Rocky Mountain Cowboy (20 page)

It was an exciting discovery, and b
y the time they broke for lunch, she was feeling pretty good about herself and what she’d been able to contribute. She could tell that Hawk was proud of her, too, and that felt even better! More than anything she wanted to be a help, not a hindrance. Pleasing him seemed to have become vitally important. It was another discovery which surprised her.

The rain was coming down pret
ty hard after lunch. Jenny traded her new cowboy hat for a baseball hat, and pulled her long hair through the hole at the back so it fell to the center of her shoulder blades in a fat ponytail. Hawk joined her on the covered porch of the line cabin, wearing his long slicker and one of his more weathered broad brimmed hats with its cattleman’s crease. After pulling on his gloves, he reached over to slip the hood of her rain slicker up onto her head.

“You sure you want to go out today?” he asked, looking at the muddy yard beyond the cabin. “You could stay
inside and keep Eli company.”

She
peered at the rain, then turned to him. “Tempting, but no. Let’s go get more cows. I’m psyched after this morning.” With a big grin and a sparkle in her eyes, she pulled her own leather gloves out of her pocket and tugged them on.

Hawk watched her step out into the rain and eagerly swing up onto Aspen, admiring more than just her butt in those snug jeans this time. She hadn’t shied away from any of the ranch work, not once, since she’d been here. She did everything he asked of her. In fact, she always wanted to do more, sometimes more than he wanted her to do. And she seemed to really be enjoying the work. She didn’t do it just because it had to be done. He hadn’t exp
ected enthusiasm from her.

God, she was getting under his skin! He really liked having her beside him every day, but it was getting damn hard to keep his hands off and his emotions in check. After he’d blown it with Cindy
the other night, he’d sensed a return of Jenny’s reserve. It was his own damn fault, and he regretted it. He’d been trying to take it slow and easy ever since. He wanted her to trust him completely. He sure as hell didn’t want to screw things up with her. This partnership was too damn important, but then, he was gradually coming to realize, so was she.

The rain never let up, and by mid-afternoon, they found
only one stray. A heifer, bawling its head off, stuck in a gully that was too muddy and steep to climb out of. Hawk stopped on the bank above it, looked down at the young cow, and cursed. Pulling out his rope, he swung a lariat over its head, but there was no budging the animal it seemed.

After a couple of failed attempts, he gave up, swung down off Red Phantom, then wrapped his rope tightly around his saddle horn. “I’m going to have to go down there and push her out,” he told Jenny disgustedly. “Red Phantom will pull the cow out. He knows the drill, but you can keep an eye on him. When the animal gets to the top, get out of the way. Sometimes they can be ungrateful little …. well, she might charge you.”

Jenny stared at him, then at the protesting cow. “I’ve never done anything like this.”

“Yeah, well luckily you won’t have to do anything but watch,” he commented crossly
as he lowered himself slowly down the rope into the mud pit.

Red Phantom backed up a step at a time to keep the rope taunt, while Jenny leaned over the head of her own horse to watch. At the bottom, Hawk checked his lasso, tightened the noose, then yanked on the rope, signaling Red Phantom to back up and pull the
trapped animal out.

Jenny was in awe of his horse’s training, especially since he was performing his task without a rider. From below, though, she heard a loud curse. She quickly looked back over the edge. Hawk had his back and shoulders against the rear end of the cow, pushing it upwards, toward the bank. The slope was so slippery, every in
ch of progress was hard won.

Holding onto the animal’s tail, Hawk came up behind the heifer as she found her footing and struggled up onto the bank. Dazed, the animal just stood and looked around dumbfoundedly. Hawk took that moment to slip the noose off the cow. While he’d been coming out of the ditch, Jenny had backed Aspen a safe distance away, dismounted and gone to the edge, where she could help
, if needed.

She was beside him when the freed cow came out of her stupor and decided to charge them. Jenny shouted a warning, and immediately Hawk stepped in front of her. The bewildered beast head
-butted him squarely in the gut, sending them both backwards down the muddy slope, into the gully. Jenny landed on her butt, in the mud. Hawk landed on his back, sprawled between her legs.

“Are you okay?”
she gasped, feeling the mud ooze in under her rain slicker around her legs.

Hawk caught his br
eath and nodded yes. “And you?”

Jenny’s reply was a strangled giggle. She looked up the slope and saw the dumb cow staring down at them. She couldn’t hold her laughter back after that. She laughed so hard, she fell
backwards into the mud.

Hawk swung around to give her an astounded
grimace. “You think this is funny? You’re covered in mud.”

“So are you!” She laughed harder.

With a lithe twist of his long body, he swiveled onto his knees to loom over her. His gloved hand moved over her face, wiping away the worst of the mud. She did the same for him. Staring at her, the surprise gone from his eyes, he pulled one glove off and framed one side of her wet face. The steady downpour of rain washed the remainder of the mud away, leaving her skin dewy pink and beautiful.

Jenny stared up at him, her laughter silenced by the sudden flare of desire in his long-lashed, brilliant blue eyes. His mouth descended slowly to hers, while his eyes watched for signs of rejection from hers. Jenny couldn’t find a single reason not to welcome his kiss, not even their wet awkward position at the bottom of a muddy ditch. She was on her elbows, her bottom protected by her long rain slicker
. His big body was generating so much heat and coverage, she wasn’t even aware of the cold or wet. His hat and slicker completely shielded her. It was like being enveloped in a cocoon, she thought as her eyes drifted shut with the first wet touch of his lips.

While the rain pelted his back, Hawk let his mouth hover over hers for a few tantalizing second
s. Her soft, pink, rain-wet lips parted, glistening and tempting him the way they’d done all day. He lowered his mouth and sucked her lower lip, then gently nibbled it before pulling back and licking the moisture from their petal softness.

Jennifer Fletcher was without a doubt the most intoxicating woman he had ever tasted. Despite the absurdity of it, he could lie here in this mud hole all day and kiss her senseless. When her lips parted beneath the growing pressure of his
, he took immediate advantage to eagerly probe the hidden mysteries of her mouth with his tongue. She met his kiss without reservation, notching up his desire tenfold. Her smaller tongue parried with his in an exquisite thrust and glide that drove him crazy.

The kiss intensified, fluctuating between gentleness and savage hunger. Her arms rose and twined tightly around his neck. He rubbed his hips into her, letting her feel how damn much he wanted her. He heard the little whimpering moans she made, just like the day on the sofa at the line cabin. It fueled his passion. His own groan rumbled deep in his chest.

He tasted heavenly, like rain water and the mint gum he’d been chewing earlier. For Jenny, their kiss became an exploration of tongues; of textures; a discovery of surfaces and angles, taking and giving, a voracious feast that couldn’t be constrained by the weather or the place.

Warmth spilled through her entire body in a wild rush of delicious snaking fire that finally settled low in her belly and spread to the juncture between her legs. Every incredible sensation left her reeling and greedy for more. Oh god, this man could kiss! Tightening her embrace, she hung on for dear life. She ached everywhere, an exquisite ache that she wanted assuaged as desperately as he wanted it created.

When he finally retreated from her lips to come up for air, he left her gasping from the pleasure, on the verge of crying out with disappointment. Immediately, his lips settled on the arched curve of her jaw and throat. She heard his ragged breathing, felt it on her skin. His teeth nipped at her earlobe and found the pierced pearl earring there. He tugged on it with his lips, swirled the tip of his tongue around its smooth surface. Her breath caught, and her body arched anew into his. His tongue probed her ear. Even through his rain slicker, she felt the rock hard bulge beneath the buttons of his jeans. Recklessly, she rubbed herself against him, grinding her hips against his. He groaned, and pressed himself into her. Beneath all the layers of fabric, he found the right spot. She shuddered hard.

Oh god, she wanted to unbutton those jeans and feel him push inside her! She wanted him in ways she’d never wanted another man, ever! There hadn’t been more than a handful of men in twenty-eight years. But this man—
. There had been no one like him! He rocked her world! She wasn’t a wanton woman, but for him, she could be. Damn, why were they in a place where these hot kisses couldn’t go anywhere? Couldn’t this have happened when they were near a bed, not in the dirt and mud? Frustration tore through her.

The protection of his hat and coat kept their faces dry and allowed them to kiss each other for long endless minutes. But the rest of their bodies were getting soaked. No matter how hot they were, the weather wouldn’t allow it to go on forever. Too soon they both had to acknowledge that.

Vacillating between frustration and desire, Jenny took a deep breath, removed her arms from around his neck, and pushed against his chest to sit up. She dropped her eyes. She wasn’t ready for him to look into them and see her desire reflected in them. She felt too vulnerable, too confused by the intensity of her attraction to him.

Hiding beneath the brim of her baseball hat, she struggled to her feet and extended a hand down to help him to his. He took it, pulled himself up, then bent down to give her rain wet lips one last kiss. He started to step back, changed his mind
, and pulled her inside his coat, tucking it around her while he analyzed their dilemma.

“How do w
e get out of here?” she asked, ignoring the urge she had to grab him around the waist and kiss him senseless again.

Hawk answered her by whistling for his horse. Red Phantom, being the exceptional horse he was, came immediately, tossed his head, and shook the rope dangling off his pommel to send it sliding down the slope.

“I should ask,” Jenny muttered. The animal was the best trained horse she’d ever seen.

Hawk retrieved the end of the looped rope and slipped it around Jenny’s waist. With one tug, his horse began to pull her out of the ditch. As soon as she was on flat ground, she threw the rope back down to him. Red Phantom then pulled his master out slowly and surely, without any assistance from Jenny. The cow wasn’t interested in them any
longer, and had moved off to munch on a tiny patch of grass.

As Hawk slowly and meticulously rewound his rope, Jenny watched him, wondering what was occupying his thoughts and his protracted silence. Had that kiss rocked his world, too?
Heaven forbid it had disappointed him.

She swung up onto her horse, and waited for him to mount up. She wanted so badly to ask what he was thinking about, but he didn’t look like he wanted to talk.

Had she just made a stupid fool of herself? She assumed that because he could kiss her like that, he must want her. But maybe not. Men had different views of such things, didn’t they? Hot kisses and heavy petting didn’t have to be more than recreational pastimes for many of them. She had made herself available, so why shouldn’t he take what she offered? Didn’t all the women’s magazines warn their readers that sex was more a thing of the heart for women than for men?

Maybe he regretted the kiss now. Maybe he was comparing her to Cindy Caldwell. He’d been sleeping with the woman forever. She must be good. Jenny didn’t think she came close to Cindy in the skill department. Then again, maybe she was just being an idiot. Anyone listening to her thoughts probably would think so.

She looked up from her contemplation, and found him sitting on his horse right next to her. She had been so lost in thought, she hadn’t even heard him approach. He was watching her closely.

“Don’t do that,” he said, and reached over to stroke her cheek.

Aspen pranced nervously. “Do what?” Was the man reading her mind?

“Be embarrassed about what just happened between us.” Her dismay made him grin crookedly. “I saw you deep in thought, blushing. I wanted you, too, Jenny. I still do.”

Damn! She couldn’t think of anything to say. She was chagrined that her thoughts had been so transparent to him. She looked into his heart-stopping blue eyes, and was absolutely at a loss as to how to put any of her crazy thoughts into words that wouldn’t make her seem completely loony.

“Come on,” he laughed. “Let’s get back before we get pneumonia.”

Until the trail widened, they rode single file again, with the tired cow trudging along between them. Staring at the broad shoulders and easy seat of the man ahead of her, Jenny wondered all the way back to the cabin what was going to come of this apparently mutual attraction between them. The thrill of pleasurable anticipation settled over her, and she decided she was definitely going to stick around long enough to find out.