Page 29 of Snow Kisses

“You,” she admitted quietly. “I just stand in awe of you, Mr. McLaren.”

He chuckled softly. “And you thought a rancher’s life was all petting cattle, I suppose?”

“I grew up here,” she reminded him. “But I never realized just how much work it was until I started helping Melly. How do you stand it, Cade?”

“I’m used to it.” He was holding the reins in one hand, but he reached out and drew his fingers down her cheek. “I love it. The way you love the glitter of your own work, I imagine, miss model.”

“I wish you wouldn’t make fun of what I do,” she said sadly, searching his dark eyes. “I’ve worked very hard to get where I am. And modeling is much more than painting on a pretty face and smiling.”

He withdrew his hand and lit a cigarette. “It must seem pretty tame to you out here.”

“Tame?” Her eyes widened. “Are you kidding?”

He frowned thoughtfully, and his searching eyes caught hers. They stared at each other quietly, while the silence grew tense and electric around them, and her lips parted under a wild rush of breath.

His breath was coming hard, too. He dropped the reins as if he couldn’t help himself and moved close, so that she could feel the heat of his body and the smell of the spicy cologne that clung to him. Her eyes went to his mouth and she wanted it so much that she ached with the wanting.

His steely fingers bit into her waist. “Want to kiss me, Abby Shane?” he asked roughly.

“Very much,” she whispered, unembarrassed and unintimidated as she looked into his darkening eyes. “Lift me up, please…”

She felt his hands contract, and she seemed to float within reach of that chiseled mouth. Her hands slid around his neck to the back of his head and she eased her mouth onto his, letting her lips part softly as they touched him.

His head tilted and his mouth opened under hers with a heavy sigh. He didn’t insist, but she could sense his own growing hunger, and she fed it. Her lips nibbled softly at his, her tongue eased out to trace the firm line of his upper lip. And the reaction she got was startling.

All at once, she was swept against the long, hard line of his body and he was kissing her, violently. His mouth demanded in a kiss so sensuous she moaned at the sensations it aroused. She felt his tongue in her mouth, against her lips. A shudder worked its way down her body and fires blazed up in her blood.

“No,” she protested when he tried to lift his dark head. She trembled in his arms as she clung. “Cade, please, just once more….”

She heard the ragged breath he took before his mouth crushed back against hers, warm and rough and forceful for an instant. Then she was back on her feet again and leaning heavily against him, his lips brushing her forehead.

“What do you want from me, Abby?” he ground out.

Your love, she thought miserably. I want you to loveme as fiercely as I love you. “I’m sorry,” she muttered against his shirt front. “I like kissing you.”

He was trying to get his breath back, or at least it sounded that way. “I like kissing you, too. But I’m a man, not a boy. Kissing isn’t enough for me anymore.”

Her fingers curled against his shirt, and she could feel the thick hair on his chest through it. She wanted to open his shirt and touch him there. Involuntarily, her fingers moved across his chest and he shuddered.

“No, baby,” he said softly. He stilled her hands, and she wondered dizzily what had happened to the cigarette he’d been holding. Her eyes found it, smoking away in the dirt, where he must have flung it.

She sighed wearily, loving the comforting feel of his hands at her back. She didn’t want to move away from him, but it was obvious that he wasn’t going to let her get any closer.

“I forgot,” she murmured.

“What?”

She drew away and grinned, although her heart was aching. “That you’re wary of us wild city girls,” she said, her light brown eyes sparkling in the pale frame of her hair. “You needn’t worry, Cade, I’m not quite strong enough to wrestle you down in a haystack.”

Her quip should have made him smile, but it didn’t. He searched her face for a long time, touching every curve and line of it with his eyes. “I think we both need to remember that you’re here to recuperate, Abby,” he said after a minute. “This is temporary. You’ve got a successful career waiting for you in New York, but this is my world.” He nodded toward the distant hills, dottedwith red-coated, white-faced Herefords. “I don’t have time for casual flings, even if I believed in them.”

She drew away from him as if she’d been burned. “Excuse me for throwing myself at you….”

“Stop it.” His fingers caught her upper arms and held her in front of him when she would have moved away. “A few kisses aren’t going to hurt either of us. I just want you to understand the limits. You’re very vulnerable right now, Abby. You could easily make a decision that you’d regret for the rest of your life.”

He was speaking in riddles, and she stared up at him with wounded eyes, because it sounded as if he were gently rejecting her. Well, she should be used to it, shouldn’t she? And if he could be adult about it, so could she. Damn her breaking heart, she’d never let him see it!

Keep it light, girl, she told herself, keep your pride, at least. She managed a bright smile. “Sensible Cade,” she murmured. “Don’t worry, I promise not to rip your clothes off.”

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