by Becky McGraw
"Well, you could've fooled me, darlin'," he drawled.
"I'm sorry, Ethan," she replied and took a step back.
"There you go again with the sorries. It's like once you said it one time, the floodgate opened and that's the only word you say to me anymore."
"I'm sorr--"
Before she could finish, Ethan stepped forward and grabbed her arms pulling her roughly against him. His mouth slammed down over hers and her breath caught in her throat. His mouth feasted hungrily on hers, sending hot pleasure darting through her. This kiss was different than the last one they shared, it was hot, hard and punishing.
When his tongue parted her lips and shoved inside to find hers, she whimpered then tilted her head, and hugged his waist trying to get closer to him. The heated kiss continued, her breathing ratcheted up and her heart felt like it was going to jump out of her chest. Every part of her body was on fire for him, and she didn't want to stop at the kiss.
Suddenly he pushed her away from him and cool air brushed across her lips. She put her fingertips to her lips and met his angry green eyes.
"I'm not sorry about that, if you're wondering," he told her with an evil-looking twist of his lips. "I'm not in a good mood tonight, Roxanne. Are you sure you want me to go with you?"
Rocky gnawed her lip and considered telling him she had changed her mind. Ethan was in a volatile mood, but instead of putting her off that excited her. At least he wasn't indifferent to her. Sucking in a deep breath she told him, "Yes, I'm sure."
Other than an eyebrow lift he didn't react, he waved a hand and said, "Lead the way then." He took a step and wobbled a little, but caught himself by putting a hand on her shoulder.
"The ground out there is uneven, you may want to get your crutches," she recommended then stepped closer and put her arm around his waist to help steady him.
Ethan looked down at her a minute with hot and needy eyes. "I'd rather use you as a crutch," he said darkly then squeezed her shoulder.
That was the problem, she thought. Rocky was afraid he was going to use her for more than a crutch to walk. And she was going to let him. Because she was turning into a weak female ruled by her emotions like her mother and sister...something she swore she never would allow herself to become.
To Rocky, because he had given up the chase, was not engaging anymore, Ethan had become that toy in the toy shop window she had wanted so badly, but her parents said she couldn't have. He was that candy bar on the rack calling her name, the one she had denied herself, because she was on a diet.
She wanted to taste that sweetness in her mouth more than she wanted her next breath. No matter if it made her sick later. Rocky was addicted to the man, and was damned afraid she was falling in love with him.
And that would be just damned stupid for her to do that.
The self-protection instincts she had honed for years, since her breakup with Ashton, were at an all time low here. Just his warm fingers on the bare skin at her shoulder was sending her nerve endings into overdrive. Rocky could only imagine what would happen to her body when those strong hands touched her everywhere. A thrill shot through her along with a shiver of excitement.
"You cold?" he asked and rubbed his slightly callused hand up and down her arm. It was too much, so she dropped her arm from his waist and stepped away.
"No, I'm fine," she lied then asked, "Where are your crutches?"
"The dining room against the wall," he informed then took a step in that direction.
She put a hand on his chest and said, "Just stay here and I'll go get them." Rocky needed a little space to get control back, if it was only a little space, and a minute or two.
Fishing? That was original, Ethan thought, and stifled a snort.
Well, at least the stubborn cowgirl was making a move. Or he thought that's what this was. You could never tell with Roxanne Baker.
He was beginning to think she never would make a move, that his gauntlet had ended things once and for all. Ethan had meant it when he told her he was done chasing her, though. If this wasn't a move on her part, then he wouldn't be fishing or anything else with her ever again. Ethan wanted her, he just wasn't a man to beat his head against a brick wall, and so far that is what the woman had been to him.
Roxanne walked back into the living room with his crutches and handed them to him. His eyes met hers and he saw indecision and something else there...insecurity. The strong woman he knew wasn't insecure about anything, so this was an anomaly. It looked like she might bolt at any minute, if he didn't calm her down a little.
"Okay, so are you going to bait my hook for me?" he asked with a chuckle.
The corners of her lips shot up with her eyebrows. "Hell, no. You are baiting your own hook, and taking your own fish off the hook if you catch anything."
"Some date you are," he said with a grin then slid the crutches under his arms.
"This isn't a date," she replied a little too quickly then made a couple of odd noises and blushed prettily. "Well, we're going out there together, so I guess it is kind of a date."
"Damned straight it is," he told her gruffly then swung past her. "Our first date...so don't get fresh," he told her, smiling when he heard those noises again behind him as she followed.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Ethan stood beside Roxanne under an old elm tree near the large lake holding a flashlight, while she drove a shovel into the ground. The rich earthy scent of the woodland soothed him, and he inhaled deeply. Crickets sang their night song around them and lightning bugs lit up the dark woods with their green glow every now and then. The lake's glassy surface sparkled romantically in the full moonlight.
She bounced on the head of the shovel to drive it deeper into the soft earth, as she asked him bluntly, "So why were you and Terri arguing earlier?"
"She's my sister, we argue," he hedged.
"Ya'll argue, but you usually don't blow up like that. Penny said she's really upset," Rocky said with a grunt as she shoved her foot down on the shovel again. "Must be something important?"
"Nah, just something stupid."
Like him wanting to get his old life back, and her trying to shove the ranch medic job down his throat. He couldn't tell Roxanne about his desire to rejoin the fire department though, she had been working her butt off to get him on that search and rescue team, and he knew she was firmly on Terri's team too, expecting him to take the ranch medic job.
Telling Roxanne his plans would probably result in an argument with her too, and he'd had enough drama for one night. Until the rescue at the creek the other day had got him to thinking, he had been going to do just what they expected. Now, he was determined to get that Captain's job and be a firefighter again.
As an alternative, joining the search and rescue team would be nice, but it wasn't what he really wanted. He wanted to be a fireman again and do real rescue work. Something he had trained his whole life to be good at. And he was damned good.
The rescue at the creek had reminded him of that, and it had also given him confidence he could do it again.
"How do you know there are worms there?" he asked deflecting her attention away from asking questions he wasn't going to answer.
"I seeded it with cornmeal and compost last year. They're here," she told him with a grunt as she jumped on the shovel again.
"You come here a lot?" he asked, involuntarily watching her perky breasts dance beneath her tank top as she bounced on the shovel. He was a man, he noticed those kinds of things. Because he was a man, he also wondered who else she had been out here with. The vet she had gone out with, her friend Wes Whatshisname, came to mind and jealousy shot through him.
He bet that guy knew how to fish.
Ethan had been deep sea fishing, but he wasn't about to let her know that. It was once, and he didn't count that as having experience. He had spent most of his day reapplying sunblock and watching his rod in the holder for a bite that never came. Roxanne looked like she knew exactly what she was doing here, and he would just
look stupid.
"Yeah, I like to fish," was the only thing she offered.
Getting information out of her discreetly wasn't going to be an option, so he went for obvious. "You come out here alone?"
"Nah, usually Dylan or Matt, or both come out with me," she replied and turned the dirt with the shovel.
Oh, great add those two rodeo Romeos to the mix, and he had a whole woodpile to fuel his jealousy. "Wes ever come out here with you?" he asked, because that man was the one he was really worried about.
Not that he had a right to be worried about any of them.
If things worked out, he would be leaving Amarillo for good soon. He would have his old job back, only better, he'd be Captain of the Henrietta Fire Department. Excitement shot through him, but his heart tweaked in his chest at the thought of never seeing Roxanne again. Ethan knew he would see her again when he came to the ranch to visit Terri, but things wouldn't be the same then. She would move on, and so would he. A long distance relationship with her would never work.
"No, I never asked him. He has his son to take care of, so he doesn't have a lot of time usually."
"He has a kid?" That was good news to Ethan, because if the vet was otherwise occupied, he wouldn't have time to date Roxanne.
"Yeah, a cute ten-year-old. I met him once when he was making ranch rounds with Wes," she informed then bent down to dig through the dirt. "Give me that bucket."
He handed her the bucket in his hand and watched her sift the soil through her fingers and pick out wiggly earthworms to drop them in the bucket.
It was about the sexiest thing he had ever seen.
No woman he had ever met to date would do anything close to this. Those women were missing the boat in seduction technique, and evidently he was horny as hell, because damned if it didn't turn him on.
When she had a good number of worms in the bucket, she tossed handfuls of dirt on top of them in the bucket, then stood up and brushed off her hands on her cutoff shorts leaving dirty streaks behind and not seeming to care. She also had a streak across the bridge of her nose and it was sexy as hell. He stepped forward and shined the light on her then swiped at the streak.
She trembled and her full lips wobbled. "What are you doing?"
"You had dirt on your face," he replied then moved his hand to her cheek and stroked it with his thumb.
"I'm always dirty," she told him with a nervous laugh then stepped back from him. "I'll get our blanket and rods, you get your crutches. I brought chicken gizzards too, but they're frozen and it will take a while for them to defrost, that's why I dug up the worms," she chattered as she walked to the back of the pickup and let down the tailgate.
Roxanne Baker was nervous, he was making her nervous, and he couldn't say he didn't like it. He had never seen her unraveled before, but she was now.
"I brought some wood to build a fire, it's still chilly sometimes," she informed with a noticeable shake in her voice then tossed a few logs out of the back of the truck onto the ground. "You want a beer? I brought a cooler with a six pack."
"Yeah, that sounds good," he told her and walked to the back of the truck to watch her fiddle around. What sounded good was making love to her on the bank of that lake. Ethan glanced over his shoulder at the romantic setting the water and moonlight made and heat shot to his groin.
That heat turned into a raging inferno when she climbed up on the tailgate and leaned into the truck bed to get the fishing poles, which had slid up near the cab. He shined the flashlight into the bed of the truck on the premise of helping her find them, but he really wanted a better look at her pretty round ass which was perfectly displayed by those damned cutoff shorts. The urge to step forward and kiss each cheek hit him in the chest. His palms itched to run up her smooth trim thighs and feel her skin beneath his fingers.
Rocky turned around with the rods in her hands and caught him gawking, but he didn't try to hide it. He just smiled at her and took a step closer.
When she slid to the edge of the tailgate, Ethan laid the flashlight down beside her then took the fishing rods from her hands. Spreading her legs with his fingers on her thighs, he moved inside the V of her legs then slid his hands up her thighs to her waist. She didn't move away, she sat there perfectly still, her eyes on him expectantly.
"I want to kiss you, Roxanne," he told her, not really asking for permission, just warning her he was about to kiss her silly as his eyes latched onto her lips, before he lowered his mouth to hers.
The second his lips touched hers, wildfire spread along his nerve endings setting fire to the desire he'd been trying to bank for weeks. When she slid her hands up his chest and circled his neck, Ethan was surprised, but elated.
The hem of her tank top brushed his fingers and he shoved them underneath to touch her heated skin and he felt a tremor pass through her. Cherry flavor from her Chapstick hit his taste buds and memories from their last kiss teased his mind, enflaming him more.
"Mmm...I love how you taste," he told her gruffly then licked along the seam of her full lips. She opened for him and he plunged his tongue inside her mouth to tangle with hers. At the perfect height for her knees to be at his waist, she wrapped her long legs around him.
When her heat met his erection, Ethan moaned and pulled her tighter to him. Rocky sucked his upper lip into her mouth and nipped it and he thought he would explode. Nobody kissed like this woman, nobody, he thought, as he moved his hips against her, while he devoured her mouth.
Reluctantly, he pulled then sipped from her sweetness two more times, before moving his lips to taste her chin, then along her jaw and finally the smooth soft skin behind her ear. "I want to taste you all over Roxanne,' he murmured against her skin, as he kissed his way down her neck then dipped his tongue in the hollow at her collarbone. With a final kiss there, he lifted up and took a step back.
If he didn't end this now, he was going to bend her over this tailgate. Although that sounded damned good to him right now, it was not the way he wanted this to go. He needed to slow down and regroup.
Disappointment and confusion filled her gray eyes, when he leaned toward her again to grab the flashlight, but didn't touch her.
"I want to learn to fish, so I can catch the biggest fish tonight," he challenged grabbing her hand to pull her off the tailgate.
She studied him for a minute, then huffed out a breath and turned around to get the fishing rods and cooler from the truck. He saw a blanket in there and leaned in to grab it.
Eyeballing the blanket, she snorted then asked him, "You scared to get your ass dirty city boy?" as she jumped down from the tailgate with the rods in her hand.
"No, ma'am, but I don't want yours getting dirty, because I have plans for it later," he promised then chuckled when her eyes swung up to his and her mouth opened. "Don't stand there catching flies, the fish are biting," he said playfully, then slapped her on the ass.
She yelped then sidestepped. "Hey watch it bud, nobody since my daddy has slapped my ass."
"Well, it's about damned time someone did, brat," he told her with a grin. "Get used to it, that's just the first of many more to come at the rate you're going." Ethan feinted right and laughed when she went to slug him in the arm. With a wink, he walked around the side of the truck to get his crutches out of the cab.
It was rough going getting down to the bank on crutches, but she went slow and helped him when the tips of the crutches bogged down in the soft earth. He probably could have made it without them, but he didn't want to get too cocky with his tentative mobility and have a setback.
Especially tonight...he was having fun getting to know Roxanne better. Maybe his shitty day would end pretty well, if he played his cards right.
When they reached the bank, she laid the poles, cooler and bucket of worms down then spread the blanket for them to sit on.
"I'm going to get the firewood," she told him and darted back up the embankment.
He could definitely forgo the fire, he wasn't the least bit cold. In fact,
he was still so hot, he almost wanted to take off his clothes and dive into the inviting water of the lake. If she was game, later he might just do that. The thought of his wet body sliding against hers in the water shot his temperature up another twenty degrees. If that happened, the lake would probably turn to steam and evaporate.
Rocky came back down the slope a minute later breathing hard with her arms loaded down with logs. With a pat to the space beside him on the blanket told her, "It's hot out here, you don't need to build the fire yet, baby...just sit down and let's fish."
"It'll keep the mosquitoes away," she told him and dropped the logs.
"Just leave it and come here," he ordered then held one of the poles out to her. She sat down beside him and huffed out a breath then grabbed the pole.
"Okay, you really have no idea what you're doing?" she asked with a small smile.
"Not a clue, which end do I put in the water?" he asked and she saw in his eyes that he was messing with her.
"Are you playing possum with me, Ethan Cassidy?" she asked.
"Me?" he asked innocently, putting his hands to his chest as if she had insulted him.
She grabbed up the worm bucket and dug around until she found a juicy one. It wiggled and wrapped around her fingers trying to get loose, so she set it down on the blanket and slapped it, then picked it up again and threaded it on the hook.
Ethan was watching her and he threw back his head and laughed. "That's worm abuse, I'm gonna call the game warden, ma'am."
"Makes them stop wiggling so it's easier to put them on the hook. A trick my daddy showed me," she explained grinning proudly.
After she stood, she picked up the bucket and shoved it at him. "Bait your hook, sucker, you're about to get schooled," she told him then stood up and held the line out so the worm dangled in front of her face. When she spit on it for luck, Ethan howled and she glanced down to see him laughing so hard he was holding his stomach, his eyes watering.
The sound echoed through the trees and danced inside of Rocky's chest.