Page 47 of Roping Her In

He gazed down at her too, something warm and wonderful in his expression. His eyes dropped to her mouth, and he turned fully into her as he lifted his other hand to cradle her face.

“You are so beautiful,” he whispered, and while Hailey appreciated the compliment, it didn’t answer her question.

He lowered his head, his eyes drifting closed, and Hailey tilted back, hers doing the same thing. “I’m going to kiss you now,” he whispered. “If that’s all right.”

“It’s all right,” she whispered back.

When his lips touched hers, it didn’t matter if the power came back on ever again. She could learn to live without electricity, because she and Jake generated so much that she couldn’t imagine ever needing more.

He kissed her carefully at first, slowly, exploring, seeking permission. Hailey pressed into his chest, one hand moving to the back of his head, and the other fisting in the collar of his shirt as she kissed him back, over and over and over again.

19

Jake hadn’t kissed a woman the way he currently kissed Hailey in a very long time. This was a totally different experience than the wild, almost harried kiss from months ago. This felt like a true union of two people who liked each other, and trusted one another, and knew one another. While the chemistry still topped the charts, there was something deeper in this kiss as well.

He couldn’t seem to make himself stop, and Hailey certainly wasn’t complaining. Jake kneaded her closer and kissed her again. He knew he’d never be satisfied without this woman’s mouth on his, but he managed to pull away before things went too far.

He ducked his head and breathed in deeply through his nose, his mind and his emotions swirling and whirling and blurring together.

He lifted his head and met Hailey’s eyes, and she didn’t laugh, or scoff, or look away shyly. She simply held his gaze, and the powerful tether between them grew and strengthened. He had no idea what to say after such a beautiful kiss, and something whispered through his mind that he didn’t have to say anything.

Clicking noises sounded through the office, and then the steady hum of machines filled the air as his computer kicked back on and the furnace started to blow. Hailey released a breath, and Jake smiled at her.

“You really were worried the generator wouldn’t kick in, weren’t you?”

“Yes,” she said. “Okay? Yes, I was.”

Jake chuckled then and stepped back, feeling the emptiness in his arms now that Hailey didn’t stand there. “Let’s get your space heater going,” he said. “And we’ll close the door so it’ll be nice and toasty in here.”

“It’s four-thirty,” she said. “What are we going to do for the rest of the night?”

Jake’s eyes dropped to her mouth again and then rebounded back up. “I’ve got a few ideas.”

She swatted at his chest, but he danced out of the way, laughing.

“I’ll go make sure my boys have what they need,” he said. “And we could put on a movie or something on my computer.”

“All right,” Hailey said, and Jake plugged in the space heater and started pushing the buttons to get it up to seventy-two degrees.

“You’ll be all right in here?” he asked.

Hailey seemed a little bit lost, but she nodded, and he left the office, pulling the door closed behind him. He went down the hall and turned left into the staff break room, where the five cowboys he’d left here had all claimed a couch and seemed to have all of the bedding and other supplies they needed. In fact, Alder already lay on a full-size couch and held his phone above him as it played something that sounded like an old western.

“You boys okay in here?”

“Sure thing, Jake,” Carlton said. “We saved you that couch right over there.” He nodded to the one on the end where Jake would be able to get up and check on things easily. He noted the close proximity to a plug as well, and he appreciated that as he needed to have his phone charged and by him at a moment’s notice.

“All right,” he said. “You’ve got your meals and everything else. I’m going to catch up on some notes and paperwork in my office, and I’ll come join you guys in a little bit.”

All five men looked at him, but Jake held his head high. They knew Hailey was here in the building, and while he hadn’t made a ranch-wide announcement about their relationship, he and Hailey also hadn’t kept it a secret.

Three Rivers really was like a tiny community, and word about accomplishments, health problems, injuries, and who was dating whom spread like wildfire. Jake nodded, thinking he could really use some wildfire about now to melt all this ice, and then he headed over to the table with the water, picked up two bottles, and said, “I’m just down the hall.”

“We’ll text before we come your way,” Alder said, and the lot of them chuckled good-naturedly.

“Probably a good idea,” Jake said, and he grinned at them before he left to return to his office—and Hailey.

Hours later, the third movie Jake had put on for he and Hailey finished, and he knew he needed to get up and off this couch and out to the other one where he would spend the night. He’d slept through the second half of the second movie, as he usually rose before the sun and never stayed up this late. But being with Hailey was too good of a reason to throw his bedtime out the window, and he shifted to see if she was still awake.