have enough injuries already,” she snapped.
He held his tongue so long that Laura glanced up to determine the problem. Her breath lodged in her throat when those laserlike green eyes zeroed in on her. His penetrating gaze made a thorough sweep of her knit blouse, denim shorts and the exposed length of her legs. She felt her body burn each place his riveting gaze touched. Was something going on here that she’d missed while she had her head stuck in the fridge? How could they possibly have gone from snappy repartee to this sizzling sensual awareness that leaped back and forth between them like two-twenty volts of electrical current?
One smoldering look from Wade and desire contracted inside her like a coil of fire. She’d never experienced anything remotely like this before.
Laura felt as if time had ground to a halt, as if the looks passing between them were trying to define themselves. Yet, she wasn’t sure she could correctly decode the message he was sending because she constantly received mixed signals from him. Nevertheless, she was helpless to restrain the feminine vibes her body bleeped at him. Just what the heck was going on between them? She wished she knew for certain.
Was it hot in here? Suddenly the heat seemed stifling and breathing was a real chore. Her gaze dropped to the sensuous curve of his mouth and Laura was struck by the tormenting realization that she was starving to death for a taste of him. She wondered what it would be like to exchange kisses rather than saucy retorts, wondered how it would feel to be pressed familiarly against that rock-solid body, despite his encumbering cast and sling.
Call her reckless and crazy but she’d really, really like to know how it felt to be kissed and held by him. For the sake of curiosity, if nothing else. Oh right, who was she kidding? Her curiosity wasn’t the only thing that was dying to find out how well he kissed.
Laura’s heart stalled in her chest when Wade pushed away from the wall and took one, then two hobbling steps toward her. Then he halted in his tracks, muttered something to himself and stood there, looking at her as if he was waging some tormenting internal battle. Her heart plummeted to the tiled floor and she felt like whaling him upside the head for refusing to approach her. He just kept staring at her with that exasperating mixture of hungry need and wary caution.
Hoo-kay, if he didn’t have the gumption to just kiss her and get it over with then she’d have to take the initiative. After all, she’d come to Oklahoma to break old habits, explore her newfound freedom and make her own decisions without her brothers’ constant censorship.
Mustering her courage, Laura closed the small distance between them, pushed up on tiptoe and kissed him squarely on the mouth—and felt a blast of heat sweeping through every fiber of her being. Instinctively she pressed closer, craving something more. But Wade didn’t hook his right arm around her waist and pull her snugly against him. He didn’t even kiss her back—which was a huge disappointment. It didn’t do a thing for her self-confidence, either. He just stared at her with those glowing green eyes, as if he wanted to kiss her back but refused to let himself do it. Now she really wanted to whale him upside the head!
Determined to blunder through the awkward silence, Laura dropped down on her heels and plastered on a breezy smile to conceal her embarrassment—and there was plenty of that pulsating in her face, she was sure.
“Why’d you do that?” His voice crackled like static and his massive chest expanded with ragged breaths.
“Why didn’t you do it so I wouldn’t have to?” she countered shakily.
Seconds ticked by while she tried to draw a breath that wasn’t thick with the tantalizing scent of him. Hoo-boy, how was a woman supposed to extricate herself from such an awkward encounter? She had no idea! Why didn’t he say something, damn it? Snippy insults were better than this maddening silence that stretched between them like a rubber band about to snap.
“Well, that answers that,” she said lamely.
He didn’t so much as blink. His gaze just bored into her. “What was the question?”
Thoroughly exasperated, she swatted him on the chest with the back of her hand. “You’re impossible!”
“Then quit,” he suggested. His face was such an unreadable mask that she wanted to grab him by his shirt collar and shake the stuffing out of him.
“Not on your life, buster,” she erupted. “You can’t fire me and I refuse to leave. You’re stuck with me!”
“Not necessarily,” he begged to differ. “A cleverly arranged murder is still an option.”
She smirked at him. “You’d never get away with it. And you know what else?”
“I’m afraid to guess because I’m probably being graded on this, professor. You’ll deduct the number of wrong answers from the right ones and I’ll end up with a score of zero.”
Laura cocked her head and studied him pensively. Was he teasing her with that dry wit that could stir up a cloud of dust? She was pretty sure he was. Wow! A real breakthrough!
In a moment of what was surely impulsive insanity, Laura looped her arms around his neck, surged upward and kissed him again. His mouth softened ever so slightly, but she didn’t stick around to embarrass herself again, just in case he refused to kiss her back a second time. With a loud smack for her grand finale she broke the kiss, wheeled around and wobbled over to the sink, hoping he’d take his cue and leave so she could splash water on her face and cool off.
While Laura ran the faucets full blast and stared out the kitchen window Wade pivoted around and hobbled into the living room on one crutch, one broken leg and two unsteady knees that threatened to fold up like lawn chairs. He couldn’t breathe normally and sensual awareness echoed through him like feedback to a microphone. He made it to the recliner—barely—before he collapsed.
“Aw, damn,” Wade whispered roughly. And that was putting it mildly! He’d watched Laura bend over and poke her head in the fridge and his gaze and attention had been immediately drawn to the swell of her breasts and the alluring curve of her fanny. Desire had shot through him like a lightning bolt.
He’d taken two impulsive steps toward Laura then grabbed onto his self-control with both fists, telling himself that touching her would be a huge mistake because he was afraid to trust the hot, wild sensations she aroused in him and the ravenous hunger he felt for her. He’d been wrong to trust his feelings and desires before and he’d paid dearly, thanks to his ex. But Laura had had the courage to walk right up to him and finish what he’d foolishly started.
Now he wished he didn’t know that she tasted like raindrops during a spring shower. He wished he didn’t know that the slightest brush of her lush body could make him hard and aching in the time it took to hiccup. He wished he didn’t know that he’d never be satisfied not tasting her again, not touching, not being as close to her as two people could get because he was so intensely attracted to her that it was downright unnerving!
“Aw…damn…” he repeated. Another wave of tormenting desire crashed over him and threatened to drown him in forbidden wanting. What the hell was he going to do with that woman when he couldn’t fire her, she wouldn’t quit and he was starting to like her way too much?
THE NEXT DAY, WADE was still searching for the answer to that question while he lounged in his recliner. He glanced up from the TV when he heard the front door swing open. He inwardly groaned when Laura strolled inside, wearing a wet T-shirt and shorts that clung to her curvaceous body like a coat of paint. Traitorous desire delivered a quick knockout punch as his gaze roamed
