And she reached out. She put a hand against his belly, palm flat. A groan escaped him when she did that. Her touch felt so good, so exactly right. Like the scent of her that seemed to call to him, to beckon him to her.
She said, gently, politely, “Take off your jeans, please.”
He couldn’t do what she wanted fast enough. Two of the buttons were undone anyway. He undid the rest and shucked them off and away.
“Oh, Collin, you’re so...you’re beautiful, you are.”
“Men aren’t beautiful,” he argued gruffly.
“Oh, yes. They are.” She held out her arms to him. “I’m so happy. After all this time, I never thought...never imagined...” She seemed to run out of words. It was all right. He understood, he knew exactly what she meant. “Come down here. With me....”
He pulled open the bedside drawer and got a condom from the box in there. And then he went down to her. He stretched out beside her, covered her mouth with his and let his hands wander.
Her body moved beneath his touch, so tempting, so soft. He kissed her as he stroked her hair, her throat, the smooth roundness of her shoulder.
So much to explore, all of her. Beautiful and willing and pliant and tender. The slim curve of her waist called to him. He stroked his hand from her rib cage to the swell of her hip and lower, down the long sweep of her thigh.
He palmed her knee and gently guided it open. Then he did what he’d dreamed of doing, sliding his palm up the inside of her thigh as she rolled her hips and tossed her head and moaned his name in hungry encouragement.
The dark curls were already wet with her excitement. He parted them. She cried his name out good and loud then.
He kissed her slow and deep. He whispered against her lips, “Like this, Willa?”
She gasped. “Yes, oh! Yes...”
He slipped a finger in. Two. Wet silk inside, warm and slick, welcoming him. Her hips moved rhythmically now, her thighs open, offering him everything. So much. All she had to give.
“Collin...” She said his name against his mouth. And then she gave him her tongue to suck. He kissed her endlessly as he stroked her.
And by then, touching her in that most intimate place wasn’t enough. He had to taste her there.
He kissed his way down the center of her. She clutched his shoulders, murmured his name over and over, like she couldn’t get enough of saying it. He just kept kissing her, all of her, as he lifted up and slid over and settled between her open thighs. She shifted, adjusting herself with a long, slow sigh, bracing her heels on his shoulders.
The scent of her was so sweet, lemons and musk. And the taste? Exactly as he’d dreamed it. Only better. Endlessly better...
He used his fingers and his mouth and she moved against him, sighing, her hands in his hair, her head tossing on the pillow. She was rising, reaching for the peak, and he stayed with her, all the way. Until at last she went over, crying his name as the soft explosion of her climax pulsed against his tongue.
The condom had been lost somewhere in the tangle of bedclothes. He felt around for it—and got lucky. His fingers closed around it as she sighed once more and went all loose and lazy.
He didn’t stop kissing her. She tasted so good.
She moaned his name. And finally, she pleaded, “Oh, please. Oh, my. I can’t...it’s too much...”
With a low chuckle, he relented, backing off a little, resting his head on her thigh. She stroked his hair, traced the shape of his ear. He was aching to continue. He’d been hard and getting harder forever, it felt like right then.
But at the same time, he was satisfied just to lie with her that way, naked. Together. Unashamed.
A few minutes later, he sat back on his knees. She followed him, sitting up, brushing her wild hair out of her eyes, laughing. “Here. Let me...”
So he gave her the pouch. She tore the end off with her teeth. Hottest thing he ever saw. A guy didn’t need those girlie magazines she’d teased him about having in his man-cave. Not with Willa Christensen naked in his bed.
She peeled away the wrapper and set it neatly on the bedside table. Then she bent close to him. She rolled it down over him.
He shut his eyes and tipped his head back and tried not to lose it just from the feel of her sliding it down over him.
“Collin?”
He let a low groan be his answer.
And then the bed shifted as she rose up on her knees and bent close to him, all tart and sweet and womanly. Her hair brushed his shoulder and her mouth touched his, lightly, teasing him.
It was too much. He rose up and took her shoulders and rolled her under him.
She let out a little cry and a soft laugh. And then he was on top of her, his elbows braced on either side of her, framing her sweet face in his hands, her hair all around them. He stared down at her and she looked up at him.
“Willa...”
“Collin.”
“Willa, I...” There were no words. And it didn’t matter. He was right where he’d never dared dream he would be.
“I’m so glad,” she whispered.
He had her arms trapped at her sides. But she could move her legs.
And she did, lifting them, hooking them around the backs of his thighs. He was positioned just right, nudging her where she was so soft and wet and open.
She felt like heaven. Like some lost paradise, found at last, after he’d given up believing he would ever get there.
He entered her slowly, by aching degrees. And he held her gaze the whole time. He needed the sight of her face as he claimed her, so beautifully flushed. Lips softly parted.
Completely willing, with nothing held back from him.
She moaned as he went deeper. He made an answering sound and kept pressing, filling her.
Finally, he couldn’t go slowly anymore. With a forceful thrust, he was all the way in.
She gasped. Her eyes widened. Her sweet lips invited.
He lowered his mouth to her and kissed her as he began to move.
After that, time folded in on itself. He lost control and rocked wildly against her. She held him closer, tighter than before.
She made soft, willing sounds that only drove him higher. Deeper. Harder.
His mind was gone, shattered. There was only her body and his body inside her, the feel of her soft, willing mouth pressed to his.
He hit the peak and sailed over, knowing a faint echo of regret that he couldn’t hold out for her—and then, all at once, learning he hadn’t left her behind, after all. Her body pulsed around him, drawing him deeper. Pushing him higher.
Hurling him outward through a midnight-blue universe of fast-spinning stars.
Chapter Eleven
Faintly, far away, Willa heard music playing. It was that Joe Nichols song, “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off.”
She smiled. She’d always thought that song was kind of cute.
The song stopped. And the bed shifted. She remembered.
It was Collin’s bed....
“My cell,” said a groggy, very masculine voice not far from her ear. He nuzzled her hair. “I left it charging in the kitchen....”
“Um.” She cuddled closer to his big, hard, naked body. He wrapped a muscular arm around her and drew her closer, tucking her into him, spoon style, settling the covers more snugly around them.
She smiled some more and opened her eyes to morning light.
Amazing. It really had happened with Collin. Just like in all her forbidden fantasies. It had been incredible and it had lasted all night long.
He smoothed her hair away from her neck and kissed her there. “You smell good....” Down the hallway, the phone beeped.
“Voice mail,” she said on a lazy yawn.
His lips brushed her neck again. “It’s after eight. I’d better go see if it’s anything important.”
She grabbed the arm he had wrapped around her and pretended to sulk. “Oh, no...”
But he only kissed her hair and pushed back the covers, pausing to
tuck them around her again. “I’ll be right back.”
She rolled over and watched him get up. He looked so good without his clothes on. He had a cute little happy trail and a real, true six-pack.
And a beautiful tattoo on the hard bulge of his right shoulder, one of those tribal designs. She’d spent a while the night before studying it, tracing its curves and angles with her fingers. It looked a little like a mask, with horns and a pair of eyes that also seemed to resemble sharks, somehow. She’d asked him what it was supposed to represent and in typical Collin fashion, he’d answered, “Whatever you want it to represent.”
He put on his jeans and buttoned them partway, which somehow only made him look manlier and more naked. “Keep the bed warm.”
“Will do. Let the dog out?” Buster, who’d ended up on the rug by the bed, was already up and wagging his tail.
He nodded. “C’mon, Buster.”
She watched him go, Buster close behind. The view of him walking away was every bit as inspiring as the one from the front.
She heard the outside door open and shut as he let Buster out. And then he came back.
He held out the phone to her. “Your brother.”
She sat up, pulling the sheet with her to cover her breasts, and took the phone from him. “Um. Thanks.” She hit the icon for voice mail.
Gage’s voice said, “Collin, this is Gage. I’m in town. And looking for my sister. Could you have her call me?” He didn’t sound especially cordial.
Collin was watching her. “Good old Gage. Finally made it into town and he’s wondering where the hell his baby sister’s gotten off to.”
Willa hitched up her chin and put on a smile. “Oh, I doubt he’s wondering. I’m sure someone in town has already told him exactly where I am.”
His dark gaze ran over her. She thought of the night before and a hot shiver went through her. “Not feelin’ quite so unimpeachable now, are you, Willa?”
She pursed up her mouth at him and narrowed her eyes. “Don’t start. I do not regret a thing. Last night was beautiful. I mean that. Do you understand?”
He gave her a slow, insolent once-over. “Yes, ma’am.”
She puffed out her cheeks with a frustrated breath. And then she whispered, “Come here. Please?”
His fine mouth curled. “You should call your brother back.”
She reached out her hand.
He looked at it for a count of five. Her heart sank. She was certain he would turn and walk away.
But then he reached out, too. Their hands met, fingers lacing together. Relief, sweet and good as a long drink of cool water, washed through her.
He dropped down onto the bed at her side. “I feel bad, okay? I don’t want to cause you problems with your family.”
She dropped the phone onto the sheet and wrapped her other hand around their joined ones. “You’re not. You couldn’t.”
He leaned closer. She tipped her mouth up to him and their lips met. “Call him,” he said against her lips. “I’ll let Buster back inside and put the coffee on.” He lifted their hands and kissed the back of hers.
Reluctantly, she let him go, picked up the phone again and called her brother back. He answered on the first ring.
“Gage, it’s me.”
“Willa. Where are you?”
She could tell by his tone that he already knew. “I’m up at Collin’s. We drove up yesterday. The road’s a mess. I helped him clear the way.”
A silence on Gage’s end, then, “I don’t get it. You never even liked Collin Traub, and all of a sudden, you two are—what? What’s going on, Willa? What about you and Dane?”
Dane. Oh, Lord. She’d really messed up with Dane. She never should have let him talk her into taking time to think things over. She’d put off the inevitable and now she felt like a two-timer.
“Willa, are you still there?”
“Yes. Right here.” And no way was she getting into all this on the phone. “Listen. I’ll call you as soon as we get back down into town. We can talk then—or, whenever you can get a minute.”
“When will you be back in town?”
“I don’t know for sure yet. Collin may have things he has to do up here. And we cleared the road as best we could, but there are some rough spots and some places where the cliff side collapsed. It could take a while to get down.”
“Buster okay?”
“He’s fine. Yes.”
“And you?” He sounded worried. “You...okay?”
Love washed through her. Her brother was such a great guy. “I am just fine. I promise you. And I’m glad you’re here. So glad.” Rust Creek Falls really needed him now. But she didn’t say that. She knew him, knew he had to be beating himself up that he hadn’t been there when the levee broke. Telling him how much he was needed would only make him feel worse about everything.
“Call me,” he said. “As soon as you’re back in town.”
* * *
When she entered the kitchen, Buster was in the corner, his nose buried in Libby’s old food bowl. The coffee was brewing. And Collin stood at the stove, laying strips of bacon in a pan.
She leaned a hip against the counter and stuck her hands in the pockets of the flannel robe she’d found on the back of his bathroom door. “I hope you don’t mind. I stole your robe.” Her purple shorts, cami and plaid shirt were strewn around the living room.
He glanced over. “Looks better on you than on me anyway.”
She wanted to go to him, brush his hair back off his forehead, tell him...
What?
She wasn’t quite sure. “That bacon smells so good.”
He tipped his head toward the open shelves with the dishes on them. “Put the plates on the table?”
She nodded and then got busy setting the table. He cooked the bacon and scrambled some eggs. She made the toast and poured the coffee.
They sat down to eat, the silence between them both sharp-edged and a little too deep.
She made herself break it. “Gage is fine. I said I would call him when we got back down into town.”
“You need to get going right away, then?”
She sipped her coffee. “No. There’s no hurry.”
“You sure about that, Willa?”
The question seemed to hang heavy in the air between them.
Willa pushed back her chair. He watched her, dark eyes wary, as she went around the table to his side and did what she’d wanted to do since she entered the kitchen. She smoothed his hair back off his forehead. “I’m sure. No hurry.”
He caught her hand. But he didn’t push it away. Instead, he brought her fingers to his lips and kissed the tips of them. “Your food will get cold....”
“Um. Can’t have that.” She bent and he tipped his head up. They shared a quick kiss and she returned to her chair.
After that, the silence didn’t seem so oppressive. But the romantic and sensual mood of the night before, of that morning before the phone rang, was definitely absent.
She wanted to talk—about everything. About how she was never going to marry Dane Everhart and she’d been wrong not to simply say no when Dane proposed, about how her brother would be fine with her and Collin being together, once she had a chance to talk with him. About how beautiful last night had been and how she was looking forward to more nights just like it.
But somehow, she didn’t know where to begin. And that had her looking back wistfully at their recent nights on the front steps of the town hall, when talking with Collin had been as simple and easy as breathing.
And now, here they were. Lovers, at last. And it was suddenly neither easy nor simple. She had so much to say—and yet she feared she might mess things up if she started talking. She might end up blurting out something that would turn him off.
Was it true then, what they said about sex ruining a perfectly good friendship? She did hope not.
* * *
Collin knew he had to get her back to town as soon as possible. Her brother’s call had been lik
e a bucket of icy water in the face. It had snapped him back to reality hard and fast.
He shouldn’t have taken her to bed. He knew that. Really, where was it going to go with them?
Nowhere. Things were crazy now, after the flood. Their whole world had been turned pretty much upside down. He knew that was all it was with the two of them: one of those things that happen when a man and a woman were thrown together by necessity in a crisis, with emotions running high.
It could never be anything permanent. She was a nice girl with a certain kind of life ahead of her. And his life suited him fine as it was. He liked his independence, always had. And she was going to marry a big shot from Colorado. She would remember that soon enough.
Probably already had. She’d been pretty damn quiet ever since she’d talked to Gage. Collin figured that just the sound of her brother’s voice had gotten her to thinking twice. She’d realized it was a bad idea, what they’d done last night, that it never should have happened and it needed to stop now.
They loaded the contents of his freezer into coolers, strapped them into the pickup bed, and left for town.
The trip down went smoothly, all things considered. Collin knew the places to be extra careful—and they’d cleared away the worst of the storm debris on the way up.
He handed her his cell when they reached the base of the mountain. “Call Gage.”
She made the call.
It was, “Hi, it’s me...Yes...All right, I will...A few minutes...Okay.” She handed him back his phone and asked him to let her off at the sheriff’s office.
He pulled up to the curb.
She hooked Buster’s leash to his collar and turned a dewy smile his way. “I...well, I can’t tell you to call me, since I don’t have a phone.” She really did sound like she wanted him to call her.
But that had to be wishful thinking on his part. His chest was tight and his throat felt like it had a log stuck in it. “I’ll see you.” It came out way too gruff and low.
She searched his face. Whatever she was looking for, he didn’t think she found it. He reminded himself how that was for the best. “Um. Okay, then. Have a good one.”
“Yeah. Say hi to Gage.”
Harlequin Special Edition July 2013 - Bundle 1 of 2: Marooned with the MaverickHer McKnight in Shining ArmorCelebration's Bride Page 13
