Dane

“Get your hands off me,” Charlotte warned.

Dane dropped his hand but moved his body so he blocked her path. “Are you really going to just leave?”

“Sure, why does that surprise you? Last time I checked you were an expert at it. Besides, I’ve got plans.”

“We have some things to talk about. I’ve spent the last ten years thinking about you, wondering where you were and what you were doing with your life. I’d like to catch up.”

She burst out in laughter before she could control herself, and she watched his eyes narrow in anger. “Save it, Dane. You don’t have to try and put a band-aid on my bruised ego with half-assed explanations. You can at least be honest. Besides, the past is the past. We’ve both got our lives now.”

“Is that why you threw that wrench at me? Because you’ve left the past in the past?”

“It was a gut reaction,” she growled out. “I’d prefer to see you roasting over hot coals in hell, but I’ll have to settle for never seeing you again. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get home.”

She hoped he believed the lie. She had no one to go home to tonight. Jayden was spending the night at a friend’s house, and the ranch hands were hardly company. Most of them had their own wives to go home to. The rest of them spent their nights at Duffey’s Bar and Grill, drinking, dancing and picking up women.

He ran his finger up her arm, skimming it across her neck until it rested over her racing pulse. “My brother’s told me you left town and hadn’t been back.”

She tried to keep the surprise from her expression. He’d checked up on her? And then dread filled her soul. How much checking had he done? Did he know about Jayden? Maybe that’s why he’d shown up after all these years.

“I’ve only been back in town about six months. My dad passed away and left me the ranch.”

“I’m sorry about your dad. He was a good man.” He adjusted his position again so she was neatly blocked against the wall. “Did you know, I couldn’t understand the sudden pull I had to come home? All I knew was that I needed to be here. And now that I’m here, everything feels right. Even though I wasn’t expecting to see you in Surrender, I was hoping the whole way home that you would be here waiting for me.”

“I was through waiting for you to come back ten minutes after you left,” she lied. “Let me go.”

“There aren’t enough words for me to tell you how sorry I am that I had to leave. I was young and stupid. Too much was happening to me around that time. Loving you...my mom’s death...” He paused and swallowed hard at the memory that obviously still affected him. “And I was running as fast and far as I could to escape something I didn’t recognize until later was fear.”

She sighed heavily and closed her eyes. It wasn’t fair that he could make her feel sympathy for the boy he was. That he could still make her want.

“What do you want, Dane?” she asked, warily.

“What I’ve always wanted. You.”

He moved closer, so their breaths mingled and the touch of his hand against her neck raised chills over her heated flesh. He dipped his head lower, as if to kiss her, and she put her hand against his chest to hold him back.

“You had me, Dane. I don't belong to you anymore.”

To be continued...