Chapter Eleven
After the hearty dinner of beef stew Liv provided, Ghost gave T-Rex and Sierra a ride back to Grizzly Pass and dropped them at T-Rex’s truck at the fairgrounds. From there, T-Rex drove Sierra back to the bed-and-breakfast.
He used his key to open the front entrance. Low lights were left on in the hallway and the front living space for those guests returning late or wanting to relax in front of the dying embers in the fireplace.
Sierra passed the living area and climbed the stairs slowly, trailing her hand along the banister. She had to be bone tired after the stress of the afternoon. How many women held up so well after surviving a helicopter crash landing, being shot at and attacked by a man intent on killing her?
T-Rex was surprised and proud of how well she’d handled herself. He chuckled every time he remembered the image of her standing over that bad guy with a big rock in her hand. The woman had gumption.
When they reached her room, she paused and turned toward him. “Thanks again for saving me today.”
“I think you have that backward. I should be thanking you.”
She smiled. “I guess we could call it even.”
He cupped her cheek in his hand. “You are an amazing woman.”
She leaned into his palm and closed her eyes. “No, I’m an ordinary woman who did what she had to do in the face of adversity.”
“You have your opinion, and I have mine.” He brushed his thumb across her lips. “And right now, I want to kiss you so badly I can’t resist. Tell me no and I’ll leave you alone.”
Sierra opened her eyes and stared up into his. “I’m not saying no.” Her voice came out in a breathy whisper. She laid her hand on his chest and leaned up on her toes, lifting her chin.
T-Rex had no choice but to kiss those full, luscious lips. He couldn’t have resisted had he tried.
His mouth crashed down on hers, and he brought his hands to her hips, pulling her close.
She parted her lips and met his tongue as he thrust inside her mouth.
T-Rex had never felt such an intense need to take this woman, to touch every part of her body and bury himself inside her. He caressed her tongue with his, twisting, sliding and loving the lingering taste of hot cocoa.
Her hands slid up his chest and around the back of his neck. Her calf circled his, and she pressed her sex against his thigh.
T-Rex groaned and ran his fingers up her back, buried them in her hair and tugged gently, pulling her head back. Then he left her mouth to trail kisses down the long, smooth line of her throat. Sweet beauty, her skin was so soft.
When he reached the rise of her collarbone, he paused and lifted his head to breathe and slow his pulse. That little pause allowed his brain to catch up and remind him who he was and who she was.
He was a marine, destined to return to his unit and deploy.
Sierra was a beautiful, desirable woman who’d been abused by her ex-husband. She deserved a man who would be there for her every day. A man who would shower her with the tender, loving care she so desperately deserved.
He wasn’t that man.
He dropped his hands to his side and stepped away. “I can’t do this.”
She blinked her eyes open and stared up at him. “Did I do something wrong?”
He shook his head, every instinct telling him to take her into his arms and make sweet love to her through the rest of the night. But his brain couldn’t allow it. “I’m not the right guy for you, darlin’. You deserve so much better.”
“I don’t want better,” she said, closing the gap he’d put between them. “I want you.” When she raised her hands to touch him, he grabbed them and held them away.
“I can only take so much. If we continue along this path, I won’t be able to stop.”
She smiled and shook her head. “I don’t want you to stop.”
“I could be gone tomorrow,” he reminded her.
“Either one of us could have been gone today.” She inhaled deeply and let it out. “Look, if it makes you feel better, I’m not looking for commitment. It’s just that I don’t want to spend the night alone. Not after all that happened today. You’ve been with me all day. Please.” She held out her hand. “Don’t leave me now.”
He stared at her face and then down at her hand, and felt the walls of his resistance crumbling around him.
Finally, he took her hand. “I don’t want you to regret what could happen between us tonight.”
“I’ll regret it more if we don’t have this one night together.” She lifted his hand to her cheek and gave him a soft, sexy smile that turned his knees to butter. “I need a shower. So do you.” She didn’t say more, just led him into the shared bathroom and closed the door behind them.
Once inside, she turned the handle on the shower faucet, tested the heat and then faced him. Her cheeks were pink, and she was chewing on her lip.
“I’ve never seduced a man before.” She ran her fingers down the front of his shirt, pushing the buttons loose as she went. “I haven’t been on a date since high school.”
T-Rex dragged in a shaky breath and let it out. “You must be doing something right because I’m so turned on right now I can barely see straight.”
She laughed softly and tugged his shirt loose from his waistband. “Seeing straight isn’t a requirement tonight. In fact, it might be a detractor.”
When she reached for the button on his jeans, he put his hand over hers, stopping her there.
Sierra glanced up, wide-eyed. “What?”
He squeezed her hands gently. “Wait.” He pulled his wallet from his back pocket and extracted two foil packets.
She smiled and shook her head. “I’m clean of any STDs and I can’t get pregnant. But you’re way ahead of me. I didn’t even think about protection.”
“For you more than for me. If there’s even a chance of getting you pregnant, I wouldn’t want to leave you to manage on your own.”
She muttered something that sounded like I’d take my chances.
“What did you say?” he asked.
“I was married for seven years and never got pregnant. It won’t happen now. But I’m all for protection.” She reached for his button again, worked it loose and then slid the zipper downward, taking her sweet time.
T-Rex gritted his teeth, ready to rip off his clothes and hers. But he didn’t want to frighten her. She’d been through enough with her ex-husband. Being a Neanderthal now would only reinforce all men were like Ellis. And he was nothing like her ex-husband. He cared enough about the women he had sex with to see to their satisfaction before his own.
But Sierra was testing his ability to hold back. When her knuckles brushed across his erection, he nearly came unglued. He captured her wrists in his and raised them above her head. Then he reached for the hem of her shirt, dragged it up over her head and tossed it on the counter.
She wore a lacy pink bra that framed her breasts beautifully. Unfortunately, it had to go in order for him to access the nipples beneath, puckering into tight little peaks.
Reaching behind her, he fumbled with the hooks. And fumbled some more. He couldn’t seem to get the hooks to release. “I’m sorry. I’m way out of practice.”
She laughed, tucked her arm up behind her back and slipped the hooks free. But she didn’t remove the garment. Instead she cocked her brow.
T-Rex took it from there and slipped the straps from her arm, freeing her breasts. They spilled out and bounced a little in the process.
T-Rex cupped the rounded orbs in his palms and lifted as if weighing them. “Beautiful.”
Sierra pressed her hands to the backs of his and inhaled, pushing deeper into his hold. “If we don’t hurry, the water will get cold before we get in.”
In seconds they were both naked and in the shower, laughing.
“Shh.” Sierra pressed a finger to T-Rex’s lips. He promptly sucked it into his mouth and bit down gently before releasing it.
“We can’t have our landlady coming up to check on all the commotion,” he said.
“No.” Sierra leaned up on her toes and pressed her lips to his. “We can’t,” she said into his mouth.
T-Rex’s laughter ended and his hunger built. He drew her body against his and stepped under the shower’s spray, letting it run over them both.
Sierra squirted body wash liquid into her hand and ran it over his shoulders and across his chest, rubbing until lather built and ran down his torso.
He returned the gesture, running his hands over the swells of her breasts, down to her narrow waist and across the flare of her hips. Then he bent to kiss one of her nipples, rolling the tip between his teeth.
Her back arched, pressing more of her into his mouth. He took it, sucking her breast, flicking the tip with his tongue until she moaned and dug her fingers into his hair and held him even closer.
When he’d had his fill of one side, he switched his attention to the other.
Sierra moaned and ran her leg up the back of his, rubbing her sex against his thigh.
“What did I do with those packets?” he asked, his voice as tight as his body.
She fished one out of the soap dish, tore it open and rolled it down over him, taking her time.
T-Rex growled and finished the job. Then he ran his hand over her buttocks and scooped her up by the backs of her thighs, wrapping her legs around his waist. Pressing her against the slick tiles of the shower wall, he kissed her hard, sliding his tongue into her mouth as his erection nudged her opening.
He lifted his head, dragging in a lungful of steadying air. “Tell me no now, if that’s what you want.”
“You’re kidding, right?” Sierra shook her head and eased her body downward, taking him inside her. “I want you. Please, don’t stop now.”
Her channel welcomed him, wet, warm and tight around him.
He eased into her slowly, all the way, giving her time to adjust to his girth. Once he was buried to the hilt, he asked, “Are you all right?”
“Oh, my,” she said, her voice hitching. “More than all right. More, please.”
He chuckled and pulled almost all the way out before reversing the direction.
“Harder,” she whispered, wrapping her arms around his neck and tightening her legs around his waist. “Faster,” she urged.
He thrust into her again and again, establishing a rhythm as ancient as time. But he held back, refusing to release. He wanted her with him when he did.
As the water grew colder, T-Rex steeled himself to withdraw and set Sierra on her feet.
“What? Why did you stop? I was almost there,” she cried.
“I want you to enjoy this as much as I do,” he said.
“I am,” she said.
Still he rinsed them both, turned off the water and led her out of the tub onto the bath mat. With a warm, fluffy towel, he rubbed her skin dry.
Sierra returned the favor, lingering over his stiff erection. When she was done, she wrapped her towel around her body, while he wrapped his around his waist.
She took his hand and opened the door, poking her head out. “The coast is clear.”
“My room or yours?” he asked.
“I don’t care as long as we get there quickly.” Tightening her hold on his fingers, she ran across the hall and pushed into her bedroom, dragging him in behind her.
T-Rex closed the door and twisted the lock. “Now I can show you how a lady should be made love to.”
“I was counting on that,” she said with a smile and let the towel around her drop to the floor.
* * *
SIERRA WATCHED AS T-Rex released his hold on his towel and the soft terry cloth fell, exposing the man’s magnificent shaft, jutting out in front of him.
When he’d been inside her, she could barely breathe, he was so thick and...and...sweet love, he was so big. She couldn’t wait to have him back inside her, filling that empty place she hadn’t known ached for a man like him.
Taking his hand, she backed toward the bed. When the backs of her legs bumped into the mattress, she smiled. Oh, yes. This would be a night she’d remember for a very long time. She didn’t want to waste a moment of it.
About to scoot her bottom up onto the bed, she was surprised when T-Rex swung her legs out from under her and laid her on the mattress.
She laughed. “I was getting there.”
He stepped between her legs and leaned down to capture her earlobe between his teeth. “I know. But you were taking too long. I have plans for you.”
She widened her legs and leaned back on her elbows. “Plans? Sounds tempting.” Sierra lowered her eyelids to half-mast, her heart pounding at the deep, sexy way he was talking. What could be more exciting than what he’d already done to her in the shower?
T-Rex dragged his lips across her chin to capture her mouth, sliding his tongue alongside hers in a slow, arousing caress. He didn’t pause long, working his way down the column of her throat to the pulse beating wildly at the base of her neck.
She slid her hands over his impossibly broad shoulders, amazed at how hard the muscles were beneath his taut skin. Every move he made flexed them and made her want to touch his body all over.
T-Rex captured one of her breasts between his lips and rolled the tip until it hardened into a tight little bead. Then he moved to the other and lavished his attention on it.
Sierra arched off the bed, pressing her breast deeper into his mouth. He sucked hard on it and let go, trailing his mouth down her torso, alternately kissing, nipping and tonguing her skin as he moved lower. When he reached the tuft of hair over her sex, he paused to look up at her.
She felt as if she were perched on the edge of a precipice, waiting for him to draw her over.
He touched her entrance with the tip of his finger, sliding it into the warm, wet channel. Then he dragged it upward, parted her folds and slathered that little nubbin of flesh that held the key to her ultimate release. Swirling, stroking and flicking, he toyed with her until she was a writhing, moaning animal, twisting in the sheets.
If that wasn’t enough to make her crazed with lust, he bent his head to her and flicked her with his tongue. There. In that very special place.
Sierra dug her heels into the mattress and came up off the bed, crying out, “Rex!”
He chuckled. “Like that?”
“Oh, my. Oh, my. Oh, my,” she said, unable to form more coherent words when every nerve in her body was on fire with need. “Yes!”
Then he flicked her again and sucked her nubbin into his mouth, tonguing it over and over.
Sierra catapulted into the stratosphere, the tingling sensation graduating into lightning bolting through her from the molten core of her being to the very tips of her fingers.
As she rode the wave, she almost wanted to cry. This was right in so many ways. What T-Rex was doing to her was how it should always have been.
Before she came down from the incredibly beautiful high, she tugged on T-Rex’s hair, urging him to come up her body and join her in the most intense pleasure she’d ever experienced.
He crawled up and settled between her legs. Then he kissed her and thrust deep inside her, filling her to full, prolonging her release to match his.
Again and again he thrust, until his body tensed, he thrust one last time and buried himself in her channel. His shaft throbbed inside her. He threw back his head and clenched his teeth so tightly his jaw twitched.
After a long, exquisite moment, Sierra floated back to earth.
T-Rex dropped down on top of her and rolled them both to their sides, his arms around her, pulling her close. He stroked her hair silently and held her until his breathing returned to normal.
Sierra burrowed into his muscular body and rested her hand on his chest. She’d promised not to expect commitment from him. But she couldn’t imagine going through life without ever doing that again. The man could have ruined her for all others.