Two Alone (29 page)

Indeed, he seemed to have forgotten everything except the woman standing only a few feet, yet seemingly light-years, away from him.

His eyes tracked down her body, stripping her as they went. As though he were actually peeling away layer after layer of clothing, her skin began to burn with fever. By the time his eyes paused on the uneven, stringy hems of her cutoffs, where the soft threads tickled her bare thighs,
Rusty
was warm and moist.

His gaze moved backup to her face and the desire he saw registered
t
here reflected his own. His eyes were like magnets drawing her into their field. On her crutches, she closed the distance between them, never breaking their stare. He didn't either. As she drew nearer, he had to tilt his head back to maintain eye contact. It seemed to take a lifetime but was actually only a
f
e
w
secon
ds before she stood directly in front of him, leaning on her crutches for support.

She said, "I can't believe you're really here."

Groaning, he lowered his head and pressed it hard agains
t
her breasts. "Rusty. Damn you. I couldn't stay away."

Overwhelming emotions caused her eyes to close. Her head tipped forward in total surrender to her love for this complex man. She whispered his name.

He folded his arms around her waist and nuzzled his face in
t
he soft, fragrant valley between her breasts. His hands opened wide over her back, drawing her body closer even though she couldn't move her feet.

"I've missed you," she admitted hoarsely. She didn't expect him to make a similar confession, and he didn't. But the ardency of his embrace was unspoken evidence of how much he'd missed her.

"I'd hear your voice and turn, expecting you to be there. Or I
’
d start to say something to you before I realized you weren't there."

"God, you smell good." Openmouthed, he gnawed on the soft inner curves of her breasts, catching cloth and all between his strong, white teeth.

"You smell like the mountains," she told him, kissing his hair.

"I've got to have—" he was frantically untying the knot at her waist "—just one—" it came undone and he ripped the burtons apart "—bite." His mouth fastened on the fleshy part of her breast, which was o
ver
flowing
the
cup
o
f
he
r
b
r
as
siere.

At the first hot contact of his mouth with her skin, she arched her back and moaned. Her knuckles turned white where they grippe
d
the handles of
her
crutches. She longed to drop them and plunge her fingers into his hair. She felt it dusting her skin when he turned his head and kissed her other breast. He took gentle love bites through the sheer cups of her brassiere and delicately sipped at the tips.

She released a keening sound much like a sob. It was bo
th
frustrating
and
thrilling not to have the use of her hands. T
he
sense
of helplessness was titillating.

"Cooper," she gasped imploringly.

He reached around her and unhooked her bra strap, working it down as far as it would go before the straps got caugh
t
in her sleeves. But that was sufficient. He had completely uncovered her. His eyes drank their fill before his lips surrounded one taut, pink crest and drew it into his mouth. He sucked it lovingly, then sponged the very tip of it with his tongue before drying it with his mustache. His whole lace moved over her breasts, rubbing them with cheek and chin and mouth and nose and brow. Rusty, leaning precariously on her crutches, chanted his name with religious fervor.

"Tell me what you want. Anything," he said huskily. "Tell m
e
"

"
I
want you."

"Woman, you've got me. What do you want?"

"To touch. To be touched."

"Where?"

"
Cooper...
"

"Where?"

"You know where," she cried.

He brusquely unsnapped her cutoffs and slid down the zipper. Her brief panties did little more than cover the triangle of curls. He wanted to smile, but his face was too set with passion, so he couldn't. He merely growled his approval as he pulled down the
panties along
with her cutoffs. He kissed the gingery down.

Rusty's st
r
ength deserted her. She let go of
the crutches. They clattered to
the floor.
She fell forward slightly, breaking her fall by placing her hands on Cooper's shoulders. As she did so, he slid off the seat of
the chair and sank to his knees in fron
t
of her.

She caught her lower lip be
t
we
e
n her teeth to keep from screaming with pleasure as he parted her dewy flesh with his thumbs and buried his tongue in the softness.

He didn't stop there. He didn't stop at all. Not after the first wave of ecstasy swept over her. Not e
v
en after the second had claimed her. He didn't stop until her body was glistening with a fine sheen of perspiration, until tendrils of russet hair were clinging damply to her temples and cheeks and neck, until she was quivering with aftershocks.

Only then did he rise to his feet and take her in his arms.

"Which way?" His face was softer than she'd ever seen i
t
as it bent over hers. The guarded chill was no longer in his eyes. In its place were sparks of some strong emotion she dared
t
o hope was love.

She raised her hand and pointed in the general direction of the bedroom. He found it without difficulty. Since she'd spent a great deal of time in that room recently, it had a homey, lived-in aspect that apparently appealed to him. He smiled as he carried her through the doorway. Gen
t
ly he stood her on her left leg and threw back the covers on the bed. "Lie down."

She did, watching as he
w
ent into the bathroom. She heard water running. Moments later, he came back carrying a damp cloth. He didn'
t
say a word, but his eyes spoke volumes as he drew her into a sitting position and eased off her blouse. Removing her brassiere only required sliding the straps off her arms. She sat before him rurally naked, and marvelously unashamed.

He ran the cool, damp cloth over her arms and shoulders and around her neck. After he had eased her back on
t
o the pillows, he raised her arms over her head and washed the shallow cups of her armpits. She purred in surprised satisfaction; he ducked his head and kissed her moaning mouth.

He moved the cloth over her ches
t, then her breasts. Her n
ipples drew up again and
he smiled. He touched a rosy wh
isker-burn on her tender flesh.

"I always seem to leave a mark on you," he said with a trace of regret "I'm sorry."

"
I
’
m not.
"

His eyes glowed hotly as they moved down her stomach to her navel. He licked the sweat out of it before bathing the rest of her abdomen with the cloth. Then he washed her legs, being careful of her new scar. "Turn over."

Rusty gazed up a
t
him inquisitively, but she turned over on her stomach and rested her cheek on her stacked hands.
Lei
surely, he washed her entire back wi
t
h the cloth. At the small of her back, he paused, then ran the cloth over the cheeks of her bottom.

"Hmm," she sighed.

"That's for me to say."

"Go right ahead."

"Hmm." He spent far more rime
t
han was necessary to wash away any p
e
rspira
t
ion. He sponged the backs of her legs all the way down to the soles of her feet, which he discovered were ticklish. On his way back
up
he lingered to taste the backs of her knees.

"Just relax a minute," he told her as he left the bed to undress.

"Easy for you to say. You haven't been subjected to heavy petting."

"Brace yourself, baby. You've got more coming."

Rusty
wasn't quite braced for him to lie naked and
w
arm along the length of her back. She drew in a jagged breath and shivered with the startling impact of his hair-roughened skin against the smoothness of her back. His opened thighs sandwiched hers. Her bottom
f
it snugly against his sex. It was solid with desire and as smooth as velvet-sheathed steel as it rubbed against her.

He covered the backs of her hands with his palms, interlacing their fingers, and used his nose to move aside her ponytail so his lips could get to her ear.

"
I
can't do anything for wanting you," he whispered gruffly. "Can't work. Sleep. Eat. There's no comfort in my getaway house anymore. You ruined it for me. The mountains aren't beautiful anymore. Your face has blinded me to them."

He rocked against her and made an upward thrust, settling himself more firmly against her.
"I
thought I'd work you out of my system, but so far I've failed.
I
even went to Vegas and bought a woman for the evening. When we got to the hotel room, I just sat there staring a
t
her and drinking, trying to work up desire. She practiced some of her fanciest tricks, but I felt nothing. I couldn't do it. Didn't want to. Finally
I
sent her home before she became as disgusted with me as
I
was with myself."

He buried his face in the back of her neck. "You redheaded witch, what'd you do to me up there? I was fine, understand? Fine, until you came along with your wet-satin mouth and silky skin. Now my life isn't worth a damn. All I can think about, see, hear, touch, smell, taste, is you.
You."

He rolled her over and pinned her beneath him. His mouth slanted against hers. He par
t
ed her lips with his hard, invasive, possessive tongue. "I've got to have you. Got to. Now."

He ground his body against hers as though to meld them into one. Nudging her knees apart and giving one long, smooth, plunging motion of his hips, he delved into the giving folds of her womanhood.

Groaning with pleasure, he lowered his head
t
o her chest. He called upon every prince of Heaven and hell
t
o release him from his tormen
t
. His breath fell hot and labored on her breasts and when the nipples responded, he loved them with his mouth.

His skin was flushed. It burned her hands as she moved them over the rippling, supple muscles of his back and hips. She cupped his hard buttocks and drew him deeper yet. He moaned her name and brought their mouths together again. His kiss was carnally symbolic.

Rusty didn't fee
l
vanquished by his virile power, though she could well have. On the contrary, she felt free and unfettered, strong enough to fly, to soar to the limits of the universe. Just as her body was opened to him, so was her heart and soul. Love
poured out of them abundantly He must feel it. He must know.

She was sure he did, because he was saying her name in cadence to his thrusts. His voice was raw with emotion. But a heartbeat before he lost his ability to reason, she fe
lt
him about to withdraw.

"No! Don't you dare."

"Yes, Rusty, yes."

"I love you. Cooper." She crossed her ankles at the small o
f
his back. "
I
want you. All of you."

"No, no," he groaned in misery as well as ecstasy.

''
I
love you.
"

C
lenching his teeth and baring them, he threw his head back and surrendered to orgasm with a long, low, primal groan that worked its way up from the bottom of his soul. He filled this woman who loved him with his hot, rich seed
.

Thirteen

Sweat dripped from his face. He was drenched in it. His body hair was curled with it
.
He collapsed atop her. She held him rightly
.
Her maternal instinct asser
t
ed itself; she wanted to cuddle him like a child.

It
was an endless forever before he regained enough strength to move, but neither was in a hurry for him to leave her. finally, he rolled away from her and lay on his back, replete. Rusty gazed at his beloved face. His eyes were closed. The lines on either side of his s
t
ern mouth had relaxed considerably since he'd come through her front door.