by Em Petrova
* * * * *
The light knock at her bedroom door had Lilah flipping on the lamp beside her bed. “Yes?”
“Lilah, someone here to see ya.” Her father’s voice sounded foggy with sleep. She hadn’t even heard a knock on the door, and the dogs who slept in the barn never made a peep. Some watchdogs.
“Be right there.” Maybe it was Mr. Greer coming to give the money back. But that seemed like a wild idea—he’d never disturb a family in the middle of the night to do such a thing.
She swung her legs over the bed and reached for her abandoned jeans, throwing them on under her loose sleep shirt. Barefoot, she padded out of her room and her father disappeared into his own bedroom, closing the door behind him.
Worrying her lip with her teeth, she went to the front door and sucked in a harsh gasp. There stood a big man with shoulders she’d gripped as he plunged his tongue into her mouth.
“Easton.” Her shocked tone made him take a step in her direction and then he drew up short. Doffing his hat, he turned it in his hands.
“I had to see you, baby.”
Her heart gave a wild jerk at the endearment. She moved a step toward him, and he met her halfway, catching her up against him, slamming his mouth over hers. The hard crush of his lips ignited every cell of her body, and she threw her arms around his neck, dragging him closer. A groan escaped him, but he didn’t stop tracking her tongue through her mouth until she yanked free.
Gasping, she looked up at his face. He wore lines around his mouth, like stress had gotten to him. “Why are you here? Did something happen with the new position?”
He shook his head. “Nothin’ like that. I just had to see you.” He spread his hand over her spine again, flattening her to him. She surged upward as he swooped low, and their mouths collided with a passion that should never take place in her parents’ living room.
She might have giggled at the notion if her body wasn’t on fire. Her pussy was slick with desire, and she wanted to get closer to that bulge in his jeans.
He walked her backward until he could reach behind himself and fumble the door open. They spilled onto the porch. She grappled at his shoulders, loving the flex of muscles there, how strong and protective he felt against her.
“My God, I missed you,” he growled, lowering his lips for another deep, smoldering kiss. “And damn, we’re good at this making out part.”
She released a throaty chuckle. “I’d like to find a better place than my parents’ front porch.”
“Me too. Guess your bedroom’s off limits?”
She nipped his lower lip for even suggesting such a thing. All the fear and doubt in her head fled, smothered by sensation and the scent of this man she loved.
He broke the kiss and stared into her eyes for a split second before bending and lifting her. He walked off the porch, crossing the yard in swift strides. He bypassed his truck and her own as well, headed for the barn.
She fisted his shirt in her hand. “Easton…”
“We need this, Lilah. Don’t tell me we don’t.” He nudged open the door, waking a horse who snorted and stomped at the intrusion. Being a man who knew his way around a ranch, Easton found the freshest, softest hay and tossed a thick blanket over it before laying her down, following her with his body so he was wedged between her legs.
He gazed into her eyes, saying nothing, just looking at her.
“Easton.” She skimmed her hands down his broad back. “Did you walk off the job to come here?”
He shook his head. “I’m needed back in a few hours. I just had to come.” He lowered his forehead to hers, breathing hard. “I can’t stop thinking about you.”
Her throat grew thick even as her heart beat faster. “Me either.”
“Must be a reason then, right? Lilah, I’m crazy about you. I… I’m in lo—”
Before he could get the word out, she kissed him, taking control of the moment in the only way she knew how. Sensation ran through her body, and she needed to feel him---all of him—against her.
She reached between his shoulders and yanked his shirt overhead. His hat was long gone, dropped somewhere between here and the porch. He didn’t seem to mind, and she couldn’t care less. All she wanted was to feel his skin against hers.
He flashed a grin her way, teeth white in the darkness, and drew her top off more slowly, as if savoring every inch he unveiled. Shivers raced up and down her body. When he closed a hand gently around her breast, she stopped breathing altogether.
Liquid heat blossomed in her gut, and she trembled with need. “Hurry, Easton. I need you.”
“Jesus, I don’t deserve you.” He dropped his lips to her throat and worked his way down to her breasts, teasing and nuzzling her nipples before moving on to the dip of her waist. When he got her jeans off and spread her thighs for him, she fisted her hands in the blanket he’d thrown over the hay.
His eyes glowed as he lowered his mouth to her slick folds. She threw her head back on a moan as he delivered a slow, intimate kiss on her most secret part. Passion flowed through her veins, stealing all thought. He snaked out his tongue and ran it down her seam, gathering her juices. Up and down, again and again, until he curled his tongue around her clit.
She shook, bucking against his mouth for more. Which he gave her by sucking her bud into his mouth.
“Oh my God, Easton!”
He released his hold on her clit and lapped it with gentle rotations of his tongue that had her lifting off the bed of hay to meet him. A sharp pang of pleasure struck, and she rasped out a cry. He took her to another height by easing a finger into her pussy.
The first contraction struck, and she squeezed her eyes on the wave that washed over her. Need splashed with a heavy dose of love had her coming apart for him. After several more pulsations, she issued a rough cry and collapsed, shaking and damp with perspiration.
He grinned up at her. Then he rubbed his bearded jaw back and forth from her thigh, over her pussy, to her other thigh. The bristle did new things to her insides, and she grabbed for his shoulders.
“I need you inside me. Do you have protection?”
He moved up between her thighs and went dead still. “Dammit.”
“It’s okay, I’m covered. Easton…” She parted her legs for him in invitation.
He stripped his jeans and underwear down his hips in an instant.
He met her stare and guided his cock to her entrance. The bulbous head poised at the slick opening as he stretched the moment with a look that wiped out all thought of ever leaving his arms again.
“Baby, you wouldn’t let me say it before, but I love you. You can’t stop it any more than I can.”
“I can’t.” She wrapped her thighs around him, pulling him down and into her. The swift entrance had them both releasing muffled cries. He slammed his mouth over hers and went still once more. The pulsation inside her began, and he could hold still no longer.
He started to move in slow glides that soon grew to jerky motions as they both galloped out of control. He twisted his tongue over hers, and she shook apart a second time. He reared back to look at her. His face crumpled in bliss, and she felt his liquid shots flowing into her body.
The first thing she was aware of was the hammer of her own blood in her temples. Then the shifting of hooves—they’d made the horses restless.
A shuddering breath left him as he pressed his forehead to hers again. “My God. I’ve never… that was…”
She slid her arms around him, holding her to him and praying she hadn’t just made the biggest mistake of her life. At this moment, she couldn’t think of how they could make this arrangement work, but she wasn’t sorry for letting him have her body, either. It was the happiest, most perfect moment of her entire life.
* * * * *
Easton’s first thought was to ask her to elope with him. Then he’d have her every day like this, all soft and dewy and pliant in his arms, having come apart twice for him. Her flavors still had him aching for more.
“From now on, you can’t come to me like this.”
His heart seized up. Was this another one-off by a woman he had feelings for? Only his feelings for Katie were so pale in comparison to what he held in his heart for Lilah.
“What do you mean?” he asked roughly. He was still hard inside her body, thought about twitching his hips again and stopping anything bad she was about to say on cries of desire. But he held still, fighting his urges, and waited for what she had to say.
“You’re crazy, Easton. You can’t come to me this way between shifts. You have to sleep or you’ll risk your safety and health.”
A breath rushed from him. Pure relief settled in his chest. She lifted her hand to stroke the hair off his brow, her stare so full of love that she had to be feeling the same thing he was.
“Tell me, Lilah. Say the words.”
She gazed at him for a long minute. And for a long minute he believed she either wouldn’t, couldn’t or didn’t.
She threaded her fingers through his hair. “I love you too, Easton. It’s just that…”
He shook his head. “Not tonight. We’ll figure it out later. Right now we’re acting on all this love we’ve both been feeling from the start. Am I right?”
She nodded. “Even before, Easton. I’ve always loved you, since I was a kid.”
He made a noise in his throat and lowered his lips to hers. Giving her all the apologies and promises in one tangled-up, passionate kiss, he began to move.
Chapter Eight
God, the feel of her—tight and slick as sin—had his balls clenching with each thrust of his hips. Need spread through him, tightening every muscle in his body until he was shaking with the urge to blow. Still, he held back.
“I’ve never made love to someone who loved me before.”
She smiled, that sweet tipping of her lips that reached out and grabbed him by the heartstrings. “Then we’re both brand new to this.” Her last word pitched upward on a gasping cry, and she arched her neck.
A growl left him, and he swooped in to kiss her neck, tasting the salt of their coupling and pure woman. He kissed a path up to her mouth and swallowed her screams as she clamped down on him a second time.
He wanted to watch her come apart for him. Memorize it and tuck it away for the times he couldn’t come here like this. To savor—
“Oh God, I’m gonna come.” He groaned long and low, flipped over the edge. All willpower gone with this sultry little strawberry blonde with the passion for sci-fi and reptiles and him.
He bared his teeth on a wolfish grin and pumped out the last vestiges of his release.
She grew boneless beneath him, and he rolled off, allowing her room to breathe. But she twisted onto her side and curled against his side. Heart full of love for this woman, he drew her tighter to his body and buried his face in her hair. A citrusy fragrance wafted from it, and he hoped it never left his mind in the upcoming days he was alone again.
She traced small circles over his chest, and he caught her hand, flattening it over his heart. “Your heart’s racing,” she said softly.
“It hasn’t stopped since I met you.”
She tilted her face up to smile at him. Hell, it was going to kill him to walk away from her before dawn began spreading through the sky, but it had to be done. Unless he could get another position, but the chances were nil.
“I can’t believe you came here tonight. You drove all that way from the rig?”
“Nothing could’ve stopped me. I had to see you.” He brought her fingers to his lips and spent time kissing each one, up and down from tip to knuckle and finally tasting her palm with a flick of his tongue.
She giggled and closed her hand. Then she sobered. “Will you get in trouble?”
“Only trouble I’ll get into is when I’m struggling to make it through another twelve-hour shift.”
She leaned up on an elbow, alarm on her face. “You can’t possibly make it. Easton…"
“Hush, woman. I know what I’m doing, and it’s worth every ounce of fatigue I feel.”
Her brows drew together. “Did you just call me woman?”
“Yup. My woman. C’mere.” He brought her down within inches of his mouth and they stared into each other’s eyes. There was desire in hers, and damn if he didn’t want to satisfy her, but he was already feeling time slipping away from him.
She bent her head and kissed him, very tenderly at first. Then with growing passion that had him yanking her across his body. She straddled him, grinding over his erection and drawing moans from them both.
“I know you need to get back soon, Easton, but I want you. One more time. Just once.” Something in her voice, a hitching sound maybe, had him looking at her harder.
“You don’t believe this is a one-off, do you?”
She stared at him for a long minute.
“You do. Dammit, you told me you loved me. I love you more than I’ve ever imagined possible. And you think this is it? We’ll walk away?”
She raised a shoulder and let it fall. “I don’t know what will happen. Neither of us do.”
He cupped her face in his hands. “What happens is we figure it out. But this doesn’t end. I don’t stop loving you, Lilah. If I could, I’d have a house for you in Paradise Valley right now and carry you across the threshold at first light.”
She closed her eyes. “Don’t do that, Easton. Don’t make promises that we can’t keep.”
He drew her back down and kissed her closed eyelids and finally her lips. “Don’t give up on me, baby. We’ll figure it out.”
He pushed his hips upward, and she sucked in a gasp as he filled her in one swift nudge. The pressure in his groin had him moving again and again, until she collapsed atop him, spent with her fourth orgasm. He leaned over her.
“I don’t want to, but I have to leave, baby.”
She hooked her hand around his nape and drew him down to wrap her arms around him. They remained that way for a long moment, and he got this deep, itching feeling that she was somehow saying goodbye.
“I’ll call you first chance I get.”
“You better sleep first chance you get. I worry about you driving and working when you’re so tired.”
A huge number of roughneck deaths were due to lack of sleep, but he wasn’t going to be one of them. “I’ll tank up on caffeine when I get in the truck and I’ll be fine. I’m not that tired anyway.” He wasn’t—he was too amped up on the high of love and the extreme pleasure they’d shared.
She released him and sat up to watch him pull his clothes on again. He shot her a grin, gave her one last lingering kiss and left the barn.
It’s not goodbye, Lilah. It’s only the beginning.
How he was going to make this work he didn’t know, but fate had brought them back together and he could only be patient and see how it kept them together. He got in his truck and grabbed an energy drink.
* * * * *
Lilah sat in the small-town coffee shop replaying last night in her mind and wondering if she’d really dreamed it. But later this morning, she’d gone back out to the barn to see the blanket spread over the hay and knew it had been real. Every delicious caress, every cry of bliss they’d shared… all real.
She picked up her coffee cup and drank the rest. She was dragging so much that she found herself in a daze by noon and decided taking the day off was the best course of action. She’d showered and slept again. Finally, unable to sit at home and wonder how her lover was faring, she’d come into town.
Until today, she’d hardly ever considered leaving the area she loved. But after spending the night in Easton’s arms, she could think of little else. Could she move closer to him? Even if she did, he would have long weeks of shift work, days and then nights. She wouldn’t see him during those times, but maybe…
She shook herself and set down her mug
again. The place was filling up for the afternoon rush, so she decided to vacate her table to make room for new customers.
Outside, the Texas air smelled of wildflowers, as it did so often in this little country town. Two kids rushed by, one on a bicycle and one on a skateboard, calling back and forth about what to do now that school was out. She smiled to herself. It had been a long time since she’d just taken time like this in her hometown, time to rest and regroup.
And that was exactly what she was doing—weighing the possibilities of being with Easton against the forces just waiting to rip them apart.
“Lilah!” A woman called out to her twice before she looked around and saw Susannah moving toward her.
Lilah focused on her friend—and the place she’d just come from.
When Susannah reached her side, Lilah searched her face for signs of illness but found her rosy-cheeked rather than pale. “Are you all right?” she asked her anyway.
“Yes.”
“But you just came from the doctor’s office.”
Susannah gave a small smile. “Let’s have coffee.” She dragged her by the arm back to the coffee shop she’d just left. After they were settled with coffee and a couple pastries, Lilah stared at her friend.
“What’s going on? You’re acting really weird.”
Susannah laughed. “I’m sure I am. I feel weird. I haven’t even…” She broke off as if struggling with words. Finally, she leaned across the table and whispered, “I haven’t even told Ford yet, but I just went for a pregnancy test.”
Lilah gasped and clapped a hand over her mouth, staring over her fingertips at Susannah. “And?”
“I took several at home, but I didn’t believe them. We weren’t trying to get pregnant.”
“And are you?” Lilah prompted again, needing the real goodies.
Susannah’s eyes sparkled. “Yes! I can’t believe it. Ford’s going to be so happy. He’d dropped a few hints before the maze that he wanted a family, loved being around the little kids in the family. Please don’t say anything until I’ve told him the news.”
