Forever Buckhorn. Lori Foster

heartbeats, then asked with endearing caution, “Really?”

       Tenderness swelled over him, taking him by surprise. “Didn’t your mother ever tell you that you’d filled out real nice?”

       She clasped her hands in her lap and shook her head. “My mother died when I was twelve.”

       Gabe scooted closer to her and put his arm around her sun warmed shoulders. He didn’t question his need to hold her, to touch her. “Friends? Sisters?”

       Shaking her head, she explained, “I’m an only child. And I didn’t really have that many friends in school.” As if admitting a grave sin, she added, “I was always very backward until recently.”

       Gabe squeezed her gently. “You’re hardly a robust conqueror now.”

       “I know. It’s not easy for me to do all these interviews, but they’re important, so I do them.” Her expression turned mocking. “Most of them have been fairly quick and simple.”

       “Then it’s a good thing you ran into me, huh? Because lady, if anyone ever needed shaking up a little, it’s you.”

       “I need to complete my thesis.”

       “You have the rest of summer break, right?”

       She nodded warily, obviously uncertain of his intent.

       “So why don’t we indulge each other? I’ll answer any questions you have, and in return, you’ll let me convince you how adorable you are in that bathing suit.”

       Her chin tucked in close to her chest. “Convince me…how?”

       “By what we’ve already been doing. I won’t ever push you further than you want to go, you have my word on that. But I can promise there’ll be more kissing.” His hand cradled her head. “You won’t mind that so much, will you, Lizzy?”

       She didn’t reply to that, and she didn’t look convinced. In a slightly choked voice that gave away her tension, she said, “I need you to be more specific than that.”

       Gabe chewed it over, trying to think of how to couch his terms so she would be reassured. “Okay, how’s this. I’ll answer a question and you’ll cut loose a little, my choice of how. And before you start arguing, first I want you to go to a drive-in with me. You ever been to the drive-in?”

       “With my father when I was young. I didn’t even know they still had them.”

       “You’re in for a treat!” And I’m in for a little torture. “We can go over to the next county, to the Dirty Dixie.” He bobbed his eyebrows. “They play fairly raunchy movies—which will probably be another first for you, right?”

       Looking dazed, she nodded.

       “Perfect. How about this Friday? That’s two days away, plenty of time for you to get used to the idea.” And plenty of time for him to get a better grip on himself.

       She hesitated once again and Gabe held his breath. Then she nodded. “All right. Where should I meet you?”

       “Ah, no,” he told her gently, knowing she wanted to keep him at a distance and knowing, too, that he wouldn’t allow it. “You’ll give me your address and phone number. I pick up the women I take on dates, Lizzy, I don’t meet them.”

       She seemed to consider that, then shrugged in feigned indifference. Taking up her pencil, she jotted her address and phone number. Gabe accepted the scrap of paper, then slipped off the edge of the dock and waded to the boat to put it in his cooler for safekeeping.

       Lizzy, watching him in the water, said, “I’m renting the upstairs from this nice single mother. She has two young children and needed the extra money.”

       Gabe knew she was prattling out of nervousness. He hated to see an end to the day, but he checked his waterproof watch and saw it was time to go. “We’d better head back. I have some work to do.”

       “I thought you didn’t have a job.”

       Looking at her from the other side of the boat, he gave her a wide grin. “Angling for another question? All right, I can be generous.” He propped his forearms over the metal gunwale and explained, “I don’t have a regular job, but I have more work than I can handle. I’m sort of a handyman and this time of year everyone needs something built, repaired or revamped. And that’s all I’m telling you, so get that look out of your eyes.”

       “Spoilsport.”

       Gabe maneuvered the boat close to the dock. “Since I now know you’re afraid of the water—something you should have told me right off—I’ll be gallant and hold the boat steady for you to climb in.”

       “You won’t expect me to get in the water again?”

       He shook his head at her hopeful expression. “Oh, I imagine we’ll get you used to it little by little. After all, what’s the use of taking a vacation near a lake if you don’t want to get wet? But for today you’ve had enough.”

       She couldn’t quite hide her relief. “Thanks.”

       Using exaggerated caution, she scooted off the dock and into the boat. Gabe watched the way her long legs bent, how her breasts filled the snug suit, how her bottom settled neatly on the metal seat, heated by the sun.

       Damn, he was in deep. And he couldn’t even say why. In the normal course of things, a woman like Ms. Elizabeth Parks shouldn’t have appealed to him at all. She was uptight, pushy, inexperienced…but she was also funny and curious and she had about the sweetest body he’d ever seen.

       With a muttered curse against his fickle libido, Gabe hauled himself over the side of the boat, which made her squeal and grab the seat with a death grip. “You can thank me Friday night,” he told her, and wondered if he’d be able to keep his hands off her even then. Two days didn’t seem like near enough time to get himself together.

       But it did seem like an eternity when already he wanted her so bad his hands were shaking.

      GABE FELT THE SUN on his shoulders, smelled the newly mown grass and breathed a deep sigh of contentment. Or at least, he’d be content if he could get a redheaded wonder out of his head. He steered the tractor mower toward the last strip of high grass by rote. He and his brothers had so much property, they only kept up the acres surrounding the house. Beyond that, the land was filled with wild shrubs and colorful flowers and mature trees of every variety. It was gorgeous in the fall, when the leaves changed color, but Gabe liked summer best.

       His mother used to accuse him of being part lizard, because the heat seldom bothered him, and he was always drawn to the sunshine.

       Life had been different since his two oldest brothers had married. Different in a very nice way. He enjoyed having Honey around. She made the house feel homier in some small indefinable ways, like the smell of her scented candles in the bathroom after she’d been indulging in a long soak, or the way she always hugged him when he left the house, cautioning him to be careful—as if he ran around risking his neck whenever he went out the door.

       Gabe grinned. He could still recall how Honey had cried when Morgan had moved to his own house. Never mind that it was just up the hill; she liked having all the brothers as near as possible. It was a huge bonus that Morgan had married her sister, Misty. The two women were very close and managed to get together every day, especially since Misty had given birth to an adorable little girl seven months ago. Amber Marie Hudson was about the most precious thing he’d ever seen. And watching his brother fuss over the baby was an endless source of entertainment.

       Females flat-out fascinated Gabe, whether they were seven months, twenty-seven or seventy. He didn’t think he’d ever tire of learning more about them.

       He was pondering what he might learn from a certain redhead when he saw a car pull into their long drive. Gabe stopped the tractor and watched, a feeling of foreboding creeping up his sweaty back. The car, a small purple Escort, looked suspiciously like the one he’d seen Lizzy