“I’ll allow it this time,” she told him with a sexy smile, “but when you’re through, I demand that we do it again—and you have to pleasure me first.”
He kissed her over and over. “God, Katie, this is so sweet of you,” he groaned. “I’m so sick of nothing but cows and horses and men who smell worse than the animals. I hope I don’t smell that bad.”
“You always smell good. Right now you smell like a fresh stream of water.”
“Yeah, well, I bathed in a creek the best I could just yesterday, so I wouldn’t be too hard to be around when I got back.”
Katie smiled. “You’re never hard to be around.” She gasped when he rammed himself inside of her with pent-up need. She arched to him in response, leaning up and capturing his mouth with her own.
They moved in wild rhythm, and it wasn’t long before Lloyd’s life spilled into her, life he hoped would again take hold, and they would have their second baby together, another brother or sister for his Stephen, another baby for his precious Katie, who’d lost a baby girl and a husband before they met and married.
They both needed this. They’d both lost one love and found another. And they’d both come to understand that that was okay.
“I’m sorry, Katie. I just couldn’t hold it in. It’s been too long.” He raised up on his elbows. “And you’re so damn beautiful.”
Katie pulled at the leather tie that held his waist-length black hair at his neck. She let his hair fall down and surround her. “Lloyd Harkner, your skin is so dark next to mine.” She fanned his hair out even more. “Are you sure you don’t have Indian blood?”
“Not that I know of, unless some Indian stole my mother away one night, and she never told Pa.”
Katie laughed. “I’d like to see any man steal Randy Harkner away from Jake.”
Lloyd grinned. “Yeah, any man who made off with my mother would be one sorry sonofabitch.” He kissed her eyes. “It would be the same if some man dared to touch my Katie.”
She smiled, leaning up to kiss his chest. “For the rest of my life, you’ll be the only man touching me.”
“You bet.” He kissed her, groaning with renewed want. “I can’t believe you did this, you brazen little hussy,” he told her, kissing her throat again.
She ran her hands over his arms and shoulders. “Why, Mr. Harkner, I declare, you are the most handsome man in all of Colorado,” she told him with a teasing fake southern accent. “You make me feel like a tiny little flower lying under a big oak tree, or perhaps a shivering, helpless captive of a wild Indian, with all that hair and that skin tanned dark. I suppose you intend to ravish me now.”
Lloyd laughed. “Oh, I intend to do just that.” He met her mouth again, moving a hand to secret places. “How much time do we have?” he asked between kisses.
“Evie said she’d keep Tricia—”
A kiss.
“—as long as necessary,” Katie answered.
Another kiss.
“You mean she knows what we’re up to?” he asked, kissing her breasts.
“Of course she does.”
“Good Lord, she’s going to tease me something awful when Mom has us all over for Sunday dinner.”
“No more than we’ll tease your parents about riding the line alone all this time.”
Lloyd leaned down and kissed her hungrily again, grasping her face in big, strong hands that could so easily break her, yet gently adored her instead. “You’re one wild woman, Katie Harkner.”
“And I love a wild man,” she answered.
Before they could act on their desire to make love a second time, someone yelled to Lloyd from outside the barn.
“Lloyd! You in there cavorting? Your parents might need you!”
Lloyd wilted a little and sighed. “Now what?” He moved off Katie and leaned down to give her one more quick kiss. “I’m sorry, honey.”
They both sat up. “Go see what he wants,” Katie told him. “Here.” She handed him a towel she’d brought with her, and he cleaned himself as best he could.
“Lloyd!” one of the men shouted again.
“Just a minute!” Lloyd yelled, frowning with irritation. He stood up and pulled on his long johns. “Sounds like Pepper,” he told Katie. He buttoned his long johns and hurried over to the loft door, swinging it open to see three ranch hands on horseback waiting below. He directed his words to the one called Pepper. “What the hell do you want?”
Pepper grinned. “What’re you doin’ in your underwear, boy?”
“None of your goddamn business, you dirty-minded old sonofabitch. What’s going on?”