by Lucy Monroe
“I didn’t lie to you. I thought she was going to be here,” he said, mistaking her silence for accusation.
“I didn’t think you had.”
“Oh.” He unbuttoned his flannel shirt, skimming it off and tossing it on a nearby chair. “Good.”
Her sweater came off in one swift move over her head, leaving her in a pair of tight jeans and a black lace bra.
His hands froze on the hem of his T-shirt and he said a word that made her ears burn. “Honey, you are one gorgeous woman.”
For no reason she could understand, his comment made her feel self-conscious and she didn’t do anything about taking off her pants.
He wasn’t so reticent. His black T-shirt went first, revealing a chest bronzed from working in the sun, with a light dusting of hair and rippling with muscle. Then he sat on the chair he’d tossed his shirt onto so he could take off his boots.
She was digesting the fact that men could have sexy feet when his jeans went the way of the shirt and her heart stopped beating. His legs were covered with hair, so different from her waxed smoothness that she could just imagine how they were going to feel against her own.
Him on top of her, their legs entwined.
Suddenly, her jeans were too constricting, but she still couldn’t quite make herself take them off. So she kicked off her platforms instead and the tight denim of her jeans rubbed against highly sensitized flesh when she moved.
Then her breath suspended in her throat as he pulled off the nondescript black boxers.
Oh, wow.
She felt like crossing herself. “You’re awfully big, aren’t you?”
Or was it just her perspective? After all, she’d only ever seen a naked and erect penis in an erotic woman’s magazine a friend of hers had given her as a gag gift for her twenty-first birthday. Even the male strippers at the show she’d once been taken to had kept their G-strings on. She’d seen lots of male ass, but this was way different.
His laugh sounded gargled.
“It moves when you laugh. That’s cool.”
“I thought virgins were supposed to be shy.”
“I don’t like being average.”
For some reason, that cracked him up again. He was still laughing when he pushed her back on the bed and his lips landed against hers.
It was just like it had been outside, only more.
His hot, excited body was covering hers and the hair on his chest tickled her nipples through the black lace.
“I want you naked,” he said against her lips and then tasted her with his tongue.
She didn’t get a chance to answer before he was undoing her pants and pushing them down her thighs, all the while wreaking erotic havoc with his mouth on hers. The pants were tight and her panties went with them. What should have made her feel vulnerable only succeeded in making her feel incredibly sexy. She’d never been naked with a man before, but she had the sneaking feeling that if she had had several lovers, being this way with Jake Barton would still feel different.
His hands were busy at her back, unhooking her bra and then pulling it from her body. This time he stopped kissing her long enough to look.
And, man, did he make looking feel like another form of foreplay.
His gaze roamed over her and everywhere it touched, goose bumps of desire formed on her skin. She was shivering uncontrollably by the time he reached out to gently ruffle the damp curls between her legs.
Hair was sensitive. She hadn’t known that, but the light touch went all the way to her core.
She shuddered. “That feels good.”
“It gets better.”
She didn’t doubt it.
He was leaning over her when he slipped his forefinger between the very slick lips of her vulva and pressed against her straining clitoris. Minishocks went all along her body. It was so incredibly intimate.
An intimacy she hadn’t trusted to other men and maybe that’s what made her body ultrasensitive, but she felt on the verge of climax and he’d barely touched her.
His finger moved just so, this way and that, a circle here…a dip there, pressing in and releasing the pressure, each tiny movement bringing impossible pleasure closer and closer. It didn’t happen like this.
She knew her own body.
Climax took effort, but his touch was drawing forth a response she hadn’t known she was capable of.
And then she was arching off the bed, screaming as she had the first orgasm sparked by another person in her life. His hand rubbed, drawing out the pleasure until she grabbed his wrist and begged him to stop. He did, keeping his hand there, cupped protectively over her mound.
Her eyes had shut with the first convulsion and now she opened them, wondering how he was going to react to a woman who came before they’d even gotten serious about foreplay.
He looked stunned and…very pleased.
“You’re amazing, Bella.”
She licked her lips. They were so dry. So was her throat.
“I’m thirsty,” she croaked.
He reached out and brushed her cheek. “I’ll get you something.”
He came back seconds later with a glass of water and she drank it down like a frat boy guzzling beer. She’d never been so thirsty. Some of the water spilled and he leaned forward to lick it up, but once his tongue touched her chest, they both forgot the water.
The empty glass tumbled from her hand as she fell back against the bed, unbelievably excited again by the rasping of his tongue against one turgid nipple.
“Jake, please…”
He lifted his head. “What do you want, baby?”
“I don’t know.” Yes, she did. “I want to touch you.”
His eyes widened like she’d surprised him, but he shook his head. “If I let you touch me now, I’m going to come before I ever get inside you.”
“Oh, no!” she wailed, remembering something insurmountable. “You can’t come inside me. I’m not on the pill.”
She wanted to cry. She wanted to throw things.
She wanted—
“I’ve got condoms.”
“You do?” Of course he did. He wasn’t a twenty-six-year-old virgin and pathetically unprepared to change that status.
“Yeah.” He smiled, looking smug again. “I’m even wearing one. Didn’t you notice?”
She hadn’t, but she looked now.
His big erection was covered in an almost transparent layer of protection. He must have put it on when he went into the bathroom to get her a glass of water.
She threw her arms around his neck and started kissing him, filled with gratitude for his forethought and a heady dose of excitement. He responded with all the enthusiasm she could want, his mouth opening, letting her tongue inside.
Oh, man, he tasted good. She’d French-kissed men before. She’d even enjoyed it, but never like this.
He tasted like he belonged to her and even if that was an illusion, she liked it.
She kept kissing him, running her hands up and down his body, touching him everywhere she could reach. He jumped when she touched the back of his scrotum between his legs, then he thrust his body toward her, spreading his legs so she could touch him some more. She did and it felt as if the hardness nestled against her was growing, but that could not be possible.
He pressed her thighs apart with one knee and a second later she felt the blunt tip of his erection at her opening.
She tilted up toward him, but though his head slid inside her, that was all he would let her have.
She wanted all of him inside her.
Now.
She grabbed his butt and pulled, but he resisted.
“I want you,” she practically shouted.
“Are you sure you’re ready?” He touched her again, this time exploring all her secrets. “This is your first time, honey. We can’t rush it.”
Yes, they could, but the words wouldn’t come out. Her jaw was locked in indescribable pleasure as one of his fingers slipped inside.
She pressed
against his hand.
He moved his hand, possessing her in a way she wanted his whole body to do and she forced strained throat muscles to work. “That feels incredible. So intimate and wonderful, but I want it all, Jake.”
“I don’t want to hurt you.” His voice sounded even more ragged than hers.
“You won’t.” How could anything hurt when it felt this good?
“But…”
“Jake, I’m twenty-six.”
He shook his head, sweat beading on his forehead and upper lip while his fingers continued to make love to her and his body moved convulsively against her. “Age isn’t a barrier to pain your first time.”
“I don’t care if it hurts.”
And she didn’t. She was too excited to feel pain.
He pressed a second finger inside with the first and pushed them both deep. It felt tight and the barrier was there, but it broke with very little pressure and she managed a choked laugh at Jake’s huge sigh of relief.
“I told you s—”
He stopped her words with a very insistent mouth and this time when she felt him against her opening, she knew it was going to happen.
His fingers weren’t nearly as thick as he was and despite her slick wetness, he didn’t just slide right in. Jake didn’t seem bothered by that, but rocked against her, gaining centimeter by centimeter in an agonizing torture of pleasure. She locked her legs around his thighs and strained up against him, but all she did was gain maybe one more inch. She could have screamed her frustration.
It wasn’t going to work.
When she said as much, he only laughed. “You can take me, Bella. Trust me.”
Maybe he was used to it taking this much effort to achieve total penetration, but this was her first time and she couldn’t stand the prospect that it might not work. “The problem is that you don’t seem to be able to take me,” she accused.
His chest rumbled with humor against her heated and swollen breasts. “Honey, I’ve never laughed so hard when I was making love to a woman before.”
She hadn’t meant to make him laugh, but she found herself smiling at him anyway and giving him one of those goofy looks women gave the men they cared about. “I’m glad.”
Then neither of them could talk because he pulled her hips toward him with his strong hands. Her body absorbed him and his hard penis completed its penetration, pushing sensitive and swollen tissues to their max.
She felt unbearably stretched, but filled so beautifully that tears spilled over from her eyes.
“Damn it, I knew it would hurt.” He started to pull out but she wouldn’t let him go.
She locked her legs around him with all the strength of her well-toned thigh muscles. “Don’t you dare. It doesn’t hurt.”
“You’re crying.”
She nodded. “I can’t help myself. It’s so beautiful. I didn’t know it could be this beautiful.”
A profound expression crossed his features and then he started moving inside her with a purpose and rhythm that soon had her tears drying and her hips thrusting upward to meet every plunge. This time the pleasure built and built and built, but she didn’t go over.
“What’s wrong?” she demanded in a tortured cry.
“Nothing’s wrong, sweetheart.”
“But I’m not coming!” Maybe he didn’t think that mattered. After all, she’d already climaxed once.
“You will.” His voice was filled with promise.
And she believed him.
He reached down between them and spread her wet and swollen lips so that her clitoris got stronger direct stimulation with every powerful thrust of his body.
Fireworks exploded in her head and she screamed her throat raw.
His shout was deafening and his entire body went rigid above hers as they climaxed together with mind-altering pleasure.
Jake came back from the bathroom and couldn’t believe how right it felt to see Bella Jackson lying in his bed like she belonged there. She was curled up on her side, watching him with dark bedroom eyes that still glowed from their mutual pleasure.
He’d gotten rid of the condom, but was hoping he could convince her to share his shower.
She rolled on her back and stretched, her generous curves slipping from beneath the loose sheet over her, and his mouth went dry. Her rosy nipples were soft, but he knew that one brush of his finger and they would grow hard and swell with excitement.
She was that responsive.
“How the hell did you stay a virgin for so long?”
Her head turned and her gaze locked with his. “I explained that.”
“This wasn’t exactly committed sex.” It was the truth, but he didn’t have to be so blunt. He could have kicked himself into next Tuesday when her face paled and she turned her head away.
“I know.”
He crossed the room and sat next to her on the bed, his hand going out to touch the soft skin of her cheek so he could gently tip her head back toward him. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.”
“Don’t apologize. I knew what I was doing when I agreed to come to your ranch and you’re right. We had sex, but we didn’t make any promises.”
“That wasn’t just sex.” What they had shared in his bed had been life altering and that was more than physical lust. “I was your first man; that carries a promise all on its own.”
“Does it? I didn’t think men saw things that way anymore.” Her tone was light, teasing, but her eyes were dark with vulnerability.
“Maybe I’m a throwback, but the thought of you doing what you just did with me with anyone else makes my gut twist in knots strong enough to hobble a raging bull.”
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to go out and start propositioning your cowboys.”
“Good. I’d hate to have to fire anybody. My winter crew is made up of men who have been with me for a long time.” He was only half-kidding.
She grabbed his hand and pressed it against her creamy smooth breast, her mouth all pouty and soft. “That does not mean I won’t proposition you, however.”
“You’re bold for a virgin.”
“I’m not a blushing teenager anymore. I know what I want.”
And she wanted him.
He gently molded her breast, abrading her peak with the palm of his hand. Sure enough, as he’d thought earlier, her nipple hardened and her breathing quickened just that fast. “You still blush, but I won’t deny you know what you want.”
“You.”
He leaned down and kissed her. “Me. And I want you.”
They didn’t get into the shower until the sun had started to sink in the horizon and its golden glow turned the off-white curtains on his window a soft orange.
She showed as much aptitude for water games as she had for bed gymnastics and he could barely stand in order to dry off.
A towel draped toga-style around her, she looked in the mirror above his sink and brushed her hair. “You ready to do some Christmas shopping?”
“You’ve got enough energy to walk?” he asked half humorously and half incredulously.
She looked at him over her shoulder. “If I want to indulge in any more intimacy, I need to stretch my muscles. I’m not used to this particular form of exercise.”
He couldn’t resist pulling her into his arms. “Then that means we’re going shopping, I guess.”
She let her head fall back against his shoulder. “We can’t spend all of our time in bed.”
“Sure we can.”
They didn’t, but they came close. The next few days flew by as they made love and his sexy little ex-virgin taught him things he didn’t know about his own body’s responses. They also went Christmas shopping and he liked the way she asked for his opinion on the gifts she bought her family.
He asked her to help him find something for his sister and she took him to the office supply store where they bought a small laser printer that printed an obscene number of pages per minute. It had to be ordered, along with an extra input tray.
Christmas was four days away when they went into town to pick up the printer.
Bella hadn’t said anything, but he knew she planned to spend the holiday with her family. He hated the thought of her leaving and did his best to ignore her imminent departure.
Bella picked up the engraved money clip she’d ordered for Jake while he was busy at the office supply store getting his sister’s printer.
The last week had been the happiest of her life.
They had talked about everything from family to dreams for the future.
They had played.
He’d taken her riding and introduced her to his motley crew of cowboys, men with a wicked sense of humor.
They made love often.
He’d cajoled Eva into teaching her how to make empanadas after dinner one night when she’d said she wanted to learn. She’d worried the housekeeper would think she was easy, coming home with Jake and making love with him all morning and afternoon that first day, but Eva had been nothing but sweet to Bella. She wanted her boss to get married and made no bones about that fact.
Jake didn’t say anything about marriage, or even seeing her again after she left, but Bella could not believe he was ready to dismiss her out of his life after the things they’d shared in and out of bed over the last week.
She thanked the jeweler, turned to go and ran head on into Jake’s big, powerful body.
She bounced backward, her air expelling in a rush.
He grabbed her arms to steady her, but let her go as soon as she showed signs of being stable on her feet.
“Hi.” She smiled up at him, expecting the usual kiss of greeting he gave her when they’d been apart longer than five minutes.
She didn’t get it.
What she got was a frown.
“What’s the matter? Wasn’t the printer in?”
“It’s in the truck.”
“So why the cranky face?”
And he did look cranky. His green eyes were narrowed dangerously and his jaw was set in rocklike lines.
“What the hell does this mean?” He brandished a newspaper in front of her.
She took the paper, looking to see what had him so upset, and felt her stomach fall right into her Prada shoes. It was a scandal rag, the type that had so plagued her after her last breakup. Only this one had a big picture of her and Jake on the front cover. They were kissing and his hand was on her bottom.
