A Four-Gone Conclusion: Lone Star Lovers, Book 5 by Delilah Devlin Page A

hers. “We should set some ground rules.”
    She nodded, her mouth suddenly dry. Rules? “For the trip?”
    “For what happens between us.”
    A fine trembling started deep inside her. He’d shot straight past business into intimacy. “All right. Shoot.”
    “First, you tell me everything I want to know. No secrets.”
    “Will you do the same?”
    “In time.”
    She snorted softly and gave him a derisive look. “I’m supposed to give you my trust, but you won’t reciprocate?”
    “It’s a little complicated. There are things best left alone for now. Can you live with that?”
    It was perverse, but the mystery surrounding him was a huge turn-on. “Depends.”
    He lifted one eyebrow in question.
    “On whether you follow through with your promise to provide safe passage to the people at the ranch.”
    He canted his head and stared like he was trying to see inside her. “Don’t you want to ask anything for yourself?”
    She licked her lips. “I think I’m going to get it.”
    His lips curved, and his dark eyes crinkled at the corners. “I think you’re right,” he said, his voice a deep, smooth rumble—like a panther’s purr.
    Her cheeks burned beneath his scrutiny. “What else?”
    “I’m in charge. No questions. When I’m not there, you’ll follow my next in command.”
    Her teeth ground in frustration. “Will I have any say?”
    “I’ll listen. But I make the decisions.”
    “Will your next in command have power over me?”
    “He’ll give the orders, but you’re mine. He won’t touch you.”
    The way he said it, flatly like an already recognized fact, rankled while at the same time tripping a thrill that heated her body from the inside out. She didn’t know how to respond.
    “Does anyone else have a claim on you?”
    The deep, dark texture of his voice upped the tension building in her core. “Why?”
    “Just wondered if I might have a fight on my hands.”
    She shook her head, ready to deny, but remembered his warning about no secrets. “My foreman, Sam…he’s the only one. Sometimes. But he won’t interfere.”
    “When was the last time you slept with him?”
    She jerked at the crudeness of his question and dropped her glance, unable to hold hers steady beneath his steely gaze. “Weeks, and we don’t sleep together,” she muttered.
    “Take off your hat.”
    His tight, roughened voice drew her nipples instantly to aching points. She closed her eyes and slowly took off her hat.
    “Your hair. Let it down.”
    Her fingers trembled as she fought the elastic band, but finally her hair fell around her shoulders. She knew it was longer than had been fashionable, but her dad had loved her ponytail and had tweaked it often.
    She gave him a quick glance to gauge his reaction. The flare of his nostrils seemed a good sign he was pleased.
    Her hand rose to smooth down the flyaway strands.
    He reached out, and tipped her chin upward to study her features. “Green. I thought they might be.”
    “Do we still have a bargain?” she asked, trying to sound cool, but knowing he heard the nervous quaver in her voice.
    His response stole her breath away. He stepped so close the heat radiating from his body warmed the space between them. As she tilted back her head to hold his gaze, his head dipped and his mouth covered hers.
    Now she’d been kissed plenty, but she’d never been devoured. He ate her lips, slanting over her mouth, sucking her lower lip between his teeth to nibble and then sealing their mouths to thrust his tongue inside. He swept behind her teeth, stroked over her tongue and curled his to tug and tease until she groaned.
    Kate grasped the corners of his shoulders, holding on for dear life as he circled and prodded and told her without words how he’d fuck her. Hard, relentless—leaving nothing undiscovered.
    She’d never known the likes of the lust that arose inside her—so strong her whole body shuddered with need. She closed the distance between them and pressed her breasts