Dark Desire in Elk's Crossing [Sequel to Ecstasy in Elk's Crossing] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)

by Robin Gideon

  She was standing once more at the windows, looking out at the ebony night.

  “It’s so very dark out here,” she said, feeling Joshua’s masculine presence as he stood behind her, looking over her head. “In Oslo, it never gets this dark. There are always electric lights on.”

  “Let’s take a step outside,” Joshua said. “You need to see what the night looks like from a country perspective. You can’t really see its beauty looking through a window.”

  He turned and walked toward the door, clearly confident that Annika would simply follow him. She thought briefly of resisting, aware that this man was far too familiar with people doing whatever he said without question, but she tamped down this quick moment of petty ire and followed him through the ranch house. Before she caught up with him, she took the time to visually appreciate taut, masculine buns encased in nice jeans, wide shoulders, and coal-black hair that curled over the collar of his shirt. When he opened the door and stepped aside for her to pass, Annika once again caught the fragrance of his cologne and inexplicably, or at least traitorously, she felt her body respond sexually to its influence.

  “One of the busiest meatpacking cities in the world is Chicago, which is also the third largest city in the United States,” Joshua explained as he closed the door and lightly slipped his arm inside Annika’s and began leading her away from the house and onto the expansive lawn. The electric bulb over the front door cast a halo of illumination in a circle that didn’t travel thirty feet. “I find myself in the heart of Chicago with a fair frequency, and I always dislike it. I do it because of business, but I don’t like the big city.”

  “What don’t you like about it?” Annika asked, distinctly aware of the warmth of the strong, large hand lightly touching the inside of her arm just above the elbow.

  “A thousand different things, but one most of all is the night. You can step outside your hotel room at midnight or three in the morning and it’ll be bright enough outside with all the neon lights to read a newspaper.” Annika looked up at him to make certain he was serious, and as though reading her mind, he nodded and smiled. “In Chicago, I look up into the sky at night and can’t see a single star. Not one. But I look around and see a hundred people, a thousand people, no matter what time of the day or night. And I don’t know a single one of them. Not really. Not even the ones I do business with.”

  Annika, unsure of just exactly what to expect from Joshua and therefore uncomfortable with silence, asked softly after several quiet seconds, “Where are we going?”

  “Just over here a ways,” Joshua answered. “Don’t worry. I promised Sven I’d keep a protective eye on you, and I intend to do exactly that.” A sudden, raucous clamor of angry and delighted voices came from the bunkhouse some thirty yards to the south, between the ranch house and the stone front gates of the Sitting Mule Ranch. “Poker,” Joshua explained. “Those are the men who work for the ranch during the summer months, so they’re temporary. Every night is poker night, and if somebody wins, that means somebody has to lose.”

  “I live in New York City and Oslo, so I’m unfamiliar with ranch hands, but I do know what a poker game sounds like. My father used to host a poker game once a month with his friends. They’d all get drunk and gamble like sailors, and I’d be in bed and hear this uproar with some men angry and some men thrilled.” She smiled. “It brings back nice memories.”

  They stepped up to a white, three-rail corral fence. Joshua put a booted foot up on the bottom rail, grabbed the top rail in his hands, and tilted his head far back on his shoulders to look up into the night sky.

  “Look at those stars,” he said quietly. “If that isn’t beauty, I don’t know what is.”

  Annika turned her back to the fence then stretched her arms out over the top rail. When she looked up, the natural beauty spread out before her made the breath catch in her throat. A city girl born and bred, she was used to concrete beneath her feet and neon lights surrounding her. The panorama of pinpricks of starlight unfolded instantaneously against an ebony-black sky was almost unfathomable to her senses.

  “My God, that’s stunning,” she whispered with absolute though entirely unintentional candor. “I’ve never seen so many stars in my life. It’s…beautiful.”

  “And so,” Joshua said, turning slightly away from the fence and looking down at Annika, “are you.”

  Chapter Three

  A little voice inside Joshua’s head warned him that Annika was not the lovely, little plaything he needed. Joshua didn’t listen to that voice of reason and rationality as he leaned down and pressed his mouth lightly over Annika’s. It was a brief, almost delicate kiss, holding more promise than passion. Joshua put his broad palms lightly on her shoulders and leaned back just enough to look into her eyes.

  “Joshua,” Annika whispered.

  She might have said more, but Joshua didn’t give her the chance. He kissed her second time, slanting his mouth down over hers as his arms wound around her curvaceous body. He didn’t crush her to him, though he was certainly strong enough to do exactly that, but he did pull her in firmly enough so that he felt the twin mounds of her abundant breasts compressing against his lower chest. His lips moved against hers, and the tip of his tongue sought entrance into her mouth. He bent her backward, pulling her in a little more tightly, and this time he was certain she had no choice but to feel the rising erection he had trapped inside his Levi’s.

  A soft moan of surrender worked its way out of Annika’s soul. Joshua sensed the woman’s frustration at her own inability to control a traitorous libido. His right hand slipped down her back, the callused fingers splayed wide apart, until he cupped the tautly rounded curve of her bottom. He squeezed first the left and then right cheek, fondling her as well as pulling her in so that she rubbed against the rising and now undeniably towering erection that throbbed to be freed from its confinement.

  Joshua eased his tongue more deeply into her mouth, his tongue dancing with hers, gliding along her teeth, thrusting deeply before retreating completely. She felt small and distinctly feminine in his arms, and Joshua had to remind himself that he was big and strong and if he wasn’t careful, he could accidentally hurt someone as seemingly delicate as Annika. There was still much he did not know about her, but he intended to know her very well by the time she returned to Norway.

  Annika’s hands were still at her sides, neither pushing him away nor drawing him nearer. Joshua ended the kiss just long enough to look at her hands and see that they were balled into tight, white-knuckled fists. He brought his left hand up to slide his fingers through her honey-blonde hair at the nape of her neck. He kissed her again, harder than before, and this time when his tongue entered her mouth it was a boldly commanding move. His right hand, the long fingers quite strong, buried into the rounded, feminine contours of her bottom. He pulled her in so that she pressed against his erection, and this time it was he who moved his pelvis from side to side. He forced her to understand the full extent of his response to her beauty and charms. His cock was so hard that it threatened to rip denim in order to escape.

  Respond, damn you! Surrender!

  But Annika was strong-willed, and even though Joshua could sense her growing passion, so far she had yet to give him any outward sign of passionate acceptance.

  With his right hand, he gave her bottom a final squeeze then began easing it slowly around her hip. As his palm rubbed lightly over her, moving toward her front, Annika inhaled sharply and then held her breath. His fingertips, extremely sensitive despite their work-roughened calluses, eased over the pocket of her slacks, sliding sideways and downward.

  Annika unclenched her fist and quickly caught Joshua by the wrist before he could caress her more intimately. She also turned her face sharply to end the kiss.

  “Joshua, I won’t deny that you turn me on, but I’ve got rules,” Annika said softly, a distinct quiver in her voice. “One of those rules is to never, ever mix business with pleasure.” She released the tight grasp she had on his w
rist.

  Joshua slipped his hand around her hip once more so that he cupped her ass intimately, his fingers flexing and relaxing almost unconsciously. His erection, running down the left leg of his jeans, was pulsing with wanton hunger, its length, girth, and inflexibility formidable.

  “I’m just guessing, but I’d say you don’t get enough pleasure in your life.” He felt her flinch, and knew that he was accurate, but had hit a raw nerve. “We’re adults.” Joshua bent and kissed her forehead. “Tell me what you want. Tell me what will make you happy. I’ll do anything you ask.”

  A small sob was caught in her throat, and she leaned into him, putting her hands so that they were against his chest.

  “It’s not as simple as that,” she whispered.

  “I’m a country boy, a cattleman. Cowboys know how to keep things simple.”

  He curled his forefinger beneath her chin and forced her face upward then kissed her again. It was a series of light kisses that brushed back and forth across her mouth. His initial seduction had gotten derailed by inhibitions and a feminine sense of professional decorum, but it was only a temporary setback, as far as Joshua was concerned. A brief trip down the wrong road, a slight diversion on the road to ecstasy.

  “We’ll keep”—he ended the brushing kisses briefly—“it simple.” He took her left hand by the wrist. “And nobody”—he placed her palm over the tenting bulge in his jeans—“will get hurt.”

  He felt her fingers tighten on his cock then her sudden gasp. She took a full step to the side so that she was no longer trapped between Joshua and the fence. Her mouth was open slightly, her eyes large and round. Even in the dim starlight, the length of Joshua’s erection straining against his denims was clearly visible.

  “Oh…oh, my,” Annika whispered through her fingers.

  Joshua had received similar reactions from women numerous times over his life. “Don’t worry,” he said quickly, putting his hands up, palms outward as though to show he was harmless. “I know what to do. I won’t hurt you. It’ll be ecstasy itself. You’ll see.” He smiled. “Just give me a chance to show you how good it can be.”

  But she wasn’t looking at his smile or paying any attention to the way he held his hands so innocently. Annika’s gaze was locked onto the formidable cock that ran down the left leg of Joshua’s jeans.

  * * * *

  Annika was no blushing innocent, not some naive virgin. She had seen erections before, and she’d even taken them into her pussy and mouth. But her version of the common dimensions of an erect penis regarding both length and thickness bore only scant resemblance to what she suspected was waiting for her should Joshua open his Levi’s and release that monster of his.

  A smile tugged at the corners of Annika’s mouth as the word “monster” slithered through her consciousness.

  “You find something funny?” Joshua asked, his brow furrowed.

  He put his hands on his hips, sliding his sport coat back in the process. Annika didn’t know if it was intentional, or not, but the posture made his hips look very lean, his shoulders very broad, and the hard cock straining against denim quite enormous.

  “I’m not laughing at you, I promise,” Annika said quietly, a hand still over her mouth. “I’ve just never seen anyone so…”

  Her words drifted away. She’d never had this kind of a conversation with a man before, and she certainly didn’t want to have it now. But what her better judgment said she wanted, and what her body and libido desperately desired, was highly incompatible. In fact, they were in direct opposition to each other.

  “Oh,” Joshua replied, then he, too, smiled.

  Annika suspected she was just one of a long line of women who reacted with shock upon discovering exactly what it was Joshua intended to make love to them with. She tried to look away, but her eyes wouldn’t do the bidding of her common sense. Would it hurt? She wasn’t a big woman. Not down there, anyway, and Joshua’s stature was intimidating.

  “I really wish you weren’t quite so confident in yourself,” she said, quite aware of her own lack of confidence in sexual matters.

  “You shouldn’t be insecure,” he said, his tone silky. “You are really quite beautiful, but I don’t think you understand that. At least not deep down in your soul, and that’s where it really matters.”

  Joshua stepped forward. Annika retreated but after two backward steps she was stopped by the corral fence.

  “I haven’t been with a man in three years,” Annika said in a tremulous whisper. She closed her eyes and sighed, shaking her head. “I can’t believe I just confessed to that.”

  “Let me end your drought,” Joshua said, placing his hands once more on her shoulders. “You won’t regret it.”

  He kissed her then, and Annika felt her heart hammering in her chest. The kiss was firm, commanding without being brutal, and Annika trembled, feeling as though she was being swept over a waterfall, her body falling and falling, her fear rising as she considered what would happen when she reached the bottom. When Joshua slipped his arms under hers and raised her hands to his shoulders she did not resist. A moment later his hands closed over her breasts, compressing the twin mounds, pinching lightly at the lust-hardened nipples through blouse and brassiere.

  It seemed to Annika that the buttons of her blouse were being unfastened with the skill that only a connoisseur of sexuality could have. Annika knew she should end the madness, stop it now before it had gone too far, but then she felt the tails of her blouse being tugged out of the waistband of her slacks, and her willful determination faded into shadows. The sensation of silk sliding against her stomach sent a heat spiraling straight downward until it centered on her clitoris. Joshua’s warm, evocative tongue slipped between her lips, stripping away her resistance. Strong hands eased inside her blouse, fingertips brushing lightly over silken flesh then slipping over the cups of her brassiere.

  “Heavenly,” Joshua said, his lips nuzzling Annika’s as he tweaked her nipples into an even fiercer state of arousal. “So full and firm. I could eat you alive. Every inch of you.”

  As though to prove his point he caught her bottom lip between his teeth. He bit with sufficient force to give a hint of pain then soothed that sensation into sublime pleasure with his tongue. As his teeth nibbled at Annika’s plump lower lip, powerful hands delicately eased the cups of her brassiere beneath her breasts.

  Joshua abandoned Annika’s mouth, kissed her cheek and then neck, then bent at the waist and brought his mouth, warm and moist, to the aroused crest of her left breast.

  “Oh, God,” Annika exclaimed as she felt her nipple and much of her areola get sucked into Joshua’s mouth.

  I’ve got to stop this now. Right now while I still can.

  But the thought, though coming from her better judgment, remained nothing more than wishful thinking. Annika looked down at her left breast and trembled with wanton desire as one of the most handsome men she’d ever seen in her life sucked lustily at her nipple, his cheek hollowing at the suction.

  Annika watched her own hands as they moved from Joshua’s shoulders to his head. It was as though the hands did not belong to her when her fingers combed through his long, black hair caressingly.

  Pull him away. You can do it. This hasn’t yet gone too far.

  Annika watched with a certain sense of dread as her hands pulled at Joshua’s hair, forcing him to release her nipple from his mouth. But instead of freeing herself from his attentions, she guided his mouth to her right breast and shivered when she watched his tongue flick against her nipple before his lips surrounded it.

  It was as though she had no power over her own actions, that her willpower and good judgment had abandoned themselves completely to the sensuality that Joshua inspired. When she watched his cheek sink inward as he drew more of her sensitive breast into the heated confines of his mouth, Annika felt herself tumbling toward a climax.

  This is only happening because I haven’t let a man touch me in so long.

  But Annika knew th
at, at most, this was only a half truth. Even if she was in a permanent relationship with a good man and a satisfying sex life, the allure that Joshua represented would still be impossible to ignore, even if she would be able to resist.

  As Joshua’s heated lips paid special attention to Annika’s nipple, his right hand slipped downward nearly to her knee before sliding up between slightly spread legs. When he reached the apex of her thighs, and the heel of his palm pressed firmly against her clitoris, not even the layers of clothing separating Joshua from his goal could diminish a pleasure so intense that Annika’s legs momentarily buckled beneath her. She closed her eyes and let her head tilt back on her shoulders, all her senses luxuriating in the sensual, heated glow that suffused her system.

  Her belt was unbuckled with consummate ease, and the button of her waistband was released with fluidity. Annika was aware of the zipper of her slacks being slowly lowered, but the lips and tongue tantalizing her lust-inflamed nipple seemed to whisper promises that her libido longed to hear.

  “Yes, eat you alive.” Joshua’s lips brushed her nipple as he spoke. The timbre of his voice was husky and sexual in the ebony darkness of the night. “I’ll eat every last bit of you, not in big gulps, but in tiny, little nibbles.”

  He sank slowly to his knees, and Annika kept her fingers laced through his hair as he kissed her stomach before tantalizing her belly button with his tongue. A moment later, when Annika felt masculine fingers slipping into the waistband of her slacks and panties at her hips, she realized it was her last possible chance to end this madness.

  Though it was a warm evening, when the breeze played over Annika’s nipples, still moist from Joshua’s oral ministrations, they tingled and felt cool. She opened her eyes and looked down between the trembling mounds to watch as Joshua licked her navel sensually while he eased slacks and panties down to the middle of her thighs. Moments later he abandoned her belly button, bent even lower, bared his teeth, then nipped lightly at the sensitive flesh of her abdomen.