Taming the Heart (Crimson Ridge #3)

by Elliott Rose

“Didn’t pick you as one for the sappy, romantic movies. What with all that ET conspiracy stuff you fixate on.” “I’m a sucker for a grand gesture. You know the scene in the movie where the girl thinks it’s all over, that she’s down for the count… and then…” “And then what?” “It’s silly. It’s not one thing in particular… but it’s that energy of the moment, you know? The romance of it all. The willingness to lay yourself bare for someone, to leave it all out on the field and risk it all. That’s the high stakes of one character offering up their heart to another. You know it’s pure romance when it sends chills down your spine and makes your stomach flip.” “Sounds more like you’re describing a horror movie.” “Shut up. Of course, you would think that, Mr. Virgo. But some of us are romantics at heart. The best movies have the grand gestures. That’s what I want for my life. I’m not going to be the girl who settles for mediocre.” “No. No, you’re not, Sage.”

This cowboy was certainly not in my five-year business plan.

“Of course. He’s got a fancy cock, and a fancy camera. No wonder you were oh, so comfortable having control of my wearable, if this is what you spend your nights doing.”

“Christ. I promised myself I’d be good and not try to get you naked within five minutes, and you’re making that fucking impossible, you know?” My lips curve. “Shame I can’t add that sort of talent to my resume.”

“It must be a relief coming up here,” I murmur after playing with the camera for a while. “Not exactly. You see, ever since the day I helped out a stranger… and lost my bag to them in the process… I’m usually trying to concentrate on taking photos. And instead, I’m stuck thinking about this girl. Now I’ve got her in my arms, and I’m struggling to believe it’s not all a dream.”

“Your family has always supported you? No matter who you dated?” he asks softly. There’s a hint of concern evident in that question, which makes me smile into the fabric coated in his scent because I can already hear his willingness to leap to my defense against anyone, no matter who. My inability to stop feeling giddy over this man is once again a massive issue because he’s not being that guy. The jealous asshole, or the insecure idiot, where my attraction to women is concerned. Nodding quickly, I hum in agreement. “Always. They’re fiercely supportive, and never once made me feel like my queerness wasn’t completely normal. But I always feel like there’s subtle pressure there, not related to my sexuality, but for me to bring home Mr. or Miss Perfect. The standard is set so high by my parents, and I’m forever raising that bar for myself seeing their relationship, whether I consciously realize I’m doing it or not.” Beau’s gaze holds me through the darkness as he starts slowly hooking my top. A shudder roams freely through my limbs as he lifts it up my stomach, grazing my skin with his knuckles, setting every inch of my body alight just for him. “Well, they’re correct. You only deserve perfection, baby.”

“I’m obsessed with you, baby. You wanna know how much? All I can dream about is having you. All I want is to be with you. I want to have you in my arms every night, every morning, and to be the only one to fuck you just right, the way I know you need it.”

I’m so hopelessly in love with her. I have to bite back a thousand confessions that threaten to wrestle loose from my lungs.

I’m high on Sage, and I don’t think I’ve ever felt more certain that this is what I want. That I want her. I want to be wherever she is, for as long as I have breath left in my lungs.

“Is that who I fucking think it is?” With an inability to draw any air down in my lungs, my eyes lock on hers, and the side of my jaw pulses. “Beau. Tell me your wife isn’t standing out there.” Silence… it’s all I’ve got to give. I don’t have any words. My mind whirs too fast to process what the fuck is going on, because that voice is unmistakably one that still haunts me. Even when I’ve tried so long to forget it. “Tell me you didn’t invite her here,” she hisses at me. And that’s the piece that squares me up in the chute. It spurs me into a place where steely determination takes over. Seeing and hearing that frustration and hurt in Sage shifts me from the frozen tundra where I couldn’t function, to now being back in my body with a wild rush of blood. “Of course I didn’t. Why would I do that?” I say, lifting my hat and stabbing fingers through my hair. “Oh, I don’t know, because you two are married.” Her eyes are stony and hard, whereas only a moment ago, she was dreamy and surrendered to pleasure beneath my touch. “Sage... I promise you.” That makes her let out a cold laugh. “Save your promises. You’d better go properly greet your wife.” I don’t give a fuck about anything but this enthralling woman standing before me. Pinching her chin, I level her with a firm look, then press a kiss against her lips. Sage tries to duck away and protest against my mouth, but I hold her chin tighter to keep her right there, and I growl. “Don’t get any wrong ideas, or get this twisted, baby...

“Wait, so... Beau knows your passcode?” Briar breaks the silence. I keep my eyes lowered, intently focused on what I’m doing. “Sarge… how does your married boss know your phone passcode?” Layla drops her voice low. The tips of my ears burst into flame. “Oh, you know.” I tilt my head and yank the knot as tight as possible. It happens in a blink. Layla and Briar look at each other sideways, and next to me, I feel Sky’s fingers wrap around my elbow. The three of them propel me to the farthest end of the table and huddle around me like a coven about to cast a spell. “Ohmygodyou’refuckingBeau.” Layla stabs a finger at me and gasps. My eyes bounce between the three women looking back at me in shock. Like any of them can damn well talk, or judge, based on their past decisions when it came to cowboys they weren’t supposed to look twice at. Well, fuck. Looks like my dirty laundry is about to be aired after all. “It’s nothing.” I shrug. “Just a stupid moment when we crossed a line, but everything is back to how it was.” “Holy shit.” “Sage. Are you serious?” They have eyes out on stalks while whispering as loud as they dare. “Don’t have kittens. We fooled around a little. That’s all.” “More than once?” I bite down on my cheek, then wince and pinch my thumb and forefinger together in front of my face. “Only a teeny bit.” “Holy shiiiiit. Sage, this is kinda a big deal.” Layla peeks over her shoulder to make sure we’re still safely having a private conversation. Briar’s jaw is on the gr...

“I’m really happy for you guys… Beau is such a good⁠—” “No. Stop it right now.” I shake my head and hold up both hands. “There is nothing to be happy for or to be giving me those swoony eyes over. He’s married. Hitched. Ball and chained.” “But…” Briar looks crestfallen. “I don’t care if he’s almost divorced, or whatever their story is… the fact of the matter is, I slept with somebody’s husband, and I can’t make excuses for that.” Shifting my weight, I can’t stop the guilt-laden words from bubbling up. “And it especially doesn’t matter, because it’s done now, anyway. We scratched an itch and got it out of our systems. A bit of fun. That’s all. Now it’s over, and besides, I’ve got a job to do.” Layla stares at me. “What’s that look about?” “Are you in love with him?” She asks, with softness welling in her big green eyes. “Pfft. Be real. This heart has no room for love.” I wave her off and hit the three of them with a carefully affixed smile. “You know me, if it isn’t fun, they’re not worth my time. And I am certainly not anyone’s second choice.” Perhaps if I say it enough times, I’ll believe it myself. I want fun, not feelings. And I certainly don’t need to be overthinking what any of those tiny gestures Beau just did might mean… for me.

“So, are we talking about the thing you don’t wanna talk about, sugar?” Storm tips back his beer. “Or are you back to lonely nights tugging on yourself to pass the time?” “Fuck you very much. Just because you finally convinced someone to put up with your ugly ass, got yourself a smart goddamn mouth all of a sudden, huh?” He chuckles. “You always did love the look of my mouth.” “Jesus Christ.” A laugh bursts out of me as I scrub a palm over my face. “How Briar can tolerate your bullshit, I’ll never know.” “I’m extremely charming.” “Yeah… charmed your way right in there, didn’t you, Uncle Storm?” “Screw you, Heartford.”

“I don’t want to lose her.” It’s a gut punch to say out loud. The kind that hurts real good, because as I say those words—as I breathe life into them—it’s like admitting that she’s already lost to me. Storm stretches his legs out in front of his seat as the music drifts our way on the night air, interspersed with the chirp of insects. “So, how you gonna keep her?” he says finally. “Sage isn’t the type of creature who likes to be kept.” “Don’t sell yourself too short. You’re a catch. Fuck-off money, a big ol’ ranch… I mean, it’s a pity about your face. I suppose I can’t blame her for not wanting to stick around and look at that disgrace on your lip every day, but…” He holds his stomach with a grunt of laughter when I smack him playfully in the ribs. “I gotta deal with Mandy’s crap first. I gotta get my side of the street cleaned up. How can I expect her to put up with the mess I’ve made? I’d never do that to her… but the selfish part of me doesn’t want to let her out of my sight either.” “Have you told her any of this shit?” “I’ve tried, but it’s too hard with that sniffing around.” I shake my head before jerking my chin in the direction of the wife I’m counting down the days to be long rid of. “I asked if she’d at least give me a few days, enough time to send Mandy packing back to whatever hole she crawled out of, and then we’d be able to talk properly.”

“Want my advice?” “Don’t make me regret saying yes if I do,” I grumble. “Sage is like the horses who fight and run because they ain’t got a single bit of evidence to prove they should give their trust to you.” He muses, eyes drifting to where his girl tosses her head back with laughter. “Be honest. Tell her how you feel as soon as fucking possible. Chop your heart out and hand it over on a goddamn plate if you need to. Because if she’s worth it like you say, then you don’t even need the damn thing anymore. What good is it doing sitting like a lump of stone behind your ribs? If it belongs to her, it belongs to her, and she needs to know that without a single doubt.”

“Mandy.” I clear my throat and keep my voice as quiet and even-tempered as possible. “You’ve got exactly twelve hours to get the fuck out of Montana and never set foot in this town again. I might be willing to put up with your bullshit marriage contract, but don’t think I couldn’t disclose dirt on you if I chose to. You know as well as I do, that I could have done so if I wanted, and yet never have. Personally, I enjoy living a life with higher moral standards than stooping to your level. But get one thing straight, if you dare think you can come here and pull bullshit like that again, I’ll gladly slap a restraining order on you, without giving a damn whether we’re still legally married, or not.” She looks at me with an unreadable expression playing behind her eyes, still clutching the phone open on the tab exploding with love hearts and oozing with fawning comments. “I agreed to postpone a divorce. Not for you to have the freedom to force yourself on me. So both of you, pack your goddamn shitshow up, and I’ll happily pay for a hotel out of town until that jet of yours is done being repaired.” I lean closer and grit my teeth. “But my money is on the fact I could place a call your pilot right now, and he’d tell me there was never anything needing to be fixed in the first place.” “Beau—” “No. Get the fuck out of my life, Mandy.” My words spit out. “You wanna talk to me? From now on, you do it through our lawyers. That’s the last bit of my hospitality and courtesy you’ll ever...

“I talked to Storm out there. Briar and the others, they know?” I venture. That finally brings her eyes to mine with a flash. “I didn’t tell them if that’s what you’re worried about. They guessed of their own accord because you acted like an idiot and took my phone. As if you were my boyfriend or something.” Sage says the words, and the air sizzles with unspoken emotion, with an energy that curls around me and is so wholly her. Filled with fire and determination, and the first hint that beneath that hardening of her exterior, is the Sage I’m beyond in love with. “Am I not?” I narrow my focus on her. “Jesus. Beau.” She drops her hands from where she’d been patting Teddy. “You’re not. We’re nothing. There’s nothing more gonna happen between us.” As her eyes lock with mine, I see a glint hidden away. A spark of challenge glitters at me, and this time, it’s undeniably the dance we do. Sage isn’t the type of woman who wants empty apologies, and she’s got that feistiness to her that calls to the part of me only she has power over. She might very well be the only person who truly sees me. “Try saying that again.” My voice drops low and gritty as I step right into her. “We’re nothing to each other.” She juts her jaw out. Pure daring is written all over her expression as she stands her ground and looks up at me. “In case you need it spelled out, you’re everything to me. Taking your phone in order to help out? Yeah, I’d do it all over again without question. I want to take care of y...

“Planning to get your dick wet with your piece of ass on the side, then stroll back out there and play happy families with your wife?” “No, baby.” Lifting my hat, I set it on her head, and brush strands of hair away from her face as she makes a soft little growling noise. “I’m going to show you that nothing could keep me away from you. I’m going to prove to you that being without you is the thing that rips all the joy away. It’s fucking misery not having you in my arms, and I’d walk away from this entire ranch, burn every single thing down right now. All you have to do is ask.”

“I hate that I want you.” Her whisper dissolves into a soft, frustrated whine as I notch my pierced tip inside her channel. “This doesn’t mean that I don’t hate you right now.” “You don’t hate me that much,” I grunt, as I nearly goddamn lose my head when her velvety, slick channel starts trying to suck me in immediately. “I think your sweet little cunt quite likes it when you’re fucking your boss.”

“This is the only good thing… you are the only good thing… so you’d better damn well wear my hat, shut up, and take my dick like my perfect little slut.”

“It’s so disappointing when the smart girl becomes a dumb bitch, all for the sake of a man.” My stomach knots when she taps on that phone of hers and purposely blocks my path. “One piece of advice, cutie pie. If you’re going to fuck someone’s husband, be a little more careful about your digital footprint. Leaving evidence lying around is such a rookie mistake.” She turns the phone screen around and starts swiping through a series of images. Ones that have all been taken of the screen and keyboard—clearly showing Beau’s laptop. But it’s the subject on the screen in each image that has my attention. They’re all of me. All of them taken by Beau when I wasn’t looking. Some are from moments while I’m working with my headphones on, some from when we’ve been with the horses, while others reveal more intimate scenes. Like the one Mandy pauses on dramatically that shows me sleeping. It’s nothing graphic or lewd. Not at all. Instead, the aching intimacy of this thing between us is plain to see. My naked shoulders above the white sheet. Hair spilling over both of our pillows. My head turned away while I slumber. It’s a secret moment between lovers. The way it’s been taken carefully captures me in such a raw way, the connection between us can’t be denied.

“You and I? We’re end game, baby.” Then he shoots his arm forward to block the driver’s side so I can’t climb into the truck. “I’m in love with you, Sage.” My heart leaps into my throat, and I’m left rocked to my core. All I can do is look up at him with my mouth hanging open. I can’t fucking breathe. He didn’t just say those words. Beau’s eyes soften as he gazes down on me, and it’s so goddamn reckless the way he’s out here in the middle of the main street giving me those eyes and professing those words, and oh my god, this is exactly what I was trying to steer clear of. He sees the hesitation and upwelling of uncertainty in me, and hums quietly. “Don't run from this. Don’t run away from me. I know that’s a lot to hear right now, and I don’t expect you to say anything back, or even feel the same way. But you gotta know where my head and my heart and my goddamn everything belongs.” He talks to me the way he does, caressing me with that gentle, dulcet tone of voice he uses when he’s around the horses, the one that always leaves me melting on the spot for him. The arm blocking my path disappears, and I don’t think I can hear anything but a high-pitched ringing. Beau helps me slide into the vehicle while juggling the tray of drinks, and once I’m settled in, he rests both hands on the roof, dipping his head lower to look at me with so much sincerity and steadfastness rolling off him that I can’t breathe. “I love you, Sage.” His words are rich and filled with promises of a life...

“Why the fuck is your cabin empty?” Beau’s voice is heavy with anguish. “This sure as hell doesn’t look like not running. In fact, it looks like you did the very thing you agreed you wouldn’t do.” The chimes and announcements for boarding start blaring in the background, and I scrunch my eyes closed. “I couldn’t stay. We both know that. I’ll finish the rest of the work I’m contracted for remotely. Besides, you’ve got things you need to sort out, Beau. And it’s important you do it without me there to get in the way.” “Sage, it’s not like that. No⁠—” I smile sadly to myself, feeling the heat pricking behind my eyes. “It’s ok, hot stuff. You’ve been trapped in a broken situation for so long, you don’t know what you want. You might think it is, but your heart isn’t yours to give to anyone. Not until you’ve rediscovered what it means to be you, to take the time to find yourself, to figure out what you need…” My pulse races and I push on before he can interrupt me. “I can’t wait to see how high you fly, but my wings are spread wide, too. You told me yourself, you weren’t gonna clip mine, and that means the world. But if we stay together right now, we’re only gonna end up tangled and plummeting to the ground. “Sage. We’re meant to be.” He pleads. “Maybe? Or maybe you just like the idea of me.” My voice is soft and I wish I could have kissed him one last time. I wish I could have said a proper goodbye, but then I would have been too easily swayed by him. “I’m different to her, so ...

“I wish for a lot of things in life, Beau. Right now? I really wish we hadn’t met in this timing. Another occasion? Another place? Maybe. You deserve to love freely for the first time, and to do it from a place that isn’t hidden in the shadows. I really wish our stars were different. But perhaps that’s how it has to be in the end. We’re not promised the grand gesture, or the happily ever after in this life. Sometimes, we only get the stolen moments and the memories we carry with us, and that’s gotta be enough.”

“Listen to me… I care about you, and that’s why I can’t bear the thought of you having spent all of that time punishing yourself for a mistake, living what amounts to barely a half-life for a decade, and then throwing it away just because I came along?” My eyes sting as I bite back the emotion threatening to take over. “Thank you for a summer I’ll never forget. It was hella fun, hot stuff.” “No.” Beau’s grunt is desperate. “This isn’t just fun for me, Sage. I’m⁠—” “No. No, you’re not, Beau Heartford.” He curses under his breath. “It’s ok.” Smiling through the tears, I imagine myself stroking a hand along his stubbled jaw, and I picture being able to go up onto my tiptoes to press my lips to his as I say the kind of proper farewell we should have had. “Baby, when you’re ready... only you will know when that is… if those stars ever align, come and find me in that sunset sky.”

I’ve lain awake at night thinking of how you’re a woman who is far too good for a man like me, yet I’m here on my fucking knees, baby. I’m hoping you might give me a chance to prove to you how you don’t just mean the world, but you’re my entire goddamn universe.

How can I prove it to you? Just tell me, and I’ll do it. You want the stars? I’ll fucking saddle up and rope ‘em all for you, baby. I’ll even throw in the moon if that’s what your heart wants.

“Maybe I’m too wild, even for the great and mighty Beau Heartford to handle.” He slides further down my body, with the blanket we’re sharing rustling as it pools around my thighs. My cowboy stares back at me with a calming gaze, deeper than a bottomless lake and more sturdy than the mountains we’re surrounded by. “Throw everything you’ve got at me, trouble. Do your worst. I’ll climb back on even if I hit the dirt.” “What if I stomp on your heart?” I breathe out the words into the midnight air. “Then it means I had the honor of getting close enough to yours.” My pulse kicks and flutters. Is he telling me he’s in love with me? Surely not. “You bull riders really are something else.” I flash a coy grin at him and shake my head.

“I always thought the biggest regret in my life might be the day I read a bull wrong and ended up left for dead in the dirt. Sometimes, when one season ends, another presents itself, and you’ve gotta be man enough to know what to do about it. I won’t say I ever get anything fully right, but there’s one thing I know for certain.” He pauses, and I catch the flicker of his eyes as spotlights play over his strong jaw. I see the moment his strong throat bobs. “My girl is in this arena somewhere. She’s been touring with you fine folk this whole year, and I’m here to ask if you’d be willing to share her with me. Life ain’t worth doing if it’s without her, and if that means I gotta start living life on the road again, then hell, I’m about to beg someone to give me a job on this tour just so I don’t have to spend another minute without my girl.” I feel someone lift the camera out of my unsteady hands, and I’m reduced to a trembling mess. This is an out-of-body experience. Surely, this man isn’t standing on stage telling the world about us? “Truth is, I’ve been in love with someone for a long time now, and I understand that some of you might judge me for that. But I’m here to get the girl back. The one who truly owns my heart.”

“What are you doing here?” I hardly get the gasped words out before he tilts his head my way, catching the hat off his head in one hand, using the other to wrap a firm palm around my lower back. “I’m here to find you, my sunset sky,” Beau murmurs, with a hidden smile written in the creases around the corners of his eyes, before he dips me backward and kisses me in front of this packed arena. In front of cameras and media and the multitude of ever so public aspects to his career that he’s avoided for such a long time.

“You remember that day you asked me if I had any weaknesses?” His voice is low and relaxed, and I hitch in a breath as he stares down at me. “The truth is, I’ve climbed onto the back of thousand-pound bulls. I’ve faced down being stomped and crushed. I never once felt like I had a fear or a soft spot in all those seconds spent in the arena. Right now? I can stand here with my boots in this dirt and tell you I’m terrified of how life might look if you never came back to me, Sage.” I swallow hastily, still without the ability to form words. “Baby, you are my weakness, my trouble, and this aching heartbeat right here.” He lifts my palm to sit squarely over his chest. And that’s when I see what he has wrapped around his wrist. A sob bursts out of me. Beau’s ocean-deep eyes follow mine as he looks down to where he’s got my fingers clasped inside his own. He flicks his gaze back to hold me so damn securely when all I feel like doing right now is falling apart. “I never took it off, baby.”

“If all I’ll ever have in this lifetime is this thing around my wrist, it’ll have to be enough, but it anchors me to you every minute of every goddamn day.” “Beau—I—You don’t have to do this—” I sniff and feel the weight of all those long, unending moments without him come crashing through me as more tears fall. “My heart has been in your hands this entire time, Sage. It doesn’t belong to me anymore. It’s yours, baby. You deserve a man who is rock steady, who knows himself, and is prepared to take responsibility for his flaws. So here I am, fucking flawed as all hell, but trying to do better every day, begging you to come back to me.”

“I—I don’t know how to be a wife.” My bottom lip trembles. Beau shakes his head and laughs, with a brightness about him that seems entirely new compared to all the time I spent with him when there was something unspoken hanging over his head. “Fuck that, Sage. I don’t want a wife. I want this spark… our passion… I want someone who will order my ass to go skinny-dipping in the middle of the afternoon, then at night, chase after an ocean of stars in the sky. I want someone I can cook for and take care of, but not because she needs me to. No, in fact, she’ll fight me every step of the way because she’s stubborn as fuck.” The love of my life tugs me closer and lets his mouth brush over mine before whispering words up close so only I can hear them amidst all the raucous noise and music still going on in the background. “I’m not looking for an imaginary fairytale… I’m here for my dream girl, who burns hot and bright in my veins, and makes everything come back to life.” A shudder of an exhale gusts out of me, and I bite down on my bottom lip before nodding at him. “I want all of that, too. I love you, Beau Heartford.” “Goddamn, I missed you.” He gently tugs my lip out from the pinching hold I’ve got it in. “Now, can I get you outta here and properly fucking kiss you?” “That wasn’t⁠—” “Not even close, trouble.” The smirk this man gives me is everything I’ve dreamed of.

“I missed you so much. I’m sorry for leaving…” I falter a little, but then the way he smiles, gazing down at me with so much love in his eyes, tells me in no uncertain terms that he understands why I did it. He doesn’t judge me for doing the hard thing for the both of us. He dips his head to meet the shell of my ear, sending goosebumps flying down my arms. “I’ve spent a lot of lonely nights in hotel rooms. I might know a thing or two about how to make it feel a little less lonesome.” Grinning wide, I beam back at him, contentment flooding through my veins just being near him like this. “Are you offering to keep me up all night, hot stuff?” “I’m offering to give you everything, trouble. For as long as you’ll have me.”

Beau tilts his head so he can suck on my earlobe and nip the soft skin. “What I need is to get you home so I can spank this perfect ass, fuck you hard all night, and hear you moan my name.” His possessive words are right against my ear, leaving me boneless with pleasure, and most definitely wanting all that and more. He slips out of me, and I follow after the shift in his body weight. Twisting around so I can bury my face into his chest. I’m blissed out of my head, staring up at him as I lift a hand and get lost in the act of stroking his jaw and mustache in a dreamy state. “Promise?” He gives me a smile to melt my entire soul into a puddle. “Always.”

“I like the way you look at me, Beau Heartford. Do it every day?” I whisper. His hold on me tightens, and he ducks his head, allowing gentle lips to brush over mine, speaking quietly as he does so. “Forever, trouble.”