Vivian Arend - Rocky Mountain Heat

He nodded, dropping his volume. Trying to put what ached inside him into words. “And I’m not calling us off as a couple—just changing the pace. We’re both guilty of moving too slow for many years, and now we’ve rushed like a Chinook blasting through the area.”

She took in a quick breath, shaky with laughter. “Yeah, that kind of fits. But—Chinook winds blow through fast, and then they’re gone.”

“Oh, hell, I don’t mean that at all. With all my heart I want this to be a forever thing between you and me.”

Jaxi waited. He touched his knuckle to her cheek. “So…I’m going to court you. I’m going to woo you.”

“But I’m already…” She raised a shoulder. “Seems as if you should already know how I feel about you. I told you straight out that I love you. Wooing seems like something you need to do with another woman, not me.”

He clasped her hand in his. “You’ve spent years imagining me the way you wanted, while I was too scared to even be around you for fear of how I’d react. I don’t agree you’ve had enough time to see the real me.”

“I know what you’re like, Blake, I know what kind of man you are.” Jaxi insisted.

“Do you? We haven’t done things together on a regular basis since you were about sixteen. Since I decided having you around me was dangerous.”

A flicker of confusion passed over her face. “Dangerous?”

He lifted her hand to his lips, kissing her knuckles, his tongue stroking between her fingers. “Uh-huh, way too risky. You weren’t ready for me and I wasn’t ready for you.”

He turned her palm over and pressed a kiss to the center before folding her fingers tight, closing his hand over hers.

“Go on.”

“My idea isn’t something you’ll dislike, Jaxi. I’m talking about spending time together to play and work and just be. I want you to be sure this is real, that it’s not something you’ve dreamed about for so many years you risk everything to see the dream come true.”

She stared at him with those big eyes of hers, silence all around them. His stomach tightened. What if after everything, she decided she didn’t want him? What if giving her time meant in the end he would lose her?

Even though the thought made his gut ache, he realized he loved her enough that he’d give her up. He would miss a piece of his heart forever but if she needed something other than him, he’d let her go.

In the meantime he was going to take his best shot at convincing her to say yes.

Jaxi wrinkled her nose. “So, what does this…wooing…look like to you? Are you going to call at my bedroom door with flowers and chocolates? Escort me to the movies so we can make out in the theater?” She cast her gaze down at their linked fingers. “Are we going to make love?”

Damn, she had to ask that question. His body knew what it wanted, but he didn’t think that was what the answer should be.

“I’ll bring you flowers and chocolates if that’s what you want, only I’ll bring them to the door of the guest cabin. You’re going to move out of the house, and I’ll move back in. You’ll have more privacy there, and yet you’ll be close enough Ma can call you if she needs you.”

Jaxi protested and he laid a finger on her lips. “We can go to the movies, or we can go fishing. We can enjoy long rides and fix fences together, as long as I don’t have to sit in the dirt after every fence post.”

She snorted for a moment, her smile returning.

Blake stroked his hand over her cheek, smoothing her skin, tangling his fingers in her hair before he dropped his lips to hers again. The kiss was deep and needy, a joining together of hearts and souls. Not desperate and hard but desperate and soft. Lingering, caressing and more meaningful than any kiss Blake had ever given or received in his life.

They both drew back at the same time, breaths mingling as they remained inches apart. Blake reached deep for the strength to finish the job he’d begun. “I can’t promise I won’t touch you, but let’s try to keep sex out of this. We don’t have any troubles in the physical compatibility department. We need to see if we’ve got everything else it’s going to take to last forever.”

His thumb stroked her lips tenderly, sweetly. She kissed it and nodded acceptance with little jerks of her head.

Their foreheads rested together, and Blake breathed in her scent, storing the sensation of that moment for the days ahead.

A sudden realization struck him and he snorted. “So, Slick, in the kitchen you made me promise I wouldn’t throw any punches tonight. You planning on explaining that right cross to Travis’s jaw?”

The twinkle returned to Jaxi’s eyes, and she shrugged mischievously, one brow rising high. “You never made me promise not to hit anyone, now did you, Blake Coleman?”

He stood and lifted her, swinging her in circles as their laugher rose to the heavens.

Wooing. What the hell did that mean when every time he looked at her his body lit up and his brain shut down?

Blake gave himself a mental smack. That’s exactly why they were doing this. Because it was more than the sexual attraction between them that he wanted to play with.

He pulled to a stop in front of the fanciest restaurant in town and winked at Jaxi. “You stay right there.”

She giggled. Honest to God giggled, and he fought his own amusement. Yeah, this had been plenty of fun—to take the time to build on their attraction and let themselves move one step further. Heading to a lonely bed each night when he wished he was curling up next to her was the rough part. But learning new things about Jaxi had been delightful and intriguing. He didn’t want to just ask her what she’d been doing and learning over the past years, he wanted to find out as they went along.

They’d gone for walks. Sat on the banks of the creek and fished. And now, a week into the wooing, it was time for a little high-class experience.

He tugged open the truck door, and she slipped out before he could catch her. “You’re supposed to let me help you down.”

She lifted her chin, mischief all over her face. “Oops. Okay.”

Before he could say another word, she was back in the cab, sitting forward and blinking expectantly at him. “Oh, my hero. What a big truck you have. I’m so so far up in the air.”

“Stop that.”

She grinned. “Would you assist me, dear sir? I’m afeared that it’s too far a journey for my delicate little self.”

Delicate little self—horse hockey. That from the woman who had helped muck out stalls for three hours the previous day in addition to her house chores? “You’re looking for a spanking, miss.”

“Yeah, but since you said that was out of the question for a while, I figure I’m safe.”

Minx. He offered his hand, and she took it, spinning her legs toward him and delicately lowering herself to his side. He couldn’t stop staring at the long length of skin showing. “You wore that miniskirt on purpose, admit it.”

She blew him a kiss as she tucked in her shirt and smoothed the skirt. The twinkle in her eyes increased as she shimmied closer. The tight shirt emphasized every curve of her body, the deep scoop of the neckline showing off the perfect swells of her breasts.

He opened the restaurant door and led her into the dark elegance. All eyes turned their way, accompanied by some smiles, some frowns. The flurry of attention their direction hadn’t died down yet. One of the joys of small-town living—any new match-up was an attention getter, and Blake had been single for long enough he figured the biddies would have a heyday for a good two to three months, not to mention that it was Jaxi he was squiring around.

They were seated in front of one of the fireplaces, Jaxi’s chair to his right. They picked up their menus even though Blake knew exactly what he wanted. This wasn’t his usual stop for a meal, but the few times he had come in he’d discovered the steaks they served were thick and juicy. His favourite, outside of barbecuing himself.

Jaxi wrinkled her nose. “You sure you want to eat here?”

She stared at the menu as if there was something disgusting on the page. Blake leaned to see if she had something different than him. “You don’t see anything you like?”

“Well, I’m kinda distracted by the rather large numbers down the side of the page screaming at me.”

“Oh no, don’t you even look at that part.” He snagged the menu from her. Damn, it was like taking his parents out. Skinflints, the lot of them. “If you’re going to do that, you’re ruining the whole idea of going out to a fancy place.”

“But I can cook just about everything on that menu. And for a lot cheaper.”

“You can, but then we can’t visit and talk, and there’d be dishes to do afterward. This is supposed to be talkin’ time, not complaining-about-the-cost time.”

“But it doesn’t make any sense—”

Blake leaned back and crossed his arms. Jaxi’s chin lifted in the air as she cut off in mid-sentence.

“I want to take you out for a meal, and I don’t want to hear another word about ‘this costs so much’ or ‘I could cook that’. Then pick something you can’t cook—that would work, right?”

Jaxi nodded slowly. “Do I get to pick for you too?”

Damn. There went the steak he’d been drooling over. The garlic mushrooms—he could almost smell them as they floated away. “Of course. Why don’t you pick something you can’t make, then for our next date I’ll pick something we can cook up together—we’ll set up a restaurant back at the ranch house. You good with that?”

Mischief streaked her face. “You sure about this?”