This big, strong hulk of a man who, in the blink of an eye, could erect a broody, sullen mask, now wore his heart on his sleeve.
“I’ve never felt anything like this before, Mabel,” he whispered, staring down at her as if she were magical.
She stroked his cheek. “I’m no expert, but I think there’s more to it.”
The look of wonder in her farmer’s eyes disappeared as a raw carnal lust took over. He pulled back a fraction, then thrust, keeping a steady rhythm. She didn’t expect to like it. She’d always figured her first time would be more like ripping off a bandage—something that simply needed to be completed. Never had she expected to revel in the slide of a cock moving in and out of her body. She wrapped her arms around him, pulling him in close. The sound of his breath against her ear sent a fresh jolt of lust through her body. She rocked her hips, meeting him thrust for thrust. His muscled frame held her imprisoned in a state of growing arousal, but she could feel him holding back.
“Let go,” she breathed against his lips. “I told you, I’m tougher than I look. I may wear hand-crafted shoes and delicate fabrics, but you know that I’m made of stronger stuff.”
With her words, she’d unleashed a stallion. Cal gripped her ass and changed the angle of penetration. His pelvis rubbed against her tight bundle of nerves, and the sensation consumed her. She gasped in sweet agony, closing in on her release as Cal dialed up his pace.
Thrusting his hips, he took her earlobe between his teeth. “It’s all for you. Everything,” he growled. Heat surged inside of her as they flew over the cliff. She writhed beneath him, drowning in an ocean of ecstasy, shattering into a million tiny pieces that only he—this man whose face she’d dreamed of night after night—could put back together.
Limbs tangled, they clung to each other as their breathing returned to normal. Cal gently removed himself, then gathered her into his arms.
“What happens now?” she asked, melting into his strong embrace.
He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Whatever we want.”
She closed her eyes, and he tightened his grip as if he believed she might float away—or disappear into the night.
She couldn’t blame him. She’d done it before.
But what did she want now? Where was her place in the world? The cool metal of the charm pressed to her neck—a reminder that her brother had supported her dreams while Cal hadn’t.
That was the truth, but tonight, it wasn’t as easy to believe.
She drew lazy circles on Cal’s forearm as her body grew heavy with exhaustion. What she wanted was too complicated to unravel. For now, all she wanted was to forget the real world and soak in every ounce of this moment—breathe it in like air because two things still remained true.
Cal’s life was in Elverna. And her life, at least for the summer, was, too.
She’d have a choice to make…but not today.
Chapter 2
Cal
1475
Cal stared at the four pink numbers, then placed the cap back onto the dry erase marker.
“The count continues,” he said to himself, but without the usual feeling of bitter loneliness when a brush of fur swished past his ankle, and he glanced down to see Mabel…the kitten.
“You’re up early, little one,” he said, scooping her into his arms.
He scratched under her chin and carried her to the window. The late June sun was a sliver on the horizon, but he was too amped up to sleep. Today was the day—their first Saturday Elverna Farmers’ Market.
“I wondered where you went.”
A smile the size of the north field stretched across his face at the sound of that voice. He set Mabel the Cat onto his desk chair, then turned to get a look at Mabel, Eat Elverna’s social media PR and marketing maven.
He could hardly believe that the last ten days had passed, let alone that he’d spent the majority of every day and a good part of each night with the woman who’d held the keys to his heart for as long as he could remember.
“It seems you’ve left me for another blue-eyed girl,” Mabel teased, joining him in the office and setting her phone on the desk.
Wrapped in his bedsheet with her sex-mussed tangle of chestnut hair draped around her bare shoulders and her lips still a touch swollen from the insane amount of kissing they’d gotten in these past ten days, Mabel Ruth Muldowney was a goddess.
He tilted her chin and leaned in to kiss her but stopped a breath away from her lips. “Maybe I have a thing for Mabels?”
Mischief glinted in her sky-blue eyes. “And perhaps I have a thing for Cals…who happen to be broody little goats?”
“Then we’re both in the right place,” he replied before pressing his lips to hers.
Christ! He’d never tire of kissing this woman.
She hummed her satisfaction—a sweet sound that went straight to his cock. But before he could deepen the kiss, she pulled back and raised an eyebrow, sizing him up. “You don’t need to worry,” she said with the ghost of a grin.
He schooled his features. “I’m not worried,” he answered, going, what Mabel liked to call, total broody farmer. Something that used to drive him crazy until he realized that his country couture fashionista had no trouble kissing that scowl off his face.
But this was different. The future of the town was on the line.
He twisted a lock of her hair around his finger. He worried—it was just who he was. He needed to be in control. He required tasks to be completed correctly and as efficiently as possible. He’d never invested much time in superfluous actions. And once upon a time, he’d deemed social media a killer of productivity as well as a pit of mindless clickbait sites. That is until Mabel had amassed a small army of Eat Elverna followers.
Still, it was one thing to have thousands of people effortlessly tap a heart or click to like a post. It was a whole other ballgame when it came to gaining actual paying customers.
“Those broody worry lines on your forehead beg to differ,” she tossed back.
He frowned, probably making it worse and only proving her point. “I don’t have broody lines.”
She sighed and shook her head. “You have broody everything. Isn’t that right, Mabel the Cat?” she asked, looking to her kitten namesake for reinforcement. But Mabel the Cat didn’t have time for stupid humans and began to entertain herself by batting at a pen.
“I think Mabel the Cat is on my side,” he replied, biting back a grin.
Mabel ran her hands down his torso, then stopped when she got to his belt. “Mabel the Cat is on no one’s side. She does what she wants.”
As if on cue, the kitten pranced from the chair and landed on the floor. With a snooty little cat turn of her head, the animal regarded them as not worth her time, then curled up into a ball and promptly fell asleep.
“Case in point,” Mabel said with a faux-haughty shrug.
He caressed her cheek with the back of his hand. “Just like a Mabel I know.”
She leaned into him and her soft contours molded with his muscled body as she pointed to the dry erase board. “The pink number changed,” she remarked as she wrapped her arms around his waist.
He inspected the list of numbers. “Yep.”