What was there to fear?

He drew back just enough to speak. “I want you so badly.”

Any words she might have said stuck in her throat as he pressed his face to her breasts. He kissed and touched her as though she were made of the most precious glass. His fingers teased and aroused her to a point below pain, and she knew nothing but her desire for this man.

Her clothes seemed to melt from her body. She grabbed at Cal’s T-shirt and lifted it over his head as well. She reveled in the feeling of finally being able to touch his chest as she had wished for so long. She felt the crisp hairs on his belly and followed their trail down to his waistband. She wanted more. She wanted it all. And when he kicked off his boots, she knew that he was finally going to give her the moon.

The two of them sank to the ground together. Still kissing, they tugged and squirmed to get their clothing off. Boots flew and belt buckles jingled. Soon there was nothing but soft grass beneath Jesse’s back, and she cradled Cal’s hips between her legs and felt him press lightly against her core.

Their bodies fit together so perfectly. He moved against her, and the promise of fulfillment made her gasp in pleasure. She sifted her fingers through his hair. Tugging lightly at the roots, she bit his lower lip as she anticipated more to come. He laughed in response, and the low sound only served to heighten her excitement.

Jesse lifted her leg and let her calf glide down the back of Cal’s body from hip to toes. The sheer muscled expanse of his body beggared her ability to describe it. Every inch of him was firm and hard with muscle. This man worked. He worked hard. And right now, he was being so utterly careful with her that it was making her head spin.

It had been a long time for Jesse. In fact, as Cal entered her, she realized that she had never truly known what it was like to be with a man before. The pressure and friction made her gasp. She cried out in pleasure and pain and surprise.

He cradled her in his arms as he whispered words of praise and softly kissed her face as she adjusted to him. Then he began to move, and she forgot anything else. The feel of him was everything. This was what she had waited for her whole life. Until this moment, she had never truly loved or been touched by anyone in her life.

She held tightly to his arms as the storm began to rise inside her body. Her eyes closed, and she squeezed them tightly shut as a thin sheen of sweat broke out across her skin. The scent of Cal was everywhere. She inhaled deeply and felt as though she was soaking him into her very soul.

“Come for me, sweetheart.”

The whisper seemed to come from thin air. His lips tickled the shell of her ear, and she felt as though the whole world stopped turning. Wave after wave of pleasure crashed over her body. She could not keep quiet. She arched her back and thrust herself up toward Cal as she screamed his name into the empty sky.

Finally, she felt him surge deep and push hard against her cleft. His body seemed to pulse inside hers. The heat of him filled her, and she held tight as he gave her everything he had. Never had she felt such a sensation of intimacy with a lover. But then she was beginning to think that she had never truly been loved like this before.

Jesse didn’t know how long they had lain there on the ground before the world finally began to creak forward and she became aware of things. Things like several of the horses coming up to the fence to see what all the noise was about. Jesse turned her head to find Mora staring at her with ears up and a very quizzical expression on her horsey face.

“Oh my God, we have an audience,” Jesse whispered to Cal.

He rolled onto his back and started laughing. “As if they don’t just do it in the barnyard like wild animals, right?”

The joke seemed to normalize things. It was sort of strange. Jesse turned onto her side and threw her leg over his hip. They were mostly naked there on the grass in front of her pasture fence. Was this the way it had been in the old days? Was this part of the charm of living out in the middle of nowhere? They would be able to see a car or horse coming for miles. There would be plenty of time to get dressed and be presentable even if someone decided to come calling. It was very—liberating.

“I love you,” she whispered suddenly. “I think I have since I was pretty young, but I wanted to wait to tell you until you could at least make an attempt to take me seriously.”

“I take you very seriously,” Cal told her with every bit of solemnity she could have wished for. “And I think I’ve loved you since before it was politically correct, so I think we’re both on the same page here.”

“Do you think our family will have trouble accepting this?” Jesse could not stop thinking about Avery.

He seemed to guess her thoughts. “You’re talking about my mother.”

“Mostly. But what about your brothers?” She could not help but think about some of Laredo’s comments in the past. “It’s got to be weird for them anyway. Don’t you think?”

“Maybe. I don’t know.” Cal sat up suddenly. “I suppose we’ll have to ask.”

“Ask?” Jesse could not help it. She plucked a handful of grass from beside her and threw it at him. “Are you crazy? Why would we ask? Do we need permission?”

“No. I didn’t say we should ask for permission.” He pulled a piece of grass from his chest hair and flicked it back at her. “I said we should just ask if they’re weird about it. That’s not asking permission. That’s saying this is how it is. Now, how do you feel about that?”

“I’m going to say that’s splitting hairs,” Jesse decided. Maybe she didn’t want to know after all. “I don’t want your family deciding that they get to choose who I love or not.”

“Sweetheart, nobody is going to keep me away from you anymore,” he told her fervently. “Nobody. I’m tired of people thinking they can tell me who to talk to and who to love and who to be with. It’s going to stop. That’s what I know.”

“Cal, your mother is going to pitch a fit.” Jesse picked up her T-shirt and pulled it on over her bra. “Are you really prepared for that?”

Actually, was Jesse really prepared for that? She had already lost one set of parents and then a man who was apparently both more and less to her than he was supposed to be. Avery was the last excuse for a parental figure that Jesse had. She did not want to imagine that moment when she saw Avery turn completely away from her in disdain. It would hurt. It would not matter if Cal or even if the whole family supported Jesse. Knowing that Avery Hernandez wanted nothing more to do with her would put a little hole in Jesse’s heart.

“It’s going to be all right,” Cal told Jesse softly. He touched her shoulder and then kissed it. “Although I wish you could just run around naked all day long, because your skin is absolutely kissable.”

“Wait.” Jesse gave him a look of mock severity. “Are you only with me because you love my body? Is this about having a hot young chick who makes you look like some old virile bull?”

He gave her a lazy grin. “Wait. Are you referring to yourself as a heifer?”

“Going to kill you. Right. Now!” She tackled him back onto the grass and began kissing and tickling him all at the same time. She didn’t even care how much grass got stuck in awkward places she would never admit to. The only thing that mattered was right here and now.