She could have only kissed me because of the rush, but a part of me knew it wasn’t just that. 

It’d been so long since I’d been with anyone that I didn’t really know what classified as dating. We’d gone on one date and shared one kiss, but did she want more? 

I turned onto my driveway, heading toward the house. It wasn’t too far from the street, but the dirt road was bumpy as we approached the white two-story.

“This is your house?” Sage asked from beside me, finally speaking after keeping quiet the entire ride.

“It is.” Shifting into park, I killed the engine and hopped out. I took steady breaths on my way around the hood to open her door for her. The nerves were settling in, but I did my best to keep them away. I didn’t need to be nervous around Sage. She was like sunshine after a blizzard, warming every cold inch that she shined on. Any fear I may have felt about having her in my home couldn’t touch me. 

After sliding off the seat, she looked up at the house while I closed the door. “You live here alone?” she asked as she turned to me.

“Aside from the crickets and coyotes?” I joked. “Yeah, I do. My brothers give me shit for having a house like this until they’re the ones crashing in my guest rooms.”

“Rooms?” she repeated, emphasizing the S.

“Just two.” Guilt slammed into me like a train. She and Avery were living over in town in a small two-bedroom cottage-like house, and I was out here living alone in a structure four times that size.

Shifting on my feet, I set a hand on her lower back, leading her toward the front door. After I unlocked it and headed inside behind her, I bolted the door again. It didn’t matter that I lived in the middle of nowhere, safety was always a priority. Plus, after tonight, the last thing I needed was that guy coming around for revenge. Speaking of…

“Did you know that guy?” I asked as she studied my kitchen.

She took a moment to respond, like the setup of my appliances and cabinets was all that interesting, then said, “No.”

I cocked a brow. “That doesn’t sound like a very confident ‘no.’”

She looked over her shoulder at me as I set my keys in the dish on the counter and my hat on the hook on the wall. “He was in the cafe a few days ago.”

“Ah, so you know of him.”

“Not really.”

“You didn’t speak to him, then?”

She tensed for a split second, but even though it was brief, I didn’t miss it.

“I did.”

I closed the distance so that I was standing directly behind her, her back now lightly pressed to my chest. Reaching a hand up, I brushed the hair away from her neck, then leaned closer to her ear. “Do I have to keep prying things out of you? Because I can.”

“So demanding,” she teased, her voice full of satiny lust that wrapped around my senses, heading south.

“This? This is nothing, Sage.” I brought my lips to her ear, faintly brushing a kiss to the lobe. Goosebumps freckled her neck and I smirked. “What’d you talk about?”

She inhaled deeply, her chest rising with the action, accentuating her breasts in the fitted white tank top she wore. I wanted to clamp down on them, suck on her peaked nipples for hours. I wanted to do a fuck ton of things to her in this moment, but I had no idea what she wanted out of being here. She was the one to ask to come to my house, but that wasn’t an invitation to have sex with her.

“He asked for my last name and if I’d been in town long,” she stated, her voice harder than before. 

I stopped, pulling my lips away from her ear. “He did what?”

She turned, our chests now touching. “It wasn’t anything, but then he wanted to buy me a drink at the bar and…” She trailed off.

“And now you don’t think it’s nothing,” I filled in.

She nodded slowly, her eyes shining with worry, though she did her best to mask it. She didn’t have to hide it around me. Whatever her battles were, whatever her insecurities or problems consisted of, I wanted them all. I wouldn’t let her be alone in that beautiful mind of hers.

She went to take a step back, but my arms quickly came around her, holding her to me. “Tell me what’s on your mind.”

She let out a slight scoff. “That’s a lot to ask.”

“Well, I’m asking.”

She pulled her bottom lip in between her teeth, and all I wanted to do was suck it right back out. 

Where the fuck was this sudden hunger for her coming from?

“He just gave me the creeps and kept pressing to buy the drink. That’s all.”

If she thought I’d believe that was all, then she must think of me as a fool. But I wouldn’t press. Tonight, Sage was fragile, and I’d handle her with the delicacy she needed. 

“If he comes near you again, you call me, okay?” It wasn’t a question, more so a demand.

“Okay.”

“Men like that deserve the worst of what’s coming to them. Don’t feel bad sticking up for yourself, and don’t feel guilty calling me.” Because I knew she would. Sage and I, we were alike in more ways than one. Like calls to like, and my entire being called to Sage like a lighthouse to a ship lost at sea.

I reached down, grabbing her hand in mine. “Come on.”

Leading her down the hall and around the corner, I opened the door to my bedroom and led her in. 

My king-sized bed sat in the middle, dark brown sheets folded over a cream comforter with more pillows than a typical bed for one held. Women weren’t the only ones who liked pillows. 

A floor to ceiling mirror sat against the wall across from the bed, gold rimming the edges with intricate detail at the top. To the left was the door to my bathroom, and behind the bed was a wall of windows that looked out over the land, but the curtains were drawn, blocking us in and the world out. 

“You’re very neat,” she stated from where we stood just a few feet inside the door. 

“Ranch work and lessons are messy by definition. I need some kind of cleanliness in my life.” People always talk about the gruff, messy cowboys, but never about the ones that still took their immaculacy at home into account. We weren’t all unhinged in that department.

Her hand slid from mine as she made her way over to the antique mirror. I’d found it at an auction and couldn’t pass up the price, and with such an empty house, I figured it would add some character. By the looks of it, Sage approved.

“It’s beautiful.”

I slowly stepped behind her as she looked up at the top of it, admiring the weaving of gold around the frame. It was the most expensive thing in this house. I didn’t indulge in pricey items often, but I was learning to treat myself every now and then. Life was short.

My hand reached up to her shoulder, gently trailing down her arm. My fingertips passed over the strap on her tank top, then slid down her bare skin. Like before, goosebumps rose in the wake of my finger, and I wondered how long it’d been since she’d been touched. 

“Just like you.”

She met my gaze in the mirror as I pressed a kiss to the crook between her neck and her shoulder.