Page 38 of The Christmas Cowboy

“Thank you, Doctor,” Val said.

“Nice to meet you both. I’ll see you in four weeks, Val.”

“What did you think?” Val asked him after the doctor left.

“Truthfully?”

“Of course.”

“I couldn’t tell anything other than it looked like a blob. A very small blob.”

Val laughed. “That’s what I thought too. Next time should be more interesting.”

After what happened before the appointment Liam thought they might finally get to make love that evening. But when he dropped Val off at the house and went down to the barn he was hit with a scene of chaos. A pipe had broken and a good bit of the barn was under water. Melody and Les were running around doing what they could but none of their other hands were there. By the time he located the leak, got the plumber out to fix it, cleaned up the mess in the barn—which was a damn disaster—it was late and he was filthy and exhausted.

Val had come down and helped some, but he made her leave to eat dinner and told her not to come back. So by the time he’d eaten, cleaned up, and fell into bed Val was long asleep. So much for getting to make love that evening.

*

Maureen had askedVal’s family over for Thanksgiving dinner, but her mother had declined, saying they’d already made plans with Val’s aunt and her family. Clint wasn’t coming because he’d gone to his daughter’s for the day. Val didn’t think much about it, but Liam wasn’t happy.

“Why is it a big deal?” she asked Liam. “Doesn’t he usually spend the day with his daughter and her family?”

“Not the past couple of years. And he and Mom are supposed to be setting a date. They said they were getting married before Logan and Cici got together. Nothing has happened and now it looks like nothing will.”

“You should talk to her. I’m sure there’s a good reason.”

Liam shrugged and left to finish up some chores before getting ready for the dinner.

Val picked out a pretty cable-knit fitted white sweater dress with an open V-neck that came to mid-thigh. She had three reasons for her choice. One, her boobs were already bigger, and the dress would showcase them. Two, it was short and showed off her legs, which she thought were her best feature. The third reason was she probably wouldn’t be able to wear it for too much longer. And yeah, mostly because she wanted to see if Liam noticed.

Instead of her habitual braid, she wore her hair down and curled, with the waves reaching past her shoulders. She put on more makeup than usual, which wasn’t hard because she normally wore only mascara or nothing. Finally, she finished with short, spike-heeled boots.

Liam entered the bedroom just then, already stripping off his shirt to take a shower. He tossed the shirt over a chair and yanked off the T-shirt he wore beneath it. “I won’t be long if—” He turned around and saw her, stopped talking mid-sentence and stared at her.

Damn, he had a great chest and arms. Not surprising given the kind of work he did. She wanted to stroke it, feel all those lovely muscles beneath her hands. Realizing he hadn’t spoken a word since he broke off mid-sentence she said, “Is this okay? I thought since it’s Thanksgiving I should wear something besides jeans.”

“Okay? You look gorgeous.” He stepped close to her and picked up one of her curls, running his fingers through it. “I always thought you had pretty hair but you don’t wear it down much.”

“Um, thanks.” Her heart beat erratically. The look in his eyes was pure heat.

“So pretty and tidy,” he murmured. “Makes me want to mess you up.”

“I’d like that.” Her voice was husky. Didn’t even sound like her.

His gaze met hers. “Don’t tempt me.”

“Why not?”

He slipped his hand around to her nape, leaned down and kissed her. His lips moved slowly over hers, his tongue dipped inside, drinking her in. It was frankly carnal and even though he was only touching her with one hand and his mouth, she was left in no doubt about what he wanted to do.

She’d never been kissed like that in her life.

He raised his head and said, “I’m going to shower. When I come back you need to be gone.”

Confused, she asked, “Why?”

“Because if you’re here I won’t be able to resist making love to you and then we’ll be very, very late to dinner.”

---