Read Online A Real Cowboy Knows How to Kiss by Stephanie Rowe - Free Book Online Page A

do that. She couldn't live through a rejection by Steen. She could handle being dismissed by anyone except him, because he was the light that had kept her going all these years.
    Tears filled her eyes, and she pulled back, stepping out of his embrace. "I can't do this."
    "What?" He stared at her, his eyes so dark and turbulent that she wanted to throw herself back in his arms and pretend she wasn't who she was. "What's wrong?"
    "Nothing. I just—" She tucked her hair behind her ear, wishing she could be any place but in that barn with Steen. What had she been thinking by kissing him? Fantasies were better left as fantasies. She could never deliver on the intensity of what was sizzling between them. "I just remembered another appointment. That's all."
    "Another appointment?" His eyes darkened, and he walked over to her, closing the distance she'd just managed to put between them. He caught her chin lightly between his thumb and forefinger, forcing her to look at him. "Don't lie to me, Erin. I can take it from anyone else, but not from you."
    She saw the plea in his eyes, and the confusion, and her heart seemed to shatter. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm just a mess. I just got out of a really terrible marriage, and I...I haven't been kissed in a really long time, let alone done anything more. It's just...I know you're..." She bit her lip, wanting to hit him for not looking away and giving her space. "God, Steen! You've been with so many women, and you're this great expert, and I just... I'm just extremely insecure when it comes to sex, and especially with you." She rolled her eyes and pulled away. "God, how could I even go there with you?" She started to walk away, then spun back to face him. "You've been my source of hope and strength for all these years. In my fantasies, I'm good enough for you. I don't want that shredded by reality. I couldn't take it if you rejected me, too." She gestured back and forth between them, trying to articulate what she was feeling for him. "This thing between us is amazing. I'm shocked that you've been thinking of me all this time, like how I've been thinking of you, but don't you get it? If we tried to make it real, then it disappears. We both lose what little hope it gave us."
    He sighed, and ran his hand through his hair. "Erin, you've got it so wrong—"
    "No, I don't." She held up her hand. "I don't want to talk about this anymore. Kissing you was amazing and incredible, but we're going to leave it like that, okay? I'm going to go get my supplies and fix your bandage, and then I'm going to leave, okay? Okay. Great. Fine." She flung up her hands and stalked out, not waiting for his response.
    She didn't want him to call her back…but she did. She wanted more than anything for him to fight for her, to announce that he believed in her, to declare that he'd waited so long for this moment that nothing would hold him back from being with her, no matter how pathetic she was.
    But he didn't say that.
    He didn't say a word.
    He simply let her walk away.
    And her heart, which she hadn't thought could bleed anymore, crumbled into its last pieces.
***
    Steen braced his hands on the stall door, his mind reeling as he replayed Erin's comments. He didn't even know which one to react to first. He was furious that she'd been married to someone who made her feel like shit. What kind of bastard did that to a woman, let alone to Erin ? She was an incredible woman, and he couldn't imagine how she'd been treated to make herself believe otherwise. What had she endured?
    Then…oh, man, he couldn't believe her comments that she wasn't good enough for him. Was she insane? She'd always been so far out of his reach it had been laughable, but now he was an ex-con with a rap sheet? Yeah, he was even lower on the totem pole now. She should never feel less than the amazing woman she was. Ever.
    But she did. Clearly, she did.
    She was such a wreck that she'd come out to Wyoming to try to recover. She was halfway through