fatigue pulled at her eyelids. Everything smelled like home and safety and all she wanted was to put her head on that pillow. Tomorrow, she and Cora could make biscuits and gravy—her favorite—and catch up. But until then...sleep was all she wanted.
Stripping as she went, she climbed beneath the covers and dropped off almost immediately with what she was certain was a smile on her face.
Thank you...this was bliss.
* * *
KANE’S MOUTH CLOSED over a tightly budded nipple and sucked the sweet berry, teasing the tiny ridged piece of flesh until the woman writhed and moaned, arching into his arms, offering more of herself for his touch. Her skin was like the smoothest alabaster, perfect in every way. Her breasts overflowed his hands and he squeezed the abundant flesh with a groan as he moved to the other nipple. Her breathy pants fueled his need to touch and feel every inch of her, to know what made her squirm, what made her cry out with abandon. He needed to know everything about her. He wanted to own her cries and make her body quake with each thrust. His finger slid between her slick folds, searching for that sweet heat, testing and teasing. There was something so familiar about the way she cried out, the way she clung to him, pressing herself against him so that every part of her was touching him in some way. Her body, soft and willing, created a carnal need so fierce that his hands shook as he gripped her hips and ground his swollen cock against her. Their tongues collided with urgent, desperate thrusts as they swallowed each other’s breath and created a maelstrom of lust and want between them. Good God, his heart hammered with a ferocity that he’d never experienced. He needed that slippery heat as much as he needed air to breathe. He wanted to plunge inside her, going balls deep, straight to the hilt, but as he was poised above her, ready to slide into blessed home, something—an errant sensation, a discordant moment amid total bliss—caused him to realize he wasn’t dreaming and that he was about to make love with a complete stranger.
Kane’s eyes flew open and he stiffened, ignoring the aching pulse between his legs, as he stared down at the woman beneath him, her arms still looped around his neck with drowsy desire. Her eyelids fluttered open and her mouth opened in confusion, followed by alarm. “Oh my God!” she cried, jerking her arms away from his neck and then pushing at his chest. “Get off me! What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
It was then that he realized that he was lying on top of—son of a bitch!—Laci McCall.
* * *
OH, GOOD LORD! Laci’s cheeks burned with mortification as, of all people, Kane Dalton stared down at her with sudden dawning recognition. What the hell was he doing in her old bed at the Bradford ranch? She pushed at his chest, refusing to appreciate all that solid muscle beneath her fingertips or the fact that he felt pretty good on top of her, glaring as she demanded that he get off. “I don’t know what the hell is going on, but if you don’t get yourself off me right now, I’m going to turn you from a rooster to a hen in about five seconds.”
“No need for that,” he bit out, seemingly just as thrown off-kilter by the current events as he rolled off her, taking most of the blankets with him, further exposing her naked body. She gasped and retrieved the blanket, scooting as far away from him as possible. Ten seconds ago, their tongues had been in each other’s mouths and he’d been about to...oh, goodness gracious... Yeah, you know what he was gonna do and you were about to let him!
She gathered the blankets around her tightly, even though she realized it was a lot like closing the barn door after the horses have already run out, but it gave her some sense of control in a whacked-out situation. Damn, he looked good. He was a breath of fresh air after too much time spent on a tour bus. Stop that! Kane had always been a good-looking devil, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t lead a girl straight to hell with a smile on his handsome face. “So? Explain yourself,” she said, glaring.
“Me? I was asked to take care of the ranch while the Bradfords go to Florida for a special cancer treatment for Cora. How about you? Last I heard, you haven’t been around this ranch in close to five years, too busy going off and getting famous and all that to visit. Warren and Cora might make excuses for you, but I sure as hell ain’t gonna do it. So that brings me back to my original question... What the hell are you doing here?”
Her mouth dropped open, filled with ready and hot words to defend herself, but there was something else that caught her attention and jerked her around. “Cancer? What do you mean, cancer? Nobody told me Cora was sick,” she said, genuinely concerned, forgetting for the moment that she and Kane were still naked in a room together. “How sick?”
“That’s not for me to say,” Kane answered gruffly. “If Cora wanted you to know, she would’ve found a way to tell you.”
“Don’t be a jerk. I have just as much right to know about Cora’s illness as you do. She was like family to me and you know it.”
“Do I? Do I know that? Because the way I see it, you plain disappeared and walked away from anyone who’d ever meant anything to you, including the Bradfords.”
“Shut your mouth. Don’t you dare talk to me about walking away when that’s exactly what you did when you joined the Marines, leaving me behind as if I were an old sack of potatoes,” she retorted, her fury returning in a blaze of fire. “You’ve some nerve, Kane Dalton, to talk to me like you’ve got a leg to stand on. You left me without so much as a ‘catch you later’ and I was left to deal with the fallout.”
Kane buttoned his lip—as well he should—and didn’t deny her accusation, but that didn’t stop him from maintaining his position. “The situation between me and you ain’t got nothing to do with the Bradfords. You could’ve kept in contact and if you had, you would’ve known about Cora.”
“I did keep in contact as much as my schedule allowed,” she told him as tears pricked her eyes, but she held them back. He was right. She should’ve made more of an effort, but Trent kept her moving at breakneck speed and it was hard enough to remember what city she was in, much less to call people from her former life. But she couldn’t say that—even to her own ears it sounded petty and self-absorbed, no matter that it was the truth—and so she swallowed her tears and her need to defend herself and simply jerked a short nod, conceding a small point. “I love the Bradfords and they love me. If you don’t believe me, you can go screw yourself.” Ignoring her nakedness, because who cared at this point, she tossed the blanket away and climbed from the bed, proud as you please, then scooped up her discarded clothing and walked from the room with her head held high. Take a good look, Kane, because it’s the last one you’re gonna get!
HOT DAMN, THAT ass was going to be the death of him, Kane thought as Laci left the room, purposefully giving him an eyeful out of spite. Oh yeah, he knew it was spite, too, because he could see it in the angry twitch of her sweet hips as she exited. She’d wanted him to know exactly what he was missing—as if he didn’t already know—and make him hurt with the knowledge. His cock throbbed with plaintive disappointment and he pushed at the stiff member with irritation. Ain’t nothing gonna happen with you, so settle down.
He found his jeans and a T-shirt and went straight to the kitchen for some coffee and a slice of Cora’s peach pie. It didn’t matter that Laci was here; the chores waited for no one—that was one thing he’d learned all those years ago and nothing had changed that fact.
He found Laci already brewing the coffee, except he noted with a mix of relief and disappointment that she’d dressed—although the short sparkly number wasn’t exactly made for modesty—and he wondered what her plans
