by Seton, Cora
Callie’s “all” was exactly what was needed for him give up this game.
Callie fumed beside Derek. How could Derek take her to the place where she’d lost her virginity if he was sweet on some other woman? Had he changed that much? Or did the bluff overlooking the valley not hold a special place in his heart like it did hers?
If she were honest with herself, she fueled her outrage mostly to bolster her courage. Something to hold onto while she tried to figure out how to seduce him without him realizing she was doing it. After all, what would he think of her if he knew she was deliberately trying to steal him away from his new main squeeze? For one thing, he’d know she was a big fat liar—that she hadn’t meant a word about being happy if he was happy. Truth was, if she didn’t manage to get him back, she’d be the most miserable person on the planet.
And why had she worn jeans, instead of a skirt? How could she seduce him if she couldn’t tease him with glimpses of her upper thighs, which would make his thoughts inch higher to the happy conclusion he’d taken so many times in their shared path? And why, oh why, had she worn a bra? She didn’t need to throw challenges in his face, just a couple ripened nipples accenting her clingy top to draw his glance.
Disgusted with her train of thought, and with herself for making such a mess of their relationship, she nearly surrendered to her grief. Memories flashed through her mind, of them standing together atop the Homecoming float…of their first kiss as they’d sat in the back row of the movie theater, the plot of the movie forgotten while they’d learned how to find pleasure in the melding of their mouths. Of the first time they’d made love, far too young to handle the emotions that had run through them, but too eager to quench their young lust to understand they’d crossed a milestone threshold, together.
He’d been her only lover. After all this time. Did he know that? Was she still his?
The thought nearly devastated her. Had this other woman given him something she hadn’t? She startled when the car bumped across an iron cattle guard.
Derek gave her a smile as he exited the vehicle and unhooked the chain holding the gate pulled across a dirt road. Once back inside, he gunned the engine and off they went, winding around live oaks and mesquite until they reached the base of the bluff and began to climb.
They parked near the top, warm sunlight beating down to heat the crisp air. A scraggly juniper hugged the edge, its branches flaring slightly, providing the only shade along the limestone cliff. They settled carefully near the edge, their feet dangling over the sheer drop. Before them stretched the town, cars and trucks looking like Matchbox toys as they sped along the spider-web roads.
“I missed this view,” he murmured on a long exhale of breath.
She snorted. “You never paid much attention to it before.”
His face was tilted toward the sun, his eyes were closed, but he grinned. “Yeah, I was usually lookin’ at you, tryin’ to figure out how to take off your shirt before you realized my intent.”
She shook her head, chuckling. “And I was busy tryin’ to figure out how I could make it happen faster without seemin’ too easy.”
“You were never easy, Callie.”
“But I could be.” The cajoling words slipped out so easily. She swallowed and looked away.
“I was always up for the challenge.”
He said was. Her chest started to hurt. She turned back and studied him. “Why are we here, Derek?”
Although in profile, his grimace was plain to see. “The town was closin’ in on me.”
The way he said it, with a little flint in his voice, had her frowning. “Like it’s too small for you now?”
“Like I can’t breathe.”
Maybe this wasn’t about her at all. Callie pulled up her knees and wrapped her arms around them, in the same way she wanted to wrap them around his body. “Something happen on your last mission?”
He shook his head. “Some excitement. The usual. I didn’t feel any different until I drove into town. Walked into Mom’s house, and I wanted to walk right back out. She cooked breakfast and the stove was hot, but I made her open the windows. The air felt hot as hell, and I had the AC runnin’ on full with mom in a sweater, but I had to have those damn windows open.”
Callie’s chest tightened. A thousand times she’d imagined all the horrible things that could have happened while he’d been over there—returning with missing limbs, blinded, burned—but she’d never considered he’d be a different man. He was unmovable. Stubborn. Strong. Imagining him panicked from claustrophobia inside his own home made her heartsick.
Without a second thought, she reached over and placed her hand atop his and gave it a squeeze.
His gaze dropped to their hands, his chest rose around a deep breath. Again, he looked at the sky. “Sky never changes. Same stars. So many times, I’d imagine myself sittin’ here at night beside you, tryin’ to find Orion.”
“I’d do the same,” she said softly. “Not from here, though. I’ve never come here except with you.”
The corners of his mouth twitched. “Good to know.”
His hand slipped from under hers and enfolded hers—so large, the palm slightly rough. So familiar and dear. She leaned against his shoulder, tilting her head to snuggle closer. She felt him kiss her hair and smiled. “When I’m here, I feel like we’re the only two people in the world.”
He paused for a moment, and then said, “We could pretend we are…for right now.”
Although his voice teased, she detected a hint of the same melancholy she’d felt earlier. If he wanted to pretend they were still in love, who was she to refuse? She needed his hands on her body, wanted the weight of his large frame lowering over her. From their vantage point, they would hear another vehicle long before it came into view.
Maybe he was only looking for comfort, but she wouldn’t let pride or hurt get in her way of giving him just what he needed.
Not giving him time to reconsider, she shifted away, facing him on her knees. Then she reached for the hem of her tee and slowly pulled it upward.
His breath caught and held as she bared her chest.
“Lace,” he said. “Pretty.”
When she tugged the shirt over her head, she felt the warmth of his hands already cupping her mounds. She tossed away the shirt, then came up, undoing the button of her jeans, and slowly sliding down the zipper.
Derek gave a groan and pushed up to kneel in front of her. His hands gripped her waist, and he bent, his mouth latching onto a nipple through the pink lace, teeth clamping around the tip.
The touch wasn’t nearly enough; she needed his hot mouth on her skin. She peeled down the cup, the satin edge riding the underside of her breast and plumping it upward. Again, his lips surrounded her nipple, pulling on the dimpling areola. His tongue toggled the tip until it peaked. And then he swirled the flat of his tongue over it again and again until her belly undulated.
So many times, he’d linger over her breasts just like this, tonguing and nipping them until she was crazy for more. Always attentive to her pleasure. Tenderness filled her as she stared down at him.
He peeled down the other cup, and she couldn’t hold back a throaty moan, clasping his head with her fingers digging into his scalp. The sensation of his pulling lips and slippery tongue grew so acute her womb tightened. “Please, Derek,” she gasped, desperate for more of his sensual torture.
Derek eased back and scraped up his tee, removing it and spreading it on the ground beside her. Then he reached for her and laid her back, balling up her tee to place under her head. When she felt the tug of his hands on the waist of her jeans, she lifted her hips, allowing him to pull them down, sliding away her panties and her sandals to leave her lying nude in the slightly chilly air.
She stared up at him. His broad, lightly furred chest was tanned, the muscles toned without an ounce of excess softening the lean lines.
A crooked smile quirked up one side of his mouth. “Keep lookin’ at me like that, and we’ll both
be in trouble.”
At the word trouble, she let loose a sexy grin. “I’m countin’ on that, sailor-boy.”
He bent and his hands landed on either side of her shoulders. His knees nudged one at a time between hers until she opened. And then he was coming down, his hands framing her face while he kissed her so sweetly her eyes filled again.
Chapter Three
‡
Now, this was a homecoming to remember, she thought dreamily.
With the sun warming the tops of her naked thighs and Derek’s hovering body emitting so much heat her sex melted, Callie began to tremble with excitement. When his tongue swept inside her mouth, she bit, smiling around it when he grunted.
His eyes opened, and their gazes locked.
He pulled back and stared down at her, his intent written in the lazy dip of his eyelids. “Why is it I can never get enough of you?”
The words were a playful accusation, but she read the question in his eyes. The intimate moments they’d shared had always been like this—sweet, funny, and incendiary. Why had she been so willing to let so much time slip away from them?
“Love me,” she said, stuck for words that would tell him how much she regretted she hadn’t been willing to give him more.
His jaw firmed, and he held still for a moment, gazing down through half-closed eyes.
Was he memorizing her face?
But then his head ducked, and he skimmed his mouth along her jaw, nibbled at her lobe then slipped downward, plucking and licking her nipples until she hugged his torso with her knees and pushed his head downward, begging silently for him to continue exploring.
Heat that didn’t have a thing to do with the midday sun blazed between them. Moans—hers—filled the hot dry air as he scooted lower and lower, until, at last, he nuzzled her mound. Her breath hitched. Her hips jerked. A finger glided between her folds and a thumb pressed against her clit.
“Damn, Callie,” he groaned in a raspy voice. “You’re fuckin’ wet.”
“For you, Derek, always for you. Please, please…” Her head thrashed, anticipation so keen her thighs quivered.
His tongue stroked the length of her slit, and she bit her lip and tensed, waiting…
A quick hard kiss landed on her inner thigh, and he crawled quickly up her body, resting on his elbows. His chest billowed around harsh, quick breaths that nestled his groin tight against her hips. “Baby, do you really want it?”
“You teasing me?” she asked, a little whine in her delivery. But damn him, did he really have to ask?
“You want it, you have to finish it.” He arched a brow, then raised his hips from hers and stared down between their bodies.
Quickly, she slipped her hands between them and wrestled with his belt buckle, his button—her hands shook so hard she was cussing by the time she got his zipper down. But she forgot her irritation the moment her fingers wrapped around him. Jesus, she’d missed the feel of his heat, the girth and heft of his heavy cock.
She widened her thighs, slid her heels up the dirt toward her hips and lifted her butt off the ground to give him a nudge, leaving moisture on his shaft. “You want it, you have to finish it,” she said, echoing his words.
His mouth curved. Dark eyes narrowed. With a flex of his hips, he pushed against her opening and entered her.
Her fingers dropped away, and she closed her eyes, reveling in the way he stretched her. Short thrusts brought him deeper. When he was lodged all the way inside her, crowding her so deliciously she had difficulty drawing a breath, he halted.
“You’re starin’ again,” she muttered, peeking at him from beneath one eyelid.
“Because I’ve imagined this for so long, and now I’m here.”
God, how the man seduced with his words. She blinked her eyes open. “I’ve missed you.”
“I know.”
She wrinkled her nose. “You’re supposed to say, ‘I missed you, too.’”
“You know how I feel,” he said softly.
“I really don’t. Not when…” She shook her head. But she wasn’t going to mention the fact he had someone else. Because she didn’t want him to have second thoughts…not now. Besides, if he really loved that other girl, he wouldn’t be here, wedged deep inside her body. So instead, she repeated, “Love me.”
He began to move, steady, gentle strokes that coaxed her body into full arousal. Even when she was ready for him to move faster, she didn’t murmur a complaint about his pace, because she wanted to savor the experience and all the moments.
She watched the play of sunlight on the bristles of his whiskers and the droplets of sweat that sprouted on his skin. The darkening of his eyes as he fought his own growing need lent an edge of anticipation as she wondered who would break first. She trailed her fingers along his chest, skimmed his toned belly. She scraped her fingers around his hips and clutched his buttocks.
The moment she slid a wicked finger between his cheeks, he growled and dropped his chest, his hands cupping her ass as he ground harder and deeper inside. His chest hair rasped against her nipples. His hard muscled hips pounded against her soft, welcoming sex. The rocky soil beneath her provided another delicious layer of texture to their rough, spontaneous joining.
She imagined how they must look, rutting in the dirt, desperate enough to forget where they were, and who might see. This was how it had always been between them, and she wondered now if the yearning was because of their long separations. If they lived together, would the fire between them cool?
Suddenly, he pulled away and knelt between her spread thighs. His hands clutched the tops, thumbs rubbing near her sex. His gaze dipped to her pussy and held; dark eyes smoldered.
Her gaze dropped to his cock, glistening with moisture, reddened with friction. Her heart still raced, but she’d vowed to match his pace. “Just gonna look?”
“Nothin’ wrong with anticipation.”
Callie smoothed her hands up her belly to her breasts and framed her nipples between her spread fingers, smiling inwardly as his gaze followed. “I’m gonna get sunburned in places I’ll have a hard time explainin’ to the doctor.”
“Can’t have that,” he growled. But still, he didn’t move.
As the moment stretched, Callie shivered. Here they were, inches from the edge of the bluff, a wide blue sky above them, as alone as two people ever could be. “Maybe you should take a picture.”
One dark eyebrow arched. “Tempting. What should I zoom in on?”
She made a humming sound and tweaked her nipples. “Start with whatever turns you on most.”
“Tough choices,” he said, his gaze darting from her pussy to her breasts, and at last to her mouth. “Bingo,” he whispered as she slid her tongue along her bottom lip.
The verbal foreplay kept her desire revved, and Callie smiled. “Too bad your cell phone’s in the car.”
“Just as well. I’d hate to lose it and know someone else was lookin’ at you like that.”
That hint of growly possessiveness in his voice was definitely something she liked. However, she was ready for him to make a move, and she knew just how to tempt him. Capturing his gaze, she stuck two fingers inside her mouth and wet the tips, then reached down between her legs, and swirled the pads atop her engorged clit.
Watching his chest heave with his deepening breaths was gratifying, but not what she was after. Lifting her butt off the ground, she glided her fingers downward and thrust them inside herself, letting him know if he wasn’t going to satisfy her, she’d take on the job herself. With him watching. Which he did for all of five seconds before his fingers wrapped around her wrist to halt her. “Mine.”
“Your what?” she asked, giving a shallow up and down pump of her hips, tingles racing along her slick folds.
“Mine to pleasure,” he rasped. “Mine to fuck.”
Shock sizzled through her. He rarely dropped the F-bomb around her, but she liked the way it sounded right that moment, rough and crude. “Then don’t make me wait,” she said
, narrowing her eyes.
Derek gave her an equally narrowed look, and skimmed a hand up and down his hard shaft, purposefully drawing her gaze.
The rough gesture reminded her that this one masculine feature held the power to make her quiver and moan. That whenever he was inside her, she was his, irrevocably, locked against him. Callie lowered her ass and placed both hands beside her head, signaling her surrender.
He bent, bracing his weight on one arm and placed his cock at her entrance, and then pushed inside, stretching her with just the broad tip. His free hand slid up the back of one thigh, pushing it upward, and she raised both, splaying them, making room for him as he began to move, the muscles of his braced arms tensing, his belly tightening as he flexed, curling his hips to tunnel his cock inside her.
Callie loved the way he slowly filled her, each strong glide tunneling deeper and deeper. He moved with precision, his rhythm smooth and steady. His groin bumped against her, and she gasped because his short, coarse hairs ground against her clit, adding another layer of texture that fed the heat building inside.
Derek moved like a man driven with a purpose, not just pleasure. This was a claiming. In the moment before her body exploded, she knew—deep inside, she knew—there was no other woman, that he’d come home for her. That he’d set his mind on making sure she understood there’d never be another man who could give her what she needed.
As if she needed the reminder. Holy hotness, she couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe. Her orgasm erupted, and her entire body stiffened, her thighs pressing against him as she arched. His thrusts quickened, eased by the wash of fluid streaming from inside her.
Strokes quickened, pounding against her, and she flew, her mouth opening around a thready scream. She clasped his shoulders to anchor herself. His body lowered, blanketing hers, roughened hands cupped her ass as he drove into her, each stroke harder, sharper until he jerked back his head and shouted.
The sound echoed around them, and she stared at his face, noting his reddened cheeks, the blades of his cheekbones etched in stark relief as he strained. When he dropped his head, his gaze blurred, sought hers and held. “I love you, Callie.”
