Anticipation (4 page)

When he placed his hands on her shoulders, she felt them tremble slightly as he stared into her eyes. “I’ve never ached for a woman as much as I have for you.”

Without even trying, this man stole her heart. He swept it right out of her chest and thrust it back, beating so rapidly she didn’t know if her breathing could keep up with its thunderous pace.

Despite her best efforts to remain unemotional, tears welled. “Kiss me, cowbo—”

Jonas didn’t give her a chance to finish. He yanked her hard against his chest and his lips claimed hers once more.

Deidre expected a frantic, hard kiss. Instead, the tender brush of his lips across hers only seduced her further. He suckled her bottom lip before his tongue slid inside her mouth to glide alongside hers in a leisurely, yet decadent, sensual dance. Moist heat flooded her core with each slow swipe.

Deidre responded in kind. Her hands skimmed his chest then continued upward until her fingers speared through his hair. When she knocked his hat off and began to suck on his tongue, Jonas let out a primal grunt, cinching his hands around her waist. His kiss deepened, moving more possessively across hers as he lifted her and set her back against the huge oak tree behind them.

The rough, unyielding surface of the bark behind her, coupled with the hard muscles flexing underneath her fingers made Deidre’s skin prickle in fervent response.

Jonas’ fingers slid her skirt up, lifting it until his warm hands connected with her thighs. “Your skin is so soft,” he mumbled against her mouth, then he kissed her jaw as his fingers traced a seductive path up her inner thighs toward her sex.

A sexy smile tugged his mouth upward as his fingers touched a patch of moisture along the inside of her leg. “The fact you’re so wet makes me want you even more.”

Deidre’s sandals crunched the dead leaves under her feet as she spread her legs wider. She licked her lips and let her eyes close slightly. “Touch me. I’ve waited long enough.”

“My pleasure, darlin’,” he said, and cupped her sex with an aggressiveness that almost sent her over the edge.

The surprised look that crossed his face when he realized she didn’t have any underwear on made her smile. “Thought I’d make it easy for you.”

“The better to have you whenever and wherever I want,” he rasped as he stepped closer, towering over her. His expression turned impossibly sinful right before he thrust a finger deep inside her. Deidre let out a gasp at the pleasurable invasion.

When he circled his finger, touching all the right places deep inside her, then rubbed the pad on her G-spot, she gripped his shoulders. His actions caused carnal sensations to quickly build inside her.

“You make me burn, Dee. I want you so damn bad I might lose it just unbuttoning my pants.”

No, she mentally screamed. Gripping his belt buckle, she yanked it open. “We certainly can’t have that,” she replied as she pulled on his jeans button and unzipped his pants for him.

When her fingers brushed against his erection through his fitted gray cotton briefs, Jonas shuddered. He quickly withdrew his finger from her body to grip her wrist and pull her hand away. “Darlin’, I’m so primed right now, a breeze would send me over.”

She chuckled at his comment while she continued to tug on his jeans and underwear until they were past his knees.

When her gaze landed on his heavily veined erection, jutting full and proud against his lower abs, she whispered, “I want to touch you,” as she dug her nails into her palm to keep from doing exactly that.

Heat flared in Jonas’ gaze before he closed his eyes and laid his head back, facing the darkening sky. “Then touch me, sweetheart.”

Deidre’s heart hammered as she uncurled her fingers and surrounded his hard erection with her hand. His skin felt so silky soft she couldn’t resist sliding her hand down his impressive length to the base.

“Fuck!” he barked at the sky through clenched teeth.

She noted his hands were clenched by his sides and glanced up to see the tendons on his neck standing out as if he were exerting tremendous effort not to react to her touch.

Bending over, she gave the tip of his cock a tender kiss then straightened. “My thoughts exactly.”

Jonas’ blue gaze lasered into hers at the same time his hands gripped her thighs. “Condom.” The word came out on a low groan.

“Which pocket?” she asked as she bent and tugged at his jeans waistband.

“My right. Front.”

Deidre fished around in his front pocket and grabbed the packet. Without a word, she ripped open the plastic and began to slide the protection down his engorged erection.

Jonas’ hips flexed forward and his eyes closed. With each brush of her fingers along his cock, he let out harsh breaths until she’d placed the condom completely over him.

Once she’d finished, his breathing had turned shallow. With her hands on his shoulders, Jonas gripped the back of her thighs and effortlessly lifted her up until the tip of his cock rested against her entrance. The sensation of his erection barely touching her felt so erotic she squeezed her pelvic muscles to stop the achy sensation pulsing within her. God, she’d never been more ready in her life.

Jonas held her suspended above him, his cock brushing her entrance for a couple of long heart-stopping seconds. A sudden look of sheer unadulterated lust crossed his face and his fingers tightened around her thighs. “I feel how hot and wet you are through the condom.”

She wound her fingers in his hair and gave the thick locks a slight yank. “Ten years is a long time to yearn.”

His arms began to quake and a look of primal possession flashed in his eyes as he took the couple steps toward the tree. Setting her back against the surface, he gripped her backside and thrust deep inside her.

She wanted to scream in fulfillment. He felt that good.

A shudder shook his frame and he murmured her name at the same time he withdrew and pistoned back inside her channel so hard her back slid up the tree trunk several inches.

The slick slide of his cock rubbing against her walls made a jolt of animal-like need take over her body. In the span of two heart beats, she realized exactly why Jonas made her wear his denim jacket. He was protecting her skin from the tree’s rough bark. Her respect for his thoughtfulness deepened as she dug her fingers into his shoulder muscles.

Tightening her thighs around his waist, Deidre pulled her body flush with his then ran her tongue along his neck. She nipped at his skin, satisfied at the groan that pushed past his lips. “Sex with you is exactly how I thought it would be. You’re rough yet tender in the ways that matter. I want more,” she demanded in a heavy whisper next to his ear.

Jonas’ breath escaped in a deep bellow as his fingers massaged her rear. “Deeeeidra,” he said before he pressed her body against the tree and leaned into her, thrusting upward. Seated deep inside her, his entire body primed and tense, he buried his nose against her neck, and said in a ragged voice, “I want to take you so deep and hard it scares me.”

The slight tremble in his low-spoken words made her heart trip several beats. She placed her hands on his cheeks and lifted his head so he had to look at her. “It should only scare you if I didn’t want it.” Her heart pounded and small pre-climactic tremors started in her sex as she clenched her inner muscles around his cock. “I definitely want it. I want every bone-crushing, body-rocking, ram-until-I-scream thrust. Give me the fantasy I’ve masturbated to on more nights than I care to remember. I want the ride of my life and I know you’re the man to give it to me.”

Her last words caught in her throat as he began to grind his hips against hers in slow, measured circles. “The idea of you masturbating while thinking of me is the hottest turn on.”

The heavy press of his body against her clit felt so good. With each slow circle he made, her breath hitched a little higher. “Yes,” she breathed out as she closed her eyes and hammered her fist against his shoulder. Her stomach muscles clenched while almost-there vibrations feathered her core in teasing pulses.

“Open your eyes,” he demanded at the same time he rolled his hips against her pubic bone, this time in the opposite direction. “I want you to see the man who’s deep inside you. I’m no dream man, Deidre. I’m flesh and blood and so damned jacked-up by your arousing body I can’t think straight.”

Her gaze locked with his intense one and she slid her hand into his shirt collar. She brushed her fingers teasingly against his skin before digging her nails into the warm flesh on his shoulder. “That makes two of us. Make me come, cowboy.”

As soon as she spoke, Jonas quickly withdrew and slammed into her once, twice, a third time. He was on his forth thrust when her body clenched tight and her orgasm crashed through her. “So…so good,” she stammered, her walls tightening and releasing in euphoric spasms. With every shuddering contraction within her core, her pulse soared higher while her nipples throbbed from the erotic friction of his chest rubbing against hers.

Jonas stopped his thrusts, burying himself inside her while she gyrated her hips and rode his erection through the rest of her climax.

When she came down from her high, the look of sheer willpower on his face, the hard, on-the-edge tension made her want to cry. “Aren’t you going to—” she started to ask.

“Had no idea how damned sweet you’d be,” he said softly as he withdrew and sank back inside her channel, his movements a slow, methodical, determined rhythm.

When her body began to respond to his pace, her nipples tightening and her juices gathering once more, Deidre leaned close and whispered in his ear, “Come for me, lover.”

And that was all it took. Jonas let out a low growl as his tempo quadrupled in speed. Fast and furious felt just as glorious to Deidre, but apparently the man refused to go over the edge alone.

“I want you to scream.”

“I’m fine. Let go,” she panted.

“To hell with that,” he said through clenched teeth at the same time his fingers moved closer around her rear and pulled her butt cheeks apart.

The sensation of his fingers separating and stretching her sensitive skin was a surprising turn on. Deidre gripped his shoulders and tensed her body, keening as her walls shuddered with an even more explosive, higher-pitched orgasm.

“That’s it, sweet Dee,” he grunted out, satisfaction lacing his tone. His shoulder muscles flexed under her fingers and his hips moved faster and faster until he let out an animalistic groan as his own climax rushed through him.

When Jonas’ orgasm ended and he leaned against her, breathing heavily, Deidre welcomed his weight. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she held him close. The sensation of his heart beating at a thunderous pace against her chest while he was still buried deep inside her evoked a peaceful sense of rightness within her.

She knew she didn’t have a right to feel this way. Jonas had been perfectly upfront and honest with her as to the limit of his involvement. Physically he was all there. Emotionally she’d have to look elsewhere.

Soon enough she’d have to come back down to earth, but as she kissed his jaw and breathed in his outdoorsy, all male scent, she told herself she’d bask in the brief moment of idyllic perfection for as long as he’d let her.

Or until the smell of smoke captured her attention.

Lifting her nose toward the sky, she sniffed again, deeper this time. “Do you smell that?”

Jonas withdrew from her then set her down on the ground as he inhaled deeply. Backing up a few feet, he stared past the forest’s tree line. His gaze jerked back to hers, a frown creasing his brow. “The smoke is coming from the direction of the B&B.”

“Holy shit!” Deidre quickly pushed her skirt down. As she climbed up on Admiral, Jonas disposed of the condom and zipped up, buckling his jeans in record time. Once he retrieved his hat, he pulled himself up in the saddle behind Deidre. Wrapping his arms around her waist, he said in a serious tone, “You okay with galloping back?”

In response, she kicked her heels into the horse’s side, impatient to get back to her parents’ house as fast as the horse would take them.

Jonas gripped her tight against his frame and together they moved as one with the horse’s fast gait. They reached the B&B in time to see black smoke billowing out of the old barn. As horrified as Deidre was by the sight, what frightened her most was a thin path of burning flames in the grass that led straight to the house. Her heart jerked when she saw the wood stairs were already on fire.

She pointed toward the house, her voice a few octaves higher. “The stairs—”

“I see them,” Jonas said in a calm tone as he stopped his horse. He handed her his cell phone. “Press two to call the station. Tell Jeff I want him here now. He’ll call the fire department for you.”

Before she could utter a word, he was stomping out grass that was still burning near the stairs before he headed toward the back of the house.

Deidre’s hands shook as she dialed the sheriff’s office. When Jeff answered, she barely remembered her conversation with him because she was so intent on Jonas’ disappearance. Where had he gone?

When he came around the side of the house carrying the garden hose with him, she let out a sigh of relief.

Jonas called to her to move farther away from the burning barn as he started spraying down the stairs.

Adjusting herself better in the saddle, Deidre grabbed Admiral’s reins and directed the horse to a safer spot. Once she got down, she tied his reins to the wooden fence surrounding the new barn on the other side of the B&B then ran back over to Jonas’ side.

He’d managed to put out the fire on the porch, but fear and panic for her parents’ home and livelihood caused her heart to thump and her legs to shake as if they were ready to collapse underneath her any second. The heat from the fire behind them made her sweat in his blue jean jacket. “How long do you think it’ll be before the fire trucks get here?” she asked, handing him the cell phone.

As soon as she spoke, sirens sounded in the distance. Jonas wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close while his gaze zeroed in on the burning building. “In about a minute.”

* * *

A sense of relief washed over Deidre when she walked out the screen door with a tray of plastic cups and a pitcher of water for the firefighters. The yard reeked of smoke and wet, charred wood, but at least no more flames flickered in the burned-out barn. Three-fourths of the old building had burned to the ground. The men had spent an hour putting out the flames. The firefighters were currently walking around the debris, lifting pieces of blackened wood with their axes to make sure no more hot spots remained. Jonas and the fire inspector met halfway through the yard and approached the porch together.

Emergency vehicles littered the property, their lights highlighting Jonas’ soot-marked face in a red, white and blue kaleidoscope. His gaze locked with her questioning one. “It was deliberately set.”

Deidre quickly glanced at the charred stairs, guilt tightening her gut. “I should’ve been more careful with the fertilizer bag I used this morning. It was heavy so I dragged it out of the barn all the way to the front of the house. I didn’t know it had a hole in the bottom until I’d reached the flower bed. The fire must have caught on the fertilizer trail and made its way over to the stairs.”

“Don’t blame yourself, Miss Nelson. As the sheriff stated, the fire was deliberately set.” The fire inspector reached out his leathery hand and shook hers. “Edward Ross, ma’am.” He released her hand and pushed his fireman’s hat back from his sweaty, black brow. “The arsonist must’ve used a Molotov cocktail type igniter. We found some melted plastic among the debris. He’d apparently tried to be careful about what material he used… I’m sure he hoped it’d burn up in the fire. We’ve got proof, but I doubt we can get prints.” He paused and glanced at Jonas with an expectant expression. “I saw your men making an impression on the ground below the window where the flames never reached.”

Jonas nodded. “Good thing it rained hard last night. The imprint has distinctive markings on the shoe’s sole. We’re hoping the evidence might make it easier to find the person who did this.”

Anger whirled inside Deidre at the near miss with her parents’ home. “Who would do such a thing? I know it’s the end of the summer and antsy kids get into all kinds of mischief…” She trailed off while she poured a cup of water for Edward then handed the tumbler to him. “Anyway, thank you for your help. I hope you catch the person responsible. My parents will be so relieved, and me for them, that they can put all these pranks behind them.”

“We don’t know for sure this is connected to the pranks yet.” Jonas directed his gaze her way. “This went beyond petty vandalism. Fortunately no animals were in that barn, but what if you’d been asleep when this happened? The fire could’ve continued to spread to the B&B and you could’ve been killed.”

Her chest tightened at Jonas’ scary scenario, but Deidre’s mind refused to focus and worry about what could’ve happened. Instead, as she poured him some water, her heart skipped several beats at the intensity in his tone. She knew his job was to protect, but he almost sounded as if he cared what happened to her, not like the man who’d said he wouldn’t get emotionally attached.

She handed him the cup and gave him a half smile. “I’m confident you’ll catch the person responsible.”

“Damn straight,” he replied in a clipped tone while he took her offering. Downing the water in one swift gulp, he handed her the cup. “Which is why I’m going back with the inspector and we’re jumping right on this.”

He was leaving her?

As if he read her mind, Jonas jerked his head back toward the police cars in the background, their blue and white lights still flashing. “Don’t worry. I’m posting an officer to sit outside until further notice.”