Another must!
This was going to be awesome. She put her thumb up to the screen, then noticed how dark it was in this loft. She squinted at the screen, seeing that she was entirely in the shadows. Ah great! The picture was awful. Eva searched for some sort of overhead lighting, just as she heard a sound behind her.
He was coming! She took a deep breath. This lighting would have to do.
She didn’t even have time to get off the bale of hay before she listened to West clear the ladder and walk towards her hideout. Her fingers curled into a tight fist as every part of her tensed with delight. She’d have to pull him to her because she didn’t want to accidentally knock West to the ground below.
Reenacting a Greek tragedy was the complete opposite of what she wanted to do.
She took a deep breath, trying not to laugh, but her happiness was turning her giddy. The silhouette of West rounded the bend of hay bales, and she grasped the ends of his collar and tugged him closer.
A part of her noticed that he’d gotten out of that dress shirt and put on a casual tee shirt more fitting for the country. Standing on the hay bale, she wrapped her arms around him in the darkness. “I want to tell you something.”
He let out a breath, and she planted her lips against his before he could try to talk her out of it. Eva might’ve held back everything that she’d felt for West that first time they’d kissed, but when he’d never come back for more, she’d decided that she needed to show him exactly what he was missing.
She had a wild spirit that matched his!
The lights definitely wouldn’t catch any of this on her live feed. Her TalkieTalk would be an absolute failure! She didn’t care.
West was unresponsive with shock, but slowly, slowly, his hands moved around her. She felt his heart beneath hers. Blessedly racing. It was the most emotion that she’d ever gotten out of him.
Hope beat through her as he surrendered to her kisses by gathering her close, one arm behind her waist, the other supporting her head. His lips turned demanding over hers. Oh wow, he was strong. She felt like she was disappearing in his embrace. She’d never noticed that he was so big, maybe because she’d only seen him around his brothers lately.
His fingers tangled through her hair. She felt herself melting.
Yeehaw and yippee ki-yay! Is that how they say it here? Who cares!
This kiss was something to die for. West had passion, she felt that, but something deeper too—his every move was the mark of a gentleman. His touch was meaningful, expressive, thoughtful, like he held back the strength of a storm with his gentle caresses.
This wasn’t like their kiss before. This was better!
Her knees went weak. Eva stepped back to steady herself. That’s when she felt her horrible sandal slip on the hay again. She stumbled. West tried to catch her, only for the both of them to fall back against the bale of hay together.
What a way to go! She giggled, and he let out a shaky laugh. “Eva,” he said. “I think that means you’re ‘it.’”
She ran her fingers through his hair. “Oh, West…”
“West?” he asked. He wrenched back.
She scrambled off the bale of hay and realized just how tall he was.
This wasn’t West.
She sprang away.
Chapter Six
Cole couldn’t catch his breath, even as he made out Eva’s features through the shadows of the loft.
What had just happened?
The memory of her lips still burned against his. He tried to piece everything together that had led up to this. It wasn’t like he’d never kissed a stranger before. The women at Mo’s were always throwing their arms around him and smothering him with their love, especially after a rowdy swing dance, or even to congratulate him after he and his brothers won a round of pool… but for once, he’d actually given in.
He wasn’t sure why, only that tasting the actual sweetness of her lips after seeing that same sweetness with his nephews felt… complete.
Dah! He was an idiot!
She’d told him that she’d teach him a few lessons on love; he’d assumed she meant it in the most platonic, teasing way—until he’d come looking for her in the hayloft.