Suspended (14 page)

“There.” She slid forward and back, taking him on her own
terms. “I knew there was a smile to be found inside you.”

He hid his grin in her neck and swiped his tongue behind her
ear. She vised him, and he groaned. He unhooked her bra, wanting to feel her
against his skin. If he couldn’t have the most fundamental part of them skin to
skin, he would have the rest.

She looked around, then unwound her arms long enough to get
the bra off.

Her hair was pure sunshine and as carefree as her smile as
it bounced around her shoulders. She was the fun and light he’d been missing
for so long. Her head tipped back to the sun, and she rolled her hips. His
brain might have thrown a pause in the clawing need to come. But his body had
other plans.

He didn’t want to let go of the sunshine in his arms.

He gripped her hips and drove into her as he felt the burn
of his release. He maneuvered his hand between them. She pushed it away and
returned his grip to her ass.

“I want to see you come inside me, Shane.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck, and he jerked her
harder into his hips. She slid her hand up along the back of his skull to the
top and latched her mouth to his just as he came. In his head it was her name he
chanted as he lost himself in her.

KENDALL DROPPED BACK onto the blanket. The decadent feel of
sunlight on her breasts and a man still buried between her thighs had her
laughing up to the sky. Shane’s hand spanned her hip bones, the heel of his
hand rubbing lightly just above where they were still joined.

She closed her eyes, enjoying the softness of a lover.

She’d never had a lover.

She’d had boyfriends, and she’d had a few one-night stands.

But never had a man who was only worried about her pleasure.
As gruff as Shane was, when they were naked, he honed that intensity into
making sure she came her damn brains out. She was used to the men from Bradley
and the occasional traveler. A bounce, mutual pleasure sometimes, an orgasm if
she was lucky. But mostly it was the contact of a person she’d longed for. And
disappointment had almost always made her wonder if it was all worth it.

This was more than that.

It might not be forever, but it was hers for now. It had
been so long since she had something that was just hers. Nothing that focused
on responsibility and the needs of others. It was so strange to simply be.

She groaned as his thumb slid between them. “Shane.”

“I was afraid you fell asleep.”

She blinked her eyes open. The sun had disappeared behind
the tallest of the mountains of Yosemite. Shane’s far too serious eyes settled
on her. The anger was missing, and his ridiculously wide shoulders seemed to be
less tense. She smiled and slowly undulated her hips. “It’s tempting.”

The burnished gold of the centers of his eyes seemed to glow
in the cool forest color that rimmed his irises. He truly had the most
beautiful eyes. His thumb traced wide circles around her sensitive clit.

She groaned and tried to escape his touch. Her nerve endings
had to be blown out at this point. “I don’t think I could come again.”

“You shouldn’t say that. It just makes me want to make you
come all the more.”

He stroked the tiny bundle of nerves, and she tried to prop
herself on her elbows and shimmy away from him. He laughed, and she stilled.
Two laughs in one afternoon?

“What? Do you really want me to stop?”

She shook her head.

The quirk of his lips was worth it. He brought his other
hand up and rubbed along the outside of her clit, and she bowed up and off the
blanket. She could feel him hardening inside her again.

“Shane.”

He held himself and her so still as he continued with the
relentless stroking. Full of him and the pure, stripping pleasure, she cried
out his name, a string of curses, then lost her ability to speak. He held on to
her, wouldn’t let her crawl away from the intensity. No person should be able
to feel this much. Not this soon.

She fisted her hair and sobbed; then she was in his arms. He
hauled her off the blanket and banded his arms around her. She buried her face
in his neck. From soft to scalded in so little time. She should back away, but
she held on tighter.

She was so freaking tired of being alone.

She wasn’t sure how long they stayed like that. Her legs
ached, and the skin along the back of her knees felt raw around his bunched
jeans. She dropped her hands. He reached beside them and dropped his shirt over
her head. The nubby texture buzzed against her sensitive skin.

There wasn’t any room for words. What could either of them
say after that? She pushed her arms through his huge sleeves. The day was
bright and warm, but it was still November, and there was a bite to the breeze.
He took care of the condom with a napkin and zipped his jeans.

But instead of cleaning up, he stretched out on the blanket
and drew her down with him. He spooned around her and tucked her butt into the
cup of his thighs. She stared at the mountains as his arm came around her and
he settled behind her.

“Shane?”

“Hmm.” His voice was soft and sleepy.

“Shouldn’t we be getting back on the road?”

He slid his fingers through her hair in a soothing gesture.
“Soon. Rest now.”

“Don’t you have a schedule?”

“Kendall?”

Her name was a rumble in his chest. She grinned. “Yes?”

“Shut up.”

She smiled wide and cuddled in.

The next time she woke, she stretched and grunted. Her arm
was dead asleep, and Shane was cupping her breast. She snorted and rolled him
onto his back, flipping around in his arms. He didn’t wake up, simply hooked
his arm around her neck and dragged her onto his chest.

Even in sleep he was dragging her around where he wanted
her.

She poked him in the chest. The sun was still in the sky,
but the first fingers of amber that painted the horizon signaled sunset wasn’t
far off. She looked down at him. His face was softer in sleep. His rosary
circled one muscled pec, nestled into the soft whorls of hair on his chest.

He really was incredibly beautiful. Pretty under all the
hair.

She drew the rosary beads over his chest and played with the
cross at the end. “Shane.”

He moaned a little but settled quickly, his chest rising and
falling gently in sleep. She hated to wake him. She rather liked the softer
version of him.

She raked her nails over the smooth skin of his side. He
flinched, and his arm tightened around her neck. She did it again, and he
jerked. She laughed out loud, and he rolled her, pinning her arms over her
head. “Is someone ticklish?” she teased.

His eyes were sleepy and hooded. The softness hadn’t quite
faded, and his returning smile made her laugh all the harder. “Are you?”

She shook her head, biting her lip to kill the smile.
“Nope.”

He braceleted her wrists together with one of his hands and
slid under the thermal. She squealed at the first touch near her ribs. He
laughed at her as she twisted, trying to get away from him. “Liar.”

“Shane! No, wait!” She hiccuped and giggled and brought her
legs up to protect herself. She kicked and bucked, and he still wouldn’t let
her up. She scissored her legs around his hips and pushed with all her
strength, but she was no match for two hundred plus pounds of muscle.

“Give up?”

“Yes!”

He let her go and flopped onto his back. “If that’s your
version of an alarm clock, it sucks.”

She pushed her hair out of her eyes, dragging her rubber
band off her wrist to tie it up in a messy bun. “I distinctly heard laughter in
there.”

“Nope.”

She straddled him. “Yep.”

He folded his arms behind his head. “You’re hearing things.”
But happiness was definitely shining in his eyes.

She leaned down and rubbed his nose with hers. “I heard it.”

He reached up and tugged her hair free until it curtained
around them. “I hate when you bind your hair.”

“You’d put it up too if it was always in your mouth.”

He toyed with a lock. “I suppose.”

She lightly scraped her nails through his buzz cut.
“Uh-huh.”

He wrapped a hank of it around his palm, then let it slip
away. “We should pack up.”

She brushed her lips against his. She knew they needed to
get back on the road, but she hated to lose the little moment of happiness.
There wasn’t any tension between them. Well, beyond wanting to get naked.

He cupped the back of her head. The kiss was unexpectedly
sweet. Not his usual power play of dominance. Sometimes she wondered if he even
knew just how control-focused he was when it came to touching her. The
featherlight touch along her lower lip invited her to open instead of demanded.
She breathed him in, let him in, and wished for a moment there was nothing
ahead of them but time.

Shane smoothed his thumb over her cheek, then dropped his
hand to her hip. He held her there against him, sliding his hand down the
outside of her thigh to her calf and finally to her foot. He flicked his nail
along the sole of her foot, and she laughed into his mouth.

“Time to go.”

She nodded and swung her leg over him and reached for her jeans.
When he didn’t move, she looked over her shoulder. “What?”

“You’ve got one hell of an ass, Sunshine.”

She let her hair fall forward so he couldn’t see her smile.
“Pilates and hiking.”

“Pilates? Is that where you can hold a pose for a really
long time?”

She wiggled into her jeans. “That would be yoga.”

“Damn.”

She winced and rolled onto her back to cinch her jeans. Her
thigh and inner muscles twinged. She’d had more action in a few days than she’d
had in way too long. “I’m too impatient for yoga.”

He held up her shirt in front of him. “I don’t think I can
wear yours.”

She looked down. She didn’t want to give his up. It felt
good and smelled like him. “Sorry, you gave it to me.”

“So now it’s yours?”

She stood and stepped into her Chucks. “Yep. Sorry.”

He jammed their leftovers into the bag. “I don’t see how
that’s fair.”

She curled her fingers into the overlong sleeves. “Mine
now.”

His eyebrow rose. The stone face was back, but his green
eyes were lit with humor. “I’ll remember that, Kendall.”

Disappointed that
Sunshine
seemed to have been a slip, she took the bag from him. It was definitely time
to get moving before she got in over her head any more today. “Go ahead and
throw the sleeping bag in the truck. I want to take a few pictures with my
phone.”

“Sure.”

She dug out her cell and framed in the view from their
blanket. No matter what came next, she had today and a slice of perfection. She
turned and caught him doing the same thing. She stepped out of the way. “Oh,
sorry.”

“I’m not.”

She followed him back to the truck but couldn’t wipe away
the smile. He loaded up their gear and climbed in with a new shirt on. It was a
simple dark blue with long sleeves that accentuated the breadth of his chest
and ropy muscles of his arms. The man was more dangerous now that she knew what
everything looked like under his clothes.

“So where are we headed?” Kendall asked.

“You’ll see. But first we’ll stop at that little shop I saw
when we drove in.”

“Good thing, because someone stole my sandwich.”

His lips twitched. “It was a good sandwich.”

She buckled her seat belt and looked down at her phone. The
picture didn’t quite do the view justice, but it was damn close. She stuffed it
into her bag and reached for her brochures.

They were quiet, but it wasn’t an uncomfortable silence. She
wasn’t sure what was going on in his head, but it felt like they’d left some of
the tension between them on the pretty vista.

They drove out to the main road and took advantage of one of
the tourist traps that dotted the area. She snagged a few postcards for her
mother and a fistful of candy. Shane—surprise, surprise—had bottles of water
and power bars on the counter. He only lifted an eyebrow when she dumped the
array of junk food into the mix. She held on to the postcards. As the older man
rang them up, Shane plucked the postcards out of her hand.

“I can pay for those.”

“What did I tell you?”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m assuming that doesn’t cover
souvenirs for my mom.”

He didn’t say anything, just thanked the man and gathered
their bags. Well, good to see some things wouldn’t change even if they were
adding sex to the road trip. She went around to her side of the truck and again
was surprised when he opened the door before she could.

“You’re going to spoil me.”

He put the bags in the back and smacked her on the ass. “Get
in.”

“Ah, that’s more like it.”

They got back on the road. “So, driver, what am I putting in
the GPS?”

“Nothing. I know where we’re going.”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “Really? You know how
to get to New York from here?”

“Go east.”

“Ass.”

He grinned. “Just relax. I’ll get you there, Kendall.”

Instead of worrying about it, she enjoyed the scenery. The
tree lines grew more dense, the sunlight filtering through with a bleed of red
and orange. The horizon was a fiery mix of perfection and cliffs and trees and
water. And finally the road narrowed, and the cliffs proved just how small
Shane’s impressive truck really was. They closed in, the shale color marbled
with minerals and bleaching from time and the sun. The temperature dropped, and
she was suddenly glad she’d stolen his thermal.

“Are you sure you know where you’re going?”

The cab darkened, throwing Shane’s face into shadows that
emphasized the sharp angles of his face, but she could see his lips twitch.
“Worried I’ll get you lost?”