Page 22 of Waiting in Wyoming

“Meyra…” He slid one hand into her hair. Beneath the braid. She had the softest, sweetest-smelling hair of any woman he had ever been close to. She tormented him. And she didn’t have any idea what she did to him. No idea at all. “You are too much.”

“What? Why?” She just stared at him in the low light from the inn. One hand spread over his chest. Taunting him with what he wanted from her. “What exactly are you doing?”

“Damning myself, I’m sure.” He just decided to go with it. To do what he had to do. Or he’d never be able to look at himself in the mirror again. “Just let me…”

“Are you…going to kiss me again?”

“Hell, yes, I’m going to kiss you again.”

Brandt put his money where his mouth was. He pressed his lips to hers. And kissed her.

Finally. He was back where he belonged.

17

Okay,this was not exactly how she imagined this resolving itself. Meyra dropped her chips without even realizing it. Then her hands went to his broad shoulders, and she wrapped her fingers around the material of his T-shirt. She was just hanging on.

No one had ever kissed her like this—or at least, if they had, she didn’t remember it. It felt good. His lips were warm, not scorching, but still really hot. He tasted a little like soda. She could smell warm man. Like the soap they used in all the guest rooms, too.

It smelled good. He smelled good. Really good. His tongue teased her lips. She gasped. His tongue slipped inside her mouth.

Then they werereallykissing each other.

And she didn’t want him to stop.

His hands were on her back; he was just holding her against him. Not too tightly, either. She hadn’t liked it when guys held her too tightly. That had always made her feel trapped before. She didn’t feel trapped now. She wanted him to pull her even closer, tighter.

She liked him holding her, kissing her. She wanted him to do more.

That had her backing away quickly. “I…you really need to explain why you keep doing that.”

“Kissing you? Because I want to. Do you like it when I kiss you?”

She nodded before she could stop herself. “I just don’t know why you kissed me before and then just left like that. Before. In November.”

“I didn’t intend to stay gone so long, little one. But…a family crisis delayed my returning. I’m sorry.”

Well, she didn’t want to pry, but… “Why did you kiss me before?”

“Why does a man kiss a woman he wants?”

She just looked at him as she tried to figure that out. “What exactly do you want from me, Brandt Barratt?”

His hands went around her waist. “I wanteverything,Meyra Talley. Everything. As soon as you are ready to give it. Now, since I really am not feeling like making good on that right now—considering the bruises—you’d probably better get upstairs. It’s getting late. And my willpower is almost nonexistent.”

Meyraknewby the look in those blue eyes exactly what he meant. And she wasn’t ready for that. She needed to think.

Meyra went.

18

The warrant crossedhis desk early the next morning. Dale read the paperwork in front of him and saw the addresses listed. “Now?”

“We are at the stage where it is necessary. Past that stage,” the county prosecutor said. “I told Masterson that I’d get him the warrants as soon as feasible. No one understands why there has been so much delay in getting them issued. No one. I certainly don’t. It’s been months, Your Honor.”

The fury was in the young man’s eyes. Dale remembered being that passionate about the law once. When he was no older than this man. What was Connor Dixon, thirty?

So young. He had his whole life ahead of him—and a stupid naivete that was going to get him in trouble someday.Hewas one of the ones Dale knew couldn’t be bought. He admired the younger man for that. Somewhat. He still thought Dixon was a fool in a lot of ways.

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