The Texas Rancher's Family

Erin made a note of that, then got out her calculator. She wrote up a bill of sale, then handed him the final tally. “We usually ask for half up front.”

“I’ll drop off a check at the shop tomorrow.” Which meant she’d be seeing him yet again.

Erin glanced at the clock, noting it was after eleven. Rain was still pouring down outside. For a long beat, no one said anything. He seemed as reluctant to call it a night as she was. “I had no idea it was so late,” she said.

Mac stretched lazily. “Me, either.” His voice was low, gravelly and sexy as hell.

She moved her gaze away from his sinewy shoulders and chest. There was no use dreaming about what was never going to happen. What she would never let happen. She swallowed around the sudden dryness in her throat. Emotional barriers firmly in place, she asked politely, “Can I get you anything before I go up to bed?”

He smiled. “I’m good.”

“Well.” Her pulse quickening in reaction to his nearness, she closed her heavy satchel. “You know where the kitchen is. Mi casa es su casa and all that. Help yourself to anything you want or need. And I’ll see you in the morning.”

He nodded, his easy acknowledgment cocooning her in warmth. “Good night. And Erin?” He held her eyes until her heart skipped a beat. “Thanks for the hospitality.”

This wasn’t the end of a date, even if it suddenly felt like one. Ignoring the telltale rush of heat inside her, Erin cleared her throat. “No problem.”

He smiled again, even more gratefully.

Tingling, she forced herself to turn away and head for the stairs. She was halfway to the second-floor landing when everything suddenly went dark.

* * *

MAC HAD THOUGHT the evening could hold no more surprises. Just showed how little he knew.

“Mac?” Erin’s soft voice came out of the pitch-black interior of the sprawling ranch house.

He pushed away the notion that she could easily become something to him. “Yeah?”

“Need a flashlight?” she asked.

“It would help.”

Damn, but it was black out here, with the rain still teeming down outside. No light whatsoever, anywhere, not even a distant flash of lightning. Mac put his hands out in front of him, wishing for night-vision goggles, and trying to feel his way.

“Where are you?” Erin’s voice sounded closer.

Good question. “Somewhere between the foyer and the middle of the living room,” he replied, hoping that Heather—and the other kids—would sleep through this. He didn’t want his daughter in another meltdown.

“Stay where you are,” Erin advised calmly. “I’ll come and get you.”

“So, is this one of those rolling brownouts I’ve been hearing about?”

“Given the fact we’ve had no lightning in the immediate area, I’d have to guess yes.”

The only upside of this situation was the sensuality of hearing her voice in the darkness, so soft and sweet and helpful. Mac had always loved a woman who was good in an emergency. He exhaled. “If that’s what this is, how long is it going to last?”

“Thirty minutes.” As Erin’s voice came closer, he inhaled a drift of lilac perfume. “Maybe more. Maybe less.” Without warning, her palm hit him in the center of his chest.

He savored her body heat. “And now you’ve found me.”

“Sorry.” She dropped her hand, stepped back.

He still couldn’t see her, but he could hear the uneven meter of her breathing. His body tensing with need, he inhaled the flowery fragrance of her skin and hair. He had to rein in his fantasies here. “Now what?”

“The flashlights are in the kitchen.”

Mac figured it would be better not to crash into anything else, especially something—or someone—soft and feminine and incredibly enticing. “Lead the way.”

She touched his chest again, tentatively this time. “Take my hand.”

He was glad she didn’t grope for his palm, given the difference in their heights. No telling what she might have found.

He wrapped his hand around hers and fell into step behind her, or tried to. They hadn’t gone more than five paces when she bumped into something and stumbled back into him, knocking him off balance, too. They would have fallen if he hadn’t clamped an arm across her body and caught her against him, swift and hard. Unfortunately, the difference in their heights meant his forearm landed on the soft swell of her breasts.

His reaction was immediate. “Sorry,” he murmured quickly, loosening his grip as soon as he was sure she was steady on her feet.

Sensing her embarrassment in the silence that followed, he said, “I didn’t mean to, uh...”

“Touch me that way?” she finished, with a trace of humor.

Mac winced in the darkness. “Right.”

Unfortunately, now he knew how warm and womanly her breasts felt. The memory would stay with him, probably all night. He shifted, trying to ease the pressure at the front of his jeans.

“Put your hand out and take mine,” she commanded.

When their fingers reconnected, he could feel the heat in her skin. “Let’s keep going,” she directed. “We’re almost there.”

Mac sucked in a breath. “I’m right behind you.”

They moved forward, Erin holding on to him with one hand, feeling her way forward with the other. Eventually, they made it down the hallway to the kitchen. She let go of him, and opened a drawer.

Mac listened as she rummaged through the contents, muttering in dismay.

“What is it?” he asked.

Erin groaned. “The flashlights aren’t here! The boys must have taken them to play with.”

“So now what?”

Exasperated, she laid out their options. “Stay here in the kitchen and try and feel our way to the chairs at the table? Go back to the living room and wait it out there? Or try to make it up the stairs to bed. Without crashing into something and waking the entire household?”

“Those are our only options?”

She huffed. “Unless you can think of something else to do.”

Actually, Mac could. Not, he reminded himself sternly, that making a pass at her was one of the options...