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Natalie’s white Toyota was gone.
Natalie turned the country radio station up full blast and willed herself to stay awake for a few more miles. She should have taken the Lindfords up on the thermos of coffee they’d offered to send with her. By the time their mare had delivered twin foals, she was dead on her feet, and the fifteen-mile drive home on back roads seemed more like a hundred.
It was almost 2:00 a.m., later than she’d planned to be gone. She’d thought of calling Slade. But she’d left him a note on the kitchen table. If he was home by now, he’d be asleep. It didn’t make sense to wake him.
A jackrabbit bounded across the two-lane road ahead of her. She tapped the brake, ensuring the animal a clean getaway. Even rabbits deserved a happy life, she mused groggily.
She’d resolved not to think about Beau, but she was too tired to keep her thoughts from wandering. It was even later in Washington, D.C., than it was here in Texas. Was he asleep? Was he alone? She knew little about his life back East, but she couldn’t imagine Beau having any trouble getting women—smart, sophisticated, beautiful women—into his bed. Natalie had no cause to envy them, but, heaven help her, she did. She and Beau had grown up together. They had given each other the gift of their innocence. He belonged to her in a way that he would never belong to anyone else.
The same way she belonged to him.
The memory stole through her like the scent of a pressed rose in a long-forgotten book. They’d been sixteen that summer evening, riding their horses up the canyon to a spot where a spring formed a pool in the rocks. They hadn’t planned on going alone, but Tori had been commandeered to babysit at the last minute, leaving them to go without her. Beau had been herding cows on the ranch all day, and Natalie had been helping her grandfather paint his barn. Both of them were sweaty and tired. The water in the canyon was too cold for a swim, but the idea of a cool evening ride sounded like heaven.
Dressed in faded T-shirts and ragged cutoff jeans, they’d tethered their horses in the trees and climbed the narrow path up the rocks to the waterfall. On a grassy spot by the pool, they’d sprawled on their backs to gaze up at the river of sky above the steep canyon walls. The dying sun had streaked the clouds with violet and indigo and sculpted purple shadows in the recesses of the vermilion cliffs. A single star glimmered in the deepening sky.
On the trail they’d chatted—commonplace, easy talk about school and friends. But now they lay still in the twilight, listening to the splash of water and the faraway call of a coyote. Natalie could hear the sound of his breathing. Her body tingled with sensations she couldn’t even name.
Until
now they’d shared no more than a few playful kisses. But Natalie had loved him for as long as she could remember. At night she lay burning in her bed, daring to touch herself as she imagined his strong, golden body and the forbidden things that body could do. In spite of every well-meant warning she’d ever heard, she’d known that if Beau reached out for her, she would be his in a heartbeat.
That night, with scarcely a word, it had simply happened. They’d been lying a hand’s breadth apart, their awareness of each other deepening to an ache. Natalie had turned on her side to find him looking at her, his eyes wells of raw need.
Lifting her hand, she’d stroked a fingertip down his cheek and along the edge of his lower lip. He’d moaned, taking her finger into his mouth and brushing it with his tongue. The urges that simple contact awakened had been too powerful to resist. Even as his arms reached out to pull her close, she’d understood what was going to happen, and she’d wanted it.
Softening her hips against his pelvis, she’d felt the long bulge of his erection like a solid log through his jeans. He’d been ready for her before she ever touched him, she realized. Knowing that he’d wanted her as much as she wanted him gave her a rush of courage. Taking his hand, she slid it under the hem of her T-shirt.
The day had been too hot for a bra. She’d felt his fingers tremble as they slid up her ribs and over her bare breast. The shimmering wave of pleasure was so intense it made her gasp. She arched her rib cage upward, her body begging for more. He stroked and caressed, growing bolder as he teased her nipples, feeling them shrink and harden at his touch. The low rasp of his breath quickened as his palm glided down her belly to the waistband of her shorts.
Was this his first time, too? She’d wanted it to be, but how could she be sure when there were girls with reputations who’d be more than willing to initiate a handsome boy like Beau?
Forcing the useless thought away, she’d reached down and managed to unsnap his jeans and slide his zipper open. There was nothing underneath but him, soft baby skin over tempered steel. Instinctively her fingers had circled his shaft. He’d groaned, his body stiffening as they tightened.
“Natalie—”
“Yes.” The word had hissed between her lips. “Yes, Beau.”
He was breathing hard now, muttering little curses under his breath as he fumbled with her shorts, gave up on the fastener, and simply yanked them off her hips. No experienced boy would have been so flustered. She’d loved him all the more for that.
Panting like a long-distance runner, he’d found her entrance, hesitated an instant, then shoved in. Slick as she was, she’d barely felt the brief tearing of her membranes. The pain was nothing compared to the thrill of feeling him inside her, moving, thrusting, both of them reeling in a world of new sensations.
Natalie swung the SUV onto the main highway to town. Her relationship with Beau had been over a long time ago, she reminded herself. They’d been two foolish children back then, crossing forbidden boundaries and making promises they could never keep. He had a different life now, in a different place. She had a husband, and she was on her way home to him. Nothing else was real anymore. Nothing else could be allowed to matter.
She would never see Beau Tyler again.
By the time she turned into the driveway and raised the garage door, it was all she could do to keep her eyes open. Slade’s pickup was parked in its spot. Good. He’d made it safely home. With luck he’d be asleep. She could collapse onto her side of the bed and pass out till morning.
Closing the garage, she entered the house through the doorway that connected to the kitchen. The 15-watt light above the stove was on, casting the room into dim shadow. Slade was sitting at the kitchen table, a can of his favorite lager in one hand.
“It’s about time you got home.” His gritty voice oozed sarcasm. “Want to tell me where you’ve been?”
Please, not tonight. Stifling a groan, Natalie dropped her medical bag on a chair. “I was at the Lindfords. Didn’t you see the note I left you?”
“Oh, I saw it, all right,” he drawled. “The question is, was it true?”
“What kind of silly game are you playing, Slade?” Natalie was too tired to be patient. “I was at the Lindfords’ place for hours. Their mare was having twins. It was touch and go the whole time. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m exhausted. I’m going to bed.” She spun away, heading down the hall toward the bedroom.
“Not so fast, you lying bitch.”
