Free Beauty and the Cowboy by Nancy Robards Thompson - Beauty and the Cowboy

paused before opening the door. “Thanks for dinner tonight.”
    “Let’s do this again. Soon.”
    “I’d love that.”
    “Me, too.”
    Then the next thing she knew, Jesse was kissing her, and it was like heaven.
    *
    Charlotte gasped a little when their lips first met. It was more of a shudder than a sound. Jesse wasn’t surprised. He’d always seemed to feel Charlie. But it was a good shudder, because she didn’t pull away from him.
    All day yesterday, he’d told himself that moving this fast was a bad idea, but her mouth was soft and inviting, and she was kissing him back.
    The one little taste of her he’d gotten on Friday night hadn’t been enough. It had tortured and tempted him more than it had satisfied. It had eaten away at him until he’d had no choice but to kiss her again. As they stood there with their arms around each other, the feel of her urged him to lean in closer. She responded by opening her mouth and inviting him in. She tasted so good—like warm honey and sunshine. It made him reel with sheer want.
    So did the need to fix everything that was broken inside her. That was the one lucid thought he had as she melted into him.
    She made a noise deep in her throat, and desire coursed through him. For a few seconds that seemed to be suspended in time, he thought he believed he could be perfectly content right here for the rest of his life, sheltering her from anything else that could hurt her.
    Then, just as naturally as they’d come together, they slowly released each other, standing forehead to forehead while the magic lingered.
    “That was nice,” she whispered.
    “It was,” he said. “When can I see you again?”
    *
    Charlotte and Jesse were inseparable the next week. Who knew that after all these years of being friends, Charlotte would find sanctuary in Jesse’s arms?
    Of course, with the fair opening next week, all the preliminary meetings for Miss Marietta Fair and Mattie either at home or at the pageant meetings with her, Charlotte and Jesse were both overworked and constantly chaperoned. Since this thing between them was so new and the breakup with Tom was so recent, they decided to keep things on the down-low for now…until they were sure what was going on.
    Even so, by the time Friday rolled around, Charlotte was itching for some time alone with Jesse. That’s why she’d scheduled her final walkthrough before the pageant kickoff for the end of the day.
    Jane and Sam were going away for the weekend. So Jane had dashed out as soon as the walkthrough was over. Mattie had left work early to go to Big Fork with Gina and her father.
    For this rare moment, in the empty fairgrounds office, it seemed like they were the only two people in the world.
    As Jesse walked Charlotte out to her car, he said, “Jane seems efficient. Once we got the extra dressing-room space and lighting issues worked out, things started moving along fast.”
    Charlotte stopped at her car, keys in hand. “She’s great. She’s taught me how to use my time wisely.”
    “So how about you use your time wisely tonight? Let me take you out to dinner.”
    “Sounds enticing.”
    He braced his left arm on the roof her car. He was so tall and tempting. She just wanted to put her arms around him right there and do what they did best.
    “Where would you like to go?”
    “I like scrambled eggs and steak. Your scrambled eggs and steak.”
    “Why don’t we see what we can cook up then?”
    “You said Mattie is away, so how about my place?”
    “I think that sounds like the best thing I’ve heard all week.”
    He leaned in and planted a kiss that affected her all the way down to the core of her being. Places inside her she’d been trying to ignore since last Friday night sparked again, and this time they ignited into a blaze that couldn’t be extinguished.
    He kissed her so thoroughly that she forgot that she should object to the public display of affection out in the open where anyone could see them… Because