Page 31 of Rainwater

“You were so brave, I was wondering when you were going to admit that.” He chucked her under the chin and smiled warmly again.

“I want to thank you for agreeing not to tell Mom about seeing my father and how it made me feel.” She bit her lip, looking as if she might start crying again.

“I think that’s something you should tell her. You know your mom’s pretty smart. She might see it for herself. She always seems to know what’s wrong with you before you do.”

Ellie studied him for a moment, her young eyes seeing more than her years dictated. “I know,” she said thoughtfully.

As soon as the truck came to a stop, Ellie gave a whoop and climbed out of the cab and ran toward the house.

As he opened his door and followed her, he thought sadly that he had never been this enthusiastic about coming home.

Jennifer heard the truck and pleasure detonated inside her moments before her daughter came bursting through the door. “I won, Mom! Thanks to Corey, I won.”

She ran into her mother’s arms, and Jennifer hugged her bundle of energy.

“Ellie, how’s the wrist?”

“It’s fine. Corey was wonderful. He took me to the hospital and wouldn’t leave even though the doctors tried to make him. Don’t blame Corey. It was all my idea to stay,” Ellie said in a rush. “I’ll tell you everything later. I need to find Two Tone and Tex and Jimmy.”

Jennifer could feel Corey’s presence in the doorway and her palms began to sweat.

She faced him and her heart began its familiar tattoo.

God, the sight of him was enough to make her swoon.

His hat was hanging down his back by the cord, his hip cocked in sexy male aggression and his turquoise eyes were doing a slow burn.

The message he sent her had her breasts tight and tingling, the nipples contracting in painful need for his hot, wet mouth.

He looked so damn good it was all she could do not to go over and throw her arms around him.

Ellie, totally unaware of the sexual tension in the room, said, “I’m going to show Jimmy and Tex my trophy and my broken wrist.”

But before she left, she threw her arms around Corey’s waist and hugged him hard. She reached up, tugged on his hair, and when he crouched and his face was close enough, she kissed his cheek and whispered in his ear, “Thanks a lot for taking me. You’re just as cool as Mom.”

Even after she bolted out the door with the ease of adolescence, Corey stayed crouched. Emotion choked him so that when he looked into Jennifer’s soft eyes, he knew that they both had him wrapped around their little fingers.

The kitchen smelled just as good as he imagined it would. She was making a roast. He watched as she picked up the oven mitts and shoved the roast back in the oven.

“How did she break her wrist?” Jennifer sounded nervous and anxious and she looked so good.

She always looked good. She was dressed in an old red cotton shirt with the sleeves rolled up, exposing her elegant arms. Her hair was curling around her face from the heat of the oven.

She wiped her hands down her jeans in a nervous manner.

“There was some idiot who didn’t know how to handle his own stallion. The black bolted into the ring and collided with Limelight.”

“Oh my God! Is Limelight okay?”

“Yeah, she’s fine,” he answered tightly. “A bruised foreleg and a gash along her ribs, but amazingly, she’s okay.”

“Thank God. Thanks for taking care of Ellie,” Jennifer said softly. “In the hospital, I mean.”

“Hell, Jennifer, I should have been paying more attention.” The self-condemnations was evident in his words.

“Was Ellie riding at the time?” Jennifer watched him closely and she saw an easing of his expression, and the tenderness that stole over his features took more of her heart.

“Yes.”

“Were you watching her?”

“Yes.”

“Corey, that’s what I would have expected you to do. As much as I would like it, I wish I could wrap her in foam rubber and keep her safe. Accidents happen. You can’t be everywhere, every minute.”

He shrugged.

“Right?” she pressed. “It’s just part and parcel of being a parent.”

He stiffened. “I’m not Ellie’s parent.”

“I know, but—”

“Jennifer, don’t go down that road, please.”

She stared at him for a moment, regret coursing through her, then she changed the subject. “Are you hungry?”

“Yes,” he said tightly, but food seemed to be the furthest thing from his mind.

“The roast will be another forty minutes or so. I hope you’ll stay.”

He didn’t speak but nodded his acceptance.

“How did your business go in Phoenix?” he asked quietly after a momentary pause, his voice sending shivers of delight through her.

“Very well. I negotiated three new contracts and renewed two others.” She gripped the sink to keep her body in place, the need to greet him with a kiss so overwhelming that she almost couldn’t fight it.

She gasped a little moan of pleasure as he came to her, sliding his hands around her waist and jerking her body against the lean length of his, roughly, almost violently.

“Jennifer,” he whispered against her ear, causing quivers of excitement to race from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. He captured her mouth, his tongue thrusting, exploring, desperately seeking her response.

She moaned again, unable to help herself.

As he pressed her back against the counter, he ravaged her mouth in a way she came to recognize as his loss of control.

She moved her mouth away so she could speak. Breathless with a wanting that scared and exhilarated her, she managed to say, “Ellie…”

Corey’s voice sounded strained, “She’ll be busy for at least an hour, chasing all over looking for those cowhands and Two Tone.” He pressed his arousal against her hips.

“The bedroom,” she suggested breathlessly. A sense of urgency drove her.

“I won’t make it, darlin’,” he answered in a voice that was hoarse with out-of-control desire.

Her heart jolted and her pulse pounded. “The pantry,” she suggested, her insides jangling with excitement. The area was small, but two bodies could fit and with his body blocking the door, no one could walk in on them. It was also a helluva lot closer than the bedroom.

The heat came fast and overwhelmed them.

In the aftermath of the awesome passion, they held on to each other tightly, only now realizing what it was like to be apart even if it had been for only two days.

Still, it was enough to make them both panic inside, thinking about the inevitable future. One neither wanted to face.

“After the bulk of the branding and calving is done. I’ll be leaving,” he said dispassionately.

She nodded her head, knowing he was trying to diffuse the intense emotions between them. She chose to ignore the pain that swamped her and, changing the subject, asked, “Besides the broken wrist, how did it go?”

“You’re one lucky woman. Your daughter is wonderful, curious, energetic and beautiful. Your husband was a complete and utter fool to give all this up.”

“Well, his brains were always in his pants. I can sure pick them.”

“Just so you understand that I’m a tumbleweed, too, Jennifer. I didn’t mean to get intimate with you.” He smoothed his hands over her hair. “Things just got out of hand.”

“I know. I’m not saying this was all one-sided, Corey. I wanted you as much as you wanted me.”

He closed his eyes and touched his mouth to hers, still deep inside her. “How are things going here?” When her body stilled, he opened his eyes to look at her. “Jennifer?”

“Why don’t’ we get dressed and discuss it over a glass of iced tea?”

“Who says we’re finished?”

She gasped as he lowered his head and took her nipple into his mouth, gasping again as she felt him harden once again, inside her.

“It can wait,” she groaned as she gave herself up to the spiraling sensation only he could arouse in her.

Heated minutes later, her whole body tingling from his thorough lovemaking, she sat across the table from him. “I lost two bulls when the fence was cut. They were hit by a semi that took out hundreds of yards of fence and gouged the ground. Thank God, the driver was okay.”

He swore softly, his eyes heating and narrowing. “This vandalism has got to stop. I think it’s time to have a nice chat with Jay Butler.”

“We don’t have any proof, Corey.”

“He cuts your fences, shoots your bulls and we can’t prove a damn thing!”

“Look, I don’t want to argue about Jay. I want you to help me plan Ellie’s birthday party. She’s going to turn fourteen. God, I can hardly believe it.”

“Of course I’ll help. What were you thinking?”

“A good old-fashioned hoedown with a fiddle and a country band. What do you think?” she asked enthusiastically.

Corey smiled, his teeth flashing brightly against his dark face. “I think that you’re the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.”

Jennifer took a deep breath, got up from the table and settled onto his lap, circling her arms around his shoulders, and burying her face in the hollow of his neck.

He was slipping away from her. She could feel it.

Soon he would be gone and no matter how much she told herself she would let him go, she just didn’t know if she could.

God help her. She closed her eyes tightly against a wealth of emotions. She just didn’t know.