“I was thinking eggplant Parmesan,” she replied, while she brushed soft kisses across his forehead, over his eyes and his cheekbones that she never realized were so spectacular.
Hands wandered down her back, seemingly out of his control until they cupped her buttocks firmly. “I hate eggplant.”
For that, she nipped the bottom of his earlobe. “Tough,” she blew into his ear.
“Claudia?”
“Hmmm.”
“Have you ever done it in a barn, on a bale of hay?”
At that she lifted her head, levering herself off of him with both of her arms. “No way, Jose. And if you think I’m going to start now, you’re crazy. I want a nice, soft, freshly scented bed!”
Laughing, he lifted her off him and stood. He saw to the horse first. Then in the tradition of all great heroes before him, he swept her off her feet and carried her inside. He took the stairs two at a time while Claudia showered him with kisses on his face and neck. He reached his room and dropped her on the bed. Then took a moment to just enjoy the sight.
“What are you looking at?”
“You in my bed. I’m trying to decide if it’s real this time or another dream.”
To prove to him that it wasn’t a dream Claudia reached up and circled her hands around his neck. She didn’t have the strength to pull herself up on a horse, but she had no problem pulling Ross down to her for another kiss. No doubt because this particular animal was cooperating.
Ross released himself from her hold for a moment to get rid of his shirt. Her mouth practically watered. In the light of a dying afternoon, he was a bronzed god. Those muscles she’d felt last night under her fingers were now hers to gaze upon. Hers to kiss.
She lifted herself and traced the outlines of his chest with her nose and tongue.
Ross dipped his head back and sighed in sheer pleasure. “Your turn,” he muttered. Leaning down, he pulled at the white cotton shirt until it ripped into two pieces.
“That was a designer T-shirt,” Claudia accused, but not too harshly.
“Now it’s a dust rag,” Ross returned unashamed. His mission accomplished, he stared at her breasts which were now exposed to his eyes except for the tiny bit of lace and engineering she wore over them. He reached down to rip that offensive garment off as well, but Claudia stopped him.
“Wait! It’s my favorite WonderBra,” she announced. Then gently she undid the catch in the back and removed the bra before he could destroy it.
Naked under his gaze, she leaned back on the bed. For a while he just stared at her, and she couldn’t help but feel self-conscious.
“I’m too small,” she admitted, hoping he would disagree.
“You’re perfect,” he contradicted. Proving it, he bent down to capture a ripe nipple between his lips. He sucked the morsel into his mouth and worried it with his teeth and tongue. Although he wasn’t the sort to romanticize, he swore he tasted cream laced with lilacs.
“Sweet,” he moaned.
“It’s my scent of lilac lotion,” she explained, while her fingers explored the chest she had come to worship.
“It’s you,” he corrected her.
Moved, she stared into his eyes. “No one has ever made me feel this way. No one has ever come close. I don’t understand how this is possible when we’re so wrong for each other.”
“Don’t think,” he ordered. Mostly, because he didn’t want to think himself, about her feelings or his own. He wanted to feel. He wanted to lose himself inside her, and for once know what true passion was. “Touch me.”
Her fingers were knotted in his chest hair, her nails were raking over his nipples. “I am.”
“Lower,” he commanded, his voice rougher than gravel.
“Again with orders,” she reprimanded, but willingly obeyed. Following the line of fur that ran down his belly and dived deep into his jeans, Claudia found it necessary to undo his belt, unbutton his pants and unzip his zipper in order to continue her journey.
She found him hard and hot against her hand, and she squeezed him the way she had squeezed the cow, but instead of mooing, he moaned deep in his throat.
“Now,” he uttered. “I can’t wait.”
Briskly, he removed her shorts. His callused hands scraped against the soft flesh of her thighs, the backs of her knees, her ankles, until the shorts were history. All that remained was a scrap of white lace panties that Ross considered pulling off with his teeth. But he had a better idea.
“What kind are these?”
Peeking down at her own lingerie, Claudia squeaked, “Victoria’s Secret. Let me guess, another dust cloth.”
“More like a hanky,” he teased. Then with a jerk of his wrist, the cloth separated beneath his onslaught. He kicked his own boots off, and tossed his jeans and briefs on top of them. Naked he flattened her against the bed, until every part of their bodies was touching.
“Too much,” she cried, as her system went into overload. Her nerves simply couldn’t process all the feelings. His hair-roughened thighs against her soft ones, his hard shaft pressed to her belly, his nipples spiking into her tight breasts.
Her insides were having trouble adjusting to his onslaught as well. Her heart pounded heavily in her chest. It beat to a rhythm of emotion. This man, this wonderfully strong, honest, humorous man, was on top of her, forcing her to acknowledge that she was in love with him. When his thick fingers pushed inside her giving wetness, she felt more than physical pleasure. She felt unity. He’d given her a brief glimpse of what it was like to be joined, and she wanted more of it. She wanted all of it.
“Please,” she asked, as the tears left her eyes and traveled to the pillow beneath her head. “I want to know.…”
“Yes,” he answered, because he wanted to know, too. Shifting his weight, he pressed open her legs with the power of his own. Taking her hand, he pressed it against his needy flesh, silently asking for her to join him in the taking of her own body.
Eagerly, she guided him to her until she could feel the press of his sex against her heat. There was a tightness, a fullness that caused her to gasp, then a giving and a filling that left her breathless. She tightened her hands over his taut buttocks, buttocks that she once had to admire from a distance, and concentrated on the power of each thrust.
He was touching her, deep inside, a place in her soul that she’d almost given up on. It was so right to do this, she thought vaguely. So right to open herself to his invasion of her heart, her mind and her spirit. Her body sang out, tightening and gripping, clutching and holding. It knew, as she did, that it didn’t want to let him go. It didn’t want to release him…ever.
But release was unavoidable. And Ross knew it. He pushed and pushed deeper, forcing her to feel a pleasure she’d never experienced before. “Yes,” he told her. “Come with me,” he pleaded.
His hand moved between their sweat-slicked bodies and stroked the plump bud he’d uncovered. He felt the thrust of Claudia’s breasts against his chest, heard her desperate cry for release, sensed that her back was bowed into a full arch, and knew as her legs locked around his waist that she was lost. Lost like he was. With one last heave he let himself go, releasing himself inside her, feeling as if he’d been absorbed into the pores of her skin.
Exhausted, sated, he fell on top of her, his head next to hers. The slide of her fingers through his hair relaxed him, as she massaged his scalp and crooned to him with her lasting sobs of pleasure.
Only one thought managed to penetrate the pleasure-induced fog around his brain.
Stay.
9
“ROSS!” Claudia screeched, as she was flopped over onto her belly like one of Ross’s special blueberry pancakes.
“Whaaat?” he mimicked with his best attempt at a Brooklyn accent. He kept his hands pressed against her buttocks forcing her to lie still on her stomach. He’d waited to have her in just such a position for weeks, and he planned to take the opportunity that had been so eagerly presented to him.
It was ea
rly morning. Predawn, actually. They’d spent the whole night rotating sleep and sex. Rosa May was scheduled to return after breakfast, so the way Ross saw it, he only had a few precious hours left to gorge himself on Claudia. He hoped that the memories would be enough to last him a lifetime. If not beyond.
With tiny nibbles he worked his way up her calves, massaging the muscles, soothing away the bites with his lips. He paid special attention to the sensitive skin behind her knees, but tempted beyond control he moved up and up.
Claudia stretched out her arms and tugged the pillow beneath her head. She bit into the downy cushion to stop herself from begging for release. Her body felt like an instrument that he had tuned to perfection. At his will he plucked whichever string he chose, creating a song inside her.
“Yikes!” she squeaked when he landed a nip on her bottom.
Then he was pulling on her hips, lifting her onto her knees. His arms wrapped around her until his hands cupped her breasts, and he held her tight against his chest. When he slipped inside her from behind, she wondered how she’d gone so long without having him inside her body. She pushed against him accepting his thrusts, teasing him with her soft buttocks that rubbed against his furred belly. The tension built, but Claudia relished it, knowing there would be release.
And there was. A beautiful explosion of feeling. She closed her eyes and let her head drop back against his shoulder.
I love you. The words bubbled in her mind, but she wouldn’t voice them. He had given her this night, and it was all she could ask of him. In a few days, she would leave. Perhaps even before MacCurdy gave her the okay. Living on the farm, loving on the farm, made her want to stay longer. And it wasn’t a choice. Even if Ross did ask, she would have to say no.
He needed someone more capable than her. Someone less concerned with fashion and more concerned with…milk. He needed someone who could muck stables and ride horses and do all the chores that he needed help with. Together they might sizzle, but it wouldn’t last. He would resent her failings, and she simply couldn’t change.
You could take the girl out of Brooklyn, but you couldn’t take the Brooklyn out of the girl and replace it with Sun Prairie. It would never work.
Tears squeezed out of her closed eyes. Ross released her and turned her so that she lay back on the pillow. He’d seen the tears before, but knew they were tears of pleasure, of joy. These tears, however, bothered him.
“Claudia?”
“Oh, damn! My eyes are going to get all red and swollen. I hate to cry. I never cry.”
“You cry all the time,” Ross noted.
Claudia lifted her head, a ferocious gleam in her red swollen eyes. “I do not cry all the time.”
“You cried when the cow pooped on you. You cried after I made love to you the first time. And the second time. And the third time…”
“I get the point.”
“I understood those tears.” Ross reached down and swiped away a drop that rested on her cheek. “But these tears are different. What’s wrong?”
She shook her head, unwilling to speak. Afraid she might say too much. Afraid of how he would respond.
“You’ll tell me when you’re ready,” Ross concluded. They’d become too intimate in the course of a night to attempt to keep secrets from each other. “I hate to say it, but the sun is up.”
Which meant the night was over. Time for them both to return to their respective roles. “I’ll go down and fix breakfast.”
“No. Stay and sleep for a while. I can grab something. Just make sure you’re up before Rosa May comes home. I don’t want her to see…”
He didn’t want his daughter to know that they had become lovers. He didn’t want his daughter to know that two people could make love to each other and separate when it was over. He was right. Something as intimate as sex should be shared by two people who were willing to commit to each other. They weren’t those two people. Her eyes sprang another leak, but this time Claudia turned her head into the pillow before he could see her face.
Ross bounced off the bed and strolled naked out of the room. Claudia heard the shower spring to life and she tried not to dwell on what he might look like, naked under a spray of hot water. Her heart leaped, then crashed when she realized that she might never see his beautiful naked chest again.
She’d been such a fool to think that she wasn’t going to suffer horribly for the decision she made. But she also knew she would have been a fool to think that last night wasn’t going to happen.
“Think of the memories,” she commanded her subconscious. “Then think of New York. Think of your salon. Think of Antoinette. Think of your next nail design. Think about anything. Just don’t think about him. Don’t think about this farm, or Rosie, or the pigs, or the cows…”
Ring. Ring.
Distracted from her pity party, Claudia tried to isolate the sound.
Ring. Ring.
It sounded like a muffled telephone ringing. Wrapping the sheet that they had tugged loose from the bed around her, Claudia followed the sound to his closet. Once there it was easy enough to spot the cord that ran along the floor and disappeared into the closet.
“Not the most original hiding place, Ross.” She opened the doors and spotted the phone on the top shelf. It was still ringing.
Of course she knew she wasn’t supposed to use the phone. But it could be an emergency. It could be Rosie trying to reach them. There could have been an accident, an illness, any number of bad things.
“Oh, just answer the darn thing,” she told herself.
Lifting the receiver off the hook, she pulled it against her ear. “Hello?”
“Claudia!” A familiar voice rang out.
“Antoinette!”
“I’ve missed you so much. And I have so much news to tell you. You are never going to believe—”
For a minute Claudia allowed herself the pleasure of hearing her friend’s voice again. Then she abruptly interrupted her. “Antoinette, how did you get this number? Nobody is supposed to know where I am.”
“Oh. Well, Rocco told me where you were. He wants to help you. I’m calling because he told me to. See, I told you he was a really terrific guy, but you wouldn’t listen. Oh no, Claudia, no man is never good enough for you or for me. Your problem is you are too picky—”
Claudia struggled for patience. “Antoinette! How did Rocco get this number? What do you mean he’s trying to help me?”
“That’s right, he’s trying to help you,” Antoinette exclaimed. “You see he didn’t pop that guy in the bathtub. That guy Jimmy, you know the one with beady eyes who’s always chewing gum, he popped him. And he’s the one who wants to ice you for going to the police. Anyway, he knows where you are, but he doesn’t want to do the hit himself. So he told Rocco to sic the Caravacci brothers on you.”
“The Caravacci brothers? Never heard of them.”
“They’re new. They’re trying to build a reputation. You know how that is.”
“Yeah, it’s tough breaking into any new business,” Claudia agreed. Then she slapped her hand against her head. Here she was talking calmly about two hit men who wanted her dead. “Can we forget the commentary, Toinette. Get to the punch line.”
“Huh?”
“What happened next?” she asked slowly.
“Oh. Anyways, Rocco says that he’s not siccing anybody on his future wife’s friend. Get it? Wife! He finally proposed! I’ve got a real diamond and everything. Can you believe it?”
“I would really love to be excited for you, Toinette. But there’s this slight hitch. You see, people are trying to kill me!” Claudia shouted hoping to make her fear known.
“You know Claudia, not everything is always about you. You could spare a minute to at least congratulate me,” Antoinette said in a haughty tone.
“You’re right, Antoinette. Congratulations. I hope I live to be a bridesmaid in your wedding. Now can we get to the rest of the story, please.”
“That’s pretty much it. I mean Rocco s
aid he wouldn’t do it. So Jimmy said he’d call the Caravacci brothers himself. Then Rocco overheard Jimmy telling the boys where you were. So he told me to call you and tell you that they’re on their way. We’re in Wisconsin now, but Rocco doesn’t think we’ll get there in time to stop them. So he said you should hightail it out of there, right now.”
They were on their way. For all Claudia knew, the Caravacci brothers could be outside this minute. Outside where Ross worked and Rosa May played. She couldn’t leave. If they didn’t find her there was no telling what they might do to Ross and Rosa May to make them talk.
“Listen, Antoinette, I’ve got to go.” She hung up the phone, her mind suddenly numb with fear. She couldn’t think of what she needed to do next.
“You called her. You called that woman.”
Ross. Claudia turned and saw him standing in the doorway, a towel wrapped around his waist. Under normal circumstances she would have taken the time to admire his extremely fine physique, but now was not a normal circumstance.
“I can’t believe you called her,” he accused. “Do you have any idea the danger you could be bringing down on your head, not to mention Rosa May’s?”
“I didn’t call her.”
His hard expression and pressed lips told her that he didn’t believe her.
“I didn’t!” she protested. “She called me. She got the number from some guy named Jimmy. This guy Jimmy is the one who’s been after me. He’s sending the Caravacci brothers. We have to get Rosie and get out of here now!”
Ross saw the fear in her eyes, heard the tremor in her voice. He wanted to believe that this wasn’t an act to cover up what she’d done. “You promise me, you’re telling the truth?”
“I promise. Do you honestly think I would risk your life after what we shared last night? And Rosie, do you think I would let anyone hurt her? I love her. I love…this place. That’s why we have to leave. Please believe me.”
He did. It was that easy. He knew the moment he met her that she wasn’t stupid. And he knew after last night that she cared deeply for him. She wouldn’t jeopardize him or his daughter. Which meant someone had leaked their location. Someone who knew where she was. It wasn’t a large list of people.
The Doc's Double Delivery & Down-Home Diva Page 27