The Rancher Returns

by Brenda Jackson

  Layla swallowed. “Dinner?”

  “Yes. I figured we could grab a meal in town.”

  Before Layla could say whether she would go or not, Tammy spoke up in an irritated tone. “Dr. Harris is in charge of this project, and I’m sure she has a lot to do tonight since we start digging in a few days. There are preliminary reports she has to complete and soil samples that need to be reviewed. But I’ll be glad to go out with you tonight.”

  An annoyed frown replaced the smile on Gavin’s lips when he turned to Tammy. “Are you her spokesperson?”

  It was obvious Tammy had been caught off guard by Gavin’s question. “No.”

  “I didn’t think so. As far as taking her place, I didn’t ask you to, did I?”

  He couldn’t have been I’m-not-interested-in-you plainer than that, Layla thought. Rage appeared in Tammy’s face, making it quite obvious she wasn’t used to men rejecting her and she didn’t appreciate Gavin doing so. Instead of answering his question, she turned and angrily strutted off.

  Layla watched her go and then turned her attention back to Gavin. “You might have hurt her feelings.”

  He shrugged massive shoulders. “She’ll get over it. Besides, someone needs to teach her some manners.” He leaned back. “So what about it? Will you have dinner with me tonight? We can even take in another movie if you like?”

  Layla nibbled at her bottom lip. Tammy had been right about her having a lot of work to do to prepare for the start of the dig. But then hadn’t Tammy also reminded her that although they were dedicated to this dig during the day, the nighttime hours were theirs to enjoy? Besides, after witnessing Tammy come on to Gavin the way she had, Layla had realized something. He could have taken Tammy up on her bold offer but he hadn’t. He had even made it crystal clear that Layla was the woman he wanted.

  Though she had convinced herself that she could do without him even if she wanted him, she now knew she couldn’t. And why should she? She’d spent her whole life proving she could accomplish what she set her mind to. Now, she was setting her mind to finishing this dig and having Gavin, too.

  She had set her target and she was going after what she wanted. In other words, she was about to become Viper Jr.

  She met Gavin’s gaze. “Dinner and a movie sound nice. Yes, I’d love to go out with you tonight.”

  Eleven

  The moment Layla walked up the porch steps her nerves tightened. Was she doing the right thing? Was following her desires rather than common sense the best move for her tonight?

  Her gaze swept over at the man at her side. Gavin had been quiet since parking his truck. Now he was walking her to the door and she knew it would be her decision how tonight would end. He wouldn’t even kiss her good-night unless he knew for certain more came with that kiss. Was she ready to give him more?

  They had been careful not to touch all night. Holding hands would have led to heaven knows what. The sexual chemistry between them was that explosive. She had been aware of everything about him all evening. His breathing pattern, the sexual vibes that poured off him and the heavy-lidded eyes that stared at her.

  Even now, there was this sensuous pull of desire between them. She was aware of it and she knew he had to be aware of it, as well. That consciousness was a slow roll of longing in her stomach and a throbbing intensity at the base of her throat. Never had she felt such primal awareness of a man before.

  When they reached the door she turned to him. Although his Stetson shaded his eyes, she felt his stare. She inhaled his masculine scent. The man was a living, breathing sample of testosterone at its best.

  Drawing in a deep breath, Layla tightened her hands on the shoulder straps of her purse. “Dinner was wonderful. So was the movie. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a musical.” His taste in movies surprised her. Last time it had been a chick flick and tonight a musical.

  “Glad you enjoyed both.”

  She smiled up at him. “I did. Thanks for asking me to go. To be with you.”

  He nodded. “I can’t think of any other woman I’d rather have been with tonight, Layla.”

  His words sent profound happiness spiraling through her. He could have spent the evening with Tammy, who was almost six years younger, and to Layla’s way of thinking, a lot prettier. But she was the one he’d asked out. “Thank you for saying that.”

  “It’s the truth.”

  When she didn’t respond, she heard Gavin draw in a deep breath before saying, “I know you have a lot of work to do so I’ll let you get to it.”

  He was giving her an out. He wouldn’t pressure her. He’d stated days ago where he stood. If things between them escalated it would be up to her.

  Swallowing deeply, she asked, “Would you like to come in for a drink, Gavin?”

  He held her gaze for a long moment before smiling. “Yes, that would be nice, Layla.”

  As she opened the door to let him in, Layla knew it would be a whole lot better than just nice.

  * * *

  Gavin followed Layla inside. Removing his Stetson, he placed it on the rack by the door. She walked ahead, toward the living room and his groin tightened with each sinfully erotic sway of her hips.

  “Beer or wine cooler?” she asked over her shoulder.

  “Beer.” He closed the front door. He actually needed something a lot stronger. A straight shot of bourbon might do the trick, to stop his testosterone from overloading. But then he figured there wasn’t a drink on earth that could deaden his desire for Layla. It went too deep. He could actually feel a throb in his veins. Drawing in a deep breath he inhaled her scent.

  “Here you are,” she said, reentering the living room.

  He recalled the last time she’d offered him a beer and what had occurred when their hands touched. What he’d felt. Would she avoid touching him this time? There was only one way to find out.

  When she handed him the bottle, he deliberately held her gaze. Intentionally, he rubbed his finger against her hand. Hearing her sharp intake of breath, he’d gotten the reaction he’d hoped for. Unlike the last time she didn’t wipe her hands on her jeans.

  Still holding her gaze, he opened the bottle and took a huge gulp. He then lowered the bottle, licked his lips and asked the same question he had asked that night. “Want a sip?”

  He’d given her an opening. Instead of retreating like she had before, she covered the distance separating them. “Yes, I want a sip.” But instead of taking it, she said, “I’d rather sip it from your lips.”

  He lifted the bottle to his mouth. Then she took the bottle from him and placed it on a nearby table before leaning up on tiptoes to place her mouth over his. With a boldness he hadn’t expected from her, she wrapped her arms around his neck and began sipping the beer from his lips.

  Gavin felt light-headed and hot at the same time. Never had a woman stirred such passion within him. Never had any woman made his erection throb to this point. Layla was full of surprises and she was driving him insane with need.

  As their mouths mated, he wrapped his arms around her. He wasn’t surprised by how fluidly her body aligned with his. Sensations swamped his body. He knew from the way she was tasting him that tonight would not end with this kiss. The mating of their mouths was just the beginning. Tonight they were on the same page.

  He swept her into his arms. Breaking off the kiss, he whispered against her lips, “I’m taking you to bed, Layla. If you have a problem with it, you need to say so now.”

  A seductive smile touched her lips. “I don’t have a problem with that, Gavin.”

  Sexual excitement rushed through his veins as he moved quickly toward the bedroom.

  Twelve

  When Gavin placed Layla on the bed she looked up at him and saw eyes filled with intense desire gazing down at her. She’d meant what she said about go
ing to bed with him. But he might not feel the same way after she said what she had to say.

  “We need to talk first, Gavin.”

  He pulled her sweater over her head. “Okay, I’m listening.”

  Was he really? Or was he concentrating on undressing her? “A while back you asked me when I last did this. Do you remember that conversation?”

  Her sweater was off and his swift hands went to the front clasp of her bra. Within seconds he had her breasts tumbling free. She watched his eyes get smoky as he stared at her nipples, which hardened as he watched. When he brushed against one with a feathery stroke of his fingertips, she drew in a sharp breath.

  “Yes, I remember that conversation,” he said in a husky voice, stroking her other breast as if fascinated with its size and shape. “What about it?”

  Layla had to think a minute to remember the conversation. His hands were driving her insane. And when he began stroking her nipples in earnest, it created a throbbing ache in her center. She couldn’t help but moan.

  “Layla?”

  “Um?”

  “What about the conversation?”

  What conversation? Her brain was turning to mush and she fought hard to recall what he was talking about. Then she remembered. “Are you ready for an answer to the question you asked?”

  “Doesn’t matter now.”

  And before she could draw in another breath, he lowered his head and eased a rigid nipple between his lips. He sucked hard, feasting in earnest. Greedily. Ravenously. At the same time, he eased the hem of her skirt toward her waist.

  And then he pushed aside her panties to ease fingers inside of her. The moment she felt the intimate invasion, she shuddered in pleasure. How could his mere touch do that? Make her come so unglued? Make her feel like a woman?

  And when those same fingers stroked her down there, with the same rhythm his tongue was using to suck on her nipples, she moaned aloud.

  “That’s it. Get all wet for me, baby. Your scent has been driving me mad for days now. I can’t wait to taste you.”

  She wasn’t sure what he meant. All she knew was Gavin Blake had fingers that should be considered illegal and a mouth that should be banned. Using both, and at the same time, should be forbidden.

  Sensation gathered force in her stomach and when he sucked harder on her breasts, while at the same time inserting his fingers deeper inside of her, she could not bear the pleasure any longer. Her body began to shake with the need for release. A climax ripped through her body. On instinct, she threw her head back and screamed his name.

  “Now for my taste.”

  Before she realized what Gavin was doing, he had pulled off her skirt and tossed it aside along with her panties. Before she could ask what he thought he was doing, he lifted her hips to his mouth and firmly settled his head between her legs.

  Layla tried pushing him away—until the moment she felt his tongue ease between her womanly lips. He kissed her down there the same way he’d kissed her on the mouth. Deeply. Thoroughly.

  She stopped pushing him away. Instead she grabbed his shoulders and held on. Held him. She needed him to stay right there and continue what he was so expertly doing. When she felt his tongue delve deeper inside, flicking back and forth, her body shattered into what felt like a million pieces.

  “Gavin!”

  He didn’t let up. He continued using his mouth to drive her over the edge yet again. Never had she experienced anything so powerful. So utterly amazing. For a minute she thought she had passed out. Maybe she had. She was completely drained. Limp. Too weak to move. So she lay there, nearly convinced she had died and gone to heaven. Surely there was nothing on earth that could make her feel this good. This satisfied.

  She didn’t move. She couldn’t find the strength to open her eyes. Not even when she heard him remove his clothes before he pulled her boots and socks from her feet. Not even when his hands stroked her thighs and eased them apart.

  And not even when she heard the sound of a condom packet being ripped open.

  Moments later she heard Gavin’s deep voice directly above her. “Open your eyes, baby. Look at me.”

  Although her eyelids felt heavy, she somehow found the strength to force them open. Gavin’s naked body was braced above hers and desire-filled eyes stared down at her. Was it her imagination or were his eyes getting even darker as she stared into them?

  “I’m looking,” she said softly. Not only was she looking but she was being held in some sort of hypnotic trance.

  “I wanted you this way from the first moment I set eyes on you.”

  That was nice. And she was about to say something, she wasn’t sure what, when she felt the hot tip of his erection press against the core of her womanhood.

  Her gaze widened and she knew she needed to tell him. Now. “Gavin?”

  He leaned in and kissed the words off her lips. Using that scandalizing tongue of his, he began driving her crazy. Instinctively her legs opened wider and she felt him pressing down gently, as he tried entering her body.

  He broke off the kiss and stared down at her. She knew from his expression exactly when he realized the something she’d tried to tell him about. The something he’d said no longer mattered.

  “You’re a virgin,” he whispered in shock.

  “Yes.” Would he change his mind? Would it matter? She swallowed and said quietly, “I’ll understand if you no longer want me.”

  Something flickered in his dark gaze. “Why wouldn’t I still want you? Because you’re a twenty-six-year-old virgin?”

  When she nodded, he smiled and said, “Doesn’t bother me if it doesn’t bother you.”

  That was the moment she knew she had fallen in love with Gavin. She had tried denying it, had even called herself several kinds of a fool for letting it happen. She’d never loved a man before, but she knew what her feelings were. For all the heartbreak it would cause when she left the ranch in a week or so, it didn’t make much sense for her to love a man now. But her heart had declared Gavin was it and there was nothing she could do about it.

  Making love with him seemed right in a way it had never been with any other man...which was the real reason why she had remained untouched all these years. Sex had never interested her. She had never been turned on by the mere thought of it. Things were different with Gavin. Even before she’d met him face-to-face, his pictures had done something to her. They had pretty much warned her of her fate but she’d refused to accept it until she’d welcomed him inside tonight.

  “Layla?”

  She held his gaze. “Doesn’t bother me, either.” Please don’t ask me why I chose you. At least not now.

  He didn’t ask her anything. Instead he kissed her before using his knee to widen her legs. And then she felt him, easing inside of her, inch by inch. He was big and she sucked in as he filled her deeply, her body stretching for his invasion. Her muscles clamped down—not to stop his journey but to make it even more sensuous for the two of them. He continued to ease deeper until there was no place left for him to go. He was fully embedded in her in a fit so snug and tight she couldn’t tell where her body ended and his began.

  When her muscles tightened even more, she actually felt his erection throb inside of her. “If you keep that up do you know what’s going to happen?” He leaned in close to ask her.

  “No.”

  “It’s going to make me want to do this.”

  Then he began thrusting, gently, in a sensuous rhythm that drove her to lift her hips with his every downward stroke. When her inner muscles clenched him harder, he thrusted harder, with a steady fluid beat.

  Too steady. Each stroke inside her body pushed her to a place she’d never been. He’d made her come using his mouth. But this was different. It was more intense. Insanely gratifying. And when he went faster, harder, deeper, she screamed h
is name as sensations washed over her. She clawed at his back, bucked upward to tighten her legs around him and lock their bodies together.

  An intense explosion swept her away in an earth-shattering release. Although this might be the first time she’d made love with a man, she knew that this wouldn’t be her last with Gavin.

  * * *

  That had been totally unreal, Gavin thought, a short while later as he lay flat on his back staring up at the ceiling. When had making love to a woman ever left him so physically sated and mentally drained? Hell, he was used to making out with women, sometimes all night long. And as a SEAL he was physically fit for all the rigors of combat. Yet, the woman sleeping beside him had practically drained him, made him weak as water with their first sexual encounter. How was that possible?

  And she’d been a virgin. Gavin didn’t have to wonder how that was possible, given her status in life. To accomplish what she’d accomplished at her age meant she’d made sacrifices. He’d suspected her experience with men had been limited, he just hadn’t figured it to be nonexistent. Not that it bothered him. Normally, he preferred not to be any woman’s first, but he was glad he’d been Layla’s. The thought that no other man had been inside her body before him felt good, made him want to beat on his damn chest like a caveman. He’d branded Layla as his.

  His?

  Where in the hell had that thought come from? This was the second time he’d thought of her as being his woman. His. He needed to remind himself once again that he wasn’t into possessiveness. He’d even participated in a ménage à trois a time or two during his college years. So the idea of laying claim to any woman didn’t sit well with him. Sex was sex, no matter how good it was. No need to act crazy.

  So why was he?

  As he tilted his head to stare down at the woman sleeping peacefully beside him, he had to admit the sex had been better than good. Off the charts. He had studied her face when she’d come. Her expression had been utterly and incredibly spellbinding. Beautiful. Touching. She was such a passionate being it was hard to believe she’d held out for this long. Her presence on the Silver Spurs was the best luck he’d had in years. With sex that good she could dig up the entire damn ranch looking for whatever treasure she wanted. His treasure was right here with him in this bed.