Wyoming Wildflowers: The Beginning by Patricia McLinn Page B

them. Together, those feelings had informed her precisely where he sat whenever he was in the audience.
    His smile faded. “What’s wrong, Donna?”
    “Nothing’s wrong. Absolutely nothing.” She sucked in a breath. “It’s time for us to go to your room now.”
    Heat flared into his eyes first. Heat that burned into her lungs and all the way down to the pit of her stomach. Oh, yes, he wanted her. Let him even try to say he didn’t.
    “Donna—”
    “Forget it, Ed. Most times that quiet sternness might do the trick. Not this time. Your room. Now.” She started for the elevator.

CHAPTER TEN
    Monday night
     
    He hadn’t been able to argue in the elevator because a businessman stepped in with them at the last second.
    Good.
    When they reached Ed’s floor, she marched down the hallway ahead, stopping by his door.
    “Donna?”
    “Open the door unless you want me to do something scandalous right here in the hall,” she threatened.
    She had to do it this way. Before she ran out of courage.
    Because she knew she’d run out of courage long before she ran out of wanting, a recipe for going stark-raving mad. After the past three nights, alone in her bed, she knew that for sure.
    He unlocked the door, letting her enter an even smaller version of the room she shared with Lydia.
    As soon as the door clicked closed, she turned and faced him.
    “I was going to seduce you Friday night —”
    “
Friday
?”
    “— but you insisted on riding back in the bus. Yes, Friday. Why’d you say it like that?”
    “I thought you were trying Saturday night—”
    “I was.
And
last night.”
    His grin appeared at her mournful tone. “You were so tired. And you weren’t sure.” He cupped her shoulders, studying her. “You’re not sure now.”
    “I am sure.”
    Despite herself, her eyes flickered to the bed. The bed was narrow. He was a big man. Tall, broad . . . and long.
    “If you don’t — I’m not, I mean I don’t — But you have no way of knowing that, and if you don’t want someone so forward —”
    He took her face in his big hands. “I know.”
    She tipped her head back, preparing to ask what he thought he knew, maybe even hoping she’d ease her nerves by teasing him. At his expression her breath caught sharp, pulling back her words, along with the scent of his skin, and a knowledge so powerful that it stung fast, undeniable tears into her eyes.
    His eyes were hot with desire, a fire that raced through her blood, too. But she’d seen men’s eyes hot with desire. She’d even reciprocated the feeling.
    It had never brought tears.
    Ed’s eyes, though, also held a warmth so deep and so enduring she thought she could never get to the end of it.
    That
brought her tears.
    He raised one big hand, cupping the back of her head, and drawing her wet face against his shoulder.
    “I know.”
    He held her while she cried, letting warmth enfold her, holding off the heat for this moment.
    She sniffled against his shirt.
    “Are all the men in Wyoming like you?”
    “They would try to be if they met you.”
    ****
    He’d lifted her into his arms then, carried her to the bed, and held her so very gently.
    And they’d fallen asleep.
    They fell asleep
.
    She had to be the least seductive seductress in the universe.
    Donna had blinked awake a moment ago, torn between wanting to stay in exactly this position — spooned against him with his arms wrapped around her — for as long as her heart beat, and wanting to leap out of bed and disappear.
    They hadn’t even gotten their clothes off. Their shoes and socks, yes, but otherwise a full complement of inside clothes.
    Which was a shame.
    Because if she didn’t have on blouse and bra, all she’d have to do would be to slide her arm a little and his hand would be on her breast, his fingers in just the right spot to touch her nipple, which was doing its part to make the connection.
    Though why he would want to bother with someone who fell asleep for heaven’s