Unmasking the Maverick Prince

by Kristi Gold

  He took Tori’s arm and said, “Let’s go.”

  A few people had gathered to await their turn, but the farmer waved them away. “This is a private hire, folks. The next ride will be here in about ten minutes.”

  A collective groan rang out from the bystanders, yet Mitch didn’t give them a second glance as he helped Tori onto the trailer covered in hay. They positioned themselves with their backs to the bails lining the perimeter, Lanny between them once more.

  The tractor headed out with a spew of fumes and a grating groan, bumping Tori closer to Mitch’s side and practically crushing the poor stuffed animal. Some smart kid with a big mouth yelled out, “Give her a hickey,” triggering a boom of laughter from those left behind.

  “No hickeys,” Tori said as she settled closer to him.

  He pulled Lanny from between them, tossed him over his shoulder, then wrapped both his arms around her. “Damn. You’re going to ruin all my fun tonight.”

  “You just ruined all of Lanny’s fun. Now he’s going to get cold.”

  “Lanny can get his own woman.”

  “He could borrow a friend from Mary Alice.”

  Mitch nuzzled his face in her hair. “I don’t want to hear her name again, okay?”

  “Fine by me. I’d rather concentrate on us having fun.”

  “That sounds real promising, ma’am.” His voice was a rough whisper in her ear. “Here we are again, in the hay under the sky.”

  Tori trembled but it had nothing to do with the night air because it wasn’t that cold. “We didn’t have a chaperone the last time we were in this situation.”

  “And we did have a blanket, which we don’t have now.”

  “I guess that means we should both be on our best behavior.”

  Mitch scooted down, taking Tori with him and slipped his hand beneath her jacket, bringing it to rest on her rib cage immediately below her breast. “Not necessarily. It’s dark out and unless he has night vision, he couldn’t see us anyway.”

  “Mitch Warner, you are a very wicked boy.”

  He rimmed the shell of her ear with his tongue. “And I can give you a mean hickey.”

  Tori giggled as he nibbled on her neck. “Don’t you dare!”

  “Can I at least give you a kiss?”

  “Please do.”

  And he did, only this one wasn’t quite as tempered as their Ferris wheel folly. This one was hotter, more insistent, intense. They sank lower and deeper into the hay until they were practically lying down. Their respiration sounded harsh and ragged when they managed to stop for a breath.

  Mitch tracked a path with his thumb along the side of her breast, then moved his hand in slow increments until he found and fondled her nipple through the sweater. The snap of fireworks in the distance couldn’t compete with the pounding in her ears. The lights flashing in the sky above them had nothing on those sparking behind her eyes when Mitch slid his leg between her legs, rubbing against her in a suggestive rhythm.

  When Mitch broke the kiss to slide his tongue down her neck, a needy sound escaped Tori’s parted lips. “How much longer is this ride going to go on?” she murmured.

  Mitch lifted his head. “Not long enough. He turned around about five minutes ago.”

  “I didn’t notice.”

  She definitely noticed when Mitch curled his palm on the inside of her thigh where their legs met. “I can’t be just your friend, Tori, when I want to make love to you so bad, I physically hurt.”

  Tori, the former good girl, guided his hand between her legs, letting him know exactly what she needed and where. “I want to be your friend, Mitch. But I also want to be your lover, at least tonight.”

  “And tomorrow night and the next, until you have to leave,” he said as he plied her with heavenly strokes through the denim of her jeans. “But we can’t do this here and do it right.”

  Tori was on the verge of going over the edge again until Mitch pulled his hand away and shifted them into a sitting position. “Luckily, we’re almost there.”

  “Yes, I was. For the second time today.”

  He kissed her soundly one more time. “I’ll damn sure finish this, baby, if you’re sure that’s what you really want.”

  “It is.”

  “Then let’s get off this ride and go home.”

  Mitch rode all the way home with his hand on Tori’s thigh while Bob, who’d had a few too many beers, talked incessantly in the back of the company’s extended-cab truck and Stella kept telling him to stuff a sock in it or he wouldn’t get any when they got home. Bobby responded by telling Stella they didn’t have to wait until they got home, then the smacking kisses and giggles commenced.

  By the time they pulled up the drive and deposited the uninhibited couple at their house, Mitch was so on edge he thought his skin might crawl off his body. And worse, the ape stared at him from his seat on the dash, looking as if he might open his monkey mouth and chastise Mitch for his inability to control himself enough to keep his erection reined in until he got Tori alone.

  He waited until he saw Bob and Stella close the front door before he turned all that edginess on Tori with a down and dirty kiss, brief but to the point. Then he sped up the drive to his own home, spewing dirt as he braked harder than he’d intended. He yanked open his door, intending to help Tori out but she met him at the hood of the truck. They kissed hot and heavy again before he took her hand and led her inside the foyer, where he claimed her mouth one more time.

  He couldn’t remember the last time he’d kissed a woman so much in one night. He also couldn’t recall when he’d enjoyed kissing a woman this much. Probably never. But kissing wasn’t all that was on his mind at the moment, the reason why he tore himself away from Tori’s tempting mouth, clasped her hand and led her down the hall faster than he should.

  “What about Buck?” Tori asked when they entered his bedroom, her voice little more than a breathless whisper.

  Mitch closed the door and tripped the lock. “I really don’t give a damn where he is, as long as he isn’t in here with us.” Although from the looks of things at the fair tonight, his grandfather might be getting lucky, too.

  When he turned to Tori, she brushed away her windblown hair, her face flushed. “We left Lanny in the truck,” she said.

  He approached her slowly. “And that’s where he’s going to stay. I don’t want anything between us.” He took two more steps until he stood immediately before her. “No stuffed animals. No clothes. And no apologies for what we’re about to do.”

  “Definitely no apologies, if you continue to live up to the hype.”

  “I guess you’ll know soon enough.”

  Time seemed to suspend in that moment, the tension so thick Mitch could cut it with his pocketknife. Tori put an end to the hesitation by tugging his shirt from his waistband, tearing at the snaps and peeling it off his shoulders.

  Clasping the hem of her black sweater, he lifted it over her head and tossed it aside. Her hair was even more mussed now and she looked sexy as hell standing there in a scrap of a black lace bra that barely concealed her breasts. Mitch didn’t attempt to remove that because she beat him to the punch. And what a punch he received when she shrugged it off, revealing tawny nipples drawn tight. He’d never had the pleasure to inspect them in the light until now, but that inspection was short lived when Tori dove for his buckle and popped it and the button on his fly open.

  Determined to slow down and savor the moment, Mitch gathered her up into his arms and laid her on the bed. He sat on the edge of the mattress and worked her jeans down her legs, tossing them aside to join her clothes on the floor, leaving her clad in only a scrap of black satin. Although his own jeans were as tight as a vise, he chose to remain dressed for the time being and simply study her for a few moments, with his eyes and hands.

  “You’re so damn beautiful.” When he brushed his knuckles over her abdomen below her navel, she began to tremble, from her belly to her legs.

  Concerned, Mitch glanced up to
see that her eyes were tightly closed. He leaned over, his arms on either side of her. “Tori, are you okay with this?”

  She opened her eyes and sent him a slight smile. “I’m very okay with it.”

  “You’re shaking.”

  “I can’t help it. I’m excited.”

  “Are you sure? Because we can stop if you—”

  “Mitch, if you stop now, I’ll never forgive you.”

  He traced her lips with the tip of his tongue. “I couldn’t have you holding a grudge, now could I?”

  “Precisely. Now take off your clothes and let’s get on with it.”

  “Not yet,” he said. “Not until I get a good look at you.”

  He bracketed her pelvis between his hands and rubbed downward with his thumbs, performing an impromptu massage as he lowered her panties. When he had them resting at the tops of her thighs, he lifted her bottom and pulled them completely away.

  For a man who needed to be inside her more than he needed air, the pace had been agonizingly slow, but well worth the time it had taken. He didn’t intend to pick up speed, not until he had her exactly where he wanted her to be.

  “Open your legs for me, babe,” he told her, using his palms to encourage her. “And don’t close your eyes.”

  Her uneven breathing told him she was wound tight, and so was Mitch, to the point of possible combustion. But that possibility didn’t stop him from taking his time as he slid his fingers through the soft cloud of curls, remaining there to play for a few moments before seeking her slick, warm flesh. She was so primed for his touch that he knew it would take no time at all for her to climax. For that reason, he tempered his strokes, alternating between watching her face and watching the movement of his hand as he explored her, both inside and out.

  Her respiration increased and her body tightened around his fingers as the first signs of orgasm overtook her. He wanted to replace his hand with his mouth, but she was already too far gone. Instead, he kissed her until every last ripple of the release subsided. Now he could join her in that state of oblivion.

  He pushed away from her and stood at the side of the bed, fumbling for his zipper in harried anticipation.

  “Mitch.” He looked up to see Tori seated on the edge of the mattress where he had been. “Come here,” she said, her voice much calmer now, as if she had regained her control where Mitch had done anything but.

  He walked to her and watched as she lowered his fly, then did the same with his jeans and briefs. After he shrugged out of them completely, she held out her arms and, with only a look, invited him inside. But before he could join her, he still had something else to consider. Something he’d vowed not to forget again.

  Pulling open the nightstand drawer, he withdrew a gold foil packet and held it up. “Should I use this?”

  She failed to look at him as she tossed back the quilt and slid beneath the sheet. “I think that’s a good idea, just to be on the safe side.”

  Her tone, her hesitant gaze, sent a sliver of apprehension up Mitch’s spine. Maybe the other night she hadn’t been honest with him. Maybe they had taken a huge risk. Yet as he studied her lying there in his bed, her skin flushed and her eyes wide, his desperate need for her outweighed any concerns over what might have been. He only wanted what could be. What would be.

  After rolling on the condom, he snapped off the lamp and tossed back the sheet to take his place beside Tori. The three-quarter moon filtering in from the open curtains cast her face in muted light, her eyes as dark as the night.

  Holding her face in his palms, he took another moment to just look at her. “I’ve wanted you non-stop since we were together in the truck. You’ve had me on a slow burn for four days. Every time I think about you, I get hard.”

  “Hard is good.”

  “Not when you’re riding a horse. When I saw you standing outside the arena today, talking to Buck, it was all I could do not to tell the boys to go away, toss you over my shoulder and take you to this bed.”

  “And I might have let you.”

  “Oh, yeah?”

  “Yes, even though my original goal was strictly friendship.”

  His only goal at the moment was to please her. To make her feel so good she wouldn’t consider being anywhere else but his bed for the time they had left. “Tell me what you want, Tori. I’ll do anything you want me to do.”

  With her hands on his hips, she encouraged him to move over her. “I want you inside of me. I want it deep. I want it hard.”

  Nearing the point of madness, Mitch reached between them and guided himself inside her, pausing before he was completely immersed in her heat. “How deep?” he asked, inching in a little more.

  “I want to feel all of you.”

  He moved a little more. “How’s this?”

  “Is that the best you can do?” Her voice was low and throaty, enticing as hell, driving Mitch to the brink.

  With one hard thrust, he seated himself completely and nearly came undone in the process. “Better?” That one-word question took a lot of effort and so did his determination to hold on a little longer.

  She slid her fingers through his hair and moved her hips beneath him. “The best.”

  He wanted to be the best she’d ever had.

  With all the strength he could muster, he reached over and grabbed the other pillow then pulled her up to prop it on top of the pillow already positioned beneath her shoulders. Then he lifted her bottom in his palms and drove into her.

  Even if he’d wanted to slow it down, he couldn’t. Not with her welcoming this wild, unrestrained rhythm resulting from all the desire they’d held for each other from the moment they’d met. Not when she kissed him, her tongue meeting his in time with their thrusts and her nails raking down his back. Not when he felt the first contractions of her climax pulling him even deeper still.

  His heart pounded against his chest as the pressure built and built, then exploded, fast and furious. He rode the waves with Tori in his arms, his face buried in the softness of her neck, his body jolted from the intensity of the climax.

  In the aftermath, they were now covered in sweat, surrounded by the heady scent of sex and finally calmed by the long-awaited satisfaction. Or at least Tori seemed calm. Now Mitch was the one who was shaking.

  Tori lifted his head in her hands and stared at him. “Are you okay?”

  “If I were any better, I’d be dead.” He rolled to his side, taking her with him. “I don’t want you to leave.”

  The words jumped out before he’d even had time to register exactly what he was saying.

  “I wouldn’t want Buck to know I’m in your bed,” she said, obviously misunderstanding his meaning. He thought it best not to enlighten her, at least not until he analyzed why he hated the thought of her returning home. Right now, he had to keep her beside him all night.

  He kissed her softly and rubbed her shoulder. “Buck might not be in until morning. And even if he’s here right now, he doesn’t know where you are. Stay with me tonight. All night.”

  She settled her cheek against his chest. “Okay. I’ll stay tonight.”

  That promise seemed inadequate to Mitch because he wanted more than tonight with her. He recognized some sort of transformation was occurring inside him. He damn sure didn’t know what to do about that, or why Tori Barnett was making him feel things he’d never felt, never wanted to feel.

  But he did know that as long as he had this lady in his arms, he was going to enjoy it. Tomorrow, he’d think about the rest.

  Two hours later, Tori sat in the small chair positioned in front of the picture window in Mitch’s bedroom, hugging her legs to her chest as she stared into the night. She wore his discarded shirt, the only thing she could locate in the darkened room. The fabric held the trace scent of his cologne, and so did her body.

  The moon looked hazy, but then that might have to do with her unexpected tears. She could chalk up the irrational emotions to hormones. Or she could go ahead and admit that her current state resul
ted from the realization that she was falling in love with Mitch Warner.

  She had never intended to do such an inadvisable thing, but her mind had been a giant jumble since the first time she’d danced with him. So had her heart.

  She recalled when he had graced the pages of tabloids and teen magazines, an enigmatic young man who’d captured nationwide attention with his looks alone. He’d been born into wealth and a political legacy, a favorite pick to fashion the nation’s future—smart, handsome and eligible.

  At that particular time, Tori’s interest in Mitch had been limited to the news coverage, due to her first thoughts of becoming a journalist, not desire for him or his kind—a typical, spoiled rich kid who’d had the world handed to him while she’d had to struggle for everything she’d obtained. She also remembered viewing one photo immediately after he’d been accepted to Harvard and another when he’d been caught on film escorting a beautiful co-ed to a college formal. But she’d never really seen him smile. She’d believed him to be arrogant, that he’d thought himself above showing any true emotion.

  Now she recognized that she’d seen sadness in those magnetic blue eyes, not snobbery or self-absorption. And if all those women who’d fantasized about him really knew the man beneath the façade, as Tori now did, they would have worshipped him even more.

  Still, she and Mitch hailed from different societal positions. They had very different aspirations. She longed for a successful career and recognition for her efforts. He yearned for obscurity and a normal life.

  And she was beginning to feel guilty that in some ways she had been using him to attain that success and security. But she had to rationalize that she could assist him in maintaining his privacy by stressing that he wanted to be left alone. They both would win in the end.

  Except Tori would suffer a loss in exchange for that success when she left him behind.

  For that reason, she needed to start viewing this liaison exactly as it was—nothing more than a brief affair between two consenting adults. She needed to shore up her emotions, beginning now.