by Maddie James
He shut the door and stalked off toward Mike.
“What in the hell, Parker McKenna,” she whispered, “is going on with you.” And how dare you shush me with a finger to my lips!
Inside she was steaming. This man. This sexy, hunky, cowboy man! He was driving her insane.
She watched Parker stalk across the lot toward Mike. They stood face to face and talked for a minute, then Mike’s hands shot up in the air, and he stepped backward.
Parker danced about, his hands also flailing.
His face was red, too. And his voice louder.
Hell’s bells, they were arguing. Loudly!
Reba jumped out of the truck and started toward the men. As she approached, she was a little dumbfounded as she realized they truly were having a heated discussion. Boys, boys, boys… What in the world.
“You said you weren’t interested, Parker. That it was casual. Just neighbors. That’s what you said.”
“Well, yeah, but I’m telling you I lied. We’re not. So back off.”
“But I’m not sure Reba would agree with you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’ve already asked her out.”
“You son of a bitch!”
“What the hell, Parker? You all but gave me a green light!”
“Boys! Stop!”
Both men clammed up, their jaws tight.
“Enough!” Reba continued. She stepped between them then, putting a flat palm on each man’s chest. She looked at Mike. “Go back inside. I’ll call you later.” Then she turned to Parker. “Get in the truck and take me home. Now.”
Neither man moved. Reba slowly angled her gaze from one man to the other and then said, “I mean it. Move.”
She dropped her hands and stomped off toward the truck. She hoped to hell Parker was following her and Mike was doing as told. Damned men. She hated when she had to treat them like boys.
When she got to the truck, she reached for the door handle with her bad arm and immediately regretted it. A pain shot up her elbow, and she winced. So easy to forget she was still injured without the splint. “Dammit!” But she quickly recovered and got in. By the time she was in her seat, Parker was behind her and shut the door. His glare caught hers through the window and held for a heated moment.
Shit. That sexy-as-hell stare turned her on like nobody’s business.
****
Parker slammed his truck door. Before he could say the words on the tip of his tongue—Reba, let me explain—she lit into him.
“What was that all about?” She glared from the other side of the truck cab.
Parker shoved his keys in the ignition and looked at her. “A misunderstanding. That’s all. Mike and I will talk later and smooth it out. We’ll be fine. Not the first time we’ve argued.”
“It was about me.”
Parker swallowed. Her emerald eyes—the ones that were sparking at him earlier—had turned cold and almost icy. “Yes.” How am I going to dig myself out of this?
“Tell me more.”
Shit.
“Parker?”
“All right.” He glanced to the console between them. “I told Mike I didn’t want him to ask you out.” He looked up then and leaned forward, closer to her. “Did he already ask you out?”
She didn’t hesitate with her response. “Yes.”
“Oh.”
“Do you want to know what I told him?”
He closed his eyes. “I’m not sure.”
“Parker…”
He jerked his gaze back up. “Yes, tell me.”
“I told him I didn’t know. That I would have to think about it.”
Both mentally and physically, Parker relaxed. He didn’t take his eyes from hers. “Okay. Thank you for telling me.”
She glared back. “A lot of good it’s going to do though. You are such an ass. I’m really and truly exasperated with you, Parker McKenna. I don’t know whether you are coming or going, flirting with me or pushing me away. I have absolutely no clue whether I am a pain in the ass to you or if you are attracted to me as much as I am attracted to you.”
What?
Parker just looked at her.
“Well?”
“I’m attracted. To you. I…”
“You what?”
“I don’t want you to go out with Mike.”
Reba’s gaze narrowed. “I’d already decided I wasn’t.”
“Good…” Parker exhaled, exhaustion settling around his shoulders. “Reba, I—”
She interrupted. “Not now. Take me home. It’s getting late. I need to get a prescription filled, and you said you had errands to run.” She glanced at her watch. “We better move. We can talk about this later.”
The last thing Parker wanted to do was end this conversation, but Reba was right. He straightened then and fell back into the driver’s seat. “Yes, ma’am,” he said, and twisted the key in the ignition.
Chapter Ten
Reba watched the Montana landscape out her passenger-side window. The dirt road leading up to her cabin was long and bumpy, about a ten-minute ride. Prior to turning off the big road, she and Parker had managed idle chitchat and casual conversation, but as soon as they turned onto Reba’s land, words ceased.
The afternoon had been all business, with a couple of tasks completed—the prescription picked up, and Parker even had time to stop by the bank to sign some paperwork. The distance between the incident in the parking lot and the time Parker pulled into her lane was much needed, although the tension between them still very much existed.
And that was the issue. Wasn’t it? Why was the tension there at all, and where did it come from? Reba didn’t think it was from her. It had always seemed to be coming from Parker.
Frustration?
Anger?
Sexual? Ah. Yes. Perhaps.
There had been the kisses and the sparks and the magnetic appeal…
It was a sexual attraction. Wasn’t it?
It was. And he was fighting it.
Had she hit the nail on the head? Parker was truly attracted to her, and he didn’t know what to do with it? Somehow she had a hard time believing that. Parker McKenna was one hot cowboy—she was pretty sure he knew what to do with a woman he was attracted to.
Reba started to squirm a little in her seat. I’ll think about that later.
With the vehicle parked in front of her cabin, she turned to Parker. “Would you like to come in? I can get you a drink. Maybe we can talk.”
He studied her for a minute and nodded. “I would like to hear the rest of the Reba Morris life story.”
“Oh? Goodness…” She’d totally blocked that night and conversation from her head. “Toward the end I think I drifted and was pretty much babbling incoherently. I’m not sure where I stopped off.”
Shaking his head, he said, “Not babbling. I found it interesting. And you left off at the part where you were about to get married.”
Reba swallowed. His wanting to hear more about her life shifted her thinking a bit. But wasn’t that what people did when they were getting to know each other—talk about their life and their pasts?
True. But was she ready to tell Parker about Jack? After all, they barely knew each other, and had he even had time to deal with his own father’s passing? Death was a downer, and she just didn’t want to bring Jack into this conversation—yet. Maybe later. She’d only been a widow for six months, and both of them were suffering a loss.
Where do you take all of that from there? She didn’t know.
She lifted the latch on the truck door. “Well, let’s go inside. Do you want coffee this late? I actually have pie. Or I could rustle up a soda if you wanted something cold.”
“Only if there is whiskey to go in it.”
She turned and smiled then. “Oh, I have something much better than whiskey, Mr. McKenna. I don’t hail from the land of fast horses, beautiful women, and fine bourbon for nothing.”
Parker grinned and winked. “Bring it on,
woman.”
Reba mentally gave herself a quick shake, along with an itty-bitty reality check. The wink was a good sign. Maybe she’d get Parker to relax a bit and show a little of his true self.
She threw the damned reality check to the wind. Hell’s bells. She was going for it. That was one of her goals, right? To live life?
Did she have a clue what she was about to get herself into? And could she, for the most part, keep the emotion out of it?
****
Parker followed Reba up the steps to her cabin. He watched her hips sway as she ascended and smiled at the swish of her flowing top as she moved. He waited, his palms itching to reach out and grab her ass while she unlocked her front door. Nervous tremors flittered up into his abdomen. Generally, he was secure in a direction he wanted to take with a woman—especially one he had strong feelings for—but at this moment, he was unsure where this night would lead, or where he even wanted it to go.
Were they ready for more?
She stepped inside, and he followed.
Funny how he hadn’t remembered much about the entrance to the cabin. Of course, every time he’d been there recently was in the midst of crisis, and he wasn’t thinking about wall decorations or window treatments. He’d been to the Crandall cabin before, many times over the years, but it sure hadn’t looked like it did now.
“Wow, Reba. The place looks incredible. You’ve really done a lot of work here.”
She glanced about, smiling. “Thank you. I love it. You know, it’s the first place I’ve ever owned that was just mine. It’s an incredible feeling.”
He nodded. “I understand that.” He thought about his own place, the big house, where he’d lived since he was born. He hoped to live there for many years to come and sure didn’t relish the thought of change coming to the ranch, and of him having to give that up.
“Something wrong?”
Parker hadn’t realized he had stared off. “No, I’m fine.”
“Good,” she said, heading down the hallway. “Let me take this prescription to the kitchen and see what kind of alcohol I can find to seduce you with.”
She whirled, wide-eyed, and looked at him.
“Oops.” A hand clamped over her mouth. “Did I say that out loud?”
Parker slowly moved toward her. “Yes, ma’am, you did. And truth be told, I’m not so sure you are going to have to ply me with alcohol to seduce me. That look on your face has pretty much made me a goner.”
Her pretty green eyes grew even wider as he finally put his hands on her waist, tugged her closer, and leaned into her. “Do we really need the bourbon?”
She blinked. Twice. “No. Yes. Shit. No. Yes.”
She pulled back, but Parker caught her hands and prevented her from going any farther. “Reba?”
“Just a sip,” she said, her gaze not leaving his. Parker released her and she rushed to a cabinet, pulled down a bottle of amber liquid with a fancy label and two short glasses. He watched her hands shake as she got cubes from the dispenser in the refrigerator door and then returned to the counter to splash a hefty glub of bourbon over the rocks in both glasses.
She needn’t have bothered with ice for him, but he wasn’t going to tell her that now. It was too much fun watching her.
Lifting both glasses and moving toward him, her gaze steady on his, she said, “I sure as heck would like to be suave and sophisticated right now, but in all honesty, I’m quaking like a leaf inside, and maybe you don’t need this, but I do. And if you don’t want yours, I’ll drink that one too. Here.”
Parker could have damned near laughed, but he didn’t. At that moment, he’d gone over the edge. Totally had fallen into the chasm. He was hopelessly, and he hoped forever, in love with this crazy woman.
He took the drink, brought it to his lips, and downed the bourbon. Setting his glass on the counter, he looked at her and said, “Bottoms up, Reba.”
Then he reached for her hips and jerked her toward him. “And then bottoms up…” he said, breathing the words into her ear.
****
Reba had never felt a sensual thrill as deep as the one that shot through her when Parker claimed her personal space as his own—and left a hot, steamy trail of kisses down her neck. His closeness and his words played out as a double-whammy, sending a shuddering spiral of need through her. She was nearly lost in the sensation of it all.
The glass of bourbon still in her hand, she tried to set it on the counter as he tipped her head back and ran a lazy track with his tongue, from behind one ear to her cheek. “Wa— Wait,” she hissed and Parker lifted his head a little. “Let me…put this…”
She was afraid she would lose her grip on the glass and it would shatter to the floor.
Parker straightened up, smiling, and looked square into her eyes. “Drink up, Reba,” he whispered. With a forefinger to the bottom of her glass, he guided it toward her mouth. Reba took it the rest of the way, quickly threw back the bourbon, and closed her eyes as the smooth, warm burn glided down her throat. Then she waited for the heat to hit her center.
There.
She already felt braver.
Opening her eyes, she found Parker gazing into hers. The smile he’d worn earlier was gone, replaced with a serious look of intent. With light strokes, he brushed a few stray hairs from her forehead and with his other hand, removed the glass tumbler from hers and set it on the counter.
“You are beautiful, Reba.” His voice was raspy, deeper. “And I am genuinely and hopelessly attracted to you.”
She cocked her head a little. “The eye, the bruise…”
“You’re beautiful.”
And so are you, you hunky cowboy man….
He continued. “I know I’ve been an ass the past couple of times we’ve been together, and before we go any further I just want to say that it was all me, not you. I am smitten—with you, Ms. Reba Morris—and I wasn’t quite sure what to do with that. The timing is lousy. And the thing with Mike, well… I just couldn’t ignore it, or you, any longer.”
Reba put two fingers on his lips. “Shush, Parker McKenna. I know.”
An eyebrow arched. “You do?”
She nodded and slid her hands around his waist, angled her face up to his, and placed a soft, wet kiss on his lips. “My room is upstairs.”
He kissed her back. “You don’t have to tell me twice.”
Chapter Eleven
They kissed their way up the stairs, pausing now and again to take a breath and tug at buttons and zippers. By the time they reached the second floor landing, the cabin was scattered with clothing, leaving a sloppy trail directly to the bedroom.
Smiling, Reba jerked back the covers on the bed and turned to him. Parker inched forward and wearing a saucy grin, slowly peeled off Reba’s bra, keeping eye contact with her the entire time. The scrap of lace fell to the floor while his hands molded her breasts and his fingers pinched and tugged at her nipples.
Reba gasped. “Oh, Parker…” Briefly, she closed her eyes, while he fondled and played. They flashed open again when the heat of his mouth took first one breast, drawing her nipple lazily into his mouth, and then the other.
Her breathing was heavy, labored, her legs weak. “I’m not sure I can stand much longer.” Parker lifted his gaze to her face and ginned, as if he were extremely happy about the effect he was having on her. He straightened his body and walked her backward to the bed. She lay back, and with a flick, he removed her sandals, first one and then the other. His hands moved to her hips and slid beneath the waistband of her jeans, and he slowly, careful inched them, and her panties, down to her ankles. Then he whisked those away too.
For the first time in a very long time, Reba lay on her bed, naked, looking up at a man who was not her husband. For the first time in a long time, she was going to make love with a man.
It had been nearly three years, and she was not backing out of this. Not now. For this one night, she was going to enjoy Parker McKenna’s company, and his lovemaking, and she’d worry
about tomorrow, tomorrow.
Parker toed out of his boots and shimmied out of the remainder of his clothes. There he stood, in all of his hard-body cowboy glory, and all Reba wanted to do was gulp—and think that in a few minutes, he would be all hers.
At least for tonight.
His gaze traveled Reba’s body from her slightly parted thighs and the juncture between them, to her belly, her chest and up to her face. Reba watched as his eyes rose to hers, and she caught his gaze and held it, while sucking in a breath. Parker placed one knee on the bed and leaned into her and then began working his way up her body with his lips, following the same path he had lain with his eyes.
Inner thighs. First left, then right.
The crook between her leg and hip—that tender hollow so close to her center. His tongue made a trail from her right hipbone down deep into that hollow, and then he breathed out a hot breath that fanned over her as he moved to the left hipbone and its opposing hollow.
Reba shivered, huffed out a few tiny breaths, and clutched the sheets.
“You’re driving me crazy, Parker,” she hissed.
“Good,” he replied, “that is my intent.” He made his way to her navel and beyond, moving up her centerline and nuzzling between her breasts. Reba’s breathing deepened and her chest rose and fell with his ascent. When he reached her face, he placed an elbow on either side of her shoulders, took her face into his big hands, and kissed her with an unleashed passion that lifted her onto an entirely different plane.
His kiss was slow and deliberate, gently tugging at her lips and teasing her tongue. Reba’s hands went to his head, and Parker rested more fully between her thighs, his heaviness welcome against her.
“Reba, I am consumed by you,” he breathed against her mouth. “And I want to consume you…”
The hard length of him burned against her tummy. He was ready and frankly, so was she. Besides, they had all night and perhaps there would be more than one time….
“Take me, Parker. Now. Consume me.”
