When she paused and looked over her shoulder at him, he repressed a groan. He'd had better luck handling her when she was crying.

“What should I wear?” she asked.

“Just, uh. Jeans and sneakers for today. We’ll go get you proper riding boots and gear another time,” he answered.

He waited for her to get ready and then led her to the barn, grinning as she cooed over the horses. He gave her some sugar cubes to feed them. Some of the childlike wonder returned to her eyes. Her demeanor slowly became more like he’d become used to of late.

He chose an older chestnut mare named Aislyn for Ashleigh. The mare had been in the family for years, and he knew she would take care of Ashleigh. The mare hardly ever started at anything, and even Shiloh rode her by himself.

His heartstrings tugged as he thought about his little nephew. He hadn’t been spending much time with him since he’d gotten home from New Orleans with Ashleigh.

Walker saddled the chestnut for her and quickly saddled Noir for himself. He loved the midnight black horse that he’d raised from a colt. It had been too long since he’d last taken him out. 

Ashleigh brightened up considerably as they rode out toward Catahoula Creek. She was all smiles by the time they arrived. She’d been a bit wobbly in the saddle at first, but he showed her the proper way to sit. Once she mastered how to hold the reins while still holding onto the horn of the saddle, she’d gotten the hang of it relatively easily. Still, he didn’t want to push his luck, so he kept a slow pace. 

It was late afternoon as they dismounted their horses to walk along the creek. Walker tied the reins carefully to a nearby post. He fed them each a sugar cube before he joined her. She was standing at the bank of the creek.

She was still smiling as her eyes swept the countryside.

For Walker’s part, the countryside may as well not have been there. He’d never seen her smile quite so brightly, so completely unguarded, as she did now. It was radiant. He felt a bit like Icarus being drawn to the sun. She closed her eyes and breathed in the fresh air. The wind blew through her hair, giving her a carefree, happy look.

He couldn’t get enough of it, enough of her. She’d been sexy as sin when he’d first seen her in that club. And she was nothing short of beautiful with the heavy makeup gone, as she’d been since they left the club. The way she looked right now though... it was easily the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

She turned to face him and flushed when she caught him staring. 

“It’s gorgeous here. Thank you for showing this to me,” she said earnestly.

“Yeah, yeah it is.” 

His mouth felt dry as his eyes met hers. In that moment, he had no idea what she was talking about. Still, he was sure that what he was looking at had to be more gorgeous than what she was referring to.

She took a step closer to him, peering up through those emerald pools. Her breath caught as she drank his expression in. It was that small sound that snapped the last vestige of self-control that he’d been holding onto.

Without hesitating for one second, he pulled her into his arms and crashed his lips against hers. She leaned into the kiss, opening her mouth almost instantaneously. She threw her arms around his neck. He groaned as her soft body pressed against him in a way that had him hard as a rock in zero seconds flat. He kept one arm around her waist and tunneled through her hair with his free hand. He gently gripped the hair at the nape of her neck.

All thoughts flew from his mind as he gave himself over to this explosive kiss. Dancing his tongue alongside hers, he alternated between lightly prodding her tongue with his and hungrily tasting her lips. The kiss consumed him, made his fingers dig into her hip as he nipped lightly at her lower lip before claiming her mouth with his again. She let out a soft moan and pressed her body closer to his.

Somewhere in his hazy, lust-drunk mind, he realized that he should absolutely not be doing this. Fuck.

His back stiffened, and his hands stilled. Much as he hated it, he broke their kiss off as abruptly as he’d initiated it.

Shit. What have I done? 

There were way too many reasons not to do this. He wouldn’t lead her on, not when he still had so much baggage. Not when the reason she was here was because he didn’t want a god damn relationship. 

He'd promised himself that he would never do that much damage again. And he’d promised to protect her, keep her safe.

Not from myself, apparently.

“I’m sorry, Ashleigh. I shouldn’t have done that. I’m so sorry. It will never happen again, please forgive me?” he whispered softly against her lips.

He implored her with his eyes to forgive him, not to walk away because of one stupid mistake.

She nodded, looking completely stunned. She followed him back to the horses.

“Thank you for forgiving me,” he said, his voice low as he helped her mount her horse.

“Uh, yeah. Sure. Though...” 

She trailed off. She snapped her mouth shut and shook her head. 

He grimaced and spurred his horse toward home.

Neither of them said another word to each other as they awkwardly rode off, literally into the sunset... but this was not a fairy tale.