Trent
Ispent the whole morning out with the cows, trying to get my head screwed on straight. It didn’t work.
By the time I hit the highway into Dallas, I was still thinking about Charlotte’s bare skin under my hands
and the way she’d melted against me. Hell, I’d never been that turned on. Not even close. It had been so
intense I’d had to stop.
Stop. Me, Trent Sh epard, who’d never once in his adult life turned down a willing woman, had pulled
away from her because if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have been able to ke ep any of the promises I’d made myself.
Part of me felt like a damn coward for leaving the bed this morning. The other part knew that if I’d stayed
even one more minute, there wouldn’t have been a force on earth that could’ve k ept me off her.
I wasn’t scared of her, of course, but I was a little worried about how she made me feel. There was a
visceral edge to the need coursing through me. Worse, the places inside where her words had landed last
night were so much de eper than they should’ve been.
My lawyer’s office was blessedly cold, enough that it forced the heat in my body to settle. I sat across from
the man with my boot tapping the floor while he flipped through paperwork as casually as if he wasn’t
holding my entire future in his hands.
Finally, he looked up, sliding the marriage certificate from Vegas back toward me. “It’s legitimate. Fully
binding. The officiant is
licensed and the documentation has been filed correctly. This is a legal marriage.”
I let out a breath as relief slid through me. Alex had already said the same thing, but I’d needed to hear it
from someone I paid a small fortune to catch loopholes. I’d needed to make sure there weren’t any.
“Alright,” I said, clearing my throat as my leg finally stopped bouncing. “Let’s get started on the rest.”
He nodded, moving efficiently through stacks of forms and contracts he pushed toward me. Access to my
bank accounts, investment portfolios, the ranch holdings, and my emergency medical directives.
Everything a wife was entitled to.
I initialed and signed each document, but the whole time, my mind k ept drifting right back to Charlotte. To
her soft gasp when I’d kissed her. To her hands gripping at my shoulders like she trusted me with her entire
existence. To the way she’d looked up at me afterward, her cheeks flushed and her eyes wide with
something that had damn near stolen the air right out of the room.
I’d had to get out of that bed before the sun even came up. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have stopped at kissing,
or touching, or anything else. As much as I wanted her, and I really fucking wanted her, I wasn’t sure what
would happen to me if I let myself fall completely. Instinctively, I knew that taking the next st ep would put
me precariously close to that edge.
When the lawyer left the room to make copies, I leaned back in my chair and scrubbed a hand over my
face. My whole body was still thrumming from last night, memories of her mouth on mine and the way
she’d screamed my name playing on r epeat in my head.
If she asked for more, when she asked for more, I didn’t know if I would have the strength to pull back. As
it was, I’d spent half the night after she’d fallen asle ep in the shower, doing everything I could to be able to
go back to that bed and not get completely taken over by pure, raw need.
It hadn’t helped as much as I’d been hoping. The lawyer returned with a neat folder and set it down right in
front of me. “Your accounts will reflect her authorization by tomorrow. She’ll be added to all relevant
documents.”
“Good,” I said, standing up so fast it was like my ass was on fire. “Is there anything else?”
“No, Mr. Sh epard. That covers it” I nodded, shook his hand, and walked out into the blinding Texas
sunshine, feeling steadier than I had in days. Charlotte and I were legally married, and instead of dread, all
I felt was relief.
Like everything in my life had clicked into place the second Charlotte Westwood—Sh epard—had laid her
head on my chest last night and breathed in like she couldn’t get enough of me. I got into my truck,
gripping the steering wheel tight and trying to calm the rush of anticipation crawling up my spine.
Sooner or later, she was going to ask for clarity about what last night had meant. What it’d changed and
why I’d slammed on the brakes. Frankly, I didn’t know how to tell her I already felt de eper than I had any
right to.
But I also knew that I wasn’t going to be able to ke ep denying her, or myself for that matter, for much
longer. Maybe I never should’ve tried in the first place. I was just struggling with myself right now, my
feelings about her being my wife clashing with the fact that she was still Alex’s sister too.
God, when I’d found out about Jameson and Sadie, I’d wanted to wring his neck with my bare hands. Alex
had asked for my help with the situation with Charlotte, but I highly doubted he’d meant for that help to
include burying myself balls de ep in his baby sister every day for the rest of my life.
Yeah, but Alex didn’t ask you to marry her, either, a voice whispered at the back of my mind. She is your
wife now, Trent. Because you wanted her to be.
With those thoughts churning through my brain, I swung by the club to grab lunch to go. Just a sandwich I
could eat in the car while I was on my way back to Charlotte, but Rob caught me almost as soon as I
st epped inside.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold up,” he said, pointing at my hand like I’d shown up wearing a severed finger.
“Is that a ring?”
I looked down at it. “Yeah. Last I checked, that is what those looked like.”
“And you didn’t tell me?” His grin spread so wide, it practically swallowed his whole damn face. “You
asshole. You could’ve invited us. Who’s the lucky woman?”
“Charlotte,” I said lightly.
“You married Charlotte Westwood?” Rob whooped so loudly that half the dining room turned, and he
clapped me on the back. “Mabel is going to lose her mind. She loves Charlotte.”
My eyebrows shot up. “She does?” “Oh yeah.” He laughed. “She said that Charlotte had enough backbone
to handle you and I happen to agree with her. We should get together soon. Mabel volunteers at that youth
program downtown, the kids’ literacy thing. Charlotte would love it. We’ll set up a lunch.”
I nodded, feeling a strange tug in my gut. Rob snapped his fingers. “Hey, are your folks still doing that big
barbecue next weekend?”
Shit. I’d forgotten all about it. “Yeah, they are. We’ll be there. You?”
“We wouldn’t miss it, but especially now. Everyone is going to want to meet Charlotte. I can’t wait to see
their reactions.” He clapped me on the shoulder again and turned to head back to his table, still grinning
like a fool. “Congrats, man. Really.”
I left the club carrying more than the brown paper bag of food. The idea of pulling into the driveway and
knowing she was inside, my wife, waiting for me? The prospect excited me.
It didn’t feel heavy the way marriage used to feel with Savannah. It didn’t feel like a burden at all, actually.
It felt like something I wanted to get used to, coming home to her, in a house that didn’t feel empty
anymore.
But when I walked inside, the entryway was quiet. “Charlotte?” No answer. I checked the kitchen. The
living room. Upstairs. Nothing. A flicker of unease crawled up my spine. Figuring that maybe she’d gotten
bored of talking to the furniture again, I headed out back to the stables. As soon as I st epped inside, my
stomach dropped.
One of the horses was missing. “Damn it,” I muttered, scanning the empty stall. Of course, she’d gone for
a ride while the clouds had been gathering all morning. If she’d just told me she planned on going, I
could’ve warned her about those particular clouds coming from that direction.
What was worse was that she barely knew the land. She didn’t know how fast storms came in around here
or the best ways home.
A crack of thunder split the sky open like confirmation from above. Then the rain came, driving down in
sheets that turned the ground to mud.
“Charlotte,” I breathed, already running toward the tack room. That warm feeling from earlier that had
made me think I could get used to this morphed into something sharp and cold. She was out there
somewhere. Alone. On a horse in weather that could turn dangerous real fast.
Only one thought pounded through my head as I jumped on Chili P epper’s back, desperately searching the
fields for any trace of her. It was louder than the thunder and stronger than the rain, a truth I couldn’t
outrun anymore.
Nothing about my feelings for her was fake, or born from duty, or any of the other bullshit I’d been trying
to hide behind. What I felt for Charlotte Sh epard was very, very real and right now that meant I was
absolutely fucking terrified of losing her.