Bind Me Close: 3 (Knights in Black Leather)

by Cerise DeLand

  He learned over her and kissed her lips as if he were starving to have her.

  All the while she polished her clit, driving herself up, up, up and pushing her hips off the bed until the first pulse of delight swamped her. She went with it. Flowed with it. Shook with it.

  Panting, still pulsing, she grinned at him and crooked a finger. “Join me. I need you.” She reached out to caress the bulge in his jeans and flicked the zipper.

  He dropped his pants in the next second, his rod red and dripping with pre-cum.

  When he was above her, his hands supporting his shaking body, she scooted into position under him and lifted her molten pussy to the tip of his shaft. “Did you see what you wanted?”

  “Oh, yeah. Wish I had a video.”

  She froze at the prospect that he would do that to her. “No, no videos.”

  He cupped her chin, contrition in his gorgeous eyes. “I was kidding.”

  That wild edge to him could ruin her. She couldn’t let it. Even if it was his greatest allure. She had to be certain she wouldn’t suffer for her enchantment. With trembling lips she asked, “Were you?”

  He was grave. “Of course I was. What you just did for me was extraordinary. A great gift.”He kissed her, his lips soft, persuasive, beseeching. “Would you do that for me again?”

  Would she? The pleasure she had just given herself she had shared with him. Was that ultimate expression of intimacy too outrageous for her to acknowledge? Right now it wasn’t. Tomorrow, she would sort out what precisely she had given away.

  She wound her arms around him and urged him to kiss her by brushing her mouth against his. “Anything you want. Say the words.”

  “Sounds familiar.”

  “As long as it sounds mutual,” she said, praying for a response she could treasure.

  “Sounds like a deal, darlin’.” He slid inside her, filling her up with his flesh and his charm. “Now let me have you. You were a really good bad girl and you deserve a fine fuck.”

  “Amen to that.”

  * * * * *

  They stayed in bed far longer than she’d thought. It was noon before she emerged from his shower, her hair wet, still so deliciously sore from the fun they’d had she could barely take a step without smiling.

  He stood in the bedroom when she came in from the bathroom, a towel around her torso. “Take that off.”

  “Wade, I shouldn’t. I have to go. Cara and Sam are waiting for me.”

  “Let me see that gorgeous body again.”

  She shook her hair back over her shoulder. “You’re very demanding.”

  “I am.” He wiggled an index finger at her. “Drop it.”

  “I will but you must not touch me.”

  “No?” he asked as if she had dared him.

  “Say you won’t. Please. If you do we’ll start all over again.” She wanted that, feared it too. Could she find herself absorbed by him?

  He set his jaw, determination in every line of his hard, beautiful face. “You know we will.”

  “Wade, I can’t stay here all day. I have work to do, I’ve been here for hours and I haven’t even looked at the family Bible you have.”

  “Let me see you naked and wanting me again,” he said, his voice a prayer, “and I’ll dig out that Bible right now.”

  She was a fool to want even so seemingly innocent a thing as his eyes on her again. But she relented. As she undid the towel and he circled her nude form, she had to ask, “Are you this way with your other women?”

  “No others in my life now. Just you.”

  “Were you this way then with others?”

  All attention on her breasts, he looked at her with dazed eyes. “What way is that?”

  “Insatiable.”

  He paused, blinked as if he had discovered gold. “Only with you.”

  She believed him but why and how could she? She didn’t know him well. Could she learn in the space of a few short days and not hurt her well-won self-respect? “Please don’t ever tell me stories.”

  “I haven’t. I won’t. Promise.”

  He looked so honest as he said that, she melted inside. She had to know more. “How are you with other women?”

  He lifted her chin, looked her over, at once hard and merciless. “Quickly satisfied once I’m interested. But interest always comes slowly. And doesn’t endure.”

  “Is that why you use rope?”

  “Is that why you asked for it?” he countered, his words crisp and nearly bitter.

  She didn’t flinch. “I don’t understand your tone. Are you angry with me for asking about the rope?”

  “No. I’m angry with you for not knowing why you asked for it in the first place.”

  She frowned, put off by his harsh demeanor. “I’m…not used to such questions. Not about what my fantasies are. Not about why I have them.”

  “Then you need to think about those issues. Get the answers.”

  She nodded. “I do. I will. But then I gather you want to know the answers too.”

  “I do. It’ll make me a better lover for you. And I want to be. Badly.” He brushed his fingertips over her nipples. Her body responded to him, hardening, prickling, needing him.

  “Wade,” she pleaded, a hand up to ward him off, yet so drawn to him by his endearments that she shifted to gain her balance.

  “The fact remains I want you back here. With me. Like this.” His attention drifted over her throat and breasts to her belly. He touched her navel and she yearned to press her body flat to his. “I said that, but because I said it in bed I’m afraid you don’t believe me.”

  “I do believe you but I don’t want to be naive.” She ran a hand through her hair, wanting to turn away yet seduced by his tenderness.

  “You’re not. You’re feeling your way into this relationship. I understand that.”

  She exhaled, upset with her readiness to fall into his arms. “Wade, please understand my challenges here. I have to work and I have limited time and money to stay in town. I want to get the research for this book done and I can’t be…doing other things that eat up the few days I’ve got.”

  “Come here and stay with me. Save your money.”

  She grinned but shook her head. “Oh, Wade, you know I can’t. How would that look?”

  “No one would know you’re here.”

  “They would. It’s a small town. Your small town.”

  “And I’m the sheriff.”

  She chuckled then went sad. “I know small towns too. Gossip is the local currency. I’d check out of the B&B. Then Cara, maybe Sam would find out. I don’t want to risk that they might think I’m…something I’m not.” She stepped closer to him, his warmth a welcome cocoon of sensual heat. “I don’t want you to think I’m something I’m not.”

  He smoothed her hair back from her cheek. “You don’t just hop into bed with men, is that what you want me to know? If so, I already do. Saw it,” he put his hand to her cheek, “those first few minutes in my truck.”

  She sighed, loving his attention, his caresses. “Let me go, Wade. Don’t make me crazier for you than I already am.”

  “For now I’ll give in. But I’m determined to persuade you. Tomorrow night. Dinner. Here.”

  “Okay.” She shut her eyes a second, wondering once more if she was dreaming up this appealing, demanding man. Not much had ever happened to her with men that had been remotely satisfying for more than a few dates. Wade’s concentration of time and affection really astonished her. “I’m open to being persuaded. Tomorrow.”

  * * * * *

  She got back to the B&B with only enough time to hop into the shower once more, dry off and blow-dry her hair. Just as she opened the door to leave her room to join Cara and Sam in the shop, the house phone rang.

  “Hi, Willow. This is Giles. How are you?”

  It took her a minute to focus on who her caller was. Wade was the one she had expected at the other end of the line. “Giles. Hi! Thanks for calling. I’m good.”

  “No
more side effects from the cortisone shot?”

  “No. I slept well.” Laughing, she marveled that she felt rested after all the hijinks in Wade’s bed last night.

  “Good to know. I came by earlier and knocked on the door. The receptionist called but no one answered so I got worried. I called the hospital to see if you had checked into the ER.”

  “Oh. I…I’m sorry.” He knew she had been with Wade. “I was out.”

  “Yeah, I didn’t see your car. Or rather Wade’s.” The bitterness in his voice definitely sounded like jealousy.

  Gratifying as that was, Willow didn’t have to explain herself to him. “True.”

  “Okay, so…” Giles reverted to the caring doctor. “No hives? No rash? No quickness of breath?”

  Only when I’m screaming my head off as I come umpty-ump times. “Are those the usual signs to look for?”

  “Some folks are very allergic to our Texas bugs. No wonder. We breed ’em bigger and nastier than any other place. Long stingers too.”

  Wasn’t that the truth. “Ugly. I’ll be sure to watch where I land from now on.”

  “I’d recommend that.”

  “I’ll be careful. Promise.”

  “I wonder if I could educate you on other local critters?”

  “You mean how Texas men cut a rug?”

  “Yeah. Me, namely.”

  “I’d love it.” Giles was attractive and easy to be with. The only raw edge she saw to his personality was the jealous competition that seemed to exist between him and Wade. She wouldn’t go out with him to feed that but she would do it to feed herself a strong dose of independence. Being with Wade had watered that down—and it frightened her. She was no naive young thing and didn’t want to appear to be. Not even with Wade, who seemed to like to bring her to that point. She’d go with Giles to prove to herself she’d maintain her autonomy. After all, why shouldn’t she go? Wade and she had a physical connection, maybe even an emotional one. But no strings. And she could use a break from him if only to check up on her feelings for him. Couldn’t cement a relationship based solely on sex, could she? That kind of thinking was for starry-eyed coeds. And that, she had never been. “When did you have in mind?”

  “Tomorrow night?”

  “Tuesday?”

  A silence crept into the discussion as he thought about her suggestion. “Good. It’s a date then. Six?”

  “Six it is.”

  “Fine. Pick you up at your B&B. Wear jeans and a t-shirt. We’ll go dancing.”

  “You’re on.”

  * * * * *

  “Willow, you better finish that last crème brûlée, darlin’,” Cara MacRae said as she tipped her head toward the remaining portion of dessert. “Cuz if you don’t I may have to.”

  “She will, you realize,” Samantha Turner said, deadpan. Staring at Willow across the table in the staff room behind Knickers Lingerie Shop, she waved a hand. “Cara’s eating for five.”

  Willow gaped at Cara. “You’re kidding. You’re not having—”

  “God, no!” Cara patted her tummy. “Sam is being funny. She admires what I can eat now that I am so far along.”

  Sam sniffed. “What woman wouldn’t want to eat anything she sees and call it whim or just plain old pregger’s cravings, hmm?”

  Cara wiggled her brows at Willow. “Sam is working on getting in the family way herself.”

  “Who wouldn’t?” Sam replied. “I tell you I look at that dessert and I say now is the time!”

  Willow shook her head. “The way Case looks at you I would say you could be any size and he’d love you.”

  Cara pointed at Willow. “One point to the lady in red.”

  Sam leaned both elbows on the table. “I do believe you’re right, Willow. And frankly I can’t believe my good luck to have him.”

  Carrying a bank deposit moneybag, Cara’s Aunt Bree sailed in from the back-room access to her own shop next door. “Sam is modest.”

  Cara agreed.

  Willow sat back in her chair. “Frankly if all those men I saw night before last are any indication, the men in this town are plentiful.”

  Bree chuckled as she swung open the safe. “And hot.”

  “You can say that again.” Willow smiled at each of the women in turn. She had to know more about the town’s female population. “Why didn’t they bring their wives?”

  “Only two of them are married,” Bree told her. “Bill Verhoff’s wife is out of town at an insurance conference. And Damian Martin’s just left town a few days ago and she’s gone because she’s starting divorce proceedings.”

  “Oh. That’s a shame. I liked him.”

  “We do too. And his wife, poor baby, loves him.”

  “She does? I don’t understand. I mean why would she—sorry. None of my business.”

  “No, that’s all right, sweetie,” Bree said as she deposited the cash in the safe and shut it up. “We tend to know each other’s business whether we like it or not. Mostly it’s because we’re related.” And at that she snapped her fingers as if she’d forgotten something then turned on her heel to go back to her store.

  “I understand small towns. The one I teach school in has a population of three thousand,” Willow said, trying to be diplomatic. “Has Bravado always been this size?”

  “Now we total six thousand plus a few,” Cara said. “In the fifties I think it was bigger. But many people moved away the past few decades. The economy went downhill. Not until ranching became more automated and we had a handle on artificial insemination for cattle and goats was there any boom. And it doesn’t take many people to run an artificial insemination program.”

  “Just good data and programming skills,” Sam added. “Oh, and a website to take orders.”

  “So then you aren’t plagued with building more and more schools like the suburbs of Dallas and San Antonio?”

  “No. In the county we tend to have about one hundred babies each year.” Cara patted her tummy. “Not enough to replace our population.”

  But she and Sam exchanged glances.

  Willow straightened in her chair, wondering what the meaning of those looks might be. “Is there a problem with that number?”

  “The town leaders wish we had more children,” Cara told her. “And we try to attract new residents.”

  “The truth is,” Sam added, “that the land here tends to stay in the old established families. The Turners and MacRaes. The Benedicts. The Saxons. Few of the old families sell out or parcel out their land to second or third sons.”

  “So your families are rich enough to keep the land and the money all together.”

  “We are.” Cara nodded. “We just need more babies to ensure that those who want to stay here can.”

  “Now I am really in the dark!”

  “To be blunt, we need more women.” Cara smiled at Willow’s frown. “The ones who are born here tend to either get married out of high school to their longtime boyfriends or leave town and never return.”

  Sam leaned forward. “If the young women go off to college they get jobs or find new beaus at school. The small-town life is suddenly unappealing.”

  “I see.”

  Cara reached across the table and caught her hand. “But we are a great little town. We have a good community theater that brings in good directors from summer stock. Our rodeo attracts statewide events. Our children have good schools. We get the best teachers and pay them above statewide average wages. Five thousand more for each achievement level.” She wiggled her brows. “Way above other counties’ teacher salaries.”

  “Wow.” Willow was flabbergasted. “That is a lot.”

  Sam laughed. “Case is on the school board and he’s told me that we have a few openings for the fall. Just in case you’re interested.” She grinned at Willow. “Are you?”

  “My salary is not terrific, that’s for sure. And I’ve been pinching pennies to send my sister through college. No fun, frankly. But I couldn’t just pick up and move here. It would look odd, fe
el odd, especially after—”

  “After?” Sam led her to continue.

  After making love to Wade Saxon like a sex-starved broad. She never wanted anyone to think she was one of those crazy women who stalked men and trapped them into relationships. “Well, I don’t want you to think I’m taking advantage of you.”

  “You’re not and we’re sorry,” Cara said. “I didn’t mean to be forward or make you feel like we’re hustling you. But we are a town in need of women. Bright, smart, savvy women. And if you are at all interested, well then, we’d love to have you.”

  Willow took a spoonful of dessert. “I’ll think about it,” she said, knowing she would certainly be attracted by the money…and one demanding man.

  Sam nodded. “In some ways we don’t really want to grow too big. We guard our way of life because it works so well for us.”

  Willow smiled. “That makes you sound like you are a secret cult or something.”

  Cara and Samantha laughed.

  “Never!” Cara told her. “Now let’s make a few plans for you. Okay? Why not come visit me tomorrow? Come early so you can work all day.”

  “You have that much?” Willow was shocked.

  “I do. Be there at nine. I’ll have the coffeepot on. Then I’ll dig out the old family pictures.”

  “I’m so excited. Wade showed me the family Bible this morning and I saw how many offspring there are of the Turners and the MacRaes. I have a better idea of who’s who now and I’m dying to see the pictures. Do you have any of Francine Turner?”

  Sam smiled. “Cara and I both do. Wait ’til you see how beautiful Fancy was.”

  Cara beamed. “And Wyatt and Cole look so much like my three men, it’s astonishing the resemblance. You believe in the power of genes after you look at those old pictures.”

  “Come see all of them, Willow. There’s quite a collection of them. But I have to say I’m frankly concerned you might not be able to go through them all in the time you’ve got.”

  Cara nodded. “What holds you back from staying longer?”

  “To be honest? Money.”

  “Well, we can help that,” Cara said, slapping hands on her knees.

  Willow gaped at her. “Cara. No. That is not necessary. Charity is not—”