Page 37 of Her Boss, Her Rancher: Sunrise On The Ranch

She laughed, her breath soft and cool against his heated skin. She shifted in his lap, curling up and laying her head against his shoulder. “Spend the night with me.”

He languidly stroked a hand up and down her spine. “I’d prefer you spend the night withme. That way when you get up in the morning and come out of the main house, there won’t be talk, since no one’s aware you’ve moved into the cabin except...me.” And Eli, but he refrained from adding that little tidbit, the knowledge not sitting well with him that he’d have to explainhowEli knew. When she stiffened slightly, he pressed on. “I want tonight with you, Emma. A whole night with you in my arms, your body under mine.” When she didn’t immediately answer and she definitely didn’t relax, he pressed harder. “Please, Emma. Give me tonight.”

Silence hung heavy, and Cade’s heart constricted. He had to have tonight because she’d be leaving him in a week. He’d forgotten. In the midst of finding such an enormous and unexpected measure of happiness, he’d set aside the fact it was temporary. For the first time in his life, he didn’t want temporary. He wanted a chance. He wanted the opportunity to convince her to stay with him beyond the terms of her contract.

But above all? He wanted her to want him, to need him, the same way he wanted and needed her.

She drew a breath.

“Okay.”

12

EMMALAYINCade’s bed and watched him, still wet from the shower, as he pulled clothes out of the dresser. He was aware she watched him and acted with absolutely zero inhibitions. It made her want to pinch his—very fine—butt. She refrained. Barely.

Dressed, he sat on the edge of the bed and smiled when she couldn’t stop a jaw-cracking yawn. “You should get a little more rest, sweetheart.”

Sweetheart.He’d called her that last night. She was still grinning, may have never stopped. “You’re just trying to keep me from going to the cabin.”

“Maybe.” He traced his thumb over her kiss-swollen lips. “I like seeing you here, pale skin barely covered by sheets I’m partially responsible for rumpling, lips red and a little swollen from my kisses, the faint flush of annoyance creeping up your neck, your hair sticking out like a hedgehog’s.”

A surprised laugh escaped. “You had me right up to the ‘hedgehog’ comment.”

Cade waggled his brows. “Maybe I have a thing for hedgehogs. Stranger things have happened to folks stranded out here in the wilderness.”

“Still, a hedgehog?” she said, reaching up to run her fingers through the lock of hair that had fallen over his forehead.

Cupping her face, he leaned forward and kissed her with a tenderness she wasn’t prepared for. His tongue teased her lips and, when she opened to him on a sigh, a deep sound of contentment echoed in his chest. He stroked her jaw, the smoothness of her skin so different from the rough pad of his thumb. That difference represented just one of the multitude of differences between them, differences that, even in morning’s early light, failed to matter to her. What mattered was this moment, this man and the fact he’d broken through walls she’d believed impenetrable.

He was the one to end the kiss, resting on his knees and scrutinizing her. Then his eyes flared and something akin to both terror and marvel passed over his face.

She propped herself on one elbow. “What?”

He shook his head and continued to stare.

“Stubborn man. What just went through your mind?”

Cade rubbed his lips carefully, seeming to weigh his words.

She waited.

He dropped his gaze before speaking. “My dad worshipped the ground my mother walked on. I don’t remember much about their marriage because, honestly, that kind of love was just normal. It was all I knew. Then he lost her.”

Emma took his hand and twined their fingers together, resting them against the sheets. “You all lost her, not just your dad.”

“It was different for him. He considered his loss somehow greater than ours.” He shrugged. “It was the first anniversary of her passing that he got stinkin’ drunk, raged about how he wished he’d never loved her, wished he hadn’t given his heart to her and let her take it to the grave when she left him. He cursed her that night, screaming at the night sky. I was just a boy.”

She squeezed his hand. “Who was never allowed to grieve.”

“Point is, all I heard was that love would screw you if it got the chance. Owe it a dime and it’d take your dollar without bothering to make change. You’d always lose more than you invested—you’d always come up short.”

Her heart skipped a beat.

He looked up, those just-blue eyes meeting hers, piercing her straight to the very center of who she was and compelling her to answer.

“My parents didn’t teach me anything about love. Everything I learned came from friends’ families and things I overheard. It confused me as a kid.” She tried to smile to soften the hard truth, but her lips only twitched. “I developed a much more universal concept of love as I grew up and watched friends fall in love, compared that to Hollywood’s version and snuck the occasional romance novel into the house.” Her chin lifted a fraction so she could face him head-on.

He still sat quietly. Staring at her.