Nodding, she laid her head back down on his chest. “Couldn’t we have had this discussion outside? Now we’re in the hayloft, and I’m completely out of my earlier mood.”
“Then I’ll have to do my best to get you back there, won’t I?” He turned them until they were lying face-to-face and leaned in and gave her a slow, tender kiss that stole her breath.
“How’s that?”
Annoyed with the whole situation, she made an incoherent sound.
He leaned in and kissed her again until she lifted her hand to his head and tugged lightly on his dark hair. “How about now?”
“Not bad, cowboy.”
Laughing, he gestured to the hand holding his hair. “Not bad? I remember a time early on when you tugged at my hair like that and then lifted your sweet little face and told me that I had better make it worth it for you.”
She started laughing. “That’s because you were talking me into all sorts of mischief, Ben McAllister. On that occasion, Ibelieve your face was a little closer to the area between my legs—and that was the first time for that.”
He chuckled darkly, a rich sound in the quiet barn. “You weren’t sure you were going to like it, as I recall. Proved you wrong, didn’t I?”
Undoing the snaps of his shirt, she caressed the broad expanse of his chest. “Like you said, you’re a thorough man.”
“That makes you a lucky woman,” he told her in a husky voice as he started undressing her. “Maybe you can rub some of that luck off on me.”
His caressing hands started a fire racing over her skin. “Be happy to, cowboy.”
“Since we’re speaking of luck, and seeing as how I’m a muleheaded ole man…”
His laughing eyes had her shooting him an amused glance as he cupped her hips. “Oh, this had better be good.”
He cupped her and had her arching into his hand. “Trust me, it will be. Anyhow, I know we’re just back together, but I’m an impatient man. I thought it better to ask you straight out when you might be open to me proposing to you. You’ll remember the first time didn’t go so well.”
She tensed. “I’d rather we forget about that moment altogether.”
Her answer earned her the sweetest kiss ever. “Fine by me. So do you have a time in mind? Tomorrow? Next week? Next month?”
Sputtering out a laugh, she snapped open his work shirt and ran her hands over his bare chest. “I’ll have to buy you a calendar.”
“Smart-ass.” He gave her a delightful squeeze. “Before you answer, I want to make you mine as quickly as you’re happy to be officially. But I respect your timetable. All I ask is that you don’t make me call yourosie posey.”
Because that meant she was dithering. “Cowboy, I figure you’ll know there’s a pretty special event coming up thatmight just be perfect, but I’ll leave that to your imagination.”
He tipped her head up, his beautiful eyes filled with love. “Hannah, I’m a rancher. I have no imagination.”
She knew better. “You underestimate yourself.”
Shoving him onto his back, she slid on top and straddled him, moaning at the pure, blessed heat of their bodies coming together as he slid inside her.
“Do I now?” he asked, thrusting upward.
She threw her head back and started to ride. “Yes, but let’s turn to me rubbing some of my luck all over you.”
And with that, she did more than rub.
She took him home where he belonged.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
Ben wassure his luck was turning when Paul Kincaid arrived.
“I’ve brought over every ranch hand I can spare,” he told Ben as he exited his white truck. “We’re going to help you and Will build that rehab center or whatever it’s called if it’s the last thing I do.”
