THREE A.M. The small alarm clock beside Maia’s bed blazoned the time in bright glowing numbers. It seemed she was always awake at 3:00 a.m. in this house. She wasn’t used to the creaks and strange noises, although, she had to admit with a great deal of satisfaction, the aura of the house was undergoing a change.
She shifted restlessly in the bed, sighed, giving up on sleep, and threw back the covers. Cole had participated in decorating the tree, but he’d been thinking of something else. She’d watched him closely. He had made a dozen excuses to go outside. He’d checked the windows and doors in the house, and for the first time since she’d been there, he’d turned on a security alarm, after first changing the code. And that told her something. Cole was worried about an intruder other than the ghost of his father.
She was falling madly in love with him. She hadn’t expected it, and the depth of the emotion was terrifying. She needed to get off the ranch. To go far away. She couldn’t stop thinking about Cole. She dreamt of him. Longed to touch him, to take away the shadows always present in his eyes. She’d known from the first moment she’d laid eyes on him that she wouldn’t walk away unscathed, but she hadn’t counted on the intense attraction she felt for him. He never said a word to her about his real feelings. He never said a word about love or indicated that when she left he wouldn’t be happy or even that he might want to see her again.
A sound penetrated through the walls, echoed down the hall. A cry of despair. A tortured protest. Maia stood for a moment, her hand to her throat, hearing the tormented groan of despair. If she went to him, she knew she would never be able to resist giving him what he needed, yet making love to him would only make leaving more difficult for her. She heard a string of curses. Unable to resist his terrible need, she hurried out of her room.
Cole’s door was closed, but she pushed it open to see him raking his hands through his hair. His body still shuddered with the aftereffects of his nightmare. As she entered, he swept a gun from under the pillow, pointing it straight at her heart.
“Damn, Maia.” He pushed the gun out of sight, struggling to slow his heart rate. “I told you it was dangerous to come downstairs when I’m like this. You think it’s any safer in my bedroom?” Cole sat up. The sheets were tangled around his legs and hips, covering part of him but leaving his thigh bare. He knew it looked as if he’d fought a battle and lost.
“I don’t care.” She crossed the room to his side, pushing the hair from his forehead, her fingertips lingering on his face, tracing a path to his mouth. “I don’t want you to be alone tonight, Cole.” She knelt on the bed, the light from the snow spilling through the window to bathe her in silver.
Cole’s breath caught in his throat, his lungs burned, and he could only stare as her hands went to the buttons of the soft flannel shirt covering her body. She slid each one open. Slowly. One by one. He caught brief glimpses of her body. A soft expanse of skin he ached to touch.
His fingers curled into two tight fists. “Not like this, Maia. You don’t have to come to me feeling sorry for me because I had a damned nightmare.” What the hell was he saying? He wanted her. Ached for her. His body was so damned hard, he was afraid he might shatter. “I don’t want you like this.” It was a total lie. He wanted her any way he could have her.
Maia flashed her killer smile, the one that sent his body into overdrive and caused him to turn into a jealous idiot if any other man was within several hundred feet of her. His breath left his lungs in a rush when she allowed the flannel shirt to slide from her shoulders to the mattress. The silvery light played over her body, caressing it lovingly. She looked like a temptress there, kneeling on his bed, her hair tumbling around her face, her eyes enormous and sexy and looking at him with hunger. Her body’s feminine curves invited his touch.
“You’re killing me.”
She leaned forward, her tongue swirling over his chest. “I hope so.”
The action exposed the enticing curve of her hip and buttocks. His hands trembled as he reached to cup her bottom, sliding his palms over her smooth skin. She did that to him, made him ache and tremble with the intensity of his hunger for her. He burned from the inside out, a rush of fire that engulfed his body and heightened his senses until he was afraid of losing his control.
Her tongue licking so delicately at his body nearly drove him out of his mind. She pushed the sheets away from him, exposing him to the cool air, but it only hardened his body more so that he was thick and bulging with his desire for her. Maia murmured something against his chest, her tongue tracing a path to his belly. Every muscle in his body contracted. His heart shuddered in anticipation.
“Maia, what the hell do you think you’re doing?” His voice was strangled as his lungs labored for air.