Stone Cold Surrender - Brenda Jackson [20]
Madison raised a brow. “It will take us two days to get to your uncle’s ranch?”
“Yes, by horseback. At some point during the daylight hours it will be too hot to travel and we’ll need to give the horses periodic breaks.”
Madison nodded. She then cleared her throat. “Stone, I want to thank you for—”
“You’ve thanked me already,” he said, picking up the Stetson that he had purchased that day off the table.
“Yes, I know, but I also know that taking me to your uncle’s place is intruding into your writing time.”
He looked at her and the liquid heat that had started flowing through his bloodstream from the moment he had met her was still there. “No, you’re not,” he said, forcing himself to ignore how good she smelled. “I had planned to go visit Uncle Corey anyway while I was here, so now is just as good a time as any.”
“Oh, I see.”
Stone doubted that she saw anything. If she did she would have second thoughts of them spending so much time together over the next three days. If she really had her eyes wide-open she would see that he wanted her with a passion so thick he could cut it with a knife. The clean scent of the mountains had nothing on her. She had a fragrance all her own and it was one that reminded him of everything a woman was supposed to be. She was more than just a city girl. She was sensuality on legs and a gorgeous pair of them at that.
He couldn’t believe it had only been yesterday when he had first looked into eyes that were so mesmerizing they had taken his breath away. And since then, undercurrents of sensual tension had surrounded them whenever they were together, leaving them no slack but a whole lot of close encounters of the lush kind. He had never been this incredibly aware of a woman in his life.
“Well, I guess that’s it until tomorrow morning.”
Her words cut into his thoughts, reminding him that he had stood to leave yet hadn’t moved an inch. “Yes, I think that’s about it except for your attitude about things.”
She lifted her chin just a bit. “What do you mean?”
He rather liked to see whenever she became irritated about something. She became even sexier. “I mean,” he began slowly, deciding that no matter how sexy she got when she was mad, he didn’t want to get her pissed off too much. “Before we head up toward Uncle Corey’s mountain, you need to come to terms with what we might find when we get there, Madison.”
He watched as she averted her eyes from his briefly and he knew she understood exactly what he meant. She tilted her head and their gazes connected again. “I hear what you’re saying but I don’t know if I can, Stone. She’s my mother,” she said quietly.
Stone held her gaze intently. Logical thinking—which he knew she wasn’t exemplifying at the moment—dictated that he have something to say to that. So he did. “She’s also a full-grown woman who’s old enough to make her own decisions.”
She sighed and he could just feel the varied emotions tumbling through her. “But she’s never done anything like this before.”
“There’s a first time for everything.” He of all people should know that. Until yesterday, no woman had taken hold of his senses the way she had. He wasn’t exactly happy about it and in some ways he found it downright disturbing. But he was mature enough to accept it as the way things happen sometimes between a man and a woman. Unlike his brother Thorn who liked challenges, he was one of those men who tried looking at things logically without complications and definitely without a whole lot of fuss. He accepted things easily and knew how to roll with the flow.
Madison was a very desirable woman and he was a hot-blooded male. He had conceded from the first that getting together with her would be like pouring kerosene on a fire. The end result—total combustion. The only problem with that picture was that, no matter how hot they could burn up the sheets, on some things he had made up his mind with no chance of changing it. Getting involved in a permanent relationship with a woman