Read Online What a Bachelor Needs (Bachelor Auction Book 4) by Kelly Hunter - Free Book Online

the softest of touches as he gauged her responsiveness. Her lips curved for him and she tilted her head a little more. More to explore and all of it for him and he took his time as he mapped the curve of her lower lip until she opened for him, soft and pliant.
    One taste. That was all it took for him to know it hadn’t been the heightened danger or emotion that had caught him unawares that night in Bozeman. Because here in the honesty kitchen, with a bright orange Formica bench between them, his response was immediate and insistent.
    It was her.
    He thought about burying his fingers in her hair, but he wasn’t ready to be reminded of hidden scars, so he cupped her cheek instead and kept right on kissing. PG, mostly.
    Except for the part where he closed his eyes and gave himself over to sensation as he sank into the kiss with no thought whatsoever of resurfacing.
    She pulled back before he did, her eyes dark and serious, and he couldn’t resist sneaking just one more taste, and then another, before he put some distance between them.
    “Well?” she asked softly.
    “Pretty sure I don’t have a broken girl kink. That’s a relief.”
    “Then why are you frowning?”
    Maybe because he’d just found his new favorite thing.
    “Kiss.” Her baby filled the ensuing silence. “Mama, kiss.”
    Mardie pulled back on him completely to cross to her daughter. She bussed her lips gently against each of Claire’s rosy cheeks and then her temple.
    “Kiss,” said Claire again.
    So Mardie did her nose this time and the edge of her eyebrow and started making munching noises until her little girl laughed.
    “Kind of free with your kisses there, lady,” he said. “And here I thought I was special.”
    Her gaze turned pensive. “You are and you know it. Are you going to ask to kiss me again or are we done now that you’ve found your answers?”
    “I’m going to go before I ask for everything,” he said and he’d meant it to sound like a tease but somehow it didn’t quite get there. There was too much truth in it.
    The honesty kitchen had struck again. Move on. Move on fast and maybe she wouldn’t realize just how much power she had over him. “Mind if I get my brother to drop by tomorrow some time? I want his opinion on the porch fix.”
    “Anytime. There’s a little more money to put towards repairs now. Ella lent me some.”
    “Good friend.”
    “Yes.” Mardie continued to study him. “You okay?”
    “Me? Nothing wrong here.” He stood abruptly. “Except that I’d better go.”
    “Kiss?” Claire asked hopefully, and he didn’t know whether the poppet was talking to him or not but he bent and pressed his lips to her baby-fine curls and got a long string of mumumum’s in reply.
    “Flirt,” Mardie offered dryly.
    “Me or her?”
    “Both.”
    “There should always be flirting,” he offered gravely, and then gave into sweet temptation and kissed Mardie’s temple as well. “Flirting is fun.”
    He hightailed it to the back door, shrugged on his coat, and shut the door behind him on his way out. He let the cold and the snow try and lick some sense into him.
    For two years he’d wanted answers as to what had gone down that night in Bozeman, and now he had them. That should have been the end of it, sweet dreams for him from here on in. Except at some point during that perfectly innocent kiss, the world had changed color on him.
    He liked her. Really liked her. As in maybe there were other things in life he could fall hard for, besides skiing. As in maybe he wanted to step into Mardie Griffin’s life and stay there.
    He wasn’t sure yet. It was still only Monday.
    But it was enough to give a man pause.

Chapter Six
    ‡
    H ang around Jett for long enough and he’d willingly admit he led a charmed and golden life. The ski circuit had taken him all over the world, and sponsorship deals had given him more money than he’d need in a lifetime. He owned a condo up in Whitefish and a summer home on Flathead Lake,