“Come on, I’ll get you something to wear and you can take a hot shower.” Gripping her hand he led her to his bedroom. “I’ll fix you some hot chocolate or something. That always helps Kent sleep.”
Thank God he’d relented and allowed Mona to take his son camping with her. If someone was targeting him over the destruction of the militia two years before, then he didn’t want his son involved in it.
“Rick, you don’t have to do this,” she protested as they entered the bedroom.
At least he’d thought to make the bed this morning. The bedroom was in fairly good shape. There was dust on the furniture, the wood floors a little dull. He’d stacked his clothes on the dresser rather than putting them away after Mona had returned them to him.
He didn’t always have time to clean house.
Moving to the stack of clothes, he removed a t-shirt and brought it back to her.
“This should be long enough for you.” His lips twitched with humor as he surveyed her. “You’re a short little thing, aren’t you?”
For a second the fear evaporated from her eyes, to be replaced by a narrow-eyed warning.
“No short jokes, please,” she ordered him with what he imagined was her “teacher voice.”
“I wasn’t joking,” he assured her. “I was simply making an observation. You’re cute, though.”
If anything, that steely glint in her eyes got brighter.
“Great, I’m cute,” she muttered. “Puppies are cute. Squirrels are cute.”
“You’re cuter?” He almost grinned as the pouty curve of her lip tightened.
She had to look up at him. If he wanted to kiss her without straining his neck, then he’d have to grip the curves of her ass and lift her to him. He liked doing that. He liked the delicacy and feminine allure of her stature.
“I’m not cute,” she bit out, obviously put out by the description. “Now where’s the bathroom? I need that shower.”
He hid a grin as he turned and led her to the bathroom door. “You can take a nice, long Jacuzzi bath or a hot shower,” he said. “I’ll be in the kitchen when you’re done.”
He left her alone, closed the door behind him, and blew out a breath.
Hell, he wished he could stay. He’d like to sink into that big bathtub with her and wash her from head to toe. Or take her in the shower, watch the water stream around her as he lifted her to him and took her against the wall.
He could feel beads of sweat popping out on his forehead at the thought. His cock pounded in approval. The blood rushed through his veins in excitement.
So the night hadn’t ended as he had envisioned, but he could work with this. Before the night was out, he might even have her in his bed. That was even better.
He could handle that. For one night, he assured himself. Just one night. One morning. To awaken beside a woman that wanted him. To greet the day with pleasure rather than an empty bed. A soft, passionate woman rather tha
n the memory of the dreams that haunted him at night.
One night. That was it. Then things would go back to normal. Whether he wanted them to or not.
CHAPTER 5
HE SHOULD HAVE known better than to put that sexy, rounded little body in one of his T-shirts. He had quite a height advantage at six three, since she was barely five feet four. The T-shirt, he’d imagined, would fall nearly to her knees.
There were things he hadn’t taken into account. Full, rounded breasts that lifted the shirt several inches, as it fell over the pert flesh and revealed the hardened points of tight little nipples beneath the loose fabric. Rounded hips that gave the material new shape and form, and gorgeous lightly tanned legs that he was damned sure would fit perfectly around his lower back if he was stretched between them.
The sensual vision that emerged from his bedroom an hour later was properly covered, no question. The shirt reached below her thighs, not quite to her knees. Totally respectable. It covered more than some of the short dresses he’d seen other women wearing in town.
But there was this line, almost invisible, between totally respectable and lushly sensual. Hannah was lushly sensual and she gave a whole new look to the dark T-shirt that he knew he would never wear again without a hard-on from the very thought of how she looked in it now.
“I need to get back to the house in the morning,” she was saying as she pulled on another of his shirts, obviously one she had confiscated from his closet.
The long-sleeved, button-front black shirt hung on her like a loose robe, but still, it did nothing to hide the lush little body beneath.