She didn’t get hurt. Not romantically. She’d have to be able to fall in love to do that and so far, she hadn’t given herself any hope that she had that ability.

  Desire took over his expression, building in his slumberous gaze, shining from his slightly parted lips.

  If she stepped away, she’d be rejecting him, right? She couldn’t reject him.

  As badly as she wanted him, it would be a lie to reject him. Send him a false message.

  “I suggest we take this up at a later date,” Cole said just as she started to lift herself up to his lips. “We both have to work early in the morning and you need to prepare for our meeting with Mariah. I should take you home.” He hadn’t moved.

  But his gaze had softened enough that she took a deep breath.

  Nodded.

  And as disappointment washed through her in waves, she was also relieved.

  * * *

  Cole had learned early how to make temporary friends. How to enjoy people, get close to them quickly, knowing that he only had a window of time with them. That either he, or they, would come home from school one day to a parent’s news that they were being transferred, and off they’d go to another new world. You shed a few tears—when you were young enough that you didn’t know better—and then you found new friends to have fun with.

  Shelter Valley had changed all of that for him.

  Because he’d also learned young that he didn’t want to spend his life in temporary relationships. He wanted lifelong friends. Stability for himself and any family he created.

  That next week, the two worlds seemed to meld for him. The security of a solid home in a town he loved allowed him to get closer to a woman even knowing that his time with her would be short. Mia Jones, owner of Homestead Ranch, but also an accidental social media influencer, had come to the lunch on Tuesday with Mariah, wanting to do all she could to help with Lindsay’s fundraising venture. Mia ended up taking over publicity for them. Mariah provided all official content regarding the work that Forever Friends did, including, at Lindsay’s encouragement, real-life stories of people who’d been helped by the horse rescue program.

  Some would remain anonymous, but as their small team reached out, they found many former Forever Friends clients who wanted to help spread the word.

  Cole got almost one hundred percent local business participation, in four different categories. And Mia grew the project to a wider area, setting up online donations where businesses from outside Shelter Valley could join any of the four established categories and be entered to win a shout-out on Mia’s social media accounts.

  No matter how the project grew, Lindsay was right there, on top of things, organizing it all, making spreadsheets, keeping track, monitoring. All in her spare time.

  Project Forever Friends, as their efforts had been named, had Cole and Lindsay together every evening over the next week, as they finalized plans and got things in place for an official rollout the following Monday at the open of business in Shelter Valley. But they were rarely alone.

  More his call than was absolutely necessary.

  He wanted to give Lindsay time to get to know the real him. The working, Shelter Valley citizen guy who lived a relatively simple life. And if she still thought she was attracted to him once things rolled out and their nightly work quieted down some, then, maybe, he’d kiss her again.

  And see where it led.

  Or, maybe not. The decision didn’t have to be made ahead of time. Or at all, if that’s how things fell.

  Saturday afternoon, though, when he and Lindsay ended up alone on the floor of her apartment—affixing labels she’d designed and had printed to the collection jars she’d ordered, in preparation for their delivery to all of the participating Shelter Valley businesses the next day—he had little doubt as to how things were falling for the gorgeous blonde.

  Barefoot, and in a flowing spaghetti-strap sundress, she kept bumping his bare feet with the tips of her toes. Maybe because the space was entirely too small for the project at hand. He was pretty sure not. Lindsay was deliberately teasing him.

  Lillie, stretched out on the sheet Lindsay had laid on the apartment’s couch for her, seemed to notice the contact, but didn’t mind all that much.

  By the fifth toe touch, Cole was done waiting for time to pass. “You better be sure about the force you’re letting loose there,” he said aloud with a half-choking chuckle, nodding toward where all five of her painted left toenails were resting against the side and top of his foot.

  “Oh, so you do still feel a little something for me,” she said back with complete sass. But the grin on her face wasn’t casual at all. Her lips trembled. And her eyes burned with promise.

  “Lindsay...”

  “Yes, Cole?” She ran a tongue over her lips.

  “You just put that label on upside down.”

  Her fingers shook as she peeled. Her toes left his skin as she stood to get some glass cleaner and a cloth to take the sticky glue residue off the jar.

  And Cole cursed himself for defusing the moment. He wanted her so badly he ached nights. Took multiple cold showers a day.

  He could handle her eventual leaving.

  But wasn’t going to put himself through another time of finding out that the woman in his arms really wasn’t as into him as she’d thought she was. He had to know that she saw him as he really was before he let himself have what he suspected was going to be the best sex of his life.

  Past and future.

  No one was going to be as fantastic as Lindsay Warren.

  His head knew it. His gut knew it. And his perpetual hardness around her—was pretty much done along with the rest of him. Done waiting.

  And how did he know for sure that Lindsay was really into him? As a woman was into a man that she didn’t just want as a friend?

  Where was the evidence? The proof?

  When had he become such a flaming idiot on the matter? Who cared who liked who more if the sex was mutually great and no one got hurt when she left?

  There’d be regret, sure, when he watched her drive out of town. If, indeed, she ended up going. She hadn’t mentioned it, but there was always a chance her grandparents could fall in with Shelter Valley. Be agreeable to moving there.

  And if she left town and he’d passed on the opportunity to know her as closely as he possibly could?

  Top-of-the-line disappointment there.

  By the time the jars were done, in boxes ready to be loaded into his SUV for their deliveries the next day, Cole had pretty much used up every thought he had on the matter of sex with Lindsay Warren.

  And was getting ready to carry out the first batch of boxes when Lindsay called out to him. “Cole?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I have no idea how to come on to a guy, and I think I’m doing it all wrong.” The words were bold and she was looking him right in the eye.

  His loose-fitting cotton shorts were suddenly tight beneath the oversize short-sleeved shirt he’d pulled on that morning.

  “You’ve never come on to a guy.” Disbelieving statement more than question.

  And when she shook her head, he said, “I find that hard to believe.”

  “I’ve never wanted one enough to bother,” she said then.

  More like, she’d never had to bother, he figured. As beautiful as she was, any guy she wanted would be hitting on her, first.

  With him being the exception.

  Because he was behaving like a very not-smart man.

  “Not even ones with whom I’ve been in relationships. Which, come to think of it, is probably why they were all so brief.”

  So was that her attraction to him? The fact that he was holding out when she’d been able to have any man she wanted?

  He’d gotten over Nicky. Over his other failures to raise more than friendship in a woman’s heart. But if he started something with Lindsay and she decided she just wanted to be friends?

  Good God, man. You’re thirty-one years old. Not fifteen.

  “You make me wet, just looking at you,” she said then. Without the least bit of a sexy tone in her voice. “Just stating the facts, man, just stating the facts,” was what her words sounded like to him. “I dream about your lips on mine again, and then moving all over me. I want to sit on top of you. To feel you over me. And, oh lord, in me. All the way in. Again and again. I want to rub my hands over that massive chest of yours and to kiss your sweet stomach. You’re driving me over the edge here, Cole, and as long as you’re as good with short-term relationships as you say you are, the only conclusion I can come to is that you aren’t as attracted to me as I am to you.”

  He was getting moist at his tip. Knew what that meant.

  “Anyway, I just needed to get it said. Get it out there. Acknowledge the situation and move on from it...you know, the whole elephant on the table th—”

  His lips cut off the rest of whatever she’d been going to say.

  There’d been enough words. Enough thinking.

  It was time to pleasure the most incredible woman he’d ever known.

  No questions asked. And no looking back.

  * * *

  Every look in his eye, every touch of his fingers, his body, every sound he made, the woodsy freshly-showered scent of him, the softness of his belly as she sat upon it, all of it consumed Lindsay, drove her, became a part of her.

  Her body needed, demanded, every ounce of her. For once in her lifetime, her mind was completely silent.

  Cole played her as though she were a priceless instrument, strumming lightly here, more powerfully there. Her hands, her lips, couldn’t get enough of him. The dance went on and on. No judgment, no thought, no ideas, even, just riding waves that were the whole world.

  When he finally entered her, holding himself on his elbows so his size was a gentle touch rather than crushing, she cried out. Again and again. Out of her mind with sensation that spiraled through her entire body. Bucking up to him, she rode him fast, slowly, and fast again.

  Until, like winning choreography, they came together, seconds and seconds of unbelievable pleasure.

  Once wasn’t enough. She knew it as soon as her breathing started to slow. He’d pulled out of her but was growing again.

  Twice wasn’t enough, either.

  She laughed at his readiness. He quickly showed her her own. And grinned at her shock.

  When passion finally had to take a break, to give their bodies time to replenish, Lindsay remained in the aftermath of euphoria. A soft and quiet place that held her with tenderness.

  Just as Cole did. Both arms resting loosely on her as she lay sprawled over him.

  His muscles were magnificent. Huge and hard and yet offering promise of care and protection. A sense that there’d be no job too big for him to accomplish. No strength more powerful than his own.

  At some point after he pulled her sheet up over them, she felt a slight depression on the end of the bed.

  Lillie had joined them.

  As she fell asleep, Lindsay accepted the old girl’s blessing.

  Chapter Eleven

  Cole got Lillie’s message. Fun was over, time to go home. The old girl had been patient, waiting out on the couch. Still, he put her off another half hour as he lay there in Lindsay’s rented bed and held her close while she slept.

  He was making a memory.

  One that would bring him pleasure for the rest of his life.

  Cole Bennet, the guy who was more often the friend than the lover, had driven a beautiful woman to the point of complete, mindless explosion.

  He was smiling as he gently rolled over, untangled himself, kissed her and grabbed his clothes to dress out in the hallway. Smiled all the way home, too.

  Grinned the next night, too, when he left her bed.

  And for much of the next week as he and Lindsay delivered their jars. She collected them every night—and he smiled some more as he heard stories she’d been told from the various citizens she was getting to know. Every business tallied their day’s collection, and then Lindsay did a recount at night before depositing the money in an account she’d opened specifically for the Project Forever Friends funds.

  As great an artist as she was, Lindsay was showing him a side of herself that was equally impressive. Her business mind easily was on par with his.

  Which made him wonder why her art wasn’t supporting her any better than a tiny apartment, an ancient car and scant wardrobe. Not only was he seeing her in the same five or six outfits, he’d gotten a glimpse of her closet when he’d been leaving her bedroom that first night. There were six hangers. Period.

  Granted, she wasn’t sure she was staying. Had probably left things in storage. But that car of hers would have held a lot more than she’d brought with her.

  As though she’d never planned on staying?

  Because he had other obligations several nights that next week he was only able to have sex with Lindsay once more after Sunday’s repeat, at her apartment again on Wednesday night after a council meeting. And with Lillie waiting at home for him. The experience was quick, but as mind-blowing the third night as it had been the first. It was as though every fantasy he’d ever had, every dream he’d dared to dream when he’d been younger, had come true in her.

  Yeah, if she left, he’d miss the hell out of her. But he’d still be glad that he’d known her.

  Was one hundred percent certain he’d made the right choice to be with her.

  And at work...her art was glorious, the bright colors and muted tones mingling much like the holiday did. Glitz, excitement and gifts, and stable with a manger filled with hay and a newborn baby. While she didn’t depict the two sets of images together, she managed to get the feeling of awe, humility and miraculous joy into every design.

  She didn’t report to him. Chief of personnel had no meat in the company’s product. But after he saw her initial designs, he made certain that Brent Wilson knew to get a look at them as well.

  He needn’t have bothered, he discovered as, still sitting in his boss and mentor’s office Friday morning, Wilson showed him the concept board the art director had delivered just that day.

  “Look at Lindsay Warren’s output,” Brent told Cole. “Her designs are magnificent. Easily our best work. What’s your take on her settling in here? Any complaints about her or from her?”

  “None.”

  “You’re working with her on Project Friends Forever. You get a sense that she’s enjoying Shelter Valley? Making friends?”

  “Ah, Brent, that line of questioning creates an issue for me.”

  Cole saw the older man’s brows draw together and was surprised at his own lawyerly tone. He owed Brent so much, admired the man more than any other, and so he had to be honest with him.

  “Lindsay has given me some confidences,” he said slowly. “I’m not at liberty to share them.”

  When he saw Brent’s brows change from frowning to raised with interest, he groaned inwardly. The conversation was unexpected. He hadn’t been prepared.

  “You’re seeing her personally?” Brent asked, not quite smiling, but clearly showing pleasure at the idea.

  “Yes, but nothing long-term,” he quickly stated the important facts. “And as to the rest, I can tell you that she has grandparents in San Diego who miss her.”

  The older man’s gaze sharpened. He pinned Cole with it for longer than was comfortable. And then, his expression softening again, he said, “I guess it’s up to you to convince her that we’ll miss her more if she decides not to stay.” Brent nodded then, as if coming to a decision. “Offer her more money. Enough that she won’t be able to refuse,” he said, naming an amount. “She’ll make it back for us in a year.”

  Money had never been an issue for Brent, but that was going far, even for him.

  On the other hand, Lindsay’s work was superior to anything else they’d seen.

  And... Cole wanted her to stay as badly as Brent did.

  Probably worse.

  Obviously worse.

  Not that he was going to share that tidbit with his boss, no matter how long they’d been family to each other.

  He couldn’t let himself hope that a substantial raise would sway Lindsay’s ability to stay in Shelter Valley. But was eager to make the offer, just in case. He’d do about anything to sweeten that deal.

  “Emily and I are having movie night tonight with the kids,” Brent said then. “Emily’s making her kettle corn. Genre’s comedy. Kyle’s turn to pick the films. See if you can get Lindsay to join us...”

  It was more of an order than request. Not at all the norm between him and Brent. But then, Cole hadn’t told his friend that he was seeing someone since Nicky.

  A decade ago.

  “I’ll issue the invitation, but I can’t guarantee she’ll come,” he said, standing. Made it to the door, then turned. “But if she does... I swear to God, Brent, if you or Emily or the kids make it more than it is, I’ll get up and walk out.” He’d never been more serious about anything in his life.

  Brent’s grin didn’t bring out the responding sentiment in him. Seeing Cole’s unrelenting expression, the older man sobered immediately, and said, “I’ll talk to them and you have my word, we’ll respect your feelings, Cole.”

  He nodded.

  And walked out.

  * * *

  Leaving work early on Friday, Lindsay made her money collections and headed home, eager to add to the impressive balance that had grown in the project’s bank. In just one week’s time, they’d managed to raise almost as much as she’d collect at a black-tie affair buzzing with California’s most wealthy donors.

  She wanted the work done because Cole had invited her to have dinner with him at his place. He’d come get her. They still weren’t going public with their personal friendship, though the project had made it easier for them to be seen in town together.