A Fallow Heart (27 page)

“But you didn’t even kiss me goodbye,” she argued.

His white teeth flashed. “Is that what this is about?” he asked before he let out a chuckle and eased closer. The look in his eyes had her belly tightening. “You came back for your goodbye kiss?”

She swallowed—gulped was more like it. “N-no. Of course not,” she rasped, but now that he mentioned it, “I certainly wouldn’t turn one down though.”

Even if she should.

She should stop this madness right now. Starting an affair with Cooper Gerhardt was a bad, bad idea. It couldn’t go anywhere except straight into painful, heartbreaking territory. Not only did they live so far apart, but they lived two different lives. Country and city wouldn’t mesh well for long before a million problems cropped up. And she’d want them to mesh. After last night, she knew she’d want more from him than was possible to take.

Then there was her inability to trust any man since Travis had dumped her. Getting too close to Cooper was dangerous.

But as he moved into the cab to crawl closer, she didn’t feel endangered. She felt alive, so very alive. She wouldn’t be able to say no if he continued what they’d already started.

Her heart thumped hard in her chest, but her brain kept short-circuiting, demanding her to stop.

With his light brown eyes intent on her face, he eased even closer on his knees.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone sit inside a combine wearing a skirt before.”

She trilled out a nervous laugh. “Oh, well…it’s this new thing I’m trying.” As if posing for a camera, she set her hand on her hip and fluttered her lashes. “What do you think?”

“I think I like it.”

Her breathing grew unsteady. He wouldn’t stop staring at her, and she couldn’t seem to look away either.

His dark lashes swept close to the tops of his cheeks as he slid his gaze low to her exposed calves before lifting his gaze back to her face. “So what about this old thing? Do you think my tractor’s sexy?”

Jo Ellen threw her head back and laughed. “Oh, Cooper,” she murmured on a thick voice. “Kenny Chesney couldn’t have said it better.”

When he grinned, she ran her fingers over his silken pale hair, delighting in his beautiful locks. “You make me smile,” she decided, though her grin fell as she studied the perfect features of his face—sensual dark lashes, full lush lips, defined, expressive cheekbones.

Everything with him was better than it had ever been with anyone else. She didn’t want it to end.

His brown eyes danced with pleasure as he rested his chin on her knee and drawled, “Well, you know what they say about us farm boys. We know how to make all the pretty girls smile.”

Heart tripping over emotions she didn’t want to acknowledge, she silently took his face in her hands. He met her gaze with a puzzled frown but didn’t ask questions as he let her draw him up in front of her so they were eye level.

“Are you ever going to give me that goodbye kiss?” she asked.

His eyes glittered as he smiled. With the slightest shake of his head, he said, “No.”

Jo Ellen blinked. “No?”

He shook his head again, more adamantly this time. “No,” he repeated. “A kiss goodbye would mean you have to leave. And I don’t want you to go.”

Good Lord, she didn’t want to either. This man did things to her; crazy, beautiful, wonderful things. He made her feel sexy, stronger, alive, cherished. She wanted to consume him whole and carry a piece of him around with her always so she could be this happy for the rest of her life.

Her fingers traced the outline of his face, delighting in the texture of his skin, the warmth and vitality emanating from him.

“How about we make it a kiss hello then,” she decided.

His lashes fluttered as he inhaled. “That,” he answered, “I can do.”

When his lips met hers, a shockwave of sensation seized her, catching every nerve ending in her body and wringing them taut with pleasure, and not just pleasure of the body either; pleasure of the soul.

She felt like she was finally home.

Behind them, the barn doors gaped open wide. Anyone could wander in; his mother, a rooster, some traveling salesman. But Jo Ellen didn’t care. The soft crush of his lips, the secure weight of his body as he embraced her, the achy groan that rippled from the base of his throat only made her want more of him. More of this and everything else he had to offer.

She opened her mouth against his and urged the kiss deeper, drawing him into oblivion. He tumbled with her, his mouth coaxed into participating as he sipped from her joy. When he finally pulled back, it took him a moment to open his eyes. His brows rose a full second before his lashes did. When he looked at her, the shock on his face made her laugh.

“Wow. That was…that was…not how I was expecting to spend my afternoon,” he admitted.

Giddy pleasure spread through her. She liked surprising him, liked placing that adorable awed and dazed look on his face. She liked how feminine and sexy he made her feel. Alive with vivacity and glad she no longer felt guilty about hurting him this morning, she rested her cheek on his shoulder and hugged him tight, unable to keep her hands off him. Tucked between the driver’s seat and the steering wheel right along with him, she pressed so close her toes curled with satisfaction. “Can I see you again?”

“Jesus,” he whispered, sounding almost scared. “This is a dream. I’m going to wake up now, aren’t I?”

She lifted her face and rolled her eyes at his horrified expression. Pinching his bicep, she announced, “Not a dream. So…can I see you again or not?”

He swallowed audibly, and then bobbed his head. “Yes. Hell, yes. You can see me again.”

“When?’ she prodded, hushing her voice as she lifted on her toes and drew his face closer to hers.

His lashes fluttered as he tipped his head enough to meet his lips with hers. “Whenever you want. Tonight.”

“Tonight,” she agreed, then wrapped her arms around him and kissed him breathless.

“Or you could just stay until then,” he coaxed, talking against her mouth. “Keep me company while I tinker on this old thing. Then maybe I could show you what the hayloft looks like in the daylight.”

Without letting her answer, he fused them back together, kissing her long and lazily, making her body stir to life.

Euphoric about seeing him again later and aroused from even hearing the word hayloft, she whimpered. It took her quite the effort to force herself to pull back. “I can’t stay the whole day. I’m sorry, I promised my sister-in-law I’d stop by this afternoon and visit her and Grady before I leave town. I was actually on my way there when I passed your place and decided to drop in to say hi.”

He studied her before his lips tipped up in a grin. “Well, feel free to drop in and say hi anytime.” He lightly traced her face with the tips of his fingers. “I think I could become addicted to the way you say hi.”

Jo Ellen glowed. As Cooper took her hand and walked her back to her car, they laced their fingers together in such a sweet, platonic way, she blushed when she thought of their saucy, totally non-platonic make out session in his combine.

A giggle crawled up her throat. She couldn’t believe she wanted to giggle. Jo Ellen Rawlings hadn’t giggled since she was a schoolgirl, probably since she’d gotten pregnant at eighteen and suffered a devastating miscarriage. But Cooper Gerhardt made her giggly.

He kissed her at the driver’s side door of her car, which had her smile stretching wider.

“Tonight,” he promised, brushing his forehead against hers as he toyed with her fingers as if he was loath to let go of her quite yet.

She bit her lip. “Tonight.”

“Let’s make it a true rendezvous.” A conspiring gleam glittered from his whiskey gaze. “Why don’t you meet me at midnight at the end of the lane? I know just the spot to take you.”

Though her cheeks heated from the sensual assault his words
take you
had on her, she narrowed her eyes, trying to look suspicious. A second later, she giggled and agreed, “Okay.”

He pressed another soft kiss to her mouth before letting go of her hand, making contact with every inch of her fingers before they finally broke contact. When he turned and started away, she panicked.

Unable to leave him just yet, she said his name on a hushed question. “Cooper?”

When he turned back, her heart surged up into her throat, momentarily rendering her speechless. Instinctively, she knew he’d always answer whenever she called to him. That knowledge was comforting as much as it was overwhelming.

He arched a curious eyebrow, reminding her she’d initiated this.

“I have a confession,” she blurted out the first thing that sprang to her mind.

He took a curious step toward her and paused. “Okay.”

Jo Ellen licked her lips. “Uh…y-yesterday, when I first got here, I saw you…through the window. I spied on you as you took your shirt off and rinsed away the sweat under the well water faucet.”

Cooper stared at her. Then he grinned and leaned in closer, murmuring her name just as she had his a few moments before. “Jo Ellen?”

She bit her lip. “Yes?”

He winked. “I saw your car when I pulled up. Why do you think I took my shirt off?”

Heaving in a huge breath, she flushed. From the glitter in his gaze and after what they’d just done in the combine, she found herself aroused, ready, and eager for him. Impatient for midnight.

What in God’s name was wrong with her?

Stamping another quick kiss to her lips, he opened her car door and helped her slide behind the wheel. After he put her inside, he tapped the glass in farewell, and took a step back. She smiled at him through the window and started her car.

When she pulled away and glanced into her rearview mirror, he continued to stand where she’d left him, staring after her. A lump formed in her chest. Dear Lord, she wanted to wheel back around and return to him.

This was
so
not a good sign. It was already happening. She was letting herself slip. She just hoped landing wouldn’t shatter her as badly as getting involved with Travis had.

Chapter Seventeen

As Jo Ellen pulled to a stop in front of her brother’s house, she wiped all Cooper-related worries from her head, pushing them into the back recesses of her brain, refusing to even think on them. Patting out the wrinkles in her skirt, she flushed when she found a smear of dirt on her hip. She batted it away as she hurried to the front porch.

The main entrance opened before she reached it, and Grady’s wife, Amy, flew outside, her arms open wide.

“There you are! We were wondering when you’d get here.”

Amy wrapped her in an encompassing hug, and Jo Ellen focused on her sister-in-law, relieved she looked so well.

The last time she’d seen Amy, Amy had just suffered a miscarriage. She’d been pale and drawn inside herself, refusing to acknowledge—much less smile at—anyone. It was good to see her finally recovered.

She chattered like the old Amy as she led Jo Ellen into the new house Grady had built for her only a few years before.

“…Thought you’d forget about us dull country folk now that you’re a thriving city girl with her own business.”

Jo Ellen forced herself to focus on the conversation and forget about a pair of whisky-colored eyes and corn silk hair that kept invading her thoughts. “Oh, whatever. Like I could ever forget you guys.”

Grady appeared then, coming through the doorway of the living room as he exited a hall. He paused when he saw her. She drew in a silent breath as she studied his face. Though she talked to him on the phone at least once a month, she hadn’t seen him face to face since she’d last seen Amy.

He looked changed. Where his wife had fully recovered from her crisis, Grady appeared harder, worn down, exhausted.

“Hey, brother.” She could probably count on one hand the number of times she’d hugged him, but she sensed he needed one now, so she went to him, arms open. He treated her to a faint smile before pulling her close and holding her tight.

“Hey, brat,” he murmured lovingly before letting go.

“Brat?” She scowled, insulted. “I thought Emma Leigh was Brat. I’m Princess, remember?”

“No. You’re both Brat to me.” Then his grin stretched broad as he reached out to tousle her hair.

“I made some lemon bars,” Amy announced, breaking in between brother and sister to latch an arm around both Jo Ellen’s and Grady’s elbows. “Let’s go to the kitchen and try them out.”

Jo Ellen clutched her stomach and held in a cringe. All this country hospitality was going to force her to work out triple time in the gym once she returned to Dallas. Everywhere she went, people only wanted to stuff food down her. But she didn’t complain, just followed her brother and his wife into the back and seated herself across from them at the table.

“So, what’ve you guys been up to?” She asked five minutes later as she licked a dribble of iced frosting off her pinkie. When Grady and Amy paused to shift each other a look, she froze. “What? Oh no, are you okay?” Dread settled like a led pipe in her abdomen.