Page 56 of Second Chance with the Rancher
The spell or whatever it was between them was broken and the song on the portable speaker changed to something less sex-in-the-back-of-a-pickup-under-the-stars. She was both relieved and disappointed by all of it, and her fingers still tingled from where they’d been touching his.
“I still have some onion rings and fries left, but I’m happy to make something for you,” she said, sitting up and swinging her legs over the side to stand up and head to the ladder.
“Sure, thanks.” He’d already opened up another box, this time for one of the nightstands and was pulling out the pieces to assemble.
Nate packed rations like he was stocking a doomsday bunker. Cans of stew, beans, soups and precooked pasta in tomato sauce. He’d also grabbed a package of steaks, some hotdogs, a couple boxes of mac ‘n’ cheese, bread, oatmeal, eggs, bacon, and coffee.
It wasn’t exactly what Mieka would have packed, or at least she would have also packed a vegetable or piece of fruit, but she’d figure something out.
He was singing along to the music up in the loft, and as she stirred an unappetizing stew on the hotplate, she started to hum along to the song, too.
“I like this view.” His voice over the music, and after such a long span of no talking between them, made her jump.
She spun around and stared up at him. “Meaning? A woman in the kitchen making you dinner?”
“Not a woman,” he corrected. “And it doesn’t matter what you’re making, or that you’re making anything. I just like that it’s you. You could be clipping your toenails or plucking nipple hair and I’d still like the view.”
She scoffed. “I do not have nipple hair.”
His eyes rolled. “Sure you don’t.”
“Would it have killed you to pack a vegetable? A cucumber? Just one. Or an apple?”
He shrugged. “There’s corn and potatoes in the stew, right?”
“’Cause you didn’t have your fill of potatoes today already with those extra large fries?”
“There is no such thing as too many potatoes.” He held up one finished nightstand and she applauded like a hoity toity woman at the opera.
“Bravo,” she praised. “Encore, encore.”
He put the nightstand down, bent over, and lifted up a second one.
She clapped again and grinned. “This dog food you call stew will be ready in a minute.” She turned off the hotplate and moved the stew pot to a hot pad on the butcher block countertop.
“On my way down.” He put the nightstand down, then gave her a solid five seconds to ogle his butt in those jeans as he climbed down the ladder. “Gonna go drain Peg D, then I’ll be out.” He headed to the bathroom. “How’s Hole V, by the way?” he called out.
“Closed for asbestos removal,” she replied, freezing the second she said it out loud, then slapping her palm to her forehead. What the fuck did that mean?
Apparently, Nate was wondering the same thing because he was laughing his ass off in the bathroom. “What the fuck does that mean?” he called out through the closed door.
Her face was on fire. Did she just tell him that her vagina had an asbestos problem? Yes, yes, she did.
Mortification had her body hot and her chest tingly.
The song on the speaker up in the loft switched again, but it was far too suggestive and romantic for … whatever this was, so she scrambled up the ladder to grab Nate’s phone and speaker. She was just coming down the ladder again, precariously cradling the phone and speaker in her casted hand, while holding the rungs with her other hand when the phone slipped, then the speaker slipped.
Instinct and firsthand knowledge of the disaster of a dropped phone had her sacrificing herself and letting go with her good hand to try to grab them. But she lost her balance and fell backward.
“Whoa!” Nate caught her in his arms, and somehow—the man was probably also a ninja in addition to a rancher, SEAL and walking, talking lady boner maker—he also managed to save his phone. His speaker fell to the wood floor but seemed unharmed. “Second time you’ve fallen off this ladder, Minx. I’m starting to think it might be on purpose just so I can catch you and hold you in my arms.”
Her eyes snagged his and mischief, but also lust glittered back at her in those deep, dark blue orbs.
Her breath snagged. Her heart hammered against her ribcage, and before she knew it, she was grabbing him by the front of his shirt and crushing her mouth to his.
Chapter Thirteen
Nate only paused for a second before his grip on her tightened and he started kissing her back. Shifting their position, he swung her around the front of his body and plastered her back to the ladder, deepening the kiss and holding her up with his hips.
