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She let out a sigh. “All right. If you’re sure you can handle this.”
“I’m sure.Go.”
She hesitated half a second longer before gathering up her baskets and heading across the street.
“Finally,” he muttered. He knew his reputation for simple tasks wasn’t the greatest, but with all the dough made and the ingredients mixed, all he really had to do was assemble and bake. And as long as he was vigilant and kept his eyes on the pies…what could go wrong?
You’d think by now he’d have learned to stop asking himself that question.
…
“Martha?” Nora called out as she poked her head into the store.
TheClosedsign was up, and Nora knew Martha had to deliver the sheriff his lunch, but when she wasn’t eating with Doc, she’d always come back over to have her meal in her own kitchen.
The sound of rattling pots and pans came from the kitchen, along with the mouthwatering smell of freshly baked apple pies, and Nora followed her nose.
She pushed open the kitchen doors and stopped dead, her mouth dropping open.
For a moment, she thought the room was filled with smoke, but that acrid stench that accompanied smoke was absent. She looked down at the fine white dust that was settling on her clothes and realized that there was so much flour floating in the air that it was creating a fog-like haze.
“What’s going on?” she asked, pushing farther into the room. And then for the second time in less than a minute, she stopped dead in her tracks.
Adam stood by the kitchen sink, his face and hands liberally smeared with flour. He held his shirt in his hands while he furiously scrubbed at something on it. Which meant he was standing there in nothing but his pants and boots.
The hard-muscled planes of his chest and stomach had her hands itching to follow every line. She’d felt those muscles beneath the layers of clothing he typically wore around her, plus when she’d run her soapy hands over them in the bathhouse. But somehow her memories of those moments failed to do the sheer masculine beauty of him a lick of justice. Her gaze lingered on every ounce of skin she could see. And then they traveled lower, to the parts that were still hidden from her sight.
It took her far too long to realize that Adam was no longer moving and had turned to face her.
“Nora?”
“Hmm?” she asked, her gaze still riveted to his bare chest.
“Nora. Is everything all right? Were you looking for Martha?”
“Martha?” she asked, blinking at him.
He frowned a little. And she saw the exact moment that he realized what had her so captivated. The slow smile that spread across his lips had her stomach flipping and dipping and her breath strangling in her lungs.
He took a step toward her, and her eyes shot to his.
“Martha. Yes, I, um…I thought maybe she would like to have lunch together.”
“Ah,” he said, moving closer. She mirrored his movements, taking a step back every time he took one forward as they slowly circled each other. “I’m afraid Martha has gone over to eat with Doc today.”
“Oh. Well. That’s too bad.” She shook her head. “For me. Too bad for me. Not for her. I’m sure she’s…enjoying herself immensely. And…um…”
Her back hit the wall she hadn’t even noticed was behind her.
Adam came to a stop right in front of her, and she swallowed hard and licked her lips. His eyes tracked the movement of her tongue, and his sharp inhale had her knees quaking. Before she could take another breath, his shirt was on the ground and her lips were molded to his. With the hard wall at her back and the hard man at her front, Nora was well and truly trapped. And had never been so happy about it in her life.
She lost no time in taking advantage of the fact that his shirt had disappeared. And when Adam shuddered beneath her roving hands, she smiled against his lips. She’d had all sorts of fantasies about what it would be like to kiss this man. Not one of them lived up to the real thing. And not one of them had ever included how he would respond to her touch. The power she would feel when he groaned into her mouth, twisted his hand in her hair.
His hands dragged down her sides to her thighs, and then he bent and lifted her, spinning to deposit her on the counter beside them. A cloud of flour poofed out around her when her ass hit the surface, and she wrapped her arms around Adam’s shoulders and dragged him back to her.
His fingers skated up her thighs while his lips trailed down her neck. She could do little more than hang on to him and pray she didn’t disgrace herself by swooning from the overload of sensations that were careening through her body.
“You know, I’ve never minded that you often wear trousers. In fact, I quite like it.”
