Page 39 of The Rancher's Secret Son

“Thanks. I’ll watch the weather. If it’s good, I might have everyone here on the ranch. If not, we’ll have Christmas in Dallas. We’ll work it out however you agree, but that’s great. What about putting a tree up while you’re here? I don’t want to do it all alone. We can cut a cedar here on the ranch and there are some decorations in the attic.”

“Sure. Cody would love to decorate a tree,” she said, wondering how much Nick was going to change her life.

“That’s great. Thanks,” he said, smiling.

She realized Nick was relaxed, happier and more light-hearted since they had arrived at the ranch. “It’s so obvious how much you like it here, Nick. You ought to try to come more often.”

“This ranch is my first love. Sometimes I envy Tony. But I can’t do that to Dad. He’s been good to me, helped me, and I have a good career and a good life because of him. A very good career, but I still love this life more.”

“You’re going to spend your life doing something you don’t really love, just to please your father?”

“You’ve gone into a family business. Would you have chosen real estate if it hadn’t been something you were raised to do?”

Taken aback by his question, she thought about her answer as she looked into his blue eyes. “I thought about interior design, being a decorator. I like that. Even now, sometimes I can help a customer with staging a house before it’s put on the market to sell.”

“There, see? You’re not so different.”

“Not really. I don’t have a whole different personality when I get involved with interior decorating. You do when you’re on the ranch. You’re far more laid-back and seem happier here. You’re not attached to your cell phone out here.”

“I turn it off. Right now it’s in the kitchen.” He shrugged. “I’ll live here when I retire.”

“Nick, you will have lived most of your life by then,” she said.

“Worried about me?” he asked, his tone changing as he picked her up and placed her on his lap. Before she could answer, he kissed her and she was lost in his kisses then, wanting him more than she had before.

Need was more intense, and this time when his hands slipped beneath her knit shirt, she didn’t want him to stop. Memories of making love with him bombarded her while longing spurred her to let go and love him.

Her fingers twisted free the buttons of his shirt and she ran her hands across his muscled chest, pushing away his shirt. Still kissing her, Nick shook off his shirt and tugged hers over her head to toss it away.

“Nick—” she started to protest, but his mouth covered hers and ended her words as he pulled her closer against his shoulder and kissed her passionately. Unfastening her bra, he slipped it off, his hands drifting lightly over her breasts. He caressed and teased, creating more need as she clung to him. A scarf held her hair behind her head. He unfastened it and combed his fingers through the long, luxurious strands.

Common sense cautioned her to stop. Each caress, each kiss complicated the situation and also moved her closer to another broken heart. But desire burned away caution.

Standing, he picked her up as he kissed her and carried her into his bedroom. He never broke contact, placing her down on her feet. She was so wrapped up in his lips on hers, his hands on her body, that she stopped worrying about their situation. More than even her next breath she wanted to just give herself over to the moment, over to Nick. She could no longer deny—to him or to herself—that she wanted him with an intensity that set her ablaze.

She let herself explore him, indulging for a moment the fantasies that had played out in her mind so many nights over the last four years. She ran her hands down his smooth back, slipping around his narrow waist to unbuckle his belt and tug it away. She could feel his erection pressing against her and wanted to free him, to get the barriers of clothing tossed aside.

Yet, at the same time, that niggling voice of reason echoed in her mind, telling her to stop and think about what she was doing. What kind of commitment was she about to make?

When Nick unfastened her jeans and his fingers moved beneath her clothing to caress and stroke her, she silenced that voice and let herself bask in the sensation, until she gasped with need and held him tightly.

He cupped one soft breast, his tongue swirling over and teasing the nipple. Clinging to his shoulders, she gasped with pleasure. He shifted one leg between hers, granting his hand more access to the source of pleasure between her thighs. His intimate strokes caused her to cry out again.

Just as she reached the point of no return, common sense slammed into her again and she stilled his hand. “Nick, we can’t do this,” she said. “There are so many reasons, not the least of which is I’m not protected.” She looked up at him. Dark locks of his hair fell over his forehead. Tinged with desire, his blue eyes had darkened to the color of stormy seas. His mouth was red from their kisses. His male body was muscled, virile, perfect. She had to drag her eyes away.

“I’ve got protection,” he said as he moved over her on the bed, still keeping all his weight from coming down on her. He held her as he showered kisses on her neck and throat. “I want you, Claire,” he said between kisses. “I want you with all my being. You’ve given me back life and laughter and hope. The sex was always fantastic and that’s real living.”

“You have solutions and answers for everything. It’s the politician in you.” She didn’t recognize her own voice; it was deep and husky with desire. She wanted him too, so badly it was nearly killing her to resist him. “But we are going to complicate our lives, Nick.”

“We’ve already complicated the hell out of our lives.” He pulled back to look at her, his lidded eyes irresistible. “Tell me you don’t want this. Tell me when to stop.” Even as he said those words, his one hand caressed her breast while the other hand stroked her inner thighs slowly, so lightly she ached to rise up and feel the full power of his touch.

She moaned, unable to dredge up the words to stop even though she knew she should. She wanted his mouth and hands on her. She wanted him inside her. She loved him and longed for him to make love to her again, all night long.

“I should tell you to stop,” she whispered, her hand sliding over him, taking his thick rod in her hand to caress him.

“No, you shouldn’t and you don’t really want to,” he murmured as he showered kisses on her breasts and drifted lower. His tongue trailed over her stomach, down between her thighs that she parted for him.

“Nick,” she whispered, sitting up to kiss and stroke him, to try to build desire in him to the height he had in her. She wanted to kiss him from head to toe, to make love as she had longed to do so many times in so many empty nights. Now Nick was here in her arms and she was already beyond the point of stopping. This had been a dream of hers for years; now she was about to make it a reality. She pushed him down on the bed and caressed his hard body with her eyes before she followed with her hands, relishing the feel of him, wanting to build need in him until he wouldn’t ever want to let her go. She was running headlong into heartbreak and disaster and she didn’t care. She wanted him too desperately.

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