Elsie Silver

He looks like Cowboy Batman,” Rhett says.

“You owe me a pair of panties.”

“I’ll buy you an entire shipping container of them if it means I get to keep ripping them off of you.”

I’m mad at him. I’m hot for him. And those two things blend until they’re almost indecipherable.

What the hell is the cowboy hat rule?”

“You wear the hat, you ride the cowboy.”

With one step forward, my hand darts out and I yank the saddle-brown cowboy hat off his head and place it on mine.

Men are so fragile

I said I wouldn’t stop, but I’ll stop for Summer.

“Rather than kissing your magazine pages, you can try out the real thing.”

“Rather than kissing your magazine pages, you can try out the real thing.”

“You’re an idiot,” I mumble, but I also don’t move away.

Would I do this? My heart races so hard that it drowns out the sounds around me. All I hear is that dull, rushing sound of my pulse in my ears.

“What if someone sees? What if this gets out?”

Rhett’s thigh presses against mine while the hand on my lower back slides down to the waistline of my jeans, his fingers tightening in a way that has the spot just behind my hip bones aching.

He moves in close, his scent surrounding me as his wild hair fans down around us. The air between us hums and I stare at his mouth, wondering what the roughness of his beard might feel like on my lips, on my body.

I’ve never kissed a man like Rhett.

“You know, Princess,” he rasps, and I should hate that goddamn nickname, borne of mocking me for being who I am, but suddenly it feels like a shot straight to my core. Like praise. Like worship. “I’m finding I don’t really care what people think where you’re concerned.”

“Tell me what to do, Summer. Tell me, and I’ll do it. Was I unclear before? Because I want to be crystal clear now. I love you. I loved you the moment you walked into that boardroom and smirked at me like you knew something I didn’t. It bothered me, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Wanting to know what you know. I fixated on it, but I think I was just fixated on you.”