Page 14 of One Wild Texas Night
Standing behind her, he leaned close, whispering in her ear, “Claire.”
She stopped as his arm circled her waist and he drew her back against him, his hard erection pressing against her bottom while he showered wet kisses on her nape and moved to her ear to let his tongue follow its curve.
She longed to turn into his arms and kiss him again. At the same time, she knew she should move away and stop before she was naked in his arms in his bed.
His warm breath blew on her ear, lightly tickling her, so sensual and heightening her desire.
“Claire, I want you,” he whispered, and she trembled, fighting an inner battle, wanting to turn to kiss him, knowing she should step into her suite and stop risking her heart.
“I can’t,” she whispered, finally slipping out of his arms. He let her go, and she didn’t look back.
She closed the door to her suite, leaned against it and closed her eyes, remembering his kiss, his strong arms around her, his consideration and care for her. She was drawn to him, and she shouldn’t be. Not in the slightest. Her entire family despised him and all his kin. She would get hurt, because if she fell in love with him, they could never have even a sliver of a future—not even casual dating. He, too, had plenty of relatives here who would give him a bad time and be dreadful to her. “We can’t,” she whispered, knowing he couldn’t hear her. She stood there against the door until she heard his boots as he walked away down the hall.
She still felt warm all over, recalling his hands and mouth on her, his body against her and his erection clearly ready for love.
Would she get through the next few days without losing her heart to him? She couldn’t answer her question.
She needed to go to town, get some clothes, find another place to live and tell Jake goodbye before it hurt too much to walk away from him.
Even though they were neighbors she had never really known him, barely had any kind of dealings with him except when they had taken each other to court to fight over a ranch problem.
All that had changed, and if they kept kissing, she would be deeply in love with him. He had been kind, considerate and incredibly sexy.
She knew, if she wanted, she could go to bed with Jake now. They could make love, and it might be the best sex of her life. She didn’t attract men, didn’t date, didn’t party except on rare occasions with friends in Dallas. So why not have a fling with Jake? Have sex with him? She might not ever have that choice again.
Because the risk would be falling in love with him—a deep, forever kind of love that he would never return. Love was doomed between them unless they did what her sister and his brother had done. If they both fell in love and married, would she want the kind of life her sister had—being forever in exile from her family?
Did she really want to run that risk?
She shook her head and whispered, “No.”
Both choices were not what she wanted. She didn’t want Jake to break her heart. She wouldn’t want to marry him and get cut off from the grandparents, whom she loved. There were some in her family she really hoped to reconnect with—her dad and her brothers. There were others she deeply loved. Claire shook her head. She didn’t want that kind of outcast life. Also, she knew Jake wasn’t a marrying man. He’d had plenty of women in his life, and they just passed on through and were gone.
She had to keep her distance from Jake because he could be a heartbreaker, but right now she needed his help and a place to stay near her property.
Showering, she felt relieved to wash away the smoke smell and get it out of her hair. She washed her undergarments, hanging them in the bathroom to dry. Her jeans and shirt were saturated with smoke, so she washed them, too. Then, she put on one of Jake’s T-shirts that she would sleep in.
Too late she realized that was a mistake. Inhaling his scent, she imagined the white cotton was the gentle touch of his hands on her skin. Right then she knew that despite being exhausted, she’d never sleep tonight.
* * *
Surprisingly, the next time she opened her eyes, sunshine spilled through the window. Momentarily, she was disoriented, and then she remembered she was at Jake Reed’s cabin. As she thought about her home that had burned, a familiar emptiness filled her over her loss. Memories of the past twenty-four hours swept over her, but memories of Jake’s kisses were more vivid than all others except her burned home.
She couldn’t keep him out of her thoughts. She recalled being in his arms, held against his chest with his mouth on hers. Just remembering his kiss made her warm and tingly. She had to stop thinking about him. With a rustle of covers, she sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed.
All her clothes were dry except her jeans. She stared at them in consternation, because she had to wear them, and she didn’t want to wear wet jeans.
She dressed in her bra and panties and Jake’s biggest T-shirt, which came down to midthigh level and covered her more than a swimsuit would have. She slipped her feet into her sneakers and grabbed the damp jeans. Hopefully, Jake would be occupied with breakfast, out doing chores already or something away from this part of the house and she could get her jeans into the dryer without encountering him. It wouldn’t take more than twenty minutes to finish drying them in a machine.
She opened her door quietly and looked up and down the hall. To her relief, it was empty, and she hurried to his laundry room, flung her jeans into the dryer and in minutes was back in her suite with the door closed. She let out her breath, glad she hadn’t seen him. Now if she could just get her dry jeans back, she would be in good shape for the day.
Twenty minutes later, she had her hair in a fresh braid, and she looked down the hall. Again, the hall was clear, so she raced to the laundry room, grabbed her warm jeans from the dryer—and almost ran into Jake as he came out of his kitchen.
Five
“Hey,” Jake said, catching her shoulder when they bumped. “Sorry, I didn’t see—” He stopped talking as his gaze traveled to her feet and back to her face and she saw the change in him.
“I had to dry my jeans,” she said, in a breathless voice. “I washed all my clothes last night, and my jeans didn’t dry. This was all I had to wear.”
