couldn’t repay his kindness by giving him the ranch he’d always dreamed of owning, land she had no need for herself. And yet, she knew that even if she hadn’t already promised that ranch to another man, Cord wouldn’t have accepted it. He wasn’t here for her now because he expected payment. He was here because he cared, for her and for Ashley. He was here, because that was the kind of sweet, generous man he was, though she had a feeling he would have hated either label.
“I wish...” she began, the words a muffled whisper against his chest.
“What do you wish?” he asked, smoothing a hand over her hair.
“That there was some way I could thank you, some way to show you how grateful I am for what you’ve done the past few weeks.”
“No thanks are necessary.”
She was struck by a sudden idea. “I could talk to Daddy and Grandpa Harlan. Part of White Pines will be mine one day. I could sign that over to you.”
Cord released her as if she were suddenly too hot to hold. “Forget it,” he said.
“But it’s a wonderful idea,” she said, warming to it. “Kyle’s land is promised, but I certainly don’t need my share of White Pines.”
He regarded her with a wry expression. “I can just imagine how your father and grandfather would react to this. If your father blew a gasket over the possibility that I might be after your late husband’s land, just what do you think he’d have to say if you presented him with this crazy idea? White Pines belongs to your family, Sharon Lynn. Someday it will be your children’s heritage. You can’t just go giving that away.”
“But Daddy would have to listen to me,” she argued. “I owe you.”
“You owe me nothing,” he insisted. “When will you get that through your head?”
“But...”
He shook his head. “I can see there’s no reasoning with you, so I’ll just have to come up with another way to shut you up,” he said grimly, bending down and sealing her mouth shut with a kiss.
Sharon Lynn’s senses reeled. At first she blamed that as much on the afternoon’s emotional upheaval as Cord’s skill, but when her skin began to heat, when her heartbeat accelerated to a brisk pace and her breath caught in her throat, she had to admit it was more than that.
In fact, she couldn’t seem to recall exactly how the kiss had begun or what they’d been discussing that was so all-fired important. All she knew was that his lips on hers were magic. The touch of his tongue inflamed. His hands, tentatively at first and then with more certainty, stroked and caressed until her body responded in ways that shocked her. No man’s touch had ever been so deft, so arousing. She was trembling with the kind of longing, the kind of desperate urgency that she’d been convinced she would never feel again.
It would be so easy to let this exquisite tension escalate until it was out of control. It would feel so good to welcome Cord inside her, to give in to desire and forget everything else. She would welcome that momentary oblivion, that ecstatic release.
Just when she was on the verge of making a conscious decision to let Cord make love to her, he uttered a harsh groan and pulled away. She blinked in surprise at the sudden absence of heat, the sudden withdrawal of his weight.
When she dared to open her eyes, she found him seated beside her, a careful few inches away, raking a hand through his hair and looking as distraught as she’d ever seen him.
“Cord?”
“I’m sorry.”
She swallowed hard against a tide of disappointment. Apparently there would be no quick and urgent release. “Sorry?” she repeated, her voice heavy with her own regrets.
“That should never have happened, not now, not when you’re so vulnerable.”
There it was again, that deeply ingrained sense of honor, that evidence of the type of man he was. At some other time in her life, she would have regretted that there was no room in her heart for a man like that. Now, determined that there would be no man in her life ever again, she regretted only the immediate loss of his nearness, of the comfort he’d been offering before passion had intruded.
She reached out a hand, but he shied away from it.
“I’d better go,” he said.
“Why?” she demanded, though the answer was obvious.
“Because if I stay, I can’t swear that I’ll stay away from you.