right. A true gentleman doesn’t kiss and tell. But I don’t like the thought of you cheapening what happened yesterday, either.”
She placed her hands on her hips and leaned in, glaring at him. “How is it cheapening it when the whole thing meant nothing to you anyway?”
* * *
Jillian's question stunned Aidan. For a moment he couldn’t say anything. She had definitely asked a good question, and it was one he wasn’t sure he could answer. The only response he could come up with was that the kisses should not have meant anything to him, but they had. Hell, he had spent the past twenty-four hours thinking about nothing else. And hadn’t he changed his plans so that he could stay another day just to spend more time with her?
She was standing there, glaring at him, with her arms crossed over her chest in a way that placed emphasis on a nice pair of breasts. Full and perfectly shaped. He could just imagine running his hands over them, teasing the nipples before drawing them in his mouth to...
“Well?”
She wanted an explanation and all he wanted to do was erase the distance separating them, take her into his arms and kiss that glare right off her face. Unfortunately, he knew he wouldn’t stop there. Whether she knew it or not, Jillian Novak’s taste only made him want more.
“Let’s ride,” he said, moving toward his horse. Otherwise, he would be tempted to do something he might later regret.
“Ride?” she hissed. “Is that all you’ve got to say?”
He glanced back over at her as he mounted his horse. “For now.”
“None of this makes any sense, Aidan,” she said, mounting her own horse.
She was right about that, he thought. None of it made any sense. Why was she like a magnet pulling him in? And why was he letting her?
They had ridden a few moments side by side in total silence when she finally broke it by asking, “Where are we going?”
“Bane’s Ponderosa.”
She nodded. “Has he built anything on it?”
“No, because legally it’s not his yet. He can’t claim it until he’s twenty-five.”
“Like Bailey. She told me about the age requirement.”
“Yes, like Bailey.”
He wished they could go back to not talking. He needed the silence to figure out what in the hell was happening to him. She must have deciphered that he was not in a talkative mood because she went silent again.
Aidan glanced over at her, admiring how well she handled a horse. He couldn’t help admiring other things, as well. Such as how she looked today in her jeans and western shirt, and how the breasts he had fantasized about earlier moved erotically in rhythm with the horse’s prance.
“There is a building here,” Jillian said, bringing her horse to a stop.
He forced his eyes off her breasts to follow her gaze to the wooden cabin. He brought his horse to a stop, as well. “If you want to call it that, then yes. Bane built it a while back. It became his and Crystal’s secret lovers’ hideaway.”
“Crystal?”
“Yes. Crystal Newsome. Bane’s one and only.”
Jillian nodded. “She’s the reason he had to leave and join the navy, right?”
Aidan shrugged. “I guess you could say that, although I wouldn’t place the blame squarely on Crystal’s shoulders. Bane was as much into Crystal as Crystal was into Bane. They were both sticks of dynamite waiting to explode.”
“Where is she now?”
“Don’t know. I’m not sure if Bane even knows. He never says and I prefer not to ask,” Aidan said, getting off his horse and tying it to the rail in front of the cabin.
He moved to assist her from her horse and braced himself for the onslaught of emotions he knew he would feel when he did so.
“You don’t have to help me down, Aidan. I can manage.”
“I’m sure you can but I’m offering my assistance anyway,” he said, reaching his arms up to her.
For a minute he thought she would refuse his offer, but then she slid into his embrace. And as expected the moment they touched, fire shot through him. He actually felt his erection throb. He didn’t say anything as he stared into her face. How could she arouse him to this degree?
“You can let go of me now, Aidan.”
He blinked, realizing her feet were on the ground yet his arms were still around her waist. He tried to drop his arms but couldn’t. It was as if they had a mind of their own.
Then, in a surprise move, she reached up and placed her arms around his neck. “This is crazy,” she whispered in a quiet tone. “I shouldn’t want this but I’m not thinking straight.”
He shouldn’t want it, either, but at that moment nothing could stop him. “We’re leaving tomorrow. When we get back to our respective territories we can think straight then.”
“What about right now?” she asked, staring deep into his gaze.
“Right now all I want to do is taste you again, Jillian. So damn bad.”
She lifted her chin. “Then do it.”
He doubted she knew what she was saying because her lips weren’t the only thing he wanted to taste. He lowered his mouth to hers, thinking that she would find that out soon enough.
* * *
At that particular moment, Jillian couldn’t deny herself the enjoyment of this kiss even if her life had depended on it.
She was getting what she wanted in full force—Aidan Westmoreland–style.
She stood with her arms wrapped around his neck and their lips locked, mesmerized, totally captivated, completely enthralled. How his tongue worked around in her mouth was truly remarkable. Every bone, every pore and every nerve ending responded to the way she was being thoroughly kissed. When had she become capable of such an intense yearning like this, where every lick and suck of Aidan’s tongue could send electrical waves through her?
“Let’s go inside,” he whispered, pulling back from the kiss while tonguing her lips.
“Inside?” She could barely get the question past the feeling of burning from the inside out.
“Yes. We don’t need to be out here in the open.”
No they didn’t. She had gotten so caught up in his kiss that she’d forgotten where they were. But instead of saying they shouldn’t even be kissing, in the open or behind closed doors, she didn’t resist him when he took her hand and tugged her toward the cabin.
Once the door closed behind them she looked around and was surprised at how
