Taste of Passion (Madaris Novels) (9 page)

“It was no big deal.”

Okay, that did it
. She placed her fork beside her plate. “I’m warning you, Luke Madaris, if you say those words one more time, I’m going to clobber you.”

The woman had a temper. If he hadn’t known it before, he sure knew it now, Luke thought as he slowly walked beside Mackenzie while they headed toward the barn. Jeeze. She had threatened to clobber him, for crying out loud. And the glare in her eyes and the pinched corners of her lips had indicated she had been dead serious. Thinking about it, he couldn’t help but chuckle a little, even if it did make his chest ache.

She glanced over at him. “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing.”

The look she gave him said she wasn’t fooled. Whatever had him amused had something to do with her. Refusing to make her any angrier than she already was, he said, “Nice evening, isn’t it?”

“What’s so nice about it?” she asked, opening the barn door.

Luke’s lips twitched as he followed her inside. It seemed she had already gotten angrier. Now he had to do whatever it took to smooth her ruffled feathers. “The breeze is nice. It’s no longer hot and—Holy cow! Where did she come from?” he asked, stopping in his tracks the moment his gaze latched on to the most beautiful buckskin paint mare he’d ever seen.

And he didn’t miss Mackenzie’s smile as she walked over to the horse. He saw immediately just how proud she was of the animal and he couldn’t help but smile as well.

“This is Princess,” she said. “Her father was my horse right before I left for college.” Suddenly a bout of sadness crossed her features but she quickly pushed it away before adding, “When I returned to Oklahoma, knowing I would get a horse sired by Prancer made coming home worthwhile.”

The smile slowly left Luke’s face. From the little things she had said and from the little bits and pieces that he’d heard over the years, returning to Oklahoma had had something to do with the man who’d hurt her. The man who was the reason she couldn’t get on with her life. The thought that any man could not appreciate her did something to him inside.

“And I can see why,” he finally said, ignoring his limp as he walked slowly over to her to pat the mare’s neck. “She’s a beauty. I can’t imagine what Cisco is going to think if he ever sees her.”

She lifted a brow. “Cisco?”

He smiled. “Yes, my horse.”

“That big, black mean-looking stallion?”

He chuckled. “Yes, he’s the one.”

She laughed. “I don’t know what Cisco will be thinking but I have a good idea what will be on Princess’s mind.”

“What?”

“Just how quick she can run for cover and hide.”

Luke couldn’t help but laugh, which immediately caused his chest to ache. His laughter suddenly became a groan.

“Luke, are you okay?”

He opened his mouth to tell her that yes, he was okay, no big deal, but after her threat earlier, he said, “I shouldn’t have laughed.”

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have made you laugh.”

“No—” Catching himself, he stopped short and then said, “Nothing.”

Mackenzie chuckled, knowing what he’d been about to say. “I need to add a few more slang words to your vocabulary.”

It then occurred to Luke just how close they were standing. She was pinned between him and her horse. He started to back up but when she nervously nibbled at her lower lip for a second, before taking her tongue and sweeping it over that same lip, all he could think about was that tongue mingling heatedly with his. Even the air surrounding them suddenly seemed charged with an element that was seeping into his pores, causing his heart rate to increase.

Maybe, just maybe, if he could have found his voice, he would have suggested that she go into the house while he hung back a while to get himself together, regain control of his senses. But he didn’t find his voice. What he found instead was that he was slowly and carefully reaching out and pulling her to him while lowering his mouth to hers.

The moment their lips touched all the reasons why he should not taste her, right then and there, vanished from his mind. Instead his mind filled with all the reasons he should proceed, go as deep as he could and get as much as he could handle. Desire, the last thing he needed to feel at
that moment, flared within him with the intensity of a typhoon tearing across the ocean as a force so powerful, he felt the surge in every part of his body.

And he felt her.

He felt the way her chest rested against his, the way she was responding to his kiss, as if, like him, she had been waiting for this to happen again. And he felt how perfect she was in his arms. And when he deepened the kiss even more, he felt how she quivered in his arms, how her mouth vibrated beneath his. A burning sensation was erupting deep in his gut but it had nothing to do with pain, and had everything to do with a need that had never affected him this way, not with any woman.

And when she latched onto his tongue, heat flared in the pit of his stomach, and without realizing he was about to do so, he let out a deep moan and felt an intense out-pouring of desire that consumed him completely. He was finding it impossible to pull his mouth back. His mind refused to recall that earlier he’d decided he should not have kissed her that first time. It was a moot point now. He would deal with this weak impulse later. The most important thing was that he held her in his arms and was enjoying every tantalizing moment that her lips were joined to his, her tongue mingling with his own.

No telling how long he would have stood there and taken her mouth like a starving man if Princess, who was jealous for losing Mackenzie’s attention, hadn’t decided to reclaim it by nudging her. Mackenzie pulled her mouth away from his and then she leaned back to stare at him.

He decided to speak first, having an idea what she would say. Bringing his hand to the side of her face, he said, “If you can’t say anything nice about what we just did, then don’t say anything at all.”

Instead of saying anything, she lowered her head to gently rest it against his chest. He instinctively wrapped his arms around her waist again. “That should not have happened, Luke,” she said softly, against his shirt. But he heard her loud and clear.

“Whether it should have happened or not, Mac, it was bound to happen again, sooner or later,” was his response.

She lifted her head and met his gaze. “Why?”

Her question, asked in a quiet tone, nearly robbed him of breath. She was staring at him with those big, beautiful dark eyes. And in their depths he actually saw confusion, like she really didn’t have a clue. It was as if she didn’t fully understand the impact of sexual chemistry.

He decided to try and break it down for her. “The reason why can be summed up in several different words, Mac. Hormones. Testosterone. Sexual need. Desire. Temptation. Take your pick.”

She took a step back, at least as far back as Princess would allow, which wasn’t much. “I don’t want to pick any of them. Why can’t we just remain friends?”

A smile touched his lips. “That might be easy enough if we’d ever been friends. Think about it. That night of the auction, you had met Slade and Blade a few months earlier. Because of my extensive travels on the rodeo circuit, our paths had never crossed until that night. The twins were comfortable with you. I wasn’t. Not sure if I’m even comfortable with you now.”

He could tell from her expression that his words had surprised her. Not only had they surprised her, he sensed by the stiffening of her spine that they had also offended her. “You wanted to come here and stay in my home while not being comfortable with me?” she asked, as if such a thing were clearly an insult, not to mention illogical.

“That’s not what I meant. The reason I’m uncomfortable with you has nothing to do with trust, Mac. It has everything to do with control. Let’s be real here for a moment. From the first, we were attracted to each other. Admit it, because I certainly can and will. The moment I walked out on that stage and saw you in the audience I was attracted to you. I homed in on you like nobody’s business, and the reason my gaze kept coming back to yours is because I felt something being reciprocated.”

He waited for her to deny such a possibility and when
she didn’t, he continued. “And the reason I didn’t act on it then is the same reason I don’t want to act on it now. To develop a relationship with you that goes beyond mere friendship is not possible. It’s not anything I want and I doubt it’s something you want either. You’re married to your profession like I’m married to mine. I don’t want a woman in my life and I’ve sensed that you don’t want a man in yours.”

She nodded in agreement. “Then what was that kiss about?”

He smiled again. “I’ve told you. Hormones. Testosterone. Sexual need. Desire. Temptation. They’re all there, here, between us, making us think crazy. Making us lose control. Making us want to share kisses.” He decided not to mention what other thoughts were running wild and rampant through his mind whenever he kissed her.

Instead of looking at him, she stared down at the ground for a second, as if trying to come to terms with what he’d said. She then looked back at him. “All right. Since we can admit we don’t want an involvement of any kind, what do you suggest we do to make us not want to share kisses?”

Hell, he wished he knew. He had a feeling he would always want to kiss her. But since she had asked, he stated what he thought was the only solution. “We can try working on developing a friendship, not a relationship. And when we do that, all those things that tempt us, make us want to kiss, or take things further than that, will eventually fade.”

Luke heard his own words. They sounded good, easy enough, and plausible. And to his ear they made perfect sense. But when he was around her he discovered that he had a tendency to throw perfect sense right out the window. And around her he wanted to take kissing to another level. It was a temptation he would have to fight like hell to overcome.

He gazed down at her. She was studying the ground again. “Talk to me, Mac. Tell me what you’re thinking.”

She glanced up, met his gaze. “I was wondering if it
will be possible for us to become friends, I mean
real
friends. One thing I’ve picked up on is the fact that you’re not overly friendly.”

He stared at her for a moment and then he couldn’t help but chuckle, although doing so made his body ache some. “You’re right, I’m not an overly friendly person, at least not in the same way you might consider Slade and Blade as friendly. In their line of work it pays for them to be friendly. It’s a part of who they are. It’s a natural ability and one they have perfected over the years. With me, my job doesn’t require friendliness. It requires concentration and total control. Therefore, I tend to blot a lot out. I also make the mistake of not taking things at face value.”

Mackenzie opened her mouth and was about to say something, but at that moment Theo walked in with his cell phone. “Sorry to interrupt, Mac, but it’s Ms. Sam. She’s been trying to reach you. Says it’s important.”

Luke watched as she immediately took the phone from the man. “Yes, Sam, what’s going on?”

He watched her eyes widen before a fierce frown clouded her features. “Okay, I’m on my way.”

She handed the phone back to Theo and then she turned to Luke and said in an angry tone, “That was one of my partners at the law firm. Someone has broken into our office and ransacked the place.”

What a mess.

That was the first thought that entered Mackenzie’s mind when she walked into her office and glanced around. What was the reason behind this? And who would do such a thing and why? Had it been a burglary or outright mischief? And why had her office been the only one targeted?

The law firm of Standfield, Di Meglio, and Mahoney was located in downtown Oklahoma City in a very busy part of the city. In fact there was a popular restaurant a few buildings down, so the first thing Mackenzie wondered was whether anyone had seen or heard anything.

Trying to push aside the anger that was trying to boil inside of her, she glanced across the room and saw Sam and Peyton. They were talking with two police officers. They glanced her way and she wasn’t surprised when their gazes moved beyond her to the man standing by her side. She had tried convincing Luke to stay at her place until she returned, but he had answered her with two words in a firm voice. “No way.”

So here they were and she knew her partners’ anger had momentarily been replaced by outright male appreciation and awe. The way they were looking Luke up and down was clear evidence of that. She suddenly felt a distinct chill sweep through her body and couldn’t understand the reason for it. Sam and Peyton were her two closest friends, so
there was no reason for the feeling of jealousy that twisted sharply inside of her. Why on earth was she feeling territorial toward a man who less than an hour ago had suggested they work on developing nothing more than friendship between them?

At least that’s what she was pretty sure he had suggested. But the protective arm he had placed around her waist the moment they entered her office was undoubtedly sending a different message to Sam and Peyton. She knew those two and could just imagine what they were thinking.

She also knew if she didn’t do something about Luke, he could become the primary focus instead of her ransacked office, so she turned to him and said, “Are you sure you’re okay? This place is a mess. Don’t you want to sit outside in the lobby until—”