“It’s a tough act to keep up with you around.” He looked over his shoulder and winked. In yet another super cowboy move, Jesse swung his leg up and over Sunny’s neck before hopping off. “Are you planning on staying up there all day?”
“I’m thinking about it,” I said, taking in the landscape. Nature as far as the eye could see was growing on me. “Why? Do you have any other suggestions?”
Jesse’s eyes gleamed. “One or two.”
“In that case . . .” I planted my foot in the stirrup and swung my other leg around Sunny’s backside. By nothing short of a miracle, I managed to get off of that horse without falling on my duff.
“Impressive,” Jesse said with a nod as I dusted off my hands. “You must have an amazing teacher.”
I lifted a shoulder. “Maybe I’m just a really kick-ass student.”
“Maybe,” he said, coming toward me.
I didn’t step back the way I knew I should. I didn’t step forward the way I wanted to. I stayed where I was and waited for him.
“So, now that you’ve got me out here, wherever here is,” I said, waving at the nameless landscape, “what did you have planned?”
I’d barely finished my question before Jesse’s hand formed around the bend of my waist. With his other hand, he slid his straw hat off and lowered his face until it almost touched mine. Everything inside of me quickened. Jesse’s skin hadn’t touched mine yet, and my body was rushing like a runaway train.
His mouth was so close to mine, I felt his warm breath on my lips when he said, “This.” His lips covered mine for such a brief moment it was more of a tease than a kiss. “And this.” His mouth moved over mine long enough to be in the kissing category. “And this, too.” He separated from me just long enough to get those words out before his lips settled back over mine. That kiss wasn’t a tease; it wasn’t anything close to a tease. It was the kind of kiss a girl would forever measure against. It set the bar for all future kisses. That kiss made me want to do nothing but keep my mouth firmly planted on Jesse’s until the day I died.
The kiss made me moan when his tongue gently touched mine. Even with our mouths combined, I felt Jesse’s smile move into position at my response. He was still smiling when we both came up for air.
“That good, huh?” he said, settling his hat back onto his head while I struggled to fill my lungs.
“That’s some gloat you’ve got going on, Jesse,” I said, circling my finger around his face. “And here I was under the impression you were humble.”
“When a woman moans while a man’s kissing her,”—he lifted an eyebrow—“that’s grounds for a full-on gloat if ever there were grounds.”
“Fine. Take it all in. Yes, your mad kissing skills made me moan. Soak it up and let’s move on.” I rolled my eyes.
“Oh, believe me, I’m soaking it up.”
I crossed my arms and waited a few seconds. “Done soaking?”
Jesse’s dumb smile kept shining until he tapped his wrist where a watch might have been. “And done.”
It was about time.
“What are we going to tell your parents?”
Jesse’s face ironed out. “Wow. You really know how to kill a guy’s soak.”
I waited.
“Are you talking about us?”
“No, I’m talking about me and Sunny.” I motioned toward the resting horse beside me while Jesse’s forehead lined. “Yes,” I said with exasperation. “Yes, I’m talking about us.”
He shrugged. “What do you want to tell them?”
“Nothing yet,” I said. “But we’ll have to tell them eventually. We’re sleeping together, after all.”
“That’s true. We are sleeping together,” Jesse said. “I’m not usually that kind of guy.”
“That’s not what your exes say,” I threw back.
His eyes rolled to the sky.
“No, really. In all seriousness, I like you, Jesse.” I narrowed my eyes as I concentrated on finding the right words. Expressing myself, truthfully, had never come easy. “I don’t want to feel like we’re going behind your family’s backs because I like them, too. But this is all so new to me. So totally different that I just want to take it slow until I figure it out.” I almost gave myself a pat on the back for that whole soul-bearing bit.
“Different?” Jesse tilted his head.
Why did he have to ask every darn question I didn’t want to answer?
I sucked in a deep breath. “You know . . . The whole saying nice things to me, buying me gifts, looking after me, asking me on official dates . . . that’s all very new to me.” I knew how pathetic that sounded—an eighteen-year-old girl who’d “dated” dozens of guys wasn’t used to hearing nice things or getting an occasional rose or something—but it was the truth. I wanted to try to be honest with Jesse. It was the only way, if there even was a way, that we would have a fighting chance. “It’s going to take some getting used to.”
“Is it something you want to get used to?” he asked, almost shyly.
“Yeah,” I said, grabbing his hand. “I think it is.”
“You look really nice, by the way,” he said, examining me with a proud smile.
“You think so?” I gave a quick turn. “This guy I know picked my outfit out.”