by Jo Leigh
“I don’t want your money.”
“Then what do you want?”
Hope glimmered in her eyes. “For you to come and watch us ride in the morning, maybe give us a few pointers. You don’t know how totally bitchin’ it would be to have the USA wakeboard champion give us advice.”
“I’ll be there.”
She grinned and left. Rance threw the dead bolt behind her and turned to head back to Deanie. He found her staring at the curtain of water, her back to him.
“I’ve never seen anything quite like this.”
“I’ve never seen anything quite like you,” he murmured as he came up behind her. “You look really great.”
“Funny what a difference a new dress can make. If you’d told me five years ago that I would be standing here, wearing a get-up like this, I would have knocked you on your ass.” She paused. “I mean butt.”
“Don’t tell me, ultra-femme women don’t say ass.”
“I’m sure they do, but the only ultra-femme female I’ve ever actually known didn’t. And she would have washed my mouth out with soap if she’d have heard me say it.” She smiled. “My grandmother was something. I miss her, but I never really realized how much until lately.”
“I miss my parents, too.” He wasn’t sure why he said it, except he felt it at that moment and it seemed only natural that he tell Deanie.
Hell, even when he didn’t tell her, she knew.
She knew him. Now, just as she had back then.
“You miss your home, too,” she said as if she read his thoughts.
“I don’t get over to Austin nearly as much as I used to,” he said, referring to the two-story colonial he’d bought near Lake Travis the year before. “I still have boxes stacked in the game room.”
“Not that home. Romeo. The Iron Horse.” She cast a sideways glance at him. “You miss it.”
He didn’t say anything for a long moment. He finally shrugged. “Sometimes.”
“It’s okay. I miss it, too. Not enough to go back, but I still miss it. I didn’t realize how much until today when Miss Margie called me. And then Miss Judy. I feel bad leaving them.”
“Then don’t.”
“I have to. I need to get away.”
“You mean, you need to run away.”
“I’m not running away from anything. I’m going to something. Something much better than what I left behind.”
“That’s what I always thought, too.”
What he’d convinced himself to be the gospel truth. Truthfully, he’d left for a football career because it had been his one and only ticket out of Romeo at a time when he’d been desperate to leave and escape his grandfather’s grief. The old man had turned his back on Rance and his brothers and pushed them away from the time Rance’s parents had died, until the boys had graduated high school. And then he’d stopped pushing because all three boys had run on their own.
The oldest of the triplets, Josh, had left to get his pilot’s license and open a charter service in Arizona. Mason, the middle McGraw, had pursued the rodeo circuit where he’d won title after title before taking his winnings and opening his own ranch management consulting group. And Rance had busted his ass playing a sport he didn’t really love because he’d been good at it and he’d been able to pick the college of his choice.
He’d known he would never make it out of Romeo by wrestling steers. While the sport earned some decent prize money, the real cash had been in bull riding. Rance had settled for the next best thing—busting heads out on the football field. It had been hard at first, but eventually he’d stopped missing the steer wrestling all together.
At least that’s what he’d told himself.
What he was still telling himself.
He just wasn’t so sure he believed it anymore. The rush of adrenaline that came with each competition was less potent and more fleeting. Not to mention, the events were getting more outlandish and over the top. Today alligator wrestling in Australia. Tomorrow? He wouldn’t be surprised to find himself surfing the middle of a hurricane or battling a group of crazed women shoppers at a Victoria’s Secret Semiannual Sale.
It wasn’t the danger that bothered him. It was the craziness of it all. A craziness that just didn’t make his heart pound as fiercely as it once had.
Not like it was pounding right now with Deanie standing so close. Feeling so warm. Smelling so sweet.
“Have you ever thought about moving back to Romeo?” She asked him the one question he’d been asking himself since he’d broken his leg.
He’d gone back home on purpose. To remind himself what a dried up place it was and how bored he would be sitting around listening to his great-aunt Lurline and great-uncle Eustess argue about everything from the Jerry Springer Show to the perfect temperature to reheat oatmeal.
Bor-ing.
Only it hadn’t felt that way. He’d sat on the porch in the evening, the sun setting just on the horizon, the crickets buzzing around him, Eustess and Lurline arguing up a storm just a few feet away, and it had felt familiar. And warm. And right.
Just like now.
“Have you?” she prodded.
He shrugged. “Maybe.”
“Not me. I’m never going back.”
“To Romeo, or to the old Deanie?” The one who’d lived and breathed in his memories for so long.
“Both.” Before he could ask her another question, she turned. “So what is all this for?”
“Aren’t you hungry?”
“Well, yes. But I’m not missing the aphrodisiac foods workshop. That isn’t until next week.”
“This isn’t about food. It’s about Using Your Environment,” he recited the name of the second workshop. “It’s about letting everything around you heighten your sexual experience.”
Hope lit her eyes. “So we’re going to have a sexual experience?” Finally, her gaze seemed to add and he couldn’t help but smile.
“First we’re going to eat.” He pulled out a chair and motioned her to sit.
“Just eating?” She eyed him before she sank into the chair.
“And soaking up the atmosphere.” He seated himself across from her, reached for the bottle of wine and proceeded to pour them each a glass. “Sex isn’t just about the main event. It’s about bringing your senses alive. That’s what this place is for. It sets the mood for what comes next.” He popped a piece of pineapple into his mouth and chewed so slowly that it made her visibly swallow.
“Right now, we’re going to enjoy that mood,” he went on. He licked his lips and tasted the pineapple. His stomach grumbled for more. For her. “And then,” he added, his gaze capturing hers, “we’ll be moving on to The Power Of Touching, and we’ll be enjoying each other.”
“I DON’T KNOW ABOUT THIS,” Deanie said an hour later as Rance used a fresh linen napkin to fashion a blindfold over her eyes.
“Number three is all about touching. You don’t need to see a thing. Just feel.” His hands dropped to her shoulders. His fingertips played down her arms and a shiver worked its way up her spine.
The semi darkness made the hot play of his hands that much more intense as they traveled back up her arms, down her shoulder blades to the plunging back of her sundress. He unfastened the buttons, peeled the dress down her shoulders, and then she felt the soft cotton of his T-shirt against her bare back. His hands slid around her ribs and came up to cup her trembling breasts. She sagged against him and her head fell back onto his shoulder.
He caught her nipples between his fingers and rolled the sensitive nubs until a gasp parted her lips. Then he moved on, down, and smoothed his palm down her belly to where her dress had caught at her hips. Hooking his fingers beneath the material, he worked it over her bottom and pushed it down the length of her legs until she stepped free.
“You took my advice,” he finally murmured. His voice came from in front of her this time.
He didn’t pull her to him the way she expected. The way she’d been anticipating over the past hour as t
hey’d eaten and talked and eyed each other across the small table. The cavelike room was massive, but it seemed cozy and intimate with Rance filling up her line of vision and watching her every movement. By the time the meal had ended, she’d been ready to jump him.
Thankfully, he’d grabbed the linen napkin and initiated the next workshop.
The heat of his body drew her and she knew he was right in front of her. Close. But not close enough.
Her breath caught when she felt a fingertip at her belly button. The rough pad slid south in a slow, torturous trek that caught the air in her lungs and held it there until he reached the small triangle of curls between her legs. “You left off the panties.”
“No…I mean, yes. But not on purpose. I forgot them when I grabbed my stuff and went into the bathroom. We left so fast after that that I didn’t have a chance to put them on.”
He didn’t say anything for a long moment. Instead, the sound of her own heart thundered in her ears.
“How did it feel without them?” he finally asked.
“Weird.” The word was little more than a sigh as he slid one finger down and parted her slick folds. “At, um, first.”
“And after that?”
“Exciting.” She felt the rush of wetness between her legs as he stroked her. She licked her lips and wondered how much she should tell him. But then he grazed her clitoris and the words tumbled out on a gasp. “I could feel the dress against my bare bottom.” She drew a breath and licked her lips. “With each step. Pulling this way and pushing that way.”
“Rubbing you?” While he played her with one hand, the other slid around to stroke her butt cheek. “Here?” She nodded. “And what about here?” He moved his finger back and forth in her slick folds. “What did it feel like?”
“It felt…sexy. I felt sexy.” The admission was out before she could stop it. Oddly enough, she didn’t feel any regret. It was the blindfold, she told herself. It leant a sense of anonymity to the situation. He didn’t see her and she didn’t see him, and so there was no embarrassment.
“You are sexy, Deanie. With or without panties.”
Before the comment could sink in, he pulled away. She heard the clink of dishes, the rustle of linen and then he caught her hands. She felt the hard edge of the table press into her bottom. Hard, hot hands urged her down until she was totally stretched out.
His hands lingered at her breasts, his palms rubbing the tips in a circular motion that made them swell and throb. He pulled away and she felt the warm night air caress her body for several breathless moments before something cool and juicy touched one ripe peak. Her nostrils flared and the scent of pineapple filled her head and saturated her senses.
She felt a dribble of sticky sweetness glide down her breast a split second before Rance caught the wetness with the hot flick of his tongue.
“You taste sweet,” he murmured.
“I thought this workshop focused on touch.”
“It does, but there’s nothing wrong with a little taste now and then.”
He pressed the piece of pineapple against her bottom lip and she opened her mouth. She expected him to slide the piece of lush fruit past her lips. Instead, his breath brushed her mouth a heartbeat before he caught her bottom lip between his teeth and suckled.
She felt a pull in her nipples and a steady throb started between her legs.
“I thought I was getting the taste?” she breathed, marveling at how sexy her voice sounded. How natural.
“That doesn’t come until Taste 101. Now, the only thing you need to worry about is feeling. Leave the tasting to me.”
He touched the pineapple chunk to her lips again before sliding it down her neck. Her breasts tingled and tightened in anticipation of where he would go next. He circled each nipple with the succulent fruit before moving lower. She felt the cool wetness glide down her stomach, over the top of one thigh, the inside of her knee before moving north again along her inner thigh. The fruit barely grazed her hot folds before finding the inside of her other thigh and starting the same trek down.
She braced herself to feel the soft, lush wetness against her sex, but when it came this time, there was no fleeting zap of electricity. Instead, Rance traced her hot slit up and down with the chunk of pineapple before parting her and nudging the fruit into her opening. Electricity sizzled across her nerve endings and her body went taut at the sudden pressure between her legs.
He nudged the fruit just a fraction more into her and then…Nothing.
He’d pulled away and the only sound was that of her heart pounding in her ears.
“Christ, you’re beautiful,” he murmured, the words so raw and husky that she almost didn’t hear them. But with her vision gone, her other senses had, indeed, heightened. “So damned beautiful.”
A strange warmth unfolded in her chest and she had the sudden urge to reach for him, to kiss him, to love him.
Just as the disturbing thought struck, he captured her mouth in a deep, wet kiss and her brain scrambled. His tongue pushed inside to stroke and coax for a long moment that left her breathless and panting when he finally dragged his mouth away and followed the path he’d taken with the pineapple.
He licked and nibbled his way down her neck, between her breasts. His tongue flicked out and lapped at one nipple before drawing it deep into his mouth. He suckled her, drawing hard on the sensitive tip for a long moment before sliding his lips over to deliver the same torture to her other breast.
The darkness didn’t seem so dark anymore. Tiny pinpoints of light danced in front of her. Her breaths came short and shallow. Her knees trembled and her tummy tingled and her body clenched around the pineapple he’d wedged inside of her.
Her hands came up and threaded in his soft, silky hair as his mouth proceeded downward again. He lapped at her belly button before following the same path he’d taken with the pineapple. Down one leg to her knee, back up the inside of her thigh. Down the other leg and back up and…Yes!
His lips grazed her clitoris and desire jolted through her. Her back arched and she would have come up off the table if he hadn’t slid his hands beneath her buttocks and pulled her to the edge. She heard the heavy thud as he dropped to his knees and then his mouth was on her again. His tongue parted her folds and he lapped at the fruit nestled inside the opening of her slick passage. And then he sucked. At the same time, her body tightened around the lush fruit.
His mouth played tug-of-war with her for several pulse-pounding moments. She felt the pressure and gasped as he sucked harder and longer.
The pinpoints of light danced and spun until they all seemed to collide into one brilliant flash. Rance drew on her so hard and so perfectly that the pineapple slid into his mouth just as every muscle in her body went rigid. Her climax hit her hard and fast and she exploded with a pleasure so intense that it frightened her.
Or maybe it was the look in Rance’s eyes when he whipped off the blindfold and stared at her, into her, that scared the bejeesus out of her. While she trembled and shook with the force of the best orgasm of her entire life, raw hunger brightened his gaze, along with a fierce, possessive light she’d never seen before.
As if he’d just realized that she was his and he never meant to let her go.
Not tomorrow.
Not ever.
Not likely.
The entire time they’d been growing up, he’d never once considered that she might be The One. He certainly wasn’t going to reconsider in a few hours. Deanie knew his sudden attraction had nothing to do with newly discovered feelings and everything to do with her makeover.
He wanted her, all right, but not in a forever kind of way. And even if he did—we’re talking a big if—it wasn’t really Deanie, herself, that drew him. It was the sexy, ultra-femme version she was trying her damndest to be.
She tamped down her disappointment. Sex, she reminded herself. Keep it short—sixteen hours left and counting—and keep it simple. No falling in love again.
The trouble was, Dean
ie was starting to realize that she’d never fallen out of love in the first place. And the more time she spent with him, the harder it was to keep from peeling off her clothes and making the same offer—the same mistake—all over again.
Hard, but not impossible.
Not yet.
10
HE WASN’T GOING TO TOUCH HER.
Rance made that vow to himself as he walked Deanie back to her hotel room after dinner at The Falls. She was so close, keeping time beside him, a strange look on her face.
As if she couldn’t quite believe what had just happened.
He didn’t blame her. His heart pounded and his chest hitched and it was all he could do to make his feet keep moving forward. Her ripe sweet taste lingered on his tongue and her musky scent filled his nostrils. The image of her naked and spread out on the table before him rooted in his mind. He could still feel her sex quivering against his lips. Her cries echoed in his head and made his blood pump faster and more furious through his body.
But it wasn’t the memory that shook his control and made him hard-pressed to keep his distance. Or hard, period. It was the desire for more. Hunger gnawed at his gut. He wanted to be inside of her and feel her hot, sweet body contract around his. He wanted to stare deep into her eyes and see the desire reflected in her gaze.
That meant no blindfolds to hide behind. No workshops to excuse the heat that burned between them. Nothing but the two of them kissing and touching and loving.
There was that word again, poking and prodding and making him think as he eyed Deanie who stood next to him on the elevator.
She nibbled on her bottom lip, her cheeks still flushed. Her eyes shone bright and blue with desire and desperation whenever she happened to glance at him. Which, he noted, was when she thought he wasn’t looking at her.
He looked at her now, openly studying her as he contemplated the notion of loving Deanie Codge. Could he really have fallen for her? Hard and fast and past the point of no return? Hell, no. That’s what reason told him. At the same time, he wanted her too much to explain away his feelings as lust. He wanted her to want him too much.
