Unbreak My Heart (Rough Riders Legacy #1)

All the air left my lungs. I forced my lips to form the word why.

“Because that night at Tyler’s party when I told him we were together? I wanted it to be real.”

“You think I would’ve shot you down?”

“No.” His eyes were locked on mine. “I know you would’ve said yes.”

My cheeks burned with mortification; he’d known how I felt all along.

“You understand my history. Since I was twelve years old I’ve been counting off the damn days until I can get the hell out of Wyoming. Last fall, the start of my senior year, I was taking the prep classes I needed and I was getting a year of practical experience as an EMT and moving on was finally within my grasp. And then you showed up.

“From the moment we met on the bus, you sucked me in. You were so gorgeous, feisty, funny and sweet—and so easy to talk to. I tried to stay away from you, but something about you, Sierra, just kept pulling me back.”

I stared at him, absolutely speechless.

“That night at the party I wanted to kill Tyler for thinking he had the right to put his hands on you. After the accident, I about lost my fucking mind because you were hurt… That’s when I knew you could keep me here. If I got involved with you, like I wanted to, I wouldn’t leave. And I have to leave. I had to have a solid plan to go so I enlisted.”

“No.” I found my voice and said it louder. “No.” Then I was screaming at him. “No, no, no, no, no! You don’t get to do this to me, Boone. You don’t get to treat me like a friend, and then tell me you’ve always felt more for me…the night before you fucking leave! You don’t get to make me feel guilty for you joining the army because I have some kind of magical hold over you. That’s total bullshit and it’s not fair!” God. This could not be happening.

“Not fair? You think this has been easy for me? Especially the last four months? When we’ve been together all the damn time because I couldn’t stay the hell away from you? And I had to act like it’s not fucking killing me when you look at me like your world would be perfect if I just kissed you.”

Infuriated, I slapped my hands on his chest and shoved him. “The only thing you can kiss, Boone West, is my ass.” I spun around and considered kicking over his stupid bike as I skirted the back end of my car. Jerk. Asshole. Jerkoff. Asshat. He wanted to leave me? Fine. He could just go. I’d be better off.

Such a fucking liar you are, Sierra.

“So that’s it?” Boone shouted. “That’s how you’re gonna say goodbye to me?”

I whipped a U-turn and marched back up to him. “How did you expect I’d say goodbye? Strip my clothes off and let you take my virginity in a field of wildflowers under a full moon? Screw that. I’m saving my virginity for someone who deserves it. And. That. Is. Not. You.” I punctuated each word with a poke on his hard chest.

Boone said, “You do that,” in a throaty rasp I’d never heard from him. “In the meantime, I’m taking this.” He wrapped one hand around the back of my neck and clamped the other on my butt, pulling me in for a kiss.

I should’ve shoved him away. But his kiss was like a drug. Intense, determined, amazingly seductive, as if he was trying to convince me that his passion for me was—and always had been—real. That he’d been imagining this kiss for as long as I had. That he’d wanted it as much. Our mouths and tongues clashed and I slipped my arms around his waist, my hands clutching his shirt as if that could keep him here.

The kiss was beyond anything I’d ever experienced. Rough and sexy, bringing alive things inside me that I’d heard about but had never felt.

Then Boone slowed it down. The kiss became soft. An unhurried tease, as if we had all the time in the world to explore. To learn each other.

But we didn’t. By this time tomorrow, he’d be gone.

I kept kissing him even as my tears fell.

Then Boone’s hands were on my face, trying to wipe away the moisture.

He moved his mouth back; I felt his lips against mine and his breath in my mouth as he whispered, “Sierra. Baby, please don’t cry.” He planted tender smooches on my trembling lips. His mouth wandered down my neck and my entire body erupted in goose flesh. He nuzzled the sweep of my shoulder and stopped, breathing against my skin.

I had to bite my lip to keep from sobbing when he strung soft kisses along my collarbone, right where the injury from the car accident had hurt the most. But that pain was nothing compared to the pain I felt now.

Boone entwined his fingers in my hair and tipped my head back. His beautiful eyes were dark with remorse and something else, something that made my pulse quicken. “I knew it’d be like this between us.”

“But it’s still not enough.”

He didn’t answer. He just consumed my mouth again.

While kissing him was better than I’d dreamed, it still felt like someone was stabbing me in the gut with a rusty knife as Boone took the kiss deeper, until I feared I’d never get out.

I broke away first, resting my forehead to his.