Hot Cowboy Nights (Lucky Penny Ranch #2)(57)

He shortened his step to make it easier for her, but she quickly proved she was no stranger to rough ground. “And, darlin’, you were at work in the daylight hours when I cleared out the mesquite to make us a fairy-tale road.”

Most women, especially those in his past, would have whined from the first step. Not Lizzy. Her body language said that it was an adventure for her, not something to endure until she could get back to the party.

“Sleeping Beauty.” She stepped in a rut and lost her grip on his hand.

His arms went around her waist and held her tightly to his chest to keep her from falling. “Yes, you are a beauty and I reckon we could sleep.” He could feel her racing heart keeping time with his.

Half her face was darkened by shadows, but moonlight lit the other part. It might take a lifetime, but someday he wanted to be the cowboy that lit up both sides when he kissed her.

She rolled up on her toes and the tip of her tongue moistened her lips. Heavy lashes fanned across her cheeks as her eyes fluttered shut. Arms snaked up around his neck and fingers splayed through the back of his hair. Then his lips were on hers and all the fairy tales in the world couldn’t describe the way he felt.

Men weren’t supposed to go all tingly and mushy when they kissed a woman. Toby could testify from past experience that cowboys got aroused, loved the chase, and enjoyed kissing a woman. But this business with Lizzy tugged at something inside his heart as well as behind his zipper.

“I believe”—she panted when the kiss ended—“that Sleeping Beauty has been awakened.”

“I remember that story now.” He wrapped an arm around her waist and took a step. “Does that make me a prince? I always thought I was just an old cowboy.”

“Depends on whether it works again.” She fell right in beside him. “Oh, no! I see a flame. Is the pasture on fire? I left my phone in my purse.” She whipped around to run back toward the house.

He scooped her up in his arms. “It’s not a fire. It’s part of the surprise.”

She wiggled. “Then put me down, Prince Charming, so I can go see it.”



Lizzy had been skeptical as well as hungry when they started down the pathway that he’d evidently cleared in the past couple of days. It hadn’t been there before and the ground was still rough from where the mesquite had been ripped out of the ground and pushed to one side or the other.

Dates involved going out to dinner, maybe a movie, or dancing at a honky-tonk. Hiking through thick mesquite to a place where firelight flickered in the distance had certainly never been one of her past dates. Excitement replaced skepticism and she was eager to see what he’d planned.

Sure, he would have eventually cleared the trees off the land to make room for pastures and cattle, but he’d done all this especially for her for only one evening. It was enough to render her speechless, and Lizzy Logan hadn’t been in that position very often in her lifetime.

A red bandanna appeared out of nowhere. “After we make this turn, you’ll be able to see the surprise but I want to keep it secret a little longer. Trust me?”

She nodded and he blindfolded her. Taking both her hands in his, he walked backward and led her. She hadn’t hesitated about the blindfold, but now all those stories about that book and movie, Fifty Shades of Grey, flashed through her mind. She hadn’t read the book or seen the movie, but with all the hoopla in every magazine at the time, it wasn’t difficult to imagine what all it involved. If whips or leather came out, she would be nothing but a blur as she made her way back to the house.

“Stand right here,” he whispered.

Without sight, all her other senses became heightened. The frogs, crickets, and a lonely old owl joined with a howling coyote. A soft breeze fluttered the mesquite leaves around her, adding a crispy sound to the wild animal concert. There was something else, a crackling sound much too faint to be wood burning.

The aroma of freshly turned earth and Toby’s shaving lotion blended together to tease her sense of smell. She inhaled and caught a whiff of something familiar. Citronella. The date involved candles in the middle of a forest of mesquite trees.

She’d never noticed how rough or big his hands were until she couldn’t see them anymore. They’d reached out to her when she’d come close to falling. They’d roamed her body on those hot nights they’d shared. But right then, she recognized the intense comfort in knowing they would protect her.

His lips closed on hers and he teased her mouth open with his tongue. She tasted sweet tea and excitement as her knees went more than a little weak. Sometime during the scorching-hot kiss she felt the blindfold disappear, but even after Toby took a step back, she kept her eyes closed.

“Open your eyes,” he drawled.

She obeyed and gasped. To most women it would have been nothing more than a cleared patch in the middle of a bunch of small, gnarly trees, but to Lizzy it was enchanting. She stood beneath an archway formed of uprooted branches piled and stuck together, wide enough for two people to walk under if they stayed close together. On the other side a spot had been cleared with the old well in the northeast corner and a patchwork quilt on the other side.

Thick branches covered with green leaves entangled from one tree to the next, forming walls for a room with the sky for a roof. Two candles were on top of the board covering the well. Ten others surrounded the blanket. Throw pillows had been tossed about randomly on the quilt, but right there in the middle of it was a huge picnic basket. She didn’t know such things existed outside of romance books and movies.