Page 30 of Catch Me, Cowboy
“What?” Shelby jerked back and for a moment she literally forgot to breathe.
His perfect lips curved just enough to tell her that he was totally comfortable taking command of this situation. “Let’s test your hypothesis and see how it worked.”
“Don’t be a jerk.”
He merely raised his eyebrows.
She straightened her back, found her voice again. “I’m not going to kiss you.”
“Yeah?” His gaze still fixed on her mouth and after a few tense seconds, she automatically wet her lips. He sucked in a breath through his teeth. “Kiss me.” This time it was a command.
A sane woman would have turned on her heel and stalked off to the house. A sane woman wouldn’t have put herself in this position in the first place or expounded on lame-ass theories to the very guy she was working them on. But the truth was her hormones had been battling with her brain ever since Ty set foot back on this property and she was growing weary of the battle.
She wanted to kiss him. More than that, she wanted to show him he was not the one in command of this situation. This was her ranch. Her life… which he’d walked away from.
“You want me to kiss you?” Her voice was little more than a whisper as she moved closer and lightly placed her hands on the front of his shirt. His heart beat beneath her palms. He wasn’t as in command as he let on.
“Wouldn’t mind.”
Bullshit. He wanted her as badly as she wanted him.
His pupils dilated, darkening his eyes as she reached up to take his face between her palms and pull his mouth down to within an inch of her own.
“Is this what you want?” she murmured.
His lips curved as his hands settled at her hips, his fingers pressing into her flesh as he eased her lower body closer to his. She felt his arousal, hard and insistent, pressing against her belly but the answering flood of heat was not as strong her anger.
“Well, then maybe you shouldn’t have left.” She dropped her hands to his chest and pushed.
He took a stumbling step back while Shelby folded her arms and silently hoped he fell on his ass. He didn’t.
He cocked an eyebrow. “Can’t do it?”
Not the response she’d expected. “When you sack out a colt, you don’t move too fast.”
His lips twitched at the corners. “Then how about I move real slow?”
Shelby’s heart did a double beat. She loved it when he moved real slow… and she couldn’t afford to keep thinking this way. She closed her eyes in an effort to center herself, drew in a calming breath. When she opened them again, he was there. Right…there.
“Ty—”
She barely got his name out before he took hold of her waist and gave a tug, pulling her body smack up against his own. Her breath caught at the sudden contact and then his lips were on hers, obliterating all hope of logic prevailing as his clever tongue welcomed her back into the wonderful world of things he could do with his mouth.
Heat, longing, and anger tangled together as Shelby fought for balance, fought for control. She was losing at both. She pushed hands into his hair as he nipped her lower lip, knocking off his hat, which bounced on the ground behind them. He responded by taking her lips once again in a searing kiss.
Lost…
Neither of them seemed to notice when he backed her into the fence, his body hard against hers, his thigh pressed between her legs. She welcomed the liquid fire that spread through her as his mouth began to blaze a sensual trail down the side of her neck and she gasped as he hit the sensitive spot in the hollow of her shoulder.
And that was when he pulled back.
And for a moment all Shelby could do was to stare at him, wide-eyed, as the reality of what she’d just done slammed into her.
“I don’t think this theory of yours holds water,” he said in a low voice, still holding her by the waist.
And damn it all, she almost asked,“What theory?”
Shelby pushed against him, not so gently extracting herself from his embrace. She thought it very kind she didn’t once again try to push him back onto his ass.
