The Cowboy Who Saved Christmas - Jodi Thomas Page 0,57

lips.

Chapter 9

1904

Ben

Her soft moan as I cradled her face and took her mouth just about sent me over the edge before it had even begun. I’d been hard as steel since the moment she came riding up in all her angry glory, her breasts bouncing unencumbered and barely covered by that joke of a jacket. The rain soaking her thin clothes to her body, her nipples hard and erect against the fabric, all while she dressed me down like a little general, ire flushing her wet skin.

Jesus, I’d tried to walk away from her, even make her angrier with crazy, ridiculous insults so she’d get on her horse and ride back in the direction in which she came, but she just kept plowing forward. Weakening my resolve. And once I got close enough to feel her heat and her energy, there was no going back. I had to touch her, to taste her, or I’d go mad.

My intention of something soft and searching to cross that boundary went flying away with the wind the second our lips met. Her sweet taste sent my mind reeling through the past and pushing all logic aside. I dove deep, needing more. Her fingers curled into my jacket, tugging me closer before moving up to knock off my hat and scrape through my hair as she pulled me deeper into her kiss.

I felt leaves and grass and God knows what else pelting us as the rain and wind whipped around the tree we were one with. I didn’t care. I’d waited five long years to have Josie Bancroft in my arms again this way, and nothing had ever felt more right. I lifted her as she arched into me, and the wild woman I remembered responded, wrapping her legs around my waist, burying my hardness in her soft heat as I pinned her against the tree.

“Oh, God,” she moaned, breaking the kiss as I grinded against her, growling against her mouth. Her hips bucked then, her legs tightening around me, and I was gone.

“Josie,” I breathed against her skin, my mouth traveling down her neck, licking the rain from her skin like a man starved.

One hand cupped her ass, holding her tightly against me, as the other moved up to fill it with her breast. My thumb squeezed a hard nipple, and she cried out, pulling down my face. God, she still knew what she wanted, and I was dizzy with the need to give it to her. Taking that nipple into my mouth, I sucked her through her blouse, both hands kneading her perfect breasts as she gripped my head and moved against my hard length, her body shaking violently as her orgasm chased her.

Primal noises escaped her throat as she rode the waves down from the fastest and sexiest orgasm I’d ever seen. Especially fully clothed.

When her eyes drifted open and reality dawned, I knew I’d be visiting my own hand later on. The embarrassment and mortification were all over her face. Before I could say anything to soothe her, however, a crack of lightning split the sky and both horses reared, spurring us into action.

“Daisy!”

I set her down and grabbed my horse’s lead as she grasped hers, and we bolted from the trees, slinging our bodies onto the animals’ backs and heading for the horse stable near the main house, ducking our heads low against the bitter bite of the icy rain.

She was shivering when we made it inside, and I instantly grabbed a blanket from a stack by the door and wrapped it around her. Scoffing, Josie pulled it off herself and draped it over her horse, grabbing another one to rub her down with.

“There are plenty,” she said, her voice shaking with cold as she quickly lit a lantern. “Dry him off.”

“Dry yourself off,” I said.

“We’ll go to the house and get dry when we’ve taken care of them,” she said, scrubbing at Daisy’s coat. “We need to get out of these wet clothes.”

I nearly dried on the spot.

“Yes, we do.”

She stood up and gave me a look, her eyes looking huge in the flickering light.

“We can’t—” She shook her head and went back to rubbing Daisy’s legs like it was her sole mission in life, wavy, dark locks swinging loose from her braid. “That was a mistake. I got caught up in—I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“You were thinking that things felt incredibly perfect for the first time in years,” I said, picking up a blanket and