“Besides, I want everyone to know we’re together.” He kissed her knuckles. “I want everyone to know that you’re mine.”
“Then maybe you oughta just whip out your branding iron and sear your cattle brand into my backside,” she retorted.
Both his eyebrows raised. “You’d let me do that?”
“Blast your ornery hide, Silas McKay, I was joking!”
He laughed. “I know, sugar pie. But I’m not joking when I say I’d like to call you my intended.”
She opened her mouth, but he’d had enough of her protests. He brought her face to his, devouring her mouth in a kiss so delightfully improper that her entire body tingled.
Silas broke the kiss to rest his forehead above her bosom, his own chest heaving. “And then there’s that.”
Yes, the passion between them grew the more time they spent together.
Dinah ran her fingers through his inky black hair, loving how he trembled when she scratched her nails across his scalp and down the muscles in his neck.
He expelled a resigned sigh. “I’ve gotta head home.”
“Can you at least stay for lunch?”
“No. It’s a thirty-minute ride back.” He nuzzled the rise of her breasts and she felt the heat of his breath through the thin calico fabric. If that small amount of contact sent warmth between her legs, how would she react when they were skin to skin?
Like you’re burning up from the inside out.
He pushed to his feet, settled his hat on his head and reached down to help her up.
Neither spoke until they were back to the fence where he’d left his horse.
“Now that you’re my intended, there’s two things we need to talk about.”
“Absolutely I’ll let you buy me a betrothal ring,” she teased.
“Sassy mouth.” He kissed her. “Right now I’m responsible for runnin’ two ranches. My time is limited, and we have distance separating us. I know you turned down that randy old goat’s marriage offer because he didn’t intend to woo you. I am gonna woo you, darlin’. I’m gonna woo you hard. But to be clear…it ain’t gonna be a traditional courtin’.”
“Well, it wasn’t a traditional proposal, so I’m not surprised.”
Silas smiled. “I aim to be memorable.”
“That you are. What kind of wooing should I expect?”
“I’d like to come and get you on Saturday afternoon. You’d spend the night with me, and we’d be together Saturday night and all day Sunday. Now before you go getting that panicked look in your eyes, I don’t expect to turn my bed into our marriage bed…until you’re ready.” He traced her jawline with tenderness that belied the roughness in his hands. “I want you with me, Dinah, as much as possible. With us livin’ this far apart that’s the only way we can spend more than Sunday afternoons together.”
Maybe she should care what others in the community might think, but she didn’t. She said, “Okay. I’ll let Doc know I won’t be around to assist him Saturday night.”
Silas’s answering smile was something to behold.
“What about Jonas? Will he be there?”
“Jonas spends maybe one or two nights at the ranch house. It’s like he don’t live there.”
“Where is he sleeping when he’s not on duty?”
Silas shrugged. “He ain’t had to arrest anyone lately, so probably the empty jail cell. His job is his life.” He ambled to the saddlebag on the right side of his horse. As he undid the buckle he said, “I brought you something. Hang on, it might take a bit to sort through this other stuff to find it.”
“While you’re looking for it, I’ll make you a quick lunch you can eat on your way home.”
Before she could turn away, Silas’s hands were on her hips and his mouth was plundering hers to the very depths of her soul. Lord, the man could kiss.
The horses’ snort broke them apart.
Silas planted a kiss below her ear. “I like how sweetly my intended takes care of me. Will you let me do the same for you?”
“Within reason.”
He laughed and she opted not to point out she hadn’t been joking. One of her favorite things about Silas was he saw her as capable, not as a fragile thing to be coddled.
Dinah still had a smile on her face when she entered the kitchen. She’d just sliced four pieces of bread when Mrs. Agnes slammed her cane on the floor, giving Dinah a fright. The woman had perched herself in the chair next to the window.
“Good morning, Mrs. Agnes. I didn’t see you sitting there.”
“Well I saw you kissing that McKay fella in broad daylight.”