by Diana Palmer
He groaned aloud. It was too soon, but he didn’t care. He managed to open the door and close it behind them, making a beeline for the neatly made-up bed. He barely took time to put her down on the coverlet before his body slid against and over her own, his arms under her, taking his weight while his mouth made new, insistent demands on her innocence.
He lifted his head a torturous few seconds later, and his eyes blazed into her own. One lean hand slid deliberately under the hem of her tank top. At the same time, one long, powerful leg eased between both of hers and his hard mouth began to tease around the corners of hers.
“Danger will do it every time,” he murmured deeply.
“Will…do what?” she asked, burning with new longings as his hand began to move up her rib cage toward the lacy little bra she was wearing under the top.
“This.” His mouth opened on hers and became quickly insistent. While he kissed her, his fingers found the catch on her bra and flicked it open. She jumped when she felt his hand on flesh that had never known a man’s touch before. He lifted his head and looked into her eyes. “I know. It’s new territory,” he said gently. His fingers stroked the delicate, warm flesh as lightly as a breeze. “Try to think of it as a rite of passage.”
She felt strange new sensations. There was a tightening, a swelling, in her breasts as he touched them. She lifted involuntarily, and her eyes mirrored her surprise.
“Innocence is a rare, rare thing these days,” he said at her lips. “I respect it. And you’d better thank your lucky stars that I do,” he added as his mouth bit hungrily at hers. “Because with an experienced woman, I’d lock the door and I wouldn’t hesitate a minute.”
She felt the words like the caress of his hands on her body. She moaned huskily under the demanding crush of his mouth. She felt his tongue tracing her lips, teasing under them, darting and touching and withdrawing. She felt his teeth, too, in a sensual caress that only intensified the new sensations he was teaching her to feel.
She felt her back arch again as he traced around the curves of her breast without ever touching the hard, taut nipple. She wanted him to touch it. Her body ached to have him touch it. She didn’t understand why it should be such a violent, aching need…!
He laughed in a soft, sexy way against her lips. “Is this what you want?”
He caught the nipple between his thumb and forefinger and she lifted off the bed with a sharp cry. Heat spread over her, through her. Her short nails dug into his back fiercely and she gasped with pleasure.
“Baby,” he groaned roughly, aroused by her unexpectedly ardent response. “Baby, you turn me on so hard…!”
The top was suddenly around her collarbone and his mouth—his mouth!—was right on her nipple, suckling her while his tongue tasted the hardness with a subtle caress that made her shiver. Her hands caught in the thick strands of his dark hair and held him to her body while he explored it with his mouth. She’d never imagined that she was capable of so much passion, and so unexpectedly swift. He could do anything to her, and she didn’t have the willpower to stop him. Even a simple “no” was beyond her now. She wanted more. She wanted his eyes on her, his hands on her. She wanted his body closer.
As if he knew that, both lean hands smoothed up from her waist and onto her soft breasts. His fingers were rough from hard work, but their touch was pure heaven. She caressed his nape, moving rhythmically with each slow brush of his fingers, lost in pleasure.
He lifted his head to look at what he’d uncovered. She was beautiful, not too big or too small. She was just right. He loved the way her body moved when he touched it. He loved knowing how innocent she was. He’d never been with an innocent. Making love to one was a whole new experience, with levels of pleasure he’d never tasted. Her soft little moans excited him as much as those enthusiastic fingers caressing his back.
She felt his eyes and she opened hers, looking up at him. “Am I doing it right?” she whispered breathlessly.
His body tautened even more. “Yes,” he whispered. “Just right.”
He bent and drew his mouth gently over hers with a soft, cherishing pressure. He felt it open under his, felt her arms pulling at him. It wasn’t a good idea to let this go any farther than it already had. While he was thinking it, he was moving slowly between her long legs until his body rested in the fork of hers. He eased down against her, letting her feel the slow burgeoning of his body against her belly.
She caught her breath.
He heard it, and lifted his head. His eyes were smoldering with desire, his body was rigid with it. He was getting little surges of insistent pleasure that ran the length of his spine. Her hips moved as if they were responding helplessly to the touch of him. She was making him ache like hell.
His hand moved to her hip and bit into the soft flesh, stilling the faint motion of her hips instantly while he rested on the elbow of his other arm. “Meredith,” he said softly. “That will get you seduced. Right now.”
She felt hot all over. Her mind seemed barely under her control. She searched his dark eyes with wonder. Her hands were against his shirt, right on the buttons. She felt him against the lower part of her body, and it felt right. It felt wonderful. She wanted to writhe under him and tempt him into intimacy.
His hand contracted and he gave her a wise, challenging stare as he read the look on her face. “Don’t do it,” he said huskily. “I’m years ahead of you in experience, but I can still lose my head. You don’t want me to do that. Not really.”
She pulled at a stabilizing breath. Her heart was still whacking around at the walls of her chest, as if she’d been running a race. “Are you sure I don’t want you to do that? I mean, if you get pregnant, I’ll marry you,” she said breathlessly, and with deathbed humor. “Honest!”
He looked at her as if he couldn’t believe his ears. The passion drained out of him, replaced by howling amusement. He started laughing. “Damn you, that wasn’t fair!” he accused.
“Well, I like that! You’re laughing, and here I’ve made you a solemn promise,” she persisted, eyes twinkling.
“Hell!” He rolled away from her and sat up on the edge of the bed to run a lean hand through his disheveled hair. He glared down at her. “Now you’ve got fingerprints and lipstick and perfume all over me. The men will laugh themselves sick if I go to work smelling like a flower garden.”
She tugged down her top and gave him an impish grin. “We could rush into my bathroom and shower it off, together,” she offered wickedly.
He laughed again. He’d never laughed as much in his life as he did with her. Was this the way she’d been, before the tragedies of the past year that had marred her life? She’d said she didn’t date much, but how in the world could men ignore a sweet, pretty little woman like that?
“I can’t believe you spend your weekends watching television with your father,” he murmured.
“I don’t. I work.”
He frowned. “On the weekends?”
She sat up, reaching under her blouse to refasten the bra he’d unsnapped. She wondered why she didn’t feel embarrassed. “Seven days a week, for the past six months,” she said honestly. “Before that, six days a week, and I had to rest on Sunday. I usually work ten-hour days, sometimes longer if we have an emergency.”
He didn’t like that. “You don’t have any free time, do you?”
She shook her head. “I’ve been dedicated to the job since I got out of college.”
“And no men,” he murmured with a speculative glance.
She grimaced. “Well, there was one I liked very much. We went out together for four months, and I was very nearly in love with him. But he never touched me. I thought he was building up to it, or something.” She sighed. “Then I saw him, with another man.” She shrugged. “He thought of me as a friend. I thought of him as a boyfriend. I sort of lost confidence in myself after that.”
“It happens, in the modern world,” he replied quietly.
“Before that, I had crushes on boys w
ho never noticed me, except to ask me to help them with math or chemistry.” She searched his eyes. “Of course, I didn’t exactly look like this until last year.”
“How did you look?” he asked curiously.
She got off the bed, went to get her purse, and took out a plastic insert. She pulled a photo from behind a credit card and handed it to him.
His eyes widened. “Good heavens!”
She winced. “I was sixty pounds overweight, and I couldn’t lose it at all. I guess I tried every diet known to man. Then I took nutrition classes and learned how to get it off the sensible way. That’s why I know so much about low-fat cooking.”
He looked from the photo to her face and smiled. “You were pretty before, too,” he said slowly. “You know, Meredith, it’s not the outside that attracts people. It’s what you are, how you treat other people, that makes friends of them. You risked your life to save my brother, then you stayed with him until his family came. I wasn’t very flattering to you when we first met, but I’ve had a lot of time to think about what you did. You’re good people. Really good people.”
She flushed and cleared her throat. “Thanks.” She gave him a mischievous look. “So, would you like to get married Friday, or is Monday better for you?” she added with a grin.
He chuckled. “Sorry, I have to wash my dogs.”
She sighed. “Rejected again.”
He pursed his lips and let his eyes run over her slowly. “You could lie back down and we could discuss it again.”
“Absolutely not. I only have so much willpower. You shouldn’t throw yourself at women that way unless you’re asking to be seduced. It’s unfair.”
“You’re not bad yourself, kid,” he murmured with a warm smile. He got up. “I’ve got to go back to work. Come here.”
She went to him. “Changed your mind?” she asked. “I can get a ring today…”
He put a finger over her mouth. “How do I smell?”
“Is that all you want?” she exclaimed. “Good Lord, you got me all the way over here to smell you?”
He bent and kissed her hungrily, pulling her so close that she could feel him against every cell of her body. But before she could cling, he put her away. “How do I smell?” he persisted.
She sniffed him. “You smell like aftershave.”
He bent and sniffed her, and frowned. “You’re not wearing perfume, are you?”
She shook her head. “I’m allergic to most strong fragrances.”
“You smell like flowers.”
She smiled. “Herbal shampoo. Flowers don’t bother me. Well, real ones do sometimes, but not flowery scent. I can use scented shampoos and wear one or two colognes, but no perfumes. They’re too strong.”
“At least I don’t smell womanly,” he said with mocking relief. “I’d never live that down.”
She cocked her head and stared up at him. “There goes the shower,” she sighed.
He tapped her nose. “Now, cut that out.” His fingers traced the fading bruises on her cheek and jaw and his eyes narrowed. “He’ll never touch you again, I swear he won’t,” he said in a low, dangerous tone.
Her heart lifted at the look on his face. “Oh, my, aren’t we getting possessive?” she teased.
He didn’t smile. “Careful,” he told her quietly. “I’m not teasing.”
Her eyes widened with something like wonder.
“Hasn’t anyone ever stood up for you?” he asked curiously.
“Just my brother. But he never had to protect me from Daddy. I know it looks really bad, but my father was the most gentle man on earth until we lost Mama and Mike. He goes crazy when he drinks, and he never remembers what he did.” Her eyes fell to his chest. She toyed with his shirt buttons, wondering absently how it would feel to smooth her fingers over his bare chest. “I miss my brother terribly,” she added simply.
“I’m sure you do. And your mother.”
She grimaced. “She and I weren’t really very close,” she confessed. She searched his eyes. “You see, what Daddy yelled about her that night you were at the house was pretty much true. She was a very attractive woman, and she had lovers.” She winced. “I hated knowing that. You can’t imagine what it did to Daddy. She even bragged about them.”
“She doesn’t sound like much of a wife,” he murmured.
“She didn’t act like one, either. She did love to spend money, though. That’s why she picked rich lovers.” Her face clouded. “I was so ashamed of her. I guess she saw herself as a modern woman. I’m not. There’s a big difference between sleeping with someone you truly love, and jumping into bed with anyone who has some money.”
He nodded and touched her soft, swollen mouth. “She’s soured you on men, hasn’t she?”
“Sort of. Until you came along, at least,” she admitted, without looking at him. She stared at his shirt button. “Bad temper and all, you’ve got some wonderful qualities.”
He gave her a wry look. “I’ll have to tell my brothers. They didn’t know.”
She chuckled. “Thanks for letting me come here to heal, anyway.”
He felt uneasy. “That sounds like goodbye, Meredith.”
She sighed. Her fingers stilled on his buttons. “I can’t stay much longer,” she said sadly. “Even though I’d like to. My boss is shorthanded as it is, and the woman filling in for me doesn’t like leaving her kids in day care. She retired when she had the second one.”
“Retired?”
“Yes. She said keeping two kids in day care ate up her whole paycheck.” She lifted her eyes to his. “Since her husband got a raise, it was actually cheaper for her to stay home with the kids than it was to work. She loves it.”
There was a strange look on his face. He rubbed his fingertips over her short fingernails absently. “Would you want to stay home with your kids?”
She stared up at him, transfixed. “Yes, I would. Those first few years are so important. If I could find any way to do it, I would, even if I had to sacrifice some little luxuries.”
“That would be tricky. You’re a highly trained professional.”
“One of my friends was a highly trained doctor,” she replied. “She gave up her job and stayed home with her little boy until he was in kindergarten. Even then, she arranged her schedule so that she’d be there when he got home in the afternoons.”
He was frowning, and his fingers were still smoothing over hers. He wanted to ask if she thought she could get used to ranch life and snakes. He was afraid to say it. The act of commitment was still very new to him. He couldn’t rush her.
He sighed, troubled. “What does your father do, by the way?” he asked suddenly.
“Oh, he teaches in the veterinary department of his college in Houston.”
His hand stilled on hers. “He’s a veterinarian?”
“He has a doctorate in veterinary medicine, yes. Why?”
Wheels were turning in his head. He stared at her thoughtfully. “Will he have a job to go back to, after all the trouble he’s had with the law?”
“You’re very perceptive,” she said after a minute. “Actually, no, he won’t. The college phoned before his last bender and told him not to come back. You can’t blame them, either,” she added sadly. “What would it do to the college’s image, to have an alcoholic on staff with a dangerous temper?”
“Not much,” he had to admit. “Did he drink before the shooting?”
“Never. Not even a beer,” she replied. “But he’s set records in the past six months. I couldn’t get him near a treatment center. At least he’s in one, now.”
“Not only in it, but improving by the day,” Rey said unexpectedly. “He’d like you to come see him. I can run you up there Sunday, if you’d like to go.”
That was surprising. “You’ve spoken to him?” she asked.
He nodded. “I had Leo phone Colter. He has contacts who helped arrange it.” He drew in a deep breath. “Your father seems pretty rational right now. Of course, he isn’t drinking, either.”
His eyes darkened. “I meant exactly what I said. He’ll never touch you again in anger.”
“When he’s sober, he never would. I can’t believe…he really wants to see me?” she asked haltingly.
He brushed his hand against her cheek. “He loves you. I’m sure you love him, too. You don’t throw people away because they make a mistake—even a bad one. You get help for them.”
“I tried.”
“Sure you did. But it’s better this way. When he comes home, we’ll decide where to go from there. For now, I’ll drive you to Houston on Sunday to see him. Want to go?”
“Oh, yes,” she said. Her expression was soft, wondering. “You’d do that, for me?”
He smiled. “Anything you want, kiddo,” he murmured. “It’s the least I can do for the only woman who’s ever proposed to me.”
She pursed her lips and gave him an impish look. “We could lie down and talk about it.”
“No, we couldn’t,” he told her firmly, and chuckled as he removed her hands from his shirt. “I have to get back to work. I was in the middle of a meeting when you did your snake charmer routine. I left twelve employees sitting in the boardroom with glasses of water and no ashtrays. At least six of them smoke, despite all the regulations. I expect they’ve attacked the other six with chairs by now, or vice versa. I’ve got to get back. Quick.”
“I’d love to go Sunday,” she said.
“Fine. I’ll run you up there Sunday afternoon. We can go to church first.”
Her eyebrows lifted. “I’m Methodist.”
He grinned. “So are we. It’s a date.” He opened the door. Before he went out it, he glanced back over his shoulder. “And stay out of the henhouse for the rest of the day, will you?”
“Anything for my prospective fiancé,” she said with a theatrical gesture of her arm.
He shook his head and walked out, still chuckling.
* * *
Later, she wondered what he’d meant, about making decisions when her father got out of rehab. She didn’t dare think too hard about it. But it sounded very much as if he wanted to go on looking out for her.
