His arm tightened around her waist and she slipped her arms around him, kissing him while her pulse drummed. She quivered while desire ignited. Finally, she raised her head. “We should go to bed.”
“If only you would always say that at the ranch,” he replied. He smiled and kept his arm around her waist to walk beside her as they headed toward the stairs.
“Night, Zach,” she said and disappeared into the room where she slept. In his own room, he lay in bed with his hands behind his head, thinking about the day and the evening with her and her family. He couldn’t imagine spending every weekend this way, but sometimes it would be fun. He still thought she was missing out on a wonderful world and when his foot was healed, he would try to show her some place exciting out of Texas since she had never even been beyond the boundaries of the Lone Star state. As soon as he thought of traveling with her, he knew it would never happen. When the job ended, she would go out of his life. She had been correct when she said they had vastly different lifestyles. Neither one was the right person for the other in even a casual way.
In spite of that knowledge, his common sense, caution and experience, he couldn’t stop wanting her and he couldn’t shake her out of his thoughts.
He finally drifted to sleep, still yearning to be alone with her.
After Sunday dinner, Zach and Emma left for the ranch.
She drove again while he sat with his foot propped up across the backseat and resting on bags placed on the car floor.
“You have a nice family. I see why you value your weekends. Your family shows they enjoy being together.”
“Thank you. You seemed to like being with your brother and his family.”
“I do, but I don’t think my brothers and I have the closeness your family does.”
Emma could see Zach in the rearview mirror. “You can have that closeness. From what you’ve said, you’re all congenial. Maybe you are alone so much because you keep up your guard, Zach. It might carry over from childhood and times you were alone. Life’s different now. You don’t have to keep everything all bottled up. You can enjoy your brothers and now there’s a half sister. You and Will seem very close.”
He sat in silence. She met his gaze when she glanced at him, but then she had to turn her attention back to the road. “You might be right,” he said finally. “I’ve never looked at it that way. I was disappointed as a kid. So were they. We were dumped and couldn’t even be home together some years. I don’t know—maybe my feelings are a guard left from childhood hurts. As a little kid, I couldn’t keep from resenting it.”
“Well, the nice thing now is that you don’t have to be alone,” she said, smiling at him.
“Maybe you’re right. I’ll admit it’s fun when my brothers are together. And now I enjoy having Caroline and Ava there, too. Your family certainly has a great time together.”
“We do and in a crunch, we can count on each other too. I’m happy you came with me.”
“I enjoyed the weekend. Neither of your brothers were thrilled. I got looks from them the whole time. If they intended to send me warnings, they succeeded.”
“Pay no attention to them. You’ll never see them again.”
Zach smiled and looked at her as she glanced in the rearview mirror at him. “I’m not invited back?”
Emma felt her cheeks flush. “Of course you are. Whenever you would like to go home with me. I just figured you wouldn’t want to again. I sort of trapped you into this time.”
He grinned. “I’m teasing you.”
“Zach, would you like to come home with me for Christmas?” she asked sweetly. “We’ll have the whole family and they would be delighted to have you.”
“No, they wouldn’t be delighted. Thank you for asking me. I’ll stay home and give my foot a rest.”
“They would be pleased to see you again, except perhaps Connor, but you can ignore him.”
“Home on the ranch is where I belong.”
When they stepped inside the empty ranch house, Zach dropped their bags and switched off alarms. As she picked up her bag, he turned to take it from her and set it back on the floor. He slipped his arm around her waist. “Now what I’ve waited all weekend to do,” he said in a husky voice. “You do owe me.”
When his mouth covered hers, her heart lurched. Wrapping both arms around his neck, she pressed tightly against him. His mouth was warm, insistent, and she kissed him eagerly. She clung to him, returning his kiss while the air heated and her heartbeat thundered. How could he melt her in seconds? Why did he weave such a spell with her? She didn’t care. All she wanted at the moment was to hold and kiss him. She felt as starved to make love as they had on the snowy weekend.
“Emma, I want you,” he whispered.
Each kiss was more volatile than the last. At the moment she didn’t care about caution and what was wise in dealing with him. All she wanted was to be in his arms and kissing him.
Still kissing her, he picked her up and carried her through the house to the family room. He sat on the sofa, cradling her on his lap. Her hands drifted over him while her heart raced. She was glad they were together. Running his fingers in her hair, he kissed her. Why did this seem necessary? Why did his loving seem so right and special? The questions were dim, vague speculation that was blown away by passion.
She combed her fingers through his thick curls and played her hand over his muscled chest.
His hand slipped beneath her T-shirt. His fingers were warm, his hand calloused and faintly abrasive against her skin, a sensual, rough texture that heightened feeling. In seconds he had pushed away her bra to caress her. Pleasure streaked from his slightest touch, fanning sexual hunger to a bigger flame. Emma sat up, her thick red hair falling on both sides of her face as she tugged his T-shirt free and pulled it over his head. His eyes darkened and he had her shirt whisked away in a flash.
Knowing she was pursuing a reckless course, but wanting him desperately, she sat astride him and leaned forward. They embraced each other to kiss, his sculpted, warm chest pressed against her with the mat of chest curls a tantalizing texture.
Desire raged while she struggled to dredge up control. Dimly, she thought about her fears of how hurt she would be when the job ended and she told Zach goodbye. The hard knowledge that when that time came, he would be gone permanently from her life was a cooling effect. And it hurt. Was she falling in love with him? Was she already in love?
She leaned away slightly to frame his face with her hands. “To my way of seeing, our continuing to make love is a road to disaster. I want to back up a little and think about what we’re doing.” As she talked, she shifted off Zach and stood in front of him. While he watched her, his fingers caressed her, dallying along her hip and down her thigh, causing her to pause. She inhaled sharply, closed her eyes and stood immobile while his hands created magic and made her want to go back to kisses and loving him.
After seconds or minutes, she didn’t know, she grabbed his wrists and opened her eyes. “Zach, wait.”
He stood, his arms wrapping around her. She ran her hands over his chest. “I want you, Emma. I want to make love to you all night.”
“Part of me wants that. Part of me has enough sense to know that’s a reckless course to follow. Getting involved with you isn’t what I hired on to do. And that first day that’s what you agreed to avoid. I don’t want last weekend every night until this job is over. If we do, I’ll never want to leave.”