The Front Runner (Gold Rush Ranch, #3)

by Elsie Silver

“Whatever you say,” he replies smoothly. “I just can’t fall in love with you, right?” I chuckle as I twist the doorknob to leave. “Oh, Stefan. I think you already are.”

There’s something about a woman who wields her brain like a weapon and her tongue like a whip that makes me want to worship at her feet.

“Sometimes unexpected surprises change the course of our life in the most irrevocable of ways. In the best ways. Life is one big adventure, Mira, don’t let it pass you by while you’re stuck on a boring old path.”

“Good. Because I want to make myself abundantly clear.” We’re so close. I can feel the entire length of his body covering mine. He teases me with the lightest brush of his lips against my ear as he drops his voice and holds me captive. “You are not the pawn, Mira. You are the prize.”

This woman is about to be my undoing. And I’ll do almost anything to prove to her I’m deserving. I’ll burn it all down to make it happen.

I don’t want to tame her; I just want a front-row seat to watch her win the race.

“Absolutely nothing about the way I feel for you is a joke. And I’ll keep telling you that until you believe me.”

Nothing about this feels fake. Our bodies. Our minds. Our hearts. Absolutely everything about being with Mira feels like one of the most real things I’ve ever had in my life. And I won’t let her slip between my fingers now.

“You have beautiful hands. Almost as beautiful as your mind and heart. Sometimes I find myself staring at them while you work, so elegant and strong all at once. Hands that heal. Hands that save lives.” His voice drops. “Hands that belong in mine.”

You’ve put a spell on me. You’re all I think about.”

And nothing in my life has ever felt more real. I love him. I love him. I love him.

Mira and me? We’re like a phoenix, born from the ashes. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I’ve never considered myself a particularly good man. I never thought I was a bad man either. I was just a man with a sad past and no one to love. And then I saw you. It only took one look and I swear some part of me knew.”

“I knew my life would never be the same. You didn’t treat me like I was a bad man. You didn’t always treat me like a good one, either. But you made me want to be a better one. You make me want to deserve you. And I have every intention of spending the rest of my life trying.”

“This fire almost stole you from me. I almost lost you. And that’s a mistake I never intend to make again. I intend to cherish you like the treasure you are. This fire burned everything else away. My anger, my vendettas. The only things that mattered to me I pulled out of it. And so, I’m taking this as a fresh start. Everything else is ash—dust in the wind. And now I realize that the only thing that matters is what made it out. You and me.”

A better man would have let her out of our arrangement. I am not a better man. And I’ve never felt less sorry about anything in my life.