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Belly quivering with a vivid reminder of the night before, she nodded. “Of course. It’s a loose-enough skirt I can move freely.”
He sucked in a breath, making her realize how seductive a person could take her comment. Unable to stop herself, she flashed him a knowing grin over her shoulder and turned away, titillated by the knowledge he could see up her skirt if he wanted to. Once she managed to finagle her way over the wheel at the top of the ladder and into the heart of the mechanical beast, she glanced back to watch him. He followed but remained on the outer landing as she entered the cab and peered around her. “Wow. Everything on the ground looks so small from up here. I’d never be able to operate something this huge.”
He chuckled and wedged his shoulders into the small cab with her, keeping his lower half outside. “You grow used to it after a while.”
Jo Ellen sat in the driver’s chair, allowing him room to squeeze in with her, but when he didn’t, she sighed. “Cooper, I came to apologize.”
He paused from picking at a clump of dirt off the metal floor and lifted his face. After studying her, his features lit with his famous heartbreaking grin. “Of course you did. And what unforgivable offense do you think you committed against me this time?”
Her shoulders slumped. “I realize what I said this morning didn’t sit well with you. And I just want you to know I didn’t mean to hurt—”
He reached out and set his fingers over her knee, hushing her. “Jo Ellen. Believe me, you don’t have any reason to apologize. You did nothing wrong.”
“But you didn’t even kiss me goodbye,” she argued.
His white teeth flashed. “Is that what this is about?” he asked before he let out a chuckle and eased closer. The look in his eyes had her belly tightening. “You came back for your goodbye kiss?”
She swallowed—gulped was more like it. “N-no. Of course not,” she rasped, but now that he mentioned it, “I certainly wouldn’t turn one down though.”
Even if she should.
She should stop this madness right now. Starting an affair with Cooper Gerhardt was a bad, bad idea. It couldn’t go anywhere except straight into painful, heartbreaking territory. Not only did they live so far apart, but they lived two different lives. Country and city wouldn’t mesh well for long before a million problems cropped up. And she’d want them to mesh. After last night, she knew she’d want more from him than was possible to take.
Then there was her inability to trust any man since Travis had dumped her. Getting too close to Cooper was dangerous.
But as he moved into the cab to crawl closer, she didn’t feel endangered. She felt alive, so very alive. She wouldn’t be able to say no if he continued what they’d already started.
Her heart thumped hard in her chest, but her brain kept short-circuiting, demanding her to stop.
With his light brown eyes intent on her face, he eased even closer on his knees.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone sit inside a combine wearing a skirt before.”
She trilled out a nervous laugh. “Oh, well…it’s this new thing I’m trying.” As if posing for a camera, she set her hand on her hip and fluttered her lashes. “What do you think?”
“I think I like it.”
Her breathing grew unsteady. He wouldn’t stop staring at her, and she couldn’t seem to look away either.
His dark lashes swept close to the tops of his cheeks as he slid his gaze low to her exposed calves before lifting his gaze back to her face. “So what about this old thing? Do you think my tractor’s sexy?”
Jo Ellen threw her head back and laughed. “Oh, Cooper,” she murmured on a thick voice. “Kenny Chesney couldn’t have said it better.”
When he grinned, she ran her fingers over his silken pale hair, delighting in his beautiful locks. “You make me smile,” she decided, though her grin fell as she studied the
perfect features of his face—sensual dark lashes, full lush lips, defined, expressive cheekbones.
Everything with him was better than it had ever been with anyone else. She didn’t want it to end.
His brown eyes danced with pleasure as he rested his chin on her knee and drawled, “Well, you know what they say about us farm boys. We know how to make all the pretty girls smile.”
Heart tripping over emotions she didn’t want to acknowledge, she silently took his face in her hands. He met her gaze with a puzzled frown but didn’t ask questions as he let her draw him up in front of her so they were eye level.
“Are you ever going to give me that goodbye kiss?” she asked.
His eyes glittered as he smiled. With the slightest shake of his head, he said, “No.”
Jo Ellen blinked. “No?”
