Roped Tight (Ryker Ranch #4) - Kim Loraine Page 0,35

up the doors and started driving away. If Sam got hurt because of these city boys, if he got really hurt, they were in for one hell of a reckoning.

I stormed back to the place where our horses were hitched. The people that had been milling had dissipated like nothing happened. Leading in both horses, I secured mine first, then Sammy's, and began the process of removing his saddle and getting her ready to go into her stall.

"What do you think you're doing with my horse?" Sam's voice stopped me in my tracks. He was okay?

I looked up at him. He was a little dirty but no worse for wear. I didn't see someone crushed and broken. I saw a cowboy who’d done plenty of hard work for the day. "I thought… The ambulance…"

He sighed and shook his head. "Dumbass thought he could just get on the back of Lucifer now that he’d ridden a horse for a while. He'll be okay. Probably a few broken ribs, but he'll survive. He won't be coming back on the show, though."

Relief hit me so hard it nearly buckled my knees.

I was done. Done denying myself the man I wanted. Done doing what I thought was best. I needed him in any way I could have him. Silently, I led his horse into the stall, close the door, and latched it. Then I locked eyes with Sam Ryker, who'd closed the distance between us as I put his horse away.

"Sammy, if you're with someone else, you better tell me right the hell now."

My heart beat in my throat, the pulse pounding through my ears as I waited for his response. All I got was a small shake of his head. It couldn't wait anymore. I reached out and grabbed him by the nape of the neck and pulled that man hard against my chest. His hat knocked mine off, and I didn't care. All I wanted was this moment. This push and pull, the need for both of us to dominate until one would submit, was the dance I was used to. I saw it the instant he gave in.

He reached up and stroked my cheek gently, as though he wasn't sure if this was really happening.

"Did you fuck him?” The question was broken, raw, and tore from my throat like jagged shards of glass.

"Who?"

"Greg."

Before I could move in, his lips were on mine. That hand that had been on my cheek now cupped the back of my head and pulled me closer to him. We were a tangle of tongues and lips and hands roaming each other's bodies, both of us starving for the other one. I hadn't kissed Sam in ten years. But every night in my dreams, I did.

There was so much we needed to make up for, so many things we left unsaid, hurts we dealt each other. Like the fact that even though he hated me, I never stopped loving him.

Sunny’s annoyed whinny pulled us apart, reminding both of us of exactly where we were. We were still on the clock…technically. Cameras could be around any corner, though I was pretty sure they'd packed up and followed the ambulance adventure.

“What are you doing for supper tonight?" I asked, forcing the words out of my suddenly parched throat.

"It's Friday night."

Of course, family dinner. My hope deflated, but this was a step in the right direction. "Right. Give my best to your mama." I turned and walked away, heading back to my horse, trying not to beg him to spend time with me after supper.

His hand was warm on my shoulder, and I turned to see him holding my hat. “You dropped this."

"Thank you. Have a good night, Sammy."

He grinned, a real, warm, sexy grin. "You too, Tucker."

12

Sam

My lips still burned from Tucker's kiss. God, I felt like a twenty-one-year-old kid again. Young and dumb and falling for him all over again. He didn't seem to realize the effect he had on me, the way he could twist me up inside and make me feel like I was the only person in his entire world. But I'd been there before and had realized Tucker wasn't the kind of guy who stayed. Maybe that was because he'd never had that in his own life, or maybe it was because he didn't want it, I didn't know. But I wasn't sure I really wanted to open myself up to heartbreak again.

After supper with my family, I sat outside on the porch, enjoying