A Fallow Heart (Tommy Creek #2)(63)

Even if she should.

She should stop this madness right now. Starting an affair with Cooper Gerhardt was a bad, bad idea. It couldn’t go anywhere except straight into painful, heartbreaking territory. Not only did they live so far apart, but they lived two different lives. Country and city wouldn’t mesh well for long before a million problems cropped up. And she’d want them to mesh. After last night, she knew she’d want more from him than was possible to take.

Then there was her inability to trust any man since Travis had dumped her. Getting too close to Cooper was dangerous.

But as he moved into the cab to crawl closer, she didn’t feel endangered. She felt alive, so very alive. She wouldn’t be able to say no if he continued what they’d already started.

Her heart thumped hard in her chest, but her brain kept short-circuiting, demanding her to stop.

With his light brown eyes intent on her face, he eased even closer on his knees.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone sit inside a combine wearing a skirt before.”

She trilled out a nervous laugh. “Oh, well…it’s this new thing I’m trying.” As if posing for a camera, she set her hand on her hip and fluttered her lashes. “What do you think?”

“I think I like it.”

Her breathing grew unsteady. He wouldn’t stop staring at her, and she couldn’t seem to look away either.

His dark lashes swept close to the tops of his cheeks as he slid his gaze low to her exposed calves before lifting his gaze back to her face. “So what about this old thing? Do you think my tractor’s sexy?”

Jo Ellen threw her head back and laughed. “Oh, Cooper,” she murmured on a thick voice. “Kenny Chesney couldn’t have said it better.”

When he grinned, she ran her fingers over his silken pale hair, delighting in his beautiful locks. “You make me smile,” she decided, though her grin fell as she studied the perfect features of his face—sensual dark lashes, full lush lips, defined, expressive cheekbones.

Everything with him was better than it had ever been with anyone else. She didn’t want it to end.

His brown eyes danced with pleasure as he rested his chin on her knee and drawled, “Well, you know what they say about us farm boys. We know how to make all the pretty girls smile.”

Heart tripping over emotions she didn’t want to acknowledge, she silently took his face in her hands. He met her gaze with a puzzled frown but didn’t ask questions as he let her draw him up in front of her so they were eye level.

“Are you ever going to give me that goodbye kiss?” she asked.

His eyes glittered as he smiled. With the slightest shake of his head, he said, “No.”

Jo Ellen blinked. “No?”

He shook his head again, more adamantly this time. “No,” he repeated. “A kiss goodbye would mean you have to leave. And I don’t want you to go.”

Good Lord, she didn’t want to either. This man did things to her; crazy, beautiful, wonderful things. He made her feel sexy, stronger, alive, cherished. She wanted to consume him whole and carry a piece of him around with her always so she could be this happy for the rest of her life.

Her fingers traced the outline of his face, delighting in the texture of his skin, the warmth and vitality emanating from him.

“How about we make it a kiss hello then,” she decided.

His lashes fluttered as he inhaled. “That,” he answered, “I can do.”

When his lips met hers, a shockwave of sensation seized her, catching every nerve ending in her body and wringing them taut with pleasure, and not just pleasure of the body either; pleasure of the soul.

She felt like she was finally home.

Behind them, the barn doors gaped open wide. Anyone could wander in; his mother, a rooster, some traveling salesman. But Jo Ellen didn’t care. The soft crush of his lips, the secure weight of his body as he embraced her, the achy groan that rippled from the base of his throat only made her want more of him. More of this and everything else he had to offer.

She opened her mouth against his and urged the kiss deeper, drawing him into oblivion. He tumbled with her, his mouth coaxed into participating as he sipped from her joy. When he finally pulled back, it took him a moment to open his eyes. His brows rose a full second before his lashes did. When he looked at her, the shock on his face made her laugh.

“Wow. That was…that was…not how I was expecting to spend my afternoon,” he admitted.

Giddy pleasure spread through her. She liked surprising him, liked placing that adorable awed and dazed look on his face. She liked how feminine and sexy he made her feel. Alive with vivacity and glad she no longer felt guilty about hurting him this morning, she rested her cheek on his shoulder and hugged him tight, unable to keep her hands off him. Tucked between the driver’s seat and the steering wheel right along with him, she pressed so close her toes curled with satisfaction. “Can I see you again?”

“Jesus,” he whispered, sounding almost scared. “This is a dream. I’m going to wake up now, aren’t I?”

She lifted her face and rolled her eyes at his horrified expression. Pinching his bicep, she announced, “Not a dream. So…can I see you again or not?”

He swallowed audibly, and then bobbed his head. “Yes. Hell, yes. You can see me again.”

“When?’ she prodded, hushing her voice as she lifted on her toes and drew his face closer to hers.