Hawk's Way Grooms

by Joan Johnston

  Ever so slowly, she withdrew his forefinger from her mouth, then let go of his wrist. She had to clear her throat to speak. “I forgot to bring along wet wipes,” she said. “I figured that was the best way to get rid of the marshmallow.”

  Mac took the fingers that had been in her mouth and slowly licked off imaginary specks of sugar. “It seems to be all gone.”

  He watched Jewel swallow hard before Gavin distracted her attention.

  “How about sharing this one with me?” Gavin said, putting a hand on her forearm to stake his claim and holding out a perfectly toasted marshmallow.

  Mac saw the goose bumps rise on her flesh where Gavin’s hand lay. Saw her tentative smile as she turned back to the other man.

  “Sure, Gavin,” she said. “I’d like that.”

  She pulled the gooey marshmallow from the wire and ate half of it before Gavin caught her wrist and, with a grin, turned the marshmallow toward himself. Mac watched in helpless fury as Gavin ate the rest of the marshmallow from her hand and licked her fingers clean.

  When Gavin started kissing her fingertips, something inside Mac snapped. “That’s it!”

  “What?” Jewel said, turning bewildered eyes on him.

  “Let’s go, Jewel.” Mac stood and grabbed Jewel’s wrist to drag her to her feet. He was surprised when she resisted.

  “What’s wrong with you, Mac?” she said.

  “I think this has gone far enough.” He said the words to the counselor, who understand exactly what his problem was.

  Gavin rose to his feet, his legs widespread. “I didn’t hear the lady complaining about my attentions.”

  Gavin had a point. But Mac wasn’t in a rational mood. “The lady is too polite to say anything.”

  Gavin raised a questioning brow and faced Jewel. “Is that true, Jewel?”

  “I don’t see…I mean, I think I may have encouraged…I just wanted to see…”

  Gavin’s lip curved wryly on one side. “Your point is taken,” he said to Mac.

  By then, Colt was on his feet on the other side of the fire. “You need any help, Mac?”

  Jenny grabbed Colt’s T-shirt where it hung out of his jeans and yanked on it. “Sit down, Colt. This doesn’t concern you.”

  “She’s my sister.”

  “Sit down, Colt,” Jenny repeated.

  Mac watched as Colt met Jenny’s gaze and settled back onto the ground beside her.

  By then, Jewel was up and standing nose to nose with Mac. “What’s gotten into you?” she demanded in a harsh whisper. “You’re the one who told me to flirt with him in the first place!”

  “I didn’t think it would go this far,” Mac said stubbornly.

  “Thanks to you,” she hissed, “it’s not likely to go much further!”

  “That’s fine by me,” Mac retorted.

  “I think I’ll excuse myself and let you two settle this alone,” Gavin said. “I can find my own way back.”

  “We’d better get going, too,” Jenny said, rising and pulling Huck and Colt to their feet. “I don’t want to be late getting home.”

  Within moments, everything had been picked up and repacked, and the four of them were on their way back to the ranch house, leaving Mac and Jewel to put out the fire.

  “All right, Mac,” Jewel said. “I want to hear from your own lips what possessed you to cause such a scene.”

  JEWEL WAS CONFUSED BY MAC’S STRANGE behavior. “You’re the one who told me to try out my feminine wiles,” she said. “The first time I do, you act like a jealous lover.”

  She thought Mac flushed, but it was hard to tell in the firelight.

  “I thought you wanted me along to protect you,” he said.

  “If I needed protection. Which I did not.”

  Mac kicked sand over the fire, creating a cloud of smoke. “You liked the way he was pawing you?”

  “Pawing me?” she said. “Gavin’s attentions weren’t at all unwelcome.”

  When Gavin had smiled at her, she had allowed herself to feel the pleasure of being attractive to—and attracted to—a handsome man. When he had blown out the match, and his warm, moist breath touched her hand, she had not cut off the frisson of awareness that skittered down her spine. When he had kissed her fingertips, she had felt her heart beat more rapidly in response.

  But none of those feelings in any way compared to the shock of awareness she felt when she had met Mac’s gaze and discovered he had been aroused by the way she had sucked and licked his fingers clean.

  It was the difference between a pinprick and being stabbed with a knife. While she was completely aware of both, one was slight and fleeting, while the other burned deep inside. One would disappear quickly; the other would not soon be forgotten.

  She wasn’t about to admit her vulnerability to Mac when he was behaving like a jealous idiot. Especially when he wasn’t volunteering to take Gavin’s place. “I liked what Gavin did,” she said.

  “I didn’t,” Mac said flatly.

  “Why not?” Jewel demanded.

  “He was moving too fast. You hardly know the guy.”

  “He didn’t do anything I didn’t allow.”

  “That’s another thing,” Mac said. “Just how far were you intending to go? Would you have let him kiss you?”

  “Why not?” she said tartly.

  Mac made a threatening, rumbly sound in his throat. “I can kiss you as well as some stranger can. If it’s kisses you want, come to me.”

  “Last night you said—”

  “Forget about last night. It never happened. We start new, here and now. You want to practice being a woman, practice with me.”

  Jewel eyed Mac in astonishment. She had exactly what she had thought she wanted. All she had to do was find the courage to follow through and take Mac up on his offer. She took a deep breath, let it out and said, “All right. I’ll practice with you.”

  Mac heaved a sigh and knelt down to stir the ashes with a stick to make certain the fire was out. “Thank God that’s settled.”

  “I want to be kissed, Mac.”

  She watched his shoulders tense, saw him drop the stick, then rise to face her.

  “You want to be kissed now?”

  “If you hadn’t scared Gavin away, he’d be kissing me now,” she pointed out.

  It was hard to tell what Mac was feeling. His eyes were narrowed in—anger? His lips were twisted in a moue of—frustration? And his brow was furrowed deep with—apprehension? Which showed how good she was at reading men. What did Mac Macready have to be anxious about? He must have kissed a hundred women. She was the one who needed lessons.

  “Come here, Jewel,” Mac said in a voice that grated like an unoiled hinge.

  It only took a couple of steps for her to reach him. His arms opened wide, and as she stepped between them, they folded around her. One hand caught at her nape, the other low on her spine, just above her buttocks. She was aware of goose bumps rising along her nape as his hand slid up and grasped a handful of her hair.

  He did not pull her any closer, simply angled her head and lowered his mouth. His lips felt warm and full as he rubbed them against hers. “Are you sure about this, Jewel?” he breathed against her half-open mouth.

  She made a sound in her throat which he must have taken as assent, because he kissed the left side of her mouth, then the right, before returning to the center. He slipped his tongue beneath her upper lip, then nipped at her lips with his teeth.

  Jewel shivered. It was strange, standing upright, being held—but not held—in a man’s arms. She leaned into the kiss, returning the gentle pressure of his mouth. She slid her tongue along the seam of his lips, and he opened for her. Jewel had never been the aggressor with a man. It felt wonderful to be able to taste and tease to her heart’s content without being afraid.

  Her arms roamed up Mac’s back, feeling the corded sinew. One hand slid into the hair at his nape and played with it as she indulged herself kissing him, feeling the damp softness of his lips, tasting
the inside of his mouth with soft, tentative thrusts that he returned. She felt him begin to tremble.

  “Jewel,” he murmured.

  “Hmm.” Her lips followed the line of his chin to a spot below his ear, and she heard him hiss in a breath.

  “I think we’d better stop.”

  She leaned back and looked up into his hooded eyes, at lips rigid with passion. She smiled. “If I look anything like you do, perhaps you’re right.”

  “You look beautiful,” he said fervently.

  “You don’t have to say that,” Jewel protested. “I know what I—”

  He put his mouth on hers to silence her, pouring his feelings into a kiss that had her straining to be closer to him, closing the distance between them, until they were pressed close from breast to thigh. Jewel was so entranced by what Mac was doing with his mouth that it took her a moment to realize he had widened his stance enough to fit her between his legs.

  He was aroused.

  She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to concentrate on the kiss. It was so lovely. It felt so good. But her body below the waist had turned to stone.

  Mac broke the kiss and looked down at her, his eyes worried. “Jewel?”

  “Let me go, Mac.”

  “I won’t hurt you, Jewel.” He put one hand on her buttocks to keep her where she was. He smiled tenderly. “I’d very much like to put myself inside you.”

  Jewel felt the heat climbing up her throat at such plain speaking. “Mac—”

  “But I’m not going to do anything until you’re ready,” he said, leaning down to give her a gentle kiss on the lips. “We have plenty of time.”

  “Your recuperation is almost complete,” Jewel countered. “Look how far you’ve come in—”

  He stopped her with another kiss. “We have plenty of time for you to get used to me touching you, wanting you.”

  “It doesn’t seem fair, Mac. I mean, for me to use you like this.”

  He smiled. “Believe me, I don’t mind.”

  His eyes seemed to be promising things she knew he could not mean. She looked down and said, “In a couple of weeks you’ll be leaving here, and I won’t be seeing you again.”

  He lifted her chin until she was looking into his eyes. “You’ll always be special to me, Jewel. You have no idea how special.” He opened his mouth as though to say something else and closed it again. “Look, let’s just take this one day at a time. You can start with simple stuff like kisses and touches. Anytime you want to practice, just let me know. How does that sound?”

  “Are you sure I won’t be imposing?” Jewel asked.

  “It’ll be my pleasure,” Mac said with a grin, rocking his body against hers.

  “Oh!”

  His brow wrinkled in concern. “What’s wrong?”

  “You’re still…and I’m not…It’s working!” she said with delight. “I’m hardly affected at all.” Except that her pulse was throbbing, and she felt the strangest urge to push back against the hardness that rested between her legs.

  Mac’s smile looked a little forced. “See. You’re already getting used to me.”

  He released her, and Jewel took a step back.

  “I suppose we’d better get back,” she said. “Camp starts tomorrow, and I’ll be getting up early.”

  “I can help you after my workout.”

  Jewel smiled. “I’d like that.”

  “Don’t forget. Anytime you feel like you want to practice, just let me know. There’s no need to flirt with that Gavin character.”

  “I thought I might try my wings—”

  “Try your wings on me!” He swung her back into his arms, kissed her hard on the lips, then stomped off toward his horse, leaving her standing there.

  It took a minute for Jewel to catch her breath and steady her racing pulse. “I was just teasing!” she called after him, as she hurried to catch up.

  Mac made a growling sound in his throat. “Let’s go. It’s late.”

  She stomped right over and stood in front of him. “For heaven’s sake! Where’s your sense of humor?”

  He grabbed her hand and placed it on the bulge in his jeans. “Right there. I’m not feeling too damn funny at the moment.”

  Even though he had immediately let go of her hand, Jewel was too shocked to jerk away. She left her hand where Mac had put it, feeling the length and hardness of him. This part of him didn’t seem nearly so threatening through a layer of denim and cotton, warm and pulsing beneath her hand.

  “Jewel,” he said through gritted teeth. “What are you doing?”

  “Learning.”

  He gave a choked laugh. “I think my sense of humor is—”

  “In very fine shape,” she said with a gamine grin. “Want to test it again?”

  He caught her wrist and removed her hand. “I think I’ve had enough testing for one evening. Let’s save this for another time.”

  “Anything you say, Mac,” she answered cheerfully. “You’re the teacher.”

  And Jewel was determined to be a very good pupil.

  CHAPTER TEN

  MAC REALIZED THE DILEMMA HE HAD put himself in. He was going to be kissing and touching Jewel over the next several weeks—and encouraging her to kiss and touch him—even though he had serious reservations about making love to her. Not because he didn’t desire her, but because he was afraid if he did something wrong, he would mess things up for her even more. He decided he owed it to both of them to get some professional advice.

  “Something’s come up that I need to discuss with my agent,” Mac said to Jewel at breakfast the next morning. “I’ve made reservations to fly to Dallas this afternoon.”

  “Couldn’t you do it over the phone?” Jewel asked.

  Mac shook his head and raised another spoonful of cornflakes. “Too sensitive. Requires face-to-face consultation.”

  “Why didn’t you say something about this last night?” she asked suspiciously.

  He grinned. “I was distracted last night.”

  Jewel blushed. Mac thought she had never looked lovelier. She was wearing a plaid Western shirt, tucked in at the waist of her jeans, that hinted at the fullness of her figure. Her brown hair looked sun kissed, and her brown eyes gleamed. As she turned toward him, the faded crisscross scars on her face took him back to a time when they were both much younger and someone had teased her about them.

  Mac realized he must have cared a great deal for her even then. He could remember wiping away her tears with his thumbs, kissing her scarred cheek and saying, “These scars are as precious as any other part of you, Jewel, more facets to add texture to the diamond you are.”

  He had meant it then, and he could see it now.

  Jewel laid her spoon in her cereal bowl and said, “I’ll miss you, Mac. When will you be back?”

  Mac met her troubled gaze and said, “I don’t know.” He had no idea how long it would take to get an appointment with the one sex therapist he knew. Dr. Timothy Douglas might be too busy to fit him in for several days.

  “You’re not coming back, are you?” Jewel said flatly. “You’ve changed your mind about wanting to teach me, and you’re leaving.” The glow had left her face and the sparkle had faded from her eyes.

  “What do I have to do to convince you I’m not going away?”

  “Kiss me,” she said. “That was the deal. I could ask anytime, and I’m asking now.” She crossed her arms over her chest as though she thought he might refuse.

  Silly woman. He wasn’t about to refuse.

  Mac crossed to Jewel in two steps, tipped her chin up and slanted his mouth over hers, kissing her with all the passion he felt, hoping to convince her he meant what he said. They were both breathing hard when he lifted his head. “I’m coming back,” he said. “I just have some business to do in Dallas.”

  Tears filled her eyes as she looked up at him. “That was goodbye. I know it.”

  Mac shook his head in disbelief. He stood and put his hands on his hips. “Look, Jewel. Why would I m
ake an offer like the one I made last night and leave the next day for good?”

  “Because you had second thoughts,” she said.

  “No, I did not.”

  “Because you realized I might fall in love with you or something stupid like that, if you started kissing me all the time.”

  “That never crossed my mind!” The thought hadn’t occurred to him, but he liked the idea now that she mentioned it.

  “Probably you never thought of me falling in love, because kisses don’t mean much to a man like you,” she said, lips pouting.

  How wrong she was! Mac thought. Her kisses, at least, made him feel a great deal, though he wasn’t willing to go so far as to think in terms of love. A great deal of like. That was what he felt for Jewel Whitelaw.

  But he couldn’t resist kissing her again. He slipped his tongue inside her mouth and tasted her thoroughly. When he stood again, the revealing bulge was back in his jeans. He noticed that she noticed and felt his body tighten in expectation.

  “I’ll be back, Jewel. Trust me.”

  It was a lot to ask a woman who hadn’t found much about men to trust.

  She blinked back the tears and said, “All right, Mac.”

  He kissed her again, to thank her for trusting him, but when he felt the urge to pull her up and into his arms, he stepped back. “You’ve got campers to see to, and I’ve got a few things to do before I join you.”

  “You’re still going to help me with the campers this morning?”

  “Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”

  “I thought you might have to pack…”

  “I’m only taking a few things.”

  She walked back to him and put her arms around him and hugged him tight. “I’m so glad you’re coming back,” she said. “I’ll be waiting for you. I won’t even flirt with Gavin while you’re gone.”

  She was already halfway to the door by the time he realized what she had said. She turned back, winked and laughed, then headed out the door.

  Mac watched her till she was gone, realizing he had more problems to solve than just hers, if they were to have any hope of a future together. He had gotten a big signing bonus when he joined the Tornadoes, but his five-year contract had provided for a smaller salary in the first few years. He had most of the signing bonus left, but he had pretty much spent his first year’s salary.