Christmas at Blue Moon Ranch Read Online Free Page A

Smooth.”
    “Daniel…”
    “You can stop
me,” he told her as he leaned closer. “Just say no.” A slight press of his
fingers turned her face toward his. He brushed his lips across hers. “Just say
no.”
    He made another
pass across that wide, generous mouth, but he didn’t hear a word. Her hand came
up and cupped the back of his neck, bringing him even closer. And then he was
kissing Willa Mercado for all he was worth.
    Willa couldn’t
believe how good it felt. How good he felt. The size and weight of him,
the warmth of him surrounding her, seemed like a miracle. She’d been so cold
for so long.
    His mouth
skimmed hers, lingered, plundered. He tasted of tequila and lime, but also
something essentially, basically male. He smelled like soap and clean clothes
and good man. As he kissed his way across her cheek and down her throat, she
buried her face in the bend of his neck and breathed deeply of that wonderful
scent.
    Like magic, the
buttons of her blouse came undone. For a second the air chilled her bare skin,
but then Daniel chased the cold away, pressing kisses on her breast bone, the
balls of her shoulders, the hollow between her breasts and everywhere in
between. Willa sighed, and in the next moment her bra disappeared. First his
hand claimed her and then his mouth, and she cried out at the shock of
pleasure.
    She went a
little crazy after that, desperate for more of…well, everything. Her fingers
fumbled with the buttons of his shirt, and she gave up after the second one to
pull the damn thing over his head. To her surprise, he wore a plain white
T-shirt underneath, yet another barrier. When she reached for the hem, though,
Daniel drew back.
    “Don’t,” he said
raggedly, and bent to kiss the inner curve of her elbow. “I’m not nearly as
gorgeous as you are.”
    Willa gasped at
the stroke of his tongue against her skin, and forgot to argue with him. A few
minutes later he eased her slacks over her hips. Once he’d dragged his palm along
the length of her legs, she wasn’t sure she remembered her own name.
    “Daniel,” she
whispered, arching closer, wrapping a leg around his hips to draw him nearer
still. Hard met soft, and she moaned. “Please. Please, tell me we don’t have to
stop.”
    She heard his
low chuckle, saw a flash of that fabulous grin. He backed off enough to
unfasten and strip off his jeans.
    “Not a chance. I
was a Boy Scout.” He jerked his wallet out of the discarded pants and pulled
out a duo of condoms. In the second he used to break open one package, Willa
stroked her hand up his thigh, underneath the hem of his pale blue boxers.
    Instead of the
smooth skin and firm muscle she expected, the flesh she touched was a landscape
of ridges and valleys, hard and harsh.
    Daniel froze,
and she looked at him in horror. “My God,” Willa said. “Those are…scars?”
    He nodded, then
took a deep breath. “Sorry.” With an awkward shift of his hips, he started to
move away.
    But Willa came
with him. “No. Daniel, don’t.” On her knees behind him, she put her arms around
his shoulders and her head on his shoulder. “Don’t.”
    His shoulders
lifted on a deep breath. “I wasn’t thinking. I know what I look like. I
shouldn’t have subjected—”
    “Hush.” She sat
back on her heels and grasped the hem of the T-shirt. He jerked, clearly
wanting to escape, but she put a hand on his shoulder. “Stay.” Biting her lower
lip, she deliberately peeled up the white T-shirt, uncovering the mutilated
skin of his back. Tears rolled down her face as Willa studied the map of purple
grooves and red hills she’d revealed.
    “I’m so sorry.”
She put a finger gently on one of the scars. “So sorry.” The pain he’d endured
was unimaginable. How had he even survived? If Jamie had come back to her like
this…how would he have felt? What would she have done?
    “It’s okay.”
Daniel pulled down the T-shirt again and shifted to face her. “I’m okay.
Really. Don’t cry,