“Jenny was barely eighteen when Cooper was born. The jerk wasn’t interested in being a dad. That’s part of the reason she came to work for me. I could be flexible with her hours and it didn’t bother me if she brought the baby into the office. It’s worked out for both of us.” He stood and turned. “I need to get some kindling from the garage. Do you want a jacket? Even with the fire, it’ll be cool out here.”
“That would be great.”
He walked past her into the house. Alone on the deck, Kendall sank into one of the chairs that surrounded the oval table. She folded her arms across her chest to ward off the chill in the evening air.
She didn’t know what to think about his family having a housekeeper. The kids she’d gone to school with had had housekeepers and gardeners, but they had come from families with money—old money and new money alike, but lots of money all the same. Ty didn’t strike her as having had a privileged youth, but what she’d discovered online about his background focused on his work with the landscaping company and mentioned nothing about his personal life.
Ty didn’t seem like the type to have grown up with paid help in the house. But as curious as she was to know the story behind that, she didn’t want to encourage him to ask questions about her childhood. She knew from the time she’d spent with him hiking the burn area that he was smart. She assumed he’d put himself through graduate school with landscaping jobs and the money had been too lucrative to stop.
More compelling was the fact that he’d hired a young, single woman with a baby as his company’s first employee, displaying a streak of protectiveness and loyalty that warmed both her heart and other parts of her anatomy. A heated body she could handle, her heart was another matter.
“Here you go.”
Kendall jumped slightly at the sound of Ty’s voice so close to her ear. He wrapped a thick fleece jacket around her shoulders and dropped a cotton blanket and a pair of wool socks into her lap.
“Those shoes look uncomfortable,” he explained, pointing at her feet. “Plus, the socks will keep your feet warmer.”
Kendall looked down at the three-inch heels she’d been wearing since her date with Scott. Now that she thought about it, her toes did feel cramped. “Thank you.”
He walked past her to the fireplace. “I’ll have this thing blazing in a minute and we can roast up those marshmallows. I can’t believe you’ve never made s’mores.”
“I’ve had a sheltered life.” She slipped her arms into the oversized sleeves of the fleece. The weight of the soft fabric added a layer of warmth over her silk suit. The faint smell of laundry detergent mixed with the woodsy scent of male cologne drifted up to her. Ty smelled the same way when he was close to her. Little butterflies zipped around her stomach as she snuggled deeper into the bulk of the jacket.
Ty turned to look at her. Flames were just beginning to glow behind his back. “Has your life been sheltered?”
“It’s a figure of speech,” she said casually.
He gave her a wry smile. “I realize that. But I don’t know much about you.”
She kicked off her pumps and bent forward to slip on the socks. “There’s not much to tell,” she answered, not meeting his gaze. “I was raised in a small town outside of Kansas City. My parents still live there. I went to St. Louis University and took a job in Ohio right out of school. I came to Denver three years ago. You know the rest.” She stood and picked up the bag of marshmallows, opening the plastic and popping one into her mouth.
“Brothers and sisters?” he asked, moving two chairs from the table to face the fireplace.
She shook her head. “I wish. I wasn’t exactly the daughter my parents bargained for. It would be nice if they had a kid who was more like them.”
“What are they like?”
Kendall inwardly grimaced at how much her comment had revealed. She never discussed her family. She waved dismissively. “You know, they have a small-town mentality. They got married the summer after high school graduation. My mom had a scholarship to the local community college, but then she got pregnant. I don’t think they quite knew what to do with me. I spent most of my childhood wanting to leave behind the life they’d chosen.”
“I know what you mean.” Ty reached for two long sticks that lay next to the fireplace. “I doubt Cooper will mind if you use his,” he said, handing one to Kendall. “So they aren’t supportive?”
Kendall took the stick and poked the flat end of the marshmallow carefully with the blackened tip. “Oh, no. They were encouraging, as much as they could be while dealing with their own lives. They still are. But they didn’t understand some of my choices.”
“You’re lucky to have their support,” Ty said. He smiled at the marshmallow dangling off the tip of her stick. “You may want to push that down a little. Otherwise, you’re going to lose it in the fire.”
She watched him jam a marshmallow several inches down onto his stick and copied the action. “What about you? Do you have brothers and sisters?”
“One of each,” he replied and held his stick toward the flames.
“That’s right,” she said, “you and Steve were discussing your brother’s college football career. You grew up in Boulder. Do your parents still live there?”
He nodded.
She studied his hooded expression and waited for him to say more. When he didn’t, she asked, “Are you close with your family?”
He gave a bark of laughter. “This feels like an interview. I see them regularly, if that counts. It’s time to move your stick.”
Kendall refocused her attention on the fire. The end of her stick was engulfed in hot flames, the marshmallow on its tip glowed as bright as the Olympic torch. “It’s on fire.” She yanked the burning end away from the fire. A tongue-like blue and gold flame shimmered from the top.
Ty cupped his hand around hers on the end of the stick she held and leaned it toward his face. He blew on the marshmallow until the fiery glow subsided. The charred confection left in its wake was as black as the burned-out tree trunks near the heart of the wildfire area.
“You really don’t know how to do this.” He laughed, plucking the stick from her fingers and replacing it with his own. He put her marshmallow back in the heart of the fire, scraping it against one of the logs until it dislodged from the stick and was consumed by the flames.
Kendall studied his marshmallow. It was evenly toasted to a lovely golden brown on all sides. “I didn’t know roasting marshmallows was such an art.”
Ty reached for the box of graham crackers. “You’ll get the hang of it after a couple more.” He arranged a piece of the chocolate on a graham cracker square, then surrounded the marshmallow with two sections of cracker and eased the gooey paste off the stick. “Some people like it burned to a crisp, but I think it’s better when the marshmallow melts but doesn’t char.” He held the makeshift sandwich toward Kendall. “Here you go.”
She shook her head. “That’s yours. I can try another one.”
“We’ll share.”
Unable to resist the sugary smell, she placed her fingers over Ty’s on each end of the s’more and bit down. “Oh, wow,” she groaned around a mouthful of food. “This is so good.”
Ty slid his fingers out from under hers. “Finish it. I’ll toast another one.”
“Do you want a bite?”
He shook his head. “It’s all yours.”
She sank back in her chair and savored each bite. “I should have been a Girl Scout,” she moaned. “This is like heaven.”
Ty skewered two more marshmallows on the stick and held them toward the fire. “What are you doing for Easter?”
“Hmmm?”
“Easter is this coming Sunday. Do you have plans?”
Kendall finished the s’more and licked her fingers. “Nothing special.”
He slid her a sideways glance. “The best way to
explain my family is for you to meet them. Why don’t you come to dinner at my parents’ house?”
She opened and closed her mouth several times before replying. “I don’t think your mother would want a stranger over for a family holiday.”
“Sure she would,” he argued. “My mom loves entertaining. She doesn’t actually cook, but the more people to fawn over her flower arrangements and tablescapes the better.”
A whole slew of objections darted across Kendall’s mind. She hadn’t wanted to get close to this man, but suddenly she was going to meet his parents? Then she thought about spending one more holiday alone in her empty condo. “That would be nice,” she answered.
The brilliance of the smile he bestowed on her would have knocked her on her butt if she hadn’t been sitting down already.
They continued to toast marshmallows until Kendall was stuffed into a blissful food coma.
He asked her more questions about her youth, to which she gave vague answers that satisfied his curiosity without revealing too much. They were the same ambiguous stories she’d been telling for years, but tonight they made her feel dishonest and guilty. Her parents had their problems, but they’d worked hard to overcome them, and they were good people. Kendall wished she felt comfortable enough with herself to reveal the truth about her trailer-park childhood.
The fire died down to a pile of hot embers. She glanced at her watch and stood. “It’s late. I should get going.”
Without warning, Ty grabbed her hand and tugged hard. She stumbled backwards and landed in his lap. His arms wrapped tightly around her. “Not hungry anymore?” he murmured against her hair.
“Are you kidding? I think I ate my weight in chocolate.”
He nuzzled his face against her neck, pressing his lips to her earlobe. Gently, he bit into the soft flesh. Kendall tingled right down to her toes. “Maybe a little hungry,” she said on a breath.
His soft laugh tickled the hair at the side of her face. “Good.”
She turned until her face was level with his. “What about you?”
His mouth curved into a wolfish grin. “Starving.”
CHAPTER NINE
He leaned forward and claimed her mouth with his. This kiss was not the soft seduction it had been earlier in the kitchen. It was hot and hard and demanding. She wound her arms around his back, her nails sinking into the smooth fabric of his sweatshirt, and hung on for dear life. Ty’s fingers combed through her curls as his tongue mingled with hers. The sweet taste of the chocolate and marshmallow contrasted with the intensity of his passion.
“So good,” he rasped against her skin, nipping at the pulse that thumped wildly on her neck. “You taste so damn good.”
“It’s the marshmallow,” she answered, her voice hoarse. She dropped her head back as his breath blew in hot swells against her skin.
“It’s you,” he corrected. Dragging his mouth back to hers, he moved his hands to the fleece’s zipper. He tugged it down and pushed the jacket off her shoulders. A cool night breeze cut into the thin fabric of her silk blazer. He undid the buttons at the front of the blazer as his lips fluttered along her collarbone. She wore nothing but a thin lace camisole and bra under her jacket. As the evening’s chill swept along her bare shoulders, an involuntarily shiver coursed through her.
She shifted position, trying to get closer to the heat that radiated off Ty’s body. He lifted her hips, positioning her so she straddled his lap, the folds of her knee-length skirt stretching across his thighs.
His hand fumbled for a moment on the seat next to her and then he drew the cotton blanket around her shoulders. His arms wrapped around her and pressed her tight to the muscled wall of his chest. The kiss he gave her was long and intense, his tongue gliding in and out in a rhythm that Kendall mimicked with her hips. She felt the length of his erection against her stomach grow harder beneath his cotton shorts.
“Jesus,” he groaned against her mouth, “you make me crazy.” He cupped her face in his hands and drew back. She gazed at him without really focusing, her vision clouded by lust.
After several moments, his steady blue gaze penetrated the fog that enveloped her. “I want you, Kendall,” he said solemnly. “I want to see you, I want to taste you. Every inch of you. I told you no pressure, only as much involvement as makes you comfortable. That still stands and we’ll stop right now if that’s what you want. Just say the word.”
She stared at him. Her heart hammered in her chest at the vulnerability she saw in his expression. The smart thing would be to walk away right now, before what was between them went any farther. She reached forward with both hands and tugged at the sides of his sweatshirt. “What I want,” she said with a smile, “is for you to get rid of this.”
Lightning fast, Ty ripped the heavy material over his head, tossing the sweatshirt into the darkness with the flick of one wrist. Just as quickly, the breath whooshed out of Kendall’s lungs as her eyes feasted on the hard contours of his powerful body.
It was the body of a man who spent his days working his muscles to a fine precision. Hesitantly, she touched one finger to the hair-roughened skin. A muscle jumped and she heard Ty’s sharp intake of air. The bronze expanse of his solid chest tapered into a flat abdomen, taut with muscles. His shoulders were broad, his arms strong.
He skimmed the skin at the neckline of her camisole with the tips of his fingers. He traced a path upward and hooked a finger from each hand under the straps that lay against her shoulders. Her gaze darted up to his when she realized his intent. With exquisite slowness, he dragged the straps of her camisole and bra down around her arms, revealing her breasts to the cool night air.
“Beautiful,” he whispered, his eyes fixed on her face.
Her nipples puckered, more from the reverence in his voice than the crisp breeze that floated against her heated skin. Her lids drifted closed as his work-roughened palms grazed the sensitive tips. He circled his hand around the tender points, spinning her farther into a heated fervor.
Moisture pooled between her thighs as his head bent to capture one of her nipples in his mouth.
He rubbed his hands down the side of her body to her thighs. Pushing away the satiny fabric of her skirt, he pressed his palms along the curve of her inner thighs. He traced his thumb against the damp lace of her underpants.
Oh, my god. Whether she said it out loud or to herself, Kendall didn’t know. Her mind was beyond reason, beyond rational thought. She was too turned on to care about the moans of pleasure that escaped her lips. Her body arched against his hand, silently urging him to touch her more deeply. He hummed his pleasure at her demand against the swell of her breast.
Gently, he moved aside the barrier of fabric. One finger slipped into her slick wetness, and she rocked with desire. Her breath came in short, ragged gasps as he delved deeper with his finger and pressed his thumb against her, stroking the tender spot in hypnotic circles. He captured her mouth for a soul-shattering kiss until she cried out her pleasure, the air whooshing out of her lungs and into his mouth.
The intimacy of the moment rocked her as hard as the sensations skittering through her body. Dragging her lips away from his, she buried her face in the warm skin of his throat. She shuddered uncontrollably as her body reeled from the force of her orgasm. His chest was heaving almost as hard as hers but the rest of his body remained rigidly still beneath her.
Her limbs, on the other hand, felt as soft as warm candle wax. She was afraid she might melt right onto the wood deck. After several minutes and with great effort, she lifted her head from Ty’s shoulder. “Why did you stop?”
He gave her a crooked smile. “I may not be a rocket scientist, but I was pretty sure you—”
“No,” she interrupted, heat coloring her cheeks. “I mean, yes. I did. It was very nice.”
“Very nice?”
Her face felt like it was on fire. “Better than nice. Fantasti
c. Unbelievable. Mind-blowing.”
“Mind-blowing.” He grinned. “That’s more like it.” He wrapped the blanket tight around her shoulders and shifted her onto the bench next to him.
Set apart from the warmth of his body, the brisk night air chilled her damp skin. Holding the blanket closed with one hand, she readjusted the straps of her bra and camisole onto her shoulders.
Ty stood and collected his sweatshirt and her blazer. When he handed her the jacket, Kendall took it without meeting his gaze. “But you didn’t, uh, you know . . .” she stammered, gesturing with her free hand. “So why did you stop?” Her ex-boyfriend’s accusations about being cold and aloof rushed into her mind. She forced her lips to form the question, “Did I do something wrong?”
Ty let out a gruff laugh. “Are you kidding? I haven’t been that close to losing control since high school. And I don’t think it was the marshmallows. Look at me, Kendall,” he said, tucking her hair behind her ears.
She shifted her gaze to meet his, swallowing hard at the latent desire burning in his eyes. “Being with you,” he said, “holding you in my arms is fantastic, unbelievable, and completely mind-blowing. You are the sexiest, most responsive woman I have ever met.”
Take that, slimy ex-boyfriend.
“Really?”
“Really. But when we make love for the first time, it won’t happen with me, pardon the expression, going off half-cocked on a lawn chair in the middle of my deck. You deserve better than that.”
How much better could it get?
He’d made her body feel things she hadn’t known were possible. But the way he was looking at her now, all sweet and tender, made her heart zing. And that was a complication she didn’t need. “Have sex,” she mumbled.
“What?”
“You should have said when we have sex.” She pulled the blanket from around her shoulders and quickly shrugged into her blazer. “The phrase ‘making love’ implies, well, an emotional connection between the two people involved. Our relationship, if you could call it that, is not about emotions.”
Kissing Mr. Right Page 11