Page 16 of A Christmas Baby for the Cowboy
Too fast. Too hot. He knew that because he liked to put his mouth there while he—
But no good could come of finishing that thought.
She stepped back and looked around as if she’d forgotten where she was. Then she headed toward the front door.
“Where are you going?” he asked quietly.
“Home,” she said, without turning around.
“Not tonight, you’re not.” He didn’t say that like it was a question, because it wasn’t. “You probably shouldn’t have come up here, though I’m glad you did. Can’t you hear the wind? I don’t think the storm has calmed down any.”
Ramona still had her arms folded over her chest. She looked back at him with a dubious expression on her face and he wasn’t the least bit surprised when she kept walking toward the front door, but instead of throwing it open to look out at the porch—or run for it—she peered out the window instead.
Knox saw the way she sighed more than he heard it. It was the way her shoulders drooped, and every single part of him wanted to go to her, but he didn’t.
Not only because there was a tiny baby on his couch, sleeping with her chubby arms thrown up over her head, her face serious in slumber.
Hailey, he thought. Her name is Hailey.
He found himself rubbing the heel of his hand into the shallow valley between his pecs, and he wasn’t sure why he felt caught when Ramona turned back around to see him doing it.
“Two-month-olds eat at regular intervals,” she said, back to doctor mode. He didn’t blame her. “Why don’t we camp out here in the living room? I’ll set up a diaper changing station, and show you how to make a bottle.”
“I’d appreciate that,” he said.
So formal.
But they both stood there for what seemed like too long, and he could feel that same pull toward her that he always did. He figured she felt it too, and neither one of them seemed to be all that happy about it.
So Knox broke the spell.
He made himself step back, step away, and then discovered that it was also hard to walk away from little Hailey, so he was pretty much screwed on all sides.
“I’ll pull some bedding out here,” he made himself say, and then he walked back into the dark recesses of his house.
Where he found himself grateful for the opportunity to take a deep breath at last.
But that didn’t last. Because when he did, it was all Ramona.
Chapter Four
Ramona knew that they’d lost power again sometime near dawn when the wind outside started howling again, and then she heard the generator begin to roar.
Knox had made them a vast pallet on the floor in front of the fire, and it was far more comfortable than it should have been. He’d built a kind of playpen/crib for little Hailey in the middle, and without discussing it, he and Ramona had slept on either side.
Though it had been fitful sleeping at best.
This time when she woke, she saw Knox was already up, and a quick glance indicated that he had already figured out the diaper situation. That put him head and shoulders above some of the new fathers she encountered, though she had to lecture herself not to make that something it wasn’t. It was the bare minimum after all.
Ramona had gone to sleep cranky beyond measure, and confused, and filled with the wild gamut of emotions she always felt when in Knox’s presence, but it seemed like what amounted to only a few catnaps in between feedings had given her some clarity.
She believed him.
Maybe that was naïve. Or maybe it was a form of wishful thinking. But she didn’t think so.
Because one thing about Knox was that he had always been brutally clear on the fact that either one of them could see whoever else they wanted to, whenever they wanted to. That he didn’t do permanent, didn’t see that changing, and couldn’t make any promises.
She was forced to agree with the notion that if he’d been sleeping with other women in that time, he wouldn’t lie about it now.
