by Nan Ryan
Angie let her eyes slide suggestively down the bare male length of him, and began unbuttoning the tight bodice of her wool dress. “You never fail to amuse me, Pecos McClain,” she said huskily, and swayed provocatively nearer to the bed.
“If you’ll just step a little closer, miss, I’ll amaze as well as amuse you.” He winked at her and let his smoky-eyed gaze drop to her breasts.
Angie stepped over Pecos’s discarded shirt and trousers. His heavy wool jacket had been tossed across the back of a chair. On the marble night table by her bed, the soiled Stetson rested. “You aren’t too neat, are you, Mr. McClain?”
Pecos laughed. “Come here and let’s do the same thing with your clothes.” He held out a long arm.
Angie reached the bed, leaned over, put a hand into his hair and gave his mouth a kiss. “I love you,” she whispered, her need for him quickly escalating.
“Me, too,” he said and eagerly worked at the buttons of her dress. In seconds she was standing beside the bed naked, smiling seductively at him while she slowly unpinned her long golden hair and shook her head, letting the thick shiny locks cascade around her bare white shoulders and back. She made a move to get into the bed with him; Pecos stopped her.
“Wait, darlin’.” He put a hand to her slender waist.
“What is it?”
Pecos grinned, reached out, plucked his Stetson from the night table and placed it on her head.
Angie’s eyes lifted to the hat riding low on her forehead. “I’m afraid I don’t understand, darling.”
Pecos laughed loudly, put his hands to her waist and deftly lifted her astraddle him. The sight of his beautiful blond lover seated naked astride him, her flaxen hair spilling from under his hat, took the laughter from his lips. A heated look came into his eyes as he expertly eased Angie up, then back down, fitting their bodies together in the physical expression of love.
Chapter Thirty-One
WHEN ANGIE CAME DOWN with a severe case of the sniffles the next day, she was introduced, once again, to a different Pecos McClain. At dawn she awakened her sleeping lover and sweetly told him that he would have to go to his room, that she was feeling feverish.
“My darling,” he murmured sleepily against her warm forehead, and he slid from the bed. His worried eyes on her face, he hunched into his trousers and hurriedly built up the fire. He came back to her side, grabbing for her small hand. “I’m going to wake Delores, she’ll know what to do.”
“No!” She clutched at his lean hand. “Pecos, it’s not yet daylight. If you wake her and tell her I’m ill, she will know that …”
“She’ll know that I love you and I’m worried about you.” He leaned down to place her hand back under the covers and tuck the warm comforter firmly beneath her chin. “Be back in five minutes.” He lit the lamp by the bed, pulled on his shirt and boots and hurried away.
Her teeth beginning to chatter and chills shaking her aching body, Angie balled up into a fetal position, wishing she’d not sent Pecos from her bed. She needed his body heat. Soon he was back, his dark hair disheveled, concern in his big gray eyes. Behind him, Delores, one long dark plait of hair draped over her robed shoulder, hurried to the bed.
“Ah, señora, you catch a bad cold.” She sat beside Angie and placed her fleshy hand on the girl’s hot forehead. “You stay out in the snow too long, I think.”
Pecos, standing over her, asked impatiently, “What can you do for her? Will she be all right?”
Angie smiled. She was recalling their naked romp in the snow, Pecos wearing only his boots. She was sure that was how she’d caught cold. It had been worth it.
“I will fix a hot toddy for her,” Delores told Pecos. “You keep the fire built high. She needs a lot of rest.” Delores pulled the lapels of her robe together and started for the door. Her dark eyes flashing, she turned and looked at the tall, worried man standing over the bed. “Pecos, she needs bed rest for several days.”
Pecos, gingerly taking a seat on the bed facing Angie, gently stroked the blond hair back from her burning face. Without looking up, he said, “Delores, I heard you the first time. She needs to be in bed. That’s where she is.”
Delores cleared her throat. “Alone!” She jerked the door open and slipped out into the hall muttering to herself in Spanish.
Pecos grinned, and leaning down to kiss Angie’s dry lips, whispered. “That woman is never fooled.”
Pecos stayed out of Angie’s bed that day, but he spent every hour beside it. Clucking over her like an old mother hen, he fussed with the bedcovers, rubbed aching arms and legs and saw to it she didn’t get out of bed. At mealtime, Delores brought bland food on a tray and Pecos made Angie eat every bite. In the long winter afternoon, he’d read to her and when she dozed off, he’d quietly close the book, longing to crawl into the soft bed beside her. At night, when the meddling Delores was out of his hair, Pecos stripped and climbed into Angie’s bed. He carefully kept his ardent nature in check, doing nothing more than holding her close in his arms while she slept.
For both Angie and Pecos it was wonderful and worrisome. To sleep in each other’s arms was glorious indeed, but to hold back the passions their touching, naked bodies inspired, was agonizing. Pecos hardly slept at all. Hour upon hour he lay awake watching the lovely, ailing girl sleep, longing to feed his gnawing hunger and bury himself deep within her.
On the third night, Angie awoke at three in the morning. Shocked to see Pecos wide awake and looking at her, she smiled and gave his full mouth a kiss.
“Hi.”
“Hi, darlin’, how you feeling?” He drew her closer.
“I think I’m just about well,” she said as she yawned and put her fingers into the thick, dark hair at the back of his head. “Know what I’d like more than anything?”
“If it’s in my power to get it for you, it’s yours.”
Angie smiled and nuzzled his chest. “I want to take a bath right now. I feel all … I don’t know, I …”
“Stay right where you are,” he whispered and bounded out of bed. Angie giggled when he returned and, stripping down the covers, bent and picked her up. Kissing her playfully, he carried her into the big, warm bathroom. A tub filled almost to the rim with soapy bubbles awaited her, and she sighed her satisfaction when he gently lowered her into it. Without waiting for an invitation he stepped into the huge tub and did some sighing of his own. Soon they were laughing and soaping each other’s slippery bodies. They played in the bath for a long, lovely time, and when they rose they wrapped each other in thirsty white towels and ran back into the bedroom to dry their wet bodies in front of the fire.
“Just hold still,” Pecos commanded as he fell to his knees in front of Angie. While she stood with her back to the flames, her perfect little body shimmering in the fire’s glow, Pecos tenderly dried her, instructing her to “lift your arms, now turn this way, put your foot on my knee.” As he blotted gently at her soft white body his passion grew.
Angie was dry at last. Pecos dropped the towel and put his hands to her small waist. Kneeling in front of her, he pulled her to him and rubbed his face against her stomach, while she clasped his head and sighed. From above she whispered sweetly, seductively, “Pecos, my love, I’m well.”
Pecos kissed the slight hollow above her hipbone. “Are you sure, sweetheart?”
“Yes,” she breathed, bending to kiss the top of his head, her heart beginning to beat erratically.
Pecos lifted his head to look at her. “Then when can I love you again?” His voice was hoarse with need.
Angie smiled and slowly slid to her knees opposite him. She put her hands on his chest. With a forefinger she began to trace the long white scar down his side. Pecos trembled and pulled her closer. She slipped her arms over his wide shoulders as her warm breasts flattened against his damp, hard chest. Pecos’s hands were at her waist; slowly they slid downward, cupping her rounded hips. He urged her body closer and Angie sighed. Against her quivering belly, the hard, heated evidence of h
is arousal throbbed demandingly.
Pecos’s mouth came down on hers. Both were eager. The first kiss was deep, his tongue seeking, thrusting, intent on tasting all her sweetness. While he kissed her, Pecos put a hand behind them and lowered himself to the floor, taking Angie with him. By the time the hot kiss was over they were lying on the thick rug in front of the fire, their bodies pressed together, insisting on fulfillment.
Pecos’s open mouth slid to Angie’s throat; a lean brown hand eagerly went between her legs. His fiery fingers found her sweetness, dewy with need. Pecos groaned and shifted. They came together there in the firelight, sighing and murmuring words of love, the mating all the better for their three-day denial.
“I … I’d forgotten how wonderful …” Angie panted breathlessly.
“Me too, me too,” he ground out through hardened lips. “Oh, dear God, I can’t … I’m … honey … honey.”
Back in bed, Angie fell asleep almost immediately. Pecos sighed with contentment, then he too slept. It was not two hours later that he awakened. He looked at the lovely sleeping face beside his on the pillow and knew what he wanted, what he had to do to her. Silently he slipped from the bed, crossed the room and built up the dying fire. The room had grown cold; very cold. Pecos got back into bed and patiently waited until the flames were shooting high up the chimney and the big room was again warm and toasty. Only then did he lean over Angie’s sleeping face and kiss her lips.
With his tongue he parted them, helping himself to the warm, dark recesses behind her teeth. Angie’s eyes remained closed, but her little wet mouth responded. He pulled back and smiled. She mumbled, “I love you, but I’m so sleepy.”
“I know you are, darling,” he whispered, feathering warm kisses over her face. “You don’t have to do a thing. Just lie there resting and let me love you.”
“Umm,” she sighed and snuggled deeper into the soft mattress, her eyes still closed. In seconds she was again asleep. Pecos, his weight supported on one elbow, lay looking at her. When he was certain that the room was healthfully warm, he slowly but surely peeled the covers down from their bare bodies, not stopping until all the bedclothes rested beneath their feet. He then turned back to Angie. She lay on her back. One slender arm was bent upward, its open palm resting beside her face on the pillow.
Thinking idly that he could spend the rest of his life just looking at this naked, sleeping girl, he smiled and knew that was foolish for already he was aching to touch, to taste. His lips went to hers again. Gently he brushed a warm mouth to her open lips. She was asleep. He moved across to her ear. Nibbling gently on the lobe, he smiled when she shuddered in her slumber. His mouth slid down her neck to her throat, tracing the warm flesh. Angie’s eyelids fluttered briefly. Pecos continued to slowly explore, to enjoy. His mouth nuzzled her warm underarm. Angie’s eyes slowly opened.
Unaware she’d awakened, Pecos moved his lips down her side, his tongue tracking the delicate ribs unhurriedly. Angie, half-asleep, watched the dark head moving upon her while his mouth awakened nerve endings throughout her body. Pecos kissed maddeningly slow circles around each full, swelling breast, covering the entire circumference of both before finally moving languidly up over one of the rounded creamy mounds to the hard, rosy crest.
Angie was now awake and fully approving. Pecos sucked very, very gently at first, then with vigor, and finally with hunger that made Angie squirm and sigh. She put her hands into his hair to anxiously guide his mouth to the other waiting breast. There, too, he sucked lovingly, drawing her deep into his heated mouth, while Angie panted mindlessly and pressed him to her.
She began to murmur his name in ecstasy and Pecos released the hard, rosy nipple from between his teeth and moved his mouth down the swell of her breast to her stomach. He painted patterns over her flat, quivering abdomen with a hard tongue and finally pressed his mouth to her tiny navel as though he would drink from it. Angie moaned. Pecos raised his dark head and smiled at her.
His gentle brown fingers lightly traced her feminine hipbone while his deep voice, heavy with passion, intensified her blinding desire. “Angel, do you know how tempting you are, so clean, so sweet.” His lean hand turned over, its knuckles lightly trailing down the length of her satiny thigh, coming to rest on her bent knee. “I want to kiss you where you love me, baby,” he murmured softly, as again his hand turned over and gently, slowly, he slipped it underneath her knee, unobtrusively edging the silky limb up and outward.
“Pecos …” she breathed, her eyes limpid.
“Hear me, darling.” The fiery fingers were now sliding down the inside of her warm, shapely thigh. Her leg shook as Pecos lightly caressed it, moving with purposeful slowness toward his goal. “I long to taste you, do you know that? I’ve kissed every other part of you, would you deny me what I long for most?”
Shamefully aware that the position of her bent knee offered Pecos the sight of her feminine secrets, open and exposed, Angie’s face flamed and a tiny, trembling hand flew down to cover herself.
“Pecos, it isn’t … it’s not …” Her words choked off when he bent over her and she felt his warm lips gently kissing the hand she’d modestly placed in his way.
“Darling.” Persuasively he sought to convince her while he teased at the barrier of her hand with a hot tongue and gentle lips, mouth moving arousingly on her cold fingers, muffling his words so that she had to strain to hear him.
“Let me, sweet baby. It’s what I want most. Please say I can. I’ll be very gentle; you need only to lie relaxed.” His tongue began to rhythmically stroke the two trembling fingers Angie held over her delicate female flesh.
She licked her dry lips, trembling with excitement, wanting what he suggested. She had only to move those two shaking fingers and … Her mind swirled, frenzied, doubtful, wondering. Can he really wish to kiss me there?
As though Pecos could read her mind, his low voice cut into her wildly meandering thoughts. “Darlin’, I’ve the scent of you in my nostrils; it’s sweet and good, but it’s not enough. I want to taste you on my lips, my tongue; I want to savor and swallow your taste. I want to, darling, please.”
Angie felt the strong band of his lean fingers encircle the wrist of her protective hand, and she whimpered, knowing she was powerless to fight him or herself. Her heart threatening to pound its way out of her naked breast, Angie gave in to her consuming desire. While he gently pulled her hand away from the golden curly triangle and the sensitive flesh beneath, he whispered hoarsely to her as he lowered his open, hungry mouth between her silky thighs.
“Sweet, let me. Make me feel I’m your only lover. Convince me no other man loves you this way; make me believe that this is mine alone. Please, darling, give it all to me.”
While his long fingers entwined with Angie’s and their tightly clasped hands rested on the bed beside her white hip, Angie, on fire from his kisses, his caresses, his sensual words, felt agony and ecstasy intermingle as her passion-glazed eyes opened to see Pecos’s dark, handsome face dip into the blond curls, gently nuzzling her soft flesh. His breath was hot upon her, bringing immediate undreamed-of pleasure and the compelling desire to press closer to his heated, loving mouth.
For a time, Pecos did nothing but breath upon her swelling sweetness, gloriously tormenting her and himself. When Angie’s soft, creamy bottom began to twist on the bed and her free hand clutched at the rumpled sheet, Pecos still held back. Her golden head began to toss upon the pillow and her small, fragile hands began to squeeze Pecos’s long fingers with an urgency finally echoed in her strangled, pleading words, as Angie’s need surpassed logic and shame.
“Pecos, Pecos …” She cast aside the last of her inhibitions. “I want it; kiss me there, darling. Dear God, please, please kiss me there. There’s only you, Pecos, there’s never been another. There’ll never be another. Take it all, my love. Kiss me, kiss me.” Angie was almost sobbing out her desire, and the sound of her sweet, little-girl voice begging him to taste her drove all thoughts from Pecos save
this beautiful, warm throbbing woman beneath his lips, as the entire universe suddenly focused only on this woman and her dewy center of passion aching for his kiss.
“Angel, my own,” he breathed against her and his tongue made sweet contact while his free hand slid underneath her buttocks to hold her securely. With the first fiery touch of his tongue upon her flesh, Angie’s small, hot body spasmed in unbelievable delight. Never had she dreamed such closeness could exist between two people. Never had she imagined such wild joy awaited her. Never would the day come when she’d forget the forbidden rapture Pecos’s loving mouth had brought to her. Her pleasure quickly escalated as Pecos, bent on tasting all of her honeyed sweetness, gently explored the delicate, sensitive flesh, his tongue slipping lower and lower to probe deep within her.
Angie’s hand had pulled free of his to roam nervously along his smooth shoulder. She grabbed at the thick, dark hair of his moving head, her hips bucking up against him in a dance of pleading passion. When she moaned low in her throat like an animal ready to prey, Pecos’s tongue slid up once again to the very core of her aching desire, caressing with sure strokes until the first frightening explosions seized a frenzied Angie and she was calling his name in desperation, shocked by the depth of her climax, which continued to take her ever higher, lifting her dangerously close to erotic hysteria.
Pecos expertly stayed with the rising and falling of her frantic, grinding hips until her honeyed release into his open mouth left her limp and gasping for breath. Only then did his lips slide from her, as tenderly, slowly, his mouth worked its sure way back up her hot, spent body. His dark face was over hers once again. He looked down at the most beautiful, glowing, fulfilled woman he’d ever seen. Her eyes came open just as his mouth took hers in a kiss of warm tenderness.
Angie was shocked by the taste of herself on Pecos’s lips. Then his kiss deepened and she tasted only him once again as her tired arms came around him. Pecos placed soothing, sweet kisses at the corners of her mouth, ran his tongue over her teeth and bit at her trembling bottom lip, slowly, patiently rekindling the flame within her. In minutes Angie’s sated body began to waken to desire as Pecos kissed her with heated passion, and his masterful hands slid over her body, stroking, coaxing, caressing. Against her thigh, she could feel his hard, aroused body pressing urgently, its throbbing power awesome. His aching need dictated to his body and it seemed as though all the blood in his veins had rushed to that erect, heated part of him, swelling him to enormous proportions, crying out for the release Angie’s pliant body could give him.