Brilliant rays of sunlight crept slowly across the bedroom. Cal blinked sleepily as they touched his face. His bedroom was west facing. Had he managed to fall asleep in his chair downstairs? He stretched and tried to decide why it didn’t feel like he was sitting up. Grogginess made it difficult to open his eyes or focus on pretty much anything but the fact that he seemed to be sleeping on a cloud. It was way softer than the sagging mattress in his parents’ old bedroom.

“Hey.”

Cal realized that there was a very warm body pressed up against him. They were both still clothed, but that didn’t matter. The fact was that he could recognize Jesse by her scent and her voice. He wrapped his arms more securely around her and gave her a gentle squeeze.

“Hey yourself,” he whispered. His throat felt raw, and his voice was coming out sounding like gravel.

Yesterday had been a hell of a day no matter how he looked at it. From having to drag his livestock out of that low spot to his conversation with Paul Weatherby about the thefts, the day had been long and stressful. But what Cal still could not wrap his head around was the fact that his father was dead.

“Cal?”

She squirmed in his arms until she was facing him. She was still in her jeans and T-shirt just like he was. He could feel her toes tickling his shins. Then she reached up and cupped his face in her soft hands. She gently traced the bridge of his nose and his eyebrows. Her fingers found their way to his jawline. She stroked her way down his neck toward his collarbone and the neck of his T-shirt.

Her touch was electric. The sheer emotion behind it left him unable to speak. So many things were swirling around inside of him. And soon enough, he felt the sting of tears. He had not cried in so long. A decade or more perhaps. It was foreign, and yet it felt so good to let the pressure out. It was almost as if he were in danger of exploding if he didn’t let it out somehow.

“Cal, your father passed away yesterday.” Her whisper was almost too much. “It’s okay to cry. It’s okay to care.”

He wanted to argue that it wasn’t. Joe Hernandez did not deserve that kind of farewell from his sons. The man had been hard in life. What right did he have to softness now that he had passed? But there was no closure. There was nothing to help Cal feel as if his father had finally heard him. The emptiness was a vast gulf inside his soul, and he wondered if the sensation would ever abate.

“I remember,” she began softly, “when my parents passed. The worst part of the whole thing was the speed of how it happened. There was no time to say that I was sorry for lying about cleaning my room. There was no time to ask my father why he had gotten so angry with me for taking Pixie out in the snow the day before. There was just no time. I couldn’t ask them the why or anything. It hurt.”

Cal felt as though his jaw was finally unlocked. He cleared his throat and managed to speak in a hoarse voice. “There were so many things I wanted to say to that man.”

“And now you can’t.”

Her simple words unlocked the floodgates. Sobs racked Cal’s body. He cried as though his heart was broken. The pillow was soaked, and he thought his hair might even be wet. He had never cried like this. He had never cried so hard or so furiously. But the whole time, he was utterly aware of Jesse’s gentle hands smoothing over his face and her soft voice telling him that it was all going to be okay.

Soon enough, the storm began to subside. Cal felt empty. His insides were hollow, and there was nothing left inside. Then he felt her lips skimming over his throat. The morning stubble on his neck and chin made the touch feel that much more dramatic, and a shiver shot down his spine. He loved the way it felt to be touched by her.

Jesse’s hands found his shoulders. She nuzzled the hollow of his throat and began to kiss his neck and the sensitive skin around his collarbone. Her lips moved up to his ears. The sound of her breathing was a tickling promise that made him absolutely sure that she was just as affected by this as he was.

“You taste good,” she murmured.

He started to answer, but the feel of her tongue flicking along his windpipe made him feel as though he were going to melt right into the bed. He wrapped his arms lightly around her body and let the feel of her curves against his palms lift his excitement just that much more.

It was difficult to decide what was happening right now between them. Cal knew what he wanted. His body was crass and thought in absolutes. He knew how much physical desire he felt for Jesse. But this was not about that. And as he moved his mouth toward hers, he told himself that this was about love and respect and that beautiful connection he had been feeling between him and Jesse for more than a decade.

Cal nudged Jesse onto her back. He took her mouth in a deep, drugging kiss that made his toes curl and his heart pound. She made tiny noises in the back of her throat that drove him wild. He lightly ran the tip of his tongue along the seam of her lips. She parted them on a soft sigh, and he felt her tentatively reach out with her own tongue.

The feel of his tongue tangling slowly and languorously with hers was incredible. He loved the way it felt, and her taste was even better than he’d ever imagined it would be. There was something so spicy and so absolutely feminine about this woman. She was tougher and stronger than anyone he’d ever known. Her emotional range was shocking, and yet when he tasted her like this, she was nothing but softness and love.

Cal ran his hand up from her waist over her ribs. The tight muscle of her abdomen was erotic. He could feel each and every rib. His fingers gently brushed against the warmth of her side though there was still a layer of cotton between them. He felt the strap of her bra, and excitement wound its way through his system. Blood rushed through his veins. His skin grew even more sensitized, and he felt as though they were standing on top of a cliff with nothing but a sheer drop below.

The sense of being on the edge of something huge was overwhelming. Cal gently moved his hand toward Jesse’s breast. He cupped the softness and marveled at the way it filled his hand to perfection. He ran his thumb lightly over her nipple. Through the fabric of her bra and her T-shirt, he felt it begin to swell and plump. Circling the bud with his thumb, he felt her areola begin to pucker. He thought warmly about her lovely body and her wonderful mind. He kissed her deeply and heard her moan against his lips to tell him how much she really loved the way it felt to be touched by him.

She broke away from their kiss and arched her back to push her breast against his palm. “You’re driving me crazy!” she gasped. “I’ve never felt like this!”

“So, you like it?” He could not help but tease. “Because I couldn’t really tell.”

“Is that right?” Her low laugh sent a riot of chills across his skin. “Because I think I could make you feel it if I wanted to.”

“Oh, really?” He loved the playfulness that had always existed between them. Nobody had ever been so comfortable around him. Not like Jesse. “I think it’s time to prove it.”

She laughed and squirmed beneath him until she managed to push him first to his side and then to his back. Jesse pounced on him. She threw her leg over his waist and pulled herself astride his body. Placing her hands flat on his chest, she stared down at him.

The impish gleam in her dark eyes took his breath away. He felt the heat and weight of her right across his groin. It was exciting, but he was so willing to wait and to enjoy this moment. Right here and right now, this was all he wanted.

Jesse wriggled on top of him. “Now. You’re my prisoner.”

“And what are you planning to do with me?” He couldn’t wait to hear what she came up with. Just about anything sounded good.

She slowly leaned forward until her breasts were just barely touching his chest. He felt as though he could not breathe. Then she put her lips against his chin and bit lightly against the flesh and bone.

It didn’t hurt. It was strangely erotic and exciting all at the same time. Her lips traveled over his jaw. She nibbled and nipped her way toward his ear. Then she bit down on the sensitive lobe just before she used her tongue to trace the shell of his ear. He shivered. Every ounce of his focus was centered on this woman.

The way she touched him was absolutely driving him wild. She kneaded his shoulders and dragged her nails over the cotton of his T-shirt. She plucked at his nipples through the fabric until he was grunting and groaning and feeling crazed like some bull that had no other purpose but to procreate.

She began rocking against him as she gently lowered her mouth toward his. Her lips barely brushed his mouth. She lightly licked his lips before biting him and then smoothing her tongue over the same area over and over again until he thought he was going to melt.

Finally, she groaned and sank deeply into a kiss that left him grabbing the sheets and blankets to keep himself from flinging her onto her back so that he could ravish her. He struggled to maintain control. This was not about him. It was about them. He wanted so badly for her to feel comfortable. There would be time enough for other things later, once all of the insanity was over. For now, he just wanted this woman to know that she was the one he wanted.

Finally, her kisses grew slower and almost lazy. She lay flat on his chest with her cheek pressed against his shoulder and her nose buried in the hollow of his neck. Her hands idly traced inane patterns against his biceps. And he wrapped his arms around her and gave her a warm hug to hold her close.

“What are you thinking?” he whispered.

“I’m thinking that I can’t believe I’ve never felt like this about anyone else.” Her words weren’t a surprise, but it always bothered him to think of her with anyone but him. “People have been telling me almost my whole life that if I would just open my heart, I’d find someone else to make me happy.”

“And what do you believe about that?” Cal murmured.

She sighed and kissed his neck. “I think that I’ve tried to hang out with other guys. I’ve gone on dates. I’ve been with a few—well, I guess you call them lovers, right? And I know I’m only twenty-one. It’s not like I’ve met a whole lot of people in my twenty-one years on this planet, but the people I have met just don’t come close to making me feel like this.”

His heart did a double tap. “I know what you mean.” He thought about the few other girlfriends he’d had. There had never been this driving urge to be with them. It was all primal and over quickly. Any interest he felt in them burned out just as quickly as it flared to life in the first place. “You’ve been on my mind for a very long time, and I just don’t think that I want that to change.”

“I remember watching you go out on dates,” she whispered. It felt like a confession of sorts. “I hated those girls. I hated that they got to go out with Cal. I thought of you as mine. It was kind of silly.”

He snorted. “No sillier than a nineteen-year-old who takes one look at an eleven-year-old and cannot stop thinking that someday she is going to be one hell of a woman.”

“Nowadays they’d call you a pedophile.”

He growled. “I hate that thought. I hate the idea that people think that about me or make what I feel for you dirty. I was so careful not so sway you. I didn’t want you to have some kind of thoughts about me back then. I wanted you to grow up and be happy and healthy. I only allowed myself to get involved when it seemed like you’d totally lost your way and there was nobody else to help you find it.”

“I understand.” She sighed. “You were never creepy. You were never inappropriate.” There was a long pause. He could tell she was having weighty thoughts. She was drumming her fingers rhythmically against his upper arm. Finally, the drumming paused. “I also cannot believe that I could feel this way about someone who is biologically related to me. It just doesn’t make sense. Wouldn’t there be some biological aversion going on? Wouldn’t my heart tell me it was wrong?”

“You’re not related to me,” Cal said firmly. “I don’t believe it, and that paternity test is going to prove it.”

She sighed. “On that note. We should really get up and get around. Huh? You have that early meeting with your brothers, and I don’t know about you, but I need some real food.”

“Real food would be good.” Cal started laughing.

She smacked his arm and sat up. “What are you laughing at? It’s rude.”

“I was just thinking that one of the most attractive things about you is the fact that you actually eat. I don’t know what it is about women, but they think that they can’t eat real food. Then they think that they can’t even admit that they have thoughts about eating real food. It’s all very sad, really.”

“Well, this girl loves food.” She patted her chest. Then she gave him a very pointed look. “So, this man”—she put her index finger against his sternum—“had better get this woman some grub. You know? If he’s going to be all chivalrous and crap.”

“Chivalrous and crap?” He shook his head. “You have such a way with words.”

“I know, right?” She winked at him, and Cal was pretty sure that whatever bit of his heart she hadn’t already stolen now belonged to her.