Harlequin Romance September 2013 Bundle: Bound by a BabyIn the Line of DutyPatchwork Family in the OutbackStranded with the Tycoon

by Kate Hardy

  “What was that?”

  The storm was raging, with rain teeming down so hard now she figured it was a wonder water wasn’t pouring through the roof.

  “Just a tree,” he said, trailing gentle kisses down her neck while her attention was diverted. His arms cupped beneath her bottom, held her locked in place.

  Poppy sighed and tried to relax again, giggling when he nibbled the edge of her collarbone.

  “It doesn’t matter what’s out there, Poppy,” he murmured in between kisses, plucking at her skin so softly that she didn’t even realize he’d sat her back down on the counter. “I’ll protect you.”

  She shut her eyes and tipped her head back, the touch of his mouth on her neck and chest enough to make her moan. But she knew he was telling the truth.

  Whatever his downfalls were, he would protect her, no matter what. She’d seen firsthand how much he loved his children, had witnessed his strength and determination, and that told her she was safe. That he’d do whatever it took to protect her in the truest sense of the word.

  “I think,” he whispered against her skin, gently inclining her head forward so he could find his way back to her lips, “that we should take this somewhere more comfortable.”

  Poppy slid her arms around his neck. That sounded like a very, very good idea.

  * * *

  So much for staying strong and resisting her. Harrison carried Poppy to the fire, gently placing her on the big leather sofa in front of it. The room was almost dark, the red glow from the flames casting a low light and creating shadows.

  “I still can’t believe I’m stranded here.”

  Harrison smiled down at Poppy, sitting on the edge of the sofa as she snuggled back into the cushions. “If I didn’t know better I might think you’d planned it.”

  “Yeah, I called on Zeus for some help up there in the sky, and he had someone cut the power,” she said sarcastically.

  Harrison lay down alongside her, length to length, their bodies just touching. He watched as Poppy sucked part of her bottom lip between her teeth, her eyes dancing from his lips to his eyes and back again.

  Wow, she was sexy.

  “Hey,” he whispered, reaching out to touch her face, smoothing a few loose strands of hair back before trailing a finger down her jawline.

  She giggled. It was so soft and unexpected it made him chuckle in turn.

  “A few years ago I promised myself never to let a woman into my heart or my home ever again,” he told her. It was the truth, but he’d never told anyone, never shared how determined he’d been not to be hurt again or experience what it was like to lose all faith in another human being and be prepared to do anything to protect his children.

  “Sounds kind of familiar to me,” she replied in a low voice. “I came here because I thought it’d be country hicks and old guys.”

  Harrison gave her a soft punch to the arm. “Who are you calling a hick?”

  She shook her head and sucked in her bottom lip again as she stared straight into his eyes. “Not you,” she said.

  Poppy barely moved, just the smallest wriggle of her hips, but it was enough to press their bodies more tightly together, for the tip of her nose to be touching his, for her mouth to be so near that he couldn’t think of anything other than kissing her. Again. And again.

  Screw it. Why was he holding back? When there was a beautiful woman lying beside him, telling him with every bit of her body language that she wanted him as badly as he wanted her?

  Harrison skimmed his fingers along her side, down her torso and to her thigh, at the same time as he brought his lips closer to hers. He tasted her mouth, their lips meeting, tongues colliding so delicately that it made her moan. And when she moaned, she thrust her body tighter to his, one hand gripping his shirt as if she was holding him in place, refusing to let him move, taking charge.

  He hadn’t been with a woman in...way too long. Had tried to pretend that he was fine on his own as a bachelor, that he didn’t need the comfort of a woman. But Poppy? She was telling his body an entirely different story.

  She was warm and soft against him, her touch gentle. Poppy’s mouth was yielding to his, but the way she was holding on to him told him he was a fool to think he was the one in control here. And he didn’t care. Not one bit.

  But he was scared. Scared that he’d let a woman into his home, into his life. Because the only women he’d been with since his wife left had been one-night stands when he’d been in the city. Poppy? Poppy was no one-night stand.

  She held his face between her hands now and had flipped so she was sitting astride him. Harrison couldn’t think, not about anything other than the woman looking down at him. She’d broken their kiss, but was leaning forward again, her long hair falling over one shoulder and curling on his chest, her full lips kissing his jaw, then the side of his mouth, before he grabbed hold of her arms, forced his lips to hers.

  Poppy kissed him over and over, and he complied, lost to everything except the way her body felt in his hands, the flash of her aqua eyes as they met his every so often before shutting again, as if she was as lost to pleasure as he was.

  Harrison couldn’t take it any longer. He needed to touch her skin, to see her bare, and he wasn’t going to wait.

  He pushed her top up, smiling when she sat back and finished the task, tugging it over her head and throwing it to the ground. Her bra was black, plain but pretty, and he wanted it off.

  “No,” she whispered, when he went to unhook it. Poppy was shaking her head, so he stopped, not wanting to push her.

  “Why?” he asked, needing to know. “You don’t have to be embarrassed, Poppy. You’re beautiful.”

  She had a wicked look on her face, a grin that told him she was feeling more confident that he’d realized. The light flickering from the fire was making her blond hair into a golden haze, an ethereal effect that left him wondering if he wasn’t dreaming about having his children’s teacher poised above him in her bra.

  “You first,” she whispered, wriggling down his legs and pushing his T-shirt up. Her tongue followed her fingers, trailing across his skin. He could hardly stay still. It was torture.

  “You’re the devil, you know that?” He sucked back a breath as she nipped at his belly with her teeth.

  Harrison yanked his T-shirt off and flung it away before grabbing Poppy and flipping her so she was beneath him.

  “Hey!” she protested.

  “You are the devil,” he whispered, teasing her the same way she’d teased him, but holding her down by the wrists so she couldn’t squirm away even if she tried. “And I like it.”

  * * *

  Poppy had no idea where her confidence was coming from, but she wasn’t going to waste time questioning it. She’d been terrified at the thought of being with another man after so long with her husband, but she needn’t have worried. Because Harrison was so kind, so sexy, so consuming that she wasn’t even having time to worry.

  “Off,” he ordered, fiddling with the top button of her jeans, lifting his weight just enough to pull them down, but not enough to let her escape.

  Poppy tugged at her pants until they were around her ankles so she could kick them free, watching as he did the same, sitting up and discarding his until they were both clothed in only their underwear.

  This was actually happening. She sucked back a breath as he lowered himself over her again, with care this time, so unlike before when he’d flipped her and pinned her down. Now he was back to being careful with her, to touching her as if she was so delicate she was in danger of breaking.

  “You sure about this?” Harrison’s voice was gruff, so unlike his usual tone.

  Poppy nodded. “I’m sure.” And she was. Nervous, definitely; hesitant, yes. But there was no part of her that didn’t want Harrison. And she wasn’t going to let a su
dden jangle of nerves get in the way of her enjoying herself.

  They were stranded at his ranch house, in the dark, and she was lying in the arms of a man who could literally steal her breath away with one touch or kiss. So she was not going to back down now.

  Harrison was staring into her eyes, waiting for her. As if he wasn’t convinced.

  So she showed him. Poppy reached behind her and flicked the hooks on her bra, shrugging out of it so she was lying there bare. Harrison’s eyes flashed brightly as they stared from her breasts to her eyes and back again.

  She reached for him, cupped the back of his head and drew him closer until his warm chest was pressed against her skin, firm against her breasts.

  Then she kissed him, lightly at first, teasing him, then pulling him harder against her, her mouth firm against his. His lips touching hers sent licks of heat through her body, and his hand reaching to cover her breast, the roughness of his skin against the softness of hers, was making her think all kinds of wild thoughts.

  If she was going to break her promise to herself, she was glad she was breaking it with Harrison.

  “Thank you,” she whispered.

  “For what?” he murmured, pulling back to look at her.

  “For making me feel wanted again.”

  Harrison grinned and snapped the elastic of her panties, making her squeal. “Baby, I couldn’t want you any more if I tried.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  POPPY OPENED HER eyes, blinking until the blur cleared. She snuggled deeper beneath the blanket, tucked so tightly against Harrison that they may as well have been one.

  The light from the fire was orange now, the flames dull compared to their earlier brightness, but the room was still warm and she wasn’t going to get up and throw more wood on. She’d never been in a house with a real fire before, but there was something soothing about watching flames lick against wood. Even the smell of the timber burning was kind of comforting.

  “Hey, beautiful.” Harrison was stretching out one arm, the other still pinned beneath her. “What time is it?”

  She had no idea, so she just shook her head, then leaned toward him and placed a soft kiss to his lips before wriggling down a little to press her face into his chest. There was no way she wanted to get up, no matter what the time was.

  “This,” he said, dropping a kiss into her hair, “is a nice way to wake up.”

  “Uh-huh,” she murmured, not letting go of him.

  “The rain sounds like it’s stopped, too,” Harrison said.

  They lay there in silence, the early-morning light starting to filter in.

  “Will the power still be out? I’d offer to make pancakes or French toast, but I can’t do much without power.” Her stomach was rumbling so loudly that it was going to embarrass her if she didn’t eat something soon. “I can’t believe we didn’t eat dinner, when I had it almost ready.”

  “Poppy, there’s something I need to tell you.”

  She groaned. “If you have a deep, dark confession to make, it’s a little late.”

  Harrison tugged her up so they were lying nose to nose. His body was still pressed to hers, legs tangled beneath the blanket.

  “It’s nothing terrible, but I think you’ll be angry with me.”

  What was he talking about? “Harrison, if you’re not cheating on a spouse, and you didn’t secretly video what we did, then I think I’ll be able to cope.” So long as it wasn’t actually something even more terrible than that.

  “It’s about the power.” He was grinning now, clearly unable to keep his face straight, and she was starting to get suspicious.

  “What about the power?” she asked.

  Harrison looked guilty. A cat-caught-with-feathers-in-his-mouth kind of guilty.

  “Well, I wasn’t lying when I said the power had gone out. That a fuse had blown. We both heard it blow.”

  She pushed back from him, holding the blanket tight to her and glaring at him. He was grinning again, so she knew it wasn’t something hideous, but the look on his face...

  “Harrison?”

  “The power goes out here all the time, usually over winter, so we have a backup generator.”

  “So let me get this straight,” she said, shaking her head.

  He laughed and interrupted her. “I’m not going to lie. I could have flicked one switch and fired up the generator and we would have had power in the house almost instantly,” he admitted.

  ”Harrison! You purposefully left me in the dark and then pretended we were stranded so you could, what? Seduce me?”

  He reached out to touch her face, but she playfully slapped his hand away.

  “Sweetheart, I’m just a bloke. I had a beautiful woman in my house, an excuse to keep the lights out...”

  “I can’t believe you did that to me,” she exclaimed, trying hard to sound angry and completely failing.

  “Oh, but you can,” he said, refusing to let her get away this time, holding her wrists locked in place against his chest.

  “Harrison,” she warned.

  “What?” he whispered, his voice silky and seductive.

  Poppy just shut her eyes and let him kiss her. So he’d lied about the lights. So what? It wasn’t like he’d had to force her into anything. And this Harrison, the laid-back version of him, she was liking a lot.

  * * *

  Harrison stood under the water, eyes shut as it hit his face. It was hot, almost to the point of burning, and he didn’t want to get out. Maybe he should have asked Poppy to join him....

  He stepped back and blinked the water from his eyes. What had happened last night had been fantastic, exactly what he’d needed, but he was starting to think it might have been a mistake. A good one, but a mistake nonetheless.

  But if it was a mistake, then why was he thinking about calling her in to get naked under the water with him?

  Harrison submerged his face again, trying to clear his head. It was just one night; one crazy, heat-of-the-moment kind of night that didn’t have to happen again. Unless he wanted it to.

  “Harrison, ready when you are!”

  He held his breath for as long as possible before turning off the faucet. There was a part of him that wished what had happened could turn into something more, that it wasn’t just a fun, one-night thing. A big part of him.

  The truth was, Poppy was a great girl, and if he’d met her ten years ago he might have thought she was the one. But his wife had left him, he was divorced and he had two children who meant the world to him. Not to mention the vow he’d made not to let them or himself get hurt again, if it was at all within his power.

  Poppy might stick it out, or she could stay a week or a month or two, then head back to her old life. Nothing was keeping her here other than her desire for a fresh chance and to feel she’d made a difference.

  “Harrison?”

  Her voice was closer this time, as if she’d come looking for him. He dried himself, then slung the towel around his waist and knotted it.

  “Oh, sorry.” Poppy stood in the open doorway, eyes downcast, cheeks pink.

  Her shyness struck him, made him forget all about his rationale and think only about her.

  “After everything we did last night, now you’re shy?”

  She laughed, but she was still avoiding him, even though they’d been naked under a blanket less than thirty minutes earlier.

  “I don’t exactly do this kind of thing,” she told him, folding her arms across her chest and bravely staring back at him.

  “What do you mean by this?” he teased, unable to stop himself.

  “You know what? How about you get dressed and I’ll see you in the kitchen for breakfast?” Poppy said, starting to back away.

  Harrison had hold of her arm in less than a second,
his fingers closing around her biceps. She didn’t turn, but stayed dead still.

  “You,” he said, scooping the hair from her neck so he could breathe on her skin, run his lips across her warm flesh, “are doing something to me.” Harrison stood close to her, his front pressed to her back, fitting against her. “And I don’t know how or why, but I feel like every time I try to hold back, you reel me in.”

  “Really?” she whispered.

  “Really,” he replied. “Like witchcraft.”

  Poppy chuckled and spun on the spot, looping her arms around his neck and leaning back slightly. “Funny, but I feel like you’re doing the exact same thing to me.”

  Harrison shut his eyes when she kissed him, wishing he was stronger.

  “You do realize I have animals to check and feed?” he asked, rocking back to put some distance between them.

  “Let’s have breakfast and then you can show me how I can help,” Poppy offered. “Deal?”

  “You’re actually going to come outside and try to help me?”

  She shrugged. “Why not? I’m not some city princess. I just need to be told what to do.”

  Harrison shook his head. “Deal, then,” he agreed.

  Poppy grinned at him over her shoulder before disappearing, leaving him half-naked, staring after her.

  Déjà vu. That’s what it felt like to him. Because one day his wife had said the same thing, been so eager to see what living on a remote ranch was like. Then out of the blue she’d blamed exactly that in the note she’d left him, before running out on him and their children in the middle of the night and never coming back.

  Poppy was so different, though. A kind, loving person he could never imagine behaving that way, let alone walking out on children. But he’d never thought his wife would, either. Which meant he couldn’t read women as well as he’d once liked to think he could. And what if he made the wrong call again? It wasn’t worth it. Not to him. Not to Katie. And not to Alex.

  He needed to talk to Poppy, burst the fun, carefree bubble they had been living in since he’d rescued her from the river the night before. He didn’t want to hurt her any more than he wanted to hurt himself, and the longer he let himself behave like this the harder it would be to walk away.