Page 117 of The Holiday Gift

“Tell me about it,” he muttered.

She gave him a curious look, leaning a hip against the work island.

He knew he should keep his mouth shut but somehow the words spilled out, like a song he didn’t realize he knew. “My head is telling me it’s a completely ridiculous idea to kiss you again.”

She gazed at him for a long, silent moment, her eyes huge and her lips slightly parted. He saw her give a long, slow inhale. “And does your heart have other ideas? I hope so.”

“The kids—” he said, rather ridiculously.

“—are busy watching a show and paying absolutely no mind to us in here,” she finished.

He took a step forward, almost against his will. “This thing between us is crazy.”

“Completely insane,” she agreed.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

“Probably the same thing that’s wrong with me,” she murmured, her voice husky and low. She also took a step forward, until she was only a breath away, until he was intoxicated by the scent of her, fresh and clean and lovely.

He had to kiss her. It seemed as inevitable as the sunrise over the mountains. He covered the space between them and brushed his mouth against hers once, twice, a third time. He might have found the willpower to stop there but she sighed his name and gripped the front of his shirt with both hands, leaning in for more, and he was lost.

She tasted of root beer—vanilla and mint. Delicious. He couldn’t seem to get enough. He forgot everything when she was in his arms—his exhaustion, the music she didn’t sing, the children in the other room.

All he could think about was Caidy, sweet and warm and lovely.

There was something intenselyrightabout being here with her. He couldn’t have explained it, other than he felt as if with every passing moment, some dark, empty corner inside him was being filled with soothing light.

* * *

She thought their first kiss that night at the clinic had been fantastic. This surpassed that one. The physical reaction was the same, instant heat and hunger, this wild surge of desire for more and more.

But she had barely known him that first time. Now she wasn’t only kissing the very sexy veterinarian who had saved Luke’s life. She was kissing the man who treated sweet Maya with such kindness, who looked adorably out of his depth making pizza but who trudged gamely on, who listened to her talk about her past without judgment or scorn but with compassion for the frightened young girl she had been.

She was kissing Ben, the man she was falling in love with.

She wrapped her arms around him, wanting to soak up every moment of the kiss. They kissed for several moments more, until his hand had slipped beneath the edge of her shirt to trace delicious patterns on her bare skin at her waist.

They might have continued kissing there in the quiet kitchen for a long time but the children suddenly laughed hard at something in the other room and Ben stiffened as if someone had dropped snow down his back.

He slid his mouth away from hers. “We’ve got to stop doing this.” His voice sounded ragged and his chest moved against her with each rapid breath.

“We...do?” She couldn’t seem to make her brain work.

“Yes. This... I’m not being fair to you, Caidy.”

Something in his tone finally penetrated the haze of desire around her and she took a deep breath and stepped away, willing herself to return to sensible thought.

“In what way?” She managed to make her voice sound cool and controlled, at odds with the tangled chaos of her thoughts.

He raked a hand through his hair, finishing the job of messing it that her own hands had started. “As much as I obviously...want you, I can’t have a relationship right now. I’m not ready, the kids aren’t ready. I’ve thrown too many changes at them in a very short time. A new town, a new school, a new job. Eventually a new house. I can’t add another woman into the mix.”

His words doused the last embers of heat between them. She shivered a little and pulled her shirt down while she struggled to chase after the tattered ends of her composure.

What could she say to that? He was right. His children had survived a great deal of tumult in a short time. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt Ava and Jack. They were great kids and she already cared for them. Just that afternoon, she felt as if she’d had a breakthrough with Ava when she had helped her ride around the practice ring on one of their more gentle horses.

Ben was the children’s father. If he felt as though a relationship between him and Caidy would be harmful to his children, how could she argue?

He had obligations bigger than his own wants and needs. She had to accept that, no matter how painful.

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