A Real Cowboy

“I did, but I wasn’t wearing the dress or shoes he’d bought. Before I left the store that day I put them back on the rack and credited his account and then I met him for dinner and told him he couldn’t buy me with a fancy dress and sparkly shoes. He was both surprised and intrigued. I guess nobody had ever turned down a gift from him before.”

“That was the beginning of your relationship,” Lucas said.

“It was the beginning of a whirlwind romance. Samuel is a trust-fund baby who spent the first months of our dating telling me about all the wonderful things he intended to do, to be in his future. He talked about charity work and altruistic causes and I believed him, I believed in him. I thought that he had just been waiting for the right woman to be at his side, so when he proposed I accepted and we got married in Las Vegas and honeymooned there for a week in luxury.”

“Then what went wrong?” Lucas asked and leaned a bit closer to her.

“When I married him he spent most of his time throwing away his money frivolously and partying until he passed out. I kept waiting for him to grow up, to start to be a productive member of society, to do something worthwhile, and then I got pregnant with Sammy. I thought that would be the catalyst for him to change. But Samuel wasn’t interested in being a father and he wasn’t interested in being a husband. By the time Sammy was two, I knew that nothing was ever going to change. He had his monthly money from his trust fund and didn’t have to do anything constructive, so I divorced him.”

“I’m sorry he didn’t turn out to be the man you wanted him to be.”

Nicolette shrugged. “I guess I should be grateful that all Samuel ever cared about was money and partying. When it came time for the divorce Samuel only wanted to hang on to his money and he didn’t care about any custody of Sammy. So, I walked away with full custody of my son and a little bit of money that I’d had before I met Samuel.”

“And Cassie?”

“She and I had met when I was going to college classes to become a teacher. We’d become best of friends and continued that friendship even during my marriage. When she heard about the divorce she insisted that Sammy and I move in with her temporarily until I got on my feet. Then I threw my money in on the store, and to be honest, I’m still waiting to get on my feet. But I’d rather live in a cardboard box with Sammy than live in luxury and have him endure a lifetime of his father’s indifference.”

“What about your parents? Couldn’t they help you out?”

“My mother died a year after I married Samuel and my father passed away almost a year to the day after her. I think he just missed her so much he let go of life to be with her again.”

She looked at him with a touch of humor. “Have I put you to sleep yet?”

He smiled, that crazy beautiful smile that always lit up a place deep inside her. “Not at all. I wanted to get to know you better, and part of the way to understand people is to learn where they’ve been.”

“And where have you been?” she asked.

“Now, that is a story for another night,” he said. She noticed how his eyes darkened slightly. He stood and buckled his holster back around his waist. “It’s late. I think maybe it’s time we both call it a night.”

She also stood, slightly disappointed that she’d just shared so much with him about herself and he obviously wasn’t in a state of mind to share anything with her. He owes you nothing, she reminded herself.

They walked back into the great room, where Sammy still slept soundly on the sofa. “I’ll carry him upstairs,” Lucas said. He picked up Sammy, who immediately wrapped his legs around Lucas’s waist and nestled his face into the crook of Lucas’s neck.

The sight of her son wrapped like a baby monkey around the strong, handsome cowboy pierced Nicolette’s heart. How many times had she wished that Samuel would hug Sammy, give the little boy any kind of attention and love?

“I’ll carry your bag,” she replied. She picked up the duffle, turned off the lights downstairs and then followed Lucas up the stairs, trying not to notice how his worn jeans fit so nicely across his backside.

She dropped the duffle bag just inside the room that held the two twin beds and watched as Lucas placed Sammy in the bed he’d been pulled from by her scream.

Lucas tucked the sheet around the boy and then walked back to Nicolette just outside the doorway. “You can sleep peacefully knowing that he’s safe with me,” he said.

“You have no idea how much I appreciate what you’re doing for us.”

He took another step closer to her, so close she could feel his body heat, and her head once again filled with his heady scent. Her mouth was unaccountably dry as she saw a flash of desire light the depths of his eyes.

She knew he intended to kiss her. She also knew she should step back from him, but her feet refused to move her to safety. Cassie’s advice about not getting close to anyone here was forgotten as she fell into the midnight blue yearning in Lucas’s eyes.

She didn’t see him move but found herself once again in his embrace, her breasts tight against his hard chest as his soft, warm lips claimed hers.

The kiss was like nothing she’d ever experienced before. Initially his lips were soft as butterfly wings against hers, and then the pressure increased and she couldn’t help but open her mouth to him, allowing him to deepen the kiss.

Shivers raced up her spine along with his slow caresses up and down her back. His tongue swirled with hers, dizzying her senses, and she leaned closer into him.

He kissed her with mastery, stealing away her will for anything else but to acquiesce to whatever he desired from her.

She felt as if she were on fire when his mouth left hers and trailed a blaze of nips and kisses down her jaw and in the hollow of her throat.

More. She wanted more, and the idea snapped her back into reality. And the reality was that she had no business kissing Lucas Taylor. She had no business allowing him to kiss her until her knees were weak and she wanted more from him, of him.

She stumbled backward and raised a hand to her lips. She stared at him with both a sense of wonder and a bit of fear...the fear of her own desire for him.

“Sorry,” he said as he took a step back from her. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

“We shouldn’t have done that,” she replied, dropping her hand to her side. His eyes still held a fire that tempted her closer, and it took every ounce of her willpower to stand her ground.

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