by Rachel Lee
She gasped with pleasure when she saw how ready he was for her. Reaching out like a child for candy, she closed her hand around his rigid member, feeling silky skin, a powerful pulse that caused him to move in her grip.
Tim closed his eyes, drawing several deep breaths, then opened them as he began to trace her with his fingertips.
The air almost seemed to pound with Vanessa’s passion. Everything inside her quivered with longing and delight. His every light touch added flame to the heaviness of need that was overtaking her.
Her breasts became instruments on which he played a siren’s song. His fingers slipped down to her middle, causing her to quiver.
She ran her free hand over him, too, testing muscle, feeling the nubs of his hardened nipples, reaching his hip and pulling because she wanted him even closer.
Then he slipped his hand between her legs and she crumpled, weakened by her hunger, weakened by his touch.
* * *
Tim felt her sag a little and caught her quickly, placing her supine on the bed. Her eyelids were heavy; her arms reached up for him.
He needed no further encouragement. He wanted this badly. Swinging himself onto the bed until he straddled her, he sought to learn her with his mouth, trailing his lips and tongue all over her.
She shivered as he licked her neck, but she bucked when he found the hardened berries of her nipples. His own passion throbbed so strongly that he didn’t know how long he’d last. Nor was he worried about it. There were always second times in a night.
But the important thing was to make her feel everything he was feeling, to carry her into this powerful, almost painful but totally blissful experience with him.
As her body writhed beneath his touches, he knew she was with him, and his brain exploded with white-hot delight.
Thought was slipping away. Caution was slipping away. He searched out her every hill and hollow, and when his mouth found the cleft between her legs, she keened like a siren calling to him. Her nails digging into his shoulders told him all he needed to know.
One last moment of sense gripped him before it was too late. He leaned up and pulled open the drawer in a bedside table to get a condom.
Her eyes fluttered, and she saw it. Yanking it from his hand, she opened the package and pulled it out.
“Like this?” she whispered as she started to roll it on him.
“Yes...” Oh, man, it was too much, her delicate hands stroking him as she rolled it on, claiming him as much as he wanted to claim her.
“So sexy,” she murmured, her voice cracking.
He tried to hold off a little longer, but he couldn’t. He was locked in the grip of a hunger that now powered his world. Reaching down, he guided himself into her, feeling her warmth close snugly around him. He drew a sharp breath of pleasure, heard her mewl.
Then he reached up to hold her wrists and bent his head to kiss her breasts, sucking on them in rhythm to his movements.
Life took over, commanding, demanding. He couldn’t have stopped for anything. This woman, this moment—nothing else mattered.
* * *
Vanessa saw pinwheels of color behind her eyelids, but she was hardly aware of them. She became ephemeral except for the feelings that tore her from earth and flung her to some other space with this man.
The heaviness between her legs, his weight there, seemed to fill an emptiness she hadn’t been aware of until then. Everything left of thought, every part of her body, centered on the space between her legs, where a man now gave her the greatest gift and lifted her higher with every movement of his body.
Floating, struggling to a place she hardly knew, captive to the pain-pleasure that filled her. A pleasure so strong it almost hurt. More...more...
Then she reached the pinnacle and tumbled over into a gentler pleasure. But he didn’t let her rest. He kept driving into her, and she began the climb again, hopeful, fearful she couldn’t make it, then...
The entire universe exploded in a shower of stars. An instant later she heard Tim groan and shudder then collapse on her.
She lay limp, unable to even think. She had become experience, not thought, ruled by something beyond the mind.
Never had she been happier or more content.
* * *
The glow didn’t last past morning. They’d made love again during the night, and Vanessa had begun to feel as if she never wanted to leave. To heck with everything else.
But she had a job, and Tim hadn’t asked her to stay. Even as they were eating breakfast, the loss began to creep into her bones. She should have known better.
“Vanessa? Are you okay?”
She summoned a smile. “Never better. Last night was...incredible.”
He smiled, but she suspected he didn’t quite believe her. Her demons had returned.
She was saved, if she could call it that, but a phone call from work. It was the director of paleontology at the museum.
“I know you’re on vacation, but can you finish it a little later? We need you back. On Friday we got a whole new shipment of bones—they seem to be from a very rare species, and they desperately need preservation and identification. Unfortunately, Carla was in an auto accident last night and won’t be back for weeks or months, so we’re down a hand, and we can’t afford it. You’re the best at identification anyway. Can you get back immediately? I’ll make it up to you.”
When she hung up, she looked at Tim and felt a crack begin to creep through her heart. “You’ll never believe an emergency in a paleontology lab, but we’ve got one. One of my coworkers was in an accident, and they have a shipment of important bones that need preservation and identification. I’ve got to go back.”
Tim grew very still. “When?”
“I need to arrange a flight today. I’ll probably need to leave as soon as I pack.” The crack in her heart grew more painful. “I need to call Ashley, too. I’ll tell her I’ll be back as soon as I can to talk to her class.”
“It’s that urgent?” His tone sounded tense.
“I’m sorry, but yes.”
He nodded. “I’ll get Matthew back here before you leave so you can say goodbye.”
“Thank you.”
She rose, breakfast forgotten, and went to her room, where she began to arrange a flight while she packed. Impossible, she supposed, to explain to anyone why this request from the director couldn’t wait. The fossils had been waiting for millennia. Why couldn’t they wait for a few weeks?
Because they were already rotting from exposure to the air and bacteria. Because time really was of the essence. Because the museum had a grant to do this kind of work, and failing to do it could cost them future grants. She got it. She doubted anyone else would. And from the director’s perspective, did it matter if she took her vacation in a couple of months?
Of course not. And it shouldn’t matter to her, either.
But it did.
Chapter Eleven
A little over two months later, with Thanksgiving in the rearview and Christmas just ahead, Tim and Matthew waited impatiently for Vanessa’s return.
She’d been talking to them on Skype, and Matthew treasured the postcards she sent—all from the museum’s gift shop, evidently. He’d kept asking when she’d come again, and now, at last, she was.
Finally her rental car pulled up in front of the house. It was a frigid night. Snow covered the ground. That didn’t keep Matthew from running out—without a jacket, in his regular shoes—to greet her. She hardly got out of the car before he leaped at her. She surprised Tim by catching the boy and holding him as she walked toward the house.
Despite all their conversations, Tim moved more slowly, unsure what to expect. He’d finished most of the major work on the house and was looking forward to showing her. He was also ready to argue again that she s
hould sell it to him.
But mostly he was glad to have her back. To have her home. When they met on the sidewalk, he embraced her and his son as best he could and managed to drop a kiss on her lips.
“Welcome home,” he said, not caring if it was a bad choice of words.
“I’m so happy to be back.” Her face reflected her words, so different from when she’d first arrived and had looked ready for trouble. Now nothing but smiles.
Inside he had hot coffee, some sweet rolls from the bakery and a mug of chocolate for Matthew, who yammered a mile a minute and finally spoke a truth that resonated to Tim’s core. “I missed you, Vannie,” the boy said. “I wish you didn’t ever have to go away again.”
Tim’s and Vanessa’s eyes met over the boy’s head. Uncertainty. He saw her uncertainty. What about?
“We’ve already had dinner,” he said, feeling awkward. “But I can make you something.”
She shook her head. “I ate earlier. I’m fine.”
“Come see my dinosaurs,” Matthew said, tugging her hand. “I want you to see them.”
She’d already seen the completed models on Skype, but she still smiled and followed him to the dining room, where the models had pride of place on the big table.
“Wow, you did a perfect job! I guess I need to get you some more.”
“They make more?” Matthew’s face lit up. “I want to be a palee...palo...”
“Paleontologist,” she supplied gently.
“Yeah, like you. Except I want to dig up the bones.”
“You’ll get a chance to try it out,” she said. “I’m going to be leading a dig not far from here come spring.”
Tim’s heart nearly stopped. “I thought you liked the museum.”
“I do. But the museum is funding this with donations, and I got tapped to lead. Some hiker from New Mexico found something really interesting, and he sent the photos to us. Permissions are still being worked out, and we’ll be cooperating with local universities. But yeah, in the spring I’ll be digging again, and Matthew’s welcome to come try his hand. It looks like a spectacular find.”
Tim was still wrestling with the idea of Vannie being so close from spring to fall and wondering why she had decided to return to work she’d left behind.
Questions he couldn’t ask until Matthew was in bed. The hands on the clock seemed to be dragging.
* * *
As happy as Vanessa was to see Matthew again, she was even happier to see Tim. Except he seemed subdued, and she wondered if she’d done something wrong. When he came down from putting Matthew to bed, she had to ask.
“Did I make a mistake by coming?”
He looked surprised. “Hell, no. What makes you think that?”
“You’re being too quiet.” She felt her insides congealing. Had she made a mistake? Had she put herself in a position to be hurt yet again?
He drew her into the living room and sat beside her on the couch. “I’m thrilled to see you. As thrilled as Matthew is. You said you don’t like digging. Why are you going back to it?”
She bit her lip, tensing until she might snap, feeling as if she were about to open herself to the biggest pain possible. “Because... I want to be near you.”
His eyes narrowed. “Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
“Wow,” he murmured. “I didn’t dare... I couldn’t hope...”
The next thing she knew, he’d lifted her onto his lap and kissed her so deeply she lost her breath. When he tore his mouth away, he asked, “Just how close do you want to be?”
She hesitated then admitted, “As close as you want me. As long as you want me.”
She watched his face change. The last tension seeped out of it. He closed his eyes and said quietly, “I want you close, and forever might just about do it.”
Her heart began to lift, the last of her fears scattered to the winds. “How close is close?”
“Like...married?”
“I’ll only be here part of the year.”
“I’ll take whatever part I can get. I love you, Vannie. I’m ready to move on. Are you?”
She never hesitated. “Oh, yes. Yes, yes, yes. Forever.”
He smiled and squeezed her until she squeaked.
All of a sudden Matthew’s voice interrupted them. “So Vannie’s going to be my new mom?” He sounded excited.
“Do you want me?” she asked.
He climbed right on her lap as she sat on his father’s lap. “Yup. I can go camping at the dig, right? And you’ll be here in the summers, right? And I can dig up bones?”
Vanessa looked at Tim over his head, and they both started laughing.
“Yes, yes, yes,” she said again. “To both of you.”
It had been a strange courtship in some ways. She’d hardly been aware it was happening. But now she had a family again. A real, beautiful family.
Her heart soared, and she hugged the two men she loved most in the world.
She had never believed she would know this kind of happiness, yet now it showered her. She would hang on to it with all her might. Forever.
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from THE MAVERICK’S RETURN by Marie Ferrarella.
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The Maverick's Return
by Marie Ferrarella
Prologue
Daniel Stockton wearily walked into the log cabin he lived in at the Comanchero Ranch. For the last ten years, he’d been in charge of booking vacations for city dwellers who yearned to sample the cowboy life for a week or two and pretend they lived back in the days of the old Wild West. The dude ranch, one of Colorado’s most popular, was currently in the height of its busy season. Attendance was at an all-time high and would probably remain so until somewhere around the end of next month.
As he concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other on the way to his secondhand sofa, Dan felt as if all those years had been packed into this last week and a half.
He sighed and collapsed on the worn, cracked sofa in the center of his small living area.
His stomach rumbled, asking to be appeased, but for now, Dan felt as if he couldn’t move more than the first two fingers of his right hand. The hand that was currently wrappe
d around the remote control for the TV that had been in the cabin when he’d initially moved in. The cabin was too quiet and he just wanted some background noise to distract him.
Even now, after all these years, he didn’t like being alone with his thoughts.
Aiming the remote at the twenty-four-inch TV screen, he pressed the power button, content to watch whatever program came on. He just wanted some company he didn’t have to explain anything to. The tourists who came to the ranch always seemed to be filled to the brim with questions.
Most of the time, that didn’t bother him, but there was this one family this last week that had a kid with them—Harlan—who just wouldn’t stop asking questions no matter what. The kid, all of eleven or twelve, was obviously trying to trip him up.
Dan felt as if his head was throbbing and, quite possibly, on the verge of exploding.
The pay at the Comanchero Ranch was fairly decent and he did get to spend most of his life on horseback, which he loved, but there were times—like this last week—when the loneliness caught up to him, wrapping its tentacles around him so hard he could scarcely breathe. That was when he found his patience to be thin and in relatively short supply. And when that happened, his tolerance went out the window.
This afternoon he’d come dangerously close to telling Harlan’s parents that they needed to take their son in hand and teach him some much-needed manners. But he’d managed to hold his tongue long enough to get those “dudes” back to the ranch house where they were staying.
However, it had been close. Closer than he really liked.
“Get a grip, Dan. This isn’t a bad job. And you sure as hell can’t afford to lose it,” he told himself as he got up again.
His stomach was growling way too much. It was time to rummage through his refrigerator and find something that could pass for food.
As he walked to the small refrigerator, his back was to the TV when he heard it.
The voice from his past.
Dan froze, listening. Convinced that he was imagining things.