“It was okay.”
She was clearly pouting about being reprimanded, which he found ridiculously adorable. Normally he wasn’t one to put up with excessive sulking, but she was just so damn cute. “Come on, jellybean.” He swung their hands between them, earning him a short, high giggle. “Give me all the juicy deets.”
“The deets?” This time her eye roll was much more exaggerated. “Nobody says that anymore, old man.”
The swat he landed on her jean-covered bottom couldn’t have stung that much, but she squealed and danced anyway, probably thanks to the paddling he’d given her that morning. “Owie! Connor!”
“Calling people names isn’t nice, little girl,” he mock-scolded, delivering a second swat to her opposite cheek.
To his horror, tears filled her eyes before she dropped her head. “I’m sorry, sir.”
“Hey. What’s all this?” Placing a finger beneath her chin, he nudged her head back so she was forced to look up at him. “We’re just playing, jellybean. I’m not mad.”
“I was being a brat and I was rude. I’m sorry.”
Slipping his arms around her waist, he pulled her to him and dropped a kiss on her forehead. “You were being a little bit of a brat, but it was all in fun. I didn’t mind at all. If you cross a serious boundary with me, you can be sure I’ll let you know. Okay?”
“You promise you’re not mad?”
“No, baby.” He let his lips curve up in a mischievous smile of his own. “I’m certainly not going to complain about having a chance to spank your adorable bottom.”
The blush returned to her cheeks with a vengeance, and he suddenly couldn’t wait a second longer. Lowering his head, he brushed his lips over hers.
He’d meant to keep it light. Reassuring. Sweet.
But then she sighed and leaned into him, and something inside of him snapped. The instincts he was working so hard to keep at bay took over and he moved a hand to her hair, gripping the ponytail and pulling her head back so he could plunder her mouth.
With a whimper, she surrendered. Her hands gripped his shirt, not to push him away but to pull him closer as he took what he pleased from her. And she happily gave it, meeting his need with a hunger that matched his own.
When they finally pulled apart, her lips were swollen. And when she opened her eyes, there was a sheen over them that had nothing to do with her earlier tears.
“Whoa,” she whispered, blinking up at him. “That was… Whoa.”
Delighted by her, he brushed his lips over hers again. “Kissing you may be my new favorite hobby, jellybean.”
“Ditto.”
Chapter 5
With his handpractically burning a hole through her shirt from its position at the small of her back, Connor guided her through the winding hallways and out a side door.
“It’s a bit of a walk to my house,” he said when they stepped out into the cooling evening air. “Would you rather take a cart?”
As much as she loved riding in the golf carts the Ranch supplied, she didn’t want to rush any part of their evening together. “It’s nice out. Let’s walk.”
“All right.” Taking her hand again, he swung it lightly between them as they made their way toward the row of houses set up for the on-site staff. “Tell me about yourself, jellybean.”
“Like what?”
“Let’s start with where you grew up. What’s your family like?”
A familiar longing tightened around her chest. “I grew up in California, on the coast. Mom, dad, two younger brothers who loved to torture me. Average.”
“Average, huh?”
“Downright boring,” she assured him.
“Jellybean, if there’s one thing I’m absolutely certain of, it’s that you are anything but boring.”