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  Without his hat, his dark hair kept falling into one blazing blue eye and several times she’d had to check herself before reaching up to push the errant lock away.

  He took a handful of popcorn and passed her the bowl. She took some and nibbled a bite. On TV, the high, chipper voices of Disney animated characters acted out the roles of Christmas past, present and future while the small fire the kids had begged him to build in the fireplace crackled.

  And Annabelle couldn’t be more distracted. Every breath Case took made her entire body aware and alive, zipping with excitement.

  He bent his long leg so his socked foot brushed hers. She nearly swallowed the piece of popcorn whole, something she’d been warning the kids about all night as they horsed around while snacking.

  His toes rubbed against hers. She wiggled hers back. He stared at her from under drooping eyelids and continued to heat her by way of an innocent, cozy touch. For several minutes they shared the popcorn and played footsie.

  After a while, he pushed away from the couch. “Do you mind if I take off my shirt? All the body heat in this room is making me sweat.”

  She had a feeling he wasn’t only heated from too many bodies in the living room. She was feeling a little sweaty herself.

  Shaking her head, she reached into the bowl again to gather another handful of popcorn. Anything to keep from staring as he reached between his shoulder blades and pulled his shirt overhead.

  Sweet baby Jesus in a manger. Tanned flesh covered pure steely muscles that rippled as he tossed the shirt aside and rested against the sofa again.

  She tried not to look his way, but he was stripped to the waist and she was weak. If Charlotte were here, she’d be egging Annabelle on. Just turn to him and kiss him, she’d say.

  Annabelle couldn’t do that. Not with all these kids sprawled around them. There was no way their kisses would be simple pecks. Anybody could wake and see them making out. The last thing she wanted was to lose face in the eyes of any Dalton family member. She was beginning to love them all.

  One of the kids rolled over, bumping the support of the blanket fort. The side wall caved in and the blanket roof drifted down to cover the child’s sleeping form.

  Case grunted. “By morning, they’ll all be in a heap.”

  She laughed softly. “More than likely.”

  He rubbed his foot against hers.

  The silence grew loaded with tension, and she couldn’t take it another second. She turned to him and threw her arms around his neck. The popcorn bowl fell off her lap and kernels flew over the carpet, but she didn’t care, because his lips were on hers.

  Hard, claiming. Demanding. She parted her lips and flicked her tongue across his in invitation. A low rumble vibrated his chest, and she angled her head to capture that sound with her own quiet moan.

  Need coiled inside her like a whip. Liquid heat trickled between her thighs, and her panties grew damp as he cupped her head and kissed her like a man who wanted more.

  Hell, she wanted more. Could she go there? She’d been thinking of little else since her conversation with Charlotte. If she hooked up with Case, their chemistry would carry them away, and then what? She’d walk away, board a plane and never see him again.

  But could she leave without knowing the cowboy the way she really wanted?

  He gripped her waist and pulled her across his lap so she was half-lying on him. He was so strong underneath her. Compared to his bulky muscle, she was dainty, and she’d never felt so feminine or desired.

  With a groan, he pulled away to stare at her through half-lidded eyes. “You taste so damn good.”

  She giggled. “Like popcorn.”

  He nodded, staring at her lips. “And woman.” He plunged his tongue deep into her mouth again, swirling his tongue around and around, tugging noises from her that were getting increasingly louder. She was incapable of stopping them.

  When he tore free, she gasped and tried to follow him. He held her by the shoulders to stare into her eyes. “Annabelle… Sweetheart, what I want to do to you isn’t appropriate behavior for the sugar bunch.” He nodded toward the living room and the children.

  Her breaths were coming too fast.

  “Come outside with me.” His gaze speared her.

  She felt herself nod and then he stood and set her on her feet in one fluid motion. She was too dazed to realize he was leading her outside until the cool air struck her flushed face.

  On the porch, he turned her into his arms. She flattened her palms on his scorching-hot pecs and tilted her head to look him in the eyes. “Aren’t you cold without a shirt?”

  There it was again—that crooked smile. “What do you think?”

  He wrapped her against him and kissed her. Deep, strong pulls of his mouth that were like an undertow and she was helplessly dragged into the sea of bliss. She ran her hands over his skin, learning all the dips and swells of muscle put there by hard work.

  When he slid his hand up her side to cup her breast, she shuddered. “Touch me, Case.” The words were nearly a plea.

  “Hell yes.” He kneaded her breast even as he closed his fingers over her nipple. The tight bud sharpened into a point that he teased and pinched until she was going on tiptoe to get closer to him.

  He worked at her other breast while easing his hand under her hoodie. Inside her bra cup, finding the spot she most wanted touched. As he flicked her nipple with a forefinger, she let out a moan.

  The Texas ranch was strangely silent, as if all the beasts had passed out along with the children inside. Not even a cricket sang, and all Annabelle could hear was their labored breathing as Case lifted her top and dipped his head to her breast.

  The first touch of his hot, wet tongue on her nipple sent her soaring. She dug her fingers into his thick hair and he latched on with a strength that had her toes curling into the floorboards.

  As he sucked her nipples one at a time and fondled her into a frenzy, she rocked her hips into his. Feeling the steel of his erection and wondering how it would feel stretching her. Need coursed through her veins—she’d never been so turned on, never wanted a man this way.

  When he lifted his lips from the tip of her breast, she grabbed his shoulders. Going through immediate withdrawals now that he wasn’t driving her crazy with his mouth.

  For a split second, their gazes met before he captured her lips again. Tasting, sucking on her tongue as he walked his fingers down her belly and eased his hand into her leggings. In seconds he found her wet heat.

  “Hell, you’ve soaked through your panties for me.”

  “You have me so turned on, Case.”

  He took her hand and settled it over his bulge. How his jeans harnessed that erection without his zipper blowing out, she had no clue. He was huge and ready.

  She shivered as he slipped his finger down the seam of her pussy. When he reached the aroused juices pooling at her entrance, they shared a groan.

  “I want you, sweetheart. Damn, I want you so bad. Have since the beginning.”

  Her heart tangled up with the pleasure ripping through her system, and she couldn’t make out if her heart was pumping so fast because of his words or the way he was making her feel.

  He dipped the tip of his finger into her pussy, and her inner walls flexed.

  “Hell,” he grated out, thrusting his tongue between her lips again. He sank his finger deep, curling it against her inner wall. She flooded his hand with juices and cried out. He swallowed the noise and fed a growl back to her on his tongue. She squeezed her eyes shut on the bliss racking her body.

  His mouth, his finger sinking with exquisite slowness in and out of her pussy…all of it was too much. She gave a shudder as desire peaked. He was staring into her eyes with a look of intense absorption when her orgasm struck.

  Trembling as her body shuddered through several shockwaves, she clung to him. His scent overwhelmed her, and she kissed him back with all the passion inside her as her release came to a breathless close.

  �
��Oh God,” she whispered against his lips.

  “Damn, sweetheart, I’ve never seen anything so beautiful in my life.” He kissed her hard with a depth of need that she wouldn’t soon forget. It would haunt her dreams when she returned to her real life.

  He brought her down slowly from her high, caressing her pussy until the final tremor left her body. Then he pulled his hand free and looked into her eyes. His chest heaved with every breath he took.

  She lifted a hand to his stubbled jaw, the angles sharp and exciting beneath her fingers. Searching his glittering eyes, she opened her mouth to speak. A light panned over the front of the house, barely missing where they stood on the porch.

  She pulled away and he scrubbed a hand over his face as if to erase the need there. It didn’t work. His family would take one look at him and know what had happened between them.

  He seemed to be of like mind. “Go on up to bed, Annabelle. I’ll tell everybody you were worn out from the kids.”

  She searched his gaze. Was he dismissing her? Or would he come to her later after Mr. and Mrs. Dalton were settled in their bed?

  She nodded and went up to her room, hands shaking as she brushed her teeth and undressed for bed.

  Listening hard to the sounds of the house, she made out the Daltons coming inside and the low male voices which must be Ted and Case. She got into bed and held her breath, waiting for a knock on her door.

  But all she heard was the light banging of the screen door as somebody went outside into the night.

  Chapter Six

  With a grunt of exertion, Case tossed the bale of hay into the back of the truck. Hank would drive the load up to the top field and feed the herd there. The winter grazing wasn’t always enough.

  Case strode back to the stacked bales and hooked his fingers under the twine of two more bales. The weight felt good in his hands, stretching his muscles. The previous night he’d been at a breaking point, burning to go to Annabelle’s room and take her the way he wanted to, and he’d barely resisted.

  This morning he’d left the house early as usual. The mothers had descended on the ranch to collect their offspring, packing up sleeping bags and making trips to the cars with pillows and overnight bags. But he hadn’t seen Annabelle among the crew.

  He was afraid he’d scared her off. Taking her that way on the porch—sucking her sweet breasts and fingering her to orgasm? Dammit, he’d lost his head and shown her what a real Dalton man wasn’t.

  While he felt remorse for not taking her to someplace more private than the front porch seconds before his aunt and uncle arrived home, he didn’t feel a bit bad for what he’d done. Making Annabelle feel good was one of the highlights of his life.

  He tossed two more bales in the back of the truck. From under his hat brim, Hank eyed him.

  “Awful edgy this morning, cuz. Kids get to you last night?” He didn’t sound as if he thought that.

  Case shook his head. “Kids were fine. Only trouble we had was when Lacey chased the dog into the corner and he peed on the kitchen floor.”

  Hank chuckled. “Not bad then. So what has you all worked up this morning?”

  Case paused to look at his cousin. “I’m fine.”

  “I’ve seen that brand of fine before. You forget that I was once a single guy barely clinging to the edge of control for Charlotte.”

  Pushing a breath through his nose, Case turned for the stack of bales again. “Don’t know what you’re talkin’ about.”

  “You’re such a shit liar, Case. Always have been. Remember when you told my parents that the dog really knocked the TV down and broke the screen?”

  Case grunted. His cousin had to bring up Case’s first and biggest ever told lie. At the time, the Daltons’ dog had been too small to do much more than yip at your ankles.

  Ignoring Hank, he carried two more bales to the truck and heaved them into the bed. He slammed the tailgate and stood back. “Should be enough.”

  “Yeah, it’s good. But you’re avoiding my question.”

  “Nothin’s got me worked up this morning,” Case said.

  “Not even a pretty schoolteacher with brown eyes that follow you everywhere you go?”

  Case’s heart threw itself at his ribs at the possibility that Annabelle could be as smitten as he was. It was obvious she liked the way he made her feel, enjoyed kissing him. But it couldn’t be more unless she decided to break from teaching and took up at the ranch.

  Hell, he could still taste her mouth, feel her wet heat clenching around his fingers…

  He met his cousin’s stare. “I’m not ready to talk about it.” He may never be. Especially after she left—Annabelle would be a bruise that would take a long time to heal. It hadn’t only been about touching her last night. It had been seeing her with the kids, pink-cheeked and laughing as she ladled warm cocoa from the crockpot into mugs for each child lined up around the kitchen table.

  The way she put her own happy stamp on everything she did made him want to learn everything about her and never let her go.

  His throat closed off.

  Hank gave him a long look but didn’t say more. He got in the truck and drove across the road that cut through the property. Case went back into the barn and finished his chores. Then he threw himself into working hard the rest of the day to keep his mind from spinning like a twister back to Annabelle.

  At one point, he raised his fingers to his nose, hoping to detect the traces of her scent there but they’d been washed away.

  He’d skipped lunch and his stomach was gnawing something fierce. By the time he went inside late in the afternoon, the house was in full party-mode. The table was already piled with platters of cookies and paper plates of mini cranberry muffins. He went and snagged two of each. When Aunt Maggie gave him the eye, he grinned around the cookie he’d shoved in his mouth.

  “Gotta get cleaned up,” he muttered with crumbs flying.

  “Take your crumbs with you, son,” she said, turning back to the eggnog she was preparing in a big punchbowl.

  Each year, the neighbors came to visit for an evening, bringing their casseroles and cakes to share. Even a jug or two of moonshine made it to the Daltons’ for Christmas cheer, and last year he’d woken with a good headache to show for the liquor.

  On his way to his room, he didn’t run into Annabelle, which was good, because after the strain of not setting eyes on her all day long, he was aching. A deep stab of pain worse than any toothache.

  Yeah, he was certain Hank and his other cousins would understand if he confided in them. He just couldn’t voice his feelings, not when he wasn’t sure if he could even utter them to Annabelle.

  * * * * *

  Annabelle had brought only one dress with her, and the Daltons’ shindig didn’t seem to be the dress-up kind of affair. Still, she’d wanted to wear something besides jeans or leggings, so she’d slipped on the simple black knit dress and added a red plaid top over it, knotting it at the waist. With a chunky, sparkly necklace at her throat, she felt festive.

  Okay, who was she kidding? She’d dressed this way with Case in mind. When packing back in Illinois, she hadn’t given thought to looking pretty for anybody but herself, and now…

  From her perch by the stairs, she scanned the main floor of the house. Bodies stood, sat, sprawled, all talking and having a good old time.

  All the dark-haired men in attendance were Daltons. Without their hats, they all started to blend together. But she knew none of them were Case.

  Two kids sneaked by, heading toward the stairs. She caught Hank Jr.’s shoulder. He turned to look up at her, face twisted at getting caught.

  “I thought your momma said no kids upstairs tonight.”

  “But Aunt Annabelle, it’s so crowded. Ames and I were just going to sit and look at trading cards.” He held out a thick stack on his hand and gave her an imploring stare.

  Annabelle understood the need to escape a crowded room—that was how she’d ended up in the corner by the stairs. And she knew
Hank Jr. was a kindred spirit.

  Unable to resist those big Dalton-blue eyes—or the fact he’d called her Aunt Annabelle—she nodded. “Don’t tell your momma. And behave up there.”

  He bobbed his head and took off running up the stairs two at a time with his buddy Ames on his tail.

  Feeling a warm spot in her chest where the boy now resided, she touched her breastbone. She glanced up and went still. That heat inside her swelled, spread.

  Case was staring at her.

  Across the room from ten paces away, he looked larger than life, appearing to take up the space of two men. Hatless, his hair lay thick and too long around his ears. And he was also wearing red plaid.

  Their gazes locked and a grin spread across his rugged features. Her heart gave a hiccup as he took a step toward her, and then another.

  The pull of his jeans across muscled thighs shouldn’t send a girl into such a tizzy, but damn if she could take a full breath. And the way he looked at her, like he’d eat her up and lick his lips afterward… Well, she realized her panties were no match for Case Dalton.

  As he drew up in front of her, he skimmed his fingers over the sleeve of her shirt. She felt that caress through the cloth and deep into her bones.

  “Seems we match tonight.”

  She smiled. “Great minds, I guess.”

  “Was the only red shirt I own, to be honest.” He scoped out her outfit, his gaze lingering around her bare thighs for too long before returning to her face. “You look beautiful, sweetheart.”

  The endearment cut straight to her heart. After being in his arms on the porch the previous night, played like a fine instrument by those long, callused fingers of his, she’d become far too aware of the pulsing of her heart when she thought of Case.

  He was everything she’d want in a man—if he was an Illinois resident. But how could they ever keep up a long-distance relationship?

  While all these depressing thoughts filled her head, he caught her by the elbow. “C’mon, let’s get some eggnog. Aunt Maggie’s isn’t to be missed—it’s famous in these parts and mostly the reason all the neighbors come.”