Montana Sky

thing, he mused, toying with her hair again. All those wild curls, and it was still as soft as duck down. “I like it. Gives me ideas.”
    She was getting that picture clearly enough, and slipped strategically out of reach. “It’s just hair curls.”
    “I like it curled.” His grin spread as he maneuvered her toward the wall. “I like it straight too, the way it just swings down your back, or when you twist it back in a pigtail.”
    She knew the dimensions of her room well enough to judge she’d be rapping into the wall in another two steps. So she held her ground. “Look, what do you think you’re doing?”
    “Is your memory that poor?” He took hold of her, pleased that she’d stopped retreating. “I didn’t figure a few days away would have you forgetting where we left off.Hold still, Willa,” he said patiently when she lifted her arms to push him off. “I’m just going to kiss you.”
    “What if I don’t want you to?”
    “Then say, ‘Get your hands off me, Ben McKinnon.’ ”
    “Get—”
    That was as far as she got before he cut off her opportunity. And his lips were hungry, not nearly as patient as his voice had been. The arms that held her tightened possessively, stole her breath, had her parting her lips to gasp for air . . . .
    And her mouth was invaded by his quick and clever tongue.
    It was like being swallowed, she thought hazily. Like being eaten alive with a greed that incited greed. Hearts pounding. That was his, she realized, as well as hers. Racing wild. Dangerously fast. And she wondered if they continued to ride this course, at this speed, how soon one or both of them would fly headlong over the saddle and into the air.
    “Missed you.”
    He said it so quietly as his lips trailed down to sample her throat that she thought she’d imagined it.
    Missed her? Could he?
    Those lips cruised up again, along the side of her throat, behind her ear, doing things to her skin that made her giddy and weak inside.
    “You smell good,” he murmured.
    He’d said she looked good, she remembered, as her knees trembled. Smelled good. Did that mean he had the big picture? And what came next was . . . She thought of Tess’s lightly cynical remark and swallowed hard.
    “Wait. Stop.” She couldn’t have pushed a mound of feathers away, much less an aroused man, but at her breathy voice and the flutter of her hands he changed the tone.
    “Okay.” He still held her, but easy now, his hand stroking up her back to soothe. She was shaking, he realized, and cursed himself for it. Innocent, innocent, he repeated like a mantra, until his breathing began to level.
    He’d only meant to indulge in a couple of teasing tastes, not a flurry of half-mad gulps. But days, weeks—hell,years—of frustration and wanting, he admitted, were boiling up and threatening to blow.
    And what he wanted to do, what he’d imagined doing to her in that room, on that bed, wasn’t the way a civilized man should initiate a virgin.
    “Sorry.” He eased back to study her face. Fear and confusion and desire swirled in her eyes. He could have done without the fear. “I didn’t mean to spook you, Will. I forgot myself a minute.” To lighten the mood, he flicked a finger at a curl. “Must be the hairdo.”
    He was sorry, she realized, more than a little stunned. And something else was in his eyes. It couldn’t be tenderness, not from him, but she was certain it was a softer emotion than lust. Maybe, she thought—and smiled a little—maybe it was affection.
    “It’s okay. I guess I forgot myself for a minute too. Must have been the way you were gulping me down like two quarts of prime whiskey.”
    “You’ve got a tendency to be as potent,” he muttered.
    “I do?”
    The stunned female response got his blood moving again. “Don’t get me started. I really came up to let you know that Adam and I are riding up into high country to take a look around. Zack says the north pass is blocked by snow. And he thought some hunters might be making use of your cabin.”
    “Why does he think that?”
    “On one of his flyovers he caught sight of tracks, other signs.” Ben shrugged it off. “Wouldn’t be the first time, but since I want to see how bad the pass is blocked, Adam and I thought we’d swing up and check it out.”
    “I’ll go with you. I’ll be ready in fifteen minutes.”
    “We’re getting a late start. Odds are we won’t make it back tonight. We can radio you from the cabin.”
    “I’m