I never meant to need him this way.

Bryce lifts the fence stone alone and leaves me nothing to do but watch. He works this ranch like he owns it, and he handles me the same way. My body remembers already how small I am against him, how his hands have stretched me sore before, leaving me aching in places I pretend to hide.

The ranch is slipping through my fingers. His strength could save it or break me completely, yet I cannot step away from that heat, that certainty. I wonder how much more of me he will claim before I lose the only home I have.