His very aroused body. The length of him pressed into her soft flesh as he kissed her. It was a whole-body experience, and nothing like the front porch kiss that she’d thought was so memorable that she couldn’t shake it. That kiss had been wonderful, but tame.
This was a grown-up kiss.
The difference was unfathomable.
This kiss was hungry, questing, begging for more even as he took it.
Kyle changed the angle, diving deeper into her mouth, thrilling her with the intensity. His tongue swirled out, and instinctively, she met him with her own. He groaned and she felt it to her toes.
Kyle. She’d missed the feel of him in her arms. Missed the scent of him in her nose.
Except this Kyle wasn’t like the warm coat she’d envisioned sliding into, wholly familiar and so comforting. No, this Kyle was like opening a book expecting a nice story with an interesting plot and instead falling into an immersive world full of dark secrets and darker passions.
His hands were everywhere, along her sides, thumbs circling and sliding higher until he found her breasts beneath her clothes. The contact shot through her as he touched her, and then he shoved a leg between hers, tilting his hips to rub against her intimately.
This was not a kiss—it was a seduction.
And she had just enough functioning brain cells to be aware that they were not only in a barn, but she hadn’t fully figured out what was supposed to come next. She didn’t know what had changed that might mean things would work between them this time. She didn’t fully trust that he was here for good, and even if he was, that he was going to meet her standards any better today than he had ten years ago.
Oh, he was certainly earning a ten in the Sweeping Her Off Her Feet category. But Happily Ever After carried just as much weight as Expressing His Feelings. And neither of those were on the board yet.
Breaking off the kiss—and nearly kicking herself at the same time—she pushed back and mumbled, “Wait.”
His torso shuddered as he dragged in a ragged breath. “Because?”
“You know why.” Her Professional Single Girl status was in jeopardy and she had to make sure he was worth the price of relinquishing it. Sure, he was hot and a really great kisser, but she didn’t sleep around. An interlude in the barn didn’t change that.
“I did not develop ESP at any point in the last ten years,” he rasped, his expression going blank as he stared at her.
“Because of what happened before, Kyle.” Exasperated, she stared at the wall over his head so his delicious chest wasn’t right in her field of vision. “There’s a lot of leftover emotion and scrambled-up stuff to sort out. I have to take it slow this time.”
“Then you should leave,” he said curtly. “Because I’m definitely not in the mood for slow right now.”
She took his advice and fled. It wasn’t until she’d reached her car and slid into the driver’s seat that she realized leaving was the one surefire way to never figure out what they could have together.
Maybe slow wasn’t any better an idea than space.
And at this moment, the only s word she seemed capable of thinking about ended in ex, which was the crux of the problem. She and Kyle had a former relationship and it muddied everything, especially her feelings.
Kyle stabbed his hands through his shirt, nearly ripping the sleeve off in the process.
Grace wanted to take it slow because of what had happened before.
Furiously, he fingered the buttons through the holes haphazardly, none too happy about having to spend the rest of the workday with a hard-on he couldn’t get rid of, no matter what he thought of to kill his arousal—slugs, the Cowboys losing the Super Bowl, his mother. Nothing worked because the feel of Grace in his arms was way too fresh, and had been cut way too short.
Because of what had happened before. She meant when she’d fallen for Liam and he’d thrown her over. While Kyle appreciated that she wanted to figure out her own mind before taking things further with him, he wasn’t about to stand by and let what happened in the past with his brother ruin the present.
Liam was married now and Grace should be completely over all of that. Bygones included forgetting about everything that happened in the past.
He didn’t have any choice but to let it go for the time being. He had a job to do and men to manage.
By the time the sun set, the entire Wade Ranch staff was giving Kyle a wide berth. So the cow extraction hadn’t earned him any points. Figured. His surly mood didn’t help and he finally just called it a day.
When he got back to the main house, Liam met him in the mudroom off the back.
“Hey,” Liam called as Kyle sat on the long bench seat to remove his boots, which were a far sight cleaner than they’d been earlier, but still weren’t fit to walk the floors inside.