Tempted by the Texan

She wanted Jaron to admit what she had suspected all along—that his strong reaction to the situation had been because of her and not just his sense of gallantry. “You’d have done the same if it had been any other woman?” she pressed.

“It wasn’t.” He clamped his mouth shut and stared at her for a moment before he slowly nodded. “Probably.”

“But it wasn’t just any woman, was it?” she said, moving closer to him. She couldn’t believe her audacity. But if she was going to get to the bottom of things, she had to start somewhere. “It was me.”

“Yeah.” He didn’t look happy about his admission.

“You want to know what I think?” she whispered close to his ear.

He went as still as a marble statue. “You’re going to—” he cleared his throat “—tell me no matter what I say, aren’t you?”

“Of course.” Kissing the side of his neck, she smiled when she felt him shudder. “You’re fighting a losing battle, cowboy.”

“Mariah, I don’t think—” He stared at her as if he waged war within himself. He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them and wrapped his arms around her. “Oh, hell, I give up.”

Before she could ask what he meant, Jaron pulled her onto his lap and fused his mouth with hers. Bringing her arms up to his wide shoulders, she held on to his solid strength as she kissed him back.

Tiny sparkles of light danced behind her closed eyes as his lips moved over hers, and when he coaxed her to allow him entry, she couldn’t think of anything she wanted more than for him to deepen the kiss. At the first touch of his tongue to hers, a warmth like nothing she’d ever felt before settled in the most feminine part of her. Apparently he was experiencing the same kind of heat, because there was no denying the evidence of his hard arousal pressing insistently against the side of her hip.

Keeping his arms wrapped tightly around her, he shifted them to a more comfortable position and Mariah found herself stretched out on the couch with Jaron lying partially on top of her. With one of his thighs nestled snugly at the apex of her legs, desire streaked through her veins and caused a flutter of anticipation deep in the pit of her stomach. She wanted him, hadn’t stopped wanting him since the night they made love. With sudden clarity, she knew she always would.

As he continued to explore her with a tenderness that robbed her of breath, he moved his hand from her shoulders down to cup her breast. The delicious sensation of his gentle touch as he teased the tip with the pad of his thumb caused her to feel as if her insides had been turned into hot wax. When he broke the contact to nibble kisses down the column of her throat to her collarbone, the tiny moan she’d been holding back escaped her parted lips.

“Does that feel good?” he asked as his lips skimmed her sensitive skin.

“It feels...amazing,” she gasped.

“We shouldn’t be doing this, Mariah,” he said against her sensitive skin.

Placing her palms on either side of his face, she raised his head to meet her determined gaze. “I swear, if you stop...I’ll never speak to you...again,” she warned breathlessly.

His low chuckle sent a wave of energy to her core and she pressed herself more fully into him. As he continued to tantalize the tight peak through the layers of her clothing, Mariah shivered from the feel of his hard arousal against her thigh. He wanted her as much as she wanted him.

“I have something that I need to go check on down at the barn, darlin’,” he said suddenly, sounding as if he had run a marathon. Getting up from the couch, he pulled her up to stand in front of him and softly kissed her forehead. “I’ll be back a little later,” he added, stepping away from her.

“After you cool off?” she asked point-blank.

He stared at her a moment before he silently nodded.

“Jaron, I want you to do something for me while you’re out in the barn,” she said as she brushed her hair from her eyes.

“What’s that?”

“I want you to think about what I told you earlier,” she replied, picking up her shoes to go upstairs. “You’re fighting a battle you can’t win. You can deny it all you want, but you want me as much as I want you and this is going to continue to happen as long as I’m living here.” She shook her head. “And unless you fire me, I’m not going anywhere.”

“I’m not firing you,” he said without a moment’s hesitation.

“Then, I suggest you come to terms with what’s going on between us,” she advised. “Because there’s always been more than just friendship, and we both know it.”