“I’ll wash your back for you.” She volunteered.
“As long as I get to wash your front.” Scott picked her up, cradled her in his arms and carried her to the back of the big master bath. The shower was huge, with over a dozen showerheads. “Let’s get the temperature right.” Turning it on, he adjusted all of the knobs and gauges while she laid her toiletries on the vanity—her gels, lotions, a compact and a new red lipstick she’d bought for the next time they were together.
She stood close to him, looking at him all she wanted. “You’re very handsome, but I guess you know that.”
“I like to hear it.” Scott couldn’t stop touching her. “Okay, let’s get in.” He held the big glass door and helped her walk through. “The tiles aren’t slippery, but watch your step.”
Lia stood beneath the spray, staring over at him. He was so gorgeous. Her fingers and lips touched him everywhere—his face, his damp hair, his broad chest, powerful thighs. Moans of delight slipped from his lips as she ministered to him. His heavy, thick manhood bobbed out from his groin. To her it was delectable—two handfuls.
She let him return the favor, even washing her hair, slow and easy, weaving his fingers through the strands as he rinsed and conditioned it. They exchanged kisses, stopping to hold one another. He washed her body, delicately, reverently. Tears filled her eyes as he placed a hand over her stomach and confessed, “I would have been happy if you were pregnant. I wasn’t upset at the thought at all.”
“I wouldn’t have minded either.” Which was true, but she needed to tell him the whole story, why she hesitated, why she had a hard time believing and trusting.
“I dreamed about you,” Scott whispered into her ear, framing her face with his palms as the spray ran down their bodies. “Every night when I went to bed, I relived every moment we’ve spent together.”
“Let’s make some new memories.” Lia snuggled up to him, kissing his chest, licking on his nipples.
“Lia, I have to do you in the next few minutes or I’m going to cum all by myself.” His hands were balled into fists, his features tight. Lust was mounting in his body like a rising storm.
She giggled. “Well, we can’t have that.” Her fingers slipped down between them, until they could wrap around his rock-hard cock. “Will you take me up against the wall? I’ve read about that in books.” She gazed up at him with those big green eyes, batting her lashes.
“Damn.” He covered her breasts with his hands, palming them, rubbing the nipples into hard, little points. “I love being with you.”
He’d said he thought he loved her the last time they’d been together. Did he remember that? “I love everything you do to me.”
“Let’s see.” He backed her up against the shower wall, eating at her mouth as they walked. Slipping a hand between her thighs, he felt how wet she was. Her juices were flowing. His fingers came away coated with cream. “You want me, don’t you?” He exulted in the fact.
“More than anything.” Telling the truth wasn’t hard.
“Put your arms around my neck.” She did and he lifted her. “Now put your legs around my waist and hold on.” Kissing her neck, he forged a feverish trail across her collar bone and over her shoulder.
“I’m gonna like this,” she mumbled, almost to herself.
Scott snorted. “You say the damndest things.” He wanted to give this woman as much pleasure as she could handle. Fisting his cock, he gave it a pump or to, priming it. Lord, he was ready to fuck.
“It’s you.” She couldn’t hold back. “It’s different with you. I trust you.” A feeling of relief swept over her. It was true. When she felt the head of his cock sliding up and down her slit, spreading her cream, pleasure sizzled through her like wildfire. Her clit and nipples swelled, quivering in anticipation of what was about to happen. “Don’t tease me, Scott. You don’t want to see me when I’m mad.”
He roared. “You sound like the Hulk.” He bent to suck a nipple as she grabbed a handful of his hair and pulled, trying to guide his mouth back to her lips.
She could feel the tip of his cock rubbing the hard knot of her clit, the delightful sensation made her pussy weep. “I’m gonna die if you don’t fuck me.”
His response was a series of sexy grunts as he began pushing into her with short, hard jabs. The raw sexiness of the man almost threw her into climax. Right now, she would kill for that climax.
“God, you’re so tight.” He raised his head and locked his gaze to hers. “I’ve longed for this moment for weeks,” he whispered against her flesh.
“I’m gonna cum so hard for you.” She promised.
“Fuck.” He let his eyes sweep over her in awe. “What did I ever do to deserve you?” So much passion, so much fire. Lia was real. Scott realized then, he had been dating plastic women. This little doll was fire and passion.
“Just lucky I guess.” She panted. “Rub your chest hair over my tits. I love how it feels against my nipples.”
“Jesus Christ,” he groaned as he did as she asked.
Throwing her head back, she reveled in what he was doing, teasing her nipples with the raspy curls on his chest, pumping into her pussy with long strokes of his cock. “The day I found you was my lucky day.”
An intense, driving hunger filled him, a primal need which drove him to pound inside of her, pummeling her pussy flesh as he sank his cock into her heat over and over. “You saved me, Lia, I belong to you.”
“Faster, Scott!” she cried. “More!”
“Take my dick, Houston,” he chanted. “Take it all. God, you’re sweet.”
She whimpered as he hammered into her, filling her, stretching her. A primitive raw emotion swamped her. She was falling in love with him, there was no two ways about it. And what she was going to do about it, she didn’t know. Her whole life had been spent longing for someone to love, yet never expecting it. Lia had convinced herself love didn’t exist, people couldn’t be trusted, and that she would never belong anywhere but in the shadow of Ladygrey.
And then came Scott Walker, and he’d turned her life upside down.
He laid his forehead against hers as he continued to find pleasure in her body. God, he loved this. She was so beautiful, so perfect for him. He closed his eyes, letting the feel of her body milking his be a balm for his soul. This was more than sex—hell, this was more than making love. This was soul bonding, an intimacy unlike anything he’d ever known. Lia Houston was his woman. She belonged to him. This knowledge, this certainty was something he would cherish from this moment on. “Take me, baby. Take me.”
Her first cries of pleasure were sweeter than the songs of angels. “That’s it, cum for me, sweetheart. Cum for me.” Placing kisses on her shoulder, her throat, her lips, he absorbed her tremors and cries as she shook with release. “God, baby,” he ground out the words. Lord, have mercy. He was dying, the euphoria was so intense. Long, slow glides...he pulled out and sank back in, pistoning in and out of her hot, pink velvet.
“Scott, my Scott,” she whispered, and the sound of her possessive words was enough to push him into orgasm, flinging him out into the dark depths of ecstasy, a place he’d never been before. With powerful jets, he filled her sheathe, the rush of his semen running down her thigh. Unwilling to part from her, he kept bucking his hips, letting every aftershock give them all the pleasure they could handle.
For long moments, they stayed where they were, the water beating down on them, their hearts hammering with exerted passion. Coming down, he kissed her face, rubbing his cheek against her hair. Then he sat her down on the bench, turning the water off. “Rest here,” he told her. “I’ll get a towel.”
She did, feeling sated, almost boneless. A slight squeaking noise made her look up and she saw he had returned, her lipstick in hand and he was writing on the inside of the glass shower door.
I love you.
/>
“Oh, Scott.” She stood up, hugging him close. “The water will wash it away. It won’t last.”
“It will.” He didn’t know if she meant the words on the door or the feeling in his heart. “How I feel, won’t change. You can bet your life on it.”
* * *
He held her all through the night. Elvis, back in, curled up at the foot of the bed. Tracing soft patterns on her skin, he debated how to break through the barrier she had built around her heart. How could he make her believe in them? There was no way he was giving up, but he realized she was going to have to come to the realization on her own. There was only so much he could do. But he intended to play every card he had up his sleeve. What he felt for Lia Houston was too precious and powerful to risk.
Some time during the early hours of dawn, he’d finally slept.
When he awoke, it was to find he was alone. Not good. A sense of panic swept over him, and he rose, grabbing his clothes to go look for her. But she hadn’t left, she had made herself at home in his kitchen and the smells coming from the skillet in the stove were amazing.
“I made a frittata.”
“Good, I’m starved.” She looked good, standing there in a pair of jeans and a simple pink T-shirt. “What did you do with Hazel?”
“She needed to go to the market. I offered to cook breakfast. Hope you don’t mind.”
Lia didn’t look at him, so he just began to talk, seeking a safe place in their sharing. “That patient I told you about, the one who’s pregnant, she’s still rejecting treatment.”
Plating up some of the potato and egg dish, she set it before him. “I’m so sorry. What are you going to do?”
“I spelled out her chances to her, which are nil. The rest is up to her. All I can offer is consolation and friendship. If she lives to bring the baby to full term, it will be a miracle.” Lia covered his hand with hers.
“I’m so sorry.”
At least she was looking him in the eye. “Me too.” Turning his hand over, he clasped hers. “Last night was amazing.”
Lia blushed. “It was, I had no idea intimacy could be so…satisfying.”
Scott chuckled. “The satisfaction was mutual.” Taking a big bite, he chewed, then gestured with his fork. “Aren’t you going to eat?”
Almost absentmindedly, she rose, taking another plate from the cupboard. “I guess I could. I’m not very hungry.” Glancing at him, she admitted. “I’m nervous.”
“Nervous? Why?”
“I know we need to talk. There’s so much I want to tell you, and I don’t know where to start.”
“This sounds serious.” He poured them both some coffee. “We have all day to ourselves, and there’s nothing I’d rather do than spend it talking with you. With appropriate sex breaks, of course.” He teased.
They finished their meal over small talk. He told her of his time with the McCoys and about Jacob and Jessie’s baby. “Libby, Aron’s wife is pregnant with twins.”
“Twins?” The thought made her smile. “Aron has recovered from his ordeal?”
Scott nodded. “He is a very lucky man in many ways.”
“When you were with the McCoys, this was when you thought about the possibility of me being pregnant?” she asked, then added, “I did get on the pill, so we’re safe from last night.”
“Yea, it hit me like a freight train when I was holding the little fellow, and I wasn’t worried.” Scott tried to put enough emotion in his statement to convey his feelings without scaring her. He adored every facet of her personality, from the times she was cute and feisty to the moments when she seemed almost innocent. But the fear she would bolt was always on his mind.
“Let me do the dishes.”
“No, leave them for Hazel. If you do all her work, you’ll give her a complex.” He stood, gave Elvis a helping of the left-overs and tugged Lia from the kitchen into the den. “We’ll be comfortable here. “Now, tell me what you’ve been doing since we were together.”
“Trying to come to terms with myself...that sounds silly, doesn’t it?” She turned her face up to his. He had sat down in a big recliner, pulling her into his lap. She sat across him, her long, shapely legs dangling over the arm of the chair, her back resting on the opposite arm. He rubbed her forearm, unable to not touch her in some way.
“No, it doesn’t sound silly. Tell me anything, I want to hear it all.”
“I’ve spent the last week trying to find my father.”
If she would have told him she was a secret foreign spy, he wouldn’t have been more surprised. “Your father? I don’t understand.”
She grasped his hand, running her fingers over the strong back, the sturdy fingers. “I didn’t know his name until recently, Randall Roberts. My parents weren’t married,” she whispered, glancing at him quickly. “My mother was illegitimate too.” Lia shook her head as if in denial. “My mom and grandmother both made a mistake and spent a lifetime paying for it.”
Scott placed a finger under her chin. “I wouldn’t call having a beautiful daughter like you a mistake of any kind.”
A sad little laugh escaped her lips. “It was hard growing up in Adah. They never let me or my mother ever forget what we were.”
“What do you mean?” Scott was concerned, not liking what he was hearing. “Were they mean to you?”
“You know how kids can be.” She shrugged her shoulders. “I made the mistake of telling Miss Mary about being stranded with you at Windswept. The news spread and I had a visitor up at the cabin, a man who thought I ought to give him what I gave you—for a price.” Unbidden, tears began to flow and she buried her face in his chest. “He threw my family’s reputation in my face. But Mother wasn’t like that, and I’m not either. I’m a good person.”
Scott was bombarded with a myriad of emotions—concern, fury, hurt. “A man came to Ladygrey and threatened you?” He wrapped his arms around her and swore he would never let her go. “I want his name.”
“Reggie Latham,” she told him. “I was so scared. And then I saw his mother in town and she inferred that I was loose because of our time together, and she threw Mother and Grandmother’s so-called mistakes in my face. And I’m supposed to get up in front of those people and accept an award?” Her voice had risen with every word she said.
“You being scared in your home is totally unacceptable.” He meant that. “I can’t stand the thought of your being alone there at the mercy of anyone who might drive up that mountain. And no one should judge others for their actions unless they’ve lived a perfect life, which no one has.” He kissed her on top of the head. “But what’s this about an award?” That part of the conversation didn’t make sense.
Lia explained the situation to him. “I don’t think they really want to recognize my accomplishments. I think they want to get me in front of everyone as a spectacle.”
“You don’t have to do it.” He racked his brain, trying to find words to make her feel safe and secure. “Hell, you don’t even have to go back to Arkansas. Stay with me.”
Lia nestled against him, feeling torn. “Your world is so different from mine.” She played with the buttons on his shirt. “I’m so different…from other women you’ve dated.”
“Damn right you’re different.” He turned her face up to his, placing his lips against her, sealing his convictions with a tender kiss. “Completely different. You’re warm, real and beautiful. The other women I’ve dated were a poor substitute for what I thought I wanted. But now I know the truth. I want you.”
She kissed the side of his face. “You are the finest man I’ve ever known. I want you more than anything. I just have to figure out if I can leave my home. Living in a place like this, in a city, it’s not what I’m used to. I don’t know if I’d fit in. I’d never want to be a source of embarrassment for you.” She said this, thinking of Dylan an
d his assessment of her value. “Your world, your home is so different from mine.”
Taking her chin in his hand, he made her look at him. “Home is not always a place, Houston. Sometimes it’s a person. Home for you...is me.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
I wrote your love upon my heart
Where it could not be erased
I promise to honor you, cherish you
All of my days
I will keep you safe
Lia spent another day with Scott, mostly in bed. She discovered he was a bit ticklish, and he discovered she was a lot ticklish—especially behind her knees. “Did you know you have a birthmark back here?” He was studying her body like he was mapping it for further exploration.
She tried to look, twisting around and holding her leg up in the air, which exposed other areas for his scrutiny. “What does it look like?”
“An armadillo, I think.”
“All I see is a splotch.” She giggled, realizing he had totally lost interest, as he was now kissing a path that would eventually lead to her clit—if she was lucky.
She was lucky.
In so many ways.
Scott couldn’t seem to get enough of her and she knew she felt the same. Lia never thought she’d ever be so loved in her life. He took her to his office, introducing her to Susie, whom Lia discovered wasn’t nearly as intimidating as she feared. In the early afternoon, she received a call from Mona, “Hello?”
“You’re never going to believe it. Never going to believe it.”
“What?” Whatever it was, Mona was excited.
“Dixie Days is up for country song of the year. You may win a Grammy!”
Lia’s heart jumped in her chest. “We-ll...we-ll,” she stuttered. “It’s an honor to be nominated.”
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