Free The McClane Apocalypse: Book Two by Kate Morris

legs are getting a little sore. It’s been awhile,” she reminds him, as she moves her hands from his shoulders to his forearms for balance.
    “Yeah, I’d have to agree with that.”
    “What?” she asks with confusion and a furrow of her brow.
    “What? Oh, nothing. I didn’t... never mind,” he hesitates. He’d been thinking about her “fine” butt, as well, and had just agreed. His mouth is working faster than his brain can keep up and he’d been agreeing with her about her fine ass, although he knows that she didn’t mean it in quite the same context.
    He grabs up her hand and the horse’s reins with the other and pulls them both forward, but not quickly. Kelly knows that Hannah can’t keep up with his military marching pace, his normal pace, so he slows down to accommodate her. They walk a short while and stop in the woods so that she can catch her breath. Hannah doesn’t seem particularly short-winded, but he’s concerned about her just the same. There are tiny purple violets and even smaller, dainty white flowers on the forest floor and, to Kelly, it’s the most perfect setting in the entire world for Hannah McClane to be surrounded by such serene beauty. She should be wearing a crown of these flowers.
    “You didn’t answer any of my questions. What’s a hee-low?” she repeats slowly.
    “A helo is short for helicopter,” he educates her as he picks at the bark on a tree while the horse chomps on the sweet grass at his feet. Reagan has told them not to let the horses eat with a bit in their mouth but since she’s twenty miles away he feels it’s ok to do it.
    “You were in a helicopter crash?” she nearly shouts to which Kelly laughs, earning him a big scowl from her. “Why are you laughing?”
    “I’m not laughing at you. It’s just that it would be nice if it had been only one crash,” he tells her with another laugh.
    “Oh my, Kelly. How many times were you in a helicopter crash?”
    “Just three,” he explains nonchalantly because it really isn’t a big deal.
    “Just three? Kelly you could’ve been killed!”
    “Relax, Hannah. Me and John were both in two of them together, the third we were in separate helos. He got cut up on the first one pretty good, but I walked away without a scratch all three times. I’m harder to kill than you might think,” he explains with a grin.
    “That’s not funny,” she scolds him as he smiles down at her, though she cannot tell.
    “Come,” he orders softly.
    Kelly grasps her small, frail hand in his, and they walk up a short incline that looks down over the back of the entire farm. He can see the house, barns, animals and tidy, fenced-in pastures. It’s an amazing view, beautiful, but he can’t seem to tear his gaze from Hannah for more than a second to enjoy it. Hannah trips over a tree root, and Kelly helps her back upright.
    “Here, Hannah, get back on and sit in the saddle. I can walk now. We’re close to being back,” he states and tries not to notice her frown of disappointment that mirrors his feelings. He also does not want their time alone to end but knows that his responsibilities back at the farm are more important. He helps her foot find the stirrup and her hand locate the saddle horn. There’s no easy way of helping a person onto a horse without touching them. As she has no upper body strength to pull herself up and over, Kelly gives her perfectly-shaped bottom a small boost. Once she’s safely in the saddle with both hands on the horn, Kelly’s hand slides from her backside around onto her thigh. He remembers this pale, long thigh bare against him, straddling him in the back of the cattle barn with her dress hiked up. Kelly allows his big, beefy, monstrous hand that nearly covers her entire thigh to slide down her leg to her slim calf all the way to her ankle, past the silly, decorative zipper there. Hannah sucks a deep breath in and holds it overly long until she finally releases it shakily. His breathing has also