by Carol Devine
He walked backwards, guiding her hips tight against his pelvis. She relished the rigid feel of his cock, trapped behind his fly, fighting to get past the barrier of denim and her damp panties. She grinded into him, breathless with anticipation.
He nibbled the line of her neck. "Better than fried chicken, you are."
Mariah fanned herself and faked a Southern accent. "Mr. Ashley Wilkes, you behave yourself now."
"Not the wimpy Ashley guy. I'm the Clark Gable guy through and through."
"My mistake, Mr. Butler. I'm about to be overcome by Yankee fever. Fiddle-dee-dee, where were we?"
Chuckling, he laid her down on the kitchen table and bowed over her, ridding her of her clothes, massaging her breasts, tongue invading her mouth, teeth play-biting her lips. "I have a powerful hunger, Scarlett. Powerful."
She hooked her ankles at the small of his back and drew him close again, his rigid fly tight against the achy cleft between her legs. She was desperate for contact, desperate to rub her body against his; she couldn't stop long enough to yank his jeans down even though she was dying to do it. "It sounds like one little old leg shan't be enough for a starving bootlegger like yourself."
"Nope, need two, for sure." The two halves of her ass were separating in his hands. He was doing wicked things with his fingertips, exploring her seams, taking advantage of her full exposure. "And the stuff in between as dessert."
Overcome by his expertise, she was finding it difficult to think, much less talk. "Dessert don't come easy in the war torn South. Might need an extra incentive to open up the entire banquet to a criminal on the run."
"Criminal on the run?" His mirth was better than any vibrator, rumbling through her body. "Maybe you could be the criminal and take advantage of me."
Mariah's next thought gave her the absolute giggles. She faked his deep voice. "Why, Miss Scarlett, I can play any role you want."
"You better watch yourself, Mr. Butler, or I'm going to take you right here on the kitchen table."
"Mr. Butler would rather be taken in the cushy bed in your bedroom, Miss Scarlett."
Miss Scarlett turned out to be exceptionally strong and muscular, able to sweep Mr. Butler up the stairs like it was the grand entry of Tara. Once they arrived at the bed, there was no question about who Miss Scarlett and Rhett Butler really were.
Rhett was his usual swashbuckling self, full of sly wit and wicked references to her bad girl ways, while Miss Scarlett pretended to be aghast, overwhelmed by her desire to be taken by a man of such astuteness and experience.
* * * * *
After fending off most public holiday celebrations, if not the celebration of them in more private ways, Mariah came home from work in the middle of February to find Shane in the kitchen, cooking up a romantic storm on the month's most romantic day, against her expressed wishes.
Removing her coat, she tried not to bark at him.
"I've told you and told you, Shane. Christmas, the dates of our one, two and three month anniversaries, Valentine's Day... these are days I wish you'd ignore. You don't have to cook for me or buy flowers or give gifts."
He bussed her cheek in greeting. "I bought you chocolates, too."
She kissed him on the mouth aggressively just so he understood that her brand of romanticism was more about sex than chocolate. "I like whipped cream much more."
"That can also be arranged." He went back to stirring the large pot of something rather delicious smelling he had on the stove.
Mariah busied herself by setting the table, sounding off-handedly casual. "Who saw you in the store?"
"Gee, must have been Pablo Cabrillo. I'm sure he's running, screaming in the streets, because I got you a card and bought some roses."
"I don't want him to know, that's all."
"That we're living together? We're talking Grizzly Springs. Everybody knows."
"I don't want him to know about this kind of thing, hearts and flowers and chocolates."
"As far as he's concerned, I could be stringing along two or three women at a time. Ever thought of that?"
She paused the table setting. "Have you done that?
"Sure."
"Really?"
Shane nodded. Gratifyingly, she sounded surprised but also titillated.
"How did it work out? Did the women find out about each other?"
"Both knew about the other. I was the confused one. I wanted to marry Ellie Masters but Alexandra Cruz moved to town. I couldn't make up my mind."
"Let me guess. You were twelve."
"Nope, kindergarten. Child prodigy. What does that tell you about my psychological makeup?"
"You seem to have a keen interest in creating conflict in relationships."
"Like buying gifts for people who don't want them?"
"That does qualify."
He lifted the spoon from the chili. "Taste this." He blew on the contents of the spoon, then offered it to her.
She tasted a tiny bit, then went for more, rolling the mix of sauce, meat, beans and spicy seasonings inside her mouth. "Wow, that's great. Where did you get the recipe?"
"My dad likes to cook. Nothing fancy but he's got a few specialties. Mom, too. But she would tell you he's the better cook cause his fry bread is out of this world. Do you like fry bread?"
"Who doesn't? I hope you're not expecting much in the way of family recipes from me. McBrides and cookbooks rarely appear in the same room."
"You like to eat, don't you?"
"That's why God created fast food."
"One thing you may have noticed about Grizzly Springs is the powers that be have coalesced around keeping fast food out and local restaurants in. We have the Tavern and diner but also Mexican, Southern Barbeque, Chinese and, if I have anything to do with it, Vietnamese and Thai."
"I love a varied diet. Imagine our hometown on its way to being the center of the culinary universe. Aren't we about to get a second stoplight in front of the new school?"
"We should have dinner with my parents sometime."
"Only if I can invite Bird."
"You serious?"
"No parental dinners, Shane. I'd like to avoid the inevitable relationship questions for as long as possible."
"My dad has a big birthday coming up. The whole family will be coming, his two sisters and their families from California, my brother and his wife from North Dakota and my sister. I'm paying for everybody's stay at the Aspen Ritz Carlton and taking them to dinner at the best steak house in town. You could ride shotgun with me, even bring your real shotgun so everybody is impressed by what a shoot-em-up girlfriend I have."
"How many ways must I say it? I don't want to be introduced as your girlfriend, especially in front of your family."
"I'll call you Tonto, my sidekick. You can pretend I hired you for the event to provide security."
"You're the one with Native American blood, not me."
"Now I get it. You want to muscle in on my territory and play the Lone Ranger. Sorry, Doc. That takes horsemanship skills of which you have none. Now, if you'd let me take you on a trail ride or two, get you up to snuff, I might consider it."
"No way you're getting me on a horse again."
"No horses, no parties, no holidays … "He put down the spoon and, grabbing her around the waist, grinned his most mischievous grin."This really is about sex, sex and more sex, ain't it?"
"Yes, it is. In terms of common interests, we're incompatible, Shane. You know it as well as I do. I'll be moving my business as soon as my lease is up. I can do this job most anywhere once I get on my feet. In short, my time here is limited. Why get your family involved? It's going to lead to questions and assumptions I don't want to hassle with."
"They are a curious bunch, my family. Keep asking when my new housemate is coming home to meet the parents."
"That's one reason I should have listened to my first instinct and found my own place. Maybe your perfect woman is wandering around town at this very moment. Maybe this Valentine's Day idiocy is preventi
ng you from meeting her."
Shane peered out the window. "Maybe you're right. Maybe she's outside right now, hatching a plan to lure me away, night vision goggles trained on the two of us, taking notes on stuff we do in order to find out what I like and what I don't like."
"Like a voyeur."
"Yeah, a voyeur. We're being watched. I better draw the curtains or I'll have to hire you to end the surveillance."
Mariah twirled the end of her ponytail and cocked her hip, going for her most suggestive look. "What do you say to keeping the curtains open?"
The timer buzzed. He stirred the chili but she could tell his focus on the food had evaporated, which was a pretty big victory for her when it came to Shane's appetite. "Put on a big show for the many voyeurs in this town? Is that what you mean?"
"I do have an exhibitionist streak."
He turned down the stove and put the lid on the pot of chili. "Mine's bigger. What do you say we go outside?"
"Naked?"
He adjusted the collar on her blouse with a critical eye. "Nope. Fully clothed. We have to do a strip tease, make it entertaining or our voyeurs will lose interest."
She grasped his biceps, steadying herself. "Sounds like you've done this before. But I need some rehearsing. What would we do first?"
"First, I'd undo your hair and take it down and show off how long it is. Voyeurs like long hair."
"They do?"
He loosened the elastic on the band holding her ponytail, freeing it. "You betcha. Cowboys do this stuff all the time. We're outdoorsy folk."
"Outdoorsy folk? What self-respecting cowboy uses a phrase like that?"
He moved her hair aside and started grazing her neck with his teeth. "Who said I'm worthy of respect? We're talking voyeurism, Mariah. Deeply disturbing sexual stuff that's going to become more deeply disturbing as we go along. For example, let's get back to your hair."
His fingers sifted through it, making goose bumps rise on her scalp. She could feel her nipples hardening, making her aware of how confining her bra was getting to be.
"You could wrap it around my neck like a dominatrix. Put me through my paces."
Hoping to make him feel like his clothes were becoming overly confining, too, she undid his belt buckle, gratified by his body's immediate response. "How did you manage to bring every conversation back to the subject of horses?"
"You must admit, they're handsome creatures. If you decided to take up riding we could open up this entire voyeurism thing to new heights."
She slid his thigh between her legs, rubbing against him in ways that made her body melt inside. "I'd much rather ride you."
He hitched her closer, leveraging more of her weight which accelerated the melting, making it positively incendiary. "Do you give lessons?"
"Yes, I certainly do," she said huskily, sliding his belt off and tossing it away. "But only to advanced students."
He unbuttoned his jeans and guided her hand inside. "How advanced? For example, how do you determine where to draw the line?"
She pushed down his jeans and his boxers, too, kneeling, flinging them across the room. "Their experience with voyeurism might be a good place to start."
He was having trouble talking. "You're really into the whole idea, aren't you?"
She kissed the inside of his thighs. "Making love outside or with the curtains open in order to allow the whole town to see what they're missing?"
He plunged his hands into her hair. She milked him with her mouth and he lost the ability to speak.
"Yum," she said.
"Keep that up and I'm not going to last…"
She gave him one last lick and ran to the living room window. She dragged the curtains open and wiggled out of her jeans. Shane caught her before she had a chance to get fully naked and laid her out on the sofa. "I've changed my mind," he said. "I don't want to share you with anyone else. When it comes to Mariah McBride, I'm the only voyeur in this town who gets to see her in her naked glory."
"You want me for yourself and yourself only?"
"I'm a pretty selfish guy. Always thinking about ways to drive you insane. Like now when I have you trapped underneath me."
"How can I be trapped when I like it as much as you do?"
"Tell me what else you like."
"Hmmm." She reached underneath him, skimming her hips, managing to shed her panties. "Skin to skin feels pretty good to me. How does it feel to you? We've both been tested and I'm on the Pill. If you want to move the next level, this is the time."
"You keep doing that and I predict we'll be skipping so many levels, something mighty fine is going to happen."
"For you or for me?"
"For both of us."
"Demonstrate, please."
He demonstrated all right. When Shane got down to business, he made her feel free to be whoever or whatever she wanted. Great sex was fulfilling in its own way, leaving her feeling extraordinarily alive, enough to last until the next time.
Mariah decided she was going to enjoy this blessing, ready to take full advantage and give it back, ten-fold.
* * * * *
"What you working on there, pardner?"
Four months in and Shane was still too charming to be resisted. But the charm was beginning to grate on Mariah's nerves. Even if he wasn't trying to get her to fall in love with him, it was happening and she was going to have to do something about it soon. Like break their cozy arrangement up before he figured out how she really felt about this absurdly wonderful domesticity they shared. There were plenty of reasons to end this thing now before they got further in, if only to make it easier for her to walk away when her time in Grizzly Springs came to an end.
Oddly enough, it didn't matter if she got rejected in the process, maybe because she'd finally built her business to the point where she could stop relying solely on her savings and stand on her own two feet again. McBride Investigations was turning out to be successful enough to keep her afloat and independent.
If worse came to worse and she couldn't bear seeing him around town, she'd work out of an apartment somewhere else. Losing thousands on the months remaining on her lease was preferable to staying in a place that counted her as nothing more than an ex. But right now it felt like she couldn't bear to not see him, even if it was from a few blocks away.
Recent events had proven that her pathetic excuse for a father might spill the beans in a bid for attention. If the past was any guide, he was liable to tell the truth during one of his public rants, blurting out innuendos much the same way he had done at the camper the day Shane and she had first met. She deserved more consideration than a constant barrage drilled into her head by Bird's lovely commentary. Victory would be his and, once again, she'd feel ashamed of herself for entertaining the fantasy that he could deliver a different result.
She had left her home town for sound reasons, and her home state for an ambitious turn at being the best of the best in the most challenging investigative bureau in the world. Now it was her private life that was taking a turn. Time to pull in and not get greedy.
"What are you working on there, pardner?" Shane asked.
She pointedly remained glued to her computer. "Database search," she said.
"I know what that means. Time to go invisible. How about I pick up some Chinese take-out for dinner? You want chicken lo Mein?"
"No, thanks."
"Pork fried rice?"
"No takeout, period. But you go ahead."
He ambled around the kitchen, patting his pockets. "What did I do with my wallet? You haven't seen it, have you? I can't find my phone, either."
Mariah snapped shut her laptop, realizing it was time. Time for the real talk. She had to get it over with because she felt mushy and weak-kneed and just about ready to jump into his arms and confess she may have done something stupidly spontaneous like fall in love with him from the moment she saw him.
"Why aren't you married, Shane?"
He did a slow turn to stare at her. "Well, there's a lo
aded question. Investigating another lowlife husband stepping out on his wife?"
She gestured around, indicating the lure of the homey atmosphere they shared. "You seem to like this. Coming home, finding me here, having dinner like an old married couple. All that's missing is the paper certificate and a couple of kids."
His brow creased, undoubtedly wondering where this was going. "Are you asking because you're interested? Because you never said you were."
"You're right. I'm not. I'm asking if you ever entertained the idea, not for us, but generally."
"I don't think I should get married. Or have kids, for that matter."
Surprised at his vehemence, Mariah was struck by her immediate desire to let the whole subject drop. Instead, she persevered, driven to keep him from guessing the truth. "That doesn't sound right to me. I've seen you giving lessons, leading family trail rides. And Kelly, you gave him the guidance he needed."
"Are we really going to have this conversation? I thought you had rules. Keep it light, impersonal and about sex, as I recall."
"This is a hypothetical."
"Since when do you deal in hypotheticals?"
"I'm allowed to be curious."
Agitated, he paced the room. "Tell me why you're still single first."
"Aside from the obvious, like spending the last two years in courtrooms and blowing my career, I haven't felt the least bit inclined to commit myself to another human being in such a permanent way."
"But you think I should? Is that why you brought it up?"
"What are we doing here, Shane? Do you feel sorry for me? Is that it?"
"Why are you doing this now? I thought we had a good thing going."
"I'm not saying otherwise. It's just that..."
He plunked down in the chair next to her, looking like a deer caught in the headlights. "What?"
Her palms were sweaty and her legs shaky, making her shaky inside. If her voice got that way, he'd get the wrong idea, think she needed reassurance. It was the last thing she wanted him to think. "Never mind. You clearly don't want to discuss this."
"No, spit it out. What were you going to say?"
She took a deep breath, steeling her heart, intent on making her point as frankly and openly as possible. "Now that I've gotten to know you some, it seems to me you're a pretty traditional guy from a pretty traditional family. Needless to say, I'm pretty untraditional. And my family, well, let's face it, is nothing like yours. I guess I asked because I wanted to make it clear. This... relationship, if you want to call it that, is not going anywhere. That's what I want and it better be what you want, too, because I'm getting the feeling it's not."
