Her Second Forever

by Joanna Sims

  “I didn’t mean to do that, Colt.”

  He turned his back on her again. “But you did anyway.”

  In an aside to herself, Lee said, “Why am I always apologizing to you?”

  He didn’t answer her. He kept packing up his tools.

  Lee realized that she needed to show Colt something. He had been showing her how he felt and she had been hiding all of her cards. For once, Lee veered from her plan, walked up behind Colt and wrapped her arms around him. Colt didn’t move. He didn’t reach for her hands.

  Lee leaned her head on his back and tightened her arms around him. “I should have said yes.”

  Colt turned in her arms. His blue eyes were stormy with emotion. “You still can.”

  “Then, yes...”

  By the time Lee got the word yes out of her mouth, Colt was kissing her. His strong arms were holding her as tightly as she was holding onto him. She had been fighting the urge to kiss this man for weeks. She had been fighting the desire to join her body to his again and again and again. It had been so damn difficult to pretend that she didn’t want to make love with Colt. It had been so damn taxing to pretend that her body wasn’t aching for him.

  Colt held on to her and walked them both backward until he reached the door to the tack room. He slammed the door shut and hooked the latch to lock them inside the small room. Lee didn’t bother to protest. They both had been resisting this urge for too long as it was.

  “You make me crazy.” Lee pulled his belt buckle loose.

  Colt kissed her neck while he pulled her shirt out of the waistband of her jeans. “Damn straight.”

  “All the volunteers already went home.” Lee gasped when his mouth found her nipple.

  “I don’t care.”

  “Of course you don’t.” Those words came out on a moan of pleasure when his hand slipped inside her underwear.

  “Lee?”

  Colt whispered her name into her ear, sending shivers of sheer ecstasy racing across her skin.

  “Yes?”

  “Please stop talking.”

  Lee couldn’t talk if she tried. She clung to Colt’s arms while he slid his fingers inside of her.

  “My sweet lady Macbeth.” There was a smile in Colt’s voice. He knew how much she wanted him now. He knew how much she needed him.

  With his free hand, Colt unbuttoned his jeans and then unzipped them, freeing his erection through the opening in his boxers. Lee reached for him, holding him, wanting him to fill her body so completely as he had once before.

  Colt started to remove her clothing, pushing her jeans and underwear down.

  “Wait!” she whispered harshly.

  He growled in frustration and his hands stopped moving. “What? Why?”

  “These jeans are too tight at the bottom to get over my prosthetic.” She looked down at her jeans.

  “Then just leave one leg in,” Colt said in a growly voice. “Who cares?”

  Lee yanked off her right boot, pulled off one leg of her jeans and stepped out of the right hole of her underwear. “This is weird.”

  Navigating hot, spontaneous sex with a prosthetic did raise some interesting issues.

  “Get up here.” Colt was leaning back against bales of hay. He lifted her up and sat her down on his lap, not caring a bit about the fact that she was dragging half of her jeans and underwear on her left leg.

  Lee wrapped her legs around him and he pushed her clothing out of their way. “Hold on to me,” he said while he lowered her onto his hard-on.

  “Colt.” Lee said his name into his warm neck. “Colt. You are so frickin’ sexy.”

  Colt lifted up his hips and pushed himself farther into her body. “You are so frickin’ beautiful.”

  They kissed, long and deep and wet, their breath mingled, their bodies pumping, seeking that release.

  “Come for me.” Colt bit her earlobe, sending her into a frenzy of movement.

  She held on to him, moving back and forth, pleasing herself with his hardness, the thickness of his body. The release came in sweet, wonderful waves, one after another while he held her tightly. He gave her that moment, sitting still while she set the pace and controlled the movement.

  “You are mine, Lee,” Colt said right before he exploded into her.

  “I am yours.” Lee gasped, wanting to hold on to Colt and never let him go. She wanted this moment to last for forever.

  Chapter Twelve

  Their first official date was a horseback ride on Sugar Creek Ranch. Liam’s cabin was tucked back in the woods and there was a private entrance. Colt understood Lee’s hesitation to broadcast their relationship to the town of Bozeman. Unlike him, Lee had much more at stake—Strides of Strength depended on community donations, and these donations came largely based on the respect and trust Lee had built in the community. So Colt didn’t mind their dates being unconventional. In fact, he preferred it that way. Why spend time in a restaurant when they could have a picnic by a stream?

  “This is absolutely beautiful.” Lee looked out over the pastureland in the distance.

  “I’m glad you like it.” Colt joined her on the blanket he had packed for their afternoon picnic. As far as the eye could see and beyond, all of it was a part of his family’s land holdings. Colt was proud to bring Lee to Sugar Creek. He hadn’t convinced her yet to join the family for their traditional Sunday breakfast, but he was going to keep on trying. He loved Lee and he wanted her to be a part of his life the way he had become a part of hers at Strides.

  Lee leaned her head back to let the late morning sun warm her face.

  “You are so pretty to look at, do you know that, Lee?” Colt admired her profile.

  She laughed, a sweet, lilting laugh that always sounded good to his ears. “Michael always told me I was, but I thought he was just being biased.”

  Colt couldn’t stop himself from frowning. No matter what they did, Lee managed to work Michael into the conversation. It always felt like he was on a date with three people, not just two. And he didn’t like it.

  “You are beautiful,” Colt told her, reaching out to touch the softness of her wavy hair. “So beautiful.”

  They had a light lunch and then they made love by the riverbank with the sound of the water rushing over boulders and the rustling of the wind in the tall brush mingling with their moans of pleasure. Lee had anticipated their lovemaking. She proudly showed him the wide-legged jeans she had donned so she could pull them off over her prosthetic. Colt was also prepared with protection. They had made love twice without using a condom but both of them agreed, just for the sake of habit if nothing else, that having protected sex made the most sense. They had already had the health discussion—they were both healthy and Colt didn’t want to have any more discussions like that with Lee. He just wanted to love her as often as he could.

  Lee was laughing and panting and holding onto him as he kissed her and nibbled on her neck and drove into her hard. She liked it hard. She liked it soft. She liked making love to him more than any other woman ever had. When he was making love to Lee, Colt felt like the luckiest man in the world. He now understood how men could fall in love with one woman and spend a lifetime never getting tired of loving her. He knew, in his heart, that this was the love he had found, as well.

  Colt held off as long as he could, making sure that Lee was satisfied before he climaxed. He felt the sun beating down on his back, hearing the sound of birds flying overhead and loving the happy sounds Lee was making in his arms. After a moment to catch his own breath, Colt pushed himself up on his elbows and stared down into the dreamy face of the woman he loved.

  “I love you, Lee.”

  Lee reached up and put her hands on either side of his face. “I love you, Colt.”

  Colt tilted back his head and howled like a wolf and then rolled over onto his back, taking her with him. “I kn
ew it!”

  Lee rested her head on his chest, her hand over his heart. There couldn’t be a moment better than this. He had the woman he loved in his arms and she just admitted, without hesitation, without qualification, that she returned his love.

  “Damn straight.” He smiled, closing his eyes. “Now, that’s what I’m talking about.”

  * * *

  Weeks of lovemaking and horseback riding and hiking were a wonderful honeymoon period when Lee began to date Colt. His cabin hidden in the woods on Sugar Creek property was the perfect place to duck away from the demands of their lives and spend time just getting to know each other. Boot had been right; she did need to see if they were compatible before she opened up about her plans. If things didn’t progress with Colt, why was it important for him to know about her promise to Michael? These incredible moments with Colt could just be a collection of memories and nothing more.

  “Did you always want to be an occupational therapist?” Colt asked her. They were together in his bed, after having made love several times, and as they liked to do, they would spend several hours just talking.

  Lee had donned her underwear and one of his flannel button-down shirts. She had covered her body, including her prosthetic, with the covers.

  “No.” Lee toyed with the hair on his arm. “I didn’t even know what an occupational therapist was until after my accident.”

  She turned slightly toward him. “After I had to have my leg amputated, that’s when I met a woman who was destined to change the course of my life. Dana. That was her name, and she was the one who helped me figure out how I was going to get around my house after the amputation. I realized that, here was this woman whose whole life was dedicated to helping people with disabilities do what they wanted to do. So, as soon as I could, I went back to school, took all of the prerequisite courses needed to qualify for the master’s program in occupational therapy and after I graduated, I became involved in equine-assisted therapy.” Lee gave a quick shrug of her shoulder. “The rest is pretty much history.”

  Colt threaded his fingers with hers. “What do you mean, help you get around your house? I’ve seen you get around everywhere better than I can most days.”

  “I don’t always have my prosthetic leg on. I get around my house all kinds of different ways. I hop, I use my crutches, I use my walker—I even trialed this contraption that you strap on your thigh and it looks like a pogo stick so I can get around without my leg. Sometimes, I just flat-out crawl where I need to go.”

  Lee watched Colt’s face and as always, he was curious but not repelled by her disability. “Every day things are still a challenge—like showering. I have to sit down on a chair to shower and then get out of there without killing myself.” She laughed self-effacingly. “Anyway, Dana was so important in my recovery that I knew I wanted to be like her. And now I am.”

  “Now you are.” Colt lifted her hand and kissed it.

  Lee rolled over so she could rest her head on Colt’s chest. She loved listening to his heartbeat; the strong sound of his heart comforted her.

  “How come you always leave your leg on when we’re together?” Colt asked.

  “I suppose I don’t want to gross you out.”

  She felt him move and she knew he was looking down at her. “Gross me out?”

  “Yeah. I’m used to my stump. You’ve never had to deal with something like that before, have you?”

  “No,” he admitted. “But I’m seen every other part of you, Lee. Up close and super personal.”

  Lee laughed. It was true. And yet, somehow showing Colt her leg seemed more intimate than being naked in front of him or letting him put his lips anywhere on her body.

  “I know. I’ve just never shown it to anyone other than doctors or therapists or my friends.”

  Colt sat up and displaced her in the process. “I think it’s time you showed me.”

  Lee sat up, as well.

  “I’m serious. I’ve shown you all of mine. It’s time for you to show me yours.”

  “That’s not the same thing. All of your stuff is perfection personified.”

  Lee preached self-confidence and self-love and self-acceptance for a living. It seemed hypocritical not to let her friend, her lover, see the real her in this moment.

  “Okay. You asked for it.” She rolled down her sleeve cover. “But be warned. It’s weird to look at, I’m just telling you that right now.”

  “Nothing about you is going to bother me.”

  “We’ll see.” Lee pushed a button on the side of the prosthetic to release the air pressure that was holding her leg tightly in place. She removed the leg before she rolled the sock off her stump and then the protective silicone sleeve.

  She was nervous, truly nervous, to show her leg to Colt. She ran her hand over her stump, put her arm under her thigh and then showed him what the medical community called her residual limb.

  Colt leaned in and looked at it closely. “Wait. Do you have a smiley face emoji tattooed on it?”

  With a laugh, Lee held her leg up higher so he could see her tattoo.

  “I wanted to put something on it that would make me laugh.” She smiled at the memory.

  Colt examined her stump for a bit longer and then the moment passed as if it should never have been a big deal in the first place.

  “What do you think?” she asked him.

  “What do I think?” He frowned at the question. “I think it’s a part of you. I love you, so I love your leg. Okay?”

  “Okay.”

  * * *

  Once Colt had officially been absolved of any further obligation to the court, he knew it was time to go public with their relationship. Colt was convinced, even though Lee disagreed, that people would accept their relationship as easily as he had been accepted into the Strides of Strength family.

  “You’re invited to Callie’s engagement party at the Story Mansion. Aren’t you?” Colt slowed Mack down so Lee could catch up on her horse.

  “Of course.” Lee trotted up beside him on his Arabian-Quarter mix named Prince.

  “So, I’m going and you’re going. It will be the end of summer, so you won’t have the stress of the program hanging over your head.”

  “I know there’s a point in here somewhere,” Lee teased him.

  “I think Callie’s party will be a perfect event for us to go together,” he said and then added, “As a couple.”

  When she didn’t respond to him right away, he continued, “It would mean a lot for you to attend as my date. We’ll get dressed up to the nines—trust me when I tell you that you want to be my date when you see me in a tuxedo.”

  “I don’t doubt that.”

  “We’ll dance—we’ll eat great food. What do you say?”

  “I say...” Lee was smiling back at him, about to finish her response, when a baby deer bolted across their riding path, spooking both of their horses. Prince began to prance sideways, his eyes wild, snorting and rearing.

  “Whoa.” Lee sunk down into the saddle and tried to keep her center of gravity from shifting.

  “You okay?”

  “I think so,” she said, trying to keep the horse steady. “I think I just need to move him forward so he doesn’t think he can spook and not listen to me.”

  “Be careful.”

  Lee was an Olympic-level rider, but Colt also knew that any horse could get any rider, no matter how experienced, off. That was the risk anyone took when they decided to ride on the back of a flight animal.

  Colt hung back while Lee trotted the gelding forward. In a flash, the mother deer bolted in front of Lee’s horse while Lee was posting up in the saddle. The gelding moved to the right and Lee went flying forward.

  “Lee!” Colt yelled when he saw her falling.

  Colt dismounted quickly, dropping his reins and running to Lee’s side. The top part of
her body was on the ground but her foot was caught in the stirrup.

  “My leg!” she shouted, her voice garbled from the pain. “It’s stuck!”

  Colt grabbed the reins to stop the horse from bolting again. If the horse had spooked, Lee would have been dragged on the ground. She could have been killed.

  Lee was reaching up but her body was twisted.

  “What do I do?” Colt shouted urgently.

  “The release button.” Lee was in so much pain she had begun to cry. “On my leg! Please. Get me free!”

  Colt yanked the leg of her jeans to her knee, tugged on the socket sleeve like he had seen her do several days before and then pushed the release button. Lee’s leg popped out of the prosthetic and she dropped to the ground.

  “Damn it!” Colt realized that he had let her fall.

  Lee rolled away from the horse’s hooves, crying from the shock of falling and the pain of having her body twisted so violently. She curled up into the fetal position, rubbing the part of her leg that had just been released from the prosthetic.

  Colt tied the horse to a nearby tree so he wouldn’t run off and then he raced to Lee’s side.

  “Lee!” He called out her name, wanting to wrap his arms around her. “Lee!”

  “Don’t touch me!” Lee howled, pushing his hands away from her body. “Don’t touch me!”

  Colt sat back on his haunches and tried to catch his breath. “What can I do?”

  “Don’t touch me!” she yelled at him.

  “I’m not touching you, Lee!” Colt snapped at her and then immediately regretted doing it. “I’m sorry. I just want to help you.”

  “My leg,” Lee finally said, her face streaked with dirt and tears streaming from her eyes. “Get my leg.”

  Colt looked over his shoulder and realized that Lee’s leg was still hanging from the stirrup.

  “Crap.” He went back to Lee’s horse and worked the prosthetic foot out of the stirrup. When he returned to Lee, she had pushed herself upright and she was rocking back and forth, rubbing her stump.