Taming Clint Westmoreland - Brenda Jackson [22]
Maybe she needed to rethink her decision to remain at Clint’s ranch for the thirty days. It was a decision she hadn’t yet told him she’d made, only because she had mentioned that she would need to sleep on it. And she had, which was the main reason she was up now. Once the decision had been made she couldn’t get her body to go back to sleep. It had become restless and for the first time ever, fiercely aroused.
And for him to find her in his office wearing only a large T-shirt was embarrassing. But the house had been quiet for a long while and she figured everyone had gone to bed for the night. His bedroom was in a different wing and so she had assumed the coast was clear. She thought that she could sneak into his office for a while and not be noticed. But he had noticed. And so she made a new promise—no more late-night game-playing on the computer for her.
She inhaled deeply. In the morning she would tell him of her decision to stay. She would also tell him that her decision came with stipulations. He’d said earlier that day, after their first kiss, that he was able to control his desire for her. If kissing her the way he did was his desire under control, she didn’t want to think how the kiss would be with those same desires unleashed.
Six
A lyssa’s heart immediately began beating harder when she walked into the kitchen the next morning to find Clint seated at the table. Although it appeared he was just starting in on breakfast, she knew he was there waiting on her. His expression indicated that he wanted to know her decision.
She glanced around the large kitchen, trying to ignore the pulse that was erratically thumping in her throat. It was a sin and shame that Clint looked so good this early in the morning. He was staring at her with those dark, piercing eyes of his, and the way the sunlight captured the well-defined planes of his face made him appear hauntingly handsome. Alyssa found his good looks quite disturbing, given the fact she was trying to resist her attraction to him.
Seeing him only reminded her of her behavior with him last night in his office. He had once again kissed her mindless, engulfing her with a degree of passion she thought was possible only in those romance novels Aunt Claudine read. Alyssa had gone to bed dreaming about him, their kiss and the things she wanted to do with him beyond a kiss. She had awakened mortified that such thoughts had entered her mind. She would need to take steps to make sure her dreams never became a reality.
For her own sake and well-being, she had reached the conclusion that setting ground rules with Clint would be the only way they would survive living under the same roof. Otherwise, she was setting herself up for many tiring days and disturbing nights, Alyssa realized.
“Where’s Chester?” she asked.
Clint leaned back in his chair. “He’s off on Wednesdays. At least, he takes off after breakfast and then returns at dinnertime. It’s the day he’s at the children’s hospital being Snuggles the Clown.”
Alyssa lifted a brow. “Snuggles the Clown?”
“He spends his day in the children’s ward making the kids laugh. He’s been doing it for over twenty years now and he’s a big hit. That’s how he and Uncle Sid met. Chester used to be a rodeo clown,” Clint said.
At first Alyssa couldn’t picture Chester as a clown, but then as she thought about it, she changed her mind. He had a friendly air about him and would probably be someone who loved kids. She didn’t know any clowns and found the thought of him being one fascinating. “You have to love kids to do something like that,” she said.
“He does. It was unfortunate that he and Ada never had any of their own.”
“Was Ada his wife?”
“Yes. They were married over thirty years. She died six years ago from an acute case of pneumonia,” Clint explained.
“That’s sad,” she said quietly.
“It was. He took her death pretty hard. They had a very strong marriage.”
A very strong marriage. Alyssa wondered if that meant the same thing as the