The Color of Forever: Book Two: Forever Cowboys Series (12 page)

As she munched on a chicken leg, Samantha thought about the things she wanted to cook next. She looked up and caught Ben’s eye. He was looking at her and smiling. “I see you like your own cooking,” he remarked.

Samantha chuckled at his good natured teasing. “It’s yummy if I do say so myself,” she responded. “I’m hungry all the time since I came up here. It must be the mountain air. If I stayed long I’d have to be sent back to New York on a flatbed trailer because I’d be too big to fit in a car or seat on a plane.”

They both laughed at her little joke and Sam privately hoped that Ben didn’t find her appetite unappealing or unfeminine. She had been on a few dates where the man she was with had made a pointed comment about how much food she put away.

It was true, she acknowledged wryly. She had the appetite of a lumberjack. So far she had been able to eat all she liked without becoming overweight, but with the increase in her already healthy appetite since she had arrived in Wyoming, she feared that a diet might soon become necessary. Voicing as much to Ben, she was surprised at the effect her words had on him.

“No way will you need a diet. You’re perfect,” Ben said, his voice laden with sincerity. “You don’t need to change a hair on your beautiful head.”

Samantha was arrested in mid-bite, her chicken leg raised in the air. He was such a sweet man! She found it hard to believe that Ben was feeding her a line of BS and that he didn’t mean what he’d just said.

Their gazes locked and both of them sat motionless for a long minute that seemed to stretch into eternity, loaded with words yet unsaid and promises still to be made. Samantha felt her mouth go dry as a tidal wave of feeling swept over her, leaving her shaken and somehow afraid. She laid down the piece of chicken, fearing that another bite wouldn’t make it past the big lump in her throat.

Ben, too, appeared to be in the grip of strong emotion as his eyes looked into hers.

Once again, Samantha was struck by the unusual and so far unidentifiable color of Ben’s eyes. Right now they reminded her of the gorgeous pool of water they were picknicking by … clear and shining, sort of a very pale blue. But just as she made up her mind about this shade … they changed again, showing small glints of gold near the iris.

Her heart was beating a tattoo in her chest and she found it impossible to drag her gaze away from Ben’s.

What was happening to her? She had had the hots for men before but never to this extent. Her physical desire for Ben must be the reason for this almost overwhelming surge of feelings, all mixed up and swirling around like a kaleidoscope of emotions. It must be just physical, she told herself again. She hadn’t known him long enough to fall in love and she wasn’t going to let that happen anyway, even if her unruly heart tried it on, simply because she wouldn’t be staying here.

With an almost superhuman effort, she tore her eyes from Ben’s and cleared her throat self consciously. “Ready for dessert?” she asked him, licking her lips unconsciously.

He was spellbound, unable to answer for a moment as he imagined those ripe lips and that pink little tongue moving across his body. Yeah, he was ready for dessert alright! A delectable little dish named Samantha O’Brien!

That night, Ben Connors lay in bed and relived the time he had spent with Samantha today. In the past he had been mildly infatuated with a few girls that, once he got to know them better, always disillusioned him in some significant way that led to the death of any burgeoning feeling.

One in particular, he recalled, had seemed sweet, warm and compassionate until the day an elderly woman unfortunate enough to be in front of her on a check out line at the grocery store had been slow to count out her money and laboriously make the exact change.

Ben, who had offered to take his possible new lady love to buy groceries while her car was being serviced, watched in horror as she rudely accosted the little old lady, instructing her in an angry, loud voice to “get the lead out.”

She had glanced up and caught Ben’s look of distaste but seemed unaffected, as if clueless that her behavior was objectionable in any way.

He dropped her off at her house and helped carry bags of groceries inside. She had simpered, remarking coyly on Ben’s chivalrous behavior. Little did she know that he wanted to hurry up and get her out of his sight, for good. As soon as the bags were inside her house Ben took his leave and never called her again. She had taken to calling him for a while and he blew her off as courteously as possible until she finally took the hint and left him alone.

He could only imagine being married to a harridan like that. There had been a few others along the way that had equally unattractive personality traits; bad enough that he knew he couldn’t deal with them. Or else there had been no spark, not enough to lead to love.

But Samantha just kept getting better and better. Her compassion for the eagles and the mama bear, for example. She might not consider herself an animal lover but in his

opinion, she hadn’t had a chance to be around animals enough to know whether she liked them or not. Nobody who didn’t have an innate feeling for animals would have reacted the way Samantha had at the thought of their being harmed.

As far as her talk about having too healthy an appetite and needing to go on a diet, he shook his head in disagreement. He had meant what he told her today by the waterfall—she was perfect. His groin tightened in memory of her soft, full breasts pressed against his back as they had ridden together on his horse after the bear incident. He had been acutely aware of her luxurious curves and was grateful that he was facing away from her because he wouldn’t have been able to hide the evidence of his arousal otherwise.

Everything about Samantha was desirable. Her shining, wavy hair as black as a raven’s wing, for instance. It had a habit of falling across the side of her face from time to time and he could imagine that glorious hair fanned out on a pillow as she lay beneath him. He wanted to twist his hands in it and pull her to him as he plundered her full, luscious mouth.

Those big eyes of her, so deep blue as to appear almost purple, made his stomach do flip flops every time she looked at him. He didn’t even want to get started thinking about her rounded derriere or shapely hips. Or her beautiful legs and graceful ankles.

Ben shook his head. Hell, even her feet were perfect! Few people had attractive feet, in his opinion. But she had taken off her shoes at the waterfall and waded at the edge of the pool, shrieking at that first contact with the icy cold water and then laughing delightedly.

He had noticed how well formed and graceful her feet were. Each toe was straight and ended in nails that were polished a pretty shade of pink. He approved of women painting their nails. If he was a woman, he would, too. It was one more thing that emphasized the difference between the sexes, in his opinion, and played up a woman’s femininity.

Many people, men and women alike, had singularly ugly feet and toes. He agreed with a tee shirt he had seen once: people who had feet that looked like they could swoop down and catch their dinner from a lake shouldn’t wear sandals.

Not that he had a foot fetish or anything, but the fact that Samantha had pretty, dainty feet added yet another layer of attractiveness in his book. Having seen a lot of beautiful women, Ben couldn’t think of one that even came close to Samantha.

It wasn’t just her physical appearance that he found so appealing, either. Her inner beauty shone brightly enough to dazzle him, especially when she threw her head back and laughed with uninhibited joy. Samantha shone with a brilliance that was breathtaking. She made most other women seem dull and lackluster by comparison.

He wanted her with an ache that seemed to penetrate into his innermost heart and soul, not to mention his body. Ben had never been a hound, but he enjoyed sex and the physical benefits of a woman’s body. It had been a while since he had been out on a date and this extended period of abstinence was making it even more difficult to dampen his hunger for Samantha’s super sexy body.

In the ordinary way of things, since she had made it pretty clear that she wouldn’t be averse to some bedroom games, he would have been all over her by now.

He was holding back because he knew he had fallen in love with Samantha. What he felt wasn’t only lust, although there was a generous portion of that mixed up in his feelings for her. No, he had lost his heart to her completely. Ben wasn’t the type to fall in and out of love. He had had crushes, of course, and enjoyed mutually fulfilling sex with various women. But Samantha was his first real love and he was in no doubt whatsoever that she would be his last.

He laced his hands behind his head and lay staring at the ceiling, thinking about the fickle finger of fate and how it could screw up your whole life.

There were some suitable women in these parts he might have fallen for that would have integrated seamlessly into his life. Those women would already know how to ride a horse and how to cook, along with a hundred other things that a rancher’s wife needed to know.

If he had fallen in love with one of those women it would be smooth sailing provided his feelings were reciprocated.

But did he lose his heart to one of those suitable potential brides who would be more appropriate for his lifestyle? Oh no. That would be too easy. He had to go off the deep end over a sassy city girl—a party girl—who would never adapt to life out here or even want to try.

Way to go, genius
, he chided himself mentally.
You couldn’t fall for a local girl.

Oh well, it was what it was. He was in love with Samantha and there was nothing he could do about it. The smart thing to do would be to enjoy that mouthwatering body of hers since it was clearly on offer and let the devil take the hindmost. Enjoy some red hot sex with Samantha and bid her a fond farewell when the time came for her to leave.

But he didn’t want to do that. Somehow, he sensed that much of Samantha’s bravado and hard shell was a defense mechanism she had learned over time. He didn’t believe that she was as tough as she appeared to be or as casual about sex and relationships. At some point in her past, she must have been hurt very badly. And with a body like that, Ben had no doubt that a lot of men had been drawn to her like flies to honey … men that only wanted access to that spectacular body and uninterested in the person inside it.

If he had a chance with Samantha at all, Ben believed he had to rein in his sexual craving for her and show that he valued her for who she was as a human being. He had to differentiate himself from the man or men who had damaged her emotionally by using her body with no regard for her heart. So, even though it was half killing him and he was in an agony of desire for her; he had to rein it in and control his physical passions so that he might possibly win what he wanted the most from her. Not just her body, but her heart as well.

If he could convince her that he wasn’t like that other man, he might have a slight chance of winning her love.

And to Ben, a slight chance with Samantha O’Brien was better than no chance at all.

Samantha stood in front of the mirror, checking her hair and makeup. Wearing a lot of makeup here in the mountains seemed out of place, but luckily her pale golden toned skin was flawless, so she didn’t need a lot of help. She had applied just a light brushing of mascara to her long, thick eyelashes and the barest hint of lip gloss and decided she looked fine.

Ben was coming by for dinner, along with Marielle and her new husband Trey. This was a landmark evening in the life of Samantha O’Brien because she had never had a dinner party. Not one where she prepared all of the food herself, anyway. In New York, her idea of a having a dinner party was to stop by a large chain store that had rows of steam and salad tables full of every kind of dish under the sun and select what she needed when guests were coming to dinner.