“I’m surprised to see you here,” he said, not taking his eyes off her as he drank in her beauty. It was one of those days when the air was brisk with a slight chill although the sun was shining high overhead. The sun’s rays made her look that much more gorgeous.
“Today was my day off. I wasn’t doing anything special so I thought I would come and check things out. I had lunch at Chase’s place, and when I asked about you, he told me where you were.”
Thorn nodded. He just bet his brother was happy to give her any information about him that she wanted. They would do anything to get him out of his foul mood. But what surprised him was that Tara had asked Chase about him. Thorn wondered if perhaps she had sought him out about anything in particular. He sighed, deciding he would find out soon enough.
“All right, Mr. Westmoreland, I’m ready to start shooting again,” Lois said, recapturing his attention.
He slid his gaze from Tara’s to Lois’s. “Okay,” he said, ready to get the photo session over with. “Let your camera roll.”
* * *
Tara’s breath got lodged in her throat as she watched Thorn before the camera. He looked magnificent.
Thorn and his motorcycle.
Together they were a natural, and she knew that he would be the highlight in any woman’s calendar as Mr. July. In a month that was known to be hot anyway, he would definitely make things explosive.
She should have her head examined even for being here. She had known that today was the day for Thorn’s photo session and when Chase had mentioned just where it would be, she couldn’t help being pulled to this place to seek him out. On the drive over she kept asking herself why she needed to see him, but she hadn’t come up with an answer.
“That’s right, Mr. Westmoreland, give me another one of those sexy smiles for the camera. That’s it. Just think about all those women who’ll be looking at you on that calendar and panting. I’m sure some of them will even find a way to contact you. You’ll certainly have your pick of any of them,” Lois said, as she moved around in front of Thorn and snapped picture after picture.
Tara frowned. The photographer’s words didn’t sit too well with her. Just the thought of other women contacting Thorn after seeing the calendar bothered her. It shouldn’t have. She met his gaze and saw he was watching her intently. Had he read the displeasure on her face when the photographer had mentioned other women?
She sighed deeply, getting aggravated with herself. What Thorn did with his free time did not concern her. At least it shouldn’t, but it did.
“Okay, that’s it, Mr. Westmoreland. You were a wonderful subject to capture on film and I can’t wait for the calendar to come out. I know it will be a huge success and will benefit Kids’ World greatly.”
Lois then added. “And not to impose but I have a friend who asked me to give you her phone number. She is a huge fan of yours and would love to get together with you some time. She’s a flight attendant who usually attends Bike Week in Daytona each year and was wondering if perhaps—”
“Thanks, but I’m not interested,” Thorn said, getting off his bike. He didn’t even glance at the surprised look on Lois’s face when he walked toward Tara. “I have all the woman I need right here.”
Thorn saw surprise in Tara’s face just seconds before he leaned down and kissed her in a full open-mouth caress that left no one guessing about their relationship. At least no one other than Tara.
“Oops, sorry,” Lois said when Thorn released Tara’s mouth from his. “I didn’t know the two of you were an item, Dr. Matthews.” She smiled apologetically. “I assumed you had dropped by as a member of the committee to see how things were going. Besides, from everything I’d always heard or read, Thorn Westmoreland has never made a claim on any woman,” she said, chuckling. “Evidently, I’m wrong.”
Before Tara could open her mouth, the one that had just been thoroughly kissed by Thorn, to tell Lois that she had not been wrong and had misread things, Thorn spoke up.
“Yeah, you were wrong because I’m definitely staking a claim on this woman.”
Tara raised a brow and decided that now was not the time or the place to set Thorn straight. No man staked a claim on her. “I gather things went well,” she found herself saying instead.
“Better than I thought they would. Lois is good at her job. I just hope all those photographs she took come out the way she wants them to.”
Tara nodded. There was no doubt in her mind they would. What Lois had said was true. Thorn was definitely a wonderful subject to capture on film. “Well, I’d better go. I dropped by out of curiosity,” she said easing away.
He nodded. “What are your plans for the rest of the day?”
Tara’s heart thudded in her chest with his question. “I don’t have any. Why?”
“Would you like go to bike-riding with me and have dinner at that restaurant again?”
Tara really would have liked that but wondered if it was wise. But then, if she planned to seduce Thorn into breaking his vow of celibacy, she had to get things rolling.
“All right. Just give me an hour to go home and change clothes.”
His gaze was steadily focused on hers when he said, “Okay.”
* * *
Thorn didn’t have to encourage Tara this time to lean into him. Her body automatically did so after straddling the bike behind him and fitting her rear end comfortably on the seat. She placed her chest against his back, delighting in the feel of her body pressed against his. She inhaled the pleasant scent of him as she rested her head against his jacket, and, at the moment, without understanding what was going on with her, she felt being this close to him was a necessity to her very existence. It didn’t make sense. She had vowed never to feel that way about any man again.
But she admitted that Thorn was her challenge.
Although she knew a future wasn’t in the cards for them, and any involvement would be just as he wanted—completely physical and emotionally free she still couldn’t help but be cautious. There was something about Thorn that could become addictive. But then she reminded herself quickly that she didn’t intend things to go that far between them. Thorn would have to choose between her and the race, and she was banking that it would be the race. It was an ego thing. He could get another woman in his bed any time, but a chance to be victorious at Bike Week, to reign supreme, was something he had been working years to achieve.
So she decided to do whatever was needed to increase his physical craving and make sure he was tempted beyond his control. She scooted closer to him and leaned more into him. Her arms around his waist tightened. She planted her cheek against his back and again inhaled his scent—manly, robust and sensual.
Closing her eyes, she remembered that night in her kitchen, the skill of his exploring fingers and the sensations he had made her feel. She then imagined how things might be if they were to make it beyond the four weeks, although she knew they wouldn’t. But still she decided there was nothing wrong with having wild fun in her imagination.
What would happen if her plan to seduce Thorn failed? He would probably win the race—only because he was arrogant and cocky enough to do so—and then he would celebrate his victory, but not for long. He would turn his attention to her with one thought on his mind; taking her to bed.
The thought of that happening was almost too much to think about. But she did so anyway. In the dark recesses of her mind, she could picture the two of them wrapped in silken sheets in a huge bed, making out like there was no tomorrow.
For an entire week.
She opened her eyes and tried to shove the thoughts away. Too late. There were too many of them firmly planted in her mind. After two years of going without he would no doubt take her at a level that bordered on desperation. He would be like a starving man eating his favorite meal for the first time in a long while. She shuddered slightly as she imagined how his first thrust would feel. Probably painful, considering her virginal state. But then, any that followed would be…
* * *
Thorn breathed in deeply as he brought his bike to a stop. All he had planned to do was take Tara out to eat and then back home. But the feel of her arms wrapped tightly around his waist, the feel of her pressed so close to his back and the scent of her surrounding him had been too much.
He angled his head over his shoulder and came very close to her face. “We need to talk.”
Tara lifted a brow. “Couldn’t we have waited until we got to the restaurant?”
He shook his head. “No, it’s rather private and not a topic we would want to discuss over dinner.”
“Oh,” she said, wondering just what topic that could be.
She climbed off the bike and stood back as he turned off the engine, kicked down the motorcycle stand and then swung his leg over the bike. She tried not to look at how tightly stretched his jeans were across his body, especially over his midsection, as he slowly covered the distance that separated them. She met his gaze. He had said that he wanted to talk, but the look in his eyes told another story.
She swallowed when he came to a stop in front of her. “What did you want to talk about?”
Thorn blinked. For a moment he had completely forgotten just what he had wanted to discuss with her. His concentration had gone to her mouth and his desire to devour it. Savor it. Taste it.
“It’s about birth control,” he finally said.
Now it was Tara’s turn to blink. “Birth control?”
“Yes,” Thorn answered in a husky voice. “I need to know if you’re using any?”
Tara blinked again. “Excuse me?”
Thorn’s voice got huskier when he explained. “I need to know if you plan on using birth control when we make love because I don’t intend to use anything.”
Tara stared at him, momentarily speechless. Never in a million years would she have thought that he was the kind of man who would be the selfish type in the bedroom. They were men who thought all they had to do was to enjoy the act of making love and not contribute to the responsibility of making sure there was not an unwanted pregnancy. She had heard about such men and couldn’t believe that Thorn was one of them. She couldn’t believe he was actually standing in front of her dumping something like that in her lap.
Looking him squarely in the eye she placed her hands on her hips. “No, I’m not on any type of birth control,” she said, deciding not to add that she had started taking the pill six months before her wedding was to take place. She had stopped when the marriage hadn’t happened and had not given any thought to going back on them since there had not been a need. As far as she was concerned there still was no need since she had no intention of sleeping with Thorn, although he didn’t know that.
Her gaze sharpened and angry fire appeared in her eyes. The expression on her face would probably have killed lesser men. “So if you plan to sleep with me, Thorn Westmoreland, then it will be up to you to wear a condom.”
Thorn crossed his arms over his chest. Oh, he intended to sleep with her all right. But sleep was only a portion of what they would do, a very small portion. He watched her glare at him. Damn, but he liked her feistiness and had from the first time they had met. He knew he had ventured into territory that was probably off limits by the way she was acting, but the sooner she knew the score, the better. First he had to clarify things with her.
“Don’t misunderstand me, Tara. If it were any woman other than you, I wouldn’t even dream of taking them to bed without my own brand of protection no matter what type of protection they claimed to be using. In addition to that, I would make sure we both knew the state of our health. Safe sex means a lot to me, and I need to be certain it also means a lot to the woman I’m sleeping with. When it comes to bed partners, I’m extremely selective. Because of racing, I routinely take physicals, and I’m sure since you’re involved in the medical field, things are probably the same way with you. I apologize if I came off just now as being a man who leaves the responsibility of birth control strictly in the hands of the woman. That is far from the truth. I’m not that selfish nor am I that stupid.”
Confusion clouded Tara’s eyes. “Then why did you ask me that? I still don’t understand.”
He decided it was time to make her understand. “Because I have wanted you for so long, and my desire for you is so great, I want to explode inside you and know it’s happening and actually feel it happening. I want to be skin to skin with you when it happens. More than anything, I desire it to be that way with you.”
Tara’s chest rose as she took a deep breath, removed her hands from her hips and clenched them by her sides. She met the eyes that bored into hers and whispered in a soft voice the single word that immediately came to her mind. “Why?”
He took a step closer. “Because I want to share more pleasure with you than I’ve ever shared with another woman. For one solid week I don’t want to know where your body begins and where mine ends. And at that moment when I am inside of you, making love to you over and over again, I want to be able to feel, actually feel, you getting wet for me. I want the full effect of reaching the ultimate climax with you.”
He reached out and touched her waist and felt the tremors that his words had caused. He pulled her to him, wanting her to feel just what he was feeling too. She was the reason for his constant state of arousal and had been the reason for quite some time. No other woman had been able to do this to him. Only her. He had two years of pent-up sexual frustrations to release and he wanted to do it inside of her. He could think of making love to no one else.
He saw an involvement with someone else as a sexual act that would be empty, meaningless and unfulfilling. Maybe it was a mind game he had gotten caught up in, but there was no help for it. He was convinced that Tara was not only his challenge and his sweetest temptation, he truly believed that she was also his passion and the two of them would connect in bed in a special way. They would be fantastic together. He had no illusions that they would not be.
Tara licked her bottom lip. She wondered what Thorn would say if she told him she was a virgin. And better yet, what would he say if she told him she didn’t intend to get on any type of birth control just for a week that wouldn’t happen? But she couldn’t tell him either of those things.
Instead, she said. “And what if I told you I couldn’t take the pill due to medical reasons and that I don’t feel comfortable using any other type of birth control? Would you use a condom then?”
Without hesitating he said. “Yes.”
She nodded, believing that he would. But then, after what he had just told her, she knew that if they ever made love—although there was a very slim chance of that happening—they both knew what it would take to give him the ultimate in sexual satisfaction when he slept with her. He wanted it all and had engrained into his mind that he wanted things to be different with her than they had been with any other woman he had been with.
Tara didn’t know whether to be flattered or frightened.
A part of her knew she had nothing to fear from Thorn. Even when he had come across as moodier than hell, she hadn’t been afraid of him. The reason she had avoided him for the past two years was for the very thing he was talking to her about now.
Wants and desires.
She had always wanted him, from the first. Even now she wanted him. She was woman enough to admit that. But wanting something and having something were two totally different things. Derrick had pretty much killed her emotions, but Thorn had easily brought them back to life. If she was afraid of anything, it was of losing her heart to someone else and getting hurt once more. But she couldn’t think about any of that when Thorn was looking at her as if she was a trea
t he wanted to savor, over and over again.
“Thanks for letting me know what I’m up against, Thorn,” she said softly. She watched a slow smile touch the corners of his lips. Everyone knew Thorn’s smiles were infrequent, and whenever he smiled, especially at her, pleasant emotions always flooded her body.
“That’s not the only thing you will be up against, Tara.”
She heard the little hitch in his voice and followed the path of his gaze downward as it settled on his midsection. She shuddered when she saw his arousal straining against the zipper of his jeans.
“But there’s no doubt in my mind that you can handle me.”
Tara blinked. She wasn’t so sure when she saw how large he was. A mixture of desire and anticipation rammed through her mind as well as her body. It didn’t do any good to try and convince herself that she didn’t have a thing to worry about since she and Thorn would never make love. Seeing him standing before her with a determined look on his face made her realize just what she really was up against. His mind was pretty made up. He would be competing in the race, and he would have her at the end of four weeks and nothing would deter him from his goals.
She would have to see about that. She needed to test his control and let him know just what he was up against as well.
Determined to make a point, she leaned up on tiptoe and placed her mouth to his. After overcoming his surprise, he immediately captured her lips with his. At the first touch of his tongue to hers she began to shudder, and he placed his arms around her and brought her closer into the fit of him to thoroughly taste her and devour her mouth. A keen ache throbbed deep within her. She slipped her arms around his neck and held on as his kiss became more demanding. Arching against him she felt the hardness of his erection more firmly against her belly, igniting heat and a deep sense of yearning.
He was giving her just what she wanted, and she suddenly pushed aside her need to make a point. At the moment nothing mattered to her, except the sensation of him against her stomach, and the feel of his hands cupping her backside to secure a closer fit.
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