Chapter 3 #2
When she didn’t answer, he rested his right forearm against the headrest on her seat, letting his fingers trace the silken skin of her neck. He was struck by the urge to move his fingers higher. Following the instinct, he played through the hair at her nape. Soft but thick.
He fought the craving to massage up her neck until he could play with the thick mass over her crown. He should move away, stop touching her, his personal temptation, without remorse. He was about to pull his hand away when she made a slight sound of encouragement. “Feel good?”
“Didn’t realize how stressed I’ve been.”
“So, will you answer me?” he said gently, never ceasing his tender attention.
Tipping her chin forward to give him better access, she mumbled, “I did. I said I didn’t realize I was so stressed.”
“That’s not what I was after, Emma, and you know it. Are you involved with anyone?”
She shifted in her seat, forcing Cade to move his hand. His fingertips brushed over the thin skin protecting her life vein. He paused, only briefly, but it was long enough to experience the thunder of her pulse beneath his thumb. He dropped his hand to the console between them. “You’re single.”
“You can’t be sure of that,” she objected. “I haven’t answered you.”
“Don’t have to.” Had she been seeing anyone, he had this innate, inexplicable knowledge she would never have taken the bet. She wasn’t that person. That was answer enough at this point. It also left him with plenty to consider. He cranked the radio up, trying to buy himself time to think.
A gust of wind caught the truck and pushed the behemoth like it was no more than a paper kite in the wind.
The storm clouds had taken on a deeper greenish-gray tone that colored the land an odd, pre-twilight color that was impossible to mistake.
Mother Nature was advising everyone in the county that she was about to unleash a can of whoop-ass.
The wise man would hunker down. Problem was, there was no way Cade could get them to the ranch before the heavens loosed their fury.
If it hailed, it could total his truck. Lightning posed the largest threat, though.
They’d be okay on the flats if they stayed in the car.
As a rancher, he spared a thought for the poor animals. They didn’t always have a way to get out of this kind of mess, and if they balled up in a fence corner, the ranch would lose a few to electrocution when lightning struck the metal fencing.
Emma unbuckled her seat belt, twisted around and half climbed into the backseat.
“What’re you doing?”
A gust of wind slammed into the pickup, shoving the big vehicle hard enough it knocked Emma into him. She landed with her hip on his shoulder, that luscious ass in his face. The urge to nip it was nearly too much.
Her muffled reply caught him off guard. “Grabbing my camera.”
“Your camera?”
Another gust of wind parked her hip over his shoulder. She pushed herself up, clutching a black bag large enough to hold decent digital equipment.
Then she realized the predicament she was in.
She had one knee solidly between his thighs and the other rested against the outside of his right hip.
Her breasts were pressed intimately against his chest and arm.
Her far hand was digging into his pectoral pad.
She dipped her chin and peered down at him, her eyes wide with surprise. “How did I end up in your lap?”
His right hand moved of its own volition, coming to rest on the indention of her waist. “Your camera, Emma.”
She swallowed hard and nodded, a couple quick jerks of her chin. “The storm. I wanted a picture of the storm. I’ve never...”
“Never what?” he asked, urging her to finish her statement.
Without breaking her gaze, she set her camera bag in her seat and wrapped her hand around the nape of his neck. “I’ve never experienced anything similar to this. Never encountered anything so wild and free, something that acts without consequence or—”
“There’re always consequences.” His voice had devolved into a gruff whisper. “Always,” he repeated, tracing his thumb over her bottom lip.
“I’ll live with them,” she said, voice husky.
“All of them? Just like that?”
“Every. Single. One.”
So be it.
EMMA COULDN’T LOOK AWAY. Cade’s voice, sultry and wanting, had wiped out her every effort to maintain her composure.
From the moment she’d met him, he’d had her heart rate speeding up in all the right ways.
And for the last hundred miles, she’d been crossing and recrossing her legs in an effort to assuage the mild ache in her core.
Then he’d sung. Just a few notes. That’s all it had taken to push her over sanity’s edge.
Driven by madness or not, she couldn’t give him complete control.
No one held that over her head. Not ever.
She would manage the way this happened—and it would happen.
The undisguised desire on his face, that same face that had been so passive since meeting her, now empowered her.
It was the type of desire a woman didn’t want to discount any more than she would the impressive bulge fighting to destroy his zipper.
She tossed her glasses onto the seat beside her before tipping up the rim of his cowboy hat.
Tracing her fingers along the rough stubble lining his jaw, she leaned forward and laid her cheek next to his, her lips against his ear.
“Just so I’m completely clear. You’re not involved at any level?
Because I’ll never be anyone’s other woman or second choice. ”
“Not involved, and you’re far from my second choice. You’re the first woman who’s ever crawled under my skin like this,” he replied, tension threaded through every word. His grasp on her hip tightened.
“That’s a powerful statement.” She nipped his ear. “Power is seductive, is it not?”
His breath came out in a rush. “You’re playing with fire, darlin’.”
She couldn’t help but agree any more than she could stop the rush of heat up her neck and down through her belly.
This man was sin incarnate, from his boots to his jeans to his very, very fine body.
Everything about him appealed to her. She’d never experienced this crazy rush of desire, the raw cravings that made her want to accept his stupid challenge and discover just what two weeks might bring.
With absolutely no intention of falling in love, she could still enjoy the chase, the seduction, the touching and... She shivered.
Then she smiled, the stubble on Cade’s cheek leaving a slight whisker burn on her delicate skin.
“I understand exactly what I’m doing, darlin’.
I may be single, but I’ve never been celibate.
I take liaisons as more than a casual fling but less than a plea for serious commitment.
Clear?” She pressed closer, her lips brushing the shell of his ear.
“And as for fire? You have no...idea...just how good it would be to burn with my particular brand of heat.”