“Not the way you mean,” he said curtly. He felt hot all over, and when she lifted her face, he could see the same awareness there. He couldn’t let this happen, he told himself firmly. He had to stop it now.
But she smelled of flowers, and he loved the touch of those gentle hands on his bare skin. Involuntarily he traced her long, elegant fingers, simultaneously pressing them deeper into the hair on his chest so that they caressed the hard muscle. His eyes lifted to hers, holding them in a silence that was suddenly tense and hot with promise.
She looked younger tonight, in that gray dress with her hair in a braid at her back. Despite the makeup she’d used, she looked country fresh. He liked her better this way than in that sexy dress she’d worn at the barbecue. He almost said so, but he managed to bite back the comment in time.
“It’s...stopped bleeding,” she whispered. But she was looking into his eyes, not at the cut.
“So it has,” he replied.
The hand that was caressing the back of hers moved her fingers slowly over a taut, flat male nipple, letting her feel the effect her touch was having on him. He pressed it close and hard, his whole hand covering hers as the silence continued.
She smelled leather and a faint breath of hay on him, pleasant scents that mingled with the after-shave he wore. Her heart was beating madly, and under her fingers she could feel the fierce pulsation of his own.
“Gene,” she whispered unsteadily.
The sound of his name on her lips was his undoing. He couldn’t help himself. He bent slowly, his eyes on her soft mouth, no other thought in his mind except possession.
His hands moved up to frame her face, warm and strong on her cheeks as he tilted her head to give him total access to her parted lips.
She didn’t make even a pretense of resisting. Her hands rested lightly, with fascination, on the hard, warm contours of his chest, spearing into the thick mat of hair that covered it. She could taste his breath, warm on her mouth, and she wanted him to kiss her with an almost feverish desperation. There had never been a man she’d felt this kind of attraction to. Just once she wanted to taste him. Just...once...
Her eyes closed. She stood on her tiptoes to coax his mouth the rest of the way while the world vanished around her. She heard the sharp intake of his breath and felt his hands contract and his mouth almost touched hers.
And just then a sharp, feminine voice broke into the tense silence with all the subtlety of an explosion.
Chapter Four
“Allison, is he all right?”
Winnie’s voice hit Gene with the impact of a sledgehammer. He jerked back from Allison even as his hard mouth touched hers, his face going as rigid as the arousal he barely kept her from feeling.
He whirled away, grabbing his shirt and jacket. “Yes, he’s all right,” he called, irritated. He didn’t know which bothered him the most—the interruption or his weakness.
“Oh. Sorry!” Winnie stammered.
There were fading footsteps. “My God, does she think I’m in any condition to ravish you?” he asked angrily, running a restless hand through his thick, straight hair.
Allison was still getting her breath back. She leaned against the vanity sink, her trembling hands behind her. “You don’t understand,” she said softly, wondering if she could find the right words to explain Winnie’s protectiveness.
He turned, glancing at her irritably until his searching gaze fell to the taut nipples pressing against the soft fabric of her dress. His breath sighed out heavily. “Are you what you seem to be, Allison?” he asked unexpectedly, resignation in his tone. His eyes lifted back to capture hers. “Are you modern and sophisticated?”
“Why do you want to know?” She sidestepped the question.
His eyes narrowed and stabbed into hers. “Because there’s no way on earth I’m getting involved with you if you aren’t.”
Her heart ran wild. “Do you want to get involved with me?” she asked huskily.
“My God, can’t you tell?” he demanded. His chest rose and fell roughly. “I’ve barely touched you, and I’m on fire!”
That made two of them, but she didn’t imagine he could tell how she felt. She wanted to get close to him. If she told him the truth, he wouldn’t come near her. If she kept her secret, there was a slight chance that he might drop his guard, that she might get to see the real man, the hurting one. As for anything more, perhaps they could agree to some ground rules that would protect her until she could tell him the truth.
“I’m not modern enough to jump into bed with any man who asks,” she said simply, and met his eyes bravely. “I like to know what I’m getting into first.”
His chin lifted with faint arrogance. “You’re cautious, then. So am I. I won’t rush you. But I don’t want a platonic relationship.”
“Neither do I,” she said, but with her eyes averted.
He hesitated. Something didn’t ring true about what she was saying, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. He wondered if this wasn’t lunacy. A woman was the last complication he needed right now, and he hadn’t forgotten that her best friend was marrying his brother. There were at least ten good reasons for keeping his distance, but none of them mattered when he was around Allison. He seemed to have been alone for a very long time. When he was with her, the aching loneliness vanished.
“Suppose we go to a movie tomorrow night?” he asked.
“Winnie won’t like it.”
“I’m not asking Winnie,” he replied easily. “Or anyone else. Just you and me.”
“Could we go to Cody? Isn’t there a rodeo there every night?”
He smiled slowly. “Every night during the summer,” he corrected. “We’ll save that for another time. But we can detour through Cody, if you like. The nearest movie house is
