The Long, Hot Texas Summer

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  The cleanup and conversation continued until almost midnight.

  Still chattering about how much he loved the ranch, Lamar hitched a ride back to town with Mitzy and Libby.

  Justin and Amanda were alone once again.

  Which, considering how attracted she was to the evening’s host, was perhaps not such a good thing.

  Taking a deep breath, she stepped away from the driveway and onto the grass.

  A full moon and stars shone in the velvety-dark Texas sky, and a warm summer breeze blew across their bodies. It couldn’t have been a more romantic setting, which was why, Amanda knew, she had to bid the handsome man beside her adieu.

  She slid her hands into the pockets of her shorts, broke away from the quiet intensity of his gaze and took off in the direction she needed to go. “I better head back to my trailer.”

  Justin caught up with her in three quick strides. He slid a protective hand beneath her elbow. “Let me walk you.”

  She tingled at the protectiveness of his touch. For both their sakes, she eased away. “Really,” she reiterated firmly, working hard to keep their mutual attraction at bay. “It isn’t necessary.”

  This time he kept his distance, even as he walked companionably beside her. “I know that.” He sent her a gallant look. “I want to do it.”

  They continued across the grass. It felt like the end of a date. It wasn’t a date. She had to remember that. Struggling to maintain her composure, Amanda looked up at him as they reached her trailer. “I know you’re grateful for my help this evening...” she began.

  He tilted his head to one side. “Very grateful.” His voice slid over her like a caress.

  “But it doesn’t mean anything other than I was being neighborly,” Amanda insisted.

  His gaze swept over her before returning with patient deliberation to her eyes. “Good to know.”

  It astounded her, realizing how much she yearned to kiss—and make love—with him. “So...?”

  Tenderness glimmered in his expression. “It still means a lot to me. You were a huge help tonight with the fund-raising.”

  “I didn’t do anything other than tell the truth.”

  His lips took on a seductive curve. “Then how about telling it now?”

  Amanda lifted her chin, her heart thudding in her chest. She ignored the tingling sensation in her middle. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Yes, Amanda, you do.”

  Amanda glanced at him, trying to figure out how to persuade him otherwise. Inside the trailer, her phone rang. She frowned and looked at her watch. At this hour, there was only one person it would be. “Hang on. I’ve got to get that.”

  She stepped inside her trailer and picked up her cell phone. “Hi, Granddad. Um, no.” She paused, listening. “It’s a long story. Suffice it to say, I got distracted working on something here, and before I knew it time got away from me.” She paused again, aware Justin could probably hear every word she was saying. “Um, I don’t think so. How about I call you tomorrow? Yes.”

  She said goodbye to her grandfather and walked back outside. Justin was standing, legs apart, hands braced on his waist, surveying the ranch. The quintessential cowboy. Only he wasn’t a cowboy. And he didn’t have a hat.

  He pivoted to her, concern etched on the rugged planes of his face. “Everything okay?”

  Wondering what it would be like to come home to a man like him every night for the rest of her life, Amanda said, “That was my grandfather. I had told him I was going to drive to San Angelo this evening and spend the rest of the weekend with him. Only...”

  “You got caught up helping me.”

  Amanda breathed in, wishing Justin didn’t smell and look so damn good. “Right.”

  “Are you going to see him tomorrow?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  “You’ve got the day off.”

  It wasn’t that. It was that the moment Granddad saw her, and asked her even a few questions, he would know she had feelings for Justin. And since her grandfather had no qualms about inserting himself into her love life, particularly if he thought she needed protecting...

  Emotion roiled through her. She did not want the situation getting any more uncomfortable than it already was. “I’ll think about it, okay?”

  Justin watched her, as if knowing she was still keeping a lot more to herself than she was telling him.

  “Anyway, back to what we were talking about...” Amanda started.

  His irises darkened to the color of midnight as he listened intently to what she had to say.

  “Just because we worked well as a team tonight, and have done a pretty good job getting Lamar back on track, doesn’t mean we should read anything else into it.”

  The air was suddenly still enough to hear a pin drop. “Like attraction,” he said.

  Their gazes collided. “Right.”

  He moved subtly closer and flashed her a grin, all confident male. “Except I am attracted to you, Amanda.”

  And not afraid to face it.

  She held up a staying hand. “And I’m attracted to you, too, Justin, but...”

  Slowly, purposefully, his eyes locked on hers, he invaded her personal space. “But what?” he asked huskily.

  She shivered when his hands lightly cupped her shoulders. “But there’s a lot more than the physical component to a relationship, and I want a relationship, Justin.” She lifted her chin. “The kind that lasts.”

  He lifted his broad shoulders. “So do I.” His voice was silky-soft, contemplative. And somehow dangerous in a deeply sensual way.

  Panic welled, along with desire. Ignoring the fluttering of her pulse, she advised coolly, “Then you should pick more wisely.”

  Justin used his leverage on her to bring her closer still. Smiling, he said, “I am.”

  Chapter Six

  Amanda knew it was a mistake to get so involved with Justin and this ranch when she was only going to be here a short time. It was an even bigger folly to let herself get emotionally attached to him. But she couldn’t seem to help it. Whenever he looked at her that way, touched her, took her face into his hands and bent down and kissed her, all her resistance fled.

  Her heart was wide-open. And what her heart wanted, she reluctantly admitted to herself, was him.

  Amanda followed his lead and opened her mouth to the insistent, warm pressure of his. He kissed her again, harder, deeper. She moaned as his tongue swept the inside of her mouth. Another ribbon of desire unfurled inside her. Eager for more, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and clasped him to her.

  He pinned her against the side of the trailer, his body hard and muscular and hot. So hot. Something unexpectedly wanton was unleashed inside her. She moaned again and he continued kissing her with that mixture of confidence and tenderness that completely undid her. Trembling and aching to be filled, she arched against him. She could feel his heart pounding against her chest. And still it wasn’t enough.

  All restraint fled. His hands slid lower to cup her bottom, ardently holding her against the proof of his own mounting desire. She melted against him, surrendering to the erotic thrill of being held in his arms—to him. And damned if he didn’t take her up on her offer.

  “Amanda,” he whispered against her mouth. He lifted his head, his eyes dark and hungry. “Stop me if you’re going to,” he said, his voice raspy and low. “Because if you don’t...”

  She didn’t care what they had promised each other before. All that mattered was what she felt now.

  “I don’t want to stop you,” she whispered back. She didn’t want to stop any of this.

  Taking him by the hand, she led him inside her trailer.

  Their eyes met again. They kissed their way through her kitchen, past the bath and to the queen-size bed. Arms a
round each other, they tumbled, laughing, onto the mattress.

  Justin rolled onto his back, tugging her over him, and kissed her again. And again. As if kissing were an art in and of itself. And heavens, Amanda noted blissfully, did the man know how to kiss! He stroked and invaded, tempted and caressed, adored and seduced, until nothing mattered but this moment, this night, and the two of them.

  * * *

  JUSTIN HAD WANTED Amanda since the first second he’d set eyes on her. That wanting had grown exponentially with every moment since. She’d wanted him, too, even though she’d tried to hide it beneath her confident, independent demeanor. But with her lithe, hot body sprawled on top of him, their legs intimately entangled, there was no more pretending.

  Her nipples were taut. Her breath, erratic.

  Rock-hard, he rolled her onto her back and turned his attention to unbuttoning her blouse, gently removing it and then her bra. She watched, with a look as sweet as heaven, as he bent to her breasts and kissed the pale orbs and rosy tips. “Damn, but you’re gorgeous,” he breathed, disrobing her the rest of the way.

  She was soft all over, feminine. Just as he’d known she would be. A perfect breast in each hand, he kissed her languidly. She wrapped her legs around his waist, and kissed him back.

  With her help, and a little more laughter from both of them, they were undressed in a minute flat. Then all amusement faded as she fisted both hands in his hair, sighed his name, and kissed him once again. Deeply. Passionately. Irrevocably.

  The knowledge that she wanted him just as much as he wanted her sent another surge of heat soaring through him. Justin slid down her body, stroking her beautiful breasts, the deliciously flat plane of her stomach, the sensitive sweep of her lower abdomen, her smooth thighs. Homing in on the most womanly part of her, he sought out every sweet sensitive spot, until at last she gasped, lifted herself to him, and came apart with an exultant cry.

  The depth of her satisfaction lit a fire beneath his own need.

  He found the condom that had been in his wallet since he didn’t know when. Their gazes caught for a long moment and the air between them hummed with anticipation and the yearning for more. Her hands trembling slightly, she helped him put it on, and then they were entwined in each other’s arms again.

  When she kissed him, it felt as though he’d been welcomed home. He had his mouth on hers and his hands beneath her hips, first lifting her to take him, then pressing her down against the sheets. She felt so good, so right, undulating beneath him. He possessed her with everything he had. When they came, it was together, hard and fast, and he surged into her, taut and deep.

  She buried her face in his neck as the tremors subsided. Reveling in their closeness, he breathed in the sweet, womanly scent of her. And he knew. This...Amanda...was what had been missing in his life.

  * * *

  AMANDA CLUNG TO Justin, willing her heart to slow, her feelings to come back under control. The first she eventually managed. The second...well, she didn’t think she would ever get past what had just happened. At least, not to the point where she could erase it from her memory. Which was why she had to put some distance between them. Now.

  With a soft exhalation of regret, she untangled her body from the hard length of his and sat up. He lay on his side, watching with lazy satisfaction as she pulled on a robe. Amanda swallowed, not sure why she had fallen so hard and fast for Justin McCabe, just knowing that she had. And that her feelings, as intense as they were, might not be returned. That in his view, she might never be more than a conquest, or a woman he would like to bed and just be friends with. A notion, she knew, that could break her heart.

  Finding her way back to sanity, she cleared her throat and regarded him with every ounce of common sense she possessed. “Well. As wonderful as this was...”

  “You’re kicking me out,” he guessed, his voice rough.

  She didn’t want to. She also knew how easy it would be to forget all the reasons they’d never work out, and surrender her heart and soul to him. She couldn’t let that happen. Couldn’t stand to have her self-esteem crushed again. Because even if Justin didn’t mean to hurt her, in the end, he would.

  And if she’d barely recovered once—with a man she had come to realize she’d never truly loved—she would not survive this.

  Amanda shoved the hair from her face and twisted it into a loose knot at the nape of her neck as she paced. “It’s no surprise that we made love tonight, or why.”

  He did a double take, but she forced the words out. “However, you have to know that we can’t continue this.”

  He caught her wrist as she passed and drew her down to sit beside him on the bed. He looked like a male Adonis with the sheet drawn loosely to his waist. A slight smile curved his lips. “You’re going to have to clue me in,” he said with a bewildered shake of his head. “Because I thought we made love because we are incredibly attracted to each other.”

  Amanda averted her gaze from the muscular splendor of his bare chest. She resisted the urge to bury her fingers in the swirls of hair around his flat male nipples. “That was part of it.”

  His eyes lingering everywhere he had previously caressed, he took her hand and turned it palm-up. “What was the rest of it?”

  Pushing aside the memory of the way he had just made love to her, not to mention the tingles still rippling through her body, she forged on, “You had a culinary emergency. I helped you out.”

  He held her open palm in his and traced her lifeline with the tip of his index finger. “It was lot more than just cooking together that propelled us into your bed.”

  Ignoring the need to join him there again, she met his gaze and didn’t look away. “Listen to me, Justin.” Deliberately, she tried again to talk sense into him. “When a man and a woman successfully entertain together, the way we did tonight, they can end up feeling like a couple even without an intense physical attraction for each other.”

  Tenderness filled his eyes. “And you know this because...?”

  Sadly, Amanda admitted, “Because it’s happened to me before.”

  He let her hand go. Continued watching. “With your ex-fiancé?”

  Her throat dry, Amanda nodded. “His family owns a custom home-building business. They take on high-end clients, people who require wooing and entertaining.”

  Amanda sighed. “When Rob joined the business, he was expected to do that, too.” She frowned, recalling, “He had one couple in particular he was trying to sign. The man and his wife were both incredible cooks, and they wanted a builder who shared their passion.

  “I was putting in some custom carpentry on another home his family’s company was building, and Rob knew I liked to cook so he came to me for advice.” Amanda threw up her hands in dismay and shook her head. “One thing led to another, and the next thing I know I’m not just giving Rob advice on what to cook, but I’m in the kitchen with him...”

  Aware Justin was listening intently, Amanda continued relaying her story. “Suffice it to say, the clients signed, and Rob was delighted. He took me out to dinner to celebrate his successful deal. We did a few more dinners.” Her face flushed as she forced herself to go on so Justin would understand. “We ended up in bed. And we felt like such a great couple we became engaged.”

  Justin studied her, all empathetic male. “Which lasted until Rob found out about your background.”

  Amanda nodded, a mixture of pain and regret flowing through her once again. “Which is when it all fell apart.” She drew a deep breath and stood. “The thing is, if I hadn’t stepped into the role of Rob’s helpmate, or partner or whatever you want to call it, we never would have ended up in bed together, just like you and I would never have ended up in bed together tonight.”

  Rising to his feet, Justin put his hands on her shoulders and waited until she looked him in the eye. “You’re selling us short,” he
said with a look of sheer male annoyance.

  Amanda tried not to think about how magnificent he was, with clothes and without. How incredibly, sexily masculine. “Don’t you see? I can’t romanticize what happened tonight the same way I did before.”

  “I don’t think you’re doing that. I think you’re running from what just happened because you’re scared that what we’ve got might have the potential to be something real. Or lasting,” he said, taking her into his arms.

  The hardness of his body pressed against hers, he dropped a kiss on her temple, another on her cheek, the corner of her mouth. He paused to give her a long, hot, openmouthed kiss that she couldn’t help but return.

  “And the way you’re responding to me now proves it.” He kissed her thoroughly.

  Amanda knew she shouldn’t give in to Justin again, shouldn’t give in to this. But the moment he touched her, self-control vanished.

  She let out a tremulous sigh. “Maybe just once more, to satisfy our curiosity about each other,” she conceded.

  “I’m all for making love again.” He tumbled her back onto the sheets as if they had all the time in the world. Only, as it turned out, it wasn’t once more. It was two more times. After which, Amanda was so replete and content she didn’t have the will to toss him out. Instead, she spent the night clasped in his arms.

  The next thing she knew, it was morning. Sunlight was slipping past the edges of the window blinds. She was alone in her bed. Sighing groggily, Amanda sat up and looked at the clock. To her amazement, the morning was half gone.

  Not surprised that Justin had taken off, but happy he had been kind enough to let her sleep in, she stretched, got up and headed for the shower. She came out and had just gotten dressed when there was a rap on her door. Justin was standing there, compelling as ever. In deference to the intense heat of the July day, he was dressed in cargo shorts and a V-necked T-shirt.