The Lone Rancher - By Carol Finch Page 0,26

concede that was a low blow. But you have to admit this incident makes you look bad, Cahill.”

“You, too, Boston,” he countered. “In fact, I wonder if this was a premeditated prank to put us at odds again.”

“We’ve been at odds since I set foot on Texas soil,” she reminded him.

He eased Cactus closer, his muscled leg brushing her knee. “Not always,” he murmured in a husky drawl that sent unwanted heat coiling deep inside her.

Then he leaned out to curl his gloved hand around the back of her neck, drawing her face steadily toward his. His eyes, which could sometimes look as cold and hard as a tombstone, now gleamed like mercury. They hypnotized Adrianna in one second flat. She didn’t protest when he brushed his mouth over her parted lips. Desire burned through her when his hand glided over her shoulder to follow the curve of her breast. She caught her breath when he rubbed his thumb over her beaded nipple.

She felt helplessly drawn to him, helpless to protest when he hooked his arm around her waist and lifted her off Buckshot to settle her on his saddle facing him.

“Tell me that first kiss we shared was no good, that there was no heat between us,” he whispered as he arched upward, brushing his arousal against her inner thighs, now draped intimately over his legs. “Tell me it was just my imagination, Adrianna. Then tell me that when we were laughing and talking over lunch it was nothing more than two people being polite in front of friends and family.”

She looped her arms around his neck and squirmed closer, surprised by her own brazenness. Then she reminded herself that this was who she was—a woman who dared to meet challenges and enjoy adventures of all kinds. Cahill, she decided, was the most erotic and tempting adventure of all.

He groaned when she rubbed provocatively against him. “God, woman, you’re going to be the death of me, one way or another, I swear.”

“Then before your demise, tell me that you kissed me first, just as you did today,” she teased, her voice crackling with erotic pleasure as she pressed her lips lightly to his and caressed the wide expanse of his chest. “Tell me you want me for who I am, Cahill.”

“I want you like crazy,” he growled huskily. “And I hate that I have no willpower when it comes to you. Hell, I’m not sure I can trust you.”

“And I can’t trust you,” she replied as she unbuttoned his shirt, itching to explore his hair-roughened chest.

When she dragged her mouth from one exposed male nipple to the other, fire shot through Quin’s overly sensitized body like a sizzling lightning bolt. He surged instinctively against the V between her legs, resenting the layers of clothing separating them, resenting the reckless need she provoked so easily from him.

If there was a hell, then he was most surely in it, Quin decided as her warm lips skimmed over his chest, stirring so much pleasurable torment he swore he was one of the newly damned. Then her hand drifted over the band of his breeches to the low-riding double holster that draped his hips. He knew she was aware of how much she had thoroughly aroused him. When her hand flitted over his throbbing length beneath the placket of his breeches Quin struggled to catch his breath.

“Careful, Boston,” he choked out. “You keep that up and you’ll find yourself flat on your back beneath me and there will be far more than accusations going on between us.”

“Empty threats, Cahill.” Her vivid green eyes danced with mischief. “Nothing will happen that I don’t approve of—”

Adrianna’s voice fizzled out when he ran the back of his hand over her breasts, sending pleasure sizzling through her. He flashed a devilish grin as he used his teeth to pull off his glove so he could unfasten her blouse. Then his hand splayed over the rise of her breasts and dipped beneath the flimsy chemise to caress her. Adrianna forgot to breathe when he took one nipple, then the other, between this thumb and forefinger and plucked gently. She almost passed out when he dipped his head and drew the beaded peak of her breast into his mouth and suckled her.

The burning ache between her legs became so pronounced that she moaned and impulsively arched against his hard length. Cactus shifted beneath them, rocking them together and apart provocatively.

Adrianna was trapped in a haze of hungry desire when