The Mighty Quinns: Dermot-Dex. Kate Hoffmann

off his T-shirt and tossing it aside. Bracing his arm on the door-jamb, he kicked off his boots, then moved to unbutton his jeans.

      Rachel watched him, her gaze skimming over his broad shoulders and finely muscled chest. He was the most beautiful man, his body made for the kind of work he did on the farm. Over the past three weeks, his skin had been burnished brown by the sun.

      “Are you sure you don’t want to do this?” he asked.

      “I like watching,” she said.

      When he was down to his blue cotton boxers, he stepped inside. Hooking his thumbs in the waistband, he slowly pushed them down over his hips. When they dropped to the floor, Rachel’s breath caught in her throat. Dermot walked across the kitchen in all his naked glory, a devilish smile on his face, then pulled her into his arms.

      “Now that you have me naked, what are you going to do with me?” he murmured, his warm breath soft on her neck.

      Rachel ran her hands over his slick skin. “You’re cold,” she said.

      “Warm me up.”

      She took his hand and led him through the house and up the stairs. He turned toward her bedroom, but she pulled him into the bathroom. She turned on the faucets and began to fill the huge claw-foot tub.

      “Are we having a bath?” he asked.

      “Yes. You are.”

      “Are you going to join me?”

      “No,” she said. “But I will wash your back.”

      When the tub was half-full, he stepped in and sat down. Rachel grabbed a washcloth from the basket next to the tub and dipped it in the water. She’d studied his body so intently over the past few weeks that she knew every inch of skin from the tiny birthmark on his shoulder to the crooked scar on his knee.

      She’d never taken the time to know a man quite so intimately. Rachel was left to wonder if he’d be the last man in her life. If she decided to stay on the farm, she knew her future might be spent in solitude. She bit at her bottom lip. Since Dermot had arrived, the choice to stay had become even more difficult to fathom.

      Her promises to her father were made in a desperate moment, when he needed comfort and reassurance. But there came a point when she had to live her own life. And what if that life couldn’t be lived here on the farm?

      “Are you all right?”

      “Fine,” she croaked. This would be one of those moments that she remembered forever, she mused. Every one of her senses was so finely tuned that the memory was imprinted on her soul. She reached out and brushed the damp hair out of his eyes.

      Dermot leaned over the edge of the tub and cupped her cheek in his hand. A moment later, Rachel was caught inside a long, lingering kiss, one that made her head spin and her body tremble.

      She wanted to stop him, but she’d lost any sense of who or what she was. Every ounce of her attention was focused on the taste of his mouth, the feel of his lips against hers.

      When he finally drew away, he met her gaze. Rachel forced a smile, then went back to washing his back, but he grabbed her hand. “What’s wrong?”

      “Nothing,” she said. “It’s just a gray day. And I’ve got a lot on my mind.”

      “Tell me.”

      Rachel shook her head. “It’s nothing.” She paused, then drew a deep breath and let it out. “I’m just trying to figure out my future and you keep getting in the way. Not that I don’t love having you here, because I do. But it just makes everything so much more difficult.”

      “I don’t want to do that,” Dermot said.

      “I know. But so much of my happiness right now is because I’m… you know.”

      “Well satisfied?”

      “Yes, that, too. But I was going to say relaxed. Less worried. The list of things that need doing on the farm is getting shorter and shorter every day. And it makes a life here more attractive. Which makes my decision more difficult.”

      “So, what do you want me to do? We could spend more time in bed and less time working.”

      “I hired you to work, not to… pleasure me.”

      “I can multitask. I’m very good at that.”

      Rachel smiled, well aware of his abilities both inside and outside the bedroom. “I just think that it’s going to take me a lot longer to figure this out.”

      “I think it would help if you’d take your clothes off and get in the tub with me. A hot bath always helps me focus.”

      “You take baths?”

      Dermot shook his head. “No. Never. But I’ll say just about anything to get you in the tub with me.” He grabbed her hand and pressed a kiss to the center of her palm. “Come on. You’ll see.”

      Rachel slowly undressed, then stepped into the tub and settled herself against his chest. He took the washcloth and sloshed water over her breasts and shoulders and she closed her eyes and relaxed into the warmth of his body.

      “Let’s talk about your choices,” he said. “You can stay and run the farm.”

      “Mmm-hmm.”

      “Or you can sell it,” he continued.

      “Those are my only two choices.”

      “Could you lease it out? Find someone else to run it until you’re ready to make a decision.”

      “I never really thought about that. My sister and brothers want to settle the estate. They want it sold.”

      “All right. Would it make you feel better if you got the right kind of people to buy it? Maybe find a family who wants to continue the same type of work your father did? Would that help?”

      “Yes,” she said. Rachel thought about the notion for a long moment. “A family, with kids, who want to raise goats and show them at the fair. With a mother who likes to garden and a father who wants to work for himself. This farm works best for a family.”

      “Then maybe we need to find a family like that,” he said. “Can you think of anyone that you know?”

      Rachel closed her eyes again and Dermot wrapped his arms more tightly around her. There were plenty of family farms in the area, but they were all struggling. Still, if she could offer a family a stable income, there would be buyers.

      “I’m so lucky you came into my life,” Rachel said. She turned over and smoothed her hands over his chest, pressing a kiss to his damp skin.

      Dermot kissed the top of her head. “I think I was the lucky one.”

      “When you first met me, how long did it take before you knew you wanted to sleep with me?”

      He smiled, nuzzling her temple. “I think it was about six or seven… seconds. I went through all the pros and cons on the ride to the farm. And then there was that kiss and it was game on from there. Since then, I can’t seem to stop myself.”

      “Do you ever wonder if it might have been a mistake?”

      He shook his head. “How could anything that feels so good be a mistake?” He laughed. “Are you really thinking it was?”

      “Do you know what today is?”

      “Wednesday?”

      “You’ve been on the farm for exactly three weeks. That means that your time here is half over. In three weeks, you have to go home.”

      His grin faded. “Really? It seems like I just got here. I don’t want to think about leaving.”

      Rachel shrugged. “When you walked up to my truck, I thought you’d dropped out of the sky, like an answer to my prayers. But the longer you stay, the harder