She laughed at the statement. That sounded like Shawn.
He escorted her to her car and within minutes Hannah was following his truck out of town and toward the small ranch he owned. It wasn’t a large working ranch. A few head of cattle, a couple of horses. The single-story ranch house sat beneath towering, sheltering trees and created an idyllic settling.
As they entered the house, Hannah found herself back in his arms, his lips on hers, his kiss fueling a fire that had begun simmering inside her when he had touched her in her bedroom.
There was something about Rick’s kiss that fueled a heady, sensual hunger inside her that she hadn’t known she possessed. A hunger that seemed to rise from the very core of her, and set fire to her senses, making her realize how little pleasure she had experienced before.
Her arms twined around his neck, her lips parted beneath his, and she melted into him, just as she had always dreamed of doing. There was a dominance, a strength, a sureness in each touch of his hands, each stroke of his tongue.
When he lifted her closer to him, there was a feeling of security in his arms that she had lacked. With him, she knew she would always be sheltered, always safe. He might prick at her in dependence, but if he loved her, then she had no doubt that she would never have to fear him or anyone else.
When he finally lifted his head, his gaze was somber, despite the arousal filling it.
“What if I don’t want to let you go when this is over, Hannah?” he suddenly asked her. “What if I don’t want you to leave?”
She reached up, touched his cheek, and let her lips curve into a smile that she knew held too much hope.
“What if I don’t want to leave?” she asked him instead. “When this is over, Rick, what if I want to stay?”
CHAPTER 7
HE WAS FALLING in love with her.
As they made a light dinner, shared the cooking, laughed, touched, Rick began realizing that there had been more missing in his marriage to Sienna than he had known.
The simple intimacies that he was already sharing with Hannah had never been present between himself and his wife. She hadn’t wanted to cook from the first week they had been together, and it was something Rick had never thought he would enjoy with her. He’d been used to cooking for himself, so he had never thought to ask her to cook until after Kent had been born. And by then, he’d known Sienna would never agree to it.
He and Hannah cleaned the kitchen together. Another small thing, and yet something else he hadn’t shared with woman.
It was simple things. Laughing when she flicked suds at him, kissing her cheek, or simply touching her as he put the dishes away.
There was a sense of companionship beneath the arousal, a knowledge that he could touch her as he pleased, that he could be comfortable with her.
He’d known last year. Two dates with her, a week of sporadic phone calls, and he’d known that she had already started to touch him. He’d run. Like a fucking coward, he’d forced himself out of her life because he knew he couldn’t face telling her the truth about his marriage to Sienna.
They’d lived a lie for over eight years. From the moment they were married until he’d realized that she’d been involved with the Black Collar Militia and the deaths that had plagued the area for years.
His wife had been the mole in the office. She had been the one who had given the militia the information when agents and investigations had been centered in the area.
Not that he’d ever told her, but she’d had access to his office, his computers, and his notes. And Sienna, despite the rest of her faults, had been perceptive. She had known what to look for in a person, their weaknesses and their strengths, and she’d known an agent when she saw one.
And she’d known how to fool him, despite the distrust that had built up between them.
He’d suspected for years that she was cheating on him, but he’d never caught her. It had simply been an intuition, something that he couldn’t put his finger on.
As Hannah went out to the barn with him to feed the horses, she worked beside him. She didn’t ask what she needed to do to help, she knew what to do. She didn’t care if she got her hands dirty, and she didn’t mind laughing at herself.
And Rick realized why he had run from her the year before. Because he had known that he was falling in love. He had known that resisting her was something he just couldn’t do.
And even now, that scared the hell out of him.
After they returned to the house, he locked up, set the alarm, while Hannah pulled her sneakers off and headed for the kitchen.
Night was falling. The soft muted colors of the setting sun blazed through the windows of the kitchen, bathing her in a golden hue.
He’d noticed that a lot over the past few days. Sunlight loved Hannah, it caressed her features, seemed to sink into her skin and light her from within.
Moving to her, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against him. He was still hard for her. He’d taken her so many times that he knew the need should have eased by now. It hadn’t. It seemed to have settled into his guts to stay, and the wariness he had expected to feel wasn’t there.