Page 23 of The Rancher’s Ecstasy

“You’ve not talked about him a lot.”

Cole smirked. “He's never really come up. We would start to, and you’d get bored and fall asleep.” He grunted when she jabbed her elbow into his stomach.

“Stop teasing and tell me.”

Cole chuckled. “His name is Thomas, and he’s great. You’ll really like him. He’s a lawyer in town but helps out here a lot.”

“And he’s Daisy’s father?”

“Yeah, he and his wife Mindy’s. She’s a sweetheart.”

“And they only had the one daughter?”

“Yes. They kept trying for more, but it didn’t happen.”

“Did you want more children?”

A stony silence fell. He continued to comb her hair, but his body was tight.

Emily instantly regretted asking when a look of sorrow crossed his face. “I’m sorry. It’s none of my business.”

Cole cupped her chin and raised it. “Actually, it is. I want us to know everything about each other. Even the things that make us sad.” He set the comb aside but stayed in front of her. His hips pressed against her legs as she sat on the cabinet. “My ex-wife Lisa didn’t want kids at all, but I didn’t know it until after Cain was born, and she tried to get the doctor to tie her tubes without talking to me about it. The doctor demanded that we both attend counseling before he agreed. By that time, it didn’t matter. I was never going to touch her again. So, I was dealing with the men and drugs, and then she really messed up. We divorced shortly after Cain’s birth when I caught her being rough with him one day when she was high on something. I never let her touch him again. Her parting words were, ‘I never wanted the brat to begin with.’”

Emily gasped, and her hand went to her mouth in shock. What mother could think that way about a precious baby, much less their own child?

“My husband was a little like that. He was disappointed when I had just girls. He wanted a son so bad. He didn’t abuse them, but he pretty much ignored them their whole lives. He never went to any of their functions, and I can’t remember him giving them any affection or praise.”

Another silence descended until Cole tipped her head back and placed his lips over hers. They both groaned at the contact. He deepened the kiss until her arms were wrapped around his neck and his hands held her tightly against him. One of his hands slid over her side and up to cup her breast through the towel.

Her head tilted to the side to give him deeper access as a fireball of need raced through her as his touch got bolder. Emily pressed her legs together as a throbbing unlike any she’d ever felt before began deep inside her and spread throughout her whole body.

Cole pulled back, tearing his mouth from hers and gasping for breath.

“We really shouldn’t mess around like this. You just got over the flu.”

She didn’t know the exact time she accepted his attention, his touches, or the fact she let him stay with her these last few days, but he’d gotten past all her walls and made her start to believe in herself and believe in him. Emily used her legs to pull him back to her. “I haven’t felt this rested in months. I was over the flu a day and a half ago. You just made me rest more than I normally would have.”

Cole groaned, and his mouth dropped, and he took her mouth hungrily. His tongue swiped in, moving in a way that made her cunt spasm.

She blinked a few times when he lifted his head.

“If you don’t want this to go farther, you need to tell me now because I’m a second away from laying you on the bed and tasting every part of you before I take you.”

Her hands gripped his biceps as she opened her eyes. Her tongue came out and tasted him on her lips, and she moaned low in the back of her throat. She made an incoherent sound of need and tried to pull him back.

He groaned. “I need you to answer me.”

Emily’s gaze locked on his as she nodded her head. “I want that ... want you very much.”

He had her swept up into his arms and spread on the bed before she took a full breath. Her hands covered her breasts when she saw the towel had been lost somewhere, and she was totally naked.

Cole stood and whipped the shirt off his back before unsnapping the button on his jeans and pulling the zipper down as his eyes swept over her.

“Don’t. Don’t hide from me. Not ever,” he crooned.

Emily took a deep breath, slid her hands to her sides, and straightened her legs. She only got a glimpse of his whole body before he lay over her, and what she saw both terrified her and pushed her passion higher.

He came over her, using his hips to make a place between her legs. He used his arms to lever himself up enough to take most of his weight. He lowered his head and took her mouth in another drugging kiss that left them both breathless.