Page 11 of Trails of Temptation

I stood up, wrapping my arms around me as watched him walk a few paces into the yard before he stopped, reaching up to take off his hat. His hair trembled in the breeze, but he didn’t move. He just stood there.

“I’m sorry,” I choked, feeling like the biggest idiot in the world.

He turned around, fire blazing behind his eyes as he stalked back up onto the porch, his eyes locked on mine. I instinctively took a step backward, my back hitting the doorframe as he closed the distance between us. He placed one hand above my head, caging me in with his body.

Then he kissed me, full and deep, his tongue skating over my teeth, tongue, and roof of my mouth until I was truly lost for breath. It was the kind of kiss that made me see stars. The kind of kiss that I’d never forget, even if I tried.

I tangled my fingers in his hair, pulling him closer. He growled low in his throat, pinning me against the wall as his hands fell to my waist.

“We can’t do this,” he said, nipping my neck.

Maybe that was why I wanted it so badly.

Maybe that was why it hurt so much when he pulled away and put his hat back on before turning and walking away.

ChapterSix

George

Keely’s lips on mine had felt like everything was right in the world. Her hips under my hands, her body pinned between me and the wall…damn. Had I been a younger, more foolish man I would have taken her right there on the porch, claiming her as mine.

But I wasn’t a young, foolish man. I was only a foolish one.

I walked back to my own house, reeling. My blood was pumping through my veins so rapidly I felt almost faint. I passed the bunkhouse where Ben, Archie, and a few other young idiots were living for the summer while they worked on the ranch. My body seemed to gravitate toward the cabin-like structure, my fists clenched with sudden fury as I thought back on the wink Archie had given Keely through the kitchen window when I caught the kids gawking at her.

I kept walking, clenching and unclenching my fists.

I didn’t regret kissing her, not in the slightest. I regretted that I let it happen, though, and now I’d be stringing her along. Seeing the look on her face when she’d apologized for making a move on me had been my undoing. Watching her eyes light up with sudden hope and surprise when I stormed back up onto the porch had been like walking into church on Sunday to kneel before the Lord. It felt right. So right.

I slammed the front door shut as I strode into my house, kicking off my boots and leaving them on the hardwood floor. I was usually tidy, nothing out of place. Not that I had a lot of stuff, but still. It was out of character for me to strip out of my clothes and leave them scattered through the house on my way upstairs to shower. But it was out of character that I’d kissed Pete’s sister, the same sister he’d told me time and time again was off limits.

He’d jokingly told me that—back in the day when we were all in our late twenties and early thirties and his devastatingly beautiful twenty-two-year-old sister had just come back to town after spending several years abroad, setting her sights on finally going to college in Bozeman. Our high school buddies had been all over her to the point of Pete losing his cool completely. I stood back and watched him rail into our friend Toby, who’d needed more than one or two stitches when it was all said and done.

I hadn’t thought much of it then. My mind had been elsewhere, stuck in a constant loop of PTSD from my time in the military overseas and the death of my young wife. I’d been so deep in a bottle of whiskey during those years that I hadn’t registered the fact that out of all of Pete’s friends and the men in town, Keely seemed to seek me out.

I wouldn’t give her the time of day back then, and not because of Pete. It was because for years I was incapable of coping, let alone returning the advances of any woman who caught my eye.

But that was then.

The scalding spray of water sent tremors of heat down my side as I stood in the shower, my forehead pressed against the tile. I punished myself with it, letting it wash away my sins when what I really needed was a stiff drink.

I couldn’t let this happen again. I couldn’t go near her, not when her very presence was already starting to unravel the carefully crafted life of hard work and solitude I’d spent years maintaining.

I stepped out of the shower and quickly dried off, pulling on a pair of boxers and getting into bed without giving any thought to the dirty work clothes and boots trailing across my two-story home.

I lay there, begging for sleep, but none came. Every time I closed my eyes I saw her. Saw her pressed against the wall with her fingers in my hair, pulling me into her, my name a whisper on her lips.

Then my mind began to wander to what could have been if I hadn’t backed away from her and left the porch.

What would have happened if I’d pulled her back inside and down the hallway to the guestroom she was staying in? What would have happened if I’d locked her bedroom door behind us and watched as she slowly undressed, her fingertips trailing over her naked skin, teasing me?

What would have happened if I kissed her again, fully, unabashed, and with every fiber of my being?

Would I have laid her on the bed, wrapped my arms around her while trailing kisses down her neck, her chest, and those full, heavy, and tantalizing breasts that had been plaguing me for days now?

Would I have found out what she tasted like between her legs?

I groaned, slamming my fists into the pillow as I rolled over onto my stomach, praying to whoever was listening to put me out of my misery.

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