A Husband Made In Texas. Rosemary Carter
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washed your back, Kaitlin.’
Glad that her face was turned from his, she closed her eyes for a brief moment. It horrified her to realize that despite her resolve not to let him get to her, his sexual attraction was as powerful as ever. More powerful even.
‘Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten, Kaitlin.’
‘That was different,’ she muttered unsteadily.
Then you do remember.’
Kaitlin swallowed hard. ‘You know what happened, Flynn. I’d fallen, my back was all scratched up. It... It was important to get the grit out of the scratches. It could have gotten infected...’
‘Your parents were out and you sneaked me into the house.’
‘Yes...’
‘You got into the bath.’
‘The way you make it sound! I had my clothes on, Flynn.’ Tersely she added, ‘To begin with, anyway. And when I did get undressed, it was only because my blouse was getting so wet.’
Flynn laughed, a low husky sound that made her shiver. ‘I’ll never forget the moment when you stripped.’ His voice deepened. ‘I can still feel your soapy skin beneath my fingers.’
As she could still feel his fingers sliding over her wet skin: sexy, and so exciting that her body had burned with desire for him.
Involuntarily, Kaitlin’s eyes went to Flynn’s hands. When she lifted her head a moment later, she found him watching her, his expression enigmatic. Did he know what she was thinking?
‘That’s enough!’ Kaitlin ground out hoarsely.
But Flynn ignored the protest. Closing the distance between them, he cupped her face in his hands. ‘I was washing your back, and it didn’t take long before I was wet, too. And then I was in the bath with you, and—’
‘There wasn’t much water in the bath,’ she reminded him hoarsely. ‘And whatever you may be trying to insinuate now, you were only trying to help me.’
The pressure of the fingers on her face increased, sending shock waves of excitement cascading through her. Flynn said, ‘It might have been that way at the start. But you wanted more than my help, even if you were playing for time. We both did.’
Restlessly Kaitlin shifted her feet, only to regret the movement when she found that it brought her closer to Flynn. Though he was only holding her face, she was aware of every inch of the long body, from the rock-hard chest to the corded muscles of his legs. She felt his breath stir her hair.
A sudden fire burned deep in her loins. She couldn’t remember the last time she had been so aware of the demands of her own body. Aware of a man... For the last year she had barely thought of men: there were so many other, more serious matters on her mind.
‘If I’d had my way, Kaitlin, we’d have filled the bath to the top and lain together in the water. And then we’d have made love.’
‘Don’t you know that you can’t rewrite history?’ It took all her strength to keep her voice from shaking.
‘Maybe not, but it’s always possible to create new history. ’
Flynn’s voice was almost unbearably seductive. Inside Kaitlin the fire was turning into a conflagration. But she didn’t want to be aroused Not when the man was Flynn.
‘New history? Oh no, I don’t think so,’ she said, as firmly as she could.
‘Do you remember how we used to kiss, Kaitlin? Don’t shake your head at me, because I know you remember.’
For some reason she seemed unable to move away from him: it was as if her brain refused to send the right messages to her legs. ‘Flynn—’
‘But kissing was never enough. We both wanted so much more.’
She couldn’t deny it, because they had talked about it so often. God, how she had wanted to make love with him! Two young people, madly attracted to each other. Kaitlin, just turned eighteen, Flynn going on twenty-four. Hormones crying out to each other. Standing so close to him, listening to the things he said, the desire she had experienced then gripped her again now. The intensity of her feelings shocked her.
‘It all happened so long ago,’ she said over a dry throat. ‘I don’t see any point in rehashing it.’
But Flynn persisted. ‘You said we had to wait another week, I thought we’d already waited as long as we had to.’
She had wanted be quite certain of his commitment before letting him make love to her. A lifetime commitment. What better time to announce their engagement than on the night of her party? They hadn’t exactly decided on an engagement—at least not in so many words—but they had spoken so often of marriage. Kaitlin had been as sure of Flynn’s feelings for her as she was of hers for him.
‘I remember...’ she said.
‘And then your parents drove up when we weren’t expecting them.’
He came closer still. His lips were temptingly near hers: another half inch and their mouths would be touching. It would be so easy to kiss him. Just in time, she remembered what had happened on her horse an hour earlier, and how humiliated she had been by Flynn’s reaction. She was in no mood for another rejection.
She threw back her head. ‘You made a quick exit that afternoon,’ she taunted.
‘Your father would have gone for his gun if I hadn’t.’
Her father had been possessed of a hot temper. ‘He’d have done just that,’ she agreed.
Flynn’s hand dropped from her chin, leaving a warm spot where it had been. He took a step backwards.
‘The hired help having the gall to make love to the boss’s daughter.’ His lips tightened, and for a moment there was an expression of intense anger in his eyes. ‘What you should know, Kaitlin, is that I’m not the naive young cowboy I was then. It’s been a long time since I’ve been intimidated by anyone. I don’t run any longer.’
The sureness in his tone caught her: it was as unfamiliar to her as the suggestion of arrogance and the striking look of success. This older, tougher, devastatingly attractive Flynn was not the handsome young cowboy who had left the ranch five years earlier, taking her heart with him.
Flynn had always been attractive, but now his sexuality was as much a part of him as a second skin: coupled with that aura of danger which never seemed to leave him, it made for a potent combination.
Kaitlin. lifted her chin in a challenge of her own. ‘You never run, Flynn? Not even when a man comes after you with a gun?’
‘Not even then.’
‘Sounds as if you’ve had your share of adventure. You must have quite a love-life.’ A deliberately bright smile hid Kaitlin’s pain.
He grinned. ‘Put it this way, I’ve learned to handle myself. Men like your father don’t frighten me.’
Looking at the rugged face of her first love—her only love, if she was honest with herself—it was easy to believe that there wasn’t a person alive who could frighten him.
‘I won’t run away next time I want you, Kaitlin.’
Kaitlin—and how many other women? For Flynn had not denied having an active love-life. ‘There won’t be a next time,’ she warned.
‘There could be.’
She increased the distance between them. ‘No.’
‘Why not?’
‘No reason why there should be. We live in different worlds, Flynn.’
‘That again—Kaitlin Mullins and the hired man,’ he mocked.
She threw him a fierce look. ‘You’re not a hired man, you’ve