His intense blue eyes were riveted on hers before he dipped his head. She expected fire the instant their lips touched, but Tell kissed her without hurry. Keeping the kiss soft, sweet and slow. As if he had all the time in the world to explore her mouth, to tease her tongue with little sucks and bites. To drive her to the edge of lust and hold her there for as long as he damn well pleased.
She tangled her fingers in his hair, drifting into a fuzzy state of pleasure. She couldn’t blame the heat building between them on the sun. Just this man.
They only broke the kiss because someone whistled.
Tell’s forehead met hers. “Damn.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
“What are we gonna do about this, sweetness?”
“I have a couple of ideas. Explicit ideas.”
“So if I said, ‘Georgia, let’s hotfoot it to my place right now and get nekkid’…?”
“I’d race you to your truck. And I’d probably win.”
He laughed. “Guess that settles my question.”
“Which was?”
Tell studied her. “If you’re shy when that bedroom door closes.”
“No. But I’m not bossy, either.”
“Good to know. Because I am bossy.”
She expected him to laugh and say just kidding, but apparently he was serious. Very serious. She swallowed hard.
“Did you know I had a hard-on every damn day in history class?”
“Ah-hah!” Georgia poked him in the chest. “I knew studying the War Between the States got you all hot and bothered.”
“Funny girl. You got me all hot and bothered. Every time your hair brushed across my knuckles, I imagined those soft strands teasing my dick. I’d stare at the back of your head and daydream.”
“About my hair?”
He grinned. “No. Mostly about sex stuff that I had no experience with, but your cherry-scented hair played a big part in every one of those horny teen dreams. And I wasn’t the only guy in our school who got hard just from lookin’ at you. I hoped my boner would be gone by the time the bell rang. So you wouldn’t notice.”
A sudden feeling of guilt caused her to blurt, “What does that say about me, Tell? That I didn’t notice?”
“It says you were a seventeen-year-old girl immersed in her own dramas. It also says for bein’ the hottest girl in school, you were unaware of your appeal. I didn’t bring it up to make you feel bad, Georgia. I only said it because I’m hard right now.”
“I figured that out on my own.”
He laughed. “See? You’re much more observant now.”
“So how long do you plan to keep me pressed up against this pole?”
“Until my flagpole impression goes away. Just give me a minute to…catch my bearings, because we still need to finish our game,” Tell murmured in her ear.
“Huh-uh. I forfeit. You win. Now can we get ice cream?”
Tell kissed her and gently set her back on her feet. He picked up the basketball and held out his hand. “Where you thinking? Dairy Queen? Or the drive-in? Wherever we go, you cannot order a cone. No way can I hide an erection in these shorts if I watch that tongue of yours licking.”
“Too bad. I’m definitely picking that.” She yelped when he swatted her butt.
After piling in Tell’s pickup, he patted the center of the bench seat and grinned at her.
Georgia rolled her eyes, but she scooted over.
The DQ parking lot was full on a Sunday afternoon.
Tell kept his hands on her shoulders and his body tucked in close behind hers as they waited in line. He read every item on the menu to her, and made every item sound dirty.
When she turned to warn him to knock it off or else she was ordering a chocolate-covered frozen banana, he kissed her. Not a quick peck either.
“Eww, Tell. I think I saw your tongue,” a young male voice complained.
They broke the lip-lock and looked at the boy. Dark hair, blue eyes, wearing camo shorts and an orange Toby Keith T-shirt.
“Hey, Ky. Guess you haven’t kissed a girl yet if you’re still grossed out by it.”
The kid blushed. “I coulda kissed a girl if I wanted to, but who’d want to?” Ky’s gaze landed on Georgia. “Who’re you?”
“Georgia Hotchkiss. Who are you?”
“Ky McKay. Tell is kinda my uncle.” He threw back his thin shoulders, rising to his full height. “You’re kinda short. I’m almost taller than you.”
“And you’re about to get extra chores for bein’ rude, Kyler.”
The man who’d spoken stood behind Ky with another dark-haired boy of about two resting on his hip. She’d never met him, and he was probably a dozen years older than Tell, but he was obviously a McKay.
“Aw, Dad, I was just kiddin’,” Ky complained.
The man thrust out his hand and smiled. “I’m Cord McKay. Tell’s cousin.”
“Nice to meet you, Cord. Who’s the little guy?”
Cord glanced down as the boy hid his face. “Beau. It’s past his naptime and he’s steppin’ on his mama’s last nerve today.”
Another dark-haired boy, around age four, barreled up and head-butted Ky in the stomach. “You stole my toy!”
Ky looked innocent. “What? I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about, Foster. You probably lost it.”
“Give it back!”
“Don’t be such a baby. It’s just a stupid toy.”
Foster growled and charged Ky again, but was handily stopped by his father. “Knock it off. Both of you.”
A pregnant blonde stopped next to Cord, and Beau tried to jump out of his father’s arms into hers. When Cord kept that from happening, Beau wailed.
Cord passed off the crying Beau to Ky and handed him a set of keys. “Take your brothers to the truck. But don’t even think about starting it,” he warned.
The boys raced out.
Cord put his hand on the woman’s lower back and kissed her temple.
But the pretty blonde wasn’t looking at her husband. She was looking at Georgia.
Tell said, “This is Cord’s wife, AJ. AJ, this is Georgia—”
“I know who she is,” AJ replied coolly. “We went to school together.”
Georgia didn’t remember this woman at all and she started to get that panicked feeling like she should know her.
“But she doesn’t know me since I didn’t have time to go to football games, dances and such. I was too busy working on the ranch.”