The Heir

by Joanne Rock

  She laughed until it occurred to her maybe bears could be up there. Wrapping her arms around herself, she scanned the place again, looking for signs of movement around the open deck on the lower level.

  “That’s not such a bad idea.” She hurried to keep up with him as they crossed the soft bed of pine needles, the snow cover thin beneath the trees. “Don’t you have a lot of wild animals in Montana? My father might have raised me with an appreciation of the natural world, but I’m still more of a city girl at heart.”

  “Mesa Falls has worked hard to bring back more of the animal population with our conservation efforts, so we’re proud of the fact that there are more wild animals here than ten years ago.” He waited for her at the base of the cedar stairs, the wind ruffling his dark hair. With the high color in his cheeks from the outdoor air, he looked at home here. More relaxed.

  And very appealing.

  Her heart thrummed faster as she reached his side to peer up into his gray eyes. “Don’t wild animals bother the cattle?”

  A grin pulled at his lips. “The elk and antelope can peacefully coexist with ranch animals. But I’ll go make sure there are no wolves waiting for you up here.”

  Her gaze tracked his progress, lingering on the way denim hugged his thighs as he climbed. Her pulse fluttered at the thought of being alone with him again, even as she reminded herself that she should be on guard around him. All the reminding in the world wasn’t easing the magnetic draw of the man.

  When they reached the lower level with the open deck, she saw the small table and chairs that would be perfect for an outdoor meal. Yet Desmond didn’t pause there. Rounding a corner, he continued up the next flight of stairs toward the main building. The scents of cedar and pine permeated the air until they reached the front door, where he entered a code into a security panel.

  “You can’t possibly have electricity out here,” she exclaimed, glancing around from her higher vantage point to see if there were other buildings close by. But even up here, she could only see more trees.

  “I assure you, I do.” Opening the front door, he stood back to admit her. “It cost a small fortune to run the underground cable out there, but this way if we ever want to rent out the space to guests, we’ll have the option.”

  She stepped into a miniature living room, complete with hardwood floor and a small wood stove built against a river-stone hearth. A low leather sofa sat before it, with an antique steamer chest for a cocktail table. Behind the living area, a small kitchen with a two-burner cooktop and wet bar area was partially surrounded by a countertop with three wooden stools.

  A heavy chandelier hung over it all, drawing her attention up to the high ceiling, where a ladder led to a loft bed that looked out the dormer window she’d seen from outside.

  But on the main floor, to one side, she saw the hall that must lead to the second building built to resemble a gatehouse. Through the open door, she could see a larger bedroom with what looked like a queen-size bed, and a connected bath area.

  Her attention returned to the bed, heat streaking through her. Momentarily robbing her of her voice.

  Thankfully, Desmond continued to speak as he closed the door behind him. “We’d need to convert the wood stove to a gas model if we let guests stay here. But for now, I prefer a real wood fire.” He lowered the picnic hamper to the counter in the kitchen and strode the few steps to the cast iron unit, where he tossed in a few logs and some kindling from a nearby basket.

  Shaking herself out of her inappropriate thoughts about testing the bed, Nicole’s cheeks heated as she darted toward the food he’d brought.

  “Guests would love to stay here. Especially kids. There’s something so fanciful about the design.” Peeling off the lined canvas jacket she’d borrowed from Desmond, she pulled things out of the hamper in a hurry, needing to redirect her brain. A variety of sandwiches were individually wrapped and neatly labeled. There was also a fruit plate and a large bottle of sparkling water. She found glassware in a cabinet under the counter, then poured water for both of them. “Matthew would think this was the coolest thing ever.”

  Desmond was quiet for a moment while he struck a match to light a twisted mound of kindling.

  Then she recalled their exchange back at his house had been about Matthew—about whether or not they’d be able to prove the boy’s relationship to Zach Eldridge. Would she ever bring Matthew here if he was related to Desmond’s friend, knowing what a strong allegiance Desmond felt for his long-ago roommate? Or would she refuse to bring Matthew precisely because the Mesa Falls partners might use their wealth and influence to interfere in her guardianship? She was only just beginning to know Desmond. And she didn’t know his friends at all.

  Lost in a tangle of worries, she hadn’t heard Desmond approach until he suddenly covered her hand with his. The warmth of that simple gesture called her from the swirl of questions she couldn’t answer. It seemed like all she’d done was worry since her sister’s death. For this one moment, with Desmond’s hand on hers, she couldn’t help but feel a comfort that—right now, at least—she wasn’t alone.

  “Nicole?” He stood close to her in the small kitchen, his big body taking up all the room.

  Or maybe just all her thoughts.

  His grip tightened ever so slightly on the back of her hand, the touch reassuring and inciting at the same time. With just that one simple contact, she remembered the way he’d kissed her back at his house. Like he couldn’t get enough of her.

  How ironic they’d ridden all this way to escape the intimacy, only to dive right back into it at the slightest touch. Clearing her throat, she tried to make an answer.

  “I’m—” Drowning in desire. She couldn’t tell him that, though. She waited for her brain to start working again, to think about anything else besides memories of his mouth on hers.

  His smoke-colored eyes darkened as he seemed to read her thoughts. His nostrils flared, his chest rising and falling harder, as if he’d been running.

  “I assure you, I am, too,” he muttered under his breath, skimming a hand along her cheek to cup her face and turn it up to his. He tunneled his fingers into her hair, lifting it from her back and twisting the length around his hand. “Whatever you’re feeling right now, I’m so right there with you.”

  Her scalp tingled from his touch. Her skin was suddenly too tight. A wicked heat curled through her belly, pooling deep inside her. She pulled in a sharp breath that tasted like wood smoke and Desmond. She remembered all too well the flavor of his kiss. Her gaze dipped to his mouth, longing thick in her veins.

  “How did you know what I was thinking?” she asked, her fingers trailing up the front of the fitted olive-green Henley he wore, her touch dipping and rising along a roller coaster of hard-muscled ridges until she splayed her palm on his broad, warm chest.

  “I didn’t.” His free hand curved around her waist, his fingers skimming her back while his thumb rode the waistband of her jeans just below the hem of her sweater. It circled the spot idly. “I just felt the temperature spike in the room when you looked at me.”

  Her throat was too dry to answer. She was out of her depth with him. She only knew she needed his kiss.

  But he didn’t close the rest of the slight distance between them, even though the heat kept rising. Confusion clouded her thoughts.

  “Desmond.” Her hand fisted in his shirt. Restless. Needy. “Please.”

  He tipped his forehead to hers, his skin even hotter than hers.

  “Please what, Nicole,” he urged her, lowering his lips to her ear to speak directly into it. “Just tell me what you want. I need the words.”

  The huff of his breath on her sensitized skin sent a shiver trembling through her. She canted toward him, her breasts brushing the solid wall of his chest in a way that sent pleasure streaking through her.

  “Kiss me,” she demanded, unable to think of anything else
. “Kiss me again like you can’t get enough.”

  Six

  Nicole suspected she’d lost her mind along with her tenuous control, hardly recognizing the sultry command in her voice.

  But she couldn’t regret it. Not when Desmond edged back to look at her and she caught the moment that his gray eyes turned molten silver before lowering to fix on her mouth. One hand cupped the curve of her hip, the other settling on the back of her head to pull her to him. Then she sank into him.

  His lips molded to hers, teasing and tasting. Exploring hers like new, uncharted terrain. Sensation fluttered in her belly, her fingers twisting in the fabric of his cotton shirt as if she could pull him any closer. Then he nipped her lower lip, sending pleasure arrowing through her while she gasped at the feel of his teeth. He licked the spot, soothing the sweet sting before his tongue slid inside her.

  And she was lost.

  She disappeared in that kiss, her mouth the center of a deep longing she hadn’t known existed until he took his place there, tilting her head to perfect the angle of their joining. Making her melt. A moan escaped her, a soft, needy whimper she couldn’t have hidden if she’d tried. Her knees went limp, her body trembling with shivers of anticipation. Want.

  Luckily, his arm banded around her waist then or she might have slid to the floor. She couldn’t have held herself up, not with this tumultuous hunger cartwheeling around inside her.

  Desmond’s hold tightened, sealing her hips to his, acquainting her with how much he wanted her. A lot.

  A whole lot.

  She wound her arms around him then, not just to anchor herself, but to ensure his lips remained where she needed them. Although, as heat seared through the rest of her body, there were other parts clamoring for that talented mouth, too. She craved that kiss everywhere, her brain too fevered to consider anything but how good it would feel. She’d been in survival mode so long. Grieving. Hurting.

  She needed this hot forgetting. This burning away of everything else but addictive pleasure. His tongue stroked hers, sucking, demanding more. And she gave. Meeting his thrusts, dueling. When a low groan rumbled through his wide, hard chest, her nipples beaded to tight, aching points.

  He broke the kiss abruptly, but his hands remained on her. The warm huff of his breath tickled her wet lips as he stared down into her eyes.

  “If we keep this up, it’s not going to end at just kissing.” His voice, passion-roughened and deep, vibrated his chest and hers. “Tell me now if you’re not okay with that, Nicole.”

  That he checked in with her was a credit to him. Swallowing hard, she couldn’t find it in herself to put the brakes on an escape she needed. Desperately.

  “I’m...very okay with that.” She gave a jerky nod. Not because she was uncertain. Only because any movement that didn’t involve fanning the flames between them felt awkward. Unnatural. “Just please, don’t stop.”

  Later, maybe she would regret letting the depth of her need show in that hungry plea. But she couldn’t possibly regret accepting the gift of his touch, just this once, when she needed to lose herself.

  * * *

  This. Woman.

  Desmond’s breath whooshed out of his lungs like a wind tunnel, taking any reservation along with it. Nicole might not want to desire him—he’d seen her hesitation in her fast retreat after their kiss earlier—but there was no arguing that she felt the same incendiary attraction that was burning him up from the inside now.

  He would have backed off at the slightest hesitation. But her request was clear. Definite. And he had no intention of denying her when he wanted her every bit as much and more.

  “Nothing would give me more pleasure than fulfilling that request.” Instead of untangling her arms from around his neck—he liked them right there—he bent to lift her, hauling her body higher against his.

  Gripping the backs of her thighs, he wrapped her legs around his waist to carry her to the nearest bed.

  Her hum of approval pleased him almost as much as the warmth of her body where it met his. Every step he took sent mind-numbing friction between them until it took all his restraint not to back her against the nearest wall and take what they both wanted. Instead, his fingers flexed, cupping her hips to hold her steady as he turned sideways to enter the bedroom.

  Don’t stop.

  Her dictate circled in his head, his very own sensual mantra. He had no intention of stopping until her beautiful body came apart in his arms. Until she gasped and clung to him, giving him everything.

  Securing her with one arm, he dragged her creamy-colored sweater up and off her with his other. The sight of her full breasts wrapped in ivory lace would have tempted a saint, which he most definitely was not. He tugged down one strap and then the other, gaze fixed on the swell of her flesh above the cups.

  He used his free hand to trail a finger down the soft valley between her breasts. “I’ve been seeing this spot on the backs of my eyelids every time I close my eyes. Even when I blink.” He lifted his eyes to see her watching him intently, her breathing as shallow and erratic as his. “Ever since you picked up your phone for that video call, all sleep-tousled and sexy as hell, the need to see you that way again has been a fever in me.”

  Gently, he lowered her to the bed, cradling her back as she hit the pillowy white duvet, red hair spilling out to either side. A fantasy come to life.

  “You have an advantage over me, then.” Unlinking her fingers from behind his neck, she skimmed both palms down his chest and then slid cool fingers beneath the hem of his shirt. “You’ve seen more of me than I have of you.”

  Satisfaction vibrated through him that she wanted more, even as her light touch sent a blistering wave of heat over his skin. Both stunned and grateful she’d said yes to this, he wouldn’t question his good fortune. He reached behind him to tug his shirt up and off, grinding his teeth against the surge of need that made him want to sink into her now. But he forced himself to take his time. If this one encounter was all he ever got with Nicole, he would make it memorable.

  But he hadn’t counted on her lifting up to sit on the bed in front of him while he knelt between her thighs. And he sure hadn’t counted on her tongue darting out to lick a path down his naked chest. Because both those things distracted him from his plans for her.

  “Damn.” He breathed the word on a long exhale, hardly daring to move while she worked the fastening on his jeans and lowered the zipper.

  It took every shred of his disintegrating control to move her hand away from him before she stroked him through the cotton of his boxers. Especially with her lips still gliding damp kisses just below his hip. But he captured her fingers and somehow managed to lever himself off the bed.

  “Don’t move,” he warned her, laying a kiss on her sexy auburn waves. “I need to find protection for us.”

  Charging into the small bath area off the bedroom, he hoped like hell there were condoms in there. He’d had a housekeeping service refresh the tree house before his visit, and he knew there were fresh towels and sheets. But he couldn’t recall what he would have ordered for personal supplies. His eyes landed on a package. Seizing the box, he scanned for an expiration date, hoping against hope.

  And...yes. Still good.

  Packet in hand, he returned to the bed, weaving around an actual limb of the maple tree that grew up through the room. Then, catching sight of Nicole, he almost swallowed his tongue.

  Her back to him, she stood by the bed, her hips in midshimmy to ease off the gray denim jeans she wore. An ivory-colored lace thong graced the curve of her hip, the fabric covering little and firing the need to have her under him. Over him. All around him.

  “Let me.” He set the condom on the bed and took pleasure in dragging the denim down her thighs.

  She steadied herself on his shoulders, the silken fall of her hair brushing his back when he leaned down. On his way back up, he kissed the
skin just inside her hip, inhaling the fragrance of coconut soap or maybe something she used on her skin. She smelled delicious, and damned if he didn’t want to eat her all up.

  But she pushed him back onto the mattress and he let himself fall, mesmerized by the sight of her taking control over him.

  “It’s been a long time for me,” she murmured in his ear, her breasts grazing his chest as she reached for the condom on the bed near him. “I need...this. You.”

  “Then I should help,” he reasoned aloud, wrapping her in his arms and reversing their positions. “For expedience’s sake. I’m not sure I can keep it together if you’re the one to put that condom on me. It’s been a while for me, too.”

  Just the thought of her hands on him that way was enough to send a tremor through his muscles. He stripped off the rest of his clothes, mindful of her avid gaze, and rolled on the condom without delay. He left her panties in place while he joined her on the bed, though, dragging a knuckle down the center of them, gratified to find her every bit as ready as he was.

  Still, he couldn’t forget what she’d said about it being a long time since she’d been with anyone. He would make certain this felt good for her. Better than good. The need to imprint himself on her memory shouldn’t have been so imperative, yet he couldn’t deny it.

  “Desmond.” She gripped his wrist, steering him, her breathing faster. Edgy.

  “Trust me,” he said into her ear, slipping his fingers beneath the lace and watching her expression in the gilded touch of sun streaming through a high window. “I know exactly where I’m going.”

  She let go of him then. Both with her fingers and with the rest of her body. Relaxing a fraction, she bit her lower lip, her eyelids fluttering as he found the touches she liked most. He kissed her cheek, and her lips parted on a breathy moan. She was so unbelievably sexy.

  Levering up on his elbow, he freed the clasp on the front of her lace bra, and the fabric fell away from her full breasts. He drew on one rosy nipple, suckling her, and her back arched off the bed. He switched to the other breast and slid his finger inside her. Her muscles spasmed hard around him while she cried out. Stroking, he drew it out for as long as he could, relishing every sweet shudder of her body. When she finally settled, he drew the lace thong down her legs and off.