CHAPTER
33
Kirsty was going to kiss Farmer Joe, and to hell with the consequences.
She was going to do more than kiss him if she got the chance.
Bruce the python had given Kirsty’s adrenalin a nudge, but that half-smile playing around Farmer Joe’s cocky mouth?
Oh yeah. Her adrenalin was banging like a war drum. ‘Enough with the life advice, though. I liked hearing those compliments,’ she said. ‘You got any more of those?’
‘Uh, sure. You’ve got mad skills with a socket set.’
She swayed in a little closer to him, took a sniff of warm, kind male. ‘Is that the best you’ve got.’
He let out a little groan. ‘I guess … you do feel pretty good up close, rouseabout.’
That was nice to hear. ‘Better than an irrigation pipe? Better than a tractor?’
His hand—the one that wasn’t at the back of her neck sending little trills of delight down her spine—slipped down her hipand found the space between her singlet and the frill of her very unrouseabout knickers. ‘Much, much better.’
There was a breathy current under his baritone that was even more thrilling than those fingers.
Helikedthis.
He likedher.
And his hands, and his breath on her neck, and the scratch of stubble just before he kissed the skin below her ear was filling her head with so much longing it was blotting out the darkness.
She closed her eyes and let her head fall back so that wandering mouth could do as it liked. She ran her hand up his arm from elbow to shoulder, concentrating on the shape, the feel, the curve of muscle under warm skin.
Oh yes.
This was absolutely working … there was nothing in her head now but this moment, this man, this burning need.
‘Kirsty?’
She made some sort of sound, but it was muffled by the fact she’d pressed her lips to the chest in front of her. If he started talking, he might say something to shatter the moment. Likestay.Easy solution, she thought. She stood on her tiptoes in the dew-damp grass, slid both arms around his neck, and fastened her mouth to his.
He let her kiss him.
He was kissing her, just a little, just enough to let her know that he was into this but letting her set the pace.
Well … she wanted him to be kissing her so thoroughly the dark thoughts couldn’t find their way back in and destroy the fireworks currently filling her head.
‘Why the hesitation?’ she muttered against his mouth.
‘I’m thinking about our tenancy agreement.’
That surprised a snort of laughter from her. ‘I’m pretty sure we didn’t write anything down.’
‘Some things are inferred,’ he said.
He was looking down at her, the spotlight by the back steps reflecting in his eyes. His hair had grown out a little in the weeks she’d been here, and that smart cut had lost its edges. She ran her fingers through it, tousled it up a little … and now he looked a little rumpled and imperfect, just the way she wanted him to look.
‘What do you infer from this?’ she said, sliding her hand into his and taking a step in the direction of the house.
‘My brain stopped working when it saw those green frilly knickers. You need to do the thinking for both of us.’