couldn’t lead anywhere—that was the problem. Opportunities for real, lasting romance were lacking in this town and maybe she was tired of it. There weren’t a lot of men in Cole’s Hill that she would consider dating. Mainly because they were either ranchers like herself and busy with their own land, or she’d dated them in high school, or they weren’t her type. And she was here with Jason...Ace. It was hard to think of him as Ace.
“You’d think that I could just let go and have some mindless fun, but even now, with nothing left to lose, I can’t do it.”
He pulled her into his arms and hugged her. Just held her close. She wasn’t crying like she had been earlier. That flood of tears thankfully wasn’t near the surface. But the loneliness she’d felt lately, as she’d come to accept that her dad was truly gone, was back.
She turned her head to the side, rested her cheek against his chest and listened to his heartbeat. It was strong. Steady.
“Just once I want to be like one of those brash women on TV who takes what she wants and smiles as she resumes her normal life.”
“Aw, Molly,” Jason said, tipping her back and dropping a sweet, butterfly kiss on the end of her nose. “That’s not you.”
“More’s the pity,” she said.
He rubbed his thumb over her jawbone. His hands were firm but not rough. Not like hers, calloused and hardened from years of working with cattle and the land. As he touched her a slow heat began to burn deep inside. A shiver went from her jaw to her neck, then over her shoulder and down her arm. Her lips parted.
As Jason stared down at her, she wished she could read the expression in his eyes. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking, and she didn’t want to do something...what? Dumb? Too late. It had been too late since the moment her father’s attorney had revealed that she and Jason were jointly inheriting the Bar T. It had been too late since she’d realized he would be coming back and something feminine and needy had awoken inside of her.
She stared up at him, his eyes silvery pools in the dim light, and realized that she was a coward. All this wanting to be someone else wasn’t true to her. She was hiding because she was afraid.
She was twenty-nine. Well past the age when she’d thought she’d let fear drive her. She felt the wash of his breath over her and she closed her eyes—somehow everything seemed easier with her eyes closed. Then she felt his thumb rub over her bottom lip.
She sighed again.
He pulled her more fully against him, her breasts resting on his chest and their hips lightly touching. She felt the brush of his lips over hers. The intimacy of it heightened because the only senses she used at this moment were taste and touch. His body heat surrounded her. His arms were strong as he held her close.
His lips were warm and firm, and as he opened them over hers she let go and just experienced Jason. The way his tongue brushed hers slowly and then pulled back. The way he kept one hand gently on her shoulder, his finger stroking the pulse at the curve where her neck and shoulder met. The way he let the kiss develop between them with no rush or agenda.
She felt safe.
She felt like they could stand there all night rediscovering each other and the passion she’d been too young to really understand all those years ago.
She rubbed her tongue over his and he moaned a little, shifting her stance. He put one of his hands on her back and drew her even closer so that she was nestled in the cradle of his legs. He cupped her butt, caressing it through her jeans, and she shivered as sensation washed through her.
She put her hands on his hips, holding him as much to steady herself as to feel him. He was solid, muscled. And for the first time since he’d set foot back on the Bar T, she acknowledged that she wanted him, needed him to stay right here with her. But she knew he never would.
* * *
MOLLY FELT SO GOOD. He didn’t have a lot of time in his life for romance. He dated—well, if one-night stands and vacation flings could be called dating—but he had dreams that no woman could compete with. That had been true for longer than he could remember.
But Molly tempted him. She wasn’t casual—no matter how much he wanted to pretend otherwise. And he was tied to her and to this land until they could come up with a solution that would satisfy them both.
Then there was his health. He glanced up at the starry sky again and then cursed and closed his eyes. There was no place to run from this.
And at the moment Molly was the only thing that felt real to him.
He put his hands on her face. Felt the softness of her skin. The scent of her perfume surrounded him and his eyes drifted closed as he let go. Really let go of everything.
Her lips were soft under his, pliant. Her tongue rubbed over his and he sucked it gently into his mouth. One of his hands left her head and moved down her back, his fingers testing the resilience of her hips.
He groaned at the way her curves fit against him. It was as if she was custom-made for him the way his space suit was. He shifted back, lifting her off her feet.
She clung to him as she tipped her head and her tongue plunged deeper into his mouth. He hardened in a rush, rocking his hips forward until his erection was nestled at the top of her thighs.
Her legs parted and she wrapped them around his hips. He staggered backward and then realized there was nothing to lean against. He carefully knelt down and lowered Molly to the ground beneath him. He braced one hand on the soft grass and shifted so that he straddled her.
She turned her head to the side.
“My ponytail is uncomfortable,” she said.
He reached beneath her head and pulled out the elastic. Burying his fingers in her thick hair, he fanned it out around her head.
He stretched out next to her on the grass and drew her up on her side so that they faced each other.
“There’s an easier way to do this, but I wanted to see your hair down,” he said.
“Why?” she asked, her voice was quiet, shy almost.
Not the Molly who could tame a wild horse or quell an ornery ranch hand with just a glance. This was the woman he’d always wondered about. The one who sometimes wandered into his dreams before he sent her on her way.
“It’s beautiful.” He rubbed a few strands between his thumb and forefinger.
“No. It’s nothing special. Just sort of average.”
In her words he heard the implicit belief that she was average. And that shook him because she’d always been anything but.
“You know you’re not average,” he said.
“I think for this area of the country I am.”
“Nah, you stand out, Molly Tanner. You always have. Your eyes are like dark chocolate—a man could lose himself staring into those eyes—and your hair...it’s so silky and soft and I just want to bury my face in and breathe in the sweet strawberry scent.”
She stared at him. He wondered where the words were coming from, as well. Was he saying this because of the moonlight? Because for the first time in his entire life he had no idea what he was doing next and getting lost in Molly seemed like as good a path as any?
God, he really hoped not.
She watched him with eyes that asked too many questions he couldn’t answer, so he took her mouth in a kiss that was deep and filled with passion. That left no room for thinking—for either of them.
He pulled her into the curve of his body, felt her drape her thigh over his top leg and he nestled his throbbing cock against the center of her body.
The night deepened around them and still they lay there in the grass, kissing and caressing until his horse wandered over and nudged him in the back. He sat up and Molly sat up next to