3
THE WORLD VANISHED, leaving only the sensation of his lips massaging hers. Stroking his tongue along the seam of her lips, he swallowed the hint of her groan as she opened to him. They hadn’t left the patio of the Silver Dollar, but they’d taken a leap forward and he didn’t intend to retreat.
Asking Jules to join him in his hotel room had been a gamble, another in a chain that began with his impulse to stop at the Silver Dollar. Dancing with her had been fun. Talking to her even more so. When her tongue curled against his, and her hand slid up to press against his nape, he cupped her chin and delved deeper.
Sweet and tart. Despite the hint of wine on her lips, he tasted nothing but feminine desire and softness. It seemed a long time since he’d indulged in something as decadent as a long, slow kiss with a woman on a warm, beautiful night. Her breasts crushed against him as he slid an arm around her. Her teeth scraped over his lower lip as she broke the kiss slowly.
“Well . . .” She exhaled, her breath coming in sharp, swift gasps. “It’s nice to meet you, Tanner.”
She had no idea. Dreading the return home coupled with hating his retirement faded to the background. “It’s really nice to meet you too, Jules.” Her tongue glided over her lower lip, moistening it. Riveted to the action, he rubbed his thumb over her pulse. “Still game to leap with me?”
Sliding her palm over his shoulder down to his chest, she didn’t answer right away. If he wasn’t aware of the wild cadence of her heart it might have been cause for concern. “Yes, but would you be offended if I said I didn’t want to walk out with you?”
“Not at all.” He got it. Keeping his voice low, he said, “My truck’s the F-250, parked three spots down from the front door. If you’re not there, no hard feelings.” Except he’d have to deal with the bruise his zipper threatened to leave on his stiff erection.
“Are you sure?” She pressed into him again, not quite grinding against the hard evidence of his arousal.
“Well, he doesn’t have feelings.” He dipped his head and pressed a kiss to a spot behind her ear, then teased his tongue lightly over the shell of her ear before adding, “I promise I won’t have any hard feelings.”
Her husky chuckle stroked over him like a caress. “You’re too good to believe.”
“Oh, you can believe in me. I’m just a simple guy, looking for a good time with a bright, intelligent woman.”
“Boy, you can turn a girl’s head.” Then she rose on her tiptoes and gave him another kiss before withdrawing from his arms. “I’ll see you later.” He caught her hand as she pulled away; she gave his fingers a squeeze. It took willpower not to pursue, and a firm mental reminder. He invited her to have fun, not to have a lifetime commitment. He wasn’t that guy—had never been that guy. His work, his service, and his family had always come first.
Tonight, tonight I can give to Jules. Instead of going inside, she headed down the steps and around the building. Not wanting to keep her waiting, he retrieved her wineglass and his beer bottle as well as his hat. Carrying both inside, he nodded to Sully and peeled off a couple of bills to pay his tab. Letting Jules pay for her wine earlier had taken effort. The bartender collected the cash with raised brows. “Don’t tell me you chased off your dance partner?”
“It’s late.” He kept it light. Durango Point was a small town, and while Jules was new, he wasn’t. Damn familiar with how rumors started, he cut this one off for her. “Time for me to get some beauty sleep.”
The older man let out a bark of laughter. “Boyo, unless you plan on sleeping for a hundred years, you’re doomed.”
“Sometimes it feels that way.” He clasped the offered hand and shook it. “See you next week.” By then, he’d definitely want another beer. Shoving thoughts of his father away, he put his cowboy hat on as he exited the building and headed for his truck. Jules leaned against the passenger door, arms folded and the corners of her lips quirked in a half-amused grin. Despite his earlier assurance of no hard feelings, he was damn glad to find her standing there.
“Need a ride?” he asked while hitting the unlock button on the key fob.
“Funny,” she said, opening the door and setting her purse inside. “I was just going to ask you the same thing.”
A pulse of pure lust ricocheted through his cock and he grinned slowly, catching the door to hold it for her as she settled into the passenger seat. “Jules, nothing would please me more.” With the brighter light from the overhead, he couldn’t miss the way her tank top outlined her peaked nipples. A raw and visceral hunger clawed through him, but he hadn’t had sex in a truck since he’d earned enough to pay for a room. He wanted the time and the space to play with her.
It took him a couple of minutes to drive down the block to the Triple B and find a parking space away from the check-in window. When he left her in the truck, engine running and the air-conditioning on to keep her from getting hot, and didn’t ask if she wanted to join him, a pleased little smile played over her lips. Yeah, he knew how small towns worked. It didn’t matter a damn thing to him if they saw her with him, but she’d made her feelings clear.
He respected them.
The night clerk turned out to be someone he didn’t know. So he avoided any quick interrogations about why he didn’t want to drive out to Round Top. Better, he avoided any awkward reunions. Sully aside, Tanner hadn’t left behind a lot of friends when he enlisted. A deliberate choice on his part—he couldn’t miss what he didn’t have.
Room key in hand, he left the office and found Jules waiting for him a few steps away. “Are we upstairs or down?” She tossed him his car keys, and he grinned. Everything he required for the night led the way up the stairs when he gestured.
“Room 203,” he told her. The hotel had ten rooms, five up and five down.
“That’s a good room.”
“Really?” He followed her. “What makes it a good room?”
She paused at the door, hands clasped behind her back. “It’s a pretty subjective assessment.”
Amused, he unlocked the door and flipped on the light switch. The room smelled clean, with a combination of fresh pine cleaner and sun-warmed linens competing for his attention. Sweeping the room with a glance, he checked the single bed—king-size—then the bathroom as well before turning back toward her, hat in hand. “Most assessments are subjective. Since I asked you, sweetheart, why don’t you tell me what makes it a good room?”
Stepping right up to him, she grabbed his cowboy hat from his hand and tossed it over to the chair. “It starts with you in it.”
Meeting her halfway, he slammed his mouth down on hers and shoved the door closed. He flipped the privacy lock into place before sliding his arms around her. She hitched her thighs to his hips, and he lifted her so neither of them had to strain. He welcomed her hot, thoroughly arousing kiss. The press of her chest to his reminded him of her turgid nipples and he wanted their clothes off.
Fighting the desire to strip her naked and slide into her, he trailed a path of kisses from her mouth to her ear. Her groan reverberated through him as her nails bit into his shoulders. He loved a woman who knew what she wanted. “Anything worth doing,” he murmured gently as he pivoted and lowered her to the bed, “is worth doing well.”
“Yeah?” Her dark hair spilled against the pale comforter. “I get the impression you’re a perfectionist.”
“Not quite.” What some might call overachieving, Marines would call a normal day’s work. Gliding his palms along her jeans, he enjoyed the tactile sensation of the fabric. Enjoyed the idea it would soon be gone even more. “I do like to make sure everyone is satisfied with the arrangements.”
Lips pursed, she rested her head in her hands and studied him. “We’re off to a great start, unless you plan to talk me through my orgasm.”
“That sounds like a challenge, Jules.” He loved the way her name sounded on his tongue. Catching her booted foot, he tugged off the first boot, then the second. “I should warn you, I’m a man who takes challenges seriously.” When she reached for the button of her jeans, he tapped her fingers before replacing them with his own. “You’re the kid who ripped through the packaging at Christmas, aren’t you?”
Rising to her elbows, she tossed her head as though to get the hair out of her eyes. Sultry and delicious, she wore an expression of quiet rebellion. “So what if I was?”
“You still are.” He grinned, loving the rasping click of her zipper descending before he slid his hands into her waistband. “You’re practically trembling with anticipation.”
Her breathing increased, and her pupils seemed to dilate the moment his fingers touched her skin. It was as soft as he imagined. Peeling the denim down with careful precision, he left the white lace panties in place. The barely-there scrap of material demanded a response, but he took his time. Peeling her jeans away, he bared her legs and paused only to press a kiss to each thigh.
“You’re killing me.” The choked words encouraged him as he slipped her socks off to follow the jeans.
“Am I?”
“You know you are.”
Another slow caress along her legs took him to her hips, but he didn’t hook his fingers into her panties. They had to stay on for his sanity, at least until he’d driven her completely mad. Instead, he edged up the bottom of her tank to bare her belly. Smooth skin greeted him and he loved the way her abs contracted as she sucked in a breath. Nudging her shirt up until his fingers were just a millimeter below the lacy cups hiding her breasts from him, he forced himself to pause. “I can stop if it’s bothering you.”
Heat flared in her eyes and she sat up, tugging the tank top off and revealing the strapless lace bra that matched her panties. Pure white, it seemed to glow against her tan skin. She wore tank tops a lot—he could see it from the lines where creamy flesh gave way to deeper bronze. And she was outside a lot.
Blowing out a breath, his gaze fastened on the pebbled nipples peeking up at him, straining against her bra. An eagerness jackhammered at his resolve to extend the play for both of them.
“Don’t you dare.” The demand in her breathless voice hadn’t been there earlier. She slid forward until they were face-to-face, and she went to work on his buttons. “Maybe I was the rip-the-present-open kind of girl and you were the type who had to make sure every piece of tape was slit exactly so the paper didn’t wrinkle . . . but if you stop, we’re going to have a real problem.” The woman was fast. She had his shirt open and his buckle undone before she even finished her sentence.
The contact of her cool hands on his naked flesh had him gasping. Strength and determination marked every movement.
“I wouldn’t say the paper didn’t crinkle.” He cupped her face and kissed her, diving into her mouth for a taste of the sass. Soft and responsive, demanding and giving, she pulled his shirt from his shoulders and forced him to release her to shed the fabric.
She nipped his lip when he paused to strip off his shirt and rose on her knees. He toed off one boot, then the other while she slid his belt free. “I thought you were fit, but you seem to be in even better shape than I imagined.” Appreciation echoed beneath her words.
“Thank you. Your shape is a hell of a lot more attractive,” he said, adoring her athletic figure. The zipper on his jeans went, but he halted her before she could push them down. He’d been flying commando, and the denim was all that stood between his flesh and her hands. “You touch me, babe, and I’m going to come right here. I have my pride, and we have all night.” Excitement powered through him. It hadn’t been a lie. He ached all over to feel her hands on him, to feel her.
“It’s all a matter of perspective.” She stroked her nails lightly over his abdominals and the combination curbed the sharp edge of his desire. They would both benefit from his patience.
He had to abandon her touch long enough to get the jeans off. His cock sprang free, grateful to be released of its confinement. The heat of her gaze added a fresh layer of sensual torture to their interlude, and he tugged his wallet from his jeans before dropping them to the floor. Flipping his wallet open, he drew out a pair of condoms and tossed them on the bed.
She eyed the condoms briefly, then raised her brows at him as she folded her arms. The action pushed her breasts higher above the strapless bra, giving them a sweet swell he couldn’t wait to caress. “I was not that sure a thing.”
“No, ma’am,” he agreed with her, even as her gaze dipped down to study his body then up again. From the flush in her cheeks, she liked what she saw. Indulging himself, he traced the line of her collarbone. “A sure thing implies I was betting on being so lucky as to spending this time with you.”
“Smooth.”
“It’s not a line, Jules.” Why the hell it was so important for her to understand that, he didn’t know. “I stopped at the Silver Dollar to get a beer, not a woman.”
“Hey.” Her teasing smile faded, and she frowned. “I was playing, I didn’t think you showed up to pick up a woman you hadn’t met while passing through town.”
Letting go of the “passing through” comment, he brushed his knuckles along her cheek. She leaned into his touch, and he loved the angle and the access it provided him to the gentle swell of her breasts. Dropping one knee on the bed, he slid his hand around her nape and buried his nose in her hair. Her shampoo had a hint of strawberry. “You smell like summer.”
Summer on the ranch. Open land. Rich grass. Freedom on the back of a horse. Beneath the fruity hints, she was all woman, and her musky scent distinctly feminine. He’d meant to draw it out.
“I need you to be naked.” The words tore out of him. He’d wanted to take their time, play and tease and make it as good as he could for her. But touching her left him starving, a desperate man trapped in the desert too long. He’d meant it when he said she was like the summer. A storm to fill his soul.
Fortunately, his voice didn’t betray how shaken he was nor how his raw desire affected him. The things he wanted to do with her mouth. She stole another kiss and he heard the snap of her bra as it unhooked.
With a toss, she sent the lacy garment off the bed and rocked from her knees to her butt. The motion was smooth and easy. With her thumbs, she hooked the waistband of her panties, then slid them down. He caught the fabric when they hit her thighs and tugged them free and off.
All his blood went south. “You’re perfect.” She was. He hadn’t been wrong about the light layer of her muscles. She had definition along her arms and shoulders. Even her thighs were tight. Her breasts were full and lush, and her hips flared out from her waist. Athletic. Shapely. Gorgeous.
“Hot.” His palms itched to touch her, and for a moment, he wasn’t sure where to begin. His cock throbbed in time with his heart, and he wanted to touch her everywhere.
“Tanner?” she whispered, twining her fingers with his and tugging him forward. “Shut up and kiss me.”
The order of her actions, coupled with the pull of her hand, shattered the last fragment of his resolve. Crushing her to him, he surrendered to the wild demand to have her. Devouring the heat of her kiss, he reveled in the contact of her naked flesh on his. The stroke of her nipples against him electrified his skin. The need to caress, taste, and tease them sent him on a journey of kisses along her jaw, down her throat, and across the swell of one breast until he locked his lips around the dusky peak.
Jules released a low shout as she raked her nails across his scalp. The motion sent shivers along his spine, and she arched her back as though desperate to close whatever phantom distance existed between them. God, she was so perfect. The exquisite softness of her breasts was made for squeezing, teasing, and caressing. Trailing kisses to her neglected nipple, he couldn’t get enough of her.
Brushing his fingers across her abdomen, he dared a glance at her face. Her muscles rippled beneath the contact, her thighs tightened against his hips as he eased her legs apart to make himself a space. She bit her lower lip, then looked at him as she stroked a foot down his back.
“Later,” he whispered against her flesh. “I’m going to explore every part of you.” He would. If it took him all night, he would indulge himself. He followed the path of his fingers, kissing across her abdomen as he slid down her body. The need to take her warred with the need to know her, so he promised himself one long, carnal kiss. One taste, before they lost all reason. Jules didn’t help his self-control; the soft sounds were so without artifice. She threatened to drive him mad.
The moment he slid his tongue along the seam of her sex, her gasp choked off into a cry and his rationale evaporated. He gripped her hips as he delved deeper, kissing her sweet mound and delving against her entrance with the same passion he’d taken into her mouth. When he grazed his teeth across the taut bundle of nerves, she let out a scream and pounded her fists against the bed. Drunk on her release, he straightened and reached for a condom.
Sheathing himself, he smiled at the half-closed state of her eyelids and how pleasure suffused her face deep pink. The flush spread across her breasts. The passion-drenched moment sent another pulse of pure energy along his spine.
Unable to stay away from her a moment longer, he slid back onto the bed and into her arms. She welcomed his kiss and he poured into it all the long years of absence and loneliness he hadn’t been aware of until the moment her laughter washed over him. Craving more, he gripped her hair. Then her hand closed around his erection and he shivered as she stroked his tip along her sex.
Bracing a hand against the bed, he lifted his head and watched her as she guided him to her entrance. He didn’t want to miss a moment. A lift of her hips welcomed him and he surged into her slick heat. They gasped together. She was so tight, and he fought to regain some control, to slow down. He didn’t want to hurt her.
Locking her legs around his hips, she stole his balance and he slammed home. The quiver began in him and seemed to quake through her. Then her arms were around him and his mouth fused to hers as they found their rhythm. It was rough, raw, and primal. The friction of his skin sliding against hers shredded his sanity. Fighting to keep his strokes deep and even, he varied them. If he could extend her pleasure, he wanted to see her come again.
For him.
Her tongue tangled with his, her nails dug into his back, and every squeeze of her thighs seemed to drag him deeper. When she tensed around him and her sex clamped down on him, he wanted to hold off his climax, but it shocked him with its intensity. It shattered over him like a tornado touching ground and destroying everything in its path.
Spent, he collapsed and buried his face against her throat. How long they lay like that he had no idea, but then she stroked a hand over his head and her words seemed to penetrate the hedonistic haze enveloping him.
“Nice ride, cowboy,” she whispered.
Laughter welled inside of him. “Give us a bit of a breather, sweetheart, and we can saddle this bronco again.”
“Saddle?” So much teasing wound in the single word. Then she locked her legs on him and twisted. One moment he sprawled across her, the next he lay on his back and stared up at the beautiful woman above him. “I don’t need a saddle to ride you, bad boy.”
Damn if he hadn’t been right the first time. She was perfect.