“Thirst,” she began, studying the label of her beer. “It’s a response of the body that most take for granted, don’t you think?”
Sam hadn’t expected this direction of the conversation, though he knew where she was going with it. Suddenly, he longed for his recorder. After all, research could be obtained anywhere, even sitting across from a gorgeous woman in a cozy little kitchen drinking a beer.
“Yes,” he concurred, crossing his ankles under the table and hooking one arm over the ladderback chair. “But there are various kinds of thirst.” He took a deliberate sip, his eyes never leaving hers. “Don’t you think?”
Turning a deep shade of pink, Tania rose and pilfered through the cabinets, aware of the meaning of his words, though loathe to go there—at the moment. Setting a bag of potato chips in front of him, she went to the refrigerator and removed a tub of dip. Returning to her seat, she opened the dip and dug into the bag of chips.
“Care for a bite to eat?” she asked, her golden brows rising with mock politeness.
Sam observed the slight trembling of her hand as she loaded a potato chip with a huge wad of dip, then popped it into her mouth, crunching loudly. “Why, thank you,” he replied again in kind, joining her in the ritual of dipping and biting.
“You made me a deal,” she accused after a lengthy moment of them both chomping on chips. “And I refuse to let you off the hook.” She chased the chips with a long swallow of her beer, her hair streaming down her back and over her shoulders.
Before he could swallow the mouthful and respond, she’d gone on. “You take this food, this roof over your head,” she lifted her chin toward the ceiling, “this beer,” she raised her bottle and clinked it against his, the liquid erupting in a froth over the rim. “You take them all for granted,” she accused. “You don’t know what it’s like to be without, to be cold and hungry and thirsty and…alone.”
That last was said hesitantly, much quieter than the rest. It didn’t go unnoticed. Sam knew she was making a point here, and he remained quiet, allowing her to vent.
“Finally,” she went on, rising from her chair to lean across the table toward him, her palms planted on the scuffed surface. “Finally, I no longer have to worry about the necessities that people like you take for granted, and I will not allow you to take it from me!”
Sam got a potent, carnal whiff of her, soap, leather and pure woman. Ignoring the stirring in his loins, he replied, looking up into the sparkling blue of her eyes, “Did I say I was going to take anything at all from you?”
Exasperated, for she’d hoped to get a rise out of him, she went to sit upon the worn countertop and leaned stiffly against the cabinets. “I agreed to go to Dallas with you for research purposes. And you agreed, in return, to grant me a discreet annulment. Did you not?” she asked, finally rolling her head against the cabinet until her eyes met his across the small room.
Sam rose and came to stand before her. He planted his hands on the countertop on either side of her. “Yes, that was the agreement.”
“Lexy said you were leaving, going back home to Dallas. Not just going there for research, but returning permanently to your home. Now that doesn’t sound like a man who’s going to hold up his end of the bargain. Remember?” she asked frostily, her eyes narrowing on his as he loomed before her. “Double or nothing?”
“Ah...” He leaned near, his lips mere inches from hers, his hips wedging their way between her legs. “So you were afraid I was leaving you?”
Planting her palms on his chest to halt his decent—and realizing too late that it was a mistake, for the combination of heat and hard steel against her skin assaulted her with painful clarity—she shot back, “You were leaving. Without holding up your end of the bargain.”
Sam inhaled the scent of her, absorbed the electricity that danced about her. Was she right? Had he been about to walk out on this? Had he truly been about to abandon this woman who merely needed time and patience? Yes, he’d been about to take the coward’s way out, simply because he’d ran scared, unsure of his ability to warm a block of ice and show her that love could blossom, despite the insurmountable odds of a frightening childhood. And he’d, above all, been prepared to protect his own child from her.
But no one knew that same fear better than he did.
“You’re right,” he agreed, nipping her bottom lip. “I was about to leave. But I’ve changed my mind—for the moment,” he added, his hands drawing her near, forcing her legs to spread further and accommodate his hips.
Tania felt the swift surge of heat assail her, then suffuse into a delicious tingling that was centered between her thighs. But she couldn’t have a repeat of their lovemaking sessions. She didn’t know how to love, how to give. She only knew how to survive, and she needed him to fulfill his end of the bargain in order to remain safe and secure.
Oh, yes, she’d planned on having sex with him just now, convincing him to complete their little pact and remain on his ranch for a time. But lovemaking was out of the question. Their would be no emotion in this one as there had been in the last. Only lust, swift and to the point. A seduction to secure her future. She would coerce him into staying to fulfill the bargain, then he could return home with his daughter and overbearing housekeeper, and, following Mik’s inevitable passing, get the hell out of her life for good. Just as she’d done on the streets, she would do what she had to survive.
He claimed her mouth slowly, sensually with his own, scorching her tongue as he mated with hers. Tania’s head began to swim with the dizzying effect, the feel of his hand slicing up her sweater to claim an already taut nipple between his thumb and forefinger. When he rolled it, pinched it, then swiftly pulled her sweater over her head, she gasped at the wickedness of sitting on her countertop in her little kitchen, her breasts spilling out over her lacy, pale blue bra.
His eyes were like brands on her skin, and she watched as he deftly undid the front fastener of her bra, releasing her bosom, allowing the fullness to spring forward and tempt him with the pink roses of her nipples.
“Tania…” Sam breathed raggedly, bending to flick his tongue over one erect bud. “You’re so beautiful. Do you know just how gorgeous you are?”
“Sam, please—” her head went back to knock against the cabinet as he sucked the nipple into his hot mouth. “Oh…”
Her moan inflamed him further, but nothing could harden him more than the sight of her full lips parted in passion, her eyes half closed with the intensity of what he was inflicting upon her. Releasing her from his mouth, Sam reached down to undo her jeans, then he slid each boot off her feet. When she lifted her buttocks to accommodate him, Sam growled at the sight of her bare belly, then the blond of her neatly trimmed womanhood, then the long, bare length of her lean legs as each were revealed.
His arms went around her, drawing her against the hardness of him. Like an addict wanting, needing more, Tania pressed closer, locking her ankles behind him as she recalled the ecstasy that he could bring to her.
“Stay here, Sam,” she coaxed, sliding her hands up his chest and clasping her hands behind his neck. “Don’t go…just yet.”
Sam was no idiot. He knew very well what she was about, but he wasn’t a novice at lovemaking. He’d hooked many a woman with little effort, and this woman would be no exception. Damn right he’d stay. And he’d damn well leave when he was good and ready, but not before the precious bargain had been completed.
But how could he think of that with her wrapped about him like a seductive siren in heat? No, he could barely stand, let alone think. With that thought in mind, he lifted her from the countertop and hoisted her upon his hips, then carried her down the hall.
Tania was moaning with the sheer naughtiness of being carried naked through her own house straddling a man who clearly was going to please her in no time. Just the feel of her softness pressed against his trousers as he carried her, was nearly enough to bring her to that pinnacle of bliss.
“Take a left,” she panted as he
neared her bedroom.
It was a small two-bedroom bungalow, but with Sam’s state of mind at the moment, he’d have collapsed anywhere, just to get inside her. He entered the bedroom quickly and deposited her on the rumpled bed. Within seconds, he was rid of his clothing, and he knelt on the bed beside her.
Tania looked up at the magnificent, powerful maleness that would soon be inside her. Large and engorged, she marveled at the fact that her small body could adapt to him, and even now, as she reached for his cock and shyly wrapped her hand around the fullness of it, her pussy throbbed. It ached and pulsed with a warm, tingly sensation. When the succulence of her sex juices oozed there between her legs, she knew there was no way she could ever deny him entry again.
Suddenly aware of a different kind of thirst, she rose up on impulse and kissed him there where the silky flesh was now stretched taut over the hardness of his desire. She heard his swift intake of breath and experienced a carnal sense of power over him. His game was now hers; she had all the control. Looking up into the hooded gaze of a man full of desire for her, she opened her mouth and slowly took him in.
“Tania…” Sam gasped, throwing his head back as the heat slammed through him, for he’d never anticipated that she would want her freedom and security this badly. “Jesus!” he groaned as she flicked her tongue around the sensitive head.
Tania was in a world of her own lustful making. The sensation of having him against her tongue and in her mouth, the instant power she could wield, was intoxicating. She could taste of his inherent flavor, she gorged and sucked on the pre-cum that she milked from him with each stroke, each depth of him into her throat. She looked up at him as she pleasured him, watching the expressions of ecstasy and delicious pain wash over him. He was beautiful with the rock-hard chest heaving as he panted, his dark hair falling rakishly over his brow as he looked down at her, his hands now threaded through her hair. Lord, but he was all a woman could ever want in a man! she mused excitedly.
“Tania,” he whispered, reluctantly, and oh-so-gently disengaging her. “If you don’t stop, I’m going to… I just need to be inside you, darling.”
His words were nearly as enflaming as his satiny penis in the wetness of her mouth had been. Obediently, she lowered herself onto the bed and reached for him. He came down upon her, crushing his mouth to hers in a kiss of starvation. She could feel the hard length of him pressing against her soft wetness as he spread her legs and settled there between her thighs. His tongue plunged into her voraciously. She fought back with her own weapon, and dueled her tongue with his. They groaned simultaneously as he rocked his hips, rubbing her external cunt with his cock.
When he suddenly rolled onto his back, carrying her with him until she was straddled over him, Tania blinked and placed her palms on his heaving chest to steady herself. “What—what are you doing?” she asked with a trace of alarm.
“It’s not what I’m doing, babe,” he said with gentle sarcasm. “It’s what you’re doing. You had in mind to seduce me into getting your way, didn’t you?”
Her mind was foggy. She couldn’t think straight. Then dawning slammed into her as she peered down into his beautiful face. He was on to her! He’d known all along what her motives had been.
When she locked her gaze with his triumphant, green gleaming eyes, she panicked and pushed frantically against his chest, her leg attempting to dismount him. But before she could scramble free of him, he hooked one arm about her waist and a hand around her neck, then yanked her down until her breasts were pressed to his.
“Sam,” she hissed, ignoring the pinpricks of delicious heat that were being created as her nipples brushed against the sparse hairs on his chest. “Ease up.”
“Oh, no, you don’t,” he warned. “We have a bargain to uphold.” And with that, he gripped her hips, expertly aligned her and slammed her sharply down, burying himself within her heat.
Her cry of shock was followed by a long sob of sheer rapture. To ride him, to be filled by him, yet be in the position of dominance was utter paradise. The tingling escalated to an urgent need to move. At that very moment, Sam rose up and met her at a sitting position, then clutched her hips, guiding, teaching her to move in that age-old dance of lovers. She was an adept student, for in no time, she was riding him as she did a stallion, her head thrown back in pure bliss, her long hair streaming over her bare back onto Sam’s powerful thighs. He reached up and cupped her breasts, and she thought she would explode then and there. The thirst was with her again, a thirst to taste him, to drink him in. Like a starving baby, she sought out his panting lips, covering her mouth with his.
Sam had nearly lost it when she’d picked up her own rhythm, riding him with expertise that rivaled any he’d ever experienced. But it was when she found his lips like a hungry, wild animal, that he felt the pressure rise once again, and the near-painful heat mounted in his balls.
“Tania,” he whispered against her mouth.
She only moaned, imagining the wind on her bare skin as she road like a frantic crazy woman into heaven. He was taking her there…she was taking him there. They were traveling together to the mountaintops, to soar and fly, engulfed in that feeling of red-hot exhilaration.
“Tania,” he repeated, gripping her face in his hands as she slowed her rocking motion to look into his eyes. “I love you.”
Her eyes went wide, shocked, filled with tears. He loved her? But before she could respond, before she could even determine if she’d heard him right, he grabbed her and, without withdrawing from her, he rolled haphazardly and they tumbled to the hardwood floor. She thought she heard the sharp crack of a whip as the jolt of the fall plunged him so deeply inside her, that she screamed out her bliss.
“Yes! Fuck me!” she cried with abandon.
He hooked the backs of her knees with the inner crooks of his elbows, lifting her legs above his head. And like a man racing for the finish line, he obliged her demands, and pumped her savagely, abrading the tender flesh of her shoulders and her back against the floor with each stroke.
Tania felt the first tingling waves assault her as she climbed to the first crest, reaching for the very tip of the mountain of ecstasy that she was now becoming familiar with. Her hips slammed violently against his, and with a final cry, she felt herself being carried by wings, not just to the top of the mountain, but above it where she glided, reaching for the delicious golden heat of the sun. Sam’s groan of pleasure filled her ears, and she sailed with him on the wind, then slowly, gently, she was lowered back to the floor.
She kept her eyes averted from him as they lay side-by-side, shoulder-to-shoulder. Their breathing was ragged. They both stared at the ceiling. She couldn’t look at him, not after what he’d said to her. How was she to respond to that? What was she to do?
Oh, Lord, she thought on a groan. He’d said he loved her!
Chapter Eight
“Mik’s bad.” Clay peered at her through the screen door of her cottage the following day. He wrung his hat in his trembling hands. “He’s real bad.”
“What do you mean?” She hopped on one foot as she yanked on the last boot. Her heart skipped a beat. Fear choked her like a hangman’s noose.
Clay pulled open the door and gripped her arm. “He’s asking for you. Now!”
“You mean…” Her packing for the trip to Dallas was all but forgotten as Clay guided her across the porch and down the steps. “He’s,” she swallowed a wad of arid heat, “dying?”
“I don’t rightly know.” Clay’s silver brows dipped low with worry as they started up the hill toward the grand house. “But I think it’s close.”
“Oh, God.”
“You cain’t go to Dallas, Tania,” Clay professed. “You just cain’t go now when he’s like this.”
Tania watched as Clay’s boots picked up the pace. Already, she was huffing and puffing from the brisk walk uphill, trying to keep up with him. “I have a bargain to fulfill.”
Groaning, he halted his stride and turned to her, the
hazel of his eyes churning to a gray with his apparent grief and frustration. “Damn your bargain!”
Tania gasped, for Clay had never used such a tone with her before, despite the fact that there had been many a time she’d deserved it. “Clay,” she placed a hand on his heaving chest. “What is it? What’s bothering you?”
Gripping his head as if he feared it would split wide, he whirled and started back up the hill. Tania was further stunned to hear wracking sobs as she watched his retreat.
Racing up behind him, she placed a hesitant hand on his arm and gripped it gently, halting his departure. He ceased his steps, but did not turn to face her. “Clay,” Tania’s voice shuddered with her words, with the frightening sight of the strongest man she’d ever known, reduced to tears. “Clay, please tell me what’s going on.”
“This is all my fault,” he wailed, raking a hand through his thick hair before burying his face in his palms.
“What? Clay,” she begged, tugging on his wrists to see a handsome face scrunched with pain and wet with tears. “What the hell is this all about? What is your fault?”
He wrenched his hands from hers and shook his head violently, then fixed his gaze over her shoulder at the beloved land he’d known for decades. “You. Mik. Sabina.”
“You’re starting to scare me.” Tania paced before him, sensing a need for flight in the not-too-distant future.
“No.” Clay inhaled deeply and forced the tears to cease, leaving behind a glassy-eyed expression. “Scared was watching her leave.”
“Her?”
“Sabina. Your mother.”
“Clay, I don’t…understand.” But did she? Was he saying…?
“I’m your father, Tatiana.” Clay hung his head, and the tears returned.
Heart pounding, feeling as if she were in a nightmare, Tania screeched, “What?”
“I said I’m your daddy, for chrissake!”
Stomping one foot with arms akimbo, she faced Clay and asked incredulously, “You’re my father? All this time, you’ve been my father and never said a word?”
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