Page 24
My heart hammers inside my chest, lips still tingling from our kiss. Any ounce of sense I have is fading away as I go back on every promise I’ve made.
So much for one night only. For keeping things strictly professional in a work capacity.
We’ve left my car on the side of the road due to the weather conditions. Rhett was right that there was no sense trying to drive it home when the rain was coming down like it was and the roads were flooding. I’d only wind up stuck again.
We’ve agreed he’ll give me a ride home—but deep down we also both know it’ll be much more than that.
How could it not be when temptation is so strong?
Rhett swings into the driveway in front of my house and switches gears into park.
We barely make it past the front door before his hands are on me again.
He kicks the door shut behind us and pulls me into him, his mouth covering mine. I curl into him, rising on tiptoe to meet his mouth and grip at the back of his neck.
We’re both cold and wet from the rain, quickly heating each other up through our kiss.
We nip and suck and tug at each other’s lips, no longer held back by the veneer of propriety. It’s a twist I never saw coming.
When I vowed that Friday night between me and Rhett was an isolated incident, I meant it.
Yet here I am, moaning as he kisses me hard and lust rolls through me.
It’s still such a damn contradiction.
How can I want nothing to do with him and want his mouth and hands on me all at the same time?
I moved to Ironhaven to get over my disastrous marriage; I did not move to Ironhaven to strike up a casual relationship with the twenty-six-year-old ranch hand from work…
Rhett makes a good case for himself. His kisses are demanding and instantly addictive. His big hands are coarse and calloused but shiver inducing as soon as they’re on me.
I tug his wet shirt upward, and then he takes over and drags it over his head. It’s tossed carelessly to the ground, leaving his insanely sculpted chest in full view.
He’s carved for function, not vanity. The ridges of muscle have been shaped thanks to years of hard physical work. His tanned skin is more evidence of this; tiny droplets of rain slicking him.
My palm glides down his stomach as if astonished a man could be this in shape, and his abs contract under my touch.
He cocks a grin. “See something you like?”
“What can I say?” I ask in return. “Ranch work does a body good.”
His grin widens, and then his mouth is capturing mine again. He’s infusing passion into the deep kiss, every stroke of his tongue more playful than the last.
His hands slide under my soaked blouse, and he starts peeling it off me. Like he’d done with me, I help him, mouths still fused.
We break apart only to slip the blouse over my head, and then we’re coming together again. It’s how we move through the cottage—a tangle of kisses and roving hands, tugging at clothes and groping at body parts.
We wind up giving up altogether in the hall leading to the staircase. Ideally, we were headed to the bedroom, but neither of us has the patience for that kind of distance.
Rhett grabs my hips and eases me up against the wall. He consumes me, his tall form dwarfing mine as he kisses me all over.
Lips. Cheeks. Jaw and throat.
My shoulders and then breasts once my bra’s unhooked and discarded.
It’s a level of attentiveness I’ve never experienced before, even when my relationship with Craig was still fresh.
It’s enough to make my head reel.
