Haze of Heat (11 page)

“Don’t ask me. I’m not a techie.” Porter stepped up to her and clipped her hairclip to the top edge of her shirt. When she looked down with a scowl and reached for it, he grabbed her hand and headed for the back of the barn.

“No. Hold on just a minute. I need to get to my computer.”

At the rear of the barn was a metal flight of stairs that led up to his home over the horses. After scurrying up the steps, or else be dragged, she crossed the threshold. He must have thought she would bolt the second he let go because, after shutting the door with his booted foot, Porter went deeper inside, pulling Rachel along so she only caught a glimpse of masculine furniture and big electronics before they entered an office.

Only then did he finally let her go and sit in front of a desk where an open laptop waited. “All right. I’m here and checking.” He opened his e-mail account and clicked on the sent items. “What the hell? I know I sent you the order last night.”

Ever curious, Rachel couldn’t help looking at his e-mail while she put her hair back up in the clip. She saw the problem at once. “You have a draft.” She pointed it out. “Maybe you hit save instead of send?”

Porter slanted her an undecipherable look. Then he clicked where she pointed. “Damn. Found the problem. I’m resending it. Yeah. As soon as possible. Sorry, Mitch.”

After another minute he ended his call and sat back in the chair to regard her thoughtfully. “You immediately caught my mistake. Impressive. And thank you.”

Rachel shrugged. “No biggie. I do it all the time so I knew where to look.”

“As do I.” He left his phone on the desk and stood, drawing Rachel to him as the swift move had her stumbling back. “And I like looking at you more and more.”

With her hands twisted in his shirt for balance, Rachel blinked up at him. “Porter.”

One of his hands trailed down to rest low on her back, the other a gentle pressure on her neck, his thumb lightly stroking her jaw. “I’ve got a condom this time.” One brow quirked up, along with his lips. “A whole box, in fact.”

“I just bet.” A snarky response at the thought of him entertaining other woman in his place. His bed.

“Hey.” He touched the edge of his fist under her chin, made her meet his eyes. “Outside of family, you are the only female who’s been in my home.” Disbelief must have shown on her face because he added, “It’s not like I can sneak anyone in. Between my nosy family, the guests, the staff at the crop shop, and the cameras? Nobody comes out to the barn undetected.”

It didn’t matter. Not really. It wasn’t like she had any claim on him.

Which brought her to the original reason for seeing him. Her fingers dug deeper into the material of his shirt. “This...attraction between us.” No point hiding that she wanted him. She knew he would smell her arousal, and it wasn’t as if last night was all one-sided. “Tell me it’s not the mating heat.”

He didn’t even pause. “It’s not the mating heat.”

Now why did that cause her heart to hurt?

She didn’t have time to digest that as his hand trailed up the front of her top, skimming over her breast and shoving any thoughts of hurt out of her head. He removed the hairclip once again and tossed it on the desk. “This is too beautiful to hide.” His fingers wove through the strands, his other hand holding her captive by a gentle cupping of her nape.

His voice was dark and deep and she started to tremble. “Why did you bring me up here? I mean, if you’ve never,”

He shut her up by setting a finger across her lips. “You’re here, with me,” a muscle flexed in his jaw “because I want you to be.”

Chapter Twelve

“I want to be inside you, Rach.” He dipped his head to nuzzle a sensitive spot beneath her ear. “More than I can say. But
you
have the final say. If you want to leave, I strongly suggest you do so now.”

Was he insane? She didn’t want to leave. She wanted passion. Pleasure.

She wanted him.

Clutching his shoulders, she angled her head in invitation. “I don’t want to leave.” She sucked in a ragged breath. “I want to stay with you.”

A soft growl of approval and then he took her mouth with his. She braced herself for a turbulent onslaught of the senses, but instead, the cat messed with her. His lips whispered over hers in the softest of brushes, a sweet slide into desire.

Rachel twined her hands in his hair, her fingers curling through polished silk. Pulling him closer, opening to his gentle persuasion, she felt herself go, falling into her primal half as tongues tangled and lips melded.

Tension built, the sexual heat rising to engulf her in flames. One hand remained on his head to keep him near, the other smoothed over the rigid muscles on his chest, wanting to purr in feminine power when they jumped under her simple touch.

As if she’d flipped a switch, his kiss turned voracious. Consuming. His teeth came into play, nipping her lips as he thrust his tongue deep, sweeping in to take control. His hands cupped her butt, pressing her tight to his hard thigh so that she rubbed her flushed folds against him.

His hands slipped under her shirt to cup and knead her breasts for a teasing moment before he whipped her top from her body. Her bra followed seconds later. With his hands on her hips, he lifted her straight up and took her breast into his mouth, sucking the aching nipple.

Liquid heat shot straight to her sex and she wrapped her legs around his waist. “Porter!”

“I’ve got you,” he said, his tongue working her nipple so that she writhed against him, panting with need.

Her arms were in a stranglehold around his neck, clinging to him as he pivoted on his heel and headed from the room. His eyes burned up into hers. “So sweet.” He licked the pouting point, somehow finding his way to his bedroom as he played with her breasts. “Bet you’re even sweeter in other places.”

One of those other places swelled to painful intensity. Then she was falling, the mattress barely dipping under their weight as Porter came down on top of her, pinning her against the bed.

Wanting to touch his bare flesh so badly her fingers shook, she slipped them tentatively under the back of his shirt. “Yes,” he encouraged. “Touch me everywhere you want.” His wicked smile dazzled the eye. “I know I plan to.”

He moved to her other breast, licking and sucking, and when she felt the edge of his teeth, she arched off the bed, her hips slamming against the thick bulge of his arousal. Itching for more, she grabbed the bottom of his shirt and tugged. “Off. Now.” She wanted bare skin.

Porter obliged, inching down her body as his shirt inched off his, licking and nipping his way further south. One hand undid the snap and zip on her shorts and then it, along with her panties and shoes, were stripped clean off to join his shirt. Somewhere.

“Beautiful.” When he pressed a kiss to her stomach, she squeezed her eyes closed, her breath coming faster, her thighs parting wider. Body coiled tight, her sex eager and hungry for his attention, she couldn’t be shy. Not when she craved his mouth on her.

When his fingers found her, he let out a tortured groan. “Already so wet for me.” Strong and rough from manual labor, they slipped through her slick folds and toyed with her throbbing clit until her eyes crossed and her hips bucked. His mouth followed, his tongue stroking her outer lips, taunting her with erotic anticipation. Then he delved deep, making her moan and push against him in mindless need. Opening her, he rasped his tongue over the hard bundle of nerves, sending a piercing, erotic jolt through her so strong she flinched.

It was too much, yet not enough. She was too sensitive, too ready. Over and over his clever tongue devoured her, nibbling gently, then alternatively licking and caressing.

Her hands dug into the softness that covered the bed, her whole being centered on the place between her legs where Porter was diligently working to make her in-freaking-sane. Then that tongue stiffened and he plunged into her core. She cried out, her hips twisting at every intimate lick, each fierce plunge.

More
. The whisper in her mind chanted out until she choked out the single word. “More.” Because she was so close, she just needed—more. Something. Anything before she burned into a pile of ash on the bed.

Two fingers suddenly thrust inside her, stroking her so hard and deep his knuckles brushed her swollen lips. With his mouth back on her clit, suckling the nub to acute tenderness, she went wild beneath him. The deep sound he made in his throat vibrated through her sex, sending pleasure to lash her body in violent whips, and she came against his hand in a long cry of release.

Even as she gasped for air, Porter was moving away, kicking off his boots, shoving off his jeans and rolling on a condom from the drawer of the nightstand. She saw all this through half-closed eyes, sated.

At least she thought she was until he covered her once again, his knees pushing her legs further apart as he made himself at home between her thighs, his weight braced on his knees and forearms. His eyes were practically glowing, an intriguing greenish-yellow ring at the outer rims of his chocolate irises. Eyes that were bleeding to cat. She could see the edge of his teeth, long and sharp, as he fought for control.

It probably should have terrified her, made her shiver in fear, but it only thrilled her more, made her sex clench at the unguarded display. Lust was taking him over—lust for her!—and the wild beast that marked him as one of the most dangerous creatures alive was struggling for freedom. Not that he was about to shift forms and freak her out, but that unleashing of his primitive half meant he was on the precipice, consumed with desire for her. Desire that pulled his skin taut across the bones of his face, giving him an aura of other-worldliness.

That knowledge was so provocative, so sexually stimulating that her body trembled with renewed hunger, even as the tip of his cock nudged the soaking entrance of her body.

Mistaking her reaction, Porter froze, then leaned in close, pressing light kisses over her cheek and temple. “You okay?”

The question came from a throat too rough and thick to be totally human, yet the concern was most assuredly real. The sound was shockingly arousing, her body falling prey once again to vicious need. Though her juices flooded his cock in invitation, he remained stubbornly still.

She wrapped her arms around his torso and ran them over the defined muscles on his back. “I’d be better if you were inside me.”

His large body shuddered. “You shouldn’t say such things,” he gritted out against her neck, giving the hot flesh a nipping reprimand before his tongue came out to soothe the small hurt. At the same time he breached her body, his cock a slow and careful glide past tiny muscles that clenched around the sensual penetration. “You’ll make me lose control before I’m ready.”

The way his thick shaft stretched her made her gasp and arch beneath him. “Oh. But it’s okay to make me lose control before I’m ready?”

He withdrew slightly, pushed in deeper. His lips were at her jaw, kissing and nuzzling. “I want to watch you lose control again and again. It’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.”

He thrust again, harder, deeper, filling her with his heavy erection, building the lust higher, stronger and hotter than anything she’d ever felt before. She raised her knees, set her heels on his ass, and urged him to go faster, her sex clamping like a vise around him.

A snarl left his lips, and then he began to
move
, driving harder into her welcoming flesh, his hips pistoning, his mouth back on hers, tongue thrusting and taking as he took her body.

The pressure low in her belly widened and grew until she felt overwhelmed by the need to grasp what was just out of her reach. With her own moan of desperation, she tilted her hips so his cock rasped right over the rough patch of her g-spot. She ripped her mouth from his, dragged in air on a hoarse gasp.

He angled his body slightly, creating an even better friction over sensitive tissue. His fingers slipped between their sweating bodies, past the short patch of curls, to stroke her clit. Lips widened over her breast, his tongue pressing a pebbled nipple to the roof of his mouth to suckle and taste. She strained around him as he touched her everywhere, creating a firestorm that had her heart hammering, her breath faltering, her body—

Stiffening as she came, shuddering as pleasure exploded. Her toes curled, her fingers clenched his thick hair in a death grip.

Porter growled, his jaw like granite against her temple as he continued to thrust. Her body rocked with aftershocks, or maybe mini-orgasms, but the haze of lust was finally starting to clear from her eyes so that she was able to watch and feel, transfixed, as Porter’s muscles went taut above her. His cock jerked as his own orgasm took him over. Head back, his mouth parted as a deep rumble reverberated from his chest. The strong cords in his neck stood out in sharp relief, and she felt her teeth ache with the urge to bite down on them.

How...odd.

After several moments passed and his thundering heart mellowed, Porter raised his head and brushed the side of her nose with his. Then he kissed her with a gentleness that made her eyes smart. She squeezed them shut, conflicted. She’d expected him, an experienced charmer and lady killer, to roll away once he’d gotten what he wanted. Instead, this powerful shifter was drowning her in tenderness. As if she mattered to him.

And maybe you do
, a voice whispered in her head.

If only she were that lucky.

And dammit, when did she become so neurotic? It was sex. Fabulous sex, to be sure, but why was she getting all emotional over a little post-coital affection? Let. It. Go.

He broke their kiss and looked deep in her eyes, his cock still lodged in her moist sex. His mouth opened, then shut. Then he smiled, a glowing grin that lit his eyes. “I’m speechless.”

Just go with the flow,
she warned herself. “I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or not.”

“Oh, it very much is.” Another kiss, hard and brief. “And as much as I hate to do this, I have to go take care of something.” He carefully separated their sticky bodies, damp from passion, and rose from the bed. “Don’t go anywhere.”

Unconcerned at his nudity, Porter walked toward an open door that led to a bathroom. A flash of heat swept through Rachel at the utterly masculine strength of his backside. Then the door shut and she snapped out of the carnal trance. Annoyed at the both of them, she scowled and searched for her clothes.

“Who does he think he is? Telling me not to move, dragging me here, ordering me not to go anywhere…” Trying to recall where her shorts might have landed, she leaned over the foot of the bed, found them on the floor, partially hiding his shirt. She paused, picked everything up, considered. She didn’t want to be naked when he came back. It wasn’t that she felt vulnerable naked, necessarily. She just didn’t want Porter to think she was the clinging type. Hanging on when she was no longer wanted.

Not that she knew he would think that, but given his looks and personality, he’d probably come across more than a few women who weren’t ready to let him go.

Ack!
And she was doing it again. His past was the past and let the damn thing die a miserable death. She had him right now and she was going to have an extremely enjoyable right now. It wasn’t the mating heat, only extremely hot physical attraction, which was a good thing. Right?

Snarling at herself, Rachel leapt from the bed at the sound of a flushing toilet and stalked out of the room, talking all the clothes with her. She found another bathroom and made use of it, along with a washcloth to rinse off the dried sweat. A shower would be best, but her skin still smelled like Porter and she wasn’t ready yet to lose that small connection, as dumb as that might seem. But again, she wasn’t going to analyze it. She was just going to go with it.

Dressed in her panties and shorts, his shirt covering her torso because her bra and top were in some office somewhere, she opened the bathroom door to find Porter leaning on the wall across the hall.

At least he was no longer naked. Shame, really. Ahem. Though wearing only jeans did little to make her feel any less googly-eyed. No. Those were fixed on the hard plane of his smooth chest, then lower to drink in those luscious muscles carved into his abs. Abs she hadn’t taken the time to know and touch.

And taste and lick.

Though he had no hair on his chest, a smattering started just under his navel and narrowed down past his waist. And she knew all too well what lay under those jeans.

“Rach.” Her eyes jumped to his face.

“Yes?” She refused to feel guilty for staring. If he hadn’t wanted that, then he should have dressed. Completely. In a brown sack enshrouding him from head to toe.

“Going somewhere?” His face was deceptively blank.

“Hmm.” She walked past him, looking for and locating the office two doors down. “I need to get back to work.” Slipping her arms through the sleeves of his shirt, she put on her bra, stripped the tee off, and donned her own.

His hand encircled her wrist before she could reclaim her hair-clip and she glanced up at him in surprise.

“So, what? I was just some temporary amusement? A screw with the stable boy?” His tone was so brittle it threatened to shatter and take her out in the process.

Immense shock had her mouth falling to the floor. “What?”

Fury flared in those dark eyes. “An adventure. Something to make your life more interesting. That’s what you said you wanted, right? Well? Was I interesting enough for you?”

Wait. What? He was—insecure? Him? Porter Felix? The gorgeous charmer? The walking sex pot? Insecure? About
her
?

After all her own insecurities, the irony caused her to do the utmost relationally incorrect thing imaginable. She started to laugh. A little snicker first, and then it all came spurting out in great belly-shaking waves.