“Great timing. Dinner’s done.”

“Good. That looks mighty tasty. Thanks for cookin’.”

“You’re welcome.” Weren’t they civilized and polite? What happened to the heated looks and his suggestion of taking her to bed? Why didn’t he suggest they skip supper and head straight for dessert?

Why don’t you take a chance and tell him what’s really on your mind?

Kade shoveled in a forkful of rice and chewed. “This is good. What’s the spice?”

“I added fresh savory.”

“Mmm. That it is.”

He ate. She ate. They finished the meal in uncomfortable silence.

She started to clean up the dishes and declined his offer to help.

Finally, he said, “You gonna tell me what’s wrong?”

She slammed the cupboard door. “I don’t know.”

“Could you at least give me the courtesy of lookin’ at me when we’re talkin’, sweetheart?”

Skylar wheeled around. “We aren’t talking, Kade.”

“Is that the problem?”

“Maybe.”

“Only one way to rectify that, Skylar. If you have some to say to me, spit it out.”

“Fine. For lack of a better term, we’ve been playing house for over two weeks.”

“Playin’ house? Is that what you think we’re doin’?”

“Isn’t it? And despite the fact you’re living with me, you’re in my bed, today you came into my plant and tried to charm the pants off me in front of my employees.”

Kade lifted both brows. “Does that make you mad?”

“Yes, it does. I sound like a total idiot, but yeah, it makes me wonder why you don’t use that silver tongue on me when we’re alone.”

“Where exactly do you want me to use my tongue on you, darlin’?”

Everywhere. “You know that’s not what I meant. And it doesn’t help my self-image when I realize we’ve been sleeping in the same damn bed for almost three weeks and…”

“And what?”

Just say it. Calmly. Confidently. With dignity. She blurted out, “And why haven’t you so much as laid a single hand on me?”

He blinked several times. “Come again?”

“You heard me. You asked for honesty, there it is.”

“Yeah? Well, I asked you to marry me, remember?”

“And I said no. That doesn’t answer my question.”

Kade wiped a cloth napkin across his mouth with deliberate slowness. “The reason I haven’t done anything more than sleep next to you in that bed is because I’m followin’ your lead, Sky. You never indicated that’s what you wanted.”

“You haven’t acted like you’re interested, McKay.”

“Wrong. I would’ve fucked you on the couch the first night I moved in. I would’ve spread you out on every goddamn surface in this kitchen morning, noon and night. I would’ve banged you on the concrete floor of your herb room until my knees bled the second I saw you today, in another one of them sexy-assed dresses you always wear.

“I want you like crazy. It don’t matter to me where, but it sure as hell matters when, because I ain’t gonna start nothin’ with you until you’re ready to get into an intensely physical relationship with me.”

Skylar’s belly flipped at the words intensely physical relationship. “Being a true cowboy gentleman, are you?”

“I’m sure as hell tryin’, because that’s what you told me you wanted from the get-go.

It ain’t easy as I thought it’d be.”

Rather than admit she was wrong for demanding his stupid gentlemanly behavior, she taunted, “So is that why I caught you jacking off in the shower this morning?”

His eyes glittered. “Me jackin’ off was in direct response to the show you were puttin’ on in the middle of the damn bed about five minutes before that.”

“What show?”

“I’m not supposed to react when you’re diddlin’ yourself in your sleep?” Kade leaned forward. “I watched you come. It was hot as the Fourth of July. Made me hard as a fuckin’ brick. And rather than risk wakin’ up Eliza and goin’ all caveman on you, poundin’ your luscious body clear through that mattress, I took matters into my own hands. Because sweetheart, I’ve had a lot of experience with that in the last year.”

Kade thought her body was luscious? Skylar stared at him. Turned on, turned inside out. “You haven’t been with anyone?”

“Not since you…not since the night Eliza was conceived in my truck in Ziggy’s parking lot.”

She whispered, “Me either.”

Kade stood so fast the chair crashed to the floor.

“No one has touched me since that night.” As he stalked her, she backed up until her lower back connected with the counter edge. “Well, I mean, I’ve been touched. I had to be when pregnant and giving birth, but no one…no man…except that one male nurse…oh God, I’m not making any sense am I?”

Her gentleman cowboy was right in her face. A sexy menace. A man out of patience.

“Skylar.”

“What?”

“Shut up.”

And then he slammed his mouth down on hers and kissed her.

Chapter Eight

Kade kissed her as thoroughly as he’d been dying to.

His hands were buried in her soft hair; his body was pressed tightly to hers until not a sliver of daylight remained between them. He ate at her deliciously sweet mouth, nibbling, licking, leaving tiny love bites on her lips. Sucking on her tongue. Drawing the scent and the taste of her down his throat and into his lungs like food and air.

Skylar opened her mouth wider, attempting to swallow him whole. Her tongue grew hotter, wetter, more insistent. She clutched his shoulders. Her nails dug through his T-shirt and gouged his skin. Whimpering noises vibrated from her throat into his mouth and traveled down his torso to settle in his already hard cock. His prick damn near saluted when she’d confessed to spying on him as he’d whacked off in the shower.

His hands untangled from her hair and Kade went straight for her tits. Still kissing her, he made short work of the buttons on her dress.

Kade trailed his lips down her flawless neck. “You taste as smooth here as I remember. Way better than chocolate cake. Remember what I said I’d like to do with the frosting? ”

“You always pick lousy times to have a conversation, McKay.”

He chuckled. Her abundant breasts were straining against the fabric and he couldn’t get them free. “Undo this damn bra for me, Sky, so I can put my mouth on you.”

She batted away his fumbling fingers. Something snapped and those perfectly soft mounds fell into his waiting hands.

“Oh yeah. Gimme.” Kade swept his thumbs across her rosy nipples, placing open-mouthed kisses on the upper swells of her breasts. Rubbing his cheeks and lips and jaw against her bared flesh, feeling her whole body quiver in response. Watching her face, he closed his mouth over her left nipple and sucked. Hard.

Sky arched back and released a strangled moan.

He worshipped the tits he’d been fantasizing about for months. Teasing her, pleasing himself. He was in no mood to be rushed. He suckled her nipples softly, then with unrestrained zeal. Tweaked them with his fingertips. Nipped the tips with his teeth as he held the weight of them together. Squeezing and tonguing, imagining sliding his cock in the slippery valley of her cleavage. Kissing them, loving the fullness and her responsiveness to his every touch.

“Kade. Enough. I-I can’t think.”

“Good.” He scattered kisses up to her lips and stared into her eyes, letting her see the hunger raging inside him.

Don’t be a gentleman; be a real man. Tell her straight up.

“I wanna make love to you, Sky.”

Make love? What the hell happened to “I wanna fuck your brains out, baby” ?

“I want you too,” she whispered against his mouth. “In a bed this time. Do you have a condom?”

Kade tasted the smooth skin of her jawline. “I have a whole goddamn box. Let’s go.”

He guided her upstairs. They stopped in front of the door to the bedroom where Eliza was sleeping. Skylar’s nervousness was obvious and he softly touched her cheek. “How about we do this in the guest bedroom across the hall?”

She nodded.

“I’ll grab the condoms. And if you ain’t in there, make no mistake, I will rip this house apart lookin’ for you.” Kade sprinted to the bathroom. He dug through his shaving kit for the stash and was back at the door to heaven in under a minute.

With the shades drawn and the hall light off, the room was completely dark when he stepped inside. “Where’s the light switch?”

“Doesn’t matter. The bulb is burned out.”

“Don’t you have a lamp in here or something?”

“Kade, I’m in the middle of the bed completely naked. Do you really want to talk about the lack of lighting?”

“Nope.” He stripped to skin. “But I’ll admit I’d hoped to see more of you this time than last time.”

“You can feel as much of me as you want.”

He walked in a straight line until his shins hit solid wood. “Fuck. That hurt.”

“Come up here and I’ll kiss it and make it better.”

“I’m holdin’ you to that.” He crawled on the bed to find Skylar was indeed, totally buck-ass bare and in her usual position—right smack dab in the center of the bed. “You do know you’re a bed hog, right?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You. See, a week or so back, you started snugglin’ into me in the dead of the night.

At first I thought it was because you liked bein’ close to me.” Kade’s fingers circled her ankle and he slid her right leg aside to crawl between her thighs. “I hoped that was your way of sayin’ you wanted me.” He kissed the top of her foot, jangling the bells on her ankle bracelet. “Then I realized you were used to havin’ the bed to yourself and didn’t wanna share. Snugglin’ into me was your way of pushin’ me out of your space.”