“My point is-” she fought the urge to engage further in a debate with him about selling the ranch “-we all have different strengths.”
“What about your other sister, the little one?”
“Katrina?”
“I haven’t seen her yet.”
Mandy resettled herself, bending one knee, which brushed up against Caleb’s thigh. She let it rest there, pretending she didn’t realize she was touching him. “That’s right. You left before it happened.”
“What happened?” There was concern in his voice.
“Nothing bad,” Mandy hastily put in. “Katrina attended a fine arts boarding school in New York City. She’s still in New York. A principle dancer with Liberty Ballet Company.”
“Seriously?”
“I’m serious. She loves it. Then again, she always did hate the ranch.”
His tone turned contemplative. “So, Lyndon Valley produced more than one city dweller.”
“You two would probably have a lot in common.” Mandy kept her voice flip, careful not to betray her disquiet at the thought of Caleb and Katrina. She wasn’t jealous of her baby sister. She’d never cared about being glamorous before, and she wasn’t about to start now.
“What about you?” Caleb asked. “Do you like the ranch, living and working so closely with your family?”
“Absolutely.” Mandy couldn’t imagine any other life. She loved the quiet, the simplicity, the slower pace and the wide-open spaces.
“What about when you get married?”
“Nobody’s asked me yet.”
“You plan to raise your children on the ranch?”
“I do.” She nodded with conviction. “Kids need fresh air, hard work, a sense of responsibility and purpose.”
Caleb was silent for a long moment.
“What about you?” Mandy asked. “You plan to raise your children in a high-rise apartment?”
He stretched onto his back, lacing his fingers behind his head. “That’s a very long way off.”
“But you do plan to have children one day.”
“I don’t know.” He sighed. “I didn’t have much of a role model for a father.”
“You’re nothing like he was.”
“I’m nothing like your father, either.” He turned to look at her. “He’s a fantastic family man. I’m better at business, focused, driven and narcissistic.”
“You cared that you might have to lay people off just now,” she pointed out. “That isn’t narcissistic behavior. It is empathetic, compassionate behavior.”
He turned toward her again, his thigh coming fully up against hers, his midnight-blue gaze capturing hers in the gathering dawn. “You comfortable behind those rose-colored glasses?”
“You cared, Caleb.”
“I’m not the devil incarnate. But that doesn’t mean I should be raising children.”
“What
“I’ve been thinking in two- or three-month increments for an awful long time now.”
“Okay,” she allowed. “Where do you want to be in three months?”
His gaze softened on hers, and he reached out to smooth back a lock of her hair. “I can tell you where I want to be in five minutes.”
Her chest hitched, and her lungs tightened around an indrawn breath. His finger traced down the curve of her cheek, along her neck, to trace the vee of her blouse. Her pulse jumped and prickly heat formed on her skin.
“You took off your jeans,” he told her in a husky voice. “Why did you take off your jeans?”
“They’re uncomfortable to sleep in.”
“I thought it was to make me crazy.”
She shook her head. “You kept your pants on, I figured we were safe enough.”
His mouth curved in a small smile. “Since you cuddle in your sleep?”
“I never knew I did that.” She felt as though she could fall forever into the depths of his sexy eyes. “I’ve never slept with a man before.”
“No way.”
“I was in a girls dorm in college.”
His hand dropped away, and his expression turned guarded. “You’re not…”
“A virgin?” She couldn’t help but laugh at the guilt on his face. “Didn’t I just tell you I went to college?”
“You scare me, Mandy.”
She sobered, unfamiliar feelings bubbling to life inside her. She might not be a virgin, but her experience was with swaggering eighteen- and nineteen-year-olds. They were about as different from Caleb as a person could get.
“You scare me, too,” she told him on a whisper.
“Scaring you is the last thing I want to do.”
She nodded, and he slowly leaned in to kiss her.
His lips were firm but soft, confident as they slanted across hers. They parted, hot and delicious. And he pressed her back into the pillow, one arm snaking around the small of her back, pulling her up against him.
A surge of desire swelled inside her. Her back instinctively arched, and she parted her own lips, opening to his tongue, savoring the intense flavor of his passion. Her arms went around his neck, anchoring her, while her breasts rubbed against his chest. Her nipples went hard, tight, intensely sensitive.
He groaned, sliding his hand down her hip, over her silky panties, down her bare thigh. His kisses wandered along the crook of her neck, circling her ear, separating her blouse to kiss his way to the tip of her shoulder.
She pressed her lips against his neck, drawing his skin into the heat of her mouth, tasting salt and dried rainwater. His hand convulsed on her bottom, voice going hoarse. “You’re killing me, Mandy.”
“Is that good?” It felt good from her side. Very, very good.
He kissed her shoulder, kissed her neck, kissed her mouth, dragging her pelvis tight against his. “You need to tell me yes or no.”
She opened her mouth to say yes.
But he pulled back, and his sober expression stopped her.
“I…” She suddenly hesitated. This wasn’t college. This was far more complicated than college.
“We step over this cliff,” he warned her in an undertone, “we can’t come back again.”
She struggled to interpret his words. “Are you saying no?” she asked in a small voice.
When he didn’t answer, her stomach clenched tight. Was she being swept along on this tidal wave alone? How humiliating. She stiffened.
When he finally answered, his voice was controlled and compassionate. “I’m saying you’re not the kind of woman I usually date. You need to think about this.”
She pulled back farther, feeling as if she’d been doused in cold water. She hardened her tone. “Excellent suggestion.”
Without giving him a chance to say anything more, she flounced out of the bed and snagged her jeans from the floor. “In fact, now that you mention it, breakfast is probably a much better idea.”
She strode her way toward the bathroom, hoping against hope the light was too dim for him to get a good view of her scantily clad rear end.
Feet apart, wearing the brand-new pair of steel-toed boots he’d purchased at the Lyndon shopping mall, Caleb chainsawed his way through the third fallen tree on Bainbridge Avenue. The physical work felt good, and tearing trees apart gave him an outlet for his sexual frustration.
Lyndon was a mess this morning. Mandy hadn’t been far off when she’d guessed last night was the storm of the century. The wind, rain-and even hail in some places-had taken down trees, damaged buildings and sent several people to the hospital. Fortunately, no one had serious injuries.
Mandy was on the clearing crew a few hundred yards down the road. Hands protected by leather gloves, with
