Christine

His muscles tensed under my touch, stirring the waiting embers of my yearning. I brushed my lips across his, pressing little feathery kisses over his jaw, down his throat. Molded against him as I was, nothing was left to my imagination. He was not immune to my advances. Still, he made no move, except to slowly release his hold on my arm.

Drawing away just enough to meet his gaze, I slid my hands to his shoulders. Those green eyes were filled with a heat that matched my own, but they also contained unexpected emotion and longing. I wavered, uncertain how I felt about what I saw. My emotions answered with a tug of their own. Embers deep within sparked to life. I touched my tongue to my lips, willing him to kiss me.

“Hey,” I murmured when he remained frozen. “Please don’t tell me you’re afraid of what the wildlife will think if we make love.”

His lips twitched and something unreadable flickered in his eyes. He shifted, bracing one hand on my waist. Lifting his other hand to my face, he caressed my cheek with his knuckles. The butterfly touch sparked an ache of intense longing and stole my breath.

“More like wondering what you’ll think after we make love, Bluebell.” His voice was roughened by the obvious battle between desire and self-restraint. “Feels like we’re about to jump headfirst into a bonfire. I want you. It feels like I’ve wanted you for—” He shook his head helplessly then sighed. “For longer than I’ve known you.”

The passion in his look became like a physical touch. He’d just expressed my own thoughts. I couldn’t keep my voice steady. “Are you worried I’ll complicate things by wanting a commitment?”

Travis shook his head slowly, still holding my eyes with his own. “No. I’m not worried about that at all.” His hand lowered to my collar bone, where his fingers teased. A shudder of need rocked me. “Actually, it might just be me complicating things that way. Bluebell, something’s happening between us. I like it. A lot. But it’s happening real fast.”

I understood.

It was bigger than both of us. That made it downright scary. One of the horses whickered and I shifted my gaze over to where they grazed. Their obvious contentment stood in direct contrast to my tumultuous emotions. Things were happening fast with Travis. But somehow they felt right. I swung my eyes back to him, met his hot green stare head on. “I want this. Can that be enough for now?”

He drew a shaky breath but when he spoke his words were steady. “I don’t know. Because right now it feels like I’m gonna want more. A whole lot more. I’m not looking for friendly benefits, Christine.”

Pleasant warmth erupted from a pinpoint spot in the center of my chest, radiated outward until I felt it would engulf me. I leveled my gaze to meet his. With a slight shake of my head, I whispered, “No. I’m not either.”

He traced the line of my jaw, stopping at my chin and stroking the hollow below my lip with his thumb. “I don’t know what it is, either, but I do feel… something with you that I haven’t felt since—” I shrugged.

“I know,” I said quietly. “I feel it, too… something. A kind of connection with you. But I don’t know what it is and I don’t know what to do with it.”

Travis closed his eyes, slowly letting out his breath. When he opened them again, they were darkened with a mix of desire and need that sucked the air from my lungs. Sliding a hand behind my head, he pulled me toward him. I was inches from his mouth, and his lips curved into a gentle smile. My heart began a slow melt.

Then the heat flared between us, and his lips were on mine, possessing, giving, taking, thrilling. His ardor exploded and mine responded, adding my own fire into the combustible mix.

Frenzied hands grasped the edges of my outer shirt and stripped it from my shoulders, using it to catch my arms together behind my back, while he leaned forward and feasted on my throat. Driven by need beyond anything I might have imagined, I arched into the touch. His kisses alternately seared and soothed, and rendered helpless against the onslaught.

Finally I peeled the shirt off the rest of the way, tossing it aside. His hands were already sliding under my tank, running up both sides, over my heated skin. One settled at the small of my back, the other grazed the side of a breast and then slid around to my mid-back, as I compelled him closer.

I could only fist a hand in his shirt and hang on as his caresses carried me toward an end I refused to fear. When his mouth moved over mine, I nipped at his lower lip. His velvet tongue pushed between my lips, stroking, tasting and taking.

I lost myself at the intersection where physical sensation met emotional, helpless to stop anything —even if I’d wanted to.

I didn’t want to.

In one fluid movement, he pulled back. His gaze swept over me, as hot as his touch.

Needy.

Bold.

Possessive.

* * *

Travis

My pulse jumped to heart attack levels at the sight of her flawless skin beneath my sun-bronzed hand. The deep need to feel more of her against me set my frantic fingers to work clawing and tugging at my shirt. When I became aware of her working the buttons, I retreated, giving in to her not-at-all-gentle touch.

The vibration emanating from her throat when she ran her hands over the bare skin from my waist to my chest, stoked me to flashover, and I felt an answering groan issue from my own throat. I knelt, hauling her up against me until her skin glided along mine. We held each other that way, face to face, skin to skin, heat to heat, the beginning of a firestorm. She fisted her hands in my hair and drew me even closer. It was all the invitation I needed. Every touch, every sensation, every response fueled my fervor.

I would never get enough of her. I bent my head and captured those soft lips in a deep, slow kiss that drove us both senseless.

Something tickled the back of my neck. A fly or maybe a spider had dropped from the rafters. I interrupted my exploration for just a second to brush at it.

Christine’s whimper drew me back. The subtle floral scent, I’d caught during our embrace back in town, blended with a splash of the outdoors and I followed it, let it lead me to her shoulder, her throat, then lower…

I ran my tongue along her breast down her stomach and kissed gently each and every inch around her delicate belly button, pulling the amber ring I noticed the first night at the bar into my mouth, sucking gently before running my lips back up her torso. 

My jeans tightened uncomfortably now. 

My mouth follows a fiery trail across the lace seam of her black bra, stopping to explore the heightened peek I find nestled in the center of her cup. 

I suckle her into my mouth, feasting on the moans of pleasure my warm mouth elicits from between her full lush lips. 

Her hands roam freely, tugging at my own shirt, demanding I lose it. 

It's peeled from my body in a flurry of activity and then her hands are at my waist, pulling me back toward her, relishing in the feel of my weight upon her. 

I strain against the confines of my jeans, the only satisfaction coming in the soft curves that are rubbing and grinding against me. 

My mouth finds hers once again, our tongues meeting in a race against time, against emotion, against all. 

Her hands leave my waist, and moments later I recognize the feel of jeans being tugged down. I pull back and glance down at her bright, shining gaze, asking once more if she is sure about taking the next step. 

The fire in her gaze is all the answer I need. Leaning back on my knees, I pull the buttons of my own jeans free and allow myself room to breathe. 

She kicks her pants down her legs as she pulls me closer once again, whimpering against my mouth with need. 

It just about does me in right then and there. 

She reaches for my waistband and pushes my jeans lower, exposing every inch of my very alert manhood. Running her hands along the length of me, I imagine I have died and gone to heaven.

My mouth leaves hers, as I trail more kisses down her throat, her neck, and back up again.

Her legs wrap around my waist, "Please. Please, Travis." She whimpers, grinding against me. 

Any and all lingering self-doubt vanishes as I slide into her. Silken walls squeeze me tight, threatening to never let me go. 

She nips down on my shoulder, "Oh, shit.”

If I could talk I would agree, but at the moment I'm too focused on not shattering inside of her. 

Once I've gained a tiny sense of self control, I pull back and then thrust forward, causing her to groan in ecstasy. 

Her back arches off the wooden deck, pressing her taut breasts into my face. I capture one with my hand and pinch the exposed nipple. 

Chills cascade across her flesh, growing with each thrust. I feel her tightening around me moments before a blush swamps her neck, and then her face. 

"Don't stop. Don't stop." She commands as her body shatters around me pulling me along with her. 

"Oh god, Angel." I call out as my own seed spills deep inside of her. 

I tense, realizing I just called her by the name saved for the other woman in my life. The one who didn't wait.

I pray she doesn't notice. 

The tickle from earlier returns, a little stronger now, more of a sting. 

Kissing along the outline of her mouth, I shake my head, try to shut it off, but the sensation wraps around my mind, until it calls like a lot of insects from the base of my neck on direct line to the center of my brain. It was the kind of feeling that I often had before discovering someone watching me.

Unless it was an antelope or one of the horses, that couldn’t be the case.

Still, the awareness grows, and I pull away. Gathering to my feet, I push into a crouch then stand, pulling my jeans up as I go. I draw Christine up with me and after helping her pull back into her jeans, I walked her backward, further beneath the porch roof. Raising my finger to my lips, I silently warned her to stay put, before I move to the end of the porch and looked across the field. 

Everything seems serene and idyllic. Nothing disturbs the horses. Birds sing and chirp. There are no frantic squawks, no eerie silences. But something is off, something just at the peripheral of my awareness, raising an edgy calm before the storm feeling along my nerve endings. 

And it isn't going away.

I glance over my shoulder at her regarding me with unvoiced questions in her eyes. She pulls her shirt back over her shoulder and I sigh.

It’s just as well. The mood was pretty much ruined now anyway.