by Various
Thoughts of Leah’s emotional crisis faded as the flames of Win’s desire reached out to lick her.
She shivered again, but this time not from the cold. “Oh.”
He smiled and lowered his mouth the remaining distance for their lips to touch.
Win waited a heartbeat, his lips pressed against Carlene’s. Would she reject him? Desperation seized him as gaping hunger gnawed at his insides. He needed her softness so much, but he couldn’t afford to push her tonight. He wanted her to agree to stay while Shelly and Jared were with him.
She gave a small, feminine moan and her lips softened under his. Exultation filled him as he deepened the kiss. He had been aching to taste and touch her since that one steamy encounter on his couch. Letting his hands slide down her back, he pressed her body more firmly against his.
It felt so good.
Too good.
If he didn’t sit down, he might well fall down. The acknowledgement of his weakness made him want to laugh. None of his men would believe that this tiny mite of a woman could bring him to his knees like this. Sweeping her into his arms, he carried her along to a wrought-iron lounger situated at the corner of the outdoor corridor. He liked to lie in it and watch the rain come down during a storm.
Without allowing their lips to break contact, he laid her on the cushion covering the lounger and came down on top of her.
She gasped as his body settled against hers.
Suddenly her fingers were all over him, touching his chest, his back, and finally burrowing into his hair as she pulled his face closer. She parted her lips and he eagerly accepted the invitation she offered. He swept her mouth with his tongue, reveling in the sounds of need emanating from her.
He wasn’t sure, but he thought that her tiny little moans alone might be enough to make him spill his seed.
Still kissing her, he slipped to lie on the narrow width of cushion next to her. He kept one thigh locked over hers and pressed his erection against her hip, enjoying the sweet torture the position elicited. He wanted to touch her. He needed to touch her.
He undid the buttons on her prim cotton nightgown, pleased when she made no move to stop him. It was a far cry from the black lace he had been fantasizing her wearing, but the sight of her to-die-for body outlined by the thin cotton in the hall outside the kids’ room had sent his temperature through the roof. It had also had an instant hardening effect on his sex.
Once her buttons were undone, he pulled back slightly and parted the soft white fabric to expose the perfection of her breasts. Strawberry-pink, velvet-soft nipples pointed proudly from the center of the creamy white mounds and it was all he could do not to bury his face between them.
He sucked in his breath. “You are incredible, honey. You know that? Looking at you is like being up close and personal to a piece of art.”
The skin of her breasts flushed and he didn’t think it was from arousal. “Win?”
“Hmm?” he asked as he slipped his hand inside and cupped one of her full breasts.
Damn. It felt as if he’d died and gone to heaven. Her nipple tightened under his palm and he couldn’t resist brushing his hand back and forth, back and forth until she was pressing her generous flesh against the callused skin of his palms.
“I want to taste you.”
Her head moved restlessly on the cushion. “Yes. Please. Win. Yes.”
Pushing the fabric of her gown further to the side he lowered his head and closed his mouth over the puckered flesh.
She groaned and arched against his mouth. “Win, that feels…It’s so…Please, don’t stop.”
He was happy to oblige. Hell, he was ecstatic. He suckled her sweet little nubbin while using his hand to gently squeeze and caress her other breast. He took her other nipple between his thumb and forefinger and pinched lightly. She cried out and arched against him, pressing his face into her breasts. Man, she was hot.
He could not wait to feel the slick warmth of her most private place. He wanted to touch it, to taste it, but most of all to bury himself in her until all that sweetness surrounded him and was branded with his touch.
He gripped her nightgown and started edging the fabric up until he could feel the bare skin on her leg. So soft. She was so incredibly soft. He inched his fingers up her thigh, seeking the tender flesh between her legs.
“Win? What are you doing?”
Did she really need him to explain it to her? He encountered the soft cotton of her panties. He rubbed her through the cotton, satisfied when it grew damp under his touch.
She gripped his shoulder, her fingernails digging into his skin. She would leave her mark on him and he didn’t mind. Not at all.
“Win, please…This is too…”
He slipped one finger under the elastic of her panties and yes, right there. Yes. Wet. Hot. Slick feminine flesh.
“You can’t touch me there,” she shrieked.
He mentally disagreed even as he wondered at the panic in her voice. She acted like a nervous virgin.
Lifting his head, he tried to reassure her. “It’s okay, honey. I like touching you there. I’ll like it even more when we get your panties off. So will you.”
Her eyes, which had been cloudy with passion, widened with something that looked like fear. “I don’t want to take them off.”
He begged to differ. “I think you want to, but you’re scared. Tell me what’s scaring you. I’ll go slow. I swear.”
“It’s not that. It’s just that I’m not sure I’m ready to make love with you, Win.”
He felt irritation rising in him. “Why the hell not? You want me. You can’t deny it.”
He rubbed his finger over the feminine flesh hidden by her panties to prove his point. It worked too. She arched against his hand even as she shook her head.
“Don’t shake your head at me, damn it. I won’t let you lie to me. Not now. Not ever.” He leaned over her, letting her see that he meant what he said.
She stared back at him, her eyes filled with some emotion he didn’t understand. Finally, she nodded. “You’re right. I do want you. Very much, but I am scared. Win, I don’t want to be somebody’s convenient bed partner for a short affair. Not even yours.”
“I told you. I’m not looking for a sleazy affair,” he ground out.
“Then what exactly are you looking for, Win? We both know it isn’t a wife.”
Helpless rage welled up in him. He wouldn’t let another woman manipulate him into promising marriage in exchange for sex. He was a lot smarter at thirty than he had been at nineteen.
He jumped off the lounger and stood up, glaring down at her. “You’re right. I don’t want a wife, but I told you once before that there’s a lot of ground between a one-night stand and marriage.”
She stood and adjusted her nightgown so that her beautiful breasts and legs were back under cover. “Maybe there is for you, but I’m having a hard time accepting that.”
Sexual frustration and anger made him lash out. “We both know that with a body like yours, you’ve had plenty of opportunity to figure it out. So, would you stop talking like a Victorian spinster, fearful of losing her virginity?”
She blanched as if he’d struck her. He felt about an inch tall and shrinking by the second as her eyes widened with pain and filled with tears.
Hell.
Before he had a chance to try to undo the damage he’d done with his mouth, she drew herself up and blinked away the moisture in her eyes.
“I’m getting awfully tired of explaining to the men around here that my bra size has no direct correlation to my desire to bed every male within a fifty-mile radius. I can understand Lonny’s ridiculously immature view, but I expected more from you, Win. I really did.”
She impatiently brushed an errant tear from her cheek. “Furthermore, I may not be Victorian, but I am a virgin and I can damn well talk like one if I want to.”
With that she whirled and ran back down the corridor.
Win stood in stunned silence for a full thir
ty seconds, long enough for her to disappear inside her room. Then he swore a blue streak. Who would have guessed that a woman as good-looking as Carlene would be a virgin at twenty-six?
It wasn’t natural.
He wanted to slam his fist into something.
The next morning, Win had already headed down to the stables by the time Carlene entered the kitchen.
She was a little late. She normally arrived for work at seven-thirty, but this morning she had dawdled getting dressed. She’d told herself that she had been busy listening for Shelly and Jared to wake, but the truth was that she was doing her level best to avoid Win.
She couldn’t believe she’d done what she had with Win the night before…and enjoyed it so much. But he made her feel such intense things. Not only sexually, but different about herself—
like her body was something truly beautiful. Something to be admired, not just lusted over.
Which was pretty funny when lust and sex came together, but no way could she describe what happened last night as pure lust.
Win wanted her in a way that touched her so much more deeply than any man’s interest had before because it felt deeper. He made her feel proud of her femininity…her figure.
But she still went hot with embarrassment every time she thought of the way she’d blurted out her virginity to him.
He must have had a good laugh at her expense after she fled like a frightened rabbit. Once he’d calmed his raging hormones, that was. The fear that he would accuse her of being a tease was another reason she was avoiding him. There was no denying that she’d encouraged him. And she’d been accused of being a tease by other men for a whole lot less.
Men like her ex-boss.
Shorty came into the kitchen. “Mornin’, Carlene. Win says you’ll need my help while the little
’uns are staying.”
Carlene digested that. Win had made no such offer the day before and she knew he needed Shorty down in the stables, but she wasn’t about to turn down the help, not when she had to cook for seven hungry men and keep two active toddlers occupied so they wouldn’t miss their mom too much. “I could use a hand later getting lunch ready and started on dinner. It shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours from your day.”
“Good enough. Kitchen duty is a piece of cake compared to working with the boss today. He’s ornery as a wounded mountain cat. I don’t suppose you know anything about it, do you?”
She affected a nonchalance she didn’t feel. “He’s probably just a little stressed from worrying about his sister.”
She opened the fridge and pulled out the meat she’d defrosted for tonight’s dinner.
Shorty peered at her, his eyes intense. “I don’t think so. He’s used to dealing with Leah’s troubles. Nope. It’s something else and it’s got him snapping at anyone fool enough to look cross-eyed. Thought for sure he was gonna take Lonny’s head right off over something Win would have normally let go.”
That got her attention. “He was mad at Lonny? Why?”
Shrugging, Shorty pulled out the big cast-iron stew pot and put it on the stove for her. “Can’t rightly say. No real reason as far as I could see.”
“Oh.”
He turned and gave her another probing glance.
She forced a smile to her lips. “Why don’t you go back to work? I won’t need any help for a couple of hours.”
Shorty shook his head. “Can’t. Win said for me to watch the kiddies while you go to your apartment.”
She stopped dicing the steak she planned to stew for shepherd’s pie. “I wasn’t planning to go to my apartment this morning.”
“Win says you’re going to need more things.”
Win said this, Win said that. And just who said that Win was king and she one of his subjects?
When she didn’t respond, Shorty added, “So you can stay the nights.”
Carlene frowned at that. Win couldn’t possibly know that she had changed her mind about staying. She hadn’t said a thing. If anything, after last night, he should expect her to be even more entrenched in her certainty it was the wrong thing to do. She was a little surprised at herself that she wasn’t. However, after holding Shelly while she cried the night before, Carlene knew she couldn’t turn her back on Leah’s children.
They did need her.
“I didn’t tell Win I planned to stay the nights. In fact, I told him to find someone else.”
“Kiddies need a woman’s touch when they miss their mama.”
Win and Shorty had hopelessly outdated views on the roles of gender in comfort. When she told Shorty she thought so, he shook his head, more serious than she’d ever seen him.
“Win spent a heap o’ years being both parents to his little sister, long before his mama died in that plane crash. He’s pretty determined to give Leah’s kids what he couldn’t give her, a woman to comfort them.”
Sounds from the hall indicated the children had woken up. She moved to the sink to wash her hands. “I’ve got to feed the children right now. You might as well go back to work, Shorty.”
She didn’t admit that she planned to go to her apartment later. Win had no right to assume she meant to stay. The very least he could do was confirm it with her rather than sending Shorty to her with the news like a royal edict. She had valid reasons for not wanting to stay on Win’s ranch and even if those reasons didn’t weigh heavily against the feel of Shelly’s little arms clinging around her neck, he didn’t know she’d changed her mind. He was too arrogant for belief.
Shorty frowned, but didn’t argue. It wouldn’t have mattered if he had, she was already on her way to get the children up and dressed.
She decided that they could both use a bath after breakfast since she and Win hadn’t bathed them the night before.
Two hours later, she was cutting fruit for a salad while Shelly and Jared played on the kitchen floor with the brightly colored plastic dishes Carlene used to store leftovers when Win entered the kitchen.
Both children shot up off the floor and wrapped themselves around Win’s legs.
“Unca Win, I’s a cook. See?” Jared stood proudly, covered from chest to toes in one of Carlene’s white aprons that had been folded in half.
Win smiled down at his nephew and ruffled Jared’s blond curls. “You making our dinner tonight, sport?”
Jared nodded. “In the big bowl. See?”
Win pretended to see an amazing array of dishes in the big bowl and commented on all of them.
He gave Shelly a smacking kiss and told her to take Jared to see Shorty who would take them to visit the horses.
Shelly and Jared headed for Shorty, who was waiting by the outside kitchen door, with squeals of delight.
Win turned to Carlene, who had finished her salad and was sliding it onto an empty shelf in the refrigerator.
“Shorty and I’ll keep an eye on the kids while you go to your apartment and pick up more spare clothes.”
Not a word about last night. For which she should be grateful, but perversely wasn’t.
She frowned at him. “I thought we agreed that you would find someone else to help you at night.”
“Are you saying you’re leaving?” Challenge radiated in his voice and stance, but she thought she saw fear in his eyes.
The fear decided her, but she wasn’t going to make it easy for him. He could darn well have asked.
“We’re not talking about me quitting my job. We’re talking about me moving in here.”
“Shelly and Jared need you. You saw that last night.”
Sudden understanding dawned. “You waited, didn’t you? You heard Shelly. Probably before I did, but you waited because you wanted me to go to her and to comfort her.”
He had the grace to look guilty. “It was the hardest five minutes of my life. I hated hearing her cry,” he admitted.
“And if I tell you it didn’t work. That I still refuse to move in here until Leah comes back for her children?”
“Is that what you are saying?”
he asked harshly.
He had told her last night never to lie to him. She didn’t think she ever could.
She sighed. “No. That’s not what I’m saying.”
He nodded, the relief evident in his eyes, though she could see that he tried to hide it. He didn’t sound relieved when he spoke however. He sounded irritated. “So, why the big scene about it?”
“You could have asked. Don’t you realize how arrogant you are to just assume I’ll agree to stay, especially after last night?”
“So this is about last night? You want me to apologize? Fine. I’m sorry.”
Unaccountable moisture burned the backs of her eyes. “I didn’t ask for an apology.”
He grabbed her arms and pulled her until their faces were inches apart. “Then what do you want?”
She closed her eyes against the anger in his and told him the truth. “I don’t know anymore.”
He let her go and she opened her eyes. He looked wary. “Are you ready to go to your apartment?”
She took a deep breath and nodded. “Yes. I’ll be back after lunch. Everything is ready and in the refrigerator. Shorty will have to serve it, though.”
“Fine.” He turned to go back outside.
“Win.”
He stopped at the door. “Yeah?”
“Do you have any idea how long Leah will be gone?”
He looked back over his shoulder, his expression closed. “No. Why?”
“It would be nice to know how much to pack and how long I’ll be staying, but I guess that’s out, huh?”
“I don’t know. I wish I did.”
The words were stark and suddenly it hit her that it bothered Win a whole lot more than it bothered her that he didn’t know when his sister was coming back.
She tried to smile reassuringly at him. “It’s going to be okay.”
He nodded, but she could tell that he wasn’t convinced.
“By the way, do you think she’d mind if I potty-trained Jared?”
His eyes widened. “I doubt it.”
“Good.”
“You sure you want to do it? I’ve heard potty-training can be pretty tough, especially for boys. I think that’s why Leah’s been putting it off.”