Ethan with the other animals.
Lowell’s barn was only a block and a half away from Main Street. But by the time she finished helping Ethan get the animals safely inside, she was soaked to the skin and freezing. She would’ve headed home for a hot bath if Ethan hadn’t been blocking the only exit.
He held his hat in his hand, his wheat-colored hair wet and in need of a good trim. Droplets of water dripped down his cheeks and a square jaw that was as stubble-free as it had been earlier that morning. He opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it again.
“What, Ethan?” Sam propped a hand on her hip, squeezing water from her jeans. “Don’t tell me you’ve suddenly lost the ability to talk to me. Especially since it’s only women you’re interested in that seem to make you stammer.” She lifted her eyebrows, but the effect was lost beneath the soaked, sagging hood. She shoved it off her head. “Of course, I guess you didn’t worry about talkin’ when you were at Bootlegger’s with my sister.”
A baffled look spread across his face, and he rubbed the back of his neck. At one time, the gesture had been endearing. But now it just annoyed her.
“I guess not,” he said. “Seein’ as how me and your sister didn’t do much talkin’.”
Could blood vessels pop from mere anger? Sam thought it might be possible as she stared at Ethan and tried to keep from racing over and slapping him upside the head.
“Now, you and me, on the other hand,” he continued, completely unaware of her anger, “we’ve always been able to talk up a storm. Something I’ve missed more than I was willing to admit.” He glanced up at her, and his eyes crinkled at the corners. “Are you gonna hit me, Sammy?”
It took a real effort to unclench her fists.
“No, Ethan,” she said. “I’m not going to hit you. I’m going to leave.” She walked around him. But before she could get through the huge opening, the wide wooden doors slammed shut. At first she thought it was the wind. Except when she tried to push them open, neither would budge. She pressed an eye to a knothole just in time to see a devil in a red dress race off in the sleety night.
“Marcy!” she yelled as she rattled the doors. “This isn’t funny.” But her only answer was a shriek of laughter, followed by a “Merry Christmas, baby sister.” Sam turned to find Ethan smiling. “You think it’s funny, do you?”
“A little,” he said. “And the Sam I used to know would’ve thought it was funny too. Did you lose all your humor?”
“No. I just acquired some taste.”
Ethan’s eyes ran over her soaked sheep sweatshirt, and his smile got even bigger. “I can see that.”
She ignored the comment and turned back to the doors, but no matter how much she shoved, pulled, and kicked, they refused to open. Finally, she gave up and slumped down to the dirt floor. The baby pig came trotting over and sat down only inches away, staring at her with eyes that seemed a little too human. She might’ve questioned Ethan about the animal if the wind hadn’t blown through the cracks in the door, causing her to shiver until her teeth chattered.
“We’d best get you out of those clothes,” Ethan said. And when her gaze snapped up to him, he blushed. “Uhh… I mean you’d better get out of those clothes before you catch a chill.”
“Are you proposing that I run around buck naked, Ethan?”
His face got even redder, but the look that entered his eyes wasn’t what Sam would call embarrassment. More heat with a whole lot of sizzle. “Didn’t you once ask me to do the same thing?”
“I did not,” she protested as she climbed to her feet.
His blond eyebrows hiked up. “Sutter Springs. Your senior year.”
The memory snapped back and hit her square between the eyes. “Oh. That time.” She turned away and walked over to Buckwheat’s stall. She held out her hand and waited for the donkey to nuzzle it before she stroked his big, soft ears. “That doesn’t count. I was only a stupid kid who thought that skinny-dippin’ might be fun.”
The popping noise of snaps coming undone had her looking back at Ethan. Her breath got hung up in her chest. She had seen Ethan without a shirt many times over the years-farm work could be hot and sweaty. But that didn’t prepare her for the sight that greeted her now. The skinny body of a boy had been replaced with the hard body of a man, and it took every ounce of willpower Sam had to keep her mouth from dropping open-or her body from melting into a puddle. Ethan had muscles. Lots and lots of tanned muscles.
“Fun.” Ethan tossed the shirt into the corner with a flex of bicep. “I’ve been hearing that word a lot lately.” He sat down on a milking stool and tugged off his boots before he removed first one sock and then the other. His big feet had her thinking about what Marcy had once told her, which in turn had a question popping out of her mouth.
“Is that what you were doing with Marcy at Bootlegger’s, having a little fun?”
His gaze moved back over to her, and his head cocked to one side. “Me and Marcy? I wouldn’t call it fun-” A grin split his face. And Ethan’s smiles had always made Sam’s stomach feel all light and airy.
“Are you jealous, Sam?”
“Yeah, right.” She turned back around to pet Buckwheat. “Why would I be jealous of you and my sister, Ethan?” Suddenly, Ethan was standing right behind her, his body radiating heat like a thoroughbred after a long, hard ride.
“I’ve never had fun with your sister, Sam,” he said in his soft, soothing voice. “In fact, the only woman I’ve ever really had fun with is you.”
Sam tried to remember how to breathe. “Me?”
He reached over her shoulder and stroked a hand down Buckwheat’s forehead, and she found herself transfixed by the gentleness of his long fingers. “You don’t think we had fun together?”
It was hard to think when surrounded by hard muscle and the scent of damp male. “N-no, it’s not that. It’s just that I didn’t think you… noticed.”
His hand slipped from Buckwheat and curled over the edge of the stall door. “I noticed. It seems I noticed a lot more than I thought I had.” His breath fell warm against the top of her head. “I came by your house the night you left.”
She turned around to find him much too close. “You came by my house?”
He nodded. “I wanted to say goodbye.”
“But we’d said goodbye earlier that day.”
He swallowed hard, and she watched his Adam’s apple slide up and down his tanned throat. “Not the way I wanted to.”
Her stomach did a crazy, little quivery thing that had nothing to do with her soaked sweatshirt. “And what way was that, Ethan?”
Heartbeats ticked off what seemed like a year’s time before he lifted his hand and stroked a trail of heat down the chilled skin of her cheek. Using just one callused finger, he traced over her lips, pressing the bottom one down gently before letting it spring back up. She sucked in a breath and tried to steady her suddenly tipsy world, but then those long, golden-tipped lashes lifted, and she was lost all over again in the deep green of his eyes.
“Did you miss me, Sam?” His words came out rough and hushed. “Did you miss me as much as I missed you?” He dipped his head and replaced his finger with his lips. He was hesitant at first, taking small sweet sips that had Sam swaying on her boot heels. His large hand cradled her chin as his other dropped from the railing and settled on her hip to steady her.
“You’re soaked,” he whispered against her mouth. “Lift your arms.”
She obeyed without the slightest hesitation. Numerous questions nibbled at the edges of her mind. But for now, she was exactly where she’d always wanted to be: in Ethan’s arms. Although, once he pulled the hoodie over her head, she couldn’t help but feel a slight twinge of embarrassment. Especially when his gaze settled on her simple white bra. She couldn’t see his eyes beneath the thick fringe of his lashes, but it wasn’t hard to figure out what he was thinking when his nostrils flared and his hands tightened in fists on her wet sweatshirt.
Only seconds later, the sweatshirt was tossed aside, and she found herself in the heated embrace of a man who was through with sweet kisses. His lips settled over hers in a hot, hungry assault that held not a trace of shy farm boy. While his tongue brushed against hers, his large hands encircled her waist just above the low rise of her jeans and tugged her closer to the heat of his wide chest. The kiss seemed to last for hours, yet ended much too soon.
He pulled back and rested his forehead against hers as their heartbeats echoed each other’s. “Now, that was fun.”
