Page 11 of In Bed with the Rancher

“We have to stop,” she said. “Neither of us wants the problems kisses could lead to,” she said quietly. “After what I’ve been through in my broken engagement, I don’t want more stress or hurt in my life.” Her words were a whisper and she didn’t know whether she was telling him or herself.

With an effort she turned and walked away from him, leaving the room to put more distance between them. Her lips still tingled from his kiss. Every inch of her body wanted to be back in his arms, kissing him, being held tightly against his marvelous, strong male body. Desire was intense, but so was caution and memories of how badly she had been hurt not so long ago.

She crossed the hall to look into a mirror. “You are headed for more than a wagonload of trouble. Kiss him again and it’ll be a trainload of trouble,” she whispered to herself.

She didn’t want to be attracted to him for too many reasons. He had no idea who he was. He didn’t want to succumb to the attraction any more than she did—maybe a degree more because he was the first to give in to it.

But, oh, what a kiss. Her lips still tingled, her body was hot, she ached for his arms around her and his hard, muscled body against her.

“Sheesh, Ava,” she whispered and made a face at herself. “Use your self-control. Do you want another broken heart? No, absolutely not. No, no, no,” she told herself. So why couldn’t she stop thinking that was the sexiest kiss she had ever experienced?

She threw up her hands. She should go down the hall to her suite, lock the door and not see him until tomorrow morning, when she would hopefully have forgotten his kiss. Who was she kidding? She’d never forget it, but she needed to resist kissing him again. The minute this storm was over, the water would recede quickly. As soon as she could get back to town, she would take him straight to the sheriff and let the officials take care of him and help him learn his identity. No one lived in a vacuum. And the stranger who had just kissed her senseless was no exception.

What she needed to worry about right now was keeping a distance between herself and him. She didn’t want to think about his kisses that had made her heart pound with desire, excitement and a hunger for more. A lot more. She had to avoid him. She didn’t want another heartbreak, didn’t want to complicate her life. She looked at herself in the mirror. “Can you go back and eat dinner with him and keep away from him?” she asked her image. “I can. I have to,” she replied. Taking a deep breath, she turned down the hall.

“I’m back,” she said, getting the fish from the oven and getting their drinks and the rest of their dinner on the table.

Sitting across from him, she looked at him. “Kisses won’t happen again,” she stated firmly, telling herself as much as informing him. “I think you agree—that wasn’t the smart thing to do. Neither of us wants another emotional complication in our lives at this time. Right?”

“I’m the one who lost it. I don’t want to get into a relationship when I don’t even know who I am.” He nodded. “You’re right.”

“So, then, no more kisses. Let’s just eat our dinner and move on,” she said, passing him the platter with the fish.

“I apologize for losing control,” he said as they shared the tossed salad, baked potatoes and carrots Molly had provided.

Ava looked into his midnight eyes and shook her head. “No, you don’t need to apologize. It won’t happen again, but believe me, you don’t ever have to apologize for that kiss.” She felt her cheeks flush and looked down because she was getting back on dangerous ground. She didn’t want to think about the sexiest kiss of her life or that he sat only a few feet away.

Maybe it was because of the storm and all the events of the day that it just seemed that way at the time. The instant that thought came she knew better. She was tingly all over just thinking about their kiss. And it didn’t have one thing to do with the storm or his rescue or the struggles they’d had getting out of the canyon.

“If you don’t want to talk about it, we won’t, but was your fiancé someone you had known a long time?”

“We’d been together more than a year,” she replied, then paused to take a sip of her water. “We had a big church wedding planned, at least big to me—about two hundred guests. Two weeks before the wedding he told me he had met someone else and it was instant attraction and love.”

“Two weeks? Maybe you’re better off not married to a guy who would change like that.”

She shrugged a shoulder. “Logically, I know that’s true. I’ve told myself that, too, at least a hundred times, but it doesn’t make the hurt go away or make any of it easier to accept. I had presents to return, letters to write, people to call. He walked and that was that.”

“I see why you don’t want any more complications in your life right now.” They ate in silence for a bit and then he leaned back. “Well, tell me about how you entertain yourself out here without TV and internet.”

Before she could answer, they heard the first ping of hail hitting the house. The hail came faster, the hailstones larger.

“Oh, damn, this must be the next storm coming through,” he said. “Thank goodness we didn’t have this before you came to my rescue. I’d—”

His words were cut off when a big hailstone smashed through a window on the south side of the room. As glass shattered on the floor, another hailstone broke another window, and she bolted. “I better get towels,” she said, rushing from the room.

She could hear another window shatter as baseball-size hailstones struck the glass. She rushed back with towels and went to get a broom and dustpan to sweep up the broken glass.

When she returned, he took the broom from her. “Let me do this.”

“I don’t think you’re supposed to exert yourself.”

“I’m not. This is nothing,” he said.

She started to argue, but one look at him and she turned away. “I have plywood that will fit the windows and we can fasten it to the window frames with duct tape to keep rain from coming in,” she said. “It’s on the other side of the porte cochere, in my workshop,” she said as she pulled on a thick, tan jacket.

“I’ll go with you,” he replied, walking with her. She was intensely conscious of him close beside her.

“You may want a jacket because it’s cooler out.”

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