“Ah hell, Red, how am I supposed to resist kissin’ you when you look as fresh and pretty as a damn daisy?” He pressed his lips to hers, bestowing the type of gentle, warm kiss lovers shared after a passion-filled night.
She’d barely caught her balance from his sweetness when he scrambled her brain cells with a no-hold-barred-I-want-you-now zealous kiss of intent.
“Why you tremblin’?”
“Just thinking about last night.”
Kane pushed a piece of her hair behind her ear. “No regrets?”
“Only that I didn’t get a chance to touch you at all.”
“There’s always tonight, if you’re feelin’ up to it.”
Ginger’s eyes searched his. “You aren’t bothered by the fact that all I did was lay there and wasn’t an active participant?”
“Not in the least.” He nipped her mouth with firm-lipped sugar bites. “Although, I am hard as a f**kin’ brick thinkin’ about your mouth on my cock. That’s the image I jacked off to last night. You, on your knees, lookin’ up at me, your soft hair teasin’ my thighs as my dick is buried in your hot mouth.”
Heat moistened her pu**y. “What are you doing right now?”
“Not draggin’ you to your bedroom, as much as I’d like to.” He backed off to mutter, “Maybe we better talk about something else. Park that sexy ass on the chair and I’ll make us some coffee.”
“Bossy much?” Ginger shuffled to the kitchen table.
“You don’t know the half of it.”
“But I’ll bet you’re dying to show me.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
This man could get her all kinds of fired up just with molten looks and sexy words.
Kane rested his backside against the counter as the coffee brewed. “So what do you guys do on Sundays?”
“Depends. Sometimes Hayden has a friend over. Sometimes you two do Little Buddies stuff.
Sometimes we spend a couple of hours playing Xbox.”
“Is it true you only let Hayden play the Xbox once a week?”
She nodded. “Probably sounds crazy. But it’d be easy as a single parent to let him fill up the hours with TV or video games while I’m working. I don’t want to socially stunt him by keeping him away from video games entirely, but there are better things he can do with his time. So far he hasn’t fought me on the one day a week rule.”
He cocked his head. “Do you follow that same rule, counselor? Or are you addicted to the Internet and your cell phone?”
“I spend plenty of time on the phone and the computer during working hours. It’s a respite when I’m done for the day. I have a BlackBerry, but I don’t know how to do half the shit on it. Sometimes I take pictures. What about you? You texting like crazy and always checking your email?”
“Not hardly. I have a BlackBerry, but we don’t get cell reception everywhere on the ranch, so it’s dead more’n half the time. I do text. I’m online once a day, usually to check stock prices, do a little research. I use my laptop for updating the databases about our herd. The dams and sires, calf live birth weights, milk weight gain ratios, that sort of stuff.”
Living in an ag community, she was aware that ranchers, especially the younger generation, used computer technology for everything. “Do Kade and your father do that much computer work too?”
“Kade could do it if he wants to. I always send him backup files of my work in case something happens to me or to the computer, but Kade has way more on his plate after workin’ hours than I do. It makes sense the responsibility falls to me.”
Ginger didn’t respond.
Kane brought her a cup of coffee and sat across from her. “I see the wheels a’turnin’, counselor.” He blew across his cup. “You shocked I’m mildly technologically savvy?”
Her gaze hooked his. “Not at all. It just makes me wonder how many more responsibilities fall to you because you don’t have a wife and three kids waiting on you after you drop off the last bale of hay.”
“You worried I’m doin’ more than my fair share?” he asked, his tone slightly amused.
“I guess I am. I’m not sure how the McKay Ranches Inc. or McKay Cattle Company works. Your family ranching businesses are the only clients Dad has kept on since his retirement and he’s slowly easing me into it. But it does seem unfair if you’re bearing a bigger workload.”
“Sometimes I forget you’re a lawyer, and you look at things differently than normal folks.”
She gazed at him coolly. “So I’m abnormal? Was that an insult, McKay?”
“Whoa. You iced over my coffee with that cold glare, sugar.”
“Not funny.”
“Look. The division of duties ain’t the same on the ranch as it is in a traditional nine-to-five workplace. We do what needs done. Sometimes there’s a helluva lot that needs done. During calving season. During haying and branding. Like when Skylar was pregnant with the twins? I sure as hell wasn’t gonna make Kade stick around and check the herd in the middle of the night. Especially when he lives a lot farther away than Dad or me. Besides, he wouldn’t have been worth a shit anyway, worryin’ about his wife.”
“Calving is a busy time?”
“Exhausting. I don’t get more’n a couple hours sleep for at least three weeks. In the last few years, Kade handled the daytime chores. Dad switches back and forth between helpin’ both of us. If Dad gets too tired, then Ma pitches in. I’m usually out at the bunkhouse with my cousins during that time, since we’ve staggered the calving season. So, see? It all works out.” He got up and grabbed the coffee pot, refilled both their cups. “For instance, Kade is takin’ care of things while I’m here with you.”
“I’ll remember to thank him,” Ginger murmured. “And you. Thank you, Kane. I know you probably had more important things to do than babysit me.”
“I’m here because I want to be. You know that, right?”
“I’m a little more convinced now than I was when you first showed up at the hospital.”
At his smoky gaze, and his gravelly “Is that so?” heat curled in her belly.
“While you’re restin’ today, do you mind if I take Hayden into town for the high school basketball game? We don’t have to stay for all four quarters, but he’s been lookin’ forward to it. Thought we could pick up something for supper and bring it home.”