Page 99 of Paper Horses

“What was that?” she asked, licking her fingers before catching herself and scrunching her nose in disgust.

“You.”

Her eyes flew to mine, all thoughts of her unsanitary habits forgotten. I pulled her over to the corner of a game booth and wiped a puff of cotton candy from the corner of her mouth.

“I didn’t need anything but you in my life to be happy. Sure, kids would have added to that happiness, but you were all I needed.”

“You can still have that dream,” she mumbled, dropping her eyes, her mouth turning downward. “There are⁠—”

“Stop.” I placed a finger on her lips and forced her to look at me. “There are no other women that I want, and there is no other life I want but one that has you in it. Besides, I’m too grumpy to have kids.”

“You are kind of grumpy.”

“I am, unless I’m with you.” I kissed her nose before moving to her cheek and feeling the warmth growing in them despite the chill in the air. “And now whenever I’m grumpy, all I have to do is picture you holding Carl Junior like he was a feral vampire kid about to rip your throat out to change my mood.” She swatted my arm, and I pulled her closer. “That was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“That was not funny. It was horrifying.”

“What are you going to do if your brother has more children?”

I slung my arm over her shoulder and directed her back into the crowd.

“Avoid him. Maybe disown him. I don’t even want to think about it. Knowing Tori, she’ll have me babysit the thing while Reid talks my ear off the whole time.”

“And you’d love every minute.”

She rolled her eyes at me and stuffed another piece of cotton candy in her mouth.

“This stuff is addictive,” she mumbled. “I’m going to need to do cardio to make up for this, and I hate cardio.”

“I’ll put you to work on the ranch tomorrow. Couple that with the way I’m planning to make your body work tonight and you’ll burn it right off.”

“You’re just dirty-minded.”

“Yup, and I’m all yours.”

She leaned her head against my shoulder, chomping on the cotton candy as we made our way to the hayride. By the time the night ended, her tongue was bright pink, and she was high on sugary sweets and smiling like she’d just had the best orgasm of her life…which she did when we got home.

Chapter 23

Liv

My head hurt, and my stomach was roiling when Hudson’s kisses woke me up. I didn’t know how people could eat so many sweets. I remembered eating sugary cereal and Pop Tarts in school, but candy had never been my thing, and now I knew why.

I groaned, and he took it as a sign to palm my breast.

“I’m going to be sick,” I groused, pushing his hand back and almost falling out of the bed.

“Are you serious?”

“Do I not sound serious?” My stomach convulsed, and I ran to the bathroom, holding my mouth and making it to the toilet just in time.

“Shit,” I heard him mutter over the loud, unladylike sounds coming from my body as all of last night’s treats vacated it.

He was behind me, pulling my hair back within seconds. Embarrassment stretched through me, and I pushed him away just as another retching convulsion hit me.

“Cut that out. I’m not going anywhere, and I’ve seen you throw up before. Remember the funnel cake?”

The thought had what remained of my sugary feast and the glass of merlot I’d topped it with surging forth until I was dry heaving.