Chapter Six

GAGE

I KEPT TOSSING and turning in bed. Cassidy was going back to Austin tomorrow, and I wouldn’t see her for three weeks. This last week had been more torturous than living with them, and I was seriously considering not letting her go back with Ty. Despite the things that had happened in the last year, and what happened at the beginning of the week at the bonfire, I knew for sure she was in love with me too. Mama didn’t have to tell me that she didn’t look at Ty the way she looked at me; I’d known that from day one. But my entire family was now convinced she wanted me too, and I think that made watching her with Tyler harder than ever. Before, I kept telling myself I was only seeing what I wanted to; now I knew that wasn’t it, and I needed to try to get in her head one more time. Besides, Mama and my sisters, especially Amanda, had taken a huge likin’ to Cassidy, and I knew I wasn’t the only one who wanted her in our family now.

Jumping out of bed, I threw on a pair of jeans and the first shirt my hands touched before quietly making my way to Amanda’s room. After making sure my sister was completely out—since apparently she had been awake every morning when I woke Cassidy up for my hug and decided to fill Mama and my sisters in on that bit of information—I walked over to Cassidy’s bed and didn’t waste time. I brushed her hair away from her face and pressed my mouth to her neck and cheek before saying low in her ear, “Wake up, darlin’.”

Her eyes shot open and she looked at me, confused, for a moment. “Gage? Is it already time for you to go to work?”

“Not even close.”

“Oh.” She yawned and tried to lean over to look at Amanda. “Then what are you doing?”

“You wanna go for a ride with me?”

She paused. “Right now?”

“If you want to go back to sleep we don’t have to . . .” God, this was a bad idea.

“Who’s going?”

“Just us.”

Her eyes widened and a soft smile touched her lips. “ ’Kay, let’s go.” She crawled out of bed and looked at me, then down at herself. “Uh . . . what should I wear?”

I looked at her little body in those short sleep shorts and that form-fitting sleeveless shirt; my body started burning and my pants got tighter just looking at her. “That.”

Cassidy pulled her bottom lip into her mouth and even in the dark I could see her cheeks went red. “Guess I’m ready then.”

Grabbing her hand, I led her through the dark house, snatching a blanket out of the closet on the way out, and had Bear saddled up and both of us on him in no time. I could have gotten Star ready for her, but I wanted this excuse to have my arms around her, her back against my chest.

I led Bear to a creek that ran through my favorite part of the ranch and tied his reins around a tree branch on top of the hill before spreading out the blanket and lying down with Cass. We talked for two hours about the ranch, the stars, the quiet other than the light wind and cicadas, and the fireflies, which were her favorites. Cassidy began yawning a lot and I started to wonder if I should take her back, but I wasn’t ready to end this.

“I’m going to miss it here.” She sighed softly. “It’s so beautiful, all of it.”

“You can come back as often as you’d like.”

She smiled as she rolled on her side to look at me. “I’d wear out my welcome if I came here as much as I wanted to.”

“Not possible, my family loves you.” I love you.

“I’m going to miss them too; they’re so amazing. I’ve never really been close with any other girls, even Jackie. I mean, she’s a good friend and all, but it’s just not how I feel with your mom and sisters. I wish I could’ve had family like that growing up.”

God, there were so many things I wanted to say, but every single one of them was too much. I’d just scare her away. She yawned again and I sat up. “You’re tired, I should get you back.”

She grabbed my arm and pulled me back down, scooting up to lay her head on my chest. “Not yet. Going back means I have to leave you, and I don’t want to.”

My heart skipped a beat, then took off. “Cassidy.” I placed my fingers under her chin and tilted her head back; her honey eyes were bright in the moonlight. I slid out from under her head and hovered over her, my lips within an inch of hers. “Please don’t leave.”

Brushing my mouth across hers, her breath caught and eyes darkened before she wrapped her hands around my neck and crushed her mouth to mine. Our lips moved against each other, and a soft whimper escaped her throat when I caught her bottom lip between my teeth. Exactly the way I’d wanted to from the first night of meeting her. I pressed my body against hers and couldn’t stop my groan when her tongue met mine and she ran her hands through my hair. Lowering my body to hers, I wanted to die when she hitched her knees onto my hips; placing both forearms on either side of her head to hold my weight, I ground my hips into hers and was rewarded with a sweet-as-sin moan. God, I wanted her, to feel her and hear her sigh my name, but I knew I needed to restrain myself from anything like that for now, which meant I needed to stop kissing her. I just didn’t want to. I wanted to rip her shorts and shirt off and spend the rest of the night worshipping her body, I wanted to make her moan like that again and again . . . damn it, I really needed to stop. I forced our kisses to slow until our lips were barely brushing each other and tried not to think about slamming into her.