A Red Leaf & Ten Orchids Ch. 06

Kayla slid her hand along the muscles just to the side of his spine. They felt like the cables on a suspension bridge to her. Kayla felt the sweaty stickiness of him, but didn't mind it a bit. She was more taken with the fascination of his warmth and the way that his skin allowed her to feel his strength right through it. The sensation amazed her.

She said, "I need to know something. Didn't you think that you were taking a hell of a chance by kissing my boob like that? What if I wasn't in the mood?"

Josh smiled at the newness of feeling her against his neck and how he could feel her words as well as hear her. "I wasn't certain that you were, but it was there and all, and it felt so good to me. I was afraid I'd never get another chance to let you know how I feel. Words wouldn't have worked. It was a risk, but some things are worth dying for, you know?"

She chuckled as she leaned back to smile at him, "Ok, but what did you say just before that? I couldn't make it out."

"I had that thought, and then I told myself." he said.

Kayla was pulling herself up on him in a flash, kissing him for all she was worth.

After the same hopeful attempts at love that any woman might find herself in, Kayla had been badly burned. Relationships which had come to her in her career had left her far on the other side of bitter. She'd never had much use for men as a rule after that, and certainly never willingly allowed one to get this close to her feelings.

But Joshua seemed to be steadfast to her, a man who seemed completely unafraid of her. If her inner storms raged, she sensed that he was willing to withstand them – or at least give it a good try. No one had ever shown her this before. When he touched her, Kayla felt his calmness – and she certainly felt his comforting warmth.

Now that there were no weapons involved.

She realized that, inside his arms, she felt something that was far past unusual to her. A moment later, she decided that right here, she suddenly didn't need her own strength and will.

She smiled as she finished the thought.

She only needed his. The possibility that they might be able to lean on each other was a startling one, but it was tempered with the notion that he wasn't exactly a permanent resident on Rosie's ranch, and she now hoped that he might be persuaded to think about staying longer. Then again, she realized, it was still only the first blush here between them. There might be a body count yet before they were done.

Just then Rosie called out, "Suppertime!"

Kayla stepped back with a smile and pulled her shirt back down in the dark.