“I have to agree. I’m getting pretty tired of the five things my brother and I know how to cook.”
I cocked my head. “I’m sure there’s more than five.”
“Not that we both like. Onyx is a far better cook than either of us are. That’s been a bonus.”
“Speaking of Onyx…”
3
RANGER
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to talk about the man. It was more that our professional lives had always been so intertwined that any kind of conversation about him or me would be full of landmines of things I couldn’t discuss. “What about the big oaf?” I asked, attempting to begin this conversation on a light note.
“He said he met Blanca through her sister.”
“He knew her sister.”
“Oh. Past tense?”
I nodded. “She passed away.”
“My condolences.”
“Thanks, but I didn’t know her very well.”
“She and Blanca were twins, although other than their looks, they never seemed much alike.”
“Don’t let your favorite soup get cold,” I said, motioning with my spoon before taking another bite of mine. I had to admit, I doubted I’d ever had better.
“Is that an attempt to change the subject?”
I rested my spoon on the side of the bowl, picked up my glass of wine, and leaned back in my chair. “Of all the things I know and find fascinating to talk about, Onyx is not one of them.”
Maisie set her spoon down like I had and took a sip of her wine. “What about you? Is your life a topic open for discussion?”
My eyes scrunched. “My life? Wow. How about we go back to your plans to save the amusement park instead?”
“I shared my hopes and dreams with you. What are yours?”
“That narrows the subject at least. Let’s see. Hopes and dreams.” I pushed the tureen of soup back a little and rested my forearms on the edge of the table. “To be honest, I’ve always dreamed of retiring right here at Canada Lake.”
“But?”
I flexed my right hand, then my left. If Diesel were here tonight—instead of Cowboy and Buster, whom he’d assigned to my detail—he’d pick up on my tell. It’s what I did when I was stalling.
“I ended up here sooner than I expected to.”
“Why?”
I looked into Maisie’s eyes and smiled. “Not gonna go easy on me, are you?”
“Would you go easy on me?”
I slowly shook my head and let my eyes drift down her body. “Never.”
“I get the feeling we aren’t talking about hopes and dreams anymore.”
“Sure, we are. Dreams anyway.” When I reached across the table, she put her hand in mine. “I dream about kissing you again.”
“I dream about it too.”
“Yeah? Does that mean you remember I came to your birthday party?”
“I’ll never forget it.”
I brought her hand to my lips and kissed the back of it.
“Are you finished with your soup? The next course is about to be served,” said Dick, feeling the need to refill our wineglasses at the worst moment as far as I was concerned, especially when Maisie took her hand from mine and cleared her throat.
“I’d never let it go to waste,” she said, looking up at him.
“Since I am here at Canada Lake, how can I help?” I asked when I took the last spoonful of my hot fudge sundae, evidently the perfect dessert to serve after a stuffed pork chop with green beans, mashed potatoes, and gravy.
“You ordered all my favorites.” Maisie leaned back and rubbed her stomach. Unlike me, who polished off every last morsel, she’d saved at least half of everything to take home with her.
“Will you share with your grandparents or keep the leftovers for yourself?”
“With my grandparents? No. With you? Absolutely.”
I smiled. “I probably won’t be hungry again until tomorrow.”
“Works for me.” Maisie dipped her spoon into the ice cream and brought it to her mouth. I watched in increasingly excited awe as she lapped it with the tip of her tongue. “You said something about helping?”
“Um…” I flexed both my hands, willing some of the blood in my body to return to my brain so I could think straight enough to respond. “The amusement park. That’s where you said you wanted to start, isn’t it?”
“Oh, you meant with saving Canada Lake.” She dipped her spoon back in the bowl of ice cream.
Maisie Ann Jones was quickly becoming the sexiest woman I’d ever known. “You keep that up, beautiful, and there won’t be a single thing in your life I won’t help you with.”
“Promise?” she asked as I watched her tongue twirl around that damn spoon, unable to think of anything besides her doing exactly that to my cock.
It was at least ten degrees below zero as we walked to the SUV, not to mention I knew we had an audience. They were the only two things stopping me from pushing Maisie up against the outside wall of the Northwoods Inn and thrusting my tongue into her mouth while my hands explored the rest of her body. Once we were inside the vehicle and the heat kicked in, I had no idea how I’d keep my hands off her.
I opened her door, helped her in, and closed it, counting to twenty as I walked around the back of the truck to the driver’s side. I climbed in, started the engine, and turned the heaters way up, all without looking at my date, knowing that if I did, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from ravishing her.
“Ranger?” I heard her say above the noise of the fan I’d turned to high.
“Yeah?” I glanced in her direction.
“You aren’t going to make me wait until you walk me to my door to kiss me, are you?”
And there went every ounce of my self-control. “Hell, no,” I said, reaching for her at the same time she launched herself at me.
Kissing her was every bit as mind-blowingly sexy as I remembered. I gripped the side of her face with my hand, holding her still as my tongue tangled with hers. It was all I could do not to bring both palms to her breasts that were crushed against my chest or slide my hand under her dress and reach up to feel her heat. Instead, I released her.
“Woman, you are killing me.”
She rested against her seat. “There are a lot of things I’d like to do to you, Ranger, and not a single one of them ends with you dying.”
I had two choices. I could put my hands back on Maisie’s body, in which case it might be dawn before we made it out of the parking lot. Or I could put the SUV in gear and take her home.
We were halfway there before I allowed myself to look over at her. As I anticipated, she was looking in my direction. “You have no idea how hard that was, beautiful.”
“It’s still hard.”
Yeah, I could attest to that. The last time I remembered being turned on to the point I ached was eight years ago in this very town with this very woman.
If I stopped at my camp, I’d more than likely toss her over my shoulder, carry her up to my bedroom, and fuck her so hard that neither of us would be able to walk tomorrow. Instead, I ignored her protest when we came to the turnoff and continued straight on the road that led to her grandparents’ place.