Heart So Sweet: Book 3 in the Great Plains Romance Series by Corrissa James

saying I am not moral?”
    His soft laughter melted her resolve, and he pulled her back into his arms.
    “No, my sweet Annie, I’m saying that I can’t control myself around you.”
    They stared into each other’s eyes as the passion between them swelled to the surface. They didn’t take the time to spread the blankets out before making love under the stars, each of them desperate to give in to their desires with the one person on earth who could fulfill all their needs.

Chapter Fifteen
     
    The birds starting chirping and singing in the trees while it was still dark out, but Susannah knew it meant that dawn was just around the corner. She snuggled closer to Tate, her cheek on his bare chest. She didn’t want the day to come. She didn’t want the sun to bring reality crashing around her. This moment, the here and now—this was what she wanted.
    “If you cling much tighter, I might not be able to breathe much longer.”
    “Sorry,” she mumbled, pulling away from him.
    But he caught her wrists and pulled her back against him. “Don’t let go.”
    “But you need to breathe.”
    He pulled his arms more tightly around her. “Not if it means losing you.”
    Susannah tried to swallow around the lump in her throat, but she couldn’t, so she simply reveled in the moment. They stayed locked in each other’s embrace as they watched the sun rise over the horizon.
    The early morning rays seemed to shine a spotlight on the farmhouse in the distance below, and Susannah was reminded why she came to Tate’s last night. After Jonathan’s comments yesterday morning, she knew that her brothers were concerned about her. If she told them she wanted to be with Tate, she expected Jonathan to be okay with it—especially when he saw how happy Tate made her. Daniel would go with the majority. She could not, in any vision of the future, see Andrew accepting Tate. He would always see the sheriff first and the man second, and stranding him without a car would be the least of Tate’s troubles if Andrew set his sights on destroying the man. Which left Lucas.
    And that was where the problem lay.
    Andrew would back down if Lucas told him to, but could Lucas forgive Tate for their past if it meant that she would be happy? She told herself that he would, but a lingering doubt wouldn’t stop niggling in her brain. The truth was she would have to fix the rift between Tate and Lucas before she could ever let her brothers know that she and Tate were together.
    “Tate?”
    “Hmm?”
    “What happened between you and Lucas before you left?”
    She felt his muscles contract and held her breath. Was it really that bad?
    “Why do you want to know?”
    She shifted to lean on her elbows so she could see his face. Tate pulled his hands behind his head, resting on them as he looked up into the sky.
    “Can’t you work through it—especially after all this time?”
    “It was between the two of us.”
    She chewed on her lip for a moment, then decided honesty was the only approach to take. “I can’t tell anyone about us unless I know Lucas will approve.”
    Tate rolled onto his side, propping himself up on one elbow. “Don’t you deserve your own happiness, Annie? Regardless of what your brothers say?”
    “It’s not like that.”
    “Then what is it like?”
    She rolled onto her back, trying to figure out how to make this man understand that she wanted him, needed him, more than she could possible understand herself, but that she could not let her feelings for him cause him possible duress, especially when Andrew could be the one causing it.
    “Would you ever be with a woman that your father didn’t approve of?”
    “Well...”
    “Knock it off, Tate. I don’t need to hear about past conquests when you know what I mean.”
    He let out a long sigh. “No, I wouldn’t. But I also knew my father was looking out for me, protecting me. You said yourself that Andrew likes hurting people.”
    “Which is why I need Lucas’s approval. Lucas