Always on My Mind (18 page)

“Riding you is so much more fun than riding a horse,” she said, laughing against his mouth.

The sound of her joy was so sweet that he couldn’t keep moving forward, couldn’t do anything but stand in the grass and wildflowers and kiss her.

“I put clean sheets on your bed today,” she informed him with a naughty little smile when he finally pulled back from her sweet lips, her gorgeous face lit by the moonlight. “Let’s go mess them up.” And then she was unwrapping her legs from around his waist, saying, “Race you to the truck,” and running off through the field.

Her long dark hair was flying out behind her as he chased her again, her limbs strong and fast as the satin of her dress tangled up in her beautiful legs, her laughter filling his heart until he was sure it was going to overflow. He reached out for her hand just as she reached back for him, and their fingers threaded together as he pulled her back into him for one more hot kiss.

He opened the passenger door of his truck for her, and this time when he helped her up, he let his hands roam across her perfect ass, which she wiggled into his palms.

“You know,” she said as he slid in behind the wheel seconds later, “I’ve never made love in a truck before.”

God, he thought as the blood rushed hotter, faster, through his veins, it was tempting. So tempting to stay right here in this dark and deserted corner where he’d parked, and drag her onto his lap, even though he had been fantasizing all week long about making love to her in his bed.

Grayson had spent the past three years controlling everything. His farm. His animals. His emotions. His needs. But now, in the span of a few seconds, it was all slipping out of his grasp.

Because the mere thought of taking Lori in his truck was so potent that he couldn’t do a damned thing to stop the Neanderthal lurking inside him from emerging to take. To claim. To possess.

By the time he had his hands on her and was dragging her onto his lap, hers were already on him, moving up his chest.
“Grayson.”
She breathed his name into the crook of his neck, the same place she’d licked on the ride during the storm a couple of days ago.

Though he was on the verge of ripping off her dress, when she twined her arms around his neck and he pulled her closer with desire raging heated and wild all around them, for the moment, just holding her tight was not only enough...it was more than he’d ever thought to have.

* * *

I love you.

Lori knew she could never say the words aloud. Not only was Grayson not even close to being in an emotional position to give his love to her, but he wouldn’t be able to accept her love, either.

Only, she’d never loved anyone because of what she could get back from them. And, as she pressed her cheek against Grayson’s and felt his breath move with hers, slower now as they shared a perfect moment of closeness, she was shocked to realize that she’d never felt anything this strong, this deep and true, for any other man.

Because what she felt for the man holding her so tightly—as though he was worried she’d disappear if he didn’t make absolutely certain to keep her there with him—was richer, and so much sweeter, than anything she’d ever felt before.

She wanted to heal Grayson, wanted to give him her heart, her love, until they finally overshadowed tragedy and pain.

She wanted to make love with him for hours and hours, knew from his kisses alone that she’d never get her fill of being intimate with him.

She wanted to be his partner and have him trust that she would be there for him in a way that no one else had ever been.

And, oh, how she wanted to see him smile. One perfect smile. One full-bodied laugh. And then she’d know that she’d given him something important, something real, something that mattered.

When he started to rain kisses down over her cheek, and then her chin and neck, she used her dancer’s flexibility to arch way back so that he could have unfettered access to even more of her.

“Damn you for being so tempting,” he growled with a nip at the upper swell of her breast. “Fifteen minutes, that was all we needed to get back to my farm. Fifteen goddamned minutes. Is that too much to ask? Is that too long for you to stop being so irresistible?”

Her heart swelled a little more at every irritated word that fell from his yummy lips. “Mmm,” she said when she could finally find her breath again, “I was wondering where Mr. Crankypants went.”

“I wanted to take my time with you tonight,” he grumbled against her skin as he ran little biting kisses over her shoulder until she was shuddering with need. “But you’re tempting me into taking you right here, right now.”

Maybe it shouldn’t have turned her on, the way he managed to be irritated with her even when they were making out, and yet it did. So, so much. Grayson had made her feel alive even when she believed she was dead to everything she’d once cared about.

She loved the idea of their being in his bed together, of all the wild and wicked ways they could love each other. But as his hands gripped her hips to pull her more tightly into him while he licked up the curve of her neck and sent thrill bumps running over every inch of her, wasn’t it somehow more fitting that they’d end up all over each other in the cab of his truck?

Their relationship had never followed the rules, not from the start, when she’d crashed into his fence post and he’d done everything to get her to leave but pick her up and toss her off his property. And even then, she’d seen something in his eyes that told her he wanted her, despite all the reasons he shouldn’t. Not only a desire for her that matched hers for him, but a soul-deep longing that she also understood. All too well, even when those longings shouldn’t make any sense.

Good thing she’d never cared much whether things made sense. No, she’d always simply followed her heart instead.

Amazingly, her heart had led her here. To Grayson’s farm.

And into his arms.

“I did promise to be the best darn farmhand you’ve ever had,” she reminded him in a husky voice that said as much about how badly she wanted him as any words she spoke. “I’ll bet you never had one who could do this.”

With one quick shimmy, she let the slim straps holding her dress up over her shoulders drop, the bodice covering her breasts falling down with it.

“
Lori.”

She thought she’d be prepared for his reaction this time. After all, he’d seen her breasts in the cabin during the storm, had tongued and teased them until she’d catapulted all the way over the edge of pleasure. But the way his eyes darkened and desire completely took him over as he gazed at her naked flesh...

No, she’d never get used to being stared at with such overwhelming hunger.

“How am I doing so far?” She reached out to brush her fingertips over the square line of his jaw. When he didn’t answer, just kept staring at the rapidly tightening tips of her breasts until anticipation had her nearly wild with needing his hands and mouth on her, she teased, “Would you say this is
fine
?” She purposely used the not-quite-compliment he’d given her so many times before now.

“Nothing has ever been better than this, Lori. Not one goddamned thing.”

Grayson shifted lower on his seat and covered one aching nipple with his mouth, then the other, then both at the same time as he cupped them in his large, strong hands. She arched into his sweet caresses, and groaned aloud when he raked his teeth over her.

He was so big and hard and wonderfully male between her thighs and as she rocked into him, she was already so close that even with her dress and panties still on, her arousal had grown big enough that all it would take was one more tug of his mouth over her and she’d be—

“Oh God...”

Grayson was right there with her in an instant, one of his big hands sliding beneath her dress, up her bare leg and thigh, and inside her damp panties to help intensify the already shockingly sweet climax. With his thumb on her clitoris and two of his fingers slipping in and out of her, her initial orgasm gave way to another, even bigger one.

As she spiraled off and off and off, she cupped his face in her hands and kissed him with every ounce of passion she possessed. He kissed her back just as desperately as he continued to stroke between her thighs, both of their mouths rough and hungry.

When her inner muscles had mostly stopped pulsing in the aftermath of her double climax, she realized just how out of breath she was, that she was panting as hard as if she’d just done all thirty-two of the Black Swan’s fouettés.

“My God, you overwhelm me,” he said, burying his face against her breastbone as he slowly slipped his hand from between her legs to pull her tightly to him again.

She felt him work to regain his control so that they would actually make it out of his truck and into his bed their first time. But Lori knew she couldn’t wait for that anymore, that this was exactly how things were supposed to happen, with both of them too overwhelmed to think straight.

Sex with Grayson in his truck was wild. Crazy.

And oh-so-perfect.

“You overwhelm me, too,” she said as she stroked his soft, dark hair. When he tilted his face up to meet her gaze, she whispered, “Overwhelm me some more,” then rocked her pelvis into the thick bulge behind the zipper of his dark jeans.

On a growl of pleasure, he pushed just as hard into her, both of their bodies young and strong and so hungry for each other that even the confines of his truck and their clothes could barely get in their way now.

“Please, Grayson,” she begged. “Take me. All of me.”

As wild as their night had been so far, at her breathless urging, Grayson finally let go of the hold he’d been keeping on his control, and the next thing she knew, he was moving them so that she was flat on her back on the bench seat and he was taking her pretty dress in his fists and ripping it in two. She gasped not from fear, but from excitement, as he reached for her thong next and shredded it to pieces with little more than one hard tug.

All week they’d been vying with each other to see who was stronger, tougher, who could hold out longer, but tonight they were equal partners in everything: passion, desire, need. She reached for his shirt and tore it open.

She couldn’t wait to get her hands on his bare chest, had actually daydreamed about it so many times that she couldn’t believe it hadn’t happened yet. And, oh, that first touch of hard, tanned muscles was so good.

“You’re the one who can’t possibly be real,” she said as he levered himself up over her so that she could run her hands over his gorgeously muscled shoulders and chest, and then the deep indentations of his abdominal muscles.

“You make me forget,” he said in a raw voice. “Everything but how much I want you.”

“You don’t have to remember tonight,” she told him, both of them panting from the force of their desire. “All you have to do is make love to me the way I’ve wanted you to from the first moment I saw you.”

He followed her plea with a searing kiss that made her head spin even more than it already was. And his hands, his mouth, were roaming over every last inch of her naked body. She couldn’t possibly keep up as he tasted her breasts in one moment, then nipped at her hip bone the next. His hands sometimes led, other times followed the devastating path of his lips and tongue and teeth over her overheated skin.

She’d already come twice, but when he curled his hand around her ankle and lifted her leg so that her foot was resting on the dashboard, then stared down at her with the hottest, hungriest expression she’d ever seen, she nearly climaxed again without any further contact at all.

“Swear to God,” he said as he reached out to stroke the slick flesh between her legs, “I’ve never seen anything prettier than you in all my life.” He moved down from the seat to kneel on the floor of the truck before adding, “And I’ll bet you taste even better.”

She gasped in pleasure when his tongue found her. He’d splayed his hands on her inner thighs to open her up even further to him, and when she looked down and saw his tanned fingers on her pale skin, his tongue moving over her, and his eyes lifted to her face so that he could watch her reaction, she tumbled abruptly into yet another sinfully perfect climax.

Slowly, he kissed his way up her body as he climbed back over her. “You were just as sweet as I thought you’d be,” he said right before he covered her mouth with his.

She was working on his belt buckle when he grabbed her wrists. “I need you,” she pleaded as she fought to break free of his hold. “I can’t wait another second to have you.”

“I don’t have any protection. We have to go back to my house.” He was already moving away from her to let her up as he said it, and she barely bit back a groan of frustration.

So close. She’d been
so close
to finally having him, and now because neither of them had thought to bring a condom to the barn dance, she was stuck having to shift back into her seat and put on the long-sleeved shirt he handed her over her naked body for a far-too-long fifteen-minute drive home.

Lori knew she should be thankful that he’d remained lucid enough to stop before they had unprotected sex. Especially after what had happened to Sophie on the night she’d had a one-night stand and become pregnant
despite
using a condom.

But right now, with need roiling around inside her, Lori didn’t feel grateful at all.

On the contrary, what she felt was a clawing need to claim—and be claimed by—Grayson, once and for all.

Only, once she finally got his shirt on and was sitting in her seat, instead of starting the engine and burning rubber so that they could continue where they’d left off, he just sat there and glared at her. Three back-to-back orgasms with no big finale in sight made her ornery as she glared back.

“What’s your problem now?”

“I’m waiting for you to put your goddamned seatbelt on.”