He chuckled, pleased as punch that she was just as anxious. “No. But as soon as everybody’s up, I’m gonna need to go outside and work off this extra energy. Got a wood pile that needs split or something?”
“Was your use of the word ‘wood’ intentional?”
“Smartass.”
“You need help chopping your wood?” She snickered.
“No. I’ve got plenty of experience, even if it’s been one-handed experience recently.”
Ginger nuzzled his neck. “Care to elaborate on that ‘recently’ time frame?”
“Sure. Not since the night you goaded me into kissin’ you.”
She froze.
“Surprised?”
“Completely.”
Kane whispered, “Your turn.”
“I haven’t had any wood in my shed since I moved here.”
Simultaneously, they tilted their heads back and stared at one another. Then simultaneously, they grinned.
“Red, we are so gonna combust as soon as I see them bus taillights turnin’ onto the highway tomorrow mornin’.”
“I can’t wait.”
At 5 a.m. Kane rolled out of bed and shoveled. Again.
At 6 a.m. Kane showered. Shaved. Trimmed his mustache and goatee. Did a little manscaping.
At 6:30 a.m. the coffee finished brewing.
At 6:35 a.m. he heard Ginger’s door open. She woke Hayden. Then her father. Then she entered the kitchen.
Okay. He’d half hoped she’d slink in wearing the silky green robe he’d seen hanging on the back of her bedroom door. But no. She wore black yoga pants that hugged her every mouth-watering curve and an old T-shirt that barely skimmed her navel.
Hello gorgeous.
But she wouldn’t look at him. She poured herself a cup of coffee. Knocked it back and poured another.
“Ginger? You okay?”
She whirled on him and growled, “No. Don’t touch me. Don’t talk to me. Don’t even look at me.”
Shit. Had she changed her mind? “Why not?”
“Because if you do, I will jump you and ride you like a pony, right fucking here, right fucking now, on my dirty kitchen linoleum.”
Whoa. Guess she hadn’t changed her mind.
Heh heh.
Grinning, Kane held up his hands in mock surrender. “I’ll just umm…watch The Weather Channel or something.”
“You do that.”
If Hayden or Dash noticed her edginess, they didn’t mention it. She packed Hayden’s lunch. He bundled the boy up and sent him out to wait for the school bus.
One down; one to go.
Dash seemed to be dragging his wheels. Even after the senior bus pulled into the driveway and honked. He slowly put on his coat. Buttoned it. Double-checking each button.
At one point Kane swore he caught a knowing, ornery smirk on the man’s face.
Dash wrapped his scarf around his neck, then rewrapped it. He settled his Elmer Fudd hat with the earflaps on his head. Tugged on his gloves with his teeth. Took them off and tried it again.
Finally.
But the man bundled up and ready for a trip to Siberia, simply waited at the door.
“Do they usually come in and get you?” Kane asked.
“No.”
Pause.
“Need me to help you out to the van, Dash?”
“A little eager to get rid of me this morning, McKay?”
Dammit. “Nope. I thought you might be worried the ramp is icy. I shoveled it, so you don’t have to worry about careening out of control.”
The horn honked again.
Dash stayed put.
Now Kane was really starting to sweat. What if the bus left? He could drive Dash into town in the van, although that’d eat up some time, but that’d still leave him and Ginger…
“Later,” Dash said and Kane scrambled to hold the door open while Dash rolled out.
8:37 a.m. Dash was on the bus’s loading platform and the driver opened the door to load Dash’s wheelchair into the bus.
8:40 a.m. the bus started backing down the driveway.
8:41 a.m. the senior bus disappeared down the highway.
8:42 a.m. Kane locked the front door.
At 8:42 and sixteen seconds Kane stood at the foot of Ginger’s bed.
The sexy vixen had draped the green robe across her body. “They’re gone?” she asked.
“They’re gone.”
“For sure?”
“For positive.”
“Then strip.”
Kane raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”
“No control games. I want you naked.”
“Control ain’t a game for me, Red. No master-slave scenarios. No collars. No fake punishments for disobedience. No crops or whips or spankins…unless you ask. Or maybe, even if you don’t.” Kane yanked his T-shirt off. Unbuckled his belt and unzipped. And stopped.
If the glazed look in her eyes was an indication, she’d quit listening to him when he’d started shedding clothes.
He whistled to get her attention.
Ginger’s gaze zoomed back to him. “Umm. What were you saying?”
“This isn’t a game. I’m in control when that bedroom door shuts. You cede all power to me. Period.”
“Why?”
“Well, one—because I like it and bein’ in control is my true nature. And two—because I know you’re the take-charge type. You’re always worryin’ about everyone else in your family, makin’ sure your career and every aspect of your life are kept under control. Which is fine. Perfect actually. Because it’ll be so much more freeing when you hand that tightly held control over to me when we’re in the bedroom.” Kane shucked his Wranglers and his socks, keeping her focus trained on him. “No one has to know but us. I’m willin’ to compromise on a lot of things, but this ain’t one of them. So tell me now if you’re on board with this.”
“If I’m not?”
“I’ll put my clothes back on and we’ll chalk it up to differing philosophies.”
She blinked at him. He recognized the wheels in her head were spinning frantically, trying to justify this action with all that lawyer speak that made her so damn appealing.
“Say yes. Let me take care of you, Ginger. I’ll give you everything that you never knew you needed in bed.” And out, but she wasn’t ready to hear that part yet.
“Yes,” she whispered.
Kane wrapped his fist in the silken material of the green robe and yanked, revealing her…fully clothed body.
Her porcelain-colored skin flushed a deep crimson. “I wanted to be a temptress, to wear my skimpiest lace panties and matching bra, but I couldn’t get undressed by myself. So, sorry I’m in the same old crappy stuff I’ve worn for the last—”
“Stop.” He crawled across the bed, his painfully hard dick bounced against his belly. “Lose the pants.” Off they went. “Sit up.”
She pushed upright with her good arm and studied him from beneath lowered lashes. “Take the sling off too. I’ll be careful. I just need to touch you with both hands, Kane.”
He unhooked the sling and maneuvered her shirt off. She wore the lime-green bra. He twisted the front clasp, slid it free from her arms and it met the rest of her clothes on the floor.
Once he tore his greedy gaze away from her drool-worthy tits, he sealed his lips to hers. As Kane kissed her, he slowly rolled her onto her back.
By the time they came up for air, Kane teetered on the edge of just plowing into her and getting this first time out of the way so he could take it slower the second go round.
Fuck that. Ginger deserved better. Hell, he deserved better.
He pushed onto his haunches; his gaze started at the sassy dent in her chin and winged to the pale peach tips of her hardened nipples and ended at the triangle of red curls. Kane bent his head and lapped her slit from the mouth of her sex to her clit.
Damn. She was already wet. Really wet. Completely ready.
“Kane—”
“I know.” With now, now, now pounding in his head, he slid her left foot up until it was flat on the mattress. Then he did the same with the cast. He braced his left hand above her shoulder and directed his cock to the warm, wet place between her thighs.
Then Kane snapped his hips. With one fast stroke he was fully seated inside her. He levered his body over hers, so they were belly to belly, chest to chest, eye to eye. “You okay?”
Ginger’s left hand touched his face. “Don’t stop, don’t think, just fuck me.”
Growling, Kane pulled out and slammed back in. “Good thing you said that, because I couldn’t hold back right now if I tried.”
He withdrew. Shoved in to the root again. Each stroke gained momentum. Faster and faster until he was fucking her without pause.
She squirmed, delicately arching her neck, canting her hips, urging him to go deeper. Her free hand gripped his ass and her breath whooshed out with his every forceful thrust.
“God, that feels so good,” she moaned.
“Too goddamn good.” Yeah, it’d been a long time since he’d had sex, but he never remembered it being this good. Maybe the buildup of sexual tension heightened his senses.
“I’m already close. Shift your hips a little to the… Oh yes, right there.”
On every upstroke he pressed into her pubic bone, grinding against her clit. Shortening each thrust so he kept nearly constant pressure where she needed it most.
Her cunt muscles clamped down on his cock, keeping it in place and she came with a husky, drawn-out wail.
Steady. Steady. Steady.
Kane clenched his jaw and rode out her orgasm, memorizing the play of emotions crossing her exquisite face. The look of pain morphed into an expression of bliss and she released a wholly feminine, wholly satisfied sigh.
The sigh set him off. He jackhammered his cock into her without restraint, watching her tits shake, watching her smile grow as his control unraveled.
His balls constricted. He shouted as pulses of hot seed shot out of his dick into the slippery, wet heat of her pussy. At each ripple of pleasure zipping down his spine, he couldn’t stop his pelvis from thrusting, trying to prolong the almost violent electric bursts as long as possible.