Leaping Hearts(47)

Looking at the finished product, she almost threw it out but she’d come too far to back down and had hopes that something magical would happen in the oven. Heat didn’t improve the situation. When smoke came pouring out, on account of her having turned the knob to broil instead of bake, she took out the monster and recognized it for the nightmare it was.

She was Dr. Frankenstein, maker of horrors, A.J. thought, looking at the pan. But at least it had killed an hour.

After laying the hideous creation to rest in the compost heap out back, she returned to the kitchen and surveyed the tornado path of her efforts. Cleanup was going to be an involved project. While A.J. was wiping off sauce from the refrigerator, and wondering how she had managed to get it on its far side, she realized how much she was used to having Devlin around. The house seemed more than empty without him.

How could she be so attracted to the one person in her life who was off-limits?

He was an intoxicating man physically but there was more to it than that. During the past two weeks, she’d felt supported in a way she’d never been before. Always fiercely independent, she was someone who didn’t share her inner fears easily, and yet, confronted with Devlin’s strength, she’d found a way to be vulnerable. And he offered her a wealth of comfort. There seemed to be no end to what he would do for her.

With their common goal of getting her to the Qualifier on the stallion and the passion they had for each other, they connected in every way possible: professionally, physically, emotionally. It made sense.

Unlike her attempts at Italian cooking.

Getting down on her knees, A.J. began to corral the basil she’d spilled under the table onto a piece of scrap paper.

Except now she had to pick.

As a trainer, Devlin was superlative. Patient, exacting when he had to be, constantly supportive, an expert. As a lover? Well, she hadn’t had the full experience but she imagined he’d be unlike any man on the planet. His touch over her skin, the way he moved against her, those strong arms…Everything pointed at pure, unadulterated bliss.

She went to get off the floor and smacked her head into the table.

Rubbing the sore spot as she gingerly got to her feet, she was grateful for the pain in a ridiculous way. It gave her something else to think about for a moment.

By the time A.J. finished cleaning up, the kitchen was sparkling and the smell of burned tomatoes and sour cream had been aired out of the house. Satisfied, she sat down at the table and rested her chin on her hands. Even if she was still a mess, at least something had been cleaned up.

After sitting for a while, she realized she was hungry but uninspired so she ended up having canned soup for dinner. Remembering what she’d done to the tomato sauce, she put on the stove timer while heating it up. Having already been through one olfactory nightmare, she didn’t want to know what toasted chicken and rice smelled like.

While she was eating, every sound, every murmur from the house, had her looking to the door, wondering if it was Devlin getting home. Hope and anxiety would spike in a rush and then abate, only to send her flying again when she heard another noise. It was an exhausting ride because the farmstead, like an old man with rickets, had a lot of creaks, and pretty soon she decided she knew why dogs slept all the time. Sentry duty was tougher than it looked.

As things got dark outside, A.J. settled on the couch, curling her legs up under her and pulling a throw blanket across her knees. She was looking out over the moon-drenched landscape, tracing the rails of the paddocks and the ring with restless eyes, when she made up her mind.

She couldn’t choose. More to the point, she decided she wouldn’t choose between the lover she wanted and the trainer she needed. They would make it work and that was that. And as for Devlin’s concerns, she would just explain to him how important he was on all the different levels he touched her life. She would make him understand. She just had to. And surely he’d appreciate her reasoning. After all, if she was picking anything, she was picking him. All of him.

Relieved, she fell asleep, and when she woke up, he was standing over her.

“What time is it?” she asked, glad he was home.

“Late.”

A.J. sat up, pushing her hair back from her face.

Against Devlin’s better judgment, he sat on the couch next to her. He wanted to know what she’d decided before he got too close. If she picked him as a trainer, he’d have to leave the room quickly before he did something they’d both regret.

Before he could ask for her answer, she said sleepily, “I’ve made up my mind. I want you. I need you. That’s all I know.”

His eyes darkened with need.

“Kiss me,” she said.





8


“I’VE WANTED this so badly,” he said, just before they kissed.

Devlin swallowed her sigh as their mouths came together. When he became breathless, he broke the commandment of her lips and buried his face in her neck as he sought to recover.

He needed more, so much more. Licking the outline of her lips, because he couldn’t get enough of the taste of her, he pulled back and shed his coat, flinging it to the ground. As it flew away, the jacket took with it the wall of self-control he’d built and tried to sustain over the past weeks. Crumbling like sand, its absence left him naked and at the mercy of his passions and, as he felt her pull him down on the couch against her, he shuddered with a need so great he thought he was going to be lost.