TIS THE SEASON...FOR ROMANCE (WESTMORELAND/MASTERS/JEFFERIES) (37 page)

The tip of his tongue wasn’t having any mercy on the hardened peaks. His concentration might have been on her breasts but every part of her body seemed to be on fire.

“Like that?”

If you only knew, she thought, and slowly opened her eyes to gaze into his. The look she saw in them made her moan a sound that probably was not dignified, but at the moment she didn’t care. The only thing she cared about was how he was making her feel, and how much time had elapsed since she’d felt this way. “Yes, I like it,” she finally said.

“I was beginning to think a cat had your tongue,” he said smiling. “Umm, I better check to be sure.”

And then he leaned down and lowered his mouth to hers, slid his own tongue between her parted lips to captured hers, stroking it once again while placing the palm of his hand on her back to impel her closer to him, to feel the hardened tips of her breasts press into his chest. Skin to skin.

He pulled his mouth away and smiled. “No cat was in there. Now for your panties.”

He took his time removing them and then cupped her buttocks firmly in his hands and hauled her up, close to him. “Remember me introducing you to this, Abby?” he asked before shifting his body to lower his head between her legs.

Yes, she remembered, and at the time she’d thought it was the most scandalized thing a man could do to a woman. It didn’t take long for her to conclude it was one of the most pleasurable.

She gasped when she felt the heat of his tongue invade her womanhood and grabbed hold of his head, thinking to push him away and then to hold him in place instead. Each stroke of his tongue was perfect. And all kinds of sensations went hurling through her. Hot blood rushed through her veins. She shuddered. She moaned. She called out the name of the only man who could make her feel this way. The name of the one man who could cause her body to throb. And the only man who could appease her need to be satisfied.

Corey.

Her response to what he was doing to her was without shame. It was unrestrained and uninhibited. It left her releasing his head to grip at the bedcovers when an explosion that started at the place where his tongue was to travel through every part of her body. She moaned and whimpered while she writhed beneath his mouth as her body shuddered uncontrollably.

Corey lifted his head and drew in a deep breath, pulling her luscious intimate scent right into his nostrils. By the time the last spasm had left her body, he had moved his body in place over hers. He looked down into her eyes and held her gaze for a moment before saying. “I love you, so very much.”

She reached up and stroked her hand against his cheek and said. “And I love you so very much, as well.”

Then a moan rose in her throat when he eased into her, going as deep as he could go, filling her depths with his male heat, stretching her the deeper he went. And then he began moving at a steady pace, establishing a tormenting rhythm and moving in and out at her over and over again.

She knew the moment an orgasm snapped his control as well as her own. And using her inner muscles she drew him deeper inside of her. When she felt the heat of his release she rode the hot wave of desire that swept her along, made her moan and tossed her in a world of complete abandonment.

The only thing she could formulate in her mind, other than the intense pleasure she felt, was that this man was Corey. Her heart. Her love. And the deliverer of all her pleasure.

If Corey hadn’t been so anxious to get Abby up to his mountain, he might have been tempted to linger at the cabin another day or so. Their overnight stay there had been enjoyable.

The Quinns had a stocked kitchen and after they’d made love Corey had slipped on his jeans to go outside to unpack the horse and bed him down for the night. Abby had slipped into his shirt and had gone into the kitchen to prepare them a meal.

He hadn’t known what to expect but the aroma that awaited him when he returned to the cabin let him know she could cook. She’d told him of how she enjoyed watching the cooking channel and on occasion would volunteer her time in the kitchen of several homeless shelters, and had become friends with some of the cooks who’d shared good recipes with her.

Over dinner she told him about her daughter and he could tell she was very proud of her. She’d also shared with him about Madison’s broken engagement a couple of years ago.

Abby had mentioned she had gotten enough of a signal to call her two friends to let them know everything was fine before they left tomorrow to return to Boston. She would be calling Madison in a few days since she wasn’t ready to answer any questions her daughter might have about their relationship just yet. She wanted to be completely honest with Madison and tell her everything, and she preferred not going into a lot of details over the phone. But she did want to let Madison know she was okay and not to worry about her.

That night they had showered together, made love again and slept in each others arms. More than once he had awakened during the night to assure himself that none of it was a dream.

The next morning they had walked outside around the cabin and having her there by his side meant everything to him. He was already regretting the day she would have to return to Boston. He wouldn’t fool himself into believing she would remain with him on his mountain. As much as he loved her and believed that she loved him, he wasn’t sure if she would be willing to walk away from her life in Massachusetts to spend one in isolation on his mountain.

Her gasp made him look ahead and she wiggled behind him on the huge horse. “Oh, Corey, let me down. I need to make sure that ranch up there is real. It looks like something that belongs on a postcard. ”

He brought the horse to a stop and quickly dismounted, understanding completely what seeing his mountain for the first time did to her. It was the same with most people once they reached the top of his mountain and saw the sprawling three-story ranch house nestled beneath huge pine tress and a gorgeous Montana sky.

“It’s so big,” she said, when he assisted her down. “I didn’t know it would be this huge.”

He chuckled. “I thought about my eleven nephews and one niece when I designed it. I wanted to make sure they had plenty of room and space.”

Instead of getting back on the horse, she walked beside him the rest of the way and was attentive while he pointed out several noteworthy sightings on his mountain; like the hot springs and the lakes, as well as a marked area where he intended for his new barn to be built. He also told her about Cedar Canyon, a beautiful part of his mountain that was a nice place for a picnic. He was planning to build a cabin near there in the future.

She saw horses, cows and sheep. She also saw the airstrip where the postal plane landed whenever supplies and mail were delivered. He’d share that a helicopter service was coming to the area that would offer frequent transportation on and off the mountain. Abby wondered if there was a particular reason he was telling her that. Had he grown tired of her already?

She forced such a thought from her mind and when he swept her off her feet and carried him into his house, she refused to let it invade her thoughts again.

* * *

“You still haven’t been able to reach Madison?”

Abby turned and smiled over at Corey. He’d been working outside with the horses and had come in to eat. While he had showered she had put the finishing touches on dinner.

It was hard to believe it had been a week already. She loved his home, she loved his mountain and most of all she loved him. She enjoyed sleeping with him every night, waking up beside him in the morning and spending time with him during the day. He was teaching her how to ride a horse, and she helped him feed the animals and had taken the time to organize his sheep records with a new filing system. And he had shared with her the contents of the box he kept under his bed and how whenever he got lonely he would take out their pictures and look at them and remember good times.

“No, I haven’t been able to reach her. I’ve left several messages on her voice mail and I’m hoping she’s gotten them. I don’t want her to worry about me. I’m having the time of my life. I love it here.”

Corey met her gaze. “Do you really, Abby?”

Abby studied Corey’s face for a moment, keyed in specifically on his expression, saw the depth of his uncertainty and knew it was real. At that moment she realized he didn’t have a clue just how much she loved it here. He actually thought that she would eventually leave. He didn’t know that here with him she had found the peace she’d missed and the peace she needed. And she had rediscovered the love she had walked away from thirty-two years ago.

“Yes, I do and that’s what I want to talk to you about, Corey. I’m supposed to leave next week.”

Disappointment settled on his face. “Yes, I know.”

“Well, I’ve decided I’m not going. That is, I won’t go if you don’t mind me hanging around for a little while longer,” she said as she continued to set the table. Although it was just the two of them, she did so anyway out of habit.

“Sweetheart, you can stay as long as you like.”

She glanced up and saw both relief and happiness on his face. She smiled. “You might regret saying that.” She glanced around. “Look at the changes I’ve made so far.”

Corey followed her gaze. She had made changes, not just here in the kitchen but all throughout the house. His home now had the Abby touch. She would pick fresh flowers each day to place in various rooms; especially in the kitchen were a huge vase of them sat in the middle of the table as a centerpiece.

And she had found what used to be Delaney’s sewing machine along with a ton of unused fabric. One evening he’d come inside to discover she had made curtains for the kitchen window. She’d explained that she felt the curtains were necessary since they’d made love right in the kitchen the night before, not far from an open window. Although he’d tried assuring her that no one could set foot on his property without him knowing about it, she hadn’t been totally convinced.

“I like the changes,” he said truthfully. And he liked the fact that she enjoyed setting the table for each meal. At first he thought a formal place setting looked odd in the middle of such rustic scenery, but he’d since gotten used to it and thought it was special.

“You need me to do anything to help?”

“No, just relax. Dinner will be ready in around ten minutes.”

“Okay.”

His idea of relaxing was standing there leaning against the counter, out of her way and watching her. There were still times when he had to pinch himself to make sure he wasn’t dreaming. It wasn’t unusual for him to stop his chores in the middle of the day to come find her and assure himself that her presence in his home was not a figment of his imagination.

Those were the times when he would find her, sweep her off her feet and end up making love to her right then and there. He enjoyed those times. And for a few seconds…okay more than a few…as he stood there watching her he could recall each and every time they’d made love. She was the most giving person, without any restraints and it seemed that she, like him, was determined to make up for lost time.

Total fulfillment.
That gypsy certainly had predicted his future for this year right.

He smiled as he stood there and continued to watch her. She was wearing a long skirt, one of those that came to her ankles, a cute blouse and was in her barefeet. He’d told her he preferred seeing her hair down, flowing down her back and she always wore it that way for him. She had a nice figure, curvy, enticing and shapely and to his way of thinking, she looked to be a woman in her late thirties instead of someone who’d celebrated their fiftieth birthday just a few months ago. She was one sexy looking lady, and she was definitely a lady. But in the bedroom things his lady could become a wanton sexpot in his arms.

His smile deepened when he thought about that night they’d seen each other at the restaurant and what their reaction had been to each other, and –

“Okay, Corey, why are you standing over there smiling?”

He blinked upon realizing he’d been caught. “I was thinking about a number of things – making love to you, the very thought of you being here on my mountain, but what just crossed my mind was that night we saw each other at Joe’s Place and our reaction to each other.”

Abby tilted her head back and covered her hands with her face, remembering. “Oh my God, I can’t believe that once you stepped outside it was on with us. We started kissing without me first finding out if you had a wife somewhere. And you didn’t bother asking me anything about Larry before we kissed.”

He chuckled. “That was one hell of a way to say hello, how are you and nice seeing you again after all these years.”

She dropped her hand and a smile touched the corners of her lips. “Yes, but I’m sure if you had a wife she would not have understood.”

He nodded. “Probably not. Would Larry Winters have understood?”

She paused for a second and then said, “I’d like to think that he would have but he was a man.”

“What about Madison. You said she was close to her father. Will she accept me in your life?” he asked.

Abby shrugged. “I’m not sure, Corey. I want to believe that I raised a sensible young woman who will want me to be happy. I rarely dated in the ten years since Larry’s death, and she would be the one to encourage me to go out the few times I did, even when they were only business-type affairs. So a part of me wants to believe she will understand and be happy for me.”