In the Arms of the Rancher. Jan Colley
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but more a promise. “Good night, Kate.” He stepped back. “Now, go inside and lock up.”
Barely breathing and not thinking at all, Kate went inside, unlocked the lobby door and ran up the stairs to her second-floor apartment, completely forgetting the elevator.
As Hawk slid behind the wheel of the rental, he glanced up at the building just as lights went on in the second-floor front apartment.
Staring at the glow through the sheer curtains on the windows, Hawk propped his elbows on the steering wheel.
Kate.
Surprisingly, as his lips had barely touched her own, there was still a shimmering trace of her taste on his mouth, an unfamiliar twinge in his chest. He rather liked it. Smiling as a shiver raced up his spine, Hawk switched on the engine and drove back to the hotel he’d booked on the Vegas Strip.
Not twenty minutes after leaving his car key with the valet, Hawk was in bed, lost in fantasies of Kate, her lithe, equally naked form close to his.
Hawk woke suddenly, his skin chilled beneath a fine film of perspiration. He was cold, hot and frustrated. He hadn’t even realized he’d fallen asleep, only to suddenly awaken right at the most intense part of his fantasy dream. He was aching with need.
Knowing he had to take drastic measures to cool the passion pouring through him, he dragged his body from the bed and headed for the bathroom.
Damn, he hated cold showers.
Kate stood at a side window, one hand flicking the curtain aside an inch or so. Gliding her tongue over her lips, she watched until she could no longer see the car.
She could taste him.
Ridiculous, Kate told herself and let the curtain fall back into place. That mere brush of his mouth over hers had been the furthest thing from a kiss she had ever experienced. She walked to the bedroom. Why in the world would she think she could taste him? Testing, she again slid her tongue along her bottom lip and snivelled.
No, it wasn’t ridiculous; she really could taste him, and she liked the taste very much. Kate feared that a real deep kiss from Hawk could very likely be addictive…like rich dark chocolate.
A real deep kiss from Hawk. She replayed the thought inside her head. Swallowing to moisten her suddenly parched throat, she began to undress, her hands fumbling with the simple routine. She mumbled a mild curse to herself.
She had just managed to remove her blouse when the phone rang.
Hawk? Kate froze, her heart beating wildly. It rang again. Not bothering to look at the caller ID, she snatched it up, nearly dropping it. Drawing a quick breath in an attempt to keep a tremor from her voice, she said, “Hello.”
“Who was he?” Jeff snarled.
Kate went cold and stiff. “That is none of your business.” She wouldn’t so much as say his name.
“Yes, it is,” he snapped back at her. “You’re mine and you know it.”
“I never was yours,” she said icily. “And I broke up with you months ago, as you well know.”
“You were in a snit.” He was back to the snarl. “And—”
“No,” she said, cutting him off. “You were being verbally and emotionally abusive…again.”
“I’m not giving up, Kate. I know you love me.” His voice was suddenly soft, cajoling, “I’ll get you back.”
“I’ve been patient up until now, Jeff,” she stated flatly, finally saying his name, anger stirring in her voice. “If you bother me again, I’ll report you to the police. And this time I mean it.”
“Sure,” he said in honeyed tones. “You mean it every time, which only tells me you don’t mean it.”
Kate drew a deep breath in an attempt to control her anger. How in the world had she ever thought that syrupy tone was attractive? Now it repulsed her. He repulsed her.
“I have only three words for you, Jeff,” she began.
“Yeah, I know,” he replied smoothly, interrupting her. “Like I told you, you love me.”
“Go to hell.” She hung up on him.
Kate stood trembling, staring warily at the phone as if it might attack her.
Damn him. Damn him. Damn him.
She had had enough. Tomorrow morning she would see a lawyer about reporting him to the authorities and would take out a restraining order against him.
Although Kate had never done so before, in case there happened to be an emergency in her family, she was so uneasy that she disconnected the landline and turned off her cell.
After she was ready for bed, she still felt shaken by the call and so she checked the locks on the front door, even though no one could go beyond the lobby without a card key. Then she double-checked the locks on the patio door and on every window.
Kate lay in bed for some time, unable to sleep. When she finally drifted off, she drifted right into a dream. Not of Jeff and fear, but of Hawk and unbelievable pleasure.
He came to her softly, murmuring of the exciting delights to be found in the joining of their bodies. She sighed in her sleep, her body moving in sensual restlessness.
She wanted, needed, ached for his touch, the feel of his mouth taking passionate control of hers, for his hard body possessing, owning, her own.
Kate woke, trembling, quivering deep inside her body, her breathing harsh and uneven. She kicked the covers away from her perspiration-slicked body. Never had she had a dream so real, so vivid that it actually brought her close to release in her sleep.
Her breathing slowly returning to normal, she sat up, staring into the dimness of her bedroom, her mind and senses still reeling.
While it was true that it had been some time since she had been intimate with a man—she would not think his name—it seemed unreal to Kate that a dream of a man she had so recently met and knew practically nothing about, not simply a dream of a fantasy man, could affect her to her very core. Her thoughts ebbed as sleep claimed her once more.
To her surprise, Kate woke later refreshed, if still a bit anxious.
What was with her, anyway? Kate asked herself, musing on her unusual reaction to Hawk. Yes, he was extremely attractive and fun to be with, not to mention sexy as hell. But he was just another man…wasn’t he?
Shying away from the thought, Kate centered her attention on the business at hand. Going to the phone, she reconnected the landline and dialed Vic’s home number.
Lisa was happy to oblige with the name of a good attorney, as she had been after Kate to swear out a restraining order against Jeff ever since Kate had thrown him out of her apartment.
Minutes later, Kate had an appointment for the next morning with the attorney Lisa had recommended, an older-sounding man named Edward Bender. It was a start.
Chapter Four
Even though she knew the time of Hawk’s arrival, Kate jumped when the buzzer rang from the intercom in the lobby. Fortunately she had just finished swiping her lashes with the mascara wand, or she would have had a very strange black streak across her temple.
Grabbing her purse and a Black Watch plaid wrap that complemented her off-white dress, she flipped the button and spoke into the wall-mounted receiver.
“Hawk?”
“Yes.” His sexy, low voice gave her an all over tingly sensation.
“I’m coming right down.”
Without waiting for a response, Kate switched on a night light, locked the door and headed for the elevator.
She had felt an attraction to him from the moment he had walked into