Rancher Untamed. Katherine Garbera

skin of her fingers, but in a pleasant way. She ran her finger back and forth, and he caught his breath as his pupils dilated.

      He reached out and touched her face in return, sending chills spreading down her neck and arms. Her breasts felt fuller and she felt the hot pulse of desire between her legs.

      She wanted him.

      Her lips parted, and he slowly cupped the side of her face with his fingers, rubbing his thumb over her bottom lip. The sensations intensified, spreading through her body in sync with her heartbeat.

      She mirrored his gesture. He had a strong-looking mouth, but it was soft to the touch. And his breath when he exhaled was soft and warm. He’d kissed her twice, but both times had been restrained because there’d been so many people around. This time they were wrapped in a cocoon of intimacy with only the moon and stars to witness their closeness.

      And that made this feel more real.

      It wasn’t just that he’d asked her for honesty and she’d changed the subject. It was that he wasn’t deterred by her half-truths and evasions. He wanted her, she thought again. Just her.

      Pippa.

      She didn’t need the Hamilton fortune or her family connections for him to see the woman she was and be attracted to her, and that felt...well, like something she’d never expected to find.

      He leaned forward and she removed her fingers from his lips, putting her hands on either side of his face. She needed to do this. He’d kissed her before, but she wanted to be the one kissing him.

      She needed this for herself and the self-doubt that had driven her from the only world she’d ever known. In a way, kissing Diego was her way of reclaiming the parts of herself she hadn’t meant to discard along the way.

      Reclaiming her womanhood.

      She wasn’t the nanny or a runaway or even the key to the Hamilton-Hoff future. She was just Pippa.

      “Diego.” She whispered just his name as their lips brushed.

      He caressed her, his fingers lightly wrapping around the back of her neck, one of them brushing the sensitive spot behind her ear. Her eyes were half-closed as her lips met his, and she felt his power. But it was tempered. He was letting her take what she wanted from him.

      She parted her own lips and felt the heat of his mouth against hers as her tongue darted out and she tasted him. Just one little taste of this cowboy on this big Texas night would be enough to satisfy her.

       Not.

       Oh, my God, definitely not.

      She thrust her tongue deeper into his mouth for a better taste of him. He tipped his head to give her greater access and she leaned in closer, felt her breasts brush against his chest. His hand on her neck was still light, but the pattern with his finger was driving her forward. Increasing that need to have more of him. To taste more of him.

      His tongue tangled with hers and she heard him groan. The vibration filled her mouth and she shivered again as another pulse of liquid desire went through her.

      She shifted closer, losing her balance against the railing, breaking the kiss. The air felt cold against her lips and she straightened. Her fingers went to her own mouth as she shifted away from him.

      Their eyes met.

      “I want to take you home with me.”

       Three

      Diego took her hand in his. His voice was rough and husky, but he couldn’t control that. He’d been turned on by her kiss. Just her kiss had gotten him hotter and harder than he’d anticipated. But she’d said she was on the run...something that he’d suspected, along with most of Cole’s Hill. And he didn’t want her to feel pressured to go home with him.

      “I’d like that, too,” she said. There was a look in her eyes that made him even harder and he stood, putting the champagne glasses on one of the tables that lined the patio.

      He turned back to her and held out his hand.

      She licked her lips and closed her eyes for a second. “You taste really good, you know?”

      “I think it was you.”

      She walked toward him, her hips swaying with each step she took, and he groaned deep in his throat. Damn. She was hot, and she knew it. She kept eye contact with him, but he broke it, letting his gaze skim down her body. He didn’t care if she saw how much she affected him.

      He wasn’t going to pretend she didn’t have him hotter than a tin roof in July.

      “We’ll have to do it again and again until we figure it out,” she said. Her voice was husky with a note of teasing in it.

      “Sounds like my kind of plan,” he said. “I have a town house I keep here in the Five Families neighborhood. Will that be okay?”

      “Sounds good. I live out at the Caruthers Ranch and I’m pretty sure we don’t want to drive all the way out there. I don’t really want to wait that long to touch you again, Diego,” she said. Her words adding kindling to the fire that was already burning out of control in his body.

      “Good,” he said, lacing their fingers together and leading her down the patio walkway toward the path around the golf course. “I hope you don’t mind walking, but I’ve had too much to drink to feel safe driving even just through this neighborhood. It’s only a ten-minute walk.”

      “I don’t mind walking at all,” she said.

      He held her hand in his and tried to concentrate on getting back to his place. But her perfume smelled slightly of spring and she kept humming “Save a Horse,” distracting him. Filling his mind with images of her naked, on top of him, riding him. He groaned again.

      “Are you okay?”

      “Sí,” he said, falling back on Spanish. His family had been in the United States for generations—their original homestead had been a land grant from the Spanish King back in the 1700s—but their family had always been multilingual.

      “I know a little bit of Spanish, but it’s not the Mexican dialect that a lot of people speak here,” she said. “I had a very funny conversation with Isabella about that the other day. She’s one of the new hires that Kinley brought in to work in her wedding and event planning office in town.”

      Diego didn’t really care about all that. But he liked the sound of her voice, so he just made a hmming sound and she kept on talking. Finally, he saw the cluster of townhomes and his own front door.

      “This way,” he said, leading her off the path and across the street to his place. These townhomes were only about five years old and had been built from the same river rock that had been used in the country club. The path leading up to the front door was made of smaller stones but smoothed out so that it was comfortable to walk on.

      He reached into his pocket for his keys, which drew his trousers tighter against his groin, and he realized that even walking and talking about nothing for ten minutes had done nothing to cool him down. But that wasn’t surprising. Pippa had had him tied in knots for the last few weeks.

      “This is it,” he said. “Still want to come in? If not, I can arrange for someone to take you home.”

      “Diego, I want you. I want this. I’m not going to change my mind,” she said.

      “You’ve kept me at arm’s length for a while now and I know that there has to be a reason. I don’t want you to regret this,” he said. He never wanted that. This night felt like...well, a dream, and he didn’t want anything to ruin it.

      She threw her arms around him and hugged him close. “Oh, Diego, I don’t deserve you, but I certainly want you.”

      “Of course you deserve me,” he said, lifting