Texas Tender (38 page)

He was kissing her throat. Webb had never done anything like this. Why had she ever thought she was in love with him? Compared to Will, he faded into insignificance. “You haven't asked me to marry you.”

He nuzzled her. “See? I never can get things right.”

Maybe he didn't do everything by the rules, but Idalou couldn't see anything wrong with the way he did things. If he didn't stop turning her mind to mush with his kisses, she wouldn't be able to think at all.

Not that she wanted to think. It was nearly impossible to resist the temptation to turn off her mind and just let Will take her to a place where she'd be co-cooned in his embrace. All her life she'd carried enormous burdens that squeezed the joy out of her, burdens that had turned her into an adult years ahead of time, burdens that had pitted her against men of greater power, that had forced her into battles she couldn't win, that had turned her into a combative woman men avoided.

“You do want me to marry you, don't you?” he asked.

“Only if you promise to let me kiss you like this every night.”

Will had gotten her worked up into such a state she couldn't think, but she decided thinking was overrated. Thinking had driven Webb away. Thinking had turned her into a termagant men avoided. She made a vow to think a whole lot less in the future, and not at all when she was in Will's arms.

“Only if you let me win every argument,” she said, wanting to see if his brain was in the same sorry state as hers.

His hands were taking inventory of her back. “I probably should warn you that I won't play fair. I'll
search out your weaknesses and take shameless advantage of them. I'll lay siege to your strengths until I've completely undermined them.”

“Are you saying you're unprincipled?”

“Completely.”

“That you'll try to take advantage of me?”

“Every time I can.”

“Will you feel remorse?”

“Why do it if you're going to feel sorry?”

Idalou had a feeling Will had just confessed to a woeful lack of character, but all she could think about was his kisses and her desire to kiss him back. Discussions of character could be saved for a day when it was cold, raining, and he was late to sit down to the hot dinner she'd worked hard to have ready on time. Right now it was summer, the air was warm, and she couldn't think of a single reason to complain.

Idalou didn't know how long she stood there letting Will kiss her, kissing him in return, and wondering in a vague sort of way why she had waited so long for something this wonderful.

“I'd better go.”

Will's words pulled her out of the safe world she'd found in his arms.

“Why?”

“You need to rest. You have to work tomorrow.”

“I don't need to go to bed just yet. Are you really tired?”

“No.”

The question hung in the air between them. She knew it was up to her to make the decision. It seemed like a huge step, one far too important to be decided without a lot of thought, but this wasn't just a question of logic or what was best in the long run. It came down to what she wanted, and of that she was very sure.

“I ought to go,” Will said.

“Don't.”

She undid a few buttons on his shirt and slipped her hand inside. She was stunned by her brazen act but exhilarated at the same time. It wasn't just that her hand was splayed against the warm skin of the man she loved, it was the implication that her action implied.

Her lips could never have framed the words, but she was asking Will to make love to her. It was impossible to resist moving her hand across the expanse of his chest, to resist running her fingers through the soft mat of blond hair. Though she'd been around men all her life, had seen them in various stages of undress, had danced with and been held by them, she'd given very little thought to the structure and appearance of the male body. It left her at a disadvantage in knowing how to continue what she'd begun. Fortunately, Will didn't have any such problem.

With a deftness she'd someday ask how he'd acquired, he undid the buttons at the back of her blouse. The feel of his hand against the bare flesh of her back caused her to freeze. More clearly than her hand on Will's chest, Will's hand on her back brought home what she'd asked him to do. She was about to make an important commitment. She was saying she wanted to be this man's wife for the rest of her life. And she wanted him to be her husband.

It was exactly what she had been wanting for some time but hadn't been able to admit. It no longer mattered that she'd thought she had a dozen reasons to question Will's intentions, even more reasons to hold back, to doubt that she was meant to find such happiness. A life with Will was what she wanted, was
everything
she wanted, and she couldn't wait to take that first step, to make the kind of commitment that said there was no turning back.

It took only a few practiced movements for him to slip her arms out of her blouse and let it fall suspended from her waist, where it was tucked inside her skirt. Only a thin cotton chemise preserved her modesty. Yet it didn't feel like that when Will began placing kisses on her bare shoulders. It felt incredibly decadent, but she didn't care. She'd never felt so close to rapture in her life. Never had she expected that following her heart instead of her head would have such exhilarating results. She wished she'd done it sooner.

Will was laying a line of kisses from her shoulder down her arm to her elbow. His lips sent shivers racing through her body. How could she have guessed that an elbow could be so sensitive? An elbow! She'd leaned on it for years and never felt a thing, but the moment Will kissed it, it felt like the most erotic part of her body. Now he was kissing her arm all the way down to her wrist, her fingers, her open palm. A little more and she was sure she would melt where she stood.

That was what she thought until he started kissing her neck and gradually moved up to her ears. She didn't know how she could have survived so long without realizing that every part of her body could be turned into an erogenous zone. It was like discovering herself all over again, being given a new way of looking at a body she'd given very little thought to during her life. It was just there. What was there to know about it?

More than she could have ever imagined.

The sound of a soft moan drew scant attention until she realized it was her own voice she was hearing. Despite being slightly embarrassed at her vocal response, she gave herself wholeheartedly to Will's ministrations. It didn't matter that nearly everything she was experiencing was new and unexpected, even
a little unnerving. It only mattered that she'd finally been able to give herself to Will, and that he loved her.

Will cupped one breast in his hand, and her nipples grew firm and sensitive to the soft cotton of her chemise rubbing against them. In a flash, all the sensitivity from the distant parts of her body converged on that single breast until she could barely endure his touch. When Will slipped her chemise off her shoulders to expose both breasts, she was certain she couldn't endure it. But that was nothing compared to the feelings that assaulted her when he gently massaged her nipples with his fingertips. The strength went out of her legs, and she sagged against him.

Will swept her up in his arms and carried her to the bed. Rather than laying her down as she expected, he sat her up, then got down on his knees to remove her shoes. The feel of his hands on her feet, her ankles, her calves as he removed her stockings caused her to tremble. When it came to Will's touch, her entire body was an erogenous zone. Next Will stood her up so he could remove her shirt and chemise. Once that was done, he laid her down on the bed.

She felt awkward lying before him stripped of her clothing while he was still fully dressed. “You, too,” she said, her voice a thread, barely more than a whisper.

“I thought you'd never ask,” Will said with the smile that always made her knees feel like jelly. Only this time there was something more. It was in the set of his mouth, the darkening of his eyes, the slight huskiness of his voice. He hadn't finished removing his clothes before she realized it was also in the altered shape of his body.

She moved over when Will lay down on the bed next to her. For a moment she didn't breathe, just lay there waiting to find out what he would do next. She
knew what was supposed to happen, what she
wanted
to happen, but she was nervous, unsure, wondering what Will would do when he realized she had no idea what to do. She felt incapable of movement, barely capable of thought. She certainly didn't know how to move smoothly from one phase of lovemaking to another. She tensed when Will placed his hand palm down on her stomach.

“We don't have to do this if you'd rather not.”

Idalou was grateful to Will for leaving the decision to go any further up to her. She didn't know how he could gracefully withdraw from the present situation, but she didn't want him to leave. She was here because she wanted to be with him, to love him, to experience being loved in a way she'd never thought possible.

“I'm a little anxious, but I'm sure.” She moved over to give Will more room, but he immediately moved closer to her.

“Just tell me if anything upsets you, and I'll stop.”

“It's not that,” she said, not wanting him to think she was getting cold feet. “It's just that I don't know what to do, don't know what to expect.”

“This is supposed to be a good experience, to make you feel absolutely wonderful. If it doesn't, it's my fault.”

He was tracing designs on the inside of her arm, sending more sensations spiraling through her to create havoc in her normally well-controlled body. When
he moved down her side, she was caught between sucking in her breath and giggling because it tickled. Before she could ruin the mood and severely damage his ego by laughing, he moved his hand over her stomach to her breast. Leaning on his elbow, he teased first one breast, then the other, cupping it in his warm hand, rubbing her pebble-hard nipple with the tips of his fingers, squeezing it between his thumb and forefinger.

But that was nothing compared to the shocks that ricocheted through her body when he took her nipple into his mouth. She gasped and her body went rigid. She'd never felt anything so intense in her entire life. He sucked her nipple, laved it with his tongue, nipped at it with his teeth, until she thought she'd explode from the tension. She squirmed from side to side, but she couldn't escape him. She pushed against him, but that only increased the force of their contact. She clutched his head only to realize she was drawing him against her rather than pushing him away.

When he finally abandoned her tortured breasts, she didn't know whether to cry out in relief or protest. The trail of kisses he laid across her abdomen kept her from feeling abandoned. She'd never known that any part of her body could be so acutely sensitive to touch. She felt wrung out, barely having the energy to move.

Until Will's hand reached the inside of her thigh.

An electric shock surged from one end of her body to the other, reviving her so abruptly she felt dizzy. She must have gasped.

“There's nothing to be frightened of,” Will said. “It won't hurt.”

She didn't know right away what
it
was. But when she felt Will's fingers part her and enter, she did.
Her entire body grew rigid, waiting, anticipating, fearing . . . what?

It didn't hurt, but she felt invaded. His fingers inside her felt stimulating, slightly uncomfortable, slightly . . . “Aaaaah!”

“Did I hurt you?” Will asked, concern in his voice.

She couldn't speak, only shake her head. Will had done something, touched something, moved something, that practically made her see stars. Even her eyes watered. As he gently moved his fingers inside her, she could feel warmth grow and fill her belly. Her body seemed to relax around him, to welcome him, even draw him in. It didn't take long for the warmth to become heat and the heat to become fire. Idalou's body couldn't remain still. She moved from side to side, even rose off the bed to force Will deeper inside. Then he did that
thing
again, and she did rise off the bed.

“What are you doing ?” she managed to ask.

“Trying to give you as much pleasure as possible.”

He was doing it again, making it impossible for her to think, impossible to care about anything except what he was doing to her. Her moans turned to groans which grew in volume until she was certain she would start screaming. She'd never experienced anything that gripped her with such force, that suspended her between the extremes of agony and ecstasy, that made her certain she couldn't stand it for another moment yet hoped it would never stop, that made her want to pull away at the same moment she wanted to drive Will deeper inside her. Words begging him to stop rose to her lips even though she bit her tongue to keep from uttering them. The vise tightened, twisted her insides until she couldn't breathe. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

Then the tension crested, broke, and she felt wave after wave of pleasure. Little by little, the tension eased until she could gasp for air, until her body could relax enough to sink into the softness of the mattress beneath her.

But before she could completely unravel the coils that encircled her, Will rose above her and slowly entered her. She was certain she couldn't contain him, but he continued to sink into her until he'd penetrated her fully. At first she was aware of little beyond the fullness, but as he moved within her, the sensations of only moments ago returned. Only this time Will's face showed that he, too, was being subjected to the exquisite torture she'd endured only moments ago. Knowing that they were experiencing it at the same time, together, joined as one, added a new dimension that was as welcome as it was unanticipated.