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Skylar nods and bites down on her bottom lip.

“I drove a lot of people home that night.” I take another sip, then reach out to stroke her hair, relishing the feel of the silky soft strands. Caught, as always, by the way this girl is so vibrant, so full of color, as the pastel-pink curl slips over my fingertips.

“It was very kind of you,” she murmurs.

“What I can tell you is that out of all the people I offered to drive home, there was only one who I really didn’t want to say goodnight to.”

“You didn’t?”

“Not in that way.” I let my hand slide down to trace over her lip, tugging it out from the hold under her teeth.

“What did you want instead?” She leans into my touch, and that tiny act of seeking out my attention makes my pulse kick.

“I certainly had a very different type of goodnight I wanted to say than the one I settled for, which was letting you disappear off into the darkness.”

Skylar shifts her weight and then gets up onto her knees. That blanket she’s spent the day curled up in comes apart and gives me a perfect view of her body. Goddamn, this girl is so unbelievable. Her softness, her pale skin, and those tattoos. Jesus.

She clambers into my lap, straddling me, and tugs the ends of the blanket to enclose both of us as she wraps her arms around the back of my neck, toying with the short hairs at my nape.

My hands are drawn straight to her hips, squeezing gently as she settles herself there like this is the most natural thing in the world. As if it’s the thing we do all the time.

As if it’s how every night might look. To dream of having this beautiful girl pressed up against me in the dim lights and seclusion of the time of evening when it’s just the two of us talking and spending hours in each other’s company amid the firelight.

“I was so nervous.” She smiles at me softly. “I thought my heart was going to burst out of my chest the whole way home that night. I kept thinking to myself, ‘Oh my god, Lucas Rhodes is taking me home.’”

My lips quirk. “Funny how things turned out. I’m not sure whether I should admit how many times I thought about that drive. How I regretted not having the freedom to say what was going through my mind. How I should’ve walked you to your front door.”

Skylar tilts her head and lets her eyes flicker around my face. As she does, I wonder what she sees when she looks my way. Frown lines, gray hairs, and all the weathered planes a cowboy like me has accumulated over the years.

“I had this little fantasy that you might kiss me at midnight … or just after … since that was when you drove me home,” she murmurs.

Tilting my head, I glance at the clock on the stove over in the kitchen.

“Would you look at that?” My eyes fixate on her mouth. “It’s just gone midnight.”

Her mouth tips into a coy little grin. “It isn’t New Year’s Eve, Mr. Rhodes.”

“And yet here we are.”

“Here we are,” she breathes.

“How about since I’m almost a year late, I make it up to you?” I slide my palm around to the front of her thighs and dip my thumb between her soft pussy lips. A place where I’ve spent more time than I should by all rights have done today. But hell, if it isn’t a Christmas miracle to have unending access to Skylar’s perfect cunt.

Goddamn, she’s the sweetest thing. As I lean forward to speak over her lips, I hum the words I shouldn’t have any right to say, yet I’m powerless to stop myself where this girl is concerned. “What do you say I take my time and show you exactly the type of kiss you deserved that night?”

CHAPTER 20

There are a dozen curious creatures in this part of the stables. All angling their long necks and letting out impatient snorts in order to get a glimpse at the girl out here helping with the chores this morning.

Skylar croons and chats away to each of them as she works her way through the stalls. She’s taken over mucking out and shooed me off as soon as I showed her the ropes.

I’ve busied myself elsewhere … because I’m unable to keep off her. Every part of me wants to reach out and touch her in some way.

Not just sexually—I mean, that’s undeniably part of my addiction to this girl—but in the way we seem to be able to spend time together so easily. It’s effortless to be with her.

She’s smart and quick to tease, and for someone like me who has enjoyed his own company for a very long fucking time, Skylar fits with that in a way I wasn’t expecting.

We haven’t even talked about Brad all that much, which I thought might be where things faltered between us. Once the fucking and tension were out of our system, I had worried that maybe we would have nothing to talk about beyond her being my son’s best friend. That our worlds would be too distant from one another.