by Diane Saxon
The only noise in the quiet of the copse was the blood coursing through his brain.
Regret for his treatment of her softened him. He leaned in closer, cupped her face in his hands, and lowered his voice to a husky persuasion.
“I hope you believe me, Kate, because I really want you to scratch my itch.” Awareness lightened her expression as they stared at each other. The thick lacing of desire helped the anger to disperse, leaving just the heavy weight of passion.
He dipped his gaze as she gave a nervous lick of her lips. “Jack, I have to go now.”
He didn’t want her to go, he hadn’t finished with her yet. “Not yet, honey, you said you had twenty.” They still hadn’t come to any resolution.
“That was ten minutes ago.”
“So, this thing we have.” He circled his hand in the air to encompass them both.
“We have something?”
He was certain they did. “Perhaps we can take it from here.” If he’d expected understanding, it was slow to come. “One step at a time.” Still her face remained blank until he pressed his body against hers and hope blossomed at the quick widening of her eyes.
“I see.”
He wasn’t sure she did. “We can see each other.”
Her slow nod didn’t exactly thrill him. Not sure how deep he wanted to commit, he gave a shrug. “Date.”
He leaned in closer, let her light scent shimmer over him and hoped to hell she agreed. He’d set the parameters, but he suspected if she negotiated, he’d fall at the first hurdle.
She raised her hands and instead of pushing him away, her nimble fingers cruised their way over his chest until she slid them around the back of his neck and pulled his head down to hers.
“Okay.”
Fantastic. If he could remember what he’d agreed to. What she’d dragged out of him while his mind was empty of everything but her, his senses drugged by her English rose scent.
He smooched his lips over her cool ones. “You know when I’m away from you, I can’t stop thinking about you.” He leaned in closer, his mouth more demanding, and kissed her, took his time and slipped his tongue between her willing lips to dance across hers.
In the quiet of the small woodland, her body melted against him. His name a soft gasp against his lips heated his blood. Not slow and sluggish as he’d expected, but a fast whip into the blind lust he’d already experienced with her.
Emotions channeled to swoop in a greedy snatch of overwhelming hunger.
His teeth nipped at her lips as he streaked his hand down her back to grasp her ass. His fingers found the soft material of her skirt and scrunched it up so he could engulf her rounded globe in his palm. He knew from their previous encounter she wore the briefest of panties, but the coolness of her satin skin as he stroked her drove him crazy. He treated himself to another massage of her backside before he gave in to the temptation and slipped his hand around in between her legs to rub her already damp underwear.
She tilted her head back against the tree, the dark smudge of her thick lashes fluttering as she closed her eyes. A small sound of pleasure escaped her lips and wrenched away his sanity.
He hadn’t expected this. He’d come for the dance, the negotiation, not for the wild exhilaration of sex, hot and unexpected, but the change of speed made him reel in the madness. One taste of her would never be enough. He needed more.
Quick and rough, he tugged at the delicate lace holding her tiny panties together, glorying in her shocked gasp as he ripped them from her. No longer able to hold a coherent thought in his mind, he ran on instinct.
Pleased with his own dexterity, he grinned as he dipped his face into the curve of her exposed neck, breathing in the soft feminine scent of her. He pecked his way to the pulse at the base of her throat where he could nip at the delicate skin there as he smoothed his fingertips over the lush, warm swell and dip of her damp flesh.
This time her gasp was low and guttural as he slid his fingers deep inside her, his wild fantasy of kissing her all over replaced by the sheer thrill of illicit sex. Hard, fast, and furious up against the rough bark.
In the tight confines between his body and the tree, she managed to arch against him, her quick, desperate breaths driving him onward.
“When I’m with you,” he groaned against her neck, “I just want to be inside of you.” His fingers slid out of her just as her hot, sweet flesh started to clench.
Frantic, he wrenched open the buttons of his jeans and tried not to fumble in his desperation to free himself. He scooped his hands under her backside, lifted her, and plunged himself to the hilt. She strained against him, drove him insane with her high-pitched mewl while she quivered in his arms. Determined to go deeper, he grabbed her thigh, wrapped it high around his waist, while her other leg was pinioned by his against the tree.
He thrust deep and hard inside her, fast and rhythmic. Sensations washed over him. Lust, desire, want, need, and it sucked him dry.
Her eyes fluttered open and he fell into the deep liquid pools as she crucified his emotions.
Tenderness.
In the blink of her baby blue’s things changed.
He raised his hand to cup the back of her head and protect it from scraping against the bark of the tree while he brushed his lips over hers in a gentle assault. From ravenous to tender in one breath.
He held himself still, felt the flutter of contractions begin as she let out a ragged breath, and tethered the flame of his own desire from raging out of control.
Stunned by the beauty of her, he tempered his urgency and savored her soft, keening wail, which obliterated all other thought but her satisfaction, his satisfaction.
Weak, he leaned against her, aware that the solid weight of him must be crushing. He untucked his head from her shoulder and pressed his forehead against hers. He watched and waited for her reaction.
It was slow to come. Her glazed look took a moment to focus. To sharpen. Her soft mouth a little longer to tighten.
He thought he’d made her understand. He thought she understood.
The way she unraveled herself from him, with controlled, cautious movements, it appeared he may not have succeeded in his quest.
“I’m sorry.” The words were out of his mouth before the sludge in his brain could clear. He wasn’t sure why he was apologizing. Except maybe sex up against a tree wasn’t the most likely pursuit of a sheriff and a doctor. More likely the desperate, ill-contained results of teenage libido. He tried not to smile in the face of her slow-to-burn anger, but he’d never had sex against a tree. Outside at midnight, on a blanket under the stars, maybe. But there was no comparison to what he’d experienced with Kate.
She’d just taken all he knew about lovemaking and shot it straight to hell. It was more like a dream, with soft clouds and mellow sunshine to drug him until he could no longer speak a coherent word.
“Well. Wow.” She rubbed his jawline with her hand, more of a dismissive flick than a tender sign of affection, and then she planted a swift kiss on his lips as she pushed him back and escaped from her position against the tree. “Wow,” she repeated, as a breathless laugh burst from her lips. “Jack, I wasn’t exactly expecting that. What a way to spend your lunch break.” She straightened her clothes, tugging them into place as though she’d stood up from a chair, not just had wild outdoor sex.
Cool as a cucumber, she already had him confused. “What can I say? Well, thanks.” She gave him a brief, cool smile before she turned in a circle, scanning the ground.
The fog cleared. His thoughts whipped in bright and cognizant, along with a small curl of annoyance.
There was no way she’d not enjoyed what they’d just done. She’d given as much as she got and never tried to disguise the fact that she’d participated fully. She’d made those pretty little sounds which drove him insane and gasped his name out in encouragement.
Yet here she was making light of what he considered an earth-moving experience. He’d craved a moment of tenderness, but she
wanted to get back to work. She’d even thanked him for Christ’s sake. Had she even heard what he’d said? Didn’t she understand he meant it, that he had never in his life made any kind of declaration to another woman?
He yanked up his trousers, wrenched his buttons together, and fastened his belt with an irritated jerk while she continued to scout the ground. He couldn’t get a handle on the woman at all. Just when he thought he’d sweet-talked her, she gave him the ice queen attitude.
He glanced at her again, but she ignored him. Blood starting to boil, he reached out and jerked her up straight. “What the hell are you doing?”
Surprise raced over her face.
“I can’t find my knickers.”
He didn’t care. He wanted her to give him some indication the earth had moved as much for her as it had for him. He didn’t need a cold shoulder. A brush-off.
She raised her hand to sweep her wayward hair from her cheek. Her brows drew together in confusion, and the hazy dreaminess of her limpid gaze gave him a jolt of satisfaction.
He’d just fucked her senseless and left her without the brain power to look for her panties.
His anger drained away as quick as it had flared.
With a fast grin, he ran his hand through his own hair and then dropped it to take her by the hand and lead her back toward the hospital. It was okay. It was all going to be okay. She was still fuzzy, and the woman wasn’t used to being left vague and weak.
“Jack, Jack.” She pulled back on his hand. “I have no knickers on, I have to find them.” He jerked her toward him, and she stumbled into his arms with a wide look of desperate shock.
“Panties. We call them panties here.”
Her back straightened and one eyebrow shot high on her forehead. “I don’t care what you call them. Can’t you understand? I don’t have any panties, and I can’t go to work without them, you philistine.”
Laughter bubbled up in his chest. Who the hell used the word philistine?
“They’re no good to you, honey.” He took her mouth in a gleeful kiss. “I ripped them off of you. I have them in my pocket as a reminder. I’ve never had sex against a tree before, what about you?”
He grinned as genuine shock streaked across her features, and then he linked his fingers with hers and took off on a fast march toward the hospital.
“Give them back, right now.” She huffed at his side as she struggled to keep up with him. He wrapped his arm around her waist to steady her as they approached the single doctor who still took in the sunshine.
With a low growl, he whispered in her ear, “Not now, honey, I don’t think you want me to take your panties out of my pocket right here, do you?”
Her vibrant blush made him want to tease her just a little longer, but they’d run out of time and he hadn’t yet mentioned why he was there.
“Have supper with me tonight.” It was a date, wasn’t it? They didn’t have to go out to be on a date.
Confusion filled her eyes. He’d discovered he liked to confuse her—it kept her off balance and ruffled the cool she always exuded. He like her ruffled too.
“I can’t. I’m working until ten, then on early tomorrow.”
He couldn’t stop the trickle of annoyance as he squinted down at her. Even confused, the woman managed to keep him on his toes.
“Well, what are you doing tomorrow night?” He’d never had to pursue a woman as much as he had Kate, and it proved to be irritating.
He glanced at the other doctor and caught him staring. He waited until the man looked away before he turned back to Kate.
Three nights before, they’d made love all night long, and since then she hadn’t even tried to contact him. He’d had to find her and she’d accused him of avoiding her. Now, he was having to persuade her to see him again, when all he wanted was to get her back into bed. Or wherever, up against a tree, on a sofa, rolling across the goddammed floor. But he wanted her. Again. Now.
“I finish late afternoon.”
“Well, that’s good, then. We should talk. Yeah, it would be good.” He mumbled almost to himself as he patted his pockets and produced a key. “Why don’t you come on over to my place when you’ve finished and we’ll have supper?”
He dangled the key in front of her and wondered what the hell he would do if she didn’t take it. “That’s in case I get held up at work.” He nodded at the key in case she couldn’t see it swinging in front of her eyes. She stared at it like he’d offered her a tarantula. “You don’t want to hang around in the heat if you can help it.” He tried to keep it casual, but he thought if she didn’t take it he was going to look mighty stupid shoving it into her hand.
Did she want him to beg?
As though she wasn’t convinced she should take it, she reached out a cautious hand and let him drop it into her palm.
She ducked her head and before he could pull her in for another kiss, she was gone.
»»•««
“Kate.” Bill rushed along the corridor toward her as Kate headed for the restroom, desperate not to get waylaid before she could locate some more underwear. But Bill was a deputy sheriff for good reason. Her interception techniques were second to none.
She dashed down the hall from the opposite direction, skidded to a halt in front of the restroom door, and neatly blocked Kate’s escape route.
“Have you seen Jack? We have a call, we need to go.”
An uncomfortable slide of heat shot up Kate’s neck into her face as she darted a glance at Bill. Guilt writhed in her stomach as the other woman’s eyes met hers and widened with certain knowledge.
“I see he found you.”
Bill peered closely at Kate’s overheated face before she narrowed her eyes to cruise her gaze the entire length of Kate’s body and back again as though assessing the damage. As the other woman’s gaze met hers again, fire burned Kate’s face and turned her tongue to ash.
“Holy shit. I hope you can cover up your hickey before anyone else sees it, or the gossips will be out in their hoards.”
Pretty cheerful, Bill spun on her heel and made her way back from where she’d come, while she called over her shoulder, “I’m sure if I return to the vehicle, he’ll turn up pretty soon.”
Mortified, Kate rushed into the ladies’ room to inspect her skin. A mark the size of a dollar coin blazed across her neck. The memory of the exact moment when he’d put his mark on her was at the forefront of her mind. As she met her reflection in the mirror, her flushed face and kiss-swollen lips served as a reminder of the wicked sex she’d just had with the handsome sheriff. Wild and wanton, she’d never been so bad. Seemed like she’d lost her knickers and half her brain.
She splashed her face, gasping as the icy water hit her skin and shot further color into her cheeks. She made quick work of cleaning herself up before she sneaked through to the locker room to find fresh underwear. There was often a requirement in casualty for fresh clothes. The normal reason would be if a patient threw up on her, or bled out.
Determined not to be discovered, she threw wary glances over her shoulder as she rooted through her locker. She grabbed her thermos of coffee and took a quick swig straight from it, and a vision of her abandoned mug lying on the grass seeped through her memory and warmed her skin. Damned if the man hadn’t made her lose her entire brain. She’d have to sneak out there and retrieve it later.
She scrambled to haul the knickers up her legs, a splutter of laughter bursting free.
Not in her wildest imagination had she thought she would need them because hers had been ripped off her in a moment of pure passion.
»»•««
The silence in the car couldn’t be ignored any longer. As they pulled up at the traffic lights, Jack tapped his fingers on the steering wheel and then glanced sideways at Bill.
“What’s up?”
Her face sullen, Bill wriggled in her seat a little, casting him a couple of dark looks from under her winged black brows.
“Spit it out.” He really didn’t wan
t to spoil the easy feeling of lassitude he’d had since his recent encounter with the good doctor, but Bill had something on her mind, and it was too painful to ignore.
As he pulled away from the lights, she muttered, “I saw Kate.”
He could see her out of the corner of his eye, picking at her fingernails, chewing her bottom lip. This could be bad.
“Uh-huh.”
“She was… rumpled.”
He quite liked the idea of cool Kate looking rumpled, especially as he’d been the one responsible for the rumpling. Not that he’d intended to mess her up quite in that manner. He’d only meant to neck a little and bring her around to his way of thinking, but before he knew it, things had gone further than he meant and he’d acted like a teenage boy on a sexual rampage. Still, he felt good. A little relaxed and a lot satisfied.
Now he was going to have to tread carefully.
“And…?”
Her thumb went up to her mouth and she bit her nail before she rushed on. “Well you just met up with her and she had a hickey on her neck and she seemed all kind of flushed and—well—rumpled.” She repeated herself.
“What’s your point, Bill?”
“I like Kate,” she huffed.
He pulled the car into the sheriff’s parking lot, turned off the engine, and leaned back to contemplate his cousin.
“I don’t think she’s your type.”
Bill snorted with derision. “Yeah, and I presume you don’t believe those rumors going around town about me. Of course Kate’s not my type, I assure you I prefer the male of the species and I would have thought after the little problem with females you’ve had lately, you wouldn’t believe anything you hear on the grapevine.”