Page 30 of Jonathan

Tipping her chin up, he wiped at a tiny piece of melted sugar that lingered on her bottom lip.

“He does.” Unable to help himself, he brushed his lips against hers and moved in when he felt her tremors. He toyed with her, his body pressing on hers, tongue tracing the outline of herbottom lip, before taking a nibble. “You taste sinfully sweet, like I want to gobble you up in one bite.”

“We are giving your guests quite a show.” Wounding her hands around his neck, she eased into the kiss, one hand clutching the candy cane.

“I don’t care. I have wanted to do this since you stepped out of the car.” His tongue entered her mouth slowly, evocatively and had her sighing in his mouth.

“I want you.” He breathed. “We should ditch this place…”

“Nuh Uh.” She moaned and pressed her breasts against him, tearing a groan from his chest. “You wanted me here and I intend to take in everything.”

“Not everything. I want you alone and naked and trembling under me.” He kissed her roughly before easing back, reluctantly. Taking a shaky breath, he struggled to control theimpulse to simply drag her up to his suite and tear off her clothes.

“Okay.” Taking her arm, he started towards the group of women standing around a table, displaying jams. “I want you to meet my mother.”

She dug her dingers in his arm and forced him to stop.

“What is it?”

“I already met her.”

He stared at her with a frown, ignoring some men calling for his attention. “When?”

“The other morning. She came to visit.”

That had him steering her towards a corral where several horses were prancing and jumping through hoops. “Why?”

“She was there to warn me not to be another actress, the one who broke your heart and left you bleeding.” She angled her head to stare at him. “How bad was the bleed?”

His jaw clamped shut, his blue eyes glinting. “Bad.” He clipped. “She had no right…”

“She had every right. She’s a mother and a better one than mine.”

He looked down at her as he tried to bridle his temper. “What did you say to her?”

“That we are adults and we’re just having fun.”

His eyes glittered. “Is that what you think we’re having? Fun?” his voice was deadly quiet and had her going still.

“Isn’t it?”

Snarling, he moved away from her and without a word, turned and strode away, leaving her staring after him in frustration. To hell with him! She decided. She was not going to run after some man just because his pride was injured.

But she had to admit the hollow in her heart gave her pause. Turning away, she took a few bites of the delicious candy cane and dumped the rest into a trash can conveniently placed next to an enormous tree trunk.

She should go back to the cabin, she thought angrily and cursed herself for agreeing to come in the first place. He was giving meat to the rumors of them being involved.

People were watching them and now - pasting a bright smile on her face, she headed for the group of cowboys standing aroundthe bonfire and drinking beer. It did not take long for her to have them dancing attention on her.

He stormed into the ranch house and headed straight up the spiral staircase and into his suite of rooms. Going straight to the recessed cabinet, he jabbed at the button and plucked out a bottle of aged scotch.

Not bothering with a glass, he took it with him to the window where he could see the entire goings on. Uncapping the bottle with a vicious twist, he took a swallow eyes narrowing as he zeroed in on her.

She was dancing, laughing, and making a complete spectacle of herself. Men were gathered around, waiting their turn to show her the two step move. And the cowboy (an itinerant that he realized a couple of days ago was too cocky and confident in his dark good looks), was holding her much too close.

The damn dance did not require that much touching. And she was allowing it. Damn her to hell! Now he was going to have to march down there and bloody the guy’s nose and dislocate his arms.

That was going to cause a scene his mother and the older people would not appreciate. Having fun? How the hell could she think that? How could she diminish what they shared to that word? Well, she was going to pay for it. A glint came in his eyes and turning around, he went to put away the bottle.

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