Come To Me (Dare With Me #3) - J.H. Croix Page 0,50

summer brought things up a notch. There was plenty of excellent food from casual fare and even close to fancy. With the exception that I didn’t think a single restaurant in the entire state of Alaska required fancy dress for dinner. Alaskan residents would probably boycott if that were the case.

Diego slowed as we approached the road that led to my place, and I giggled to myself as we drove past the very spot he had stopped to help me when Charlie got loose. A moment later, he turned down my driveway.

I reluctantly climbed off the motorcycle. Being plastered to Diego felt good. Not simply good, it felt freaking awesome. I took off my helmet and handed it to him as he opened the small compartment behind the seat where I’d been riding and stowed it.

Charlie nickered softly from where he stood by the edge of the pasture fence adjacent to the parking area. Shasta joined him, looking expectantly toward us with his ears perked forward as Diego and I stood beside his motorcycle. I shifted on my feet to look over, my heel catching on a small rock. When I stumbled, just barely, Diego placed his hand on my shoulder to steady me.

It was nothing more than an incidental touch. And yet, all of my attention swiveled to that spot, like he’d burned a brand on me. Heat radiated from his touch through my clothing, to my skin before sending a flash throughout my entire system.

“Are they hungry?” he asked with a smile, the heat banked in his eyes sending the butterflies in my belly into a tizzy.

His palm slid away from my shoulder, and I missed his touch instantly. I forced myself to focus and behave normally. He didn’t appear addled out of his mind with lust. As if to drag my mind back to reality, Charlie nickered again, this time with a touch of impatience.

“Probably. My yoga class finished only half an hour before you picked me up for dinner, so I’m a little late with feeding them.”

“I’ll help,” he offered, nudging his chin in the direction of the horses.

“You don’t mind?”

“Of course, I don’t mind. I like horses. Come on. No sense in making them wait any longer.”

Diego caught my hand in his as we crossed the parking area into the barn. I gestured for him to follow me into the feed room. “We’re not just putting them to bed. I need to get their food in their stalls first.”

As I turned, I caught him glancing toward the very spot on the wall by the door where I’d gone a little crazy and he had fucked me up against the wall. When his eyes met mine, my cheeks got hot.

“Just tell me what to do,” he said, his lips twitching with a smile.

It felt as if his words held a double entendre. However, because I was anything but cool, I simply told him what to do about getting the food ready for the horses.

“Shasta gets some medicine in his feed,” I said, gesturing toward the buckets lined up in a row by the door.

It had taken me a few weeks, but I settled on a system where after I fed the horses in the morning, I brought their feed buckets in here because it minimized me carting things back and forth. “The food for Hazelnut is high end,” I explained, referring to one of the boarding horses and pointing to a labeled bucket.

“It’s vegan,” I added when Diego peered into it, his brows hitching up in question.

“Vegan, it is,” he said with a shrug.

After we got the feed buckets in the stalls, I let the horses in while Diego tossed hay into each stall. “What now?” he asked.

“I usually leave them to eat for at least an hour. They might finish sooner, but then I let them out for a few more hours before bringing them in for the night.”

“An hour is plenty of time.”

Reaching out, he caught my hand in his, reeling me close. In a hot second, sparks were scattering through my body. I was pressed against his hard, muscled form, and he dropped hot kisses along my neck while I shivered all over.

I was terrible at playing it cool, absolutely pathetic. And, apparently, when a man could really get to me, like only Diego could, I melted into a needy girl at nothing more than a few kisses.

“Plenty of time for what?” I asked breathlessly.

Diego lifted his head. “I’m reconsidering if it’s enough