"A gift from Ronald."

"Yep. So the ball-painting was payback. Dad took Jack with him to hold the ladder and keep watch."

"Jack, huh?" Morgan had a tough time imagining the cowboy she'd met playing pranks.

"Oh, yeah. Jack was my dad's right-hand man when it came to stuff like that. But they didn't get along on every front, especially when it came to Josie. My dad didn't like it when Jack hooked up with her."

"Jack and Josie?" That blew Morgan away. Josie loved to laugh and have fun, but Jack didn't seem to know the meaning of the word. "Are they still together?"

"Not since Dad died." Gabe glanced back at the bar as if reluctant to head down the street toward it.

Morgan finally took pity on him. "We can also cut through this alley to get to my house."

"Doesn't really matter."

"Let's do it. It's actually shorter." That was a little white lie, but she found his reluctance endearing. The big, bad cowboy was afraid of ghosts.

"Yeah, well, okay, if it's shorter." He led her toward the alley.

Morgan picked her way along the dirt path between the buildings. "What happened with Jack and Josie?"

Gabe sighed. "It was probably doomed from the start. Josie loves owning a bar. There's no way she'd give it up to become a ranch wife. But Jack started slacking off on ranch work to be with her. She was free in the mornings, but that's a bad time to be gone if you're a rancher."

"Makes sense."

"Anyway, the long and short of it is that Jack was in bed with Josie when Dad called and demanded that he come home and help him fetch a horse he'd bought. Jack refused, claiming the weather was bad, which it was. Dad, stubborn to the end, went alone and...was killed in a rollover."

Morgan groaned. "And now Jack blames himself."

"Yeah."

"That explains a lot."

"Explaining it is easy. Dealing with it on a daily basis is a pain in the a.s.s. He had no cause to be rude to you, and I plan to let him know when I get home."

Morgan hated that idea. "Don't do it, Gabe. I don't want to be the reason for more friction between you two."

"Sorry, but I'm not made that way. I invited you to be part of the parade, and the least I can expect from my family is courtesy toward you."

"But I'm a real estate agent."

"I don't care if you're a sorceress from the depths of h.e.l.l, Jack needs to respect any woman I show up with."

The image made her giggle, which meant she stopped watching where she was going and stumbled.

Gabe reacted quickly, catching her around the waist to keep her from falling. "Easy there, little lady."

As naturally as a sunflower seeks the sun, she turned in his arms and snuggled against him. "A sorceress from the depths of h.e.l.l, huh?"

He cupped her bottom and brought her in tight enough to feel the solid ridge of his p.e.n.i.s under the denim. "The sorceress part might not be so wrong. The slightest contact and I'm hard as an ax handle."

She wound her arms around his neck. "You must be a sorcerer, then, because the slightest contact and I'm juicy as a ripe watermelon."

"You would remind me about the watermelon." He tipped back the brim of his Stetson and slid his fingers through her hair until he cradled the back of her head.

"Now I have to kiss you."

"What a crying shame."

"I know." He lowered his mouth until it was a breath away from hers. "I thought we could make it all the way to your house before I did this again."

"We're in a dark alley at one in the morning," she murmured. "I don't see the problem."

"Come to think of it, neither do I." His lips found hers.

No matter how many times he'd kissed her today, she still felt dizzy the moment he made contact. He stole her breath and anything resembling rational thought. The world compressed until nothing mattered but the heat generated by his supple mouth and his talented tongue.

She'd been kissed by enough men to know that Gabe was way above average with this particular skill. Either that or they were perfectly matched. Maybe it was a combination of the two.

Whatever the explanation, she couldn't confine the action to a simple kiss. As he plundered her mouth, she shoved her hands in the back pockets of his jeans. His most excellent buns flexed at the contact.

With her hands snug in his pockets, she rotated her pelvis against his and drank in his moan of l.u.s.t. He responded by reaching under her T-shirt and unhooking her bra. By the time he began fondling her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, she was a ma.s.s of raging hormones.

He lifted his head. "This is crazy."

"Then crazy me some more, cowboy."

"I do believe I will." He moved in for another kiss and began unbuckling her belt as he backed her toward the nearest wall.

She wasn't in the mood to protest. By the time she felt the cool brick against her back, he had his hand inside her panties and was working magic with fingers as talented as the rest of him.

Abandoning her lips, he kissed his way to her ear and nibbled on the lobe, tugging gently at the small gold hoop she wore there as he plunged his fingers in deep and found her G-spot. "Is this crazy enough for you?"

She gulped in air. "Almost." She relished the press of the rough brick, the forbidden nature of s.e.x in a semi-public place. Maybe she should be worried about her reputation, but as his thumb teased her c.l.i.t, she couldn't bring herself to care about anything but this.

Then he curved his fingers and began to stroke her with a steady rhythm that melted every inhibition she possessed. She moaned with pleasure. "Shh."

"It's...your fault."

He laughed softly. "Complaining?"

"Only if you...stop. Oh, Gabe, right there." She began to pant. "I'm coming, I'm..."

He kissed her at the critical moment, m.u.f.fling her cries as he sent her careening over the brink into another tumultuous o.r.g.a.s.m. He slid his fingers slowly back and forth, milking every last glorious contraction from her. Then he took his time easing her back to sanity.

Gently he withdrew, and as he lifted his mouth from hers, he painted her lips with a moist finger. He followed the same path with his tongue. "Almost as good as being there," he murmured. "But not quite. When we have a bed..."

Her body sang with eagerness as she imagined the pleasures that awaited her once he could fulfill his unspoken promise.

"I'm so hungry for you." He moistened her lips again with his damp fingers. "So hungry." And he kissed her, using his tongue to tell her how he'd satisfy that hunger.

She wondered if a person could possibly have too much s.e.x in one night. She was more than willing to find out.

GABE WAS AFRAID he'd left his manners at the doorstep of Morgan's cute little bungalow. He'd paid no attention to the living room, the dining room or the kitchen. He couldn't have told anybody the color scheme or the type of furniture.

His attention was focused entirely on her bedroom, and he wasn't even particularly interested in the colors and furniture there, either. Her queen-size bed could have been a mattress on the floor for all he cared. His goal was naked and horizontal.

Fortunately Morgan seemed to have the same goal. She didn't offer him coffee or beer, didn't try to show him around the place, didn't even turn on any lights except for the one switch that activated two bedside table lamps. That worked for him.

They yanked off their boots and belts as if by mutual agreement before tumbling together onto her bed without bothering to pull down the comforter. He had her shirt and bra off before he thought of something critical.

"You'd better tell me where that box of condoms is located," he said between kisses.

"Let me get it."

He hated to end the contact sport they had going on, but obviously the condoms weren't conveniently stashed in a bedside drawer or she would have said so.

Wiggling out of his arms, she climbed off the bed and combed her hair back from her face with her fingers.

Lord almighty, if she wasn't his ultimate fantasy-a well-endowed woman wearing nothing but a pair of tight jeans. Maybe it was a good thing she'd gone to fetch those condoms. He'd had several opportunities to touch her magnificent t.i.ts, but so far he'd never seen her topless in full light. A man, especially a breast man, should take a moment to appreciate what he was being offered.

Acting on that notion, he drank in the sight of her bare and beautiful twins. Her creamy skin, dampened by his mouth and tongue, seemed to glow in the lamplight. The weight of her gifts from Mother Nature shifted invitingly as she moved, and her wine-colored nipples bobbed so sweetly.

His mouth grew moist and his p.e.n.i.s throbbed. When she turned to leave, he moaned softly, swamped by nearly uncontrollable l.u.s.t.

She turned back to him. "Is something wrong?"

"G.o.d, no. I've just never seen you topless in the light before, and you take my breath away."

She smiled. "I've never seen you bottomless in the light before, so make good use of your time while I'm gone, okay?"

He didn't have to be told twice. "You bet." While she rummaged around in her bathroom cabinet, he stripped off the rest of his clothes and tossed back the comforter and top sheet before stretching out on the smooth white sheet. He had a feeling it wouldn't stay smooth for long.

He expected her to sashay back into the room with a gleam in her eye and a smile on her rosy lips.

Instead, although she carried the promised box of condoms, she looked worried. "We need to set the alarm."

"Huh?"

She paused and her gaze swept over him, lingering with obvious interest on his stiff-as-a-board p.e.n.i.s. The gleam he'd been hoping for earlier appeared in her eyes. "Oh, yeah. We definitely need an alarm."

"I hope you're not going to time me."

"Nope, but you need to be up before dawn."

"In case you hadn't noticed, I'm up now."

"Believe me, I noticed." She ran her tongue over her lips. "And I want me some of that."

Breath left his lungs in a whoosh and his voice came out sounding like a rusty hinge. "You can have whatever you want."

"Good." She set the box on the bedside table and pulled the clock radio around to face her. "But first, I'm setting the alarm."

"Morgan, we don't need that unless... Or do you have an early-morning appointment?" He should realize that a long holiday weekend might not be vacation time for a real estate agent.

"No appointments. I took time off for the Fourth."

"Then it doesn't matter when we-"

"Oh, yes, it does!" She punched a couple of b.u.t.tons.

"Okay, four-thirty. Done."

"Four-thirty?" Rolling to his side, he propped himself on his elbow and reached for the clock. "We're turning that off."

"No, we're not." She pulled it out of reach.

"Look, I'm not planning to sneak in and pretend I've been in my own bed all night, if that's what you're thinking. I'm a grownup and ent.i.tled to spend the night with a woman if I want to."

"That's not the point. I don't want history repeating itself, with you not showing up at the ranch in time for your ch.o.r.es."

"My ch.o.r.es? I'm twenty-eight, not six!"

"Ch.o.r.es, like feed the chickens, gather the eggs, milk the cows-whatever it was that Jack wasn't there to do because he was in bed with Josie."

Laughing, Gabe pulled her down to the mattress. "I'm a cowboy, not a farm boy. I do manly things like ride the range. I don't gather eggs and milk cows."

"So who feeds the chickens?"

"n.o.body." He straddled her hips and reached for the b.u.t.ton on her jeans. "We don't have chickens."

"I thought for sure that you-"

"We don't have milk cows, either." He unzipped her jeans. "Lift up. This is all coming off."

She raised her hips from the mattress. "What kind of a ranch doesn't have cows and chickens?"

"I'll be happy to explain later." Dragging down her jeans and panties and tossing them to the floor beside the bed, he looked into her eyes. "When I'm not so busy." Then he allowed his gaze to travel a leisurely downward path from her lush b.r.e.a.s.t.s to the happy zone between her satin thighs.

"Oh." Her body quivered as the pace of her breathing increased.

He focused again on her eyes, which had darkened with antic.i.p.ation. "I plan to make good on the promise I gave you back in the alley."

She swallowed. "Okay."

With a hand braced on either side of her shoulders and a knee on either side of her hips, he leaned down and kissed her, teasing her with his tongue so that she'd have no doubt what he meant. Lifting his head, he saw that her lips remained parted in complete surrender.

"We can talk about cows and chickens when I'm finished," he murmured, smiling.