Desert Sunrise (Love in the Sierras Book 2)

by Belle, Sawyer

  One by one, the party dispersed and people retired, leaving Val alone with Jess in front of the hearth. Without prompt, he picked up two sections of skirt and began sewing the seam together. They worked quietly until he heard her quiet laughter beside him.

  “What?” he asked.

  “I still can’t get over the view of you helping me sew.”

  “And I you, cutting steers and branding them.”

  She licked her lips and laughed again. Their eyes met and he felt his insides stirring in the intense quiet and heat of the room. He longed to lean forward and take her in his arms again, feel her mouth against his. The urge was strong and he almost gave into it until she looked down again.

  “I guess there is no men’s work and women’s work,” she said. “There’s just work.”

  They carried on until the silence and her nearness was too much for his body to withstand. He bid her goodnight and retired to the barn.

  Jess shifted onto her side, away from a sleeping Marlena. The girls had been curled into each other for an hour and Jess’s limbs began to numb. She wiped her sweaty palm across her forehead as she studied the flickering stars in the black canvas sky. The air was warm, like the night she and Val danced.

  Her eyes drifted shut as she remembered the feel of his calloused palms against hers, his scent and his sweet words. She wondered if his sentiments remained after hearing her tale. He’d said nothing but that he was grateful she was in the Sierras. Her teeth clamped over a thumbnail as she worried how Val’s perception might have been altered.

  She sat up and crawled to the window, sliding it open to admit a thin breeze. Orange light danced in the windows of the barn and her lungs filled with a deep breath. He was still awake. With a sparing glance at her sister, she grabbed her robe and tied it about her waist, taking the steps on the tip of her toes to the first floor before making her way out of the house.

  The beat of her heart banged against her ears and her skin tingled from toes to fingertips. She paused outside the barn door, knowing that crossing the threshold was a representation of the crossroads at which she suddenly found her life. Once her mind was made up, there was no going back. With one last, fortifying breath, she pushed through the door.

  Val looked up from his book, brushing back an errant lock of dark hair from his forehead. His amber eyes darkened with concern and he came to a stand. The blanket he’d been resting beneath crumpled to the ground to reveal he wore nothing but his trousers. Her eyes traveled the newly reformed muscles of his chest before meeting his gaze.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, though his voice was barely audible.

  She played with the knot of her robe, her eyes shifting around the enclosure. “You never said anything about…you know…what I revealed the other night.” Her head tilted toward the house, and she watched the rise of Val’s chest as he took a deep breath.

  “I don’t know what to say,” he answered. “I know you don’t want my pity.” His hands spread out wide before dropping to his sides. “I know you don’t want praise or promises. You don’t want my compliments, crude or gentlemanly. You don’t want my approval, my help or my money, my courtship or…or even my dances. So, I’m at a loss, Jessica. What did you come out here for? What do you want from me?”

  Her stomach went cold as a fiery heat claimed the rest of her. She knew why she went out there. She knew what she wanted from him. The fingers trembling around the knot of her robe relaxed and began to loosen the ties. A thick wad of fear lodged in the base of her throat and she swallowed it down as she pulled the garment from her body and watched the shifting amber in his eyes as they followed it to the floor.

  He took a step toward her and peered into her eyes. “Why?” he whispered. “Why now?”

  She took a step closer. “I can’t explain it to you, Val. Please don’t ask me questions.” Her tongue slid out to wet her lips. “And please don’t turn me away.”

  His laugh was breathy and incredulous as he shook his head and reached out to encircle her waist. “I wanted you the first moment I saw you, and every second since. Before you were Jessica, before you were scarred…” His eyebrow raised in jest. “…Before you were broke and homeless.”

  She laughed even as she felt her body sliding closer to his at the urging of his hands.

  “I’ve always known I wanted you,” he said before bending down to claim her mouth in a tender kiss. When they broke apart, their eyes locked and she felt mesmerized by the emotion highlighted in his. “But I want to hear it from your lips. I want to know what you want.”

  His fingers pressed into the small of her back and began to move in circular patterns, kneading tense muscles while awakening other, lower ones. She closed her eyes and quieted her mind, trying to strip away every circumstance and focus on the one true desire of her heart.

  “I want…” she managed, before choking up.

  She felt the warm press of his lips over her neck, beneath her ear. His forehead pressed against hers; his hands slid up her back. The truth was there, desperate to spill from her lips. It wasn’t what he’d want to hear, but she wanted to be honest.

  “What do you want?” he urged on.

  “I want…”

  He suckled the sensitive skin below her earlobe and she let her head fall back to give him free roam.

  “Say it,” he said.

  She swallowed hard. “I want to forget him.”

  Val went still and pulled back to study her eyes, which she could feel thickening with tears. “I want you, Val. I do,” she said. “But I can’t look at you or feel your caresses without him invading it all. I try to push him out. Hell, I killed the bastard. What more can I do to rid myself of him?” She shut her eyes and felt the tears slide down her cheeks. “I don’t want him to win. Ever again. I need you to rid me of his ghost so I am free to be yours.”

  A sudden urgency overcame her and she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him toward the wall. She clasped her mouth to his and challenged his tongue with hers. Her back hit the wood and she gasped as Val returned her fervor. Their lips locked as their tongues worked frantically, delved deeper. Her hands went to his cheeks; his slid beneath her gown and worked it up to her outer thighs.

  The air was a fiery storm. Her body tensed with excitement as her grip on his head tightened and she pressed her body against his. The long-forgotten ache between her thighs throbbed back to life. She broke their kiss to move her lips along his throat, suckling and kissing.

  “Make me forget, Val,” she breathed into his neck. “Make me forget.”

  Chapter 28

  Make me forget. The same words Val used to Juliet at a desperate time, a time when he no longer believed in his strength, his masculinity. He heard the desperation in Jess’s voice and knew every word was true. She needed him to exorcise a demon, though a part of him shriveled when she’d admitted it aloud. He wanted her to be his, but not for the sake of expelling a bad memory. He wanted her to want him for himself.

  But one thing was certain. He wanted her. And in that moment, with her clawing and kissing him as if her life depended upon it, he’d take her. There was no going back for him. She would be his. He grabbed her hands and held them above her head, pressing her against the wall as he took command of their kisses.

  His palms slid down the insides of her forearms, over the elbows and to the delicate side curves of her breasts until he pressed into them with his thumbs. She moaned into his mouth, a soft, mewling sound, and he filled his palms with them, stroking and handling, reveling that they weren’t overly generous, but perfect enough to fill his hands.

  Tearing his mouth from hers, he slid the nightgown down to taste her tight buds, suckling and nipping one breast before turning to the other until she was thrashing against the wall and raking his scalp with her fingernails. He reveled in the pleasure he gave her, watching her push against the wood, closer to his hands and mouth, where he alternated teasing and kneading until she whimpered. When he finally relented, it was
only to allow her to catch a breath.

  “I know they’re not…what you’re used to,” she panted, and he had to raise an eyebrow in askance.

  She smirked. “I’ve seen the size of Juliet’s breasts, and I’ve sewn dresses for her and her women. They are far more endowed.”

  Val filled his palms with her flesh again and tickled the tip of her nipple with his tongue before sparing a glance upward.

  “I always told Morgan…” He sucked a sensitive bead into his mouth and circled her nerve buds with his tongue. “More than a mouthful is too much. You’re perfect.”

  Her body rippled beneath his hands, beneath his tongue and he smiled. These were not virginal tremors. They were the tremblings of a body that knew what it had been missing, and he was determined to make her tremble, quiver and cry out until she could no longer remember her former lover’s name.

  His hand moved beneath her gown and slid up the soft skin of her inner thigh until he was stroking the wet, pliant flesh of her aching womanhood. While his mouth lavished attention on her breasts, his fingers worked her folds and every pleasure point into a quaking agony. Her body jolted and thrashed beneath him until he couldn’t contain his arousal any longer.

  With her hands clasped firmly around his neck and her limbs held languidly against the wall, he lifted her and slid his aching arousal inside of her. She gasped and he held still, awaiting her response. She sank around him with a sigh, sounding fulfilled and pleased, so he began to withdraw and enter at a painfully slow pace.

  Her grip tightened around his neck, and her head fell back as she moaned. He rewarded her eagerness with his and sucked in a breath when she widened her legs and gripped his buttocks, pulling him further into her sheath. Her eyes opened, their violet depths bottomless and ablaze with desire. She had never looked so beautiful.

  The nightgown bunched around her waist, her long braid hung between them and he held her hips in his firm grip as he lifted and lowered her body to match his pace. She closed her lids again and held onto him as he carried them in an agonizing pace until his body demanded release.

  He ran his lips and tongue up and down the column of her throat, traveling over her scar and nipping along her collar bone as he began to quicken the thrust of his hips. Her fingers moved through his hair again, grabbing two fistfuls. She pulled his head back to gain access to his mouth. With their lips locked, he plunged and pulled, grinding their joined areas together as he felt his release. A groan grated through his throat and out of his mouth as he dropped his face onto her shoulder and caught his breath.

  Her legs went limp around him and once he trusted his legs to stand, he carried her over to the straw bed and laid her down. He rested on his side, propped on an elbow. She was looking at him, her eyes shining gratefully, but he knew she hadn’t found her release with him. After a tender suckle of her lips, he watched her face as he slid a hand down to the apex of her thighs and continued to torment her sex.

  The enjoyment she didn’t hide thrilled him and pushed a heady sense of pride into his being. She was hot and wet and writhing against his movements. Her eyes shut as she moaned and whimpered. He smiled. It shouldn’t surprise him she was vocal about her pleasure. She never had a problem using her voice about anything else.

  He could tell she was reaching the threshold of ecstasy, so he did the most ungentlemanly thing and stilled his hand. His eyes roved over her breasts as they rose and fell with her deep breathing. When his gaze returned to her face, the wrinkles in her forehead deepened with frustration.

  “Why did you stop?” she breathed. Her lower body still moved against his palm, pleading him to end her torture.

  “Shhh…” he whispered as his hand slid over her belly and found her breasts again. “Have a little patience, will you?”

  She growled and let her head fall back on the straw. He suppressed a chuckle as he moved in between her legs and sent his tongue to follow the work of his fingers. Her breath hitched around a gasp, and he felt her legs tighten as he sampled her sweetest feminine fruit.

  He teased, and she moaned. He tasted and she undulated beneath him. There was no hurry, and he took his time learning the contours of her womanhood. Finally, she sat up on her elbows and shouted his name as if he were scolded. His eyes met hers and he saw in them the desperate, wonderful frustration of need.

  “You’re killing me,” she breathed. “I can’t take it anymore. Please!”

  He smiled and dipped back down to send her over the brink. She collapsed onto her back with a cry, followed by a succession of long, shuddering aftershocks. He kissed his way back up to her lips and curled her body into his arms, smiling while she steadied her breaths. Suddenly, her palms slapped the hard muscles of his torso and she shoved him away, but when he looked at her, she was smiling.

  “That was cruel,” she said, and he laughed.

  “I know, and I’m not sorry.”

  She snuggled back against him. “Neither am I.” Her fingertips grazed his chest. “My God, Val, why didn’t we do this earlier?”

  “Because you’re a stubborn ass.”

  She chuckled. He’d never seen her so relaxed, so sated, so…happy. His heart swelled within his chest. There was much he wanted to say, but he was too afraid of spoiling the bliss they’d created. He wondered about her thoughts and about what tomorrow would bring. They had breached a boundary that couldn’t be reclaimed, and he wasn’t certain what the future held for them. Was he only granted this night or would she want more? God knows he did.

  As they lay facing each other, he reached out and untied the band at the bottom of her braid. His fingers worked through the twists and loosened the strands until they were all freed for him to run his fingers through. Neither spoke as he reveled in the silken texture of her tresses.

  “Thank you, Val,” she said, breaking up his thoughts.

  He chuckled. “You say that like this was some sort of sacrifice on my part. Trust me, I definitely got something out of it.”

  She smiled. “I’m not just talking about the sex. I mean, thank you for everything you’ve done for me and Marlena in the past month. You did far more than you needed.”

  “But no less than I wanted.”

  He caressed her face, tucked a piece of hair behind her ears, and let his hand travel over the outline of her body. He followed her curves, sweeping down along her waistline before rounding her bottom to travel back up her spine. On the third caress, his palm passed over a round bit of coarse flesh on her posterior and he began to circle it with his finger. It occurred to him what it was and he sat up.

  “What is this?” he teased as he turned her onto her belly and examined the area. He felt her body shake with laughter beneath his hands. “Could this be a…a bullet wound?”

  She laughed harder. “I told you I’d been shot before.”

  “Yeah, but not in your rear end. How did that happen?”

  Rolling onto her side, she propped her head up on her elbow. “Marlena did it, actually.”

  “Marlena shot you?”

  “On accident, of course. She was very young and was learning to shoot. When she hit the target for the first time she got so excited she forgot the rules and spun around to share in our celebration. The gun went off. The bullet didn’t hit me directly. It ricocheted off the fence and buried itself in my hind quarters.” She laughed at the memory. “She never forgot her safety lessons after that day!”

  Val laughed once before lowering his mouth to kiss the spot. He traced it with his tongue and looked up to see Jess’s smile fading as desire pooled in her eyes again. Her breaths drew deeper and slower. His hand skimmed over her round cheek before he cupped the back of her knee and moved it up toward her navel, opening her body to his fresh arousal. She braced herself with a hand to the hay, teetering on her side while he slid up into her. Her moan was like a sweet song to his ears as he moved in and out of her throbbing flesh.

  His pace was slow, their pleasure building, but he nearly choked in surprise when s
he lifted her bottom, causing him to rise to his knees. She rolled until she was on all fours, peering back over her shoulder at him as she pressed into his groin, clenching and teasing his shaft. The corner of her mouth tilted up and her eyebrow spiked.

  “Enough with the slow stuff,” she said in a voice raspy with want. “I’m not a fainting flower.”

  His smile matched hers before he grabbed her hips and yanked her toward him as he plunged into her. Her groan was appreciative and she sucked on her bottom lip as he continued to answer what their bodies both craved. He could feel the sweat gather on the back of his neck and slide along his spine.

  He sat back on his heels, pulling her up with him until her back rested against his chest and she balanced on his lap. She maintained their pace, their skin slithering against each other as a film of sweat coated their bodies. He gathered her hair and laid it over one shoulder so he could kiss the delicate curve where her neck met her shoulders. She reached behind and massaged the back of his head while her pelvis continued to stroke his erection in a steady gliding motion.

  Soon, their faces turned toward each other so their mouths could meet. First their lips. Then, their tongues. His hand slid down, his fingers strumming the tiny pearl of flesh between her thighs, circling and pressing until she tore her mouth from his to breathe. They rocked faster, rising and falling, floating on sweet ecstasy. It gathered inside of him, tightening and flexing as his release neared. Hers was close, too, and he quickened the play of his fingers until they went over the edge together.

  She relaxed against him and he kissed her softly below the ear before they lowered themselves back onto the hay. Dust and straw clung to the sweat on his back. He watched the lantern light flicker in the sheen of sweat across her forehead and spoke the thought as soon as it came into his mind.

  “I’m giving Stacy the deed to my mine.”

  A look of consternation moved across her face and she sat up. “What? Why?”

  He felt the furrows in his brow. “What do you mean why? It’s not worth it. That’s why. You’ve already lost your shop and everything you owned. What’s left for him to harm but you or Marlena? I won’t let that happen. Besides, Sandy and Ellie have already signed their deed over to him.”