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about? Don’t cry.”
    She pulled back and gazed at him. “I…I’m sorry I hurt you. I wanted this morning to be perfect.”
    “Ain’t nothing perfect. Take us, for instance. Since you stepped back into my life, I’ve been stabbed with a dart, pole-axed by a kiss, peed on and burnt.”
    “I don’t know why I’m like this around you. I don’t like it one bit.”
    “I’m not overly fond of it either.” He took the tube from her hand and removed the cap. “When my ex-wife left me, I swore I was through with women. Nothing but pain comes from them.” He rubbed ointment over his burn as he talked. “Pain and a quick grope under the table.” He smirked when he handed her back the Neosporin.
    “Now, that was a mistake, just like all the other things that’s happened.”
    His eyes twinkled, and he chuckled. “You’re like a walking blonde catastrophe. I figure you owe me.”
    “What? What do I owe you?”
    He took her chin between his thumb and fingers and drew her face closer. “A kiss. One that will right my world again, ’cause it’s been out of kilter since the first one at the Lonesome Steer. I’m beginning to think that dart had some kind of poison on it to put me under your spell.”
    “That’s nonsense.”
    His gentle kisses over her eyes and cheeks erased her tears.
    “No more crying, only smiles. You’ve got a smile that warms my heart.”
    “I do?” No one had ever told her that before.
    Large hands settled at her waist, and little by little he inclined his head to hers, his voice barely a whisper. “Oh, yeah.” Then his lips made contact and nuked every cell of her being.
    Oh. My. God .
    Tyler sucked on her bottom lip, and someone in the tiny bathroom moaned. Since his lips were too busy doing things to her mouth, she suspected the moaner was her. When he angled his head to take the kiss deeper, and his tongue stroked along the inside of her bottom lip, her knees went weak. Her hands made a slow journey over his muscled chest just as they’d itched to do since he stepped into her kitchen.
    He groaned and backed her against the vanity.
    Lips fused.
    Breaths mingled.
    Tongues stroked and seduced.
    Spirits communicated.
    And still the kiss continued.
    I’ll never be the same again. Not after this .
    His hands slipped under her T-shirt and forged a trail up her sides. When they covered her breasts, her nipples peaked in welcome. Tyler murmured her name against her lips in response. With a shudder, as if he were trying to regain control, he pulled back, his eyes hooded with desire.
    She wasn’t sure why she was aggravated, but she was. Or maybe it was fear she felt. Fear that this would all be over before it had a chance to start.
    What exactly was the “it” she hoped for? An affair? A short-term romance? Something permanent? She hadn’t a clue.
    “I hope the kiss achieved what you wanted.” She straightened the hem of her T-shirt. “That it righted your world again.” It had certainly upended hers, and she wasn’t sure if she was pleased or provoked.
    He ran fingertips down her cheek and studied her with those deep, chocolate eyes of his. His expression was solemn, as if he were solving some serious problem. “No, not by a long shot.”
    Then he turned and strode out of the bathroom.
    The kiss carried Lacy through the breakfast dishes and cleaning up the kitchen. Too many times, she caught herself staring off, motionless, remembering the strength of his arms and his deep male groans proclaiming he was just as turned on as she. Imagine. She and her teenaged fantasy in a major lip-lock in her bathroom. Thank God she hadn’t said anything stupid. Or had she? Goodness, the man had her mind so muddled, she didn’t know what she was saying half the time.
    Once the kitchen gleamed again, she headed for the corral. One of the trucks had been backed to the loading chute. Carlos, Pete and Tyler rode ahead, their mounts loping across the fields toward the hundred head she helped cut from