Her response was restrained, funny, we-shouldn’t-be-doing-this kiss, but yet one that felt electric to Luke. She angled her head and kissed him back, her lips, butter soft against his, her skin silken beneath his fingers. It was simple, so simple, but the promise of something far greater was there, and his body was responding rapidly. Too rapidly. He felt himself tumbling hard and fast down a path of desire, and lifted his head, his eyes on Madeline.
She looked alluring with her tousled hair and wet lips. She also looked stunned. Luke thought to apologize. But before he could form a thought, Madeline suddenly lunged forward, grabbing the collar of his shirt and kissed him back. She kissed him so ardently that he fell back against the seat, and Madeline came over the console with him. He caught her up with one arm, pressed his palm against her cheek and temple. Madeline nipped at his lips, swept her tongue into his mouth, shoved her fingers into his hair.
Good God, but that kiss was hot and dangerously arousing. His body was hardening with that uncontrolled kiss, that passionate, fervent, surprising kiss. He slipped his hand inside the jacket, and pressed against the side of her breast.
Madeline made a soft little moaning sound into his mouth, and that was it. Luke lifted up, determined to take them both to the backseat, when a crash startled them.
Madeline gasped and lifted her head, planting her hands against his chest and looking wildly about. Luke looked around her mess of dark hair out the front window and saw half a dead aspen lying across the lower branches of two pines just to the right of the Bronco. He also noticed that the rain had begun to let up. He looked at Madeline; she had already faded back away from him, and was looking at him now as if she wasn’t certain what had just happened.
She wiped the pad of her thumb across her lower lip. Her chest lifted with a deep breath. “Sorry,” she said breathlessly. “I don’t know what got into me.” But she didn’t look sorry, not the least bit. She looked like a woman who could rip his clothes off of him then and there.
“I’m not,” he said. He was downright confused, yes—but not sorry. Whatever had just happened, it felt strong and real. And wholly incautious. “I think we can start down now,” he said, and turned the ignition. “Hold on.”
But Madeline was already gripping the dash and the handle above the window, and honestly, Luke wasn’t certain if he hadn’t just said that to himself.
FIFTEEN
She was such an idiot! Madeline slammed the car door and stomped in her wet pumps into the lobby of Grizzly Lodge. Why did she agree to stay? A week? Who had a week? She had clients and listings.…
Okay. Maybe, just maybe, she was more intrigued with Luke Kendrick than she would ever admit to anyone, and especially not Trudi, who was guaranteed to make a colossally big deal out of it. But man, sitting in that truck, under the blanket with a guy as good-lookng as Luke, she let her mind wander to other things. White-hot things. She couldn’t believe he’d kissed her. But she really couldn’t believe that she had kissed him back. She didn’t think she had ever in her life kissed anyone like that. It wasn’t like her at all, so reckless, so out of control. And Madeline couldn’t even say why she’d done it, other than she was up on that mountain in the rain, under a blanket, and with Luke, handsome, sturdy Luke, and something just began to thrum in her. She’d felt a little outside of herself.
She was still shocked and excited and shocked. But, Lord help her, she’d enjoyed that kiss, more than any other kiss in her life.
Crazy, crazy! It was the chaos around her, that was it. She was still wearing his jacket! She had completely forgotten it when they’d come back down to the ranch.…
Well. Maybe she hadn’t completely forgotten it, but he apparently had—he did not ask for it back. It smelled like him. All salty and sexy and—
Madeline, what the hell?
Okay, logically, she’d had no choice but to stay. Luke had been so quick to jump to the conclusion that they ought to get Danny the I’m Fairly Certain He Maybe Has Internet to take a look at the property. What was it about men that they immediately assumed a man, no matter who the hell he was, was better suited than a woman for a job?
Madeline had seen red, she’d really seen red, red, red, and the next thing she knew, she’d opened her mouth and said she’d stay.
“Goodness gracious, you look like a cat caught out in the rain!” Dani said as Madeline marched into the foyer, ready to kill and maim someone with her bare hands.
“I am. I was. Dani, a couple of things have come up.” She slapped her purse down on the counter top. “I’ll have to stay for a week or so.”
“Well that’s great news!” Dani said, smiling brightly. “I knew you’d fall in love with Pine River.”
“I didn’t—”
“Now maybe you can pick up a few things that aren’t quite as businesslike,” she said eagerly, eyeing Madeline’s clothes.
What was up with all the sartorial scrutiny in Pine River? Madeline glanced down at herself—in addition to the smear across her blouse, her slacks were a silk blend, and she could see the water spots on them.
“So where will you be staying?”