Swinging up behind her, he wrapped an arm around her waist, remembering belatedly about the way her short T-shirt didn’t quite meet the top of her cutoffs. His forearm pressed into smooth, bare skin, her belly sucking in on a gasp at the contact.
Same, sweetheart. Same.
He breathed in the vanilla scent of her as her back pressed his chest. Her curvy rump pressed...ah, damn. He had to grind his teeth together to keep from thinking about howthatfelt.
Instead, he nudged Pearl’s side gently, glancing down to enjoy the way Fleur’s legs looked riding along his jeans. Unable to stop himself, he cupped her hip in his palm, knowing full well this moment would be replayed in his head many, many times after today.
“So you decided you won’t mind catering the wedding?” he asked to keep his brain rooted in reality and not the fantasy scenarios spinning through his brain.
Pearl took her time down the path toward the barn, slow and steady. She was a damned good horse to keep Fleur right where Drake wanted her. For now, at least.
“I’ve always liked your sister.” She glanced up at him over her shoulder. “I wasn’t sure how she felt about me after Colin and I—er, split up. She was away at college then, and I hesitated to reach out to her.”
A bird startled out of the grass nearby with a squawk, and the mare did a double step, jarring the riders a bit. Drake’s fingers flexed against Fleur’s hip bone, his thumb resting in the curve of her waist.
Making it all the tougher to focus.
“Colin never talked about that to anyone that I know of.” He forced his thoughts back to the conversation he’d had with his brother just before Fleur had arrived today. “In fact, I asked him again about the engagement after the conversation you and I had the other night. But he said if I wanted to know more, I’d have to ask you.”
He waited, their hips rolling forward in synch as the mare went downhill. Fleur’s shoulders tensed, but she never tightened her grip on the reins. A credit to her ability to put the horse first.
“It was kind of Colin to maintain my secret all this time, but maybe it would benefit us all to clear the air,” she said finally.
“I don’t understand.” Frowning, he edged to one side to better gauge her expression.
Fleur turned to meet his gaze briefly, her eyes shining with emotion. “I never wanted anyone to know,” she said quietly. “I was pregnant.”
Five
The secret had spilled out of her more easily than she would have expected after all these years.
Fleur felt a burden slide from her shoulders. Not because she’d confided in Drake, necessarily. Just that she’d spoken the truth tosomeoneat long last. But being on horseback with Drake, not fully facing him, had made it easier to divulge the old secret. Or, if she was totally honest with herself, maybe entrusting him with that closely guarded information had also been a way to distract herself from the hyperawareness she experienced being pressed against his hard, masculine body. Every breath she took was scented with pine and leather overlaid with musk and man.
She felt hot all over. On edge.
So perhaps sharing the angst of her past with Colin was an effort to douse the flames.
“My God, Fleur.” Drake’s voice sounded rough, as if he had a weight on his chest. “I never guessed. And I can’t believe Colin didn’t say anything—”
“I swore him to secrecy. I wanted to figure out how to tell my parents and my grandmother first. But we planned on telling your family afterward.” She peered up over one shoulder at him as the horse entered a tunnel of tall pine trees. The shade cast Drake’s expression in shadow, but she could see the set of his jaw, the flat disapproval of his mouth.
“Still, he should have—” He shook his head, frustration clear as he stopped himself midsentence.
“What? He should have broken a promise to me to confide in you? I didn’t want everyone to know we were marrying because of the baby, though they’d all figure it out soon enough.” It had taken a while, but she’d forgiven Colin for his eagerness to flee town once she’d given him back his ring. Though she did have some resentment at how easy it had seemed for him to let go. Not just of her, but of the future they’d glimpsed together with their child—however briefly.
“That’s not what I was going to say.” Still holding her waist, Drake wrenched off his Stetson with his free hand, to rake his wrist along his forehead in an impatient gesture. “He had an obligation to you.”
“You didn’t think so at the time,” she reminded him, taking a little too much pleasure in the outlet of bitterness.
“You’re right. Of course.” The words were softly spoken as he replaced his hat on his head. He exhaled a slow breath while his grip shifted on the waistband of her shorts, his thumb grazing the bare skin beneath her cropped top.
An accidental brush. No more.
Yet sensation sizzled through her despite everything.
Her pulse quickened and with it the need to lash out. To distance herself from what she felt around him.
“I’ll mark it in my calendar as a first. Catamount’s resident bull riding champion and ranching king agrees with me, the outcast rodeo queen.” She kept her eye on the trail ahead, grateful to see the massive log-and-stone main house where she could dismount.