Diana Palmer Christmas Collection: The Rancher / Christmas Cowboy / A Man of Means / True Blue / Carrera's Bride / Will of Steel / Winter Roses

She frowned. “He didn’t say anything about that.”

He made a huffing sound in his throat, just as the stove timer rang. Maddie went to take the coffee cake out of the oven. She was feeling so rattled, it was a good thing she’d remembered that it was baking. She placed it on a trivet. It smelled of cinnamon and butter.

“My great-aunt can really cook,” she remarked as she took off the oven mitts she’d used to lift it out.

“She can, can’t she?”

She turned and walked right into Cort. She hadn’t realized he was so close. He caught her small waist in his big hands and lifted her right onto the counter next to the coffee cake, so that she was even with his dark, probing eyes.

“You looked lovely last night,” he said in a strange, deep tone. “I’ve never really seen you dressed up before.”

“I… I don’t dress up,” she stammered. He was tracing her collarbone and the sensations it aroused were delicious and unsettling. “Just occasionally.”

“I didn’t know you could do those complicated Latin dances, either,” he continued.

“I learned them from watching television,” she said.

His head was lower now. She could feel his breath on her lips; feel the heat from his body as he moved closer, in between her legs so that he was right up against her.

“I’m not in John Everett’s class as a dancer,” he drawled, tilting her chin up. “But, then, he’s not in my class…at this…”

His mouth slowly covered hers, teasing gently, so that he didn’t startle her. He tilted her head just a little more, so that her mouth was at just the right angle. His firm lips pushed hers apart, easing them back, so that he had access to the soft, warm depths of her mouth.

He kissed her with muted hunger, so slowly that she didn’t realize until too late how much a trap it was. He grew insistent then, one lean hand at the back of her head, holding it still, as his mouth devoured her soft lips.

“Sweet,” he whispered huskily. “You taste like honey….”

His arms went under hers and around her, lifting her, so that her breasts were flattened against his broad, strong chest.

Involuntarily her cold hands snaked around his neck. She’d never felt hunger like this. She hadn’t known it was possible. She let him open her mouth with his, let him grind her breasts against him. She moaned softly as sensations she’d never experienced left her helpless, vulnerable.

She felt his hand in her hair, tangling in it, while he kissed her in the soft silence of the kitchen. It was a moment out of time when she wished it could never end, that she could go on kissing him forever.

But just when he lifted his head, and looked into her eyes, and started to speak…

A car pulled up at the front porch and a door slammed.

Maddie looked into Cort’s eyes with shock. He seemed almost as unsettled as she did. He moved back, helping her off the counter and onto her feet. He backed up just as Great-Aunt Sadie walked in with two bags of groceries.

“Didn’t even have fresh mushrooms, can you believe it?” she was moaning, her mind on the door that was trying to close in her face rather than the two dazed people in the kitchen.

“Here, let me have those,” Cort said politely, and he took the bags and put them on the counter. “Are there more in the car?” he asked.

“No, but thank you, Cort,” Sadie said with a warm smile.

He grinned. “No problem.” He glanced at Maddie, who still looked rattled. “I have to go. Thanks for the offer of coffee. Rain check?” he added, and his eyes were almost black with feeling.

“Oh, yes,” Maddie managed breathlessly. “Rain check.”

He smiled at her and left her standing there, vibrating with new hope.

Chapter Five (#ulink_04646759-dee3-50f8-872b-e70255d4a71f)

Maddie still couldn’t believe what had happened right there in her kitchen. Cort had kissed her, and as if he really did feel something for her. Besides that, he was very obviously jealous of John Everett. She felt as if she could actually walk on air.

“You look happier than I’ve seen you in years, sweetie,” Great-Aunt Sadie said with a smile.

“I am.”

Sadie grinned. “It’s that John Everett, isn’t it?” she teased. She indicated the coffeemaker. “Thought he was pretty interested. I mean, those things cost the earth. Not every man would start out courting a girl with a present like that!”

“Oh. Well, of course, I like John,” Maddie stammered. And then she realized that she couldn’t very well tell her great-aunt what was going on. Sadie might start gossiping. Maddie’s ranch hands had friends who worked for the Brannts. She didn’t want Cort to think she was telling tales about him, even in an innocent way. After all, it might have been a fluke. He could be missing Odalie and just reacted to Maddie in unexpected ways.

“He’s a dish,” Sadie continued as she peeled potatoes in the kitchen. “Handsome young man, just like his dad.” She grimaced. “I’m not too fond of his sister, but, then, no family is perfect.”

“No.” She hesitated. “Sadie, do you know why nobody talks about the oldest brother, Tanner?”

Sadie smiled. “Just gossip. They said he and his dad had a major falling out over his choice of careers and he packed up and went to Europe. That was when he was in his late teens. As far as I know, he’s never contacted the family since. It’s a sore spot with the Everetts, so they don’t talk about him anymore. Too painful, I expect.”

“That’s sad.”

“Yes, it is. There was a rumor that he was hanging out with some dangerous people as well. But you know what rumors are.”

“Yes,” Maddie said.

“What was Cort doing over here earlier in the week?” Sadie asked suddenly.

“Oh, he was just…giving me some more pointers on dad’s breeding program,” Maddie lied.

“Scared you to death, too,” Sadie said irritably. “I don’t think he’d hurt you, but he’s got a bad temper, sweetie.”

Maddie had forgotten that, in the new relationship she seemed to be building with Cort. “People say his father was like that, when he was young. But Shelby married him and tamed him,” she added with a secret smile.

Sadie glanced at her curiously. “I guess that can happen. A good woman can be the salvation of a man. But just…be careful.”

“I will,” she promised. “Cort isn’t a mean person.”

Sadie gave her a careful look. “So that’s how it is.”

Maddie flushed. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“John likes you, a lot,” she replied.

Maddie sighed. “John’s got a barracuda for a sister, too,” she reminded the older woman. “No way in the world am I having her for a sister-in-law, no matter how nice John is.”

Sadie grimaced. “Should have thought of that, shouldn’t I?”

“I did.”