Fated for Love

by Melissa Foster

  Callie nodded. “Look, lean, ease up in the direction I want to turn, give a little squeeze with that leg and tighten up the reins on the other side. I can do that.”

  “Impressive. Ready?”

  Not really. “Yes.”

  “You’ve got this, Cal.”

  She didn’t think as she leaned down and kissed him. “Thank you.”

  “I think I should be thanking you.”

  “Not for the kiss, silly, for this. For believing in me enough to put up with my ridiculous fears to help me.”

  His smile softened. “Put up with? I hope you’re kidding, because if this is the worst thing I have to put up with where you’re concerned, I’m a lucky man.” He glanced at Cutter heading toward the barn. “I have a feeling that watching men gawk at you is going to be far more difficult than helping waylay your fears.”

  A lucky man. That sent a little thrill through her. The muscle in his jaw twitched, and she knew he had been referring to Cutter.

  “Wes, Cutter didn’t act inappropriately with me. He was telling me about how much he loves working here and how much he respects you.”

  Wes knitted his brows together again. He shifted his gaze to Cutter, and when he brought his attention back to Callie, his eyes were dark and serious.

  “Let’s walk,” he said.

  Trina was a graceful horse. Callie could feel the power beneath her, the shifting of the horse’s muscles even with her slow gait. Callie felt more in control of her body and her actions. Wes’s eyes shifted between the horse and Callie as he walked alongside them, and she knew her confidence was bolstered because of his faith in her and his desire to help her experience more than the inside of a library and expand her world—with him. It occurred to her how similar that was to the reasons her friends had brought her to the ranch in the first place, and the similarity comforted her.

  “I think I’m okay.” She watched his eyes turn serious again. “Really. I feel good about her, and I think I can do it.”

  “I know you can.” He went to the edge of the riding ring and watched her.

  Callie sat up tall, and as the minutes passed, her confidence grew. She guided Trina to the left, then to the right, just to be sure she had the motions down, and half an hour later, with Wes beaming up at her with pride in his gorgeous dark eyes, she leaned forward and hugged Trina’s thick, powerful neck.

  Thank you.

  She felt empowered and proud that she’d taken the chance to get up on the horse. As Wes lifted her down from the horse, her newfound confidence and excitement coalesced. She jumped into his arms, wrapped her legs around his waist, and kissed him. She didn’t hesitate as she deepened the kiss, and when his hand slid to the curve of her butt, she shivered with the thrill of it all. She drew back and ran her hands along his cheeks.

  “I did it.” She felt her cheeks stretched tight with a smile.

  “You did it.” He kissed her again. “I never had any doubt.”

  “I didn’t really want to do it on my own when it was so much fun riding with you wrapped around me.”

  “I have a feeling I’ll be wrapped around you for a very long time, Callie Barnes.”

  When she kissed him again, she felt as though she’d loved him for a hundred years, and when he tightened his grip on her, she wanted to love him for a hundred more.

  Chapter Twelve

  CALLIE COULD BARELY believe she was riding a horse, much less riding it down a mountain. Granted, the trail was wide and felt more level than sloped, and she was nowhere near the edge of the mountain, but still. She was actually riding a horse. She’d always thought she was happy with her life. She had a job she loved and friends she adored, parents who loved and protected her, and a peaceful life in general. What she hadn’t taken into consideration, and apparently her friends, and now Wes, had, was how much more there was to life than the safe corner where she’d tucked herself away. Her world was expanding right before her eyes, with activities and with Wes, and she found herself wondering how she could have closed herself off for so long.

  She thought about her parents. Her mother worked in the administrative offices of an oil company, and her father was the director of a health care company. Family vacations were two weeks of city travel, where they’d visit museums, libraries, and historic institutions. They weren’t outdoorsy people, but they were a happy and loving family. Callie had never felt as though she were missing out on anything. But as she rode down the mountain on a horse that seemed to enjoy the ride as much as she was, surrounded by miles of wildflowers, brush, and tall trees, with the scent of pine and earth filling her lungs, she realized that there was much more out there to experience. Wes had been right. If she’d given in to her fears, she’d never have known what she was missing.

  Wes glanced over his shoulder and smiled, and she knew there was more she couldn’t ignore. She was falling hard for him, in a way that had the feel of permanence. That should scare her into hesitation, but instead, it filled her with hope.

  They followed the trail around a bend, and a line of white tents came into view.

  “Look! We made it!” Christine hollered.

  Callie wondered if she’d thought they might not and wrote it off to Christine being Christine. Always the jokester. She felt like they were riding into a postcard with the sun riding low in the sky, casting its last streak of sunlight through two mountain peaks in the distance. The trail gave way to a field of grass, beyond which were acres of tall grass and a forested mountainside to their left and a glistening lake, complete with a rocky shoreline, to their right.

  Callie guided the horse across the grassy area between the lake and the mountains to a dirt clearing, where four thick tree trunks, stripped of their bark and cut to ten feet, served as benches around a rocky fire pit. At one end of the clearing was a long picnic table. An enormous orange cooler sat on the ground beside the table, and on the far side of the clearing, constructed against a backdrop of thick forest, were several tents. Some tents were built in the style of tepees; others were rectangular in shape with a tall peak in the center. The flaps of the tents were tied open, and where there might be metal poles on a typical structure, there were thick branches secured to the canvas tents with rope. There was a cot in each tent, and as the horse strolled closer, Callie noticed that some tents had two cots.

  Callie glanced at her friends, then at Wes, who was a living, breathing fantasy sitting in profile on a black horse. She hadn’t connected the idea of camping to sleeping—or rather, not sleeping—in tents with the overnight trip. She thought of the naughty possibilities. Slipping into his tent after dark, or maybe he’d sneak into hers. She glanced back at Kathie, who flashed a knowing smile that made Callie’s heart beat faster. Obviously, she was a little slow on the uptake, because when she looked at Christine and Bonnie, they also had a look of mischief in their eyes. Callie ran through a quick mental checklist, just in case they decided to take their relationship to the next level, and boy, did she ever hope they would. She was on the pill. She was wearing lacy panties and a matching bra. Who was she kidding? She only owned lacy panties and bras. They were her guilty pleasures. She should buy stock in Victoria’s Secret. Callie liked to feel feminine, and she liked the lace and frills that Victoria’s Secret was known for. She had never been a thong girl, like Kathie and Christine. Even the idea of a thong up her butt crack was uncomfortable.

  She was so lost in thought that she didn’t notice everyone else had dismounted their horses until Wes was standing beside her with his arms outstretched.

  “Ready, babe?”

  She nearly fell into his arms at the sound of babe in his deep voice. He made the word sound sexy and rugged at once. When her feet hit the ground, she was still thinking about the tents—and Wes. Naked. Oh, good Lord. Her body flashed hot.

  Wes leaned down and whispered, “You’re blushing.”

  She whimpered a little, and that made her cheeks heat even more.

  He held her against him. “You seriousl
y cannot make those sexy little noises, or I’ll never be able to keep my hands off you.”

  Holy. Cow. There was so much promise in his voice that Callie had to clench her eyes shut to keep from whimpering again.

  “Okay, lover boy. What now?” Christine stood by her horse with her arms crossed, tapping her foot.

  Callie stepped back, giving Wes room to do his job. And giving herself room to remember how to function. How would she make it until tonight with that promise in her head? And what if he didn’t come to her tonight?

  She’d never wanted to be touched and to touch a man so desperately in her life.

  “Tents, food, drinks.” He pointed to each area as he spoke. “You can choose whichever tent you’d like. The cooler is full of food and drinks, and we’ll cook over the fire tonight. Tomorrow we’ll go down to the river to go fishing, and if you’re up for it, we’ll go for a hike.” He pointed to the far corner of the camp. “There are chemical toilets behind the tents.”

  “Chemical toilets?” Kathie asked.

  “We used to have outhouses. I think you’ll like these better. Don’t worry. They’re not that gross, and they’re emptied after every trip.” Wes was obviously used to this reaction.

  “It’s better than using the woods, Kath,” Callie offered with a shrug. She didn’t think anything could spoil the idea of a night under the stars with Wes. She saw Bonnie walking toward her with a serious stare.

  “Hey, Cal, come with me.” Bonnie grabbed her by the arm and dragged her away. “I just want to talk to Callie a minute. Go ahead and dole out the instructions,” she called over her shoulder.

  “What are you doing?” Callie tried to focus on Wes’s voice as he told Christine and Kathie to choose a tent and let the horses graze in the grass, but after that his voice fell away as she stumbled along beside Bonnie.

  “You’re holding me so tight it hurts.”

  “Oh, sorry.” Bonnie let go and crossed her arms. She wore a plaid sleeveless shirt tucked into jeans and secured with a thick leather belt.

  “You look like you’re going to string me up in a tree. What did I do?”

  “Nothing.” She stared past Callie at the others.

  Callie watched Wes helping the others untie their packs from the horses. She wanted to be over there with him.

  “What, then?”

  “Okay, mama hen here.” Bonnie turned her back to others and guided Callie to do the same.

  “Oh God. You’re making my stomach hurt.” She had no idea what Bonnie was going to say, but her mouth was pinched tight and her eyes were narrow and serious, and that couldn’t be good.

  “I just wanted to say something without the others around. I tried to tell you at the cabin, but we were packing and running late, and the girls were in and out of our room. I can see that I won’t have a second with just you here before nightfall, so I had to drag you away. I’m sorry.”

  “What’s so private that the others can’t hear?”

  Bonnie’s eyes softened. “I just wanted to talk to you alone. Look, we all tease a lot about how hot the guys here are and what we’d like to do to them. I know that you know we’re just being goofs and having fun. We’d never actually do anything. We adore our husbands. God, you’ve known us forever—of course you know that—but I felt like I had to say this, between you and me. I really respect you, Callie. We tease a lot, but you’ve never fallen for peer pressure, and Lord knows we’ve put you in situations where a weaker girl would have given in. But those were college days. You know, fun kid stuff. This is real life, and when I see the way you look at Wes and the way he looks at you.” The tension in her shoulders eased on a sigh. “Oh, Callie. I just wanted to be sure you weren’t caving on your beliefs because of peer pressure.”

  “Thank you for worrying, but if I didn’t cave as a naive freshman when you guys were egging me on night and day, I sure as hell wouldn’t cave now.” She drew in a deep breath. “I really feel something for him, Bonnie, and I want him more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life.” She covered her face and took a step away. “Oh God, I sound desperate.”

  Bonnie pulled her into a hug. “No. You sound like a girl who’s falling for a guy, and I’m pulling for you, Cal. On a bigger scale than hey, let’s bang the hot wrangler. I thought you looked like your heart was so tied up in him it’s practically clawing its way out of your chest to get to him.”

  “You can see that?” That means he can, too.

  “Yup. I just wanted to be sure. I’d hate myself if we pushed you into doing something with a guy that you really didn’t want to.” Bonnie glanced behind her at Kathie and Christine pointing at the tents. Christine pulled off her visor and pointed to a tent in the middle. “I better go over there before they pick the best tents.”

  Callie couldn’t love Bonnie more than she did for everything she’d ever done for her, but now she worried that if Bonnie could tell how much she liked Wes, he could, too, and that made her fifty shades of nervous.

  Bonnie rolled her eyes. “You’re blushing again. I bet when you’re fifty you’ll still blush.”

  “Bon, I don’t know if we’re going to…you know, or not.” But I hope we are. “But this is the guy that I dream about at night.” She lowered her voice. “I mean, I think about doing all sorts of things and not waiting for him to make the first move. Do you think he can see that, too?”

  “I think it doesn’t matter what he sees. Do whatever feels right at the time. There’s no right or wrong if you both want it. I’d better join the peanut gallery.”

  “Thanks, Bon.” She watched Bonnie jog toward the tents. Wes stepped into her field of vision, and like pen to paper, she was drawn right to him.

  Thank you, Bonnie. Thank you so freaking much for giving me the okay to follow my heart, because I’m not sure I can hold back much longer.

  Chapter Thirteen

  WES WAITED WHILE the girls chose their tents. He liked privacy, and on overnight trips he usually claimed the tent that was farthest from the group. Tonight he wanted that distance for an entirely different reason. He was going to climb out of his skin if he had to stay away from Callie much longer. She was like a drug, and damn, did he ever need a hit.

  He watched as she, too, held back on choosing her tent. When the other three girls moved to the tents at the far side of the camp, Callie took the next in line. Closer to me. He wondered if she was thinking that, too.

  Callie sat on the cot in her tent. She hated spiders and snakes, and he imagined her worrying about those things while she bounced up and down, palms to the thin mattress, like she was testing out its durability. Was she thinking about the two of them coming together on one of those mattresses later that evening, like he was?

  He was so proud of her for riding Trina like a champ, and when she’d jumped into his arms earlier in the day, he’d wanted to carry her up the hill to his cabin and love her until she forgot how to read. The way she looked at him, the way she touched him, hell, everything she’d been doing lately felt like she was ready to move forward, and he was goddamn nervous. Nervous. He’d never wanted to not fuck something up so badly in his life. He knew that being intimate with Callie couldn’t be anything short of mind-numbing. Jesus, just watching her come was ecstasy. It was the whole taking-the-good-girl-to-bed thing that was messing with his head. Her words sailed through his mind. I like sex as much as the next person, but for me, it’s connected to my heart. If that wasn’t pressure, he didn’t know what was.

  Wes grabbed his leather bag and slapped his thigh, bringing Sweets to his side. He filled food and water bowls for her before stowing his bag in the most outlying tent.

  While the girls talked, he checked on the horses and led them to the lake to drink. Sweets was sacked out beneath the picnic table when he returned to start the fire.

  “Those toilets aren’t bad,” Kathie hollered. She’d pinned her hair up into a ponytail and had put on a blue hoodie.

  What’d I tell you? “Beats the hell out of outhouses.
”

  Bonnie came out of her tent wearing a gray zip-up sweatshirt. “Can we help?”

  “Callie’s an amazing cook,” Christine chimed in.

  He lifted his eyes to see Callie’s reaction. She’d changed into a cream-colored sweater with a scoop neck. It was slightly transparent, and he could see the outline of her pink bra. One sleeve was mint green, the other was peachy pink, and both covered her knuckles. The edge of her sweater hung loosely over her cutoffs, leaving only the fringe of her shorts visible. She looked so sweet that he wanted to fold her into his arms and snuggle with her.

  What the hell is wrong with me?

  Snuggle?

  Holy hell, you’ve brought out a whole side of me I never knew existed. And, damn, if I don’t love it.

  The realization brought him to his feet. Callie laughed at something Christine said and covered her mouth with her hand. Her eyes darted between Christine and Kathie.

  “Ready to hand the cooking over to the best cook this side of Kansas?” Christine asked.

  He’d hand Callie anything she wanted. “That’s up to Callie. Butch already seasoned the steaks and prepared everything we need. It’s just a matter of heating it up over the fire.”

  “That’s okay. I’ll cook for you some other time.” She hooked her index fingers in her pockets and flashed an innocent smile.

  “I’ll look forward to that.” He loved that smile. He loved all her smiles, from the innocent to the shy and the bold, like he’d seen earlier in the day when she’d jumped into his arms and wrapped her legs around him. He needed to snap out of the daze she’d propelled him into, and as she blinked a few times and her smile turned more heated, he forced himself to continue.

  “Okay, ladies. I’m going to get dinner rolling. There are margaritas in the cooler, and if you want to take a walk, don’t go far, because it’ll be dark soon, and take Sweets with you to scare off the bears.”