Mitch clapped his hands over hers as they teased at the hair on his chest. “Wait.” His voice cracked. “I want to see your hair.”
She didn’t stop touching him, but she tossed her head and brought the golden braid sliding over one breast.
The longing to bury himself inside her battled his need to see the golden curtain from his dreams.
It took too many tries to remove the band, too many distractions from her rose-tipped breasts brushing torturously against the backs of his hands. But finally her golden mane flowed loose, as he had dreamed it.
With fingers shaking from desire, he combed through the raw honey silk, spreading the strands over her shoulders, cascading down her torso, hiding the beauty of her breasts behind a gossamer veil.
Firelight limned her frame as he slid off her panties, then urged her to straddle his lap. Mitch lifted handfuls of hair, watching them drift across her skin, teasing her breasts with the strands.
She rocked against his hardness, only his jeans keeping them apart. While his body burned, his mind etched the image to hold close, long after she was gone.
He’d never seen anything more beautiful in his life.
Perrie was glad for every minute she’d let her hair grow. Suddenly it wasn’t a routine part of her, something to be tucked away and tamed. The look in Mitch’s eyes made her feel special…beautiful, as she’d never felt before.
She let her head fall back, let herself luxuriate in Mitch teasing her skin with her hair. Arching back, she offered her body to him, glorying in her nakedness, feeling free and wild.
Leaning back on her hands, she swiveled her hips, brushing the hard ridge straining at his fly. He was a big man…all over. She should be afraid, but somehow she wasn’t.
Through the curtain of her hair, Mitch’s mouth closed on her breast. One hand slid behind her back to bring her closer; the other slid slowly down her hip and over her belly.
Tantalizing slow touches feathered over her skin, grazing the nest of hair, glancing across the tops of her thighs.
Then he parted the lips and slid his fingers between, pressing against her with his thumb—
Perrie gasped and jerked away, then hurriedly pressed back again. His touch was heaven.
Slowly he teased her with darting touches, with slow, agonizing circles, making her whole body tremble. “Mitch?” She wanted to escape the assault of sensations, yet she’d die if she did. Then he rose as though she weighed nothing and laid her on the rug before the fire. He clasped her hips and lifted her to his mouth, his broad shoulders spreading her legs wide.
Too open, too vulnerable, too—
His mouth closed over her, and Perrie’s whole body jolted.
Heat. Aching sweetness. Glory and rapture and sizzling nerves…
So close to something unspeakably beautiful, so nearly painful, Perrie started to panic, too far outside herself, too far out in the open, too alone, too—
His tongue slid inside her, and Perrie shattered, flying past the edge of the world.
His grip never wavered as she spun into the heavens. She was safe, utterly safe, and the relief of it undid her.
When Mitch felt Perrie let go, it was the biggest victory of his life. Her body shuddered in his arms, then collapsed in utter trust.
Tenderness overwhelmed his hunger. He gathered her up, sliding his hands into the spill of bright hair as she lay boneless against him, sighing softly.
He’d done one thing right in his life. For whatever reason, this woman had never experienced what she was feeling right now. It was almost enough to make him forget the ache that sank teeth into him.
Perrie surfaced, every nerve in her body alive and glowing. Then she felt the coiled tension in his body and reminded herself that only she had found satisfaction.
She discovered something else new on this startling night. Instead of dreading the need for the man with her to be satisfied, she was eager. Hungry, even.
Perrie slipped from Mitch’s arms and fastened her mouth to his throat. He groaned, and she licked her way up his neck. Straddling him, she clasped his face in her hands and indulged them both in a deep, hungry kiss. She’d thought herself sated but realized now that this was only the beginning of what they could savor together.
She wanted him naked, too, wanted to touch him all over. Fingers clumsy with need, Perrie tore at the buttons of his jeans.
When Perrie’s hunger enveloped them both, Mitch felt the renewed bite of his own. Gritting his teeth to maintain his control, Mitch replaced her hands with his own and in seconds had his clothes off and spread her naked beneath him.
Perrie gasped. Mitch jerked his gaze to hers, expecting fear. She was so small, so fragile.
Instead he saw a need that flared as hot as his own.
“Don’t move.” Afraid she might vanish, he kept his eyes on her as he fumbled for his wallet.
She frowned, but the line between her brows smoothed when she saw what he was doing. “I never even thought…” Her cheeks went to rose.
“I barely did.” His fingers were suddenly too big. In desperation he tore at the packet with his teeth.
Before he could roll it on, she halted him, her fingers hesitating. “Can I…” The glance she cast was both greedy and uncertain.
He closed his eyes, grasping at the last threads of his discipline.
Small fingers curled around his bare flesh, and he hissed through his teeth.
She released him immediately. “I’m sorry. I’m not good at this.”
That bastard. Mitch smothered his rage at the man who’d tainted what should be beautiful. “You’re doing fine. It’s just…it’s been a long time, and you touching me is so…”
Her eyes widened. Then the delicate fairy smiled like a siren, wicked and slow. “So I shouldn’t be sorry?”
“You should come here,” he growled. He took the condom and made quick work of covering himself then somehow, despite how badly he wanted her, he moved over her carefully, holding his weight off her, every muscle rigid with the screaming power of his craving.
He beat it back again…but just barely.
Abruptly she levered up and took his mouth as he wanted to take her body, fast and hard.
Oh, God. “You are killing me,” he gasped. “I don’t know how long I can hold off.”
Another wicked smile was his answer. “I hope you won’t. I really hope you won’t. I’ve never…” She blushed again. “It’s never been like this,” she whispered.
Which only revved up his craving about a thousand per cent.
But he looked at her again, so small against him, and saw the nerves behind the smile.
With one smooth motion, he reversed their positions, spreading her across his groin, holding her hips in his hands, brushing her lush, wet heat against him.
His whole body shivered. “Take me inside you, Perrie,” he groaned. “Before I die.”
Her eyes lit, her hands gripped his shoulders as she lowered herself on him.
And then…paradise. Wet and warm, so tight he gritted his teeth against a pleasure so sharp he would surely die.
But what a way to go.
Slowly she slid down his length, and Mitch died a little more with each inch. He felt the tip of her womb and gripped her hips to stop so he wouldn’t hurt her.
But she rocked her pelvis again and seated him to the hilt. Then Perrie, sweet, innocent Perrie, took him on the ride of his life.
All the Perries he had seen flashed behind his eyes, the gentle mother, the laughing storyteller, the small tiger who’d defended her cub. But above him now was a different woman, a small Valkyrie filled with courage and fire and a smoldering sensuality that sucked the breath from his lungs.
Eyes closed, head thrown back, golden hair swaying over plump breasts, she was a goddess, a Scheherazade to beguile a man’s senses.
Perrie opened her eyes then, her body alive with the sensation of Mitch deep inside her, her skin rippling with gooseflesh from the glory of his touch.
She looked down into eyes gone dark chocolate, velvety-soft yet burning with challenge.
“Mitch, I don’t—I want—”
He seemed to understand, reversing their positions in one swift move, rising above her like some pagan god. His strokes went deeper yet, and Perrie gasped.
He stilled for one moment, and their eyes met. And in that instant, the presence of something momentous rose between them…wrapped around them…called out to some hidden part of each one.
For an endless span, they barely breathed. In Mitch’s eyes, Perrie saw the flicker of the longing she couldn’t define.
It was too overwhelming. She pulled him closer, wrapping her legs around his hips, sensing the pull of the ecstasy he’d given her before, but wanting something else, too—something more.
He shook his head as if denying the draw and drove into her faster, deeper, closing his eyes, his face once again a mask. Alone as she’d seen him so often.
And then Perrie realized what it was she wanted.
Love. To give this man love.
Her heartbeat scrambled. She wanted to retreat, to run away from what she was feeling, from such a foolish, unattainable need.
But before she could, Mitch bent his head and took her mouth, his tongue echoing his strokes inside her body. He surrounded her, filled her, cast away anything inside her but himself. She was lost in the wonder of Mitch, only Mitch, when the wonder exploded and the world went white behind her eyes. He took her soaring out past anything she’d ever sensed, ever felt, ever known.
Mitch felt it, too, and in the midst of ecstasy, he knew a dread so deep it seared his soul.
All of this, all that he felt, all that burst inside him now would vanish. He would be as he had always been. Alone.
And once again, he would know the bitter sting of what he had lost.
Mitch struggled to hold back, not to feel anymore. She would tear out his heart. He would not survive.
But she was too warm, too willing, too sweet. Like a sorceress, she called forth all that he claimed as his own.
Mitch fought the pull, but it was too strong. He yearned for an end to his darkness, a sweet taste of peace. Like it or not, Perrie had shown him both, and the need of her brought him to his knees.
With a groan that tore at the very roots of his soul, Mitch surrendered. With one last, bittersweet thrust, Mitch sent them spiraling, holding her tightly against him while they careened through a sky shot with sparks, whirling with color, sizzling with a fire that had surely branded him to his depths.
But even as she pulsed around him, sanity battered at euphoria. With a sudden, awful clarity, he realized that he’d surrendered too soon, sold himself too cheap.
He could sink into her body a thousand times and he would never find what he needed most, wanted most. She could share her body with him, but she kept the secrets of her heart to herself. Warming himself at her gentle fire, feeling a moment of peace, was not enough.
He’d been alone for so long. He’d never known how it could feel to be this close. She’d taunted him with this taste, but still she held back, even after what they’d shared. He had to have more.
“Perrie,” he whispered, rolling to his side, his breath warm and soft against her temple. “Tell me what’s wrong. Tell me why you wouldn’t come to Cy. Tell me why you’re afraid.”
She went stiff in his arms, as though the moments just past had been a dream. “There’s nothing wrong.”
But she was lying, he could hear it in her voice, feel it in her frame. He should let it go, make love to her again. Settle for what he could have, and forget what she held back.
But he could not. “Let me help. This woman in my arms is not the woman who wouldn’t come to the phone when Cy was dying. Explain it to me. Tell me what’s wrong.”
She pulled away and sat up, the curtain of her hair hiding her face. “I was…traveling, I told you. I didn’t know.”
“You’re lying.” He sat up, too, turning her to face him, pushing back her hair, gripping her jaw. “Look at me and tell me that again.”
Blue eyes darkened, and she swallowed hard. He saw the briefest flicker, but it could have been the fire’s light.
“I was out of the country. No one told me you called.” Her voice was stronger, but it didn’t matter. Her eyes told the truth. Despite what they’d shared, she still did not trust him.
He swore under his breath, and Perrie jerked away as if he’d struck her. She rose, holding her clothes in front of her like a shield. Her voice shook slightly when she spoke. “This was a mistake. I’m sorry. I was just—you saved Davey and I—”
If she’d cut his heart out with a rusty knife, it couldn’t have hurt any more. A debt. She was only paying a debt. She didn’t trust him enough to tell him the truth about her past, and she had only lain with him because he’d saved her son.
At sixteen, he’d learned the price of letting his emotions run free. He’d never made that mistake again—until now. He’d let himself feel too much ever since they’d come, been lulled into thinking nothing would happen that he couldn’t control.
But tonight had proven deadly. He’d opened the lamp and let the genie out for moments of beauty so sublime he knew he’d feel the loss for the rest of his life. He’d unleashed passions and let down his guard—and now the genie didn’t want to go back into the lamp.
Staring at the woman who had turned his soul inside out and then dropped it on the ground like so much trash, Mitch couldn’t believe he’d been such a fool. Jerking on his jeans, he scooped the rest of his clothes off the floor, shoving away pain sharp as a dagger sliding into an unprotected chest.
He had to get away. Before it was too late.
“You’re right,” he said. “It won’t happen again.”
He left the room.
Perrie watched him go, knowing a grief so keen she didn’t know how she would bear it. Wanting to call him back, wanting to explain. But she couldn’t falter now.
He would never know it, but she did this for him. Tearing out her heart with bare hands would hurt less. Her body still hummed from the splendor of his loving, yet her mouth tasted only of ashes.
When she heard the door to his room click shut, she sank to the floor and buried her face in her hands.
And silently wept.
Chapter Eleven
When Perrie awoke, the sun was high overhead. She and Davey were alone.
In the bright light of day, it all seemed a dream—but the memories were too sharp, too pungent.
Too painful.
She could still feel him inside her, still see him rising above her like a warrior god. Still feel the earth-shattering power of her release, the sense of safety in his arms.
The sense of heaven found…and paradise lost.
He had offered his help—and she had answered him with lies. She didn’t know which of them she had hurt worse.
Perrie vaulted from the bed to escape the guilt that pounded away at her. Padding into the kitchen, she saw his dark scrawl on the scrap of paper.
Gone to town for supplies. He hadn’t wanted to see her after last night. His metamorphosis from generous, breathtaking lover back to closed-in loner had been heartbreaking to watch.
Because she knew it was squarely her fault. Perrie paced the floor, gnawing at her knuckle. She knew how alone he was, had seen how hard trust came to him, yet when it came time to answer his trust, she had not. She had wanted to—oh, how she had wanted to spill out her story, to accept his strength…his aid and comfort.
But he deserved better.
She’d seen what Simon could do to anyone who got in his way. Mitch was big and strong, but Simon had a hundred men at his back. And Simon had something else Mitch did not—enough cruelty and ruthlessness for a thousand.
So no matter how much she wanted to ask for Mitch’s help, she could not. He had earned better repayment for all he’d done for her and her son.
Whatever had happened in his life to make him close down as he had,
it must have been very bad. What she could bring to his doorstep would be worse. For the sake of his kindness to her, for his gentle care of her child, for the life he had saved…and for showing her the woman she could be, she would not yield to the temptation to lay her troubles on his shoulders, no matter how broad.
They had to leave. Today, while he was gone. She would keep heading west. They had to go before the next snow came. Before she spent any more time with Mitch and let her heart take the lead.
“Wake up, Davey,” she touched his shoulder gently. “Rise and shine, sleepyhead.”
Trusting blue eyes opened slowly, lit from within. “I’m still sleepy,” he yawned.
“How do you feel, sweetie?”
His eyes popped open, and he sat up, a little less agile than normal. “Ow—sore.” His head swiveled toward the door. “Where’s Mitch? I gotta ask him something.”
“He’s not here.”
Davey’s shoulders sagged. “I wanted to go out in the woods with him today. I thought he could show me how he climbed that cliff.”
Perrie resisted the urge to roll her eyes at his obviously intact sense of adventure, grateful for anything to stem the ache in her heart. “I don’t think you need to be doing anything like that for a while.”
“Mitch would take care of me. When he gets back, I’ll ask him if we can do it tomorrow.”
This wouldn’t be easy. “Sweetheart, we can’t stay here, now that Grandpa Cy is gone.”
His gaze was clear and trusting. “Sure we can. Mitch likes us.”
“Well, yes, Mitch is very fond of you, but he won’t be staying, either. He has jobs waiting for him. He has to travel a lot.”
Davey frowned faintly. “Then we should go with him.”
“I’m afraid that’s not possible. It would interfere with his work.”
“But we could stay here and wait for him, right? He could come home when he was finished?”
The love he bore Mitch shone from his innocent gaze. Perrie’s chest tightened. “Davey, you and I aren’t really the right people to stay here through a whole winter when all it does is snow. Besides, once we get settled, you can have a yard and meet some friends and even watch cartoons again. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
Texas Heroes: Volume 1 Page 31
