by Wendi Darlin
His mouth moved lower along her neck and she moaned as her thighs flooded with prickling desire. He cupped her bottom, lifting her off the floor and settling her legs around his hips. She hooked her ankles behind his back and raised herself higher, frantically guiding the most sensitive part of her body, the part of her that hungered for him more than the others, along the length of his erection. The perfect long length of it.
Every movement brought more pleasure than the last, made her even weaker than before. There in the middle of the room there was nothing to fall back on, nothing to hold her but him, his strength. She slowed, afraid of losing herself, her balance, of getting hurt.
“I’ve got you,” he said, interpreting her hesitation. “I won’t let you go.” He lifted her higher, dangerously high, before edging her down again. The slightest miscalculation and he would be inside her without any protection. Not that she cared. She was too close to the edge to care about anything at all. Her nipples tightened. The ridge of his erection was wet from the pleasure pouring out of her. She braced her arms across his shoulders and moved against him as one mind-bending sensation after another coursed through her, rocked her within a centimeter of consciousness and left her helpless in his arms. He guided her until a series of spasms filled the room with her cries.
Gavin walked Rebecca to the bed, a million thoughts running through his head. Her body still quivered against his. She was such a responsive and passionate lover, eager to please and be pleased. It was easy to see why she couldn’t separate sex from emotion, she poured every ounce of herself into their lovemaking. She gave herself to him without hesitation, without restraint. There was no doubt in his mind, she was his as much as he was hers. She had given herself over to him. She wanted to be with him, and while every man she bumped into would be more than willing to take her off his hands, he knew that once he had her heart she wouldn’t give it to anyone else. Another tremor shook her, lighter than the previous ones, just an aftershock that brought a wide smile to her mouth.
“Have I mentioned you make me crazy when you come?” He didn’t wait for an answer. His lips found hers, his cock skimmed her hot swollen clit, shooting vibrations up to his chest. He already knew how right they were together, how her body would embrace his and all the pleasure she could spill from him. Still, she was like a wonderland he was driven to explore, to memorize every nuance, every hidden way he could please her. She squirmed beneath him, demanding harder contact, trying to position herself higher, inviting him into the only place he belonged beyond reason. He had known the first time he kissed her, every time he held himself back, and during every failed attempt at rationalization, she gave a reason to his life. And now every minute he had denied his body had to be compensated tenfold.
“Please.” She whimpered carving light lines up his back with her nails.
A barrage of emotions was connected to that single word. He needed to protect her, to claim her, to give her everything she needed and to take everything she had to give. He needed to be closer to her than he could physically get. He needed to hold on tight, but give her room to breathe. He needed everything at once, but more than anything he needed to love her. To make love to her. To open his soul to her with a prayer she would step inside, stay with him. Only him. That he would be enough, all that she would ever need.
He leaned over and opened the nightstand drawer. She followed him with her eyes, her breath coming hard as he brought the little square package up to his mouth and tore it open with his teeth. His eyes never left her, the way she wanted him softened every last edge his broken marriage had left behind. Rebecca wasn’t a woman who walked away. She held tight, so tight she didn’t know when to let go. And he wanted her to hold him.
Her lips curved slightly as she sat up and rolled the condom onto him. Holding his stiff cock in one hand, she tugged his earlobe through the smile on her lips. “The more I have you, the worse I want you,” she breathed curling her fingers around his shaft. “What kind of drug have you got in this thing?”
Her hair draped his chest, fell in soft tendrils over his shoulder then caressed his forearm as she bent to kiss his chest while she stroked him. He hadn’t known what to expect when he arranged to have her wedding shown at the theatre. She could have run crying all the way back to South Carolina. She could have hated him for bringing the pain back to the surface. She could have fiercely protected those special moments she shared with her husband. She could have responded a million different ways, but she had found comfort in his arms. She had given herself to him on the thick chenille seats the ranch’s donation had purchased during the last phase of the theatre’s renovation. And now as she lay back on his bed, she was luminous, her cheeks tinted a subtle rose, her hair spread in dark silky strands across his pillow, her chest and shoulders damp. “You’re so beautiful,” he told her.
“Admire me from down here.” She pulled him toward her.
He held himself back and slid his arm under her thigh, raising her calf to his shoulder, opening her to him even more. He entered in a long steady thrust that sent another cry erupting from her, louder than the ones before.
“I think we were made to do this together,” he said, sinking as far into her as he could go, his voice heavy in his throat. His only focus was the fit of his body with hers, the way they responded to one another, and the sounds that filled the room. Notes of pure pleasure and undeniable need. Not a single string of sounds that formed anything coherent. Her eyes drifted closed.
“Look at me,” he coaxed, his lips close enough to brush her cheek.
Rebecca forced her eyes open, though the intensity of sensations surging through her body made it difficult to keep them from shutting again. What she saw in Gavin’s gaze was as intense as the waves he was sending through her. His rhythm was just as she expected when she first fantasized about him, slow and controlled. But like his gait, it gave her more time to enjoy what his body had to offer. And he had so much to offer.
“Talk to me,” he urged. “You have no idea what your voice does to me.”
His mouth met her neck, his tongue and the way he moved within her drove her too crazy to answer him with anything more than another string of broken syllables.
“You…oh my God. You…You’re so…aahhh! I can’t.” She couldn’t give him what he wanted. He left her unable to speak, unable to think. All she could do was feel. “Don’t. Ever. Stop.”
He answered her with a heavy groan and a soul-melding, continual joining of his body with hers. Each time he made the steady climb away from her she ached where he had been, but before the emptiness had a chance to settle, he filled her again, and again and again, telling her how much he wanted her, how much he needed her. She answered him with more words she couldn’t string together. Thoughts she couldn’t finish. His lips found hers. Their tongues met, and he continued, one long solid stroke after another until neither of them could breathe.
“I’m so close.” She panted, moving her hips to meet his, keeping her eyes open with ever-increasing effort. She didn’t want it to end, but she couldn’t hold on. Her body screamed as it careened toward the finale. “Harder.”
His thrust responded to her command, loud primordial grunts erupted from both of them. He lost every ounce of his well-conditioned restraint until they sang out in simultaneous release. Her body splintered beneath his, finally sated, and so limp she couldn’t even bring her hand to his back. Their chests heaved together, their skin slick with sweat and covered with the scent of one another.
“I’m never going to get enough of you.” He shifted to his side and brought her with him, letting her legs settle around his.
“I’m ready for more when you are,” she said into his neck.
He laughed, a sound that rumbled low in his throat. He slid his arm from beneath her and sat up to get rid of the condom. She mustered enough strength to run her finger up his spine, and her hand along his back. Even this brief separation was more than she wanted.
When he lay back
and pulled her to him again, she rolled into his kiss, holding her body against his. Todd wasn’t the only man who could make her feel so completely content. Maybe that was okay. Maybe it wasn’t, but what she did with Gavin didn’t feel wrong, even if what she had done to Todd did. The guilt crept up on her, but she concentrated on the man lying next to her instead, and these feelings for him that expanded her heart.
“You are exactly what I needed,” she said.
In the comforting calm that followed, she traced the curve of his chest, the contour of his abdomen and the palm of his hand. Her body quieted and she remembered what she had so blissfully forgotten. She had to leave. In the morning. She had a job, a home, a life on the other side of the country. “What am I going to do without you?” she asked.
“We’re going to have to figure that out.” He trailed his fingers through her hair. His hand traveled down her back and he lifted her more fully onto him. He was stiffening again already.
She rubbed herself over him, from the base of his cock to the tip and back to where she’d started, each time he grew harder until he steadied her hips.
“Hold on,” he said, reaching for his nightstand. The shift of his body put him in a position that scrambled her senses, and before he could pull the drawer open she seated herself on him, stretching to accommodate the girth of him again. His entrance into her jolted every neuron of her body and ripped a growl from his throat. His hands gripped her hips as he disregarded the need for a condom and pushed himself up to meet her fully.
There was nothing between them, nothing at all but reckless intimacy that overrode all sensibilities.
“Are you sure?” he asked before giving her the freedom to move.
Her response was a kiss that dissolved the tension in his arms and sent every ounce of caution sailing. She lifted herself high enough to find a rhythm that she could easily maintain but threatened to end this joining far too quickly. Probably much too fast for him. When her muscles stuttered, he slowed her down.
“Take all of me,” he said, guiding her down to his lap. “I need to be as far inside you as I can go.” His voice was rough, his grip on her harder than before. His hands dug into her as he buried himself to the hilt and pulled her knees close to his ribs. She had never been filled so completely. Her hair fell around them both as she collapsed against him, surrendering to his power over her.
She moved slowly at first, testing her angle, relishing the sensations of having him so deep. “Deep enough?” she asked, arching her back and rocking against him, barely able to swallow the breath lodged in her throat.
“Never enough.” He groaned as his head bent to her shoulder and they moved together taking what they both needed and giving everything they had.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and clung to him while her body answered his with one debilitating tremor after another and her screams echoed off the walls. If she had ever come that hard, she couldn’t remember it. She couldn’t remember anything at all.
He raised his head to watch her, but as soon as she tightened around him a familiar expression clenched his face. He was as loud as she had been, crushing her in his arms as he poured himself into her, filled her, spilled out of her. He held her as close to him as he could while his breath steadied against her throat. His hands moved along her back, down to her bottom and up again, covering her, branding her as his. And she couldn’t imagine ever needing to be more than that.
The cool air dried the dampness from their skin, and they climbed between the covers. The rest of the night they drifted in and out of sleep and kisses and caresses. And in moments of lucidity they made love. Slowly. Tenderly. As if every second together had to be held before it shattered and slipped away. She couldn’t have more fully appreciated his tendency to never hurry or his insatiable need to connect with her.
As the morning light filtered into the room, Gavin woke Rebecca with the full of his lips on hers, his hand moving down her body. He shifted, pinning her beneath his hips. She opened herself to him and he entered her slowly, letting her feel his journey into her inch by inch.
Every time he withdrew and sank into her again, she needed him more. Her body responded naturally, her hips meeting his. She moved to the edge of consciousness, slipped away and came back again. Not sure at times if she was dreaming or if she had actually found nirvana. She forced her eyes open, not wanting to miss a second of the tenderness and desire in his eyes.
They were sharing so much more than their bodies and the power of the emotions that swirled in her chest was overwhelming. She grabbed the back of his arms, his muscles tight beneath her grasp. The wave started slowly, built, then crashed over her with such intensity she could do nothing but completely let herself go.
His body tensed. She glimpsed the look of desperation in his eyes and her lids fell shut. There were too many senses at work, one had to go. As much as she wanted to see him, she couldn’t field all the stimuli at once. In the darkness of her mind she completely lost hold. She traveled back through every minute they’d shared. The first kiss. The tree fort. Dinner in the barn. The theatre with her wedding playing out on screen.
“You’re the most amazing woman,” he breathed, his voice hoarse. “Promise me you’ll never change.”
She closed around him as her body found its release. “Oh my…” His back stiffened. Her fingers sank into his skin. A loud groan fought free from his throat. “Oh my…” she screamed.
“I love you so much, please don’t ever change,” he said as his body trembled and a warm liquid tide surged into her.
“Todd.” She could only whisper his name as the final waves of orgasm rolled through her.
Gavin’s breath poured into the pillow next to her head. The weight of his body on hers was so right. Everything she could have wanted. She opened her eyes and bit her lip. Oh shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. She didn’t mean that, didn’t even know where it came from. He had rocked her senseless, unlocked something so deep inside she couldn’t wrap her mind around it. Gavin brought his face to hers. The pain she saw in his eyes scared her.
“Gavin,” she whispered. “I’m…I’m sorry. I don’t…” But she did know. It was the words he chose. Why at that moment did he use Todd’s words? It was too much to make love, to feel love, after all this time and hear the echo of her husband’s voice when she was too wrapped up in the throes of orgasm to be more than marginally coherent.
“I’m not Todd,” he said. In one movement the weight of him was gone. The cool air of the room evaporated the heat from her skin and left her shaking. He grabbed his clothes off the floor and carried them out of the room.
“Gavin wait! Please!” Her body flinched as the door slammed into its frame.
Rebecca pulled the covers over her head. Todd wasn’t coming back, and she lay there long enough to realize Gavin probably wasn’t either.
Chapter 11
Gavin threw the tennis ball against the wall of his office and caught it when it ricocheted back. His shorts and shirt were wrinkled, dirty, and still held onto a hint of Rebecca’s perfume. Her suitcase stood beneath the window. The irony of timing wasn’t lost on him. Her flight out was early and she’d be on it. Going back to South Carolina. Back to her life. Ready to move forward. Or wallow in her memories. How the hell was he supposed to know which?
She had played the game. Outplayed him. But it was his own damn fault. She had told him everything about herself he needed to know. He was just too full of himself to think he needed a book to understand women. Cowboy expectation number one: Listen. Really listen.
If he had gone by the book for a single minute, he would have heard what she had really come to the ranch for. She wanted someone to hold her. She told him that. But she didn’t want someone real to hold her. She could have found that closer to home. She needed someone like him, a warm body that she could hold onto, so she could close her eyes and have her husband back for a little while. Just like she had done at the gorge when she first arrived. She wanted a blow-up doll.
Her words. He hadn’t listened to those either.
She’d gotten what she needed. Another satisfied customer. Another woman he’d given a week of his life to. He threw the ball again. Harder this time. Hard enough to burn his hand when he caught it. A second’s distraction from the ache that had settled deep in his chest.
She had him the minute he laid eyes on her at the airport. The game was over before it ever began. The more he learned about her, the more time he spent with her the more he wanted to. Dumb ass.
He let the ball shoot past his head and dribble on the floor behind him. He dragged his fingers through his hair, and closed his eyes.
“What did you do with Rebecca yesterday?” Garrett asked from the door.
“Doesn’t matter.” Gavin released an unsteady breath and focused on the wall in front of him. He didn’t want to get into this yet. He’d really fucked up this time. Really been wrong about something he felt so sure about.
“Anything you want to tell me?” Garrett took a sip from his mug and dropped the ball he’d picked up from the floor into Gavin’s lap.
“No. There’s not,” Gavin said, winging the ball against the wall again.
“I heard you last night.” Garrett seated himself at his side of the desk. “The both of you.”
Gavin shrugged. “So you heard. I gave her money back. Save the lecture.”
“You don’t look like you need a lecture.”
“I’ve got everything I need right here,” he said. The ranch. Enough women to ease his conscience. Enough women to warm his bed. Enough work to keep his mind occupied enough to believe those women were enough. Almost.
“Alright,” Garrett said, setting his mug down. “Let’s pretend the cops aren’t already on our asses, and I’m just your brother who cares about what happens in your life. You’ve been in here all morning trying to knock a hole in the wall and pretend nothing’s wrong. Everything’s just ‘business as usual.’”
