Page 27 of The Cowgirl's Secret Love
But dear God, he needed to touch her. He needed it as much as he needed his next breath.
Less than ten minutes passed before she was back. Her hair lay tousled over her shoulders, the strands wet and somewhat tangled from where she’d rubbed at them with a towel.
She wore sweatpants and an oversized T-shirt, and she was so gorgeous he couldn’t take his eyes off her.
“You bring your brush?” His voice rasped past vocal cords tight with desire. Probably sounded like the grumpy asshole she expected, though, because all she did was reach into her pocket and haul out a brush.
He grabbed it and gestured to the chair. “Lean forward.”
Karen settled, placing her hands on her knees. Finn stood and slipped behind her to hide the erection pressing the front of his jeans in silent demand.
Then he tormented himself by running his fingers through her hair and untangling the knots. Working the brush through from her scalp to the ends of the long layers until her hair lay in smooth strands over the pale blue of her T-shirt.
If there were any justice in the world, he’d be able to finish this by pressing a kiss to where her pulse pounded in her neck. He’d be able to lick her earlobe and suck it into his mouth. He’d follow that by kissing his way along her jaw before taking her mouth as hungrily as he wanted.
To consume her and taste her all over for the first time in almost five years.
Instead, he laid the brush aside and moved back into position at her feet. After lifting them into his lap, he covered his hands with wintergreen and rubbed the thick cream against the pads of her toes and heels then pressed his thumb against the arch of her foot.
He gritted his teeth when she moaned in pleasure. Only a sick bastard would ask for this kind of punishment, but hell if he wanted to stop.
Finn pushed the elastic at the base of her sweats past her knees to work the muscles in her calves. One foot, then the other, as she leaned back against the thick cushions. Her eyes closed and her mouth slid open, except for the moments he hit a sweet spot. Then her lips would purse slightly as if in preparation for his kiss.
“You have the hands of a god,” Karen whispered. “You always have.”
“I like touching you,” he confessed.
Then he shut up, because this wasn’t about browbeating her but waiting for the confession of her need.
They fell quiet for a while, or as quiet as it could be outdoors at five o’clock on a June day in Alberta. In the distance a tractor motor rumbled. Birds sang enthusiastically, and somewhere over the nearest rise, a whole bunch of dogs were barking their fool heads off. Even the trees in the nearby coulee added to the music as the wind rubbed their branches together.
A wilderness symphony.
“I’ve been thinking about what you said.” Karen’s eyes were still closed, but she tensed slightly at the confession.
Finn dug his fingers into the back of her legs more firmly, and whatever she was about to say vanished into a moan that just about took the top of his head off.
Somehow, he held his tongue.
“I have a lot of good memories from our summer together. And we’ve got chemistry—or we did.” She popped one eye open and glanced at him from under the arm she’d laid across her face. “I somehow think we still do.”
So far, she wasn’t saying anything he hadn’t been thinking.
She took a deep breath. “I still need more time.”
“It’s just a foot rub,” he repeated.
She made a face. “You’re driving me wild, and you know it.”
“I blasted in here a couple of days ago and threw a lot at you.” Finn worked her toes for a while. “Chérie, as much as I want you, if you asked me to jump you right now, I’d say no.”
That got a response. She sat upright, eyes no longer clouded, the cutest crease between her brows. “Really?”
He slipped his finger between her toes and teased, getting her squirming. “Didn’t jump your bones right off the bat all those years ago. Even when you begged me to. Sometimes you’ve got to work up to it so it’s even more worthwhile.”
She cursed softly, but her lips twisted into a smile. “You’re an asshole.”
He gave her foot a final squeeze but hesitated. “Got any nail polish?”
