Page 15 of A Family With the Cowboy

Her senses took in everything: his strong jaw and wide, muscled shoulders, the earthy tones of his smell, his warm hands on her waist, the muscles moving beneath her fingers, his ragged breathing. Or was it hers?

“This time I’m going to respond,” he murmured against her mouth, only millimeters separating their lips.

As if hypnotized, she stared at his mouth. She wanted this. His kiss. It was all she’d been thinking about since he’d knocked on her classroom door. Actually, no. She’d wanted this since she’d seen him in Grey’s Saloon on her first night in Marietta.

But instead of kissing her mouth, his head dropped down and warm lips trailed over her shoulder, leaving feather-light kisses wherever they touched.

Before she could catch her breath, their lips met. Barely. She felt it down to her toes, though. Her breath hitched somewhere in her throat. Amber eyes roamed over her face once more before he took her mouth again.

This time a wild torrent simply picked her up, and all she could do was cling to him as one sensation after the other slammed into her. This was how one should be kissed. This was probably the kind of kiss Rhett Butler had been talking about when he’d told Scarlett O’Hara inGone with the Windshe should be kissed often, and by someone who knew how. This guy…this guy was the Yoda of kissing.

She’d never experienced anything like this. This assault on her senses, the merciless giving of pleasure until she was just about drowning in it—how was it possible that she hadn’t known kissing could be like this?

Impatient hands were inside her coat, moving up and down her sides, igniting little fires under her skin as far as they went. She was burning up, her body moving restlessly against his, her only thought that he should never stop.

As the sound of a car honking nearby finally penetrated the fog in her brain, he lifted his head. His breath, like hers, was ragged, the amber pools darkened with desire.

“Hayden…”

With a soft swear word, he stepped back, rubbed his face. “I…I apologize. That…should never have happened. It’s crazy. I…there is…I can’t do this. I’m sorry.”

Before she could utter a word, he walked out of the house. “Lock the door behind me,” he called out as he pulled it close.

Still floating somewhere in space on a soft, pink cloud, her brain filled with lustful thoughts of warm hands on her body. What had just happened took another minute to sink in.

Hayden Weston had kissed her. Kissed her like she’d never been kissed before…wasn’t there a song about it?

And then he’d left because it should never have happened.

After locking the door, she leaned her hot forehead against the cold surface of the wood. Her breath was still uneven, her heart racing at an alarming pace.

Inhaling deeply, she finally turned around and walked on alarmingly unsteady legs in the direction of her room. Like he’d said, it was crazy. He’d made it clear nothing could come of it, whatever “it” was and, anyway, hadn’t she also vowed to steer clear of men?

In her room, she began pacing. This usually helped when she needed clarity on something.

The whole thing could be explained away if you looked at the facts: he’d been a widower for a while, she hadn’t been with someone for…she couldn’t even remember the last time she’d been kissed. And never by a real-life Rhett Butler, that was for sure.

For some reason or other, she’d ended up in his arms five times. Plus, they were both healthy adults, so feeling vibes between them wasn’t that strange. What had happened between them was purely physical.

Calmer, she stopped pacing. There. She was going to forget it had ever happened and move on with her life. She had things to do—a house to buy, a scarf to knit, books to read.

Hours later, she was lying in bed, still wide awake, staring at the ceiling, reliving every single second of Hayden’s kiss. With a groan, she turned on her side. Okay, it had happened only hours ago. She’d have to give it time. She’d forgotten all about the previous kisses she’d had. At some point, this one would also fade from her memory.

Closing her eyes, she willed herself to sleep.

Chapter Six

By the timeHayden returned to the homestead for breakfast on Saturday morning, he’d been up four hours. Turned out, if you really wanted to, there was a lot to do at four o’clock in the morning.

He couldn’t sleep. Kissing Laura was all he could think about. She’d fitted perfectly in his arms and against his body. Even looking at another woman hadn’t entered his mind over the past two years, let alone thinking of kissing one. Yes, he’d seen women around town, met women his friends had tried to set him up with, but it had been easy to smile and walk away.

And then, on an ordinary Friday night in Grey’s Saloon, he’d looked up and seen Laura. Everything had changed in that moment. Since then, she’d invaded his dreams, his mind, his body.

He shouldn’t have been in the Graff Hotel last night to begin with. And when he’d seen Laura was safely home, he should’ve driven away. But no, he had to get out of his car, walk up to her, and…he still wasn’t quite sure how the kiss happened.

What the hell had he been thinking? Apart from anything else, she was his son’s teacher, for heaven’s sake. There wasn’t time in the day to take a breath, let alone think about women or dating or sex. And now he couldn’t stop thinking about any of it.

He had no business kissing strange women. He’d been married to the love of his life and he still missed Madeline. Love? Why was the word even popping up in his mind? Nobody was talking about love, damn it.

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