* * * *
Michaela was grateful Lewis carried her into the bedroom, because she didn’t honestly think she could have walked on her own. That last orgasm had completely drained her.
Lewis set her on the bed, and it was all she could do not to just fall back and have a nap.
“Tell me what you want to wear, baby.”
She pointed to her underwear drawer, and he tossed her a pair of panties. He held up a bra, but she shook her head. If she had her way, they were going to have breakfast and return to this bed. No sense getting overdressed.
“Just a tee and a pair of shorts.” Again, she pointed, and then as she watched him reach into the drawer, a tiny string of reality intruded on her personal fantasy show.
“Crap. Do you guys have to go to work? I never even thought to ask.”
“Not today,” Lewis said. He brought her clothes over and then gave her a quick kiss. “The family knows where we are. If they need us, they’ll call.”
He picked up her panties and didn’t ask. He just helped her into them. She watched his concentration as he helped her into her tee shirt then slid her shorts up. Something about the careful and patient way he had of tending to her just got to her.
Unable to resist, she reached out and cupped his cheek with her right hand. He jerked his head up and met her gaze. It was a moment she’d remember for the rest of her life.
So that’s what the authors mean. She felt it then, a slam to the gut—and to the heart. One heartbeat, and she was the same old Michaela. And in the next, her world had shifted. In a flash, a breath, she understood so, so much.
And when she took just a fragment of a moment to examine her feelings, she understood it hadn’t actually happened in this time and at this place, but rather, here and now was when she finally became aware of what had already, without her consent or her help, occurred when she wasn’t paying attention.
Michaela Powell had fallen in love with Lewis and Randy Benedict. And a part of her she’d never heard from before echoed a sure certainty to her heart that this love would be forever. They would be forever.
“Baby girl?”
The urge to say it out loud was strong, but her inner caution, that creature she didn’t understand but had learned over the years to heed, sputtered its objections. So she gave him other words, words that were just as honest and true.
“Thank you for not letting me chase you away. Thank you for helping me now.”
“I don’t think we were ever going to be successful, any of us, avoiding this. And you’re welcome.” He stretched up and captured her mouth. His flavor sank into her, arousing her, comforting her—grounding her. She’d never known a kiss could arouse and soothe at the same time.
He ended the kiss. “Let’s go eat, baby. We all need to keep up our strength.”
He wore such a cocky grin that she laughed. She got to her feet, and when he held out his hand, she gave him hers.
The scent of coffee reached her first. She loved coffee but never so much as that first cup in the morning. They left the short hall where the downstairs bedrooms and bathroom were located and entered the main living area. Michaela looked to the right, where the dining table sat, and could only stare. Randy had set the table, even having unearthed her place mats. There were no more wildflowers blooming outside, or she’d bet there’d have been a vase of them there. So instead, he’d found the small pottery knickknack on the third shelf of the china cabinet, a vase with porcelain roses.
Seeing it at the center of the table made her smile. The scent of bacon and sausage and toast did the same thing to her tummy that the aroma of chicken soup had done the night before.
“That must have been some serious shopping you did yesterday.” She tugged, and Lewis released her hand. She walked right over to Randy who had just brought some plates of food in from the kitchen area and set them down.
He drew her in, wrapped his arms around her, and kissed her as if it was their first kiss in days, instead of just minutes.
His flavor became hers, and his scent, his heat permeated every inch of her body, flowing through every vein and igniting every nerve ending. So good. Time stopped, but this kiss just went on.
“Better than bacon.”
His one-liner when he broke their kiss pulled a bark of laughter from her. “That must be my superpower,” she quipped.
“You do have one, sweet thing, but that’s not it.” Lewis held her chair—at the head of the table—and then sat down on her left. There was a lot of food on the table. Bacon, yes, and sausages, along with scrambled eggs that had some cheese in them, and, of course, toast. There was also something she wasn’t used to seeing on her table—a stack of pancakes. Michaela only hoped she’d be able to eat more than she had in the middle of the night.
“This all looks so good.”
“I hope you like it. But, Miss Texas, I didn’t use any hot sauce in anything.”
“I’m not a huge fan of hot sauce, especially not for breakfast. A lot of folks around here like it in their eggs, but not me.”
“That’s a relief,” Lewis said.
They passed around the platters, and Michaela put what she thought were healthy portions on her plate. The guys, of course, took much more.
“The food is different here,” Randy said. “We don’t mind a bit of spicy now and again.”
“What are the main differences? Between Montana and Texas, food-wise?”
“We eat a lot of potatoes back home,”
