Brenda Jackson The Westmoreland Series Books 16-20

by Brenda Jackson

  He slid down beside her on the sofa. “There is just something tantalizingly sweet about your scent, Lucia.”

  Another line, she was sure of it. “Is there?”

  “Yes. It makes my body burn for you,” he said, wrapping his arms around her shoulders.

  She drew in a deep breath, thinking she would love to believe what he was saying, but knew better. However, tonight it was all about make-believe. Besides, it was hard not to melt under the intense look he was giving her and the way his arm felt around her shoulders. And he was sitting so close, every time he spoke his warm breath blew across her lips.

  He then pulled back slightly and gazed at her thoughtfully. “You don’t believe a word I’ve said, do you?”

  She began nibbling on her bottom lip. She could easily lie and assure him that she did, but deep down she knew she didn’t believe him. She tilted her chin upward. “Does it matter whether or not I believe you, Derringer?”

  He continued to stare at her for a moment with an unreadable expression on his face, and for a split second she thought he was going to say something but he didn’t. Instead, he reached out and cupped her chin with his fingertips before slowly lowering his mouth to hers.

  Sensations ripped through her the moment their lips touched. She closed her eyes when his tongue eased into her mouth and he began kissing her with a hunger that had her groaning deep in her throat.

  Her heart thundered when he captured her tongue with his and began doing all kinds of erotic things to it, sucking on it as if there was a time limit to get his fill, mating their tongues as if all they had was the here and now. This was the kind of kissing that made a woman forget that she was supposed to be a lady.

  She wanted this. She wanted every mind-blowing moment because she knew there was a time limit on this fantasy. Everyone around town knew of Derringer’s reputation for getting tired of his women quickly. There was only a chosen one or two who were determined to hang in for the long haul no matter what—by their choice and not his. She refused to be one of those women. She would take this and be satisfied.

  When he broke off the kiss to shift their positions to press her back against the sofa cushions, she moved willingly with him. She gazed up at him when his body eased on top of hers. She could feel his hard erection between her thighs.

  He lowered his head and began nibbling around her throat, taking the tip of his tongue and licking around her chin. “Too many clothes.” She heard him utter the word moments before he leaned up and, without warning, pulled the sweater over her head. He tossed it to the floor. He then proceeded to tug her jeans down her legs.

  He looked down at her and smiled at her matching red lace bra and panties. She wondered what was going through his mind and why he was so captivated by her lingerie. He then glanced back up at her. “I like a woman who wears lace,” he whispered huskily before leaning down and taking her mouth once more.

  His lips seemed incredibly hot and he had no problem sliding his tongue where he pleased while kissing her with slow, deep strokes. And when she felt his fingers move toward her breasts, ease under her bra to stroke a nipple, she nearly shot off the sofa when sensations speared through her.

  “Derringer…” she whispered in a strained voice.

  This was getting to be too much and she began quivering almost uncontrollably, knowing what she’d heard for years was true. Derringer Westmoreland was almost too much for any woman to handle.

  * * *

  She was wrong. It did matter to him that she believed what he said.

  That thought raged through Derringer’s mind as he continued to kiss her with a hunger he could not understand. What was there about her that made him want to taste her all over, make her groan mercilessly and torture her over and over again before exploding inside her? The mere thought of doing the latter made his groin throb.

  He pulled back slightly, wanting her to watch exactly what he was doing. What he was about to do. When he released the front fastener of her bra, his breath quickened when her breasts came tumbling out. They were full, firm and ripe and the nipples were dark and tightened even more into hard nubs before his eyes. And when he swooped his mouth down and captured a peak between his lips, she moaned and closed her eyes. “Keep them open, Lucia. Watch me. I want you to see what I’m doing to you.”

  He saw her heavy-lidded eyes watch as he tugged a nipple into his mouth and begin sucking on it, and the more he heard her moan the more pressure he exerted with his mouth.

  But that wasn’t enough. Her scent was getting to him and he needed to touch her, to taste her, to bury himself in a feminine fragrance that was exclusively hers. He left one breast and went to another as he lowered a hand underneath the waistband of her lace bikini panties. And when his fingers ran over the wetness of her feminine folds, she writhed against his hand and let out a deep moan and whispered his name.

  He lifted his head to stare down at eyes that were dazed with passion. “Yes, baby? You want something?”

  Instead of answering, she began trembling as his fingers slipped inside her and he began stroking her while watching the display of emotions and expressions appear on her face. The breathless wonder drenched with pleasure that he saw in her gaze, in response to his touch, was a sight to behold and the sweetest thing he’d ever seen.

  Lust thundered through him with the force of a hurricane and he knew he had to make love to her in the most primitive way. Leaning back, he eased to his feet and continued to hold her gaze while he tugged off his boots, pulled off his socks and unzipped his jeans. He took the time to remove a condom from the back pocket and held it between his teeth while he yanked down his jeans, careful of his engorged erection.

  “Derringer…”

  If she said his name like that, with that barely-there voice, one more time, he would lose it. The sound was sending splendorous shivers up his spine and there was a chance he would come the minute he got inside her, without making a single thrust. And he didn’t want that. He wanted to savor the moment, make it last for as long as he could.

  When he was totally naked, he stood before her and watched her gaze roam over him, seeing some parts of him that she probably hadn’t seen their other night together. There was no shame in his game, but he knew deep down this wasn’t a game with him. He was serious about what was taking place between them.

  Thinking he had wasted more than enough time, he bent over her to remove the last item of clothing covering her body. Her panties. He touched the center of her and she sucked in a deep breath. He tossed aside the condom packet he’d been holding between his teeth. “You’re drenched, baby,” he said in a low, rough voice. “I know you don’t believe me, but there is something about you that drives me crazy.”

  When he began tugging her panties down her legs, he whispered throatily, “Lift your hips and bend your legs for me.”

  She did, and when he removed her panties, instead of tossing them aside, he rubbed the lacy material over his face before he bent to the floor and tucked them into the back pocket of his jeans. He knew she was watching his every move and was probably wondering what on earth possessed him to do such a thing.

  Instead of mounting her now, as he wanted to do, there was something he wanted to do even more. Taste her. He wanted to taste all that sweetness that triggered the feminine aroma he enjoyed inhaling. It was a scent he was convinced he had become addicted to.

  He lowered his body to his knees and before she could pull in her next breath, he pressed an open mouth to the wet, hot feminine lips of her sex. She groaned so deep in her throat that her body began trembling. But he kept focused on the pleasure awaiting him as he leisurely stroked her with his tongue, feasting on her with a hunger he knew she could not understand, but that he intended her to enjoy.

  Because he was definitely enjoying it.

  He’d been of the mind that no other woman had her scent. Now he was just as convinced that no other woman had her taste as well. It was unique. It was hers. And at the moment, as c
razy as it sounded, he was also of the mind that it was also his, in a possessive way he’d never encountered before with any woman. The mere thought should have scared the hell out of him, but he was too far gone to give a damn.

  When heat and lust combined and resonated off his mind he knew he had to be inside her or risk exploding then and there. He tore his mouth from her and threw his head back and released a deep savage groan. He then stared down at her while licking her juices from his lips. He felt as if he was taking part in a scorching-hot, exciting and erotic dream, and it was a dream he was dying to turn into a reality. And there was only one way he knew to do that.

  He would take her and now.

  Without saying a word, he leaned over and spread her thighs and placed a kiss on each before moving off his knees to shift his body over hers. Instinctively she arched her back and wrapped her arms around his neck. Their gazes held as he eased his body down, the thick head of his shaft finding what it wanted and working its way inside her wet tightness. He paused when he’d made it halfway, glorying in the feel of her muscles clamping down on him, convulsing around him.

  He wanted to take things slow, but the feel of her gripping him had him groaning deep in his throat, and when in a naughty, unexpected move she licked out her tongue and flicked his budded nipple before easing it into her mouth with a hungry suck, he took in a sharp breath at the same time he thrust hard into her.

  When he heard her cry out, he apologized in a soothing whispered voice. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. Just lie still for a moment.”

  He used that time to lick around her mouth, nibble at the corners, and when she parted her mouth on a sweet sigh, he eased his tongue inside and sank right into a hungry kiss filled with more urgency and desire than he’d ever known or had ever cared knowing. Until now.

  And then he felt the lower part of her body shift beneath the weight of his. He pulled back from the kiss. “That’s it, baby,” he crooned close to her ear. “Take it. All that you want.”

  His body remained still as she moved her body, grinding against him, dipping her hips into the sofa cushions before lifting them up again, arching her back in the process. Then she began rotating her hips, pushing up and lowering back down.

  Derringer’s body froze when he remembered the condom he’d tossed aside and he knew he needed to pull out now. But heaven help him, he couldn’t do so. Being inside of her like this felt so darn right. He kept his body immobile until he couldn’t stay still any longer and then he joined her, driving his erection deeper into her. He thrust in and out with precise and concentrated strokes that he felt all the way to the soles of his feet.

  He had thought their first time together had been off the charts, but nothing, he decided, could compare to this. Nothing could compete with the incredible feeling of being inside her this way. Nothing. Desperate to reach the highest peak with her, he took total possession of her, kissing her with urgency while their bodies mated in the most primitive pleasure known to humankind.

  He whispered erotic things in her ear before reaching down and cupping her face in his hands to stare down at her while his body continued to drive heatedly into hers. Their gazes locked and something happened between them at that moment that nearly threw him off balance. Somewhere in the back of his mind a voice was taunting that this had nothing to do with possessing but everything to do with claiming.

  Denial froze hard in his throat and he wanted to scream that it wasn’t possible. He claimed no woman. Instead, he grunted savagely as his body exploded, and then he heard her scream as she cried out in ecstasy. He kept thrusting into her, pushing them further and further into sweet oblivion and surging them beyond the stars.

  Eight

  Lucia moved her head slowly, opened her eyes and then came fully awake when a flash of sunlight through her bedroom window hit her right in the face. It was then that she felt the male body pressed tightly against her back and the heated feel of Derringer’s breathing on her neck.

  She then remembered.

  They had made love on the sofa before moving into her bedroom where they had made love again before drifting off to sleep. Sometime during the wee hours of early morning they had made love again. The entire thing seemed unreal, but Derringer’s presence in her bed assured her that it had been real.

  Her body felt sore, tender in a number of places, but mostly between her legs, and she wouldn’t be surprised if her lips were swollen from all the kissing they had done. Her cheeks flooded with heat thinking about a number of other things they’d gotten into as well. She had proven to him in a very sexual way that she definitely knew how to ride a stallion. He had taunted her to prove it and she’d done so.

  Her eyes fluttered closed as she thought how she would handle things from here on out. She knew last night meant more to her than it had to him, and she could handle that. But what she wouldn’t be able to handle was letting things go beyond what they’d shared these past few hours. She loved him and for him to ever make love to her again would turn things sexual, into a casual relationship that would tarnish her memories rather than enhance them. She was smart enough to know when to let go and move on. Now was the time.

  Tears flooded her eyes. Derringer would always have her heart, but the reality was that she would never have his. And being the type of person that she was, she could never allow herself to become just one in a long line of women vying for his attention. She preferred letting things go back to the way they were between them before they’d become intimate.

  The way she saw things, if she never had him then there was no way she could lose him. She couldn’t risk a broken heart because of Derringer and she knew her place in his life. She didn’t have one. If she began thinking of developing something serious with him knowing the kind of man he was, she was setting herself up for pain from which she might never be able to heal.

  She would continue to love him like this—secretly. She had gotten used to doing things that way and, no matter what, she couldn’t let their sexual encounters—no matter how intense they’d been—fill her head and mind with false illusions.

  She swallowed when she felt Derringer’s penis swell against her backside and tried to convince herself it wouldn’t be a good idea to make love to him one last time. But she knew the moment he pulled her closer to his hard, masculine body that she would. This would be saying goodbye to the intimacy between them. She knew it even if he didn’t.

  “You’re awake?” He turned her in his arms to face him.

  Desire rippled through her the moment she looked into his face. Propped with his head on her pillow, his eyes had the same desire-glazed look they’d had that first night they’d made love. It was a sexy, drowsy look, complete with a darkened shadow on his chin. No man had a right to look this good in the morning. He looked so untamed, wild and raw. His rumpled look was calling out to her, arousing her and making her want him all over again.

  “Sort of,” she said, yawning, and couldn’t help the anticipation she heard in her voice. And when he gave her a dimpled cowboy smile, sensations shot through her entire body, but especially in the area between her thighs.

  “Then let me wake you up the Derringer Westmoreland way.” He then captured her mouth at the same time he tossed his leg over hers, adjusting their positions to ease inside her body.

  “Oh,” she whispered, and when he locked his leg on her and began slowly moving in and out of her and capturing her lips with his, she figured there was nothing wrong with one for the road…even though she knew she would end up in heaven.

  * * *

  Derringer’s smile faded as he buttoned up his shirt and stared at Lucia. “What do you mean we can’t ever make love again?”

  He saw the flash of regret that came into her eyes before she stopped brushing her teeth long enough to rinse out her mouth. “Just what I said, Derringer. Last night was special and I want to remember it that way.”

  He was confused. “And you don’t think you can if we make love again?
”

  “No. I know about the women you usually sleep with and, personally, I don’t want to be one of them.”

  He frowned, crossing his arms over his chest, not sure he liked what she’d said. “Then why did you sleep with me last night?”

  “I had my reasons.”

  His frown deepened. He couldn’t help but wonder if those reasons were the same ones he had initially suspected her of having. And it didn’t help matters to know that every time he had made love to her they had been unprotected. The first time had been a slip-up, and then after that, he’d deliberately chosen not to think about it. Why he’d done such a thing, he didn’t know. He usually made it a point to always use protection. Even now, Lucia might be pregnant with his child.

  “And just what are those reasons, Lucia?”

  “I’d rather not say.”

  Anger ignited inside him. That response wasn’t good enough.

  “Oh!” she cried out in surprise when he reached out, snatched her off her feet and tossed her over his shoulders like a sack of potatoes and strode out of the bathroom.

  “Derringer! What in the world is wrong with you? Put me down.”

  He did. Tossing her on the bed and glaring down at her. “I want to hear these reasons.”

  She glared back. “You don’t need to know them. All you need to know is that I won’t be sharing a bed with you again.”

  “Why? Because you think you’re pregnant now and that’s what this is about?”

  Shock leaped into her face. “Pregnant? What are you talking about?”

  “Are you on the pill or something?”

  He could tell his question had surprised her. “No.”

  His frown deepened. “There’s only one reason I can think of for a woman to let a man come inside her. Are you going to deny that sleeping with me this time around…as well as the last time…has nothing to do with you wanting a Westmoreland baby?”

  He saw her throat tighten. “The last?”