“I’m okay,” she said quietly.

Dust roared up around him, and when something nudged him he turned to see his horse Eleanor.

“Shit,” ranch hand Blake Callahan said as he came running over. “Sorry, Mac. She got loose. I tried to warn you but you didn’t hear.” Blake grabbed Eleanor’s harness. “She’s been temperamental lately.”

“It’s okay,” Mac assured Blake as the ranch hand started to guide Mac’s pregnant mare back to her stall. “She’s been a little possessive of me all week.”

Blake ran a gentle hand over the horse’s protruding side. “She’s getting close.”

“I’ll check on her in a few,” Mac promised, watching Blake lead the mare away.

When they were out of sight, he turned his attention back to Jess, and her body softened beneath his as their gazes once again collided. While he wanted to apologize—Christ, he hadn’t expected their first meeting after ten years to go down quite like that—he couldn’t say he was sorry that Eleanor had gotten loose and knocked him into her.

“You sure you’re okay?” he asked again and slipped his hand around her head to lift it off the hard ground and provide a cushiony place for it to rest.

Jess nodded, her cheeks turning a pretty shade of pink. “I’m okay,” she said breathlessly. “You?”

“Yeah. I’m okay.” Warm familiarity curled around him and he couldn’t seem to move—didn’t want to move. He stayed on top of her, his glance moving over her pretty face, her mouth. Lips he’d kissed so long ago, and was dying to kiss again. Jess Gray. Jesus, he couldn’t believe she’d actually taken him up on his invitation, or that he had one whole week to spend with her and explore the pull between them, one he felt now, every bit as much as he had all those years ago.

“Mac?” she asked.

He looked deep into her eyes, dark, expressive eyes that told him so much about her. He took a moment to recall that kiss from long ago—one he’d tricked her into—yeah, he was always the joker back in the day. The high school gym had been full of students and teachers, celebrating the last dance before Christmas vacation. He’d called her over to the doorway, and when she reached him, he pointed upward. He remembered the flush on her cheeks, much like the flush she had now, when she saw the mistletoe dangling over his head. She’d opened her mouth to say something and that’s when he kissed her. So sweet. So fucking soft and sweet. That kiss, not to mention the journal of hers that he’d managed to get a quick peek at earlier that same day, had told him so much about the girl beneath the shy surface, so much about who Jess really was, and what she truly wanted. But when he’d pulled back she took off, leaving him standing there completely crushed and utterly speechless. Never before, or after, had any woman left him feeling so…confused after a simple kiss.

As he looked her over now, it occurred to him he never wanted to frighten her off like that again. She might be shy and sensitive, bringing out the protector in him, but she also had a quiet strength about her. It was just going to take the right guy to show her she was strong, beautiful, and desirable. The right guy to coax her out from her shell and release her adventurous spirit, one he’d discovered that fateful night so long ago. There was no doubt he wanted to be the guy she needed.

Hell, he would be the guy she needed.

He looked at her lips, full, plump…so damn kissable. Her hair splayed across the ground, and a bevy of fantasies rushed through his brain, mainly how she’d look spread out on his bed. He swallowed the groan of want rumbling in his throat.

“What…what am I doing here?” she asked.

He touched a strand of hair, running it though his thumb and forefinger. “I needed to see you.”

“You did?” she asked, confused. “Why?”

“Because we have some unfinished business, Jess.”

“We do?”

He brushed his thumb over her cheek. “Yeah, we do,” he said quietly, completely blown away that she was here, with him. Jesus, he was the luckiest man alive.

She went quiet for a moment, and then she said, “Perhaps we should get up, so you can explain it to me.”

Shit, he hadn’t even realized they were still on the ground. “Right.” He inched upward and frowned when he noticed the dust caking her sundress. “And we should probably get you out of these clothes.”

Her eyes dimmed with something akin to desire and Mac couldn’t help but smile. This was the best goddamn idea Coop had ever had.

He’d have to remember to thank him when this was all over.

Chapter Two

“You can’t be serious.”

Jess Gray could hardly believe what she was hearing, what the boy from her past was suggesting. Surely he had to be kidding, playing one of his infamous childhood pranks on her.

Perched at the edge of the ranch’s crystal-clear pool, Tyler Mackenzie, aka Wildman Mac, casually rolled to his feet and stretched out his long, athletic body with the same lazy ease Jess remembered from their youth.

There wasn’t a hint of teasing in his voice when he answered with, “I’ve never been more serious in my life.”

Jess blinked against the blinding glare of the late afternoon sun reflecting on the water and struggled to wrap her mind around this unexpected turn of events. Exactly when had the invitation for a week of R&R evolved into them getting reacquainted?

Good Lord, she could only imagine what he meant by reacquainted.

She sucked in a breath, letting the aromatic scent of fresh hay and warm¸ country air soothe her soul. But the relaxing atmosphere did little to calm her nerves, not when Mac began to undress right before her eyes. Lacking any sort of modesty, he peeled off his T-shirt to expose a gorgeous, muscular torso, one that instantly caught Jess’s attention and quite frankly, aroused her.

In a nearby pasture, a stallion whinnied, followed by a chorus of crickets. The sounds caught on a breeze and drifted past them. As she listened to the cacophony of ranch noises, Mac gifted her with a lopsided grin full of sensual promises.

“So, what do you think?” he asked as heat pooled between her thighs. He tipped his Stetson, his eyes full of fierce determination when he added, “Are you up to spending one full week here on the ranch with me…my rules, my terms?”

His rich voice trickled down her spine and elicited a shiver from deep within. It became glaringly apparent that she was no longer staring at the class clown from her childhood, a lawless ruffian known for his practical jokes. No, the Tyler Mackenzie standing before her had grown into a man—tall, gorgeous, hard in all the right places—and while the rebellion from his youth no longer colored his personality, the Mac looking down at her now still had stubborn resolve written all over him. As she entertained his question, shocked that he’d gone to so much trouble to arrange this reunion, it occurred to her that this Mac wasn’t quite so different from the one she’d known in high school after all, because when he set his mind to getting what he wanted, he’d go to extreme measures to get it as well.

And this time, he wanted her.

With her voice lodged somewhere in her throat, she didn’t answer him. Instead, Jess averted her eyes, lifted her face to the sky, and drank in the sun’s warmth as she mulled things over and fought the urge to gawk at his magnificent body. It was a difficult task, considering how badly she wanted to let her hungry gaze trail down the firm ridges of his abdomen, to follow the sexy line of hair that disappeared into the faded jeans that hung low on his hips and did little to hide the huge bulge pressing insistently against the zipper.

Unable to help herself, she stole another peek at him, registering every delicious detail of his fine body as sunlight spilled over him. Awareness soared through her bloodstream as her gaze shifted to his face. She took in his hard angles and noted the way he towered over her, confidence and sex dripping from his every pore as he haphazardly tossed his shirt and hat onto a lounge chair.