by Various
She allowed her hands to trail up his neck and twined her fingers together once her hands were firmly anchored behind his head. His tongue demanded a response in her mouth and she eagerly gave it. She met him thrust for thrust and reveled in the sound of hungry need he emitted.
Using the hand on her bottom, he rocked her pelvis against his and an electric current shot through her feminine core. Heat and dampness grew between her legs. She whimpered and he broke his mouth away from hers to trail kisses down her neck and up again toward her ear. Her breath came rushing out on a high-pitched wail. It just felt so good, better than anything she’d ever known.
“Oh, yes, baby, just like that.”
His husky voice grated against her ear and his hot breath made her shiver uncontrollably.
Suddenly the world tilted and she found herself lying under Win on the leather sofa.
Her world had shrunk down to the soft cushions at her back and the hard man lying on top of her.
“We’re going to be so good together, honey. I promise.”
His words broke through the passionate daze she had slipped into and she started to struggle.
“Let me up, Win.”
He didn’t seem to hear her as he unbuttoned the top three buttons on her blouse in quick succession. He slipped his hand inside and the feel of his fingers on her aching flesh almost sent her spinning back toward the passion filled no man’s land she’d been caught up in since Win’s lips had first touched hers.
His next words acted like a cold shower on her senses, however. “Don’t worry, honey, I’ve got a condom.”
She started to struggle in earnest. “Let me up. I mean it, Win. Let me go.”
He stopped kissing her and lifted his head to stare into her eyes. “What?”
“Please, let me go.” Foolish tears gathered in the corner of her eyes.
Win slowly moved off of her body, his expression wary, and then pulled her into a sitting position next to him. “I was going too fast, wasn’t I?”
She nodded, unable to speak past the frustrated tears clogging her throat. He no doubt now believed he had all the evidence he needed that she was exactly what he thought, a woman willing to share a no-strings affair. Her fingers trembled as she tried to rebutton her blouse. She muttered an expletive when they slipped for the third time off the button.
Win brushed her fingers out of the way. “Let me do that.”
He had her buttoned up in less than ten seconds. The man was fast, about a lot of things. He tipped her chin up so that she had to meet his gaze. His blue eyes had grown dark and in them she could see the remnants of the wanting he’d been forced to control.
“Okay now?” he asked.
She’d never be okay again. “Yes,” she nevertheless said.
He nodded. He turned and brushed around the floor with his fingers. “Got it.”
He held up her barrette as if it were first prize on the show circuit.
She took it from him and managed to clip her hair into some semblance of order. “Thank you.”
“Any time, honey.”
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, praying for strength as she did so. “We need to talk, Win.”
He nodded, his expression serious. “I know.”
The problem was, she didn’t know what to say.
He saved her from having to come up with the right words by speaking first. “I owe you an apology.” He pushed his fingers through his hair. “Hell, honey, I’m not used to the feelings you bring out in me. My only excuse is that when you threatened to leave, I knew I had to do something to stop you. Picking you up and bringing you in here seemed like the most straightforward approach to keeping you around.”
She smiled at his explanation. “What were you planning to do tomorrow when I didn’t show up for work? Kidnap me?”
She meant it as a joke, but he took her seriously. His face took on a pained expression. “I didn’t get that far in my thinking. I guess this he-man stuff only takes a guy so far, huh?”
A guy who understood the word no. Earlier evidence to the contrary, she had a strong feeling that Win was one of those men. “Yes.”
He nodded. “What are you going to do?”
Chapter 4
THE question surprised Carlene. She would have assumed that after the way she responded to his kiss, Win would think he had her full cooperation in his plans for an affair. Surprisingly, it was his doubt that precipitated her own. If he’d gone on demanding that she stay, she would have been able to walk out.
“I don’t know,” she answered.
“Would you stay if I promised to take things at your pace?”
The offer threw her. She didn’t want to set the pace to an affair and yet she couldn’t bring herself to throw the offer back in Win’s face. She didn’t doubt it had taken a toll on his pride to make it. He was not a man used to women saying no…or letting anyone else be in control. She decided honesty was the only alternative.
“I’m attracted to you.”
He smiled. “I could tell.”
She swallowed. “Yes. Well. Although I find you more attractive than any man I’ve ever met, I’m not interested in an affair. I’m too old to play those games.”
Instead of the angry frown she expected, he smiled. “What are you? Twenty-four, twenty-five?
You’re not exactly at the age when most women’s biological clocks start ticking.”
“I’m twenty-six and it isn’t my biological clock I’m worried about. At the risk of sounding hopelessly old-fashioned, it’s my reputation.” And her heart, but she didn’t think she needed to admit that right now.
He stared at her for several taut moments, as if testing the strength of her will. Finally, he nodded. “I can’t say that the idea of sneaking around thrills me, but I can understand your desire to be discreet.”
In for a penny, in for a pound, her mother had always said. “Discreet isn’t what I was thinking about exactly. I meant it when I said I didn’t want to have an affair.”
His hands flexed, then fisted against his thighs. “Are you saying that the kiss we just shared didn’t change your mind?”
She nodded, feeling miserable. “That’s exactly what I’m saying. I’m not going to pretend that I don’t want you, Win.”
He gave a harsh laugh. “Thanks for that much at least.”
“But, I’m not in the market for a no-strings affair.”
“Are you really going to quit?”
She sighed. She didn’t want to, now more than ever. “No. I’m a big girl and I can handle a little sexual attraction.”
She hoped and prayed with all her heart that was true. She needed this job and the thought of never seeing Win again went through her soul like an arctic wind. It might not be the safest course of action, but it was the only one she could live with.
He gave her a slow sexy wink, his relief evident. “I can too, honey, but I’m telling you right now that I want you and that isn’t going to change either.”
She nodded, accepting his statement for what it was—a challenge. She just hoped she wasn’t being irreparably stupid in believing she could meet it.
“So is it true you carried Carlene through the house like a sack of potatoes yesterday?”
Shorty’s questions caught Win by surprise and he damn near yanked on the bridle of the horse he was leading. His head shot up and he met the older man’s gaze. “Where’d you hear a fool story like that?”
He’d never carried a sack of potatoes cradled in his arms in his life.
“Joe said he came into the kitchen looking for a leftover piece of pie just as you were carrying our new cook to parts unknown.” Shorty stopped and adjusted his hat back on his head. “Said Carlene was yelling her head off.”
Win would have to teach Joe a lesson about gossip. He didn’t much like the thought of his hands discussing him and Carlene, but he was smart enough to realize he probably couldn’t stop it. “He said that, did he?”
Shorty hook
ed his thumb in his belt. “Yeah. We was all pretty sure the little lady was gonna quit. No one was looking forward to going back to my vittles, I can tell ya.”
“She didn’t quit.” Win was still a little surprised and very pleased by that fact.
“Uh, huh. I noticed. She’s in there making lasagna for dinner tonight.” Shorty rubbed his stomach in appreciation. “Makes a man relish working up an appetite for the kind of cookin’
that little lady provides.”
Win figured there was a point to this conversation, so he remained silent, waiting for Shorty to get to it.
“A gal like that needs a hand gentle on the leads, boss.”
Win wasn’t surprised by the warning. Carlene had won the hearts of his hands within a couple of days of her arrival. It wasn’t just her cooking either. She had a ready smile and kind word for just about everyone.
Everyone except Lonny.
Win still didn’t know what had happened that day he’d come upon Lonny leaving the kitchen with the expression of a newly branded calf on his face. He could guess though and it irritated the hell out of Win that another man felt he had a right to make a pass at Carlene. The way she’d acted about having Lonny make the shelf in the kitchen had made him even more suspicious, but until he knew for sure he couldn’t feed the other man his teeth.
Win wanted his hands and the rest of the world to know that Carlene was his woman. Only she wasn’t his woman, not yet anyway. And when she finally gave in, he had an ugly feeling the woman was going to want to be “discreet”.
He didn’t know what women thought they were gaining by hiding a relationship, but he figured she wasn’t going to back down real easy on that point. Hell, nothing said she’d back down about getting involved either. Nothing, but the way she responded to his touch.
A man could find a lot of hope in having a woman respond to him the way Carlene responded to Win.
Shorty cleared his throat, reminding Win that he wasn’t alone with his thoughts.
“You know what I mean, boss?”
What had the man said? Oh, yeah, something about a gentle hand on the leads. “Carlene’s not a horse, Shorty,” he said, ignoring the fact that he’d used similar comparisons himself in his own mind.
Shorty shrugged. “Women and horses got a lot in common. They don’t take kindly to rough treatment and you’ve gotta coax ’em into trusting you.”
“Where’d you learn that? The cowboy school for seduction?”
“I was married a heap o’ years, boy, and a man learns something about women living with one day in and day out.”
Win wouldn’t argue that. Living with his mom for eighteen years and his wife for less than two had taught him plenty about the opposite sex, the most important lesson being that they didn’t stick around. From what Carlene had said about moving on the first day she’d come to work for him, he figured she’d follow the same pattern. But he’d damn well have her in his bed before that happened.
“Will it make you feel better to know that I apologized?”
Shorty’s eyes widened and then his wrinkled face split in a grin. “She’s got you apologizing already, boss? Now that’s a good sign, a mighty good sign.”
“I’d appreciate it if you and the rest of the hands would leave off speculating on my relationship with Carlene.”
Chuckling, Shorty pulled his hat back down over his brow. “Didn’t realize you two was already at the relationship stage. Lonny ain’t going to like hearing that.”
Win frowned. “If Lonny’s smart, he’ll keep his opinions on the matter to himself.”
“Oh, he ain’t stupid, boss. Don’t figure he’ll say anything, but don’t know that he’s gonna give up on Carlene either. I’ve seen the way he watches her. He’s got ideas, that’s for sure.”
Win watched Carlene with wanting in his eyes too, but what he wanted from Carlene and what that young punk that worked for him wanted were very different things. Weren’t they? Hell, yes, he told himself. He wanted more than a quick toss in the sheets. He wanted Carlene for as long as it took to work out whatever it was they had going between them.
He figured Lonny was just looking for some experience with a beautiful woman. Well, he wasn’t going to get it with Carlene. Win toyed with the thought of firing the young stable hand, but decided that in all fairness he couldn’t fire the boy for having feelings. At least not today.
A warning might be in order though. Win scowled at Shorty. “If he wants to keep his job, he’ll keep his hormones under control when he’s around Carlene.”
Satisfaction settled over Shorty’s features. “It’s like that, is it? Glad to see that you ain’t so blind after all. Women like Carlene don’t come along in a man’s life every day, you know?
’Bout time you settled down and had yourself a family. Carlene’ll make a mighty fine mother, if you ask me.”
Win’s scowl deepened. “You can forget any pipe-dreams about marriage, old man. The only kids I need around are my sister’s. I see them when she visits and then she takes them home, just the way I like.”
An empty feeling in his gut belied Win’s words, but he refused to withdraw them.
Shorty snorted in disgust. “Thought you was finally smartening up, boss. Guess you ain’t.” His gaze slid toward the house where Carlene stood beating rugs in the spring sun. “Then again, maybe there’s hope for you yet.”
“Don’t count on it,” Win replied.
Shorty turned and walked away, muttering about mule-headed horses’ asses that passed for men.
Win watched Shorty’s retreating figure, his thoughts in turmoil, and it was all Carlene’s fault.
She had him so twisted in knots he didn’t know if he was coming or going. One thing he did know—he wasn’t going to give up a lifetime of hard-learned lessons for any woman, even one as appealing as his housekeeper.
She acted like a woman who was looking for marriage, but Win didn’t buy it. She’d already made it clear that she was moving on. She wasn’t really interested in permanence either. So why was she so bothered with the idea of an affair? She was bringing up marriage as some sort of barrier between them.
He didn’t know why she felt as if she needed one, but he’d find out. Once he did, he’d overcome it and any others she planned to erect. After all, he was a man that knew how to get what he wanted and he wanted Carlene Daniels.
A week later, he wasn’t one step closer to breaching Carlene’s defenses. In fact, he felt as if she built a better corral to keep in her emotions than the one he used to exercise his horses. The woman was as stubborn and frustrating as they came.
He sighed and leaned back in his chair, putting his booted feet up on the table. Satisfaction that no one was there to scold settled over him. Now if he were a married man, he’d have to listen to some woman reprimand him for putting his boots on the furniture, even the outside furniture.
When his ex-wife wasn’t complaining about the lack of social life and opportunities in Sunshine Springs, she had nagged Win about his manners, or lack thereof. She found his cowboy ways too earthy for her delicate tastes. Too bad she hadn’t figured that out before marrying him. Too bad he hadn’t figured it out either. There had been some clues, but his judgment had been clouded by fear, grief and unsatisfied lust.
Rachel had insisted on waiting to go to bed together until they got married.
As far as he could see, she’d used sex and anything else that came handy to try to manipulate him, first into marriage and then into selling the Bar G and Garrison Stables so they could move to the city. He’d learned a lot in his short association with Rachel, that was for sure. Lessons he wasn’t about to ignore.
Thoughts of his ex-wife always put him in a bad mood, so he welcomed the interruption of a ringing doorbell. He stood up and headed toward the front of the house, thinking of Carlene when the chimes rang out a second time before he had a chance to open the door.
When he finally opened it, however, it wasn’t Carlene standing on
the other side. It was his baby sister. He felt guilty almost immediately for the sense of disappointment he had to squelch.
Leah threw herself in his arms. “Win, you’ve got to help me. I don’t know what to do anymore.
It’s just too much,” she said between broken sobs against his shirtfront.
He patted her back and looked past her to the small compact parked near the front of his house.
In the fading light, he could make out the outline of two tiny heads, but no other adult. She’d brought Win’s four-year-old niece and two-year-old nephew, but her husband, Mark, hadn’t accompanied her.
He hugged his sister and then set her away from him. “Hush, Leah. Let’s get the kids inside and then you can tell me all about what’s bothering you.”
She nodded, swallowing a sob. Shoot. He hated it when she cried. His insides twisted like the strands of a lariat.
It wasn’t any surprise that an hour later he found himself agreeing to keep the kids for a few days while Leah tried to get her head on straight. She needed a break and it sounded as if her marriage was on the skids.
He sure hoped Carlene liked children because her job description was about to change. He needed a nanny as well as a housekeeper. Hell, he’d give her a raise—that should help get her to agree.
Especially when he told her the other change he needed her to make.
“Move in here? Are you nuts?” Carlene stared at him, her eyes clearly showing every bit of what she was thinking for the first time that week. The little woman was furious. “I took this job expecting to clean house and cook. Now you want a live-in nanny? No way, Win. I’m not doing it. You’ll have to find someone else.”
He had to convince her and soon. He had a full day of work ahead of him and he was already a couple of hours behind, having had to wait to leave the house until Carlene showed up.
“I told you when I interviewed you, it’s your job to deal with the domestic stuff.” He smiled in what he hoped was a coaxing manner. “I know taking care of the kids is above and beyond what I hired you to do, but it’s not permanent and I’ll give you a big bonus.”
She erupted all over him like Mt. St. Helens, bristling with outrage as she drew herself up. “You think you can bribe me to put my reputation on the line, not to mention exhaust myself caring for two toddlers?”
