The Rancher's Christmas Baby. Cathy Thacker Gillen

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СКАЧАТЬ Teddy shifted all the way toward her with a bad-boy smile that was enough to make her stomach drop. “Time we changed that, don’t you think?”

      The next thing Amy knew she was all the way in his arms. His mouth was lowering to hers. She barely had time to brace herself and then his lips were locked on hers in a hot, passionate kiss that took her breath away. He caught her head in his hands, and she melted against him, completely overwhelmed by the minty, masculine taste of his mouth, the unhurried pressure of his lips and the gentle stroking of his tongue. And then there was nothing but the feel of his mouth on hers. Seducing. Evoking. Commanding. Her lips parted and she sighed in contentment as he deepened the kiss even more, first sweetly and then erotically. She felt the sandpapery rub of his evening beard against her skin, inhaled the scent of man that was uniquely him, and sank deeper into the comforting warmth of his arms.

      Teddy hadn’t meant to kiss her this evening.

      Oh, he’d known it was coming.

      Living with her, being married to her, wanting a life and a child with her, had opened the door to all sorts of forbidden notions. At least in his mind. And he hadn’t been the only one rethinking their decision to try to remain platonic friends while settling into their new life together. He’d known, from the way she had been looking at him when she thought he didn’t see—and the way she had been avoiding being alone with him—that she was feeling the new tension between them, too.

      But that knowledge was nothing compared to the experience of having her in his arms, feeling her cling to him and return his kisses with such sweet, torturous need. Amy might not be ready to acknowledge it yet, but she needed the comfort and satisfaction a real marriage could bring. She needed him. And he wanted to be there for her, he realized, as he felt her surrender to his will and surge against him. He wanted to honor and cherish her, in a way she had never been honored before. He wanted to give her all the tenderness and love she had obviously been missing. And he wanted to extract the same kind of devotion from her.

      But that was going to take time, Teddy realized as her breasts flattened against his chest.

      And some old-fashioned pursuing…

      The kind he would have taken up had they ever actually dated.

      Knowing he had to slow down or face the consequences, Teddy reluctantly broke off the kiss.

      Amy looked at him with soft, misty eyes. He noted she made no move to pull away. “What was that for?” she whispered, seeming every bit as stunned as he was by the free-flowing passion between them.

      Teddy tightened his arms around her. “I’m not sure.” He loved the way she felt, snuggled against him. Savoring the way her heart pounded in cadence to his, wanting to make sure this passion they were feeling was real, he cupped her face between his hands. “We better try it again.”

      Her breath caught in her throat as his lips touched hers. “Teddy…”

      He caught her lower lip gently between his teeth. “One more time, Amy.” Gathering her close once again, he gave in to the feelings stirring inside him. He kissed her long and slow, soft and deep, until she was as caught up in the all-consuming passion as he. Not about to take her for the first time in the cab of a truck, he drew back once again.

      She splayed her hands across his chest, looking as if she wanted to continue making out every bit as much as he did, even while she held him deliberately at bay.

      Her breath hitched in her chest. “Seriously, now…”

      He grinned and stroked both his hands through the mussed strands of her hair. “Seriously,” he echoed, mimicking her low tone, not about to let her confusion derail them. “There’s no pretending you and I don’t have physical chemistry, because it’s clear we’ve got it in spades.” And that changed everything.

      Amy slumped back against the seat and covered her face with her hands. “Which maybe makes things worse than before,” she lamented out loud.

      Would he never understand women and what drove them? He’d felt her trembling. Knew she had been kissing him back. “I don’t get it.”

      Her delicate brows knit together. In a low, troubled voice, she informed him, “That kind of chemistry usually goes hand in hand with romantic feelings, which—we have both agreed—we don’t have for each other.”

      Didn’t have, Teddy corrected mentally. He wasn’t so certain what the situation was now. But not about to push Amy any more than he already had this evening, or go back on the word he had given her—which was that he would be satisfied with a friends-only arrangement and would never push her for anything more—he shrugged. “So maybe the only thing missing from our marriage will be romantic love,” he said casually.

      He’d meant to reassure Amy.

      She looked more dismayed than ever. “Oh, Teddy. What happens if—instead of being okay with that—we just end up feeling worse? What then?”

      Chapter Five

      “Heard you had a bit of trouble yesterday,” Teddy’s grandfather, John McCabe, said Wednesday, when Teddy arrived to help him and his grandmother put up the outdoor decorations. Married for sixty years, the seasoned couple set the gold standard for marital happiness in the area.

      “That must have been very frightening, getting stuck in that terrible weather.” Lilah gently extracted the wreath from the packaging that kept it safe year-round.

      “It wasn’t too bad.” Teddy sat on their wide front porch, untangling the string of lights that would be placed along the front-porch roof. It had been surprisingly enjoyable, sleeping in the truck, with wool blankets drawn over them and Amy cuddled up next to him for warmth. The sound of the sleet and the rain thrumming on the truck had lulled them to sleep. “The temperature rose during the night, so by dawn, it was no longer icy, just muddy. A couple of truckers came by and helped us pull Amy’s truck out of the mud, and we were on our way.”

      “How is married life?” Lilah asked.

      A glib remark was on the tip of his tongue. “Actually, I was hoping to talk to you about that,” Teddy said after a moment.

      “Be glad to help in any way we can,” John said kindly, untangling the last of the lights.

      “You two had an arranged marriage, didn’t you?” Teddy knelt to plug in all the cords and make sure every strand worked. To his relief, they did.

      John watched as Teddy set up the ladder at the far end of the porch roof. “It was a different time.”

      “We fell in love during our engagement.” Lilah hung the wreath on the front door. “If we hadn’t, I’m not sure I would have been able to walk down the aisle.”

      Teddy turned to his grandfather. “How did you feel?”

      John held the lights while Teddy fastened them on the hooks. “I wanted to marry Lilah. But when we met, I wasn’t nearly as romantic an individual as she was. I thought marrying a pretty woman who was kind and gentle and understanding, who wanted a family every bit as much as I did, would be enough. But then I fell in love with Lilah and I understood what she had been hoping for all along.” John stepped back as Teddy climbed back down the ladder and moved it several feet to the left.

      “Do you think you and Amy have made a mistake?” Lilah СКАЧАТЬ