Only 03 - Only You

and lethal speed with a six-gun. Seeing him bathe his nephew made her feel as though she had stepped from one world into another one, a world where anything was possible….
    Even tenderness and strength combined in the same man.
    “Damn, you’re as slippery as an eel,” Reno said.
    “Try rinsing him off,” Willow said without looking up.
    “With what? Most of the water is on me.”
    Willow laughed. “Hang on. There’s warm water on the stove. I’ll get it as soon as I finish sifting this batch of flour.”
    “I’ll get it,” Eve said as she stepped into the kitchen.
    A subtle change came over Reno at the sound of Eve’s voice behind him, a tightness that wasn’t there before.
    Willow saw it, noted it, and wondered why Reno was so ill at ease with the girl who was his partner. There was none of the relaxation between the two of them that Willow would have expected of a couple involved in a courtship or a liaison of a more physical sort.
    Nor was there any flirtation. Reno treated Eve as though she were a virtual stranger—and a male stranger, at that.
    That surprised Willow, for Reno was normally both gallant and appreciative of women. Especially women with wide golden eyes, a generous smile, and a feline grace of movement that was frankly, if unintentionally, sensual.
    “Thank you, Eve,” Willow said. “Ethan’s towelis warming on that peg just beyond the stove.”
    From the corner of his eye, Reno watched as Eve retrieved both towel and warm rinse water for the baby. When she bent over, the worn fabric of her dress cupped her breasts with breathtaking closeness, revealing every curve.
    The fierce shaft of desire that went through Reno angered him. His sexual appetite hadn’t ever been this unruly. Deliberately he looked away from Eve to the strapping, healthy baby wriggling between his hands.
    “He may have Caleb’s eyes,” Reno said, studying Ethan, “but they’re set like yours. Same catlike tilt.”
    “I could say the same about your eyes,” Willow said. “Lord, but the girls used to fall at your feet like overripe peaches.”
    “That’s Rafe you’re thinking of.”
    Willow snorted. “It’s both of you. Savannah Marie was like a donkey between two carrots.”
    Silently Eve began pouring a trickle of water over the slippery baby Reno was holding.
    “It wasn’t our looks,” Reno said. “It was our farm bordering her father’s that she liked.”
    The steel edge buried in Reno’s voice made Willow look up from her biscuits.
    “Do you think so?” she asked.
    “I know so. All Savannah Marie was interested in was her own comfort. That’s all most women are interested in.”
    Willow made a protesting sound.
    “Except you,” Reno added. “You never were like other girls. You had a heart as big as a barn—and no more sense than a hayloft.”
    Willow laughed.
    When Eve looked up, she was caught by Reno’s pale green eyes. He didn’t have to say a word; sheknew he included her in the category of women out for their own comfort and to hell with what anyone else needed.
    “Honestly, Matt,” Willow said. “You shouldn’t say such things. Someone who doesn’t know you might believe you meant it.”
    The look Reno gave Eve said she had better believe him.
    “Tilt Ethan’s head back,” Eve said in a low voice.
    Reno shifted his nephew until Eve could rinse his silky, dark hair without getting soap in his eyes.
    When Ethan began to protest, Eve bent down and spoke to him in a soothing voice as she rinsed his hair. Her deft, skillful hands soon had his head as clean of soap as the rest of him.
    “There, there, little sugar man. Don’t fuss. I’ll have you warm and dry before you know it. See? All finished.”
    Eve took the towel from her shoulder, wrapped it around Ethan’s sturdy body, and lifted him from the shallow bath basin. She set him on the counter and went about drying him with an easy skill that told its own story. As she worked, she tugged gently on his toes and recited snippets of old rhymes she hadn’t thought of in years.
    “…and this little piggy had none…”
    Ethan gurgled with delight. The piggy game was one of his favorites, second only to peekaboo.
    “…and this little piggy went wheel whee! whee! all the way home.”
    Ethan laughed, and so did Eve. She wrapped the towel around him and lifted him into her arms for a hug and a kiss.
    Eyes dosed, lost in memories and dreams, Eve swayed from side to side with Ethan wrapped in her arms, rocking him