knocked impatiently, but when the screen door finally opened, it wasn’t a reluctant Maddie prettily greeting him, but sharp-eyed Bessie Mueller from next door.
Cold air gushed out of the house around her as she set fists on her solid hips. Her wrinkled face was brown from working outdoors. She had a way of standing that made her look bolted to the earth.
“Your mother told everybody you weren’t coming home till tomorrow, so, what has got you planting your dusty boots on Miss Jennie’s doorstep today?”
It went without sayin’ that everybody in Yella knew everybody else’s business.
“Ranch affairs,” he drawled, hating the way the lie made heat crawl up his neck. “Is Miss Jennie doing okay?”
“She’s just fine, but she’s restin’ for a spell. She’s had so much company this mornin’—all male. She’s plumb tuckered out.”
“And Maddie Gray?”
Bessie grinned slyly. “Oh, so, it’s her you’ve come to see…like every other man in town?” The knowing glint in her black eyes irritated the hell out of him. “Well, she’s out looking for Cinnamon, if you have to know. That’s why I’m here. I told Maddie it wasn’t no use chasin’ that mongrel. When that fool dog isn’t barking loud enough to wake the dead, he’s after my poor chickens or diggin’ up my pansies. He always comes back—when he takes a mind to.”
Like all mammals, human or otherwise, living in Yella, Cinnamon had acquired a reputation.
Cole tipped his hat. “You tell Miss Jennie I’ll be back a little later, then.”
If Maddie was chasing Cinnamon, he knew where to find her.
When Cole tugged lightly on the reins, Raider snorted and jerked his head, stopping just short of the small creek that fed the river where ancient trees grew in such dense profusion they were almost impenetrable.
“The brush is too thick from here on,” Cole said, “so this is where I’ll leave you.”
On a hunch that Cinnamon would lure Maddie to the pool by the dam, he’d saddled his large, spirited bay gelding and set off.
Dismounting, Cole looped Raider’s reins over a fallen log near the rushing water and left the horse grazing in the shade.
Pushing back a tumble of wild grapevines that cascaded from the highest branches of a live oak, Cole made a mental note to get his foreman to send a hand out to clip the vines before they smothered the tree. Then, as he stalked through the high brown grasses toward the emerald pool, memories of Maddie played in his mind.
He and Maddie had ridden these trails together. When they’d dismounted they’d often played hide-and-seek. How he’d loved catching her and pulling her slim body beneath his. She would smile up at him, her flushed face thrilled and trusting in the pink glow of a late-afternoon sun.
After she’d left, he’d posted signs that read No Trespassing and No Swimming.
At the sound of a dog barking, Cole’s heart began to race. When he recognized Maddie’s low, velvety voice, he went stone-still.
“We shouldn’t be here. We’re trespassing. But you don’t care.”
Stealthily he inched forward until he caught glimpses of dewy skin and ebony hair through the trees.
Sitting on the dam, dangling her long legs in the water, she wore nothing but a blade of wet grass on her left nipple and a pair of black thong panties. Her exotic face with those arched, slanting brows was lovelier than ever. Not that his gazemained on her face. Her naked breasts and slender waist and her legs that went forever stole his breath.
He gulped in air while his heart thudded so violently he was sure she’d hear. He could turn and go, but why should he? He’d come here to find her, hadn’t he?
Slowly she dipped a rag—no, it was her T-shirt—into the water and squeezed it so tightly that rivulets of sparkling liquid showered her throat and breasts.
“Ah, nothing like icy water on a hot day,” she purred huskily as she put the T-shirt back into the pool and dripped more fluid diamonds over her body. “I was burning up.”
The dog was panting hard. Cole was burning up, too, but his condition wasn’t entirely due to the heat.
Erect, spellbound, he watched as the blade of grass got caught in the currents of water tracing down her smooth, gleaming belly before sliding down to her navel. When a slender fingertip plucked it off her skin, heat shot through Cole. His sex, hot and hard, swelled painfully against tight denim. When Cinnamon walked onto the dam and shook water all over Maddie, she screamed even as she giggled.
“You are all dog,” she said huskily, but she laughed, teasing the mongrel rather than chastising him.
Damn her to hell and back for being so gorgeous and unnervingly sexy. She seemed sweet, too, just as she always had—the very essence of everything feminine.
But looks could deceive.
Even though he knew what she was, memories of the first time she’d lain with him struck him full force.
She’d been flushed and naked as she’d whispered she loved him and always would. She had begged him to take her.
He’d kissed her throat and stroked her hair. “Are you sure about this?”
“No matter what happens, I want it to be you…who’s first, I mean.”
For a long time, his hands had skimmed over her body, touching her, caressing her. She’d been so innocent and so infinitely precious to him.
Determined not to hurt her, he’d been gentle and patient even though his youthful hormones had been raging. Hell, he’d even told her he loved her, too. Worse—he’d meant it.
Don’t think about it.
But how could he forget how tight she’d been, or how she’d held her breath so long after he’d entered her, she’d scared the hell out of him?
“Are you okay?” he’d whispered.
“Better than okay.” When she’d pressed her soft mouth to his throat she’d sent him over the edge. He’d apologized, but she’d begun to kiss him again, and he’d hardened inside her almost instantly.
“I’ve had a crush on you for years,” she’d said. “I just never thought you could care for someone like me.”
“Well, I do.”
“Sometimes I still have to pinch myself so I know I’m not dreaming.”
Now, determined to push the bittersweet memories aside and regain control, he counted slowly…backward from one hundred to zero. Long before he reached zero, more memories bombarded him, each one sweeter than the last. Then he couldn’t count, couldn’t think, couldn’t do anything but feel his testosterone-engorged body thicken.
More than anything, he wanted to touch her warm, velvet skin, to taste her sweet lips…just one
