Natural Born Daddy by Sherryl Woods Page B

hot as any blaze, except perhaps the one inside her.
    â€œThere are more,” he said, dropping the teddy he held into a pool of red on the table.
    Sinful black followed, then a wild, hot shade of pink. The last was a vivid, sapphire blue. Kelly loved them all. Never in her life had she owned anything quite so provocative. Her wardrobe of underwear tended toward practical cotton, with a few scraps of lace and silk for special occasions, but there was nothing, nothing like this. It hadn’t seemed necessary since she and Paul had split. Indulgences were something she couldn’t afford.
    â€œWhere on earth would I wear them?” she murmured, even as she clutched them to her.
    â€œWhy not here?” he asked. “The thought of one of these under your jeans and an old plaid shirt gives me goose bumps.”
    â€œIt’s not very practical,” she said.
    â€œNot everything in life has to be practical,” he reminded her.
    â€œIt does when you’re trying to keep a ranch afloat.”
    â€œThen think of me as the impractical side of your life.” He gestured around the kitchen with its faded wallpaper, old appliances and huge oak table. “All of this represents reality. Let me fulfill your dreams.”
    Tears sprang to her eyes at the sweet, tempting suggestion. “Jordan, sometimes you say the most incredible things,” she said.
    He seemed alarmed that she was crying. His finger shook as he wiped away the dampness on her cheeks. “Sweetheart, I didn’t mean to make you cry.”
    â€œI know,” she said, crying harder, then laughing at herself. “It’s so silly. You’re making it so hard for me to go on saying no.”
    â€œThat’s the idea.”
    â€œOne of us has to be practical here. Obviously it’s not going to be you. Jordan, it wouldn’t work,” she repeated for what seemed the hundredth time. This time, though, even she could tell there was a lot less conviction behind the declaration.
    â€œWe’re not a couple of kids with stars in our eyes,” he said. “We could make it work.”
    The remark, so like him, snapped her out of the dreamy, hopeful state of mind he’d induced in her. “But I want stars in my eyes. If I ever marry again, I want it all.” She fingered the piles of silk scattered across the table, then gazed directly into his eyes. “I want it all, Jordan. Nothing less.”
    He stood slowly, then, the faintest hint of anger in his eyes. “I won’t stop trying,” he said with a touch of defiance.
    â€œYou’ll be wasting your time.”
    Before she realized what he intended, he turned back, leaned down and kissed her, a bruising, hard kiss that stole her breath away. His mouth plundered hers, branding her as his as surely as if she’d been one of those heads of cattle at White Pines.
    While she was still dazed, he said softly, “I don’t think so, sweetheart. I don’t think it will be a waste of time at all.”

Chapter Four
    J ordan figured he must have gotten less than an hour of sleep the entire night. Despite his exhaustion, he was back at Kelly’s just before dawn, expecting to find her dressed and ready to get to all that fence mending she’d talked about the night before. Instead he found the house quiet and dark except for a faint light he thought he detected in the kitchen.
    So, she hadn’t gotten much sleep, either. He counted that as a positive sign, an indication that perhaps she had spent the remaining hours of the night lying awake thinking about him, just as he had about her.
    He walked around toward the back of the house, prepared to taunt her a little about getting a late start. Instead he found only Dani in the kitchen, standing on a chair in front of the sink, carefully pouring cereal into a bowl.
    Hiding his disappointment, he tapped on the screen door. When Dani turned toward him and her face lit up, he felt the