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  "Are you all right?" he whispered huskily.

  She nodded without lifting her head from where it rested on his shoulder. Her fingers curled in the thick mat of dark hair on his chest.

  **Why now? Why me?" He felt tension creep through her lax body and half wished he hadn't said anything. But as the sensual fog started to lift from his mind, he found himself wondering why she'd chosen him to be her first lover.

  And not sure he wanted to hear the answer.

  Megan didn't pretend not to know what Kel was asking. She felt the subtle tension in him and knew her answer was important. What could she tell him? That she thought she might be falling in love with him? She didn't need to be psychic to know that he didn't want to hear that. Besides, she wasn't sure of her feelings, she told herself, half afraid she was lying.

  **It felt right," she said finally, glad their positions meant that she didn't have to meet his eyes.

  "It felt right?" Kel rolled that thought around for a moment. He should be rdieved. God forbid she should announce that she loved him. He didn't need

  or want those kinds of promises. He'd had them once before and had quickly learned how hollow they could be. He was glad that Megan didn't feel the need to wrap their attraction up in pretty, emotional bows.

  Still, '*it felt right" didn't seem like much of a reason for a twenty-five-year-old virgin to decide to sleep with a man. It ought to mean more than that, he thought, aware of feeling a little disgruntled.

  But it wasn't any of his business why she'd made the choice she had. As long as she didn't expect more from him than he could give, then her reasons didn't make any difference to him. None at all.

  Her fingers brushed across a flat nipple hidden in the thick mat of chest hair, and though it hardly seemed possible after the explosive lovemaking they'd just shared, Kel felt a stir of arousal. Megan couldn't avoid feeUng it also, considering the intimacy of her leg thrown across his hips.

  She laughed, a low, throaty sound that made his blood thicken and his skin heat. He moved suddenly, hearing her gasp as he shifted her to lie on top of him, her slender body pressed the length of his much harder frame. After a startled moment, she moved slightly, adjusting to the new position.

  Kel barely stifled a groan as the softness of her belly pressed more firmly against his hardening flesh. He couldn't remember ever wanting a woman like this. He'd just had her, yet his body was responding as if it had been months since he'd touched a woman.

  He slid his hands up the length of her, easing his thumbs under the weight of her breasts, brushing them

  across the sensitive nipples while his mouth was busy exploring the skin b^ieath her ear.

  **If Fd known this was so much fun, maybe I wouldn't have waited so long,*' she said breathlessly, her skin heating under his hands.

  Kel flattened one hand against her bottom, pressing her closer to his arousal. He didn't like the idea of Megan with another man—past or future. The thought made him want to sheath himself in her, to make love to her again and again until she was unmistakably branded as his, untU she was incapable of so much as thinking of another man.

  At another time, the fierceness of that thought might have given him pause, but he was somewhat preoccupied at the moment. Megan laughed again, that same breathy, sensuous sound that drove him wild. Kel gave up thinking completely, deciding that his time could be more profitably occupied elsewhere.

  M^an measured coffee into the filter. There was a fine tremor in her fingers that made the simple task more difficult than it should have been. When she spilled coffee for the second time, she set down the scoop and leaned her hands on the edge of the counter. Taking a deep breath and then another, she tried to slow the quick beat of her heart.

  Stop acting like an idiot, she scolded herself. What was the big deal about seeing Kel at breakfast? She'd been doing that every morning since she came to the LazyB.

  But this morning, he wasn't just her employer or even the man for whom she felt a powerful attraction. This morning he was her lover.

  She swallowed and closed her eyes. It was silly to be so nervous. She hadn't been this nervous when she went to his room last night, she thought ruefully.

  Maybe she shouldn't have crept to her bed in the gray hour just before dawn. If she'd stayed in his bed, awakened next to him, their first meeting would already be over with and she wouldn't be standing here shaking like a leaf at the thought of it.

  But waking from a deep sleep, she'd lay there, listening to the sound of Kel's breathing, aware of him in ways she'd never known before, and it had suddenly seemed unbearably intimate. As if waking up beside the man was more intimate than having sex with him, she'd scoffed to herself. But she'd still slid out of bed and struggled into her nightgown before creeping from his room and fleeing to the safety of her own.

  She should have stayed in bed, she thought. After all, Kel had made it clear from the start that breakfast was not part of her job. This morning, she should have taken that to heart and stayed in bed because she was suddenly absolutely positive that she couldn't face him.

  Megan was so absorbed in her panicky thoughts that she completely missed hearing Kel's arrival until the solid click of his boot heels on the polished floor was right behind her. Before she could do more than gasp, his hands closed around her waist, turning her toward him. She caught a quick glimpse of the wicked

  grin that sparkled in his green eyes and then his mouth came down on hers.

  Shock kept her rigid in Kel's arms, but only for a moment. The soft brush of his mustache against her upper lip and the warm persuasion of his tongue parting her mouth had her melting against him. She forgot how nervous she'd been about this meeting, forgot that they were standing in the middle of the kitchen where CoUeen could walk in or one of the hands could come looking for Kel. Megan forgot everything but the feel of Kel's arms around her, the muscled length of his body against her and the taste of him on her mouth.

  There was no telling how long the kiss might have lasted if the necessity for oxygen hadn't intruded. By the time Kel lifted his head, Megan could only cling to him, her hands fisted in his shirt, her eyes slightly glazed as she looked at him.

  **Grood morning." He smiled at her, looking very masculine and more than a little pleased with himself. An observer might have thought Kel unaffected by their unbrace. But Megan was close enough to feel the rapid beat of his heart, not to mention the unmistakable pressure of his arousal against her belly.

  "Good morning." She was surprised to hear how normal she sounded, particularly since Kel's hands were sliding down her back, arousing every nerve ending they passed over.

  "Whaf s for breakfast?"

  **I was going to make pancakes." The last word ended on a squeak as his fingers closed over her bottom, Ufting her off her feet.

  "Good." Since he was nibbling the sensitive skin behind her ear, just what he was referring to was somewhat open to interpretation.

  Megan's fingers slipped into the thick, dark hair at the back of his skull, her head tilting to allow him access to the arched line of her throat. Access of which he took full advantage, letting her feel the edge of his teeth along the taut skin. Then he dipped his tongue into the hoUow at its base, tasting the frantic pulse that beat there. Megan tugged on his hair and he obliged her by bringing his mouth to hers for a ravenous kiss that stole what little breath she had left.

  Not until he had melted nearly every bone in her body did he lift his head and let her slide to the floor. He let his hands linger on her waist, whether out of reluctance to release her or because he sensed that her knees wouldn't hold her, Megan could only guess. Perhaps it was the latter, because he turned her away from the counter, and pulling a chair out from the table with his foot, he settled her into it.

  "I'll make breakfast." She nodded, completely incapable of a more articulate response. He started to turn away and then turned back, bending to drop a quick, hard kiss on her mouth. "We'll finish this tonight."

  He didn
't wait for a response before turning to the counter. Megan watched him finish measuring the coffee into the filter, her pulse still skittering wildly.

  Tonight suddenly seemed a very long way away.

  Chapters

  Jxel had a perfectly good reason for leaving the job he'd been doing and coming up to the house in the middle of the afternoon. He'd torn his shirt and wanted to change it. If he didn't, the tear was only going to get worse. No sense in ruining a perfectly good shirt.

  If it hadn't been for catching his shirt on a nail, he wouldn't have set foot in the house until it was time to wash for dinner. The fact that he hadn't been able to get Megan out of his mind all morning had nothing to do with it. Not a thing. The fact that just thinking about his housekeeper's sweet curves and even sweeter response had him half hard and aching was irrelevant.

  It was also irrelevant that he'd seen Colleen's physical therapist arrive, which meant that his little sister was going to be occupied for the next hour or so. He

  hadn't been looking for the woman's arrival, but he could hardly miss seeing a lipstick red compact car parked right in front of the house. Hell, a car that color was like a siren going off in a monastery.

  Okay, maybe it had occurred to him that he might see Megan when he came up to the house. But that certainly hadn't been a driving factor in his decision to drop what he'd been doing and come inside. If it hadn't been for the shirt...

  He'd have thought of something else.

  The admission stung, even in the privacy of his own thoughts, slowing his stride as he stepped through the door and into the kitchen. The room was empty, and he wanted to believe he didn't feel a twinge of disappointment, just like he wanted to believe he hadn't trumped up an excuse to see Megan. But he wasn't quite that good at lying to himself.

  He set his hat on the hook near the door and ran his fingers through his hair. Danm it all, this hunger was supposed to have been eased by sleeping with her! But they'd been lovers for over a week now and he wanted her more than ever. Since the night of the storm, she'd spent every night in his bed, in his arms. He should have been feeling relaxed, satiated. Instead he felt like a stallion who'd just caught the scent of a mare ready to be covered.

  A quick search of the lower floor told him that Megan wasn't there. Kel started up the stairs, unbuttoning his torn shirt as he went. Every morning, she crept out of his bed in the gray hour before dawn and slipped across the hall to her room. And every morning, he feigned sleep, watching her through his lashes.

  half lelieved that she was going. As if waking up next to her would somehow be even more intimate than having sex with her, he told himself with dark humor.

  But ridiculous as it was, that's how it felt. So he let her think he was still asleep, torturing himself by watching as she tiptoed to wherever h^ nightgown had ended up the night before. Since it had generally been removed in the most expedient manner rather than the neatest, it always took her a moment to untangle the sleeves, giving Kel plenty of time to admire the delicate lines of her body in the predawn light that filtered through the room.

  He always felt a stir of arousal, no matter how many times they'd made love the night before, no matter how impossible it seemed that he could want her yet again. When she lifted her arms to slide the nightgown over her head, he swallowed a groan at the perfect arch of her body. If he hadn't known better, he would have believed that she was deliberately tantalizing him, a striptease in reverse, allowing him a last glimpse of her body before leaving. But despite the fact that she was as passionate a lover as he could have wished for, there was still a streak of shyness in Megan. No, her teasing was purely unintentional and all the more effective because of it.

  Each morning, he forced himself to stay where he was and let Megan creep from the room. And every morning, he immediately wanted to follow her, to pull her into his room, into his bed and keep her there for the rest of the day.

  At breakfast, he'd look at her across the table and think about having her on her back on that same ta-

  Die, her pale hair scattered across the warm oak, his hands hooked under her shoulders to hold her stiU against the force of his thrusts. Thoughts like that had a tendency to make his first few minutes in the saddle a little uncomfortable.

  With each day that passed, he found it harder and harder to put her out of his mind and concentrate on the work at hand. It seemed as if, no matter how many times he had her, he still wanted her. like one of those rashes that, the more you scratched it, the more it itched, his himger just got stronger. He doubted Megan would appreciate being compared to a rash, but the comparison, at least in terms of his own response, was apt. Which was why he found himself traipsing up to the house in the middle of the day on a trumped-up excuse.

  Irritated with himself, Kel jerked his shirt off as he walked down the hall to his room. He was going to change his shirt and go right outside. It was one thing to have an affair with Megan, something else altogether to let her int^ere with his work. With luck, she was cleaning a bathroom on the other side of the house. He could change and be gone without even seeing her.

  He came to a dead stop in the doorway of his room. She was making his bed, bent over it, stretching a fresh sheet around the top of the mattress. Kel had a perfect view of the full curves of her bottom covered in soft denim. His fingers clenched on the shirt he held. His jeans were suddenly mudi too tight—a phenomenon that seemed to occur fairly often when she was around. And this time, he knew exactly what lay be-

  neath that faded denim. The knowledge did nothing to ease the snugness of his jeans.

  She stretched a little farther and the powder blue T-shirt she wore inched upward, baring a swath of pale skin. Kel bit back a groan as the constriction of his jeans threatened to become downright painful.

  Danm. He had to get control of himself. He shouldn't be standing here in the middle of the day, with work waiting to be done, and all he could think about was tumbling his new housekeeper onto the half-made bed and making love to her until neither of them had the strength to get up.

  Megan finished smoothing the sheet and without turning reached behind her for the top sheet, which she'd set on the night table. Her hand encountered bare skin and taut muscles instead.

  She spun around, getting only a quick glimpse of Kel before she found her feet swept out from under her. She hit the bed with a muffled shriek, bouncing slightly on the firm mattress. She just had time to draw a breath before he came down on top of her. He tugged at the hem of her T-shirt.

  **What are you doing?" she demanded, trying to ignore the shivers of awareness rippling over her skin.

  "Fm ravishing you." He sounded surprised that she'd had to ask. Megan giggled, shoving ineffectually at his marauding hands.

  **Ifs broad dayUght."

  **The best time for ravishment." He succeeded in shoving her T-shirt up under her arms and flicked open the front clasp on her bra.

  **We can't," she muttered, feeling her nipples tighten in anticipation.

  **Why not?'* He bent to nuzzle her breast.

  **It's broad daylight."

  *'You're repeating yourself." He opened his mouth over her nipple, scoring it gently with his teeth before laving it with his tongue. Megan's breath grew ragged as he repeated the treatment on the other breast. Only when both nipples had been drawn to pebble hardness did he lift his head.

  "Of course if you really want me to go," he murmured.

  "Try it and I'll put ground glass in your stew tonight. Do you know what ground glass does to your stomach?"

  She pushed him onto his back and straddled his hips, though she knew it was only because he allowed it. If he hadn't wanted to move, she could have pushed from now until next week and not budged him an inch.

  "Actually, I don't," he said, his attention less on the conversation than on the feel of her fingers fmnbling with his belt buckle.

  "You don't want to know."

  "I've got my boots on the clean sheet," he pointed out as the buckle slid
open.

  "I'll change it again." The zipper yielded and she slid her hand inside the fabric of his shorts. Kel sucked a breath between his teeth as her fingers closed around him.

  "Damn, you're likely to kill me."

  **Of course, if you really want me to go," she murmured. She loosened her fingers and shifted as if to get off him.

  Kel's hands closed like a vise aroimd her hips, holding her in place. **I wouldn't try it, if I were you. No telling what might happen to a woman who teased a man hke that."

  **I thought a woman was always safe in the West," she said breathlessly.

  "Only as safe as she wants to be," he said, his voice raspy. "Now, if you'D shut up, Yd^ like to continue with this ravishment."

  The dangerous smile in her eyes and the downright wicked movement of her hands made it obvious that plan suited her just fine.

  "What are you looking at?" Megan asked Colleen as she stepped out onto the porch.

  She'd just finished loading the dishwasher after dinner. Kel had disappeared into his study and she'd been on her way up to her room to read—or so she'd told herself. In reality, she'd probably sit there with an open, unread book in her lap while her thoughts wandered to their favorite topic these days, which was Kel.

  After three weeks as his lover, she could no longer fool herself into thinking that she might be in love with him. Honesty compelled her to admit that she'd gone right past might and was well on her way to head over heels.

  She'd spent more than enough time thinking about Kel Bryan, wondering how he felt, wondering if she was heading for a broken heart at the end of the sum-

  mer. When she'd seen Colleen standing on the porch, Megan had decided that she'd much rather talk to Colleen than contemplate the misettled state of her Ufe.

  At the somid of Megan's voice, Colleen jumped and jerked around to face her, looking as guilty as if she'd been caught spying through a peephole.

  **Nothing," she said quickly, defensively.