“I meant stop. Why did you stop?” Before she could answer, he captured her lips again. She tasted of wine and woman and desire and he couldn’t help himself. He moved her around, tipped her back over the desk and followed her down. He pressed into the cradle of her thighs. His tongue tangled with hers in a long breathless kiss that ended on a hiccup.
“Sorry,” she breathed, “but you’re making my head spin.”
He grinned. “That’s the wine.”
“No,” she said in all seriousness. “It’s you.” And the way she stared at him with all that wide-eyed innocence while her fingers traced naughty circles over the bulge in his jeans, it was all he could do not to embarrass himself.
“Ah, that feels so good,” she said, her eyes closed, her lips curved into a smile.
“You feel good.” He trailed a fingertip along her cheek, then dipped his head to follow the path with soft kisses. “You taste good, too.”
“You’ve got great hands, Tyler.” She wiggled underneath him. “Stop that,” she said hoarsely. “No, don’t stop. I love it.”
Him kissing her cheek? She’d go crazy with a little ear nibbling. He leaned down and ran the tip of his tongue along the delicate shell.
She moaned, “Ahhhhhhhh,” and caught her bottom lip, her eyes closed, her body arching. “Oooooooooo.”
He dipped his tongue into her ear and she came off the desk.
“I can’t take it. Stop... Don’t stop... I can’t breathe.” She gasped and he pulled away to stare at her face. “I said not to stop,” she said, her eyes still closed, her lips curving. “That tickles. Oh, ah, not there...” She giggled and squirmed. “Keep going. Yeah, touch me just like that. Right there...”
“Lucky, I’m not touching you.”
“Of course you are. I can feel you. Ooooooo, yes. Yes!”
“I’m not touching you!”
Her eyes snapped open and her smile faded. He leaned away from her and they both stared down the length separating them.
“Ah-ha! There you are, you bad boy!” She sat up and scooped Marlon off the inside of her thigh. “Mommy Myers was worried about you.” She glanced up at Tyler. “I, uh, this is my recent adoptee.”
“It’s Bennie’s lizard.”
“She gave him to me. She’s afraid Helen will make shoes out of him.”
“I feel like making shoes out of him.” He glared at Marlon before letting out a deep breath. “I’m insane. I’m envious of a damned lizard.”
“Lizard envy,” she said. “Is that anything like—”
“Close.” He kissed her again, long and hard and desperate. “He got to third base and I’m still stuck in the batting cage.”
“But you’re up to bat now.” She sat Marlon on a nearby chair and faced Tyler. “And if you swing as good as Marlon,” she grinned, “I’d say you’ll make it to third base.”
“What about a home run?”
A dream, Lucky thought the moment the words sang through her head. This had to be a dream because no way in her ordinary, boring life would a tall, dark and dangerous cowboy be telling her he wanted to...
“I want you, Lucky. Now.”
Way
. She swallowed and tried to keep her heart from jumping right out of her chest. “This isn’t like the last time, where you kiss me then change your mind—”
He touched two fingertips to her lips. “Now,” he whispered again, kissing her hungrily. He swept her into his arms and strode through the darkened house. When they reached his bedroom, he slid her to her feet.
“We can’t, not with everyone just down the hall—”
Another kiss silenced her. “I just need to get something.” He disappeared inside while she shifted nervously in the hallway and did her best to keep from shouting hallelujah! It was really going to happen. Him and her. Together!
He came up behind her, a blanket in one arm, his shirt pocket stuffed full of foil packets. Condoms.
“Are we going to use all of those?”
He grinned. “We’re going to give it one hell of a shot. Come on.” He grabbed her hand and they headed outside. Behind the barn, they mounted a staircase that led to the second floor and a single doorway. Tyler paused to kiss her before he unlocked the door and led Lucky inside.
“What is this place?”
“The ranch foreman’s office.” He tossed the blanket on a nearby desk, slammed and locked the door behind them, then turned to the sofa. In seconds he’d folded it out into a bed that took up nearly the entire room.
“What if he comes back?”
He reached for her. “I’m the ranch foreman.”
“Oh.” She smiled up at him and his mouth touched hers. Tyler’s kiss was better this time, deeper, hungrier, more urgent, and much more frightening. But the urgency and fear were nothing compared to the desperate heat swirling through her body. Her nipples throbbed, her legs quivered, her insides ached.
Before she knew what was happening, he lifted her onto the desk, swept a stack of ledgers, a coffee mug and several pictures onto the floor, then pressed her onto her back. Large, strong hands worked at the buttons of her fly. He swept denim and panties off in one smooth motion, then parted her legs. Settling himself between them, he pulled her full against him.
She felt his hard length beneath his jeans. He rubbed against her, rough denim brushing sensitive flesh, and the friction made her gasp. He caught the sound with his mouth. His tongue tangled with hers to coax small, eager whimpers from her throat. He nibbled a path down her jaw, the slope of her neck.
She glanced down just in time to see him push up her T-shirt and free her breasts. A lifetime of insecurity kicked in and she struggled to cover herself. She didn’t want to ruin things this time with an attack of the invisible, flat-chested woman.
“Don’t,” she said, shoving the shirt down.
He pushed the fabric back up and stared while Lucky’s heart literally stopped beating. “I wonder,” he murmured after an endless moment, “if they taste as good as they look.”
Before she could even think of a reply, he dipped his head, drew one swollen nipple into his mouth, and shot Lucky’s notions about men and chest preferences clear to the moon.
“Do they?” she asked breathlessly when he pulled away to scorch a path up the curve of her neck to her pulse beat.
“Do they what?”
“Taste as good?”
He lifted his head and smiled down at her, that all-too-familiar naked-stranger smile that made her nerves tingle. “Better,” he said. “But I’m not through tasting.” His weight shifted and his body slid lower. Then his mouth touched the inside of one bare thigh. “Eat your heart out, Marlon.”
Tyler loved her with his mouth, his tongue, touching and tasting and heating her body. Then she exploded, crying out his name as a sweet river of sensation flooded over her, through her.
“I want to taste every inch of you.” He trailed his fingers over the moist heat between her legs. “Feel you.” His voice was ragged. “I’m damn near ready to burst just thinking about it.”
“Then stop thinking and start doing.”
“Impatient,” he murmured. “I like that.”
“Desperate,” she said, “and I don’t like it.
Do
something.”
He grinned and caught her mouth in a hungry kiss. Then he scooped her into his arms and eased her down onto the mattress. He pulled the T-shirt over her head then stood back to unbutton his shirt. It slid away from his chest, down his arms and hit the floor. His boots followed. A zipper hissed and his jeans and briefs joined the pile of clothing.
She’d never seen a man naked before. Okay, well, she’d seen
Tyler
naked before—in the river. But no one else. Not in person, and, well, movies didn’t come close to this. To
him
Dark hair sprinkled his chest, swirling to an enticing tine that headed for his navel, then lower...
She swallowed. He grinned. Then he grabbed a foil packet, slid on a condom and lowered his body to hers.
Panic swamped her all of five seconds as the tip of his hardness probed her throbbing heat. He brushed soft kisses on her lips, her eyelids, murmured explicit words of exactly what he wanted to do to her, and her initial fear passed.
“Oh, Lucky, you’re so tight,” he whispered a moment before he braced himself and plunged into her. “Oh no. Oh
no
. A
virgin?”
He stilled his movements, but it was too late.
Pain splintered through her and she clamped her eyes shut. “Just—just a formality,” she mumbled as a scalding tear squeezed past her lashes to burn down her cheek.
“You’re crying.” He caught the drop with his tongue.
“I am not,” she whispered back after a few heartbeats, “I—I never cry. Ever.” Thankfully the tears dissolved as quickly as the pain. She moved her hips and relished the rush of sensation that shimmied through her.
“If you don’t stop that, you’ll make me lose control.”
“Good. I don’t want you in control. I want you totally out of control, and completely inside me.” She lifted her pelvis, drew him deeper and he let out a low moan.
“Demanding,” he said as he started to move inside her. His face eased into a grin. “I like that, too.”
Then there were no more words, only a flood of sensation as he drove into her, slow at first, then faster, deeper, until she couldn’t take any more.
She cried out. Her body burst into a thousand colorful specks while her hormones finally let loose that hallelujah victory cry and joined Tyler’s fierce groan as he followed her into the land of the sexually satisfied.
Seconds later, he leaned away from her. “What did you say? It sounded like hal—”
“Nothing.” She shook her head.
Everything
. She’d done it. And with him. And it had been great—
“I’m a jerk.”
“You,” she declared, “were wonderful.”
“And you,” he said, leaning up on one elbow to stare down at her, “were a virgin. Hell, I never even thought...”
“I didn’t exactly have ‘virgin’ tattooed on my forehead.”
“No, but the way you looked, all that wide-eyed innocence. I thought it was an act, that you were used to seducing men.”
“Me?” She smiled and pushed him onto his back to straddle him. “A seductress? Really?” He nodded and her smile widened, then her gaze shot to the pile of condoms. “One down and a few dozen to go.”
“Damn, woman. A guy can only do so much.”
She shrugged and pretended indifference. “Well, if you can’t keep up...keep
it
up...” She started to move away, but an iron hand gripped her arm.
“It
doesn’t want you to go. I think you’ve made a new best friend.”
“Just how friendly can I be?” She touched him gently, and grinned at his indrawn breath. “What about something a little... friendlier?” She mounted him, sliding down his length until he was full and throbbing inside her. “How about that?”
He nodded, his face severe, the muscles in his neck bulging. “Yeah, friendly’s good.” He gritted his teeth.
“Just good?” She moved, and flames licked at her senses.
“Great,” he growled. “Greater than great.” His hands cupped her buttocks and rocked her in a slow, gentle motion.
Then she lost herself in the wonderful feeling of loving Tyler Grant.
THE SLAM OF A DOOR jerked Lucky awake. “Tyler, wake up,” she whispered. A heavy footfall on the steps below punctuated her words. “Tyler, come on. There’s someone downstairs!”
His eyes snapped open. “Dammit,” he breathed, his gaze darting to the windows where sunlight blazed just outside. Then he was on his feet, pulling on his jeans.
“I overslept.” He worked at his zipper. “It’s morning,” he growled. “
Morning
.”
“I knew we shouldn’t have done this with so many people nearby.” Lucky wrung her hands as the footsteps moved closer, climbing the stairs outside. Her gaze riveted on the door. “What are we going to do? Everybody will know. Helen will know,” she said in a rush of words. “And your father, and he warned me not to ring your bells and now he’ll think I’m loose and easy, the wicked city girl come to claim his baby boy —”
“Shh.” He peered past the drapes.
“Easy for you to say. You men have it so easy. You get a pat on the back while we women...”
We women
. The words struck her like a lightning bolt from the femininity gods. A woman. A fully initiated, red-blooded, sexually active goddess extraordinaire!
“It’s just Jed,” Tyler told her. “He’s probably looking for me. We’ve got a huge cattle shipment coming in today and I should have been up hours ago.” He shrugged on his shirt and grabbed his boots. “I’ll head him off at the pass. Wait ten minutes, then get dressed and go back to the house. And remember everything we went over about the wine. You’re going solo with Helen tonight. I’ve already lost several hours of work. There’s no way I’ll make it back in time for dinner. Lucky?” He frowned. “Did you hear me?”