Heartbreak Ranch by Anastasia Ryan

college graduate. You’re twenty years old. Your parents still treat you like a little girl who can’t make her own decisions, don’t they?”
    “Yes, of course they let me make my own choices. It doesn’t mean that they would approve of me sneaking out of the cabin in the middle of the night to some guy’s bed—some guy who I just met. Some guy who is older than me by … Exactly how old are you?”
    “Twenty-eight,” he said dryly.
    “Speaking of age, I wish you would stop thinking of me as though I am a little girl.”
    His hand cupped one of her breasts. “If I thought of you as no more than a little girl, you wouldn’t be lying here naked as the day you were born.”
    Even his lightest touches were enough to ignite a flame in Graysen’s body. “Colt, when you touch me, it makes me weak ...”
    He shot up out of bed. “What did I say about talk like that?”
    Graysen looked at him and giggled. He ran his hands through his hair and muscles rippled up and down the length of his body. She drank him in with her eyes. She had no doubt he was the reason they invented Wranglers.
    “I swear, you’re going to be the end of me, girl,” he teased as he pulled on his jeans before turning to flash a wicked grin.
    “Well, if you must go back to your cabin tonight, I’ll walk you there.” He refused to let her dress herself, muttering something about her wearing clothing being a sin, and he slowly and quite agonizingly ran his hands over her body while putting her panties, bra, and dress back on her.
    They took their time walking back to her cabin. Hungry to know each other more, they started talking about their favorite things. Graysen wanted to devour him like a slice of chocolate cake. She wanted to know what he loved and what he hated. She wanted to know how he learned to ride, how old he was when he first tamed a horse. She wanted to know everything there was to know about her handsome ranch hand.
    “Middle name?” Colt asked as they took their time.
    “Elizabeth. And yours?”
    “My given name is Colton Jeremiah McCord.”
    She smiled and pictured him as a young boy with his momma calling him by his full name when he was in trouble.
    “What’s your favorite food?”
    “Ribeye ... although after tonight I think that’s changed. I’d much rather feast on you ...”
    “Colt!” She smacked his arm in playful protest.
    He laughed and kissed her hair. “What about you?”
    “Mmm ... chocolate cake, most definitely.”
    Their love walk continued, their hands intertwined and their bodies embracing in the cool Wyoming night. He kept stopping to kiss her and hold her, not wanting to let her go back to her cabin.
    “Spend the day with me tomorrow,” Colt whispered as he nuzzled her neck, pressing her up against the back of the house.
    “Yes ... oh yes ...” She sighed as his hands cupped her face and his mouth once again slashed over hers. She would do whatever it took to see him as much as possible in the next days. Her vacation was now a time to explore her deepest desires.
      
    ***
      
    Dawn was knocking at night’s door when Colt finally made it back to his cabin. He stared in amazement at the tangled sheets on his bed. How had it happened? How had everything come to life suddenly, like a black and white film redone in Technicolor? He couldn’t remember feeling happier, freer, and more at ease. Graysen belonged to him. For a few blissful moments, she was open and unguarded. All that existed was the energy between them and it throbbed with sweet promises.
    He stripped in the bathroom, throwing his jeans and socks in the hamper. If she’d stayed the night, she would be in the shower with him. He imagined her in that tight little shower, her warm, soft curves pressed into his body, and he grew hard at the thought of it. He knew he had to rein in his wild thoughts, or he wouldn’t be worth a damn herding the cattle tomorrow. “I’m too tired for more than one cold shower,” he mumbled as he