Well, she didn’t let herself imagine it every day.
She shivered.Then she wrapped her robe more tightly around herself and went down the stairs.
It was six thirty, early for Ellie, though Clark would already be out and working on the ranch.
But when she entered the kitchen, there he was, dressed for the day’s work, looking gorgeous.She could have turned around, hightailed it right back up the stairs, and waited for him to leave.Not let him know she was there.
Well.At least this time she was wearing pants.
“Good morning.”
“Morning,” he said, sounding sleepy.
“You’re getting kind of a late start.”
“I didn’t sleep that well last night.”
She wanted to ask him why.She also knew better than to do that.Because she knew why.It was the same thing that was dogging her.She wouldn’t say that she was the sort of person who was driven by physical attraction, but her physical attraction to him was like nothing she’d ever experienced before.Well.Except with him.
She took a step toward him and pointed toward the coffee maker.“I just want to get … I could just use some …”
“Yeah,” he said.
He abruptly put his coffee mug down on the counter and walked toward her.He wrapped his arm around her, and pulled her up against his body, and she gasped.
She should tell him it was a bad idea.She should tell him not to.
She didn’t.Instead she looked up at him, her heart threatening to pound its way out of her chest.She didn’t move.And when he lowered his head and claimed her mouth with his, she reached up and clung to his shoulders, doing everything she could to keep herself from melting into the floor.
She’d never been kissed like this.He was masterful.Passionate.Even in the early morning, the whiskers on his face were rough.His mouth hot.His tongue slick.His body was just so big and hard and wonderful.She wanted to cling to him forever.
She’d never kissed a man who was so tall.He gathered her up in his arms, holding her on her tiptoes as he kissed her.
She felt as if her entire body was suffused with warmth.Need poured through her like honey.
She returned the kiss with enthusiasm, answering each slide of his tongue against hers.
“Clark,” she whispered.
How did she tell him?How did she tell him that she had wanted this for so long?That one of the reasons she was so wound up every time he was near her was that there was alwaysthis need, throbbing beneath the surface.This thing she had no control over.
This thing that made her feel shame.
Though not for the reasons it once had.She felt shame now because the reason he had felt like such an illicit craving was tied up in what she believed about his family.
Shame that she hadn’t realized immediately what a good man he was.
Such a good man.
He pulled away from her.“I’ve wanted to do that for years.”
The raw admission almost stunned her into total silence.But she managed to squeak a question through her tightened throat.“Really?”
“Yes,” he said.“You know you were the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen?”
Of course.Back when they were young.Before he got on the rodeo circuit.Before he’d been exposed to thousands of beautiful women.
“What are you doing?”
