“Three…two…”
“One!”
They rushed into the storm like soldiers into battle. Puddles swallowed their boots whole; wind whisked them toward the truck with a guiding push.
Grady shoved his hand into his front pocket and dug out the keys from within, then forced the key into the passenger door’s lock, eager for the dry shelter of the cab. Alternating from foot to foot, Maren rubbed her hands against her bare arms.
The lock wouldn’t turn over.
“Is it stuck?” Maren hollered.
“Appears so.”
“Let me give it a try.” She took hold of the keys and jingled them, but the door didn’t budge.
“I told you I needed to get this door fixed,” Grady reminded with a teasing intonation in his voice. He placed a hand on the frame for leverage and the other onto the handle, caging Maren between his body and the vehicle. With a firm grasp, he tugged on the handle as hard as he could but it defied his efforts like the sword in the stone.
Wordlessly, Maren rotated within his arms. As if in rebellion against the tempest engulfing them, she paused for a moment, bit her lip, and then hooked her fingers into Grady’s belt loops to beckon his body closer. Grady struggled to breathe. His eyes narrowed and his hand drifted down to her hip. Instinctually, he lowered his face toward hers.
“Did you mean that back there?” His throat was raw as he strained to speak. “When you said something about me being your cowboy? Or was that all for show?”
“I meant it, Grady.” She stood tall and spoke the words against his cheek. Her lips met the wet droplets on his skin, kissing them away one by one, leaving a trail of warmth along his jaw that felt a lot like fire.
It was almost more than he could handle.
Grady let out a harsh breath. “You don’t know what you’re doing to me, Mare.”
His eyes shut briefly and then in one fast motion, he pushed Maren up against the truck and seized her mouth with his own. Like a man starved, Grady kissed her. One hand gripped her waist, the other cupped her jaw, and his chest pinned her in place against the rain-drenched vehicle. Not that she was going anywhere. Maren eagerly met each move, anticipating the sweep of his tongue into her mouth and the tug of her lips between his teeth. It was all hands and movement and erratic breaths that made Grady shiver despite the warmth of their bodies forced so intimately close.
Another flash split the sky, branches of white forking out from a bolt that met the horizon.
“We need to get out of this.”
Grady grabbed Maren’s hand and hauled her around the bed of the truck to the driver’s side where he quickly opened the door and helped her in, his hands on her small waist to lift her up. Maren climbed across the cab. She pulled Grady’s hat from her head and settled it onto the dashboard, then wrung out her hair, twisting the long strands between her fingers.
“I’m getting water everywhere,” she apologized.
“I don’t care.”
Grady stepped up into the truck and shut the door behind him before crawling over the bench seat toward the woman he craved more than air.
Maren leveled a hungry look at him. She flipped her sodden hair over her shoulder, stared straight into Grady’s eyes, and grasped his face in her palms to give him a kiss that could resurrect a man from the dead. Grady’s head spun like he just got off a whirling ride at the fair. Buzzing with need, his lips parted as he let out a soft groan.
Maren slid back onto the seat, tugging Grady down to meet her.
They’d kissed before, but never like hormone-controlled teenagers, and certainly never in his truck like this. Something felt forbidden and off-limits, but they were grown adults and clearly wanted the same thing.
“I was so jealous today,” Maren said in between kisses that had turned quick and breathy.
Grady drew his chin back. “Yeah?”
“Yes, of that woman. I don’t know why Grady, but when she took your hat, I wanted to deck her.”
He couldn’t hold in his laugh. He rolled back against the bench seat and propped up on his elbow to look down at Maren. A wet lock of hair stuck to her forehead and he brushed it away with the tip of his finger. “You don’t have anything to be jealous of.”
“I gave you that hat when we were in high school. For your sixteenth birthday, if I remember right. You pointed it out every time we went to that tack shop and I knew you wouldn’t shut up about it until it was finally yours.”
“I know you gave it to me. It’s the reason I wear it all the time.”
Maren smiled. “The thought of some floosy taking off with it—”
“Wait. Did you just call that woman a floosy?”
“Grady, she wanted you to autograph her boobs. She’s a floosy. The very definition.”
With the back of his hand, Grady softly stroked Maren’s flushed cheek. “I would never have done that.”
“I know you wouldn’t have. And I actually worry that I might be the reason for that.”
“The reason I don’t go around autographing cleavage? My moral compass is the reason for that.” Grady’s chest rumbled with a low laugh. “But you’re the reason I don’t look twice at other women. You’re also the reason I’ve only been on a handful of dates since you left Riverburn.”
A look of shock crossed over Maren’s face.
“Is that something I should be insecure about?” Grady could feel his brow suddenly tighten.
“No, not at all. I’m just…surprised. You seem to be in perfect practice when it comes to…this.” She waved a hand in the space between them.
“Well, I’m not. But if you’re volunteering…”
Maren giggled. “I’m serious, Grady.” Her look turned somber. “I didn’t mean for you to wait for me. I never asked you to do that.”
“It’s not like I really had a choice in the matter. My heart doesn’t know how to love anyone but you, Maren. There are some things in life that a guy is just powerless to change. Me loving you is one of those things.”
Maren stilled.
Grady felt he’d said too much, and Maren’s doe-eyed gaze made him instantly regret his confession. She was right. She’d never asked him to wait for her. In truth, he’d never given her any indication he would. The exact opposite, really. He’d told her they were over on that terrible summer night at his trailer. He’d been the one to end things before anything ever even started.
But if Maren once put stock in that lie, Grady couldn’t detect any evidence of it now. Her look turned tender and she curled her hand around his neck. With their mouths mere inches apart, she beckoned him close and whispered, “I’m powerless when it comes to you, too, Grady. Absolutely, one-hundred-percent powerless.”
21
Maren
Grady slammed a hand to the dashboard, as though a good thump was all it would take for the truck’s motor to growl into submission.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” He combed a hand through his hair and let out a garbled curse. “First the door, now the engine?”
“Maybe it’s something simple like the battery,” Maren offered, but her knowledge of mechanics was next to nonexistent.