“Like a yard light?”“Exactly.”“Maybe if you cut the headlights.”Kane clicked the lights off, even the interior lights.Talk about dark and spooky. Ginger focused on the blackness out her window. A snow squall faded and she caught a fleeting glimpse of light. “There. Straight ahead.”“You sure?”No. “Yes, I’m sure.”“Hope you’re right, Red. If I run over a fence, you’ll be out here fixin’ fence with me early summer.”“I know how to wield a pair of wire cutters, so bring it, cowboy.”Kane gunned the truck. For a second it felt as if they were airborne. They landed hard and Ginger held onto the support strap hanging from the top of the doorframe.“Sorry.” Snow covered the windshield as they annihilated another drift. The wipers whisked away the remnants in a rapid slap slap slap and they skidded to a stop.“We’re here.”Ginger made out the faint orange glow of the porch light. Snow had drifted in front of the screen door up to the door handle.“Looks like I’m gonna hafta shovel again
He kissed her then. With such sweet surrender she felt tears prickling the back of her eyelids. She felt him get hard again. He rocked into her as he kissed her. Their mouths weren’t apart for any longer than a second or two, as they remained locked together, lost in each other. The waves of pleasure didn’t crash over them, but built slowly, sweetly, until they were swept away.After lolling in the moment, Kane withdrew and rolled to his back. He kept holding her hand and kissed her knuckles. “So you warmed up?”“Uh-huh. And sleepy.”“We’ve got nowhere to be. Go ahead and take a little nap if you want.”Ginger snuggled into him, resting her head on his chest. “Will you stay with me?”“Yep.”“Red. Wake up. Hayden’s on the phone.”She jackknifed, completely disoriented. “What?”“Your cell rang and I answered it. Hope you don’t mind but I didn’t want you to miss the call.” He handed her phone over.“Hello?”“Mom? Guess what? We’re snowed in and the hotel has a pool and an elevator and me
“Then you’d better strip them clothes off and crawl in bed.”“Kane—”He was right in her face. “No arguin’ with me. Do it. Now.”Ginger’s hazel eyes sparked defiance for a second. But she whirled around and stomped to the bedroom. About halfway down the hallway, she tossed out, “This’d better be good, McKay.”Any leniency he might’ve had vanished with that challenge.He snatched a bottle of lube and his other supplies from the bathroom. He locked the bedroom door and saw the outline of her body beneath the covers. “Ginger, I’m givin’ you a choice. Handcuffs or rope?”Slowly, the covers peeled back. Her hair appeared first, since it stuck straight up from static electricity. “You’re serious.”“Yep. Choose or I will.”Ginger smoothed her hair back and studied him. “Rope.”Kane lifted his hand and let the length of rope dangle from his fingertips. “On your knees, arms above your head, palms on the mattress.”It might’ve surprised him that she turned over and assumed the position without
He ground his teeth. In all the times she’d called him in the last year, nothing had been earth-shatteringly important.Every time he and Jessie had connected in the last two weeks, he’d managed to keep the phone call short. He wondered if she’d noticed. Then in the last week he’d stopped answering her calls altogether.Goddammit, cutting Jessie out of his life hurt like a son of a bitch. He’d realized the night he’d raced to her rescue that she’d never see him as anything but the helpful brother of her dead husband. Hell, she’d even told him she considered him like a brother.Brandt grunted. His feelings for her were so goddamn far from sisterly it wasn’t fucking funny.“Brandt. Buddy, you’re up.”He took the cell phone out of his pocket and set it on the table. He grabbed his cue and lined up his shot, trash talking with Tell, Dalton and Ben as they finished up their weekly pool game. After he scratched on the eight ball, he grudgingly gave both his little brothers ten bucks, and li
“Hello?”“Jessie! I was hopin’ you were around. What are you doin’ right now?”Sitting around all dressed up with no place to go. “Not much. What’s up?”“Well, I’m in Moorcroft with a few members of my new dart league team. Guess what? We just kicked the crap outta the Moorcroft Deadly Tips dart team, and we are seriously in the mood to celebrate.And I thought, Jessie lives close, I’ll see if she’s in the party mood.”“Where are you?”“Ziggy’s. Come on down. It’ll be fun.”“You surrounded by hot cowboys?”Keely laughed. “Absolutely. And I’ve even got a designated driver lined up so if we get shitfaced, we have a ride.”Jessie froze. Sometimes Keely cajoled her McKay male cousins into helping her outwit her five older brothers, since they continued to treat Keely like a twelve-year-old girl. She also knew Brandt had gotten roped into being Keely’s cohort on several occasions. “Who’s lined up as your DD?”The phone rattled as Keely spoke to someone else. “Hey, darlin’, what’s your name
It took forever to load, which was odd because it wasn’t a full order. Kane wasn’t happy with only half the amount of cake they’d ordered. When Kane questioned why, Denny informed him Colt had already been by to pick up the other half for the McKay Ranch account.That pissed Kane off. If Colt had intended on getting the cake all along, why had he made such a big deal about Kane picking it up right away? It incensed him further when he saw Colt’s rig—loaded with the other half of the cake—parked across from Sandstone Building.Probably wasn’t the smartest thing, storming into the Sky Blue and India’s Ink in his present mood, spoiling for a fight. But Kane scaled the steps and burst through the door anyway, sending the cowbell door chime clanking. Not even the sweet scent of lavender that Ginger favored calmed him down.Colt looked up from the magazine he was thumbing through. He yelled over his shoulder, “It’s just Kane, Indy.”Just Kane. He fought a sneer.“So what brings you by, cuz?
“This oughta be good,” Kane muttered.“She said Colt might be an asshole on occasion, but he was her asshole and she didn’t appreciate you messing up his pretty face.” Her eyes searched his. “Does that mean something to you?”Kane smiled. “Yeah, she’s not pissed off at me for getting into a fistfight with her husband.”“Wait a second. You and Colt got into a…fistfight?”“Yep. Wasn’t the first time, probably won’t be the last.”Ginger stared at him, her mouth hanging open. “You’re both grown men! Whatever would possess you to take a swing at one another?”He bristled. “I don’t expect you to understand. Me’n Colt… Let’s just say we’re both just hotheaded.We get pissed, come out swingin’ and then we’re done. Fine. Back to normal.”“You’re serious.”“India didn’t tell you that Kade and Brandt had to break up the fight between me’n Colt at Sky Blue?”“No. She just told me that you’d had a bad morning.”“Indy thinks Colt is completely tamed. Sure, he hasn’t been drinkin’, druggin’ and whor
She was totally in love with this man.But she wasn’t quite sure what to do about it. She wasn’t certain if she’d been celibate so long that Kane’s expertise in bed turned her feelings of lust into love. Not only that, if she confessed her feelings, would he think she was no different than the other mothers in the Little Buddies program, angling for a permanent piece of him?She’d never want Kane to think she prized his potential as a father over everything else that made him such a good man. And she wouldn’t put the weight of her confession of her feelings for him when his day had already been filled with emotional upheaval.Ginger felt her father’s curiosity as he watched the boy and the man still snuggled on the couch.Without a word, or even a look her direction, he refocused on his crossword puzzle.She put her father’s guarded reaction out of her mind and prepared supper. After they ate, her father pleaded a headache and retired to his room. She thought about finishing paperwork