Finding Home Read Online Free

onto her skin.
    She shivered at the contrast in temperature and at the fact he was touching her. “Are you always this ready for a roll in the hay?” She pointed to the bales sitting, iced over, in the corner.
    Ben tightened his arms around her, which lowered her face so it was mere inches from his. He caught her gaze and held it, and Jessica felt lost in the swirling depths of them, just barely lighted with the incoming dawn.
    “No,” he said, tilting his head just slightly. “You?”
    “Never,” she said. Her voice had a throaty quality to it that flustered her.
    Ben came up, closing the remaining space between them and kissed her full on the mouth. Jessica’s eyelids fluttered shut, the heat of Ben’s lips on hers blotting out the cold seeping through her winter garb to her skin. She kissed him back tentatively at first, not wanting her physical attraction to carry her away.
    Ben broke contact to spread feathery touches on her cheeks and eyelids. His hands caressed her lower back under her coat, and she let herself sink down into him. He lightly kissed the corners of her mouth, making her lips demand his, and she turned her head seeking more. She let the fiery passion loose then, opening to his questing tongue and allowing his sweeping movements to dizzy her. In that kiss, she lost herself, forgot her troubles. There was only Ben, strange and perfect Ben.
    He rolled her over to her back, and the cold mud floor of the barn felt hard against her spine. Her hair splayed around her shoulders, and she tilted her head to bury her cold nose in the warmth of his neck. He smelled of spice and cinnamon, just like his mother’s kitchen but with a slight musk to make the scent his own.
    “We should stop,” she murmured, cursing the words even as she said them. She didn’t want to stop. She wanted to open herself to him, forget herself, feel a man inside of her again. It had been so long since she’d felt an attraction like this.
    Ben propped himself up on his elbows and nodded. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I don’t know what happened. I don’t even know you, but you drive me crazy.”
    “Don’t be sorry,” she whispered, catching his jaw in her gloved palm and kissing him lightly on the lips. Again her nerves jolted, and she had to force herself to crane her neck away. “You do the same to me. Who are you?”
    “Just a poor farmer’s boy who failed at business,” he said with a wistful smile.
    They righted themselves and smoothed their heavy clothing back down.
    Ben cleared his throat. “Let’s get to these cows, then, shall we?”
    They worked in silence. Jessica bundled the calf, and tried to get it to suckle a bottle of its mother’s milk while Ben stocked the feed and checked on the other cattle stock one by one. Even without conversation, Jessica felt the company of another person wrapping around her like a comforter against the cold. It was nice to share the load with someone she was fast beginning to consider a friend.
    It had been a long time since she’d been with anyone in companionable quiet. Despite only having known Ben a short time, she felt comfortable here with him, as if they were old buddies who didn’t need to speak to be heard.
    She hazarded a glance at her work partner. He’d taken off his coat and was hefting up a bale of hay onto the tractor. Seeing him struggle, she left her charge and heard a bleat of protest behind her. She angled her shoulder underneath a loose corner of hay and used her body to push the bundle upward while keeping her balance. In another moment, the hay was settled.
    “Hey, thanks,” Ben said, breathing hard from the exertion.
    “No problem,” Jessica replied. She checked her watch. Almost six, now. She’d have to see to the hens. “Can you finish feeding Queeny over there?” she asked, pointing at the skinny calf. “And try to get some of that medicine in her? If we can nurse her throughout the next few days, she might make it.”
    Ben nodded. “You