*
Kaiden didn’t speak as he quickly set Julia to rights, buttoning her up, and smoothing down her hair until she eventually sat back and faced him. The sight of her reddened lips and the hint of sensual satisfaction in her eyes made his dick throb even more. He’d done that to her. He’d put that look on Julia Garcia’s face, and for a moment he was the proudest man in the world.
She stroked his jaw. “Would you like me to . . . ?” She pointed down at his groin.
“No, I’m good.”
If he let her touch him he’d start begging, and maybe say things that shouldn’t be said, and then where would he be?
“Are you sure?”
She looked disappointed, which wasn’t helping his resolve.
“I do need to get back,” Kaiden reminded her, and her smile died.
“Oh! Of course.” She attempted to climb off his lap. “I’m sorry.”
“Nothing to be sorry about.” Aware that he had erred in some way he opened the door and helped her out. “I’m the one who shouldn’t have started anything while I’m in a state of shock.”
She stilled. “It’s okay. I know you didn’t mean anything by it.”
“Julia . . . that’s not what I meant at all.” God, he was too tired to deal with another complicated conversation with her. “If I offended you—”
“You didn’t.” She offered him a bright smile. “I’m the one who should be thanking you, right?” She stood on tiptoe and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. “Good night, Kaiden. If you have time tomorrow, can you let me know how things are with your dad?”
“Yeah, sure, I’ll do that, but—”
She was already walking away like she didn’t have a care in the world and he—the man who was supposed to have all the answers—had no idea how to stop her.
He waited until she went through the door and then slowly climbed back into the truck, which smelled of her, and sex, and longing. God, she’d come for him . . . twice. He slowly thumped his head three times against the steering wheel and started the engine.
“You’re an idiot, Kaiden Miller.”
No one contradicted him, and he drove home with nothing but the silence of his own complicated thoughts to entertain him.
Chapter Ten
“So, he did okay,” Miley said with great reluctance. “Not great, because when they asked him questions, he kind of didn’t know the answers, but luckily the rest of us were able to cut in and answer most of the queries.”
“That’s great,” Julia said.
She’d held off calling Miley to find out how the meeting had gone for as long as possible, but had eventually succumbed in the early afternoon. She’d had a restless night full of sexy dreams about a naked Kaiden, and horrifying images of hospitals and coffins. Not a good mix. She’d woken up early, done all the barn chores, taken her horse out for a ride, and it still wasn’t lunchtime.
After an hour talking to her dad about the plans for the remodel, they’d settled on a design and a price point, and she’d promised to talk to Kaiden when the situation with Jeff had resolved. She’d had one text from Kaiden saying his father was doing well and was being flown back directly in a private plane to Morgan Ranch, courtesy of Silver and Ben.
She’d sent him her best wishes and left it at that. She knew from when her own father had been diagnosed with MS and had medical issues that the last thing you needed was people bugging you for updates all the time. Back then, it had just been her dealing with everything because Miguel had been out of the country, whereas Kaiden had a big family willing to support each other.
When she was a kid, her parents had hosted regular family gatherings at the ranch after Sunday mass, where the women did the cooking, the men ate first, and the kids got to hang out with their cousins. When her grandparents hadn’t wanted them to know what they were talking about, they’d switched to Spanish, which Julia’s father hadn’t taught her, although her mother had tried. After her parents split, her father hadn’t continued the family Sundays, and Julia hadn’t seen most of her cousins for years.
“I’m glad that Blaine didn’t mess everything up for you,” Julia said.
“He tried his best, but we were all on it,” Miley said. “Is it true that he came out to your father’s ranch?”
“Yes. He turned up yesterday.”
“What an ass!” Miley shook her