Forever…Again

by Maureen Child

  He was still watching her and waiting for her to turn into the society matron he assumed she was.

  But she’d been surprising people her whole life. She could handle one crabby, deadly attractive man.

  His eyebrows lifted slightly, as they climbed the steps to the porch. His boot heels clacked on the scarred wooden planks. He stopped short, yanked one of the doors open and held it for her.

  A wall of sound poured out and flew past them into the night. Guitars wept, a fiddle sighed and a singer poured his soul into a ballad that soared through the rafters of the log building. When the music abruptly ended a moment later, applause roared through the place, sounding like a freight train speeding down the tracks.

  Sawdust littered the wood floor, and a few dozen round tables were scattered around the huge room. Candlelight flickered from the center of every table and sparkled from the wagon-wheel chandeliers hanging from the overhead beams. The crowd was loud but friendly. Waitresses in blue jeans and blue-and-white-checked shirts carried huge trays filled with mountains of food. A gleaming, mahogany bar took up the whole far wall, and several customers sat on high stools in front of it. At the back of the room was a stage, and in front of it, a wide but crowded dance floor. On the stage the band was tuning up for their next number.

  “Hi, I’m Sandy,” a perky blond with a wildly swinging ponytail announced as she walked up to them and grinned. “Two of you for dinner tonight?”

  She showed them to a table, left them menus, then bounced off to greet the next customers.

  Lily simply stared at the laminated menu. She hadn’t thought it possible that so many different items could be barbecued.

  “Lost?”

  “Just a little,” she admitted, looking at him over the top of her menu.

  “Trust me?”

  She studied him. “Should I?”

  “When it comes to barbecue? Absolutely.”

  “All right.” She handed him the menu and said, “It’s up to you.”

  When their waitress, a woman slightly less perky than Sandy, stopped by, Ron ordered two plates of ribs and a pitcher of beer.

  “This is a whole new side of you,” Lily said thoughtfully after the waitress was gone again.

  “Think I was born in a three-piece suit?”

  “I guess I did.”

  “So, the great Lily can be wrong at times, eh?”

  “It’s been known to happen,” she said, her mouth twitching slightly. “Rarely, but yes.”

  “It’s good to know you can be surprised.”

  “Oh, you surprise me all the time,” she admitted, speaking just loud enough to be heard over the singer’s beautiful voice.

  “Really? How?”

  What could she say? That she was surprised that a bearded, usually crabby man had the power to shadow her dreams and make sleep nearly impossible? Oh, no. A woman just did not give a man that kind of ammunition.

  So she ignored his question entirely. “I wouldn’t have thought you were the kind of man to own a pair of cowboy boots.”

  “There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Lily.”

  “I’m beginning to see that.”

  “Care to learn?”

  “That’s why I’m here.”

  “Is that the reason?”

  “Why else?”

  He smiled. “The de-sturdying process?”

  She laughed. “That might not take as long as originally thought.”

  “Happy to hear it,” he said, and pushed up from the chair. “While we wait for our beer, how about a dance, Ms. Lily?”

  One blond eyebrow lifted. “You like the saloon hall sound of that, don’t you?”

  “I’ll be your cowboy and you can be my Ms. Lily,” he offered, still holding his hand out, waiting for her to take it.

  “Role playing?” she asked, slipping her hand into his as she stood up. “Why Ron Bingham, I think there’s hope for you yet.”

  He only smiled again. “Dance with me.”

  She stared up at him. Candlelight flickered in his dark hair and shone in his eyes. All around them, people laughed and talked and drank and conversations rose and fell like the tides. But it was as if they were alone, just the two of them. His gaze slammed hard into her and left her nearly breathless.

  Lily looked from his eyes to his hand and back again. His smile warmed her while his eyes sent heat spiraling through her body to finally pool in the pit of her stomach. This man was so much more than she’d thought. And she was in much deeper trouble than she’d ever expected.

  Chapter Nine

  As a dancer, Lily didn’t know her right foot from her left. But she had so much fun in the attempt, Ron got a kick out of watching her laugh. Her eyes shone and her laughter rang out over the music, adding a layer to the entertainment he’d never experienced before.

  As a two-step flowed into a ten-step, she valiantly tried to keep up, but mostly succeeded in sliding her feet across the floor, just to keep pace with him. And finally, when the band played another ballad, Ron pulled her into his arms and led her in a soft sway that filled him with a longing that was as new and exciting as it was dangerous.

  “Having fun?” he asked, staring down into her eyes.

  She shook her hair back from her face, and the diamonds at her ears winked at him. “It’s terrific,” she said, then glanced over her shoulder and excused herself to the guy she bumped into while making a turn. “This place is great.”

  She meant it. He could see the truth in her eyes, and a part of him was surprised…again. Why that was so, he didn’t know. Nothing about her should still be surprising him. He’d brought her to Big Jim’s, expecting that her Bar Harbor upbringing would kick in and her small straight nose would go up in the air with a haughty sniff.

  Didn’t make any sense to feel that way and he knew it. In the time Lily’d been in Binghamton, she hadn’t once displayed the “society girl” attitude he kept expecting. Instead, she’d made herself a part of Merlyn County. She’d made a home and friends and slipped into the slower way of life as if she’d been born to it.

  But she hadn’t been born to it.

  A big part of Ron was simply waiting for her to tire of her country experiment and head back to the big city. And if she did, he realized with a start, he’d miss her. A lot.

  She tipped her head to one side, and her hair swung in a golden arc. “You didn’t expect me to like it, did you?”

  Guilt slapped at him. “Guess not.”

  Her eyes narrowed thoughtfully, but she didn’t stop dancing, didn’t try to inch out of the tight hold he had on her. “Was this a test of some kind?”

  Ron winced and let his gaze slide briefly past her to the band, as if looking for help, before shifting it back to her. “Test is a strong word.”

  “But accurate?”

  He tightened the arm he had wrapped around her waist, just in case she suddenly took it into her head to bolt. The music played and the other couples kept time, moving around the dance floor in an unrehearsed, clockwise pattern.

  Lying to her was unacceptable. Not only did it go against his personal grain, but Lily was no fool. She’d spot it in a second and then the hole he’d found himself in would only get deeper.

  “Let’s say I was wondering how you’d react.”

  Her mouth tightened slightly. “Let’s say you stop doing that.”

  He lifted one shoulder in a helpless shrug. “Can’t. You’re a mystery, Lily.”

  She laughed at that and Ron relaxed his grip on her, no longer worried that she would take off. He’d figured she’d be furious. Just another little piece of the mystery.

  “There’s not a thing mysterious about me.”

  “Depends on your point of view,” he said, and led her in a spin designed to keep her off balance.

  “Maybe you’re just looking for a mystery.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Meaning, if I’m a mystery, I become safer.”

  A boom of laughter shot from him before h
e could stop it. Several of the dancers stared at him, but he ignored them. “Hell, Lily. There’s nothing safe about you.”

  She sniffed, but he could tell she was almost pleased by his statement. One corner of her mouth lifted slightly before she could tame it into submission.

  “Some women might take that as a compliment,” she said after a long second or two.

  “They’d be right.”

  Now she did smile, and as she did, she moved in closer to him, until he felt the hard tips of her nipples pressing hotly into his chest like tiny brands. It had been years since his body had embarrassed him in public…but damned if he didn’t feel like a randy teenager.

  “Well then, thank you,” she said.

  “Oh, you’re welcome.”

  She moved into him until he thought his breath might stop. His body reacted, and he knew she was well aware of the fact by the way her eyes darkened and her breathing quickened. One blond eyebrow lifted as she leaned into him more fully, pressing her body along his until every inch of him ached.

  She moved her hand from his shoulder to the back of his head, and he felt the soft slide of her fingers through his hair. An intimate gesture that touched him even as it fired his soul.

  Under cover of the music, she whispered, “Do we really have to stay for dinner?”

  Ron’s heart jumped. He moved his right hand down her spine to her bottom and then he simply held her, pressed tightly to the erection hardened between them. Her eyes flashed, and she surreptitiously rocked her hips against him in sensual promise, making him even crazier than he already was.

  She felt so good. So warm and willing, and she looked so beautiful, she was enough to tempt a saint out of Heaven. And God knew he was no saint.

  When he could speak past the tight knot of desire lodged in his throat, he gruffly answered, “We’ll need dinner.”

  Disappointment shimmered in her eyes and made him feel like a damn king.

  “Why?”

  He smiled. “You’ll need your strength.”

  “We’ll go to my place.” Ron’s words were sharp, clipped, as if simply speaking had required all of his self-control.

  Lily knew just how he felt.

  Staying at the restaurant, eating a dinner she didn’t even taste, waiting for the check to be picked up, walking out to the parking lot…it was all a waste. A waste of precious time. A delay that had her body burning and her mind swimming with images of hot, naked bodies twisting together on crisp, clean sheets.

  “Your place,” she echoed, gaze glued to the dark road ahead, as if she could hurry them along just by concentrating.

  “Closer,” he murmured, and steered the car around a mountainous curve. “And—”

  “And?” She turned her head to look at him. Even his silhouette ratcheted up the need clawing at her. She wanted to reach for him. Stroke his hair, trace her fingers along his jaw, then slide down his body, learning every hard plane and sculpted muscle.

  She curled her fingers into a fist.

  He glanced at her before turning his gaze back to the two-lane road. “I don’t have any condoms with me.”

  “Oh.” She laughed shortly, then simply smiled. “No worry about pregnancy, you know.”

  He smiled, too, she saw it, in the reflected light of the dashboard. “Thank God,” he muttered. “But there are other—”

  “Oh.” Stupid. She was a woman of the world. She knew darn well that there were far scarier things out there than a simple unplanned pregnancy. And a curl of warmth threaded its way through her at the realization that he was still thinking clearly enough to want to protect her.

  She had it bad.

  Lily closed her eyes briefly, then opened them to stare blindly at the twin slashes of brightness thrown from the headlights. She’d known for weeks that she wanted Ron, from a purely sexual point of view. What she hadn’t counted on was feeling anything else.

  And if she wasn’t completely off base here—and she knew she wasn’t—she was already halfway in love with the man. Which probably wasn’t a good thing.

  She’d never succeeded at love before.

  Every single attempt at anything more than passion had only resulted in a painful lesson in disappointment. And there was no reason to suspect that this situation with Ron would be any different. Even while her blood boiled and her body hummed in anticipation, her heart realized the danger and braced itself.

  He didn’t want love.

  He’d already had love.

  With his late wife.

  So where did that leave her? Lily thought.

  “Don’t think,” he blurted out suddenly in the strained silence.

  “What?” She turned her head to look at him.

  He spared her a glance, then was forced to concentrate on not wrapping them around a tree. “I said, don’t think.”

  “About what?”

  “About anything.”

  “Tall order.”

  “Not really,” he said, and took his right hand from the steering wheel to reach across the space separating them.

  “Ron…”

  “Don’t think, Lily,” he said again, softer this time as his hand rested on her thigh.

  She felt the heat of his touch drift down deep inside her, warming, then scalding her as his hand moved on her leg, inching the hem of her skirt up higher, higher.

  She inhaled sharply and looked down at her lap, watching him touch her. Shadowy light illuminated them both and when his hand slipped beneath the hem of her skirt and touched her bare thigh, she hissed in a breath through clenched teeth.

  “Still thinking?” he murmured.

  “Uh-huh.” Thinking that if he touched her a little higher, she just might implode.

  “Can’t have that.” His voice was a low rush of sound, just barely decipherable above the hum of the tires on the asphalt.

  A cool stream of air-conditioned air blew at them from the vents, but it couldn’t help with the fires consuming Lily. Nothing could.

  She twisted in her seat, but the belt across her chest and lap held her firmly in place while Ron ran his hand up the inside of her thigh. His fingers dusted lightly across her skin, and she opened her legs wider to invite him in.

  Her brain took a vacation.

  But her body beat her to it.

  “No thinking allowed tonight, Lily,” he said, his voice tight now, with a hunger she recognized as a reflection of her own. “Just feeling.”

  “Ron…”

  “I can’t wait,” he said, moving his hand higher on her leg until he was just a touch away from her aching center.

  She choked out a laugh. “We’re gonna crash and die if you keep this up.”

  His own laugh sounded strained, almost painful. “No dying allowed until I’ve touched you.”

  Then he did.

  “Oh…” Lily couldn’t contain the gasp, couldn’t pretend control. His fingers smoothed over the heart of her and she wanted to weep with the joy of it.

  Even through the fragile silk of her panties, she felt his heat swamping her and she ached to lift her hips into his touch. But she was caught. Trapped. Nowhere to move. Nothing to do but sit there and let him explore her body.

  Her hands curled over the edge of the seat even as her legs opened wider, offering him access. Offering herself to the man whose hands contained such incredible heat.

  “Ron…” She was so close to a climax. Her breath caught in her chest. She willed herself to take the climb toward release. It had been so long since she’d felt this magic. And even then, it had been nothing like this.

  Scandalous, a niggling voice in the back of her mind whispered.

  Good, she wanted to shout back.

  A little scandal was a good thing.

  And what Ron was doing to her went way beyond good.

  With one hand on the wheel, he maneuvered the steep mountain road and the danger implicit in what he—they—were doing only made it that much more exciting. She felt young and reckless. Wild and unstoppabl
e.

  His clever fingers pulled at the edge of her panties, trying to get beneath the scrap of silk to touch flesh. Lily heard herself say thickly, “Tear them.”

  He groaned and did it.

  She heard the fabric rip.

  Felt it give.

  Then felt the cool, air-conditioned air blowing on her hot flesh like a salve. But an instant later his hand was on her again, and heat welled up fresh and blistering.

  He touched her, fingers dipping into her warmth, claiming her, taking her higher and faster than she’d ever been before. She squirmed, trying to move into him, and was held prisoner by the seat belt pinning her in place. Frustration pooled inside her, then bubbled over as she tried again and again to lift her hips into his hand. All she could do was keep herself open to him. To the strokes and caresses designed to drive her insane.

  “Ron. Ron…”

  “Come, Lily,” he urged quietly, his voice a tight thread that snaked across the car for her. “Let go and come.”

  “I want to,” she said, letting her head fall back on the seat as sensation after sensation coursed inside her, pushing her farther along on the road to perfection. “Oh, I want it. I need it.”

  Outside the car, summer lightning flashed in the clouds overhead, and the distant roar of thunder sounded like a caged beast demanding release.

  Just how Lily felt.

  His thumb brushed her most sensitive spot and she nearly shrieked. She slapped her hands tighter on the edge of the leather seats and squeezed until she was half afraid her long nails would puncture the soft material and dig right into the padding.

  Then he touched her deeply, thrusting two fingers inside her damp heat and Lily felt the top of her head blow off. The first contraction rippled deep within her and she rode it fiercely, giving herself up to the ride and the well of spiraling amazement that shot through her like one of the skyward blasts of lightning.

  She closed her eyes, called his name breathlessly and lost herself in the tumult crashing inside her. And as she slowly sank back to earth, his touch was still there, still on her, still within her, cradling her, easing her back to where breathing was possible.