She relaxed into his embrace, bowing toward him as his tongue sought out her own. Her heart beat loud in her ears as she fought to catch her breath under his scorching kiss. She felt awkward, like a high school girl getting her first kiss and hoping she was doing everything right.
“Your arm. It’s not broken anymore.” She wound her arms around his neck, pulling him close and not ever wanting to let him go. How did he make her feel like she’d never experienced that kind of passion before? Her ex wasn’t a slouch in the kissing department, but damn, he’d never set her panties on fire the way Braxton did.
“Fast healer, remember?”
“Oh, yeah.” Her words were but a rush as she rubbed against him.
“Kate.” He whispered her name against the side of her neck as he licked and sucked her skin. She gripped him closer, and ground her pelvis into his rock-hard erection.
“If you keep doing this, I’m going to take you right here on the kitchen table.”
“Don’t do that,” she managed to say.
Braxton pulled back. “Why not?”
“Because it’s antique.” She swallowed. “It might break.” She pulled his mouth back down to hers and felt his lips quirk up in amusement.
“Then I’m going to take you to bed.” Braxton swept her into his arms before she could say a word. He hissed in pain and stumbled. She slipped out of his arms and stood.
Pushing the robe off his shoulder, she sucked in a breath. A fresh spot of blood spread and saturated the white bandage.
“Come on, I’m getting you back to bed.” She tugged on his hand.
“That’s what I’m talking about.” He smirked.
Kate suppressed a laugh and did her best to give him a stern look. “I don’t mean for that. You need to lie down and rest. Your wound is bleeding again.”
“It’s just a little trickle.”
“It’s more than just a trickle. ” After a little nagging, she got him settled into bed and redressed his wound. They kept up the small talk while she doctored his injury. By the time she was done, his eyes had drifted shut and he was lost once again to sleep.
Kate continued to stay by his side, studying the stranger in her bed and wondering why she felt such a strong connection to someone she hardly knew.
***
“It’s stopped snowing.” Brutus stood at the window of the snowbound cabin, his hands behind his back as he stared out into the night. The security light cast the snow-covered yard in an eerie yellow glow. The muscles in his legs jumped, impatient to get this mission over with. He fucking hated waiting.
“I hate snow.” Lorcan plopped down on the couch with a bag of chips and slung his feet up on the coffee table.
Brutus turned and glared. Lorcan needed to be on his guard. This was not some fucking holiday in the mountains. “He has to be found.”
“Bastard’s still going to be hard to track. There’s a good four inches covering his tracks.” Killian spoke from his perch on the kitchen barstool of the cabin, where he was busy slamming down another shot of Southern Comfort.
“Hell, I think the son of a bitch is dead, buried under a blanket of white.” Lorcan snorted.
Brutus glared at the two men. “Maybe he is. Maybe he isn’t. The point is, I need to be sure. If he’s not dead, then we need to make him that way. Understood?”
CHAPTER SIX
Braxton had seen a lot of women do a lot of things on their knees, but he’d never seen one on their knees trying to disassemble a dishwasher. Kate had half of her amazing body buried in the dishwasher with her tight little ass sticking out. He was getting hard just watching her wiggle.
“Shit.”
His eyebrows shot up at her profanity. She didn’t strike him as the type of woman to curse. She was too gentle, too shy, too ladylike.
She scrambled out of the cave of the dishwasher and stood with a plastic piece pinched between her fingertips. “Do you know how much it costs to replace this thing?” She cocked her head and narrowed her gaze on him.
He shook his head. “No.” He had no idea what that part was.
“Me either, but I bet it costs a lot.” Kate blew a strand of her blonde hair out of her eye and propped her hand on her hip. “Do you know if it’s supposed to even look like this?” She waved the dangly plastic in the air.
“No idea.” She was looking for his advice and he had none to offer. He wished he’d been more handy growing up, but back then all he had thought about was staying out of the house and away from his father’s fists.
“I thought men knew all about this manly stuff.”
Braxton held his hands up. “I’m a bartender and ride a Harley. I know how to fix every kind of engine ever built. But when it comes to appliances, I’m lost. The lightbulb in my microwave went out and I went and bought a new microwave, because I couldn’t figure out how to get the damn light out.”
Her lips quirked up in a smile and it had his heart racing. Everything about Kate had his body reacting like a teen in puberty. It had taken all his restraint not to jack off last night when he woke up thinking about her.
“Why don’t you just call a handyman?”