All Through the Night (40 page)

She couldn’t blame him for vanishing. In his place, she would have done the same, but now she would never have the chance to tell him how special and healing that night had been to her. All day she composed little speeches of all the things she wished she’d said to him. To hell with her pride. He was a really nice guy, and he deserved to know the truth—that he was sweet, and sexy, and fabulous in bed, and that he’d made her feel better than she’d ever felt in her life.

She found a campground at sunset, and set up her tent. Don’t think about him any more, she told herself. Go about your business. Tarp, tent, pegs, poles. Rain canopy, sleeping bag, toiletries bag, camp stove. She rummaged through her supplies with a sigh. She didn’t want the Middle Eastern Couscous Cup or Tia Rita’s Black Bean Surprise. And she really, really didn’t want any more of those goddamn canned peaches. Thank God the day was finished. Almost time to roll herself into a Santa cocoon and forget who she was in the oblivion of sleep.

“Hi, Annie,” came a voice from the shadows behind her.

She whirled around. “Jacob?” She was so happy to see him that her heart swelled like a balloon. She smiled at him foolishly.

He stepped out of the shadows and placed the paper bag he was carrying on the picnic table.

“What have you got there?” she asked.

He looked wary. “Dinner,” he said belligerently.

“Dinner?” Annie approached the table and sniffed. Mouthwatering smells were coming out of the bag. She pulled out a foam container and popped it open. Barbecued chicken. Oh, God. Her stomach yawned open joyfully.

“Yeah. So?” he said defensively. “Go ahead, Annie. Let me have it. Get it over with. Tell me what an asshole I am for buying you dinner.”

Annie forced herself not to laugh at his martyred face. “Thank you,” she said quietly. “It looks delicious. Let’s eat before it gets cold.”

He blinked, and visibly relaxed. “Really?”

“Really.” She threw herself at him and hugged him hard. His strong arms circled her, and she hid her face against his chest, willing herself not to start bawling; she would just embarrass the poor guy.

She stepped back, giving him a shaky smile. Jacob grinned back, smoothing over the awkward moment by giving her a gentle kiss on her nose. “Let’s eat, then,” he suggested. “You hungry?”

“You have no idea,” she said fervently.

They feasted on Jacob’s bounty. Barbecued chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, twice-baked cheese grits, col-lard greens and coleslaw and cornbread, and the crowning touch: two huge pieces of pie, chocolate pecan and pumpkin chiffon, swimming in whipped cream. It was so delicious it almost reduced her to tears again.

They finished the pie, and the process of licking various sticky bits of chocolate and pumpkin from each others’ fingers segued into a sweet, clinging kiss. Jacob lifted his head reluctantly, dropping soft kisses on her upturned face like a sweet, hot rain. “Annie,” he said in a soft, pleading voice. “I know I’m pushing my luck, but there’s a really nice bed and breakfast in town. Four-poster beds, country quilts, private baths. Coffee and scones and orange juice in the morning.”

Annie hid her face against him, trying not to show how tempted she was. How marvelous it would be to just creep under Jacob’s big, strong wing and huddle there like a shivering, rain-drenched baby bird.

No. She was not a baby bird and she would not permit herself to act like one. She hesitated, choosing her words carefully. She didn’t want to sound mouthy or mean. He didn’t deserve it.

“Jacob, it’s sweet of you, but I have to travel inside my own budget. If you want my company, then you’re just going to have to—” She stopped herself abruptly. That was an ultimatum. Ultimatums sounded snotty and uppity. Be nice, Annie, she reminded herself. Think sweet. Make an effort.

She began again, in a halting voice. “You’re welcome to stay with me… that is, you’re more than welcome. I have to make do with my funky old tent, and I’m sorry it’s so uncomfortable. But please stay with me.” She closed her eyes, and added in a whisper, “I really, really want you to stay.”

Jacob wrapped his arms around her fiercely. “You know damn well that I would sleep naked in the snow for a chance to make love to you again,” he said roughly. “I just don’t understand why we can’t do it someplace warm and dry. But, whatever. At least our stomachs are full.”

Annie rubbed her face against the velvety skin of his neck, weak with relief. “I’ll do my best to distract you from how uncomfortable it is.” She got up and tugged on his hand, drawing him toward the tent. “On your feet, Jacob. I’ve got plans for you tonight.”

“Oh, yeah?” His voice was full of cautious speculation.

“Yeah.” She kicked off her shoes and unzipped the tent flap. “Remember how you said that last night was all about me?”

She knelt and untied the laces of his boots. He stepped out of them obediently. “Yeah,” he said. “Why?”

She looked up at him with a mysterious smile. “Guess who tonight is going to be all about?”

“Oh, God,” he muttered as she dragged him into the tent.

She was different tonight, bold and fierce, shoving his jacket roughly off his shoulders.

“What’s the rush?” he asked. “Are we late for something?”

“Cut the smart-ass remarks and get your clothes off, buddy,” she snapped breathlessly. “I’m trying to make a point, here.”

He wasn’t about to argue with that. They stripped with feverish haste, desperate for the hot contact of skin and lips and hands. She ran her hands over his shoulders and arms with a murmur of approval, and yanked out the elastic band that held his hair, ruffling it into a wild mane. “I like you like this,” she said. “I love your long hair.”

“I grew it out just for you,” he told her goofily, laughing as she buried her face in his neck and nipped it. She tugged his earlobe with her teeth and whispered, “Yesterday I asked if you wanted a blow job.”

God forbid that she should think he didn’t like them, he thought, with a flash of alarm. “Hey, just because I declined one yesterday doesn’t mean that I don’t—”

“Shut up, Jacob,” she said in a low, purring voice.

He strained to read her expression in the dark. “Huh?”

“Tonight, I’m not asking you. Tonight, I’m telling you. Got it?”

“Oh,” he said inanely.

“Lie down.” She shoved him down imperiously until he was flat on his back, and knelt over him, the canopy of her hair brushing like a wide, whisper-soft kiss down the length of his torso. The hair between her legs tickled his navel as she straddled him, and the hot, moist kiss of her sex pressed intimately against his belly.

She leaned down, raining little kisses all over his face. He slid his hand behind her head and pulled her face down to his, but she made a fierce sound of protest, grabbed his wrists, and jerked them up above his head. He writhed luxuriously in her grasp, allowing her strong, slender hands to subdue him without protest. “I’m at your mercy,” he said, with just a tiny tremor of laughter in his voice.

“You better believe it,” she breathed into his ear. Her nails dug into his wrists as she thrust her tongue into his mouth.

He opened his mouth eagerly to her fierce, conquering kiss. It felt odd, being passive. It wasn’t his usual role, but, hell, he would wear a pink tutu and hang upside down if that was what she wanted. And there was something very fine about having a beautiful, tough woman holding him prisoner, scrambling around on top of him, rubbing her fragrant, silky self against his aroused body.

She kissed him with an innocent aggressiveness that touched him almost as much as it turned him on, and then slid slowly down his body, letting her hair drag across his face and neck. She nibbled on his nipples while brushing her soft, downy bush gently back and forth across his stiff cock until he thought he was going to scream. She laughed, softly and mercilessly. She was doing it on purpose, just to torture him. It took every ounce of willpower he had not to flip her over on her back and ram himself inside her.

He almost wept with relief when she seized his dick, sliding her hands up and down with appreciative slowness. She measured him with a purring sound of delighted approval. “God, I wish there was more light in here,” she murmured. “I want to see every detail.”

“There’s a flashlight in my saddlebags, on the bike,” he gasped.

“And do you want to be the one to go get it?” She leaned down and swirled her tongue around the head of his cock, a wet, luscious vortex of sensation that rendered him breathless with delight. He let his head drop back onto the ground with a thud. “Next time,” he moaned.

“I agree,” she murmured. Then there was no more speech, just the soft, moist, delicious kissing and suckling sounds she made as she drew him into her mouth and out of his mind.

She was voracious and tender at the same time, swirling her tongue around erotically, licking up and down the whole length of him with voluptuous sweeps of her tongue until he was wet and slick. Then she grasped him, moving her slender hands up and down his shaft in a sensual rhythm along with her hot, suckling mouth. She cupped his balls tenderly in her hand. “There’s so much of you, I don’t know what to do with it all,” she whispered seductively.

“You’re doing fine,” he assured her, his voice shaking. “If you did any better, I’d probably have a stroke.”

She laughed and put her mouth to him again with tender eagerness, making his heart swell and throb almost as much as his cock, and then he forgot everything except for this stunning woman and this perfect, erotic moment. The universe was centered on Annie’s hot mouth, her clever tongue, her gentle hands. The silky clutch and glide of her mouth against his exquisitely sensitive flesh was pushing him too close to the brink, and she made a soft, questioning murmur when he put his hands on either side of her face, slowing her down. “Don’t make me come just yet,” he begged. “It’s too perfect.”

“OK, OK,” she whispered. She waited until his hands relaxed, and he stopped trembling, then began to move again with diabolical skill, patiently taking him to the brink and drawing back, again and again until he was thrashing his head from side to side, chest heaving, tangling his fingers into her hair.

She lifted her head. “After last night, it’s only fair to make you come in my mouth, but I’ve got to have you inside me,” she said in a soft, ragged voice. “I’m going crazy. I promise, the next time I’ll—”

“It’s fine, it’s great. Whatever you want is fine, Annie, anything. Make me come any damn way you please. Just… do it
now
.”

She clambered up over his body. “Do you have another… ?”

“Yeah, of course.” He rummaged in the dark for his jeans with a hand that shook uncontrollably. Annie took the condom from his hand, ripped it open and smoothed it over him with bold, sensual strokes of her hand that shocked another gasp of agonized pleasure out of him. He struggled into a sitting position, pulling her toward him, arms trembling with urgency. “Sit on me,” he urged.

She crouched over him, reaching down and milking him with strong, slow pulls from the base of his cock to the swollen head. The rich sea smell of her arousal made him drunk and dizzy. He slid his hand between her thighs, delving into the drenched, sultry depths of her cunt. Delicate little muscles tightened and fluttered around his bold invasion. She let out a little sob and moved eagerly against his hand. She was ready. More than ready. She was desperate, just like he was.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and lowered herself over him with a shaky moan of anticipation. Jacob held his breath and prayed for self-control as he guided his erection inside her moist opening. He prodded insistently until they found the perfect angle, and they cried out together as he shoved his whole thick, throbbing length inside her.

They clutched each other for a long moment as if they were afraid of falling. The tight, clinging embrace of Annie’s shivering body was so exciting, he was about to come too soon. He held her very still, willing the rising tension to ease down once more. Just one more round, that was all he asked of himself, and then he was going to have to let go.

Annie made an impatient sound, and rocked against him, squeezing him with the delicate muscles inside her body. She licked his neck, and he felt the sharp, teasing nip of her teeth at his shoulder, and the last remnant of self-control fell away. He slammed himself upward into her snug, hot sheath. Her arms tightened around his neck, her nipples pressed against his chest, her soft, pleading cries told him that she wanted him, that she needed what he could give her.

Every time he lost himself inside her, the pull got stronger, his need for her keener; but it was too late to pull back. Annie, sweet and searing, tart and prickly and utterly desirable; he was lost to her, a roiling mass of molten lava, and then a cataclysm of volcanic sweetness exploded through him.

He clutched her desperately, almost afraid of what was happening to him.

Jacob knew before he even opened his eyes that morning that it was going to be another bad scene. He’d been half awake, savoring the feel of her in his arms, wondering about his chances for some cuddling; maybe even another round of hot yummy sex to get the day started off right. He’d sensed the exact moment when she woke, figured out where she was, and went as rigid as a steel rail. Shit. He braced himself.