by Ryanne Corey
“I have my sources.”
“Well, thank you. I haven’t felt like this for…oh, longer than I could say.”
“Neither have I,” Connor said softly, talking about something else altogether. “And it just keeps getting better. Are you ready to go?”
“I refuse to leave until you tell me where we’re going.”
“Okay,” he said easily. “I’ll go alone, then.”
“You’re so stubborn.” Maxie pulled a face as he turned to the door. “Fine. I’m right behind you.”
He opened the door, then stepped back to usher her outside. “I’d rather have you in front of me. The view is much better.”
By the time he pulled into the high-school parking lot, Connor was wondering if this was such a hot idea, after all. Glitter Baby was sitting beside him, the woman who had been everywhere and knew everyone. This was the woman who had twice been featured on the cover of People magazine as one of the most beautiful faces in the world. And where was Connor Garrett taking her on their first, all-important official date?
Oakley High School homecoming dance.
Anxiously he watched her looking around the parking lot, held his breath as her eyes went to the homecoming dance announcement on the marquee. “Cat’s out of the bag,” he said, attempting a light note that fell rather flat. “Look, there really is a method to my madness. When I was talking to your mother yesterday, she mentioned you’d never had a chance to go to a high-school dance. I just thought you might like to find out what you missed.”
“Connor—”
“I know it’s weird, especially for someone who’s been all over the world, but—”
She turned and kissed him softly on the cheek, a kiss that felt like a benediction. When he looked down at her face, it was like seeing a beautiful vision: clouds of dark hair, violet eyes swimming in tears and the dusky, wet-cinnamon lips that constantly paralyzed his thought processes.
“No one has ever done anything like this for me in my entire life,” she said, smiling and wiping a tear off her cheek.
Connor still wasn’t quite sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing. “So…it’s all right?”
“You have no idea how all right it is,” she whispered. She was conscious of a new feeling stirring to life within her, something sweet and innocent and hopeful. No man had ever spoken to her in this language before, the language of the heart. No one had ever tried.
Connor finally relaxed then, knowing she understood. Tonight was about lost childhood wishes and half-forgotten dreams. More than anything in the world, he wanted to make hers come true. Just to see that light of wonder in her eyes made it all worthwhile for him.
“C’mon, Cinderella,” he said, clearing his throat to cover a tremor of emotion in his voice. “You’re going to the ball.”
Maxie had often wondered what a high-school dance would have been like. Now she knew, although she suspected she was enjoying the event far more than she ever would have in high school. The dance was held in the school gymnasium, the ceiling thick with balloons and dangling crepe-paper streamers. Pink dresses were abundant, as were carnation wrist corsages. Maxie and Connor were the object of many quizzical glances, but for once the attention didn’t bother her a bit. Most of the fresh-faced students attending the dance would have still been in grade school throughout much of her Glitter Baby heyday. Chances are, Maxie told herself, they’d never even heard of her. How absolutely wonderful.
They danced each and every dance, enjoyed cookies and punch—definitely not spiked, Connor pronounced with disappointment—and danced again. Later, Maxie couldn’t remember what sort of music the DJ played, but she remembered the scent of Connor’s cologne when her face was nestled against his chest. She remembered the way he had laughed when they’d gone outside for fresh air and a gust of wind had billowed beneath her skirt, coming very close to making her a centerfold. And when his laughter had subsided, he had pulled her around the corner of the building to a secluded spot and kissed her frantically until she had lost her breath entirely.
When the final strains of the last dance faded away, it was precisely midnight. Connor looked at his watch, one side of his mouth tipped up in a smile. “Well, little girl? Don’t you need to be home by midnight?”
Maxie stared at him for the longest time, quite sure that her heart was in her eyes. “I’ve had a wonderful time being young again,” she said softly. “I can never thank you enough for this night. But now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to go home with you and try my hand at being a woman.”
Connor seemed unnaturally still. His smile fell off his face by degrees and his breathing became quietly arrhythmic. He truly didn’t know how to respond, so the first thought that bounded through his mind, he blurted out. “This never happened to me when I was back in high school.”
The whisper of a reckless smile touched her mouth, her eyes soft with passion. “Shameless, aren’t I? Come home with me, please.”
If he was dreaming, Connor decided, he never wanted to wake up.
Eight
Maxie’s house slept in shadows, the only noise in the hushed darkness sounded like a freight train coming from the corner of the living room.
“That’s just Boo,” Maxie explained, when Connor stopped short three steps into the room. “He has asthma, so he snores terribly. That’s why I make him sleep out here instead of in my room.”
Connor made a mental note never to snore again. “He didn’t even wake up when we walked in. If he wasn’t making so much noise, I’d wonder if he was alive. This is your guard dog?”
“It’s not his shift,” she said. “Harvey’s on duty tonight.” She flicked on a lamp, then turned and gave him a rather hesitant smile. Swathed in the soft pool of light, she had an ethereal beauty that surrounded him, flooding his senses, his heart, his mind. “You’ve been awfully quiet. What are you thinking?”
“I’m trying to believe you really happened to me,” he said with gentle sincerity. “Even now I expect to wake up any second.”
“Is that what this is with us?” Maxie tilted her head inquisitively. “A dream?”
“It can’t be.” Connor had taken off his jacket and tie during the ride home. His white shirt was open at the neck with the sleeves rolled up, yet Maxie somehow knew he wasn’t as relaxed as he looked. “This is better than any dream I’ve ever had.”
Silence settled between them, thick with soft sensuality. Maxie’s gaze was solemn and intense, as if she were tasting him with her eyes. “You look like a little boy,” she said thoughtfully. “Your hair is mussed, all soft and tumbled. I like it like that.”
“Thank you.” He closed the distance between them, taking her face in his hands. “I can tell you with all sincerity that I’m not a little boy, Maxie.”
She closed her eyes briefly, rubbing her cheek lovingly against his open palm like a kitten. “Whatever you say, Connor.”
“Really?” The look he gave her was shimmering with heat. “Whatever?”
She pressed a smile on the pulse at his wrist. “Uhhuh. Whatever. I trust you completely.”
He dropped his forehead against hers, his hands sliding up and down her back. He was caught up in her eyes, lost in the clear, stabbing color. Tenderness spiralled within him, a strange urge to both protect and to possess. “I would never hurt you, little love. Never.”
“I know that,” she said simply. She melted against him, a soft, erotic weight on his hips and chest. “Do you feel like menacing?”
He shook his head, his cheeks marked with bright bands of passion. “Not tonight.”
She pulled back slightly. “No? As in…no?”
He laughed quietly, hearing his own nerves in the sound. “Sweetheart, menacing isn’t nearly as fun as what we’re about to do.”
This seemed to please her. “Really?”
“Really.” Connor’s smile disappeared as he stared down at her face. Holding her was like holding everything he had ever wanted in his life. His arms slipped around her waist, fingers th
readed together at the small of her back. “Maxie Calhoon, the world will never see your like again.”
She tipped back her head, her hair drifting to her waist in back. He could feel its cool satin caressing his hands. “I don’t care about the world,” she whispered helplessly. “I care about you.”
Connor kissed her softly, his mouth moving against hers with cool sensuality. Playful. Gentle. Oh, how he loved her beautiful lips. He could never get enough. When the kiss threatened to become wild, he broke away, scooping one arm beneath her thighs and lifting her off her feet. Flushed, aroused, she rode in his arms to the bedroom, pressing a dozen frantic kisses over his face and neck. They sat together on the edge of the mattress at first, not thinking to remove their clothes, but happily exploring with their hands and mouths. They kissed until their breathing was hard and reckless. Then, still holding her lips, Connor fell backward on the bed, pulling her down with him. Maxie was on top of him now, and clothed or not, the position all but obliterated sanity for Connor. He kissed her with a new, more desperate intent until her hips were grinding against him in a sensual frenzy. Her fingers dug into his soft, tangled hair, her breasts surged against his chest, every cell in her body yearned towards him.
Connor tried to deepen the kiss even further, slanting his head from side to side, giving more, receiving more. He could feel her hair swinging against his face, cooling his hot skin. He could feel her deliberately moving against his hardness, trying to sate herself in a way she didn’t fully understand. Her hunger was the most potent aphrodisiac Connor had ever known. She wanted him with the same fierce intensity he wanted her. They were starving.
“I have to tell you…” Connor whispered. Maxie gasped as he kneaded her breasts over lavender satin. “I’m going to tear this beautiful dress. It wasn’t made for this kind of thing.”
Later she couldn’t remember Connor unzipping her dress and letting it fall to the floor. She did remember, however, the way he looked at her in her bra and panties, and she remembered being the one who tore them off. Shameless hussy that she was, she also fumbled at his belt, the buttons on his shirt. She needed to see all of him, feel all of him. The sight and sensation were better than she ever could have imagined. He was tanned, hard and powerfully muscled. Beautiful, Maxie thought hazily. He was truly beautiful.
Connor crackled with tension from head to foot. Every muscle in his body was straining for release. He’d never known a wanting like this, so sharp and acute it was almost painful. They rolled together on the bed, legs tangling, arms reaching, lips seeking. The only light in the room came from a generous full moon slanting through the windows. It bathed them in cool shadows, illuminating their faces and bodies just enough. Connor took pictures in his mind, keep-sakes for all eternity. Maxie, wearing nothing but a silver necklace, her incredible skin gleaming like oiled ivory. Her love-hazed smile, the sparkling moisture on her irresistible lips. Her hair clinging damply to her shoulders, falling over her like a veil. The beautiful shape of her woman’s body, the length of her slender throat, her fragile, feminine hands and fingers. There was no hesitation or self-consciousness on her part. She seemed to want it all, every experience and sensation he could give her. And she wanted it with a fervor he had never seen before.
They communicated in half-finished, gasping sentences, too joy-filled to articulate further. The closer they got, the closer they needed to be. Maxie could hardly endure the unfamiliar ache between her legs. It intensified by the second, making her crazy with the desire to find relief.
“I need…I want…” She couldn’t finish. She was lost in a dizzying whirlwind. This was an exquisite, glorious pain. “Help me.”
“I will, sweetheart,” Connor rasped, trying to breathe and think and feel all at the same time. He was half out of his mind with desire. Still, he had to think of Maxie. “We can’t…I want to be careful with you, protect you. I need to get—”
“No, you don’t,” Maxie gasped, struggling to think coherently. “I’ve been taking something for the last two years, just in case…I met someone like you. So…you can…you know.”
“Oh, I know,” Connor murmured, his mouth finding hers repeatedly. His hands went exploring, touching her arms, cupping her breasts, then lower, to a dark secret place that sent a rocky shiver coursing through her. “It’s just loving, Maxie. It’s just loving.”
Her eyes were huge, mesmerized. She clung to his shoulders as if they were a lifeline. He knew magic, this man. He knew how to make her moist, how to make her desperate. He knew why she ached and why she softly hit his back with her clenched fists when the aching grew too strong to endure.
“What do you want?” he gasped. “Tell me…”
“You know…I want you inside me, Connor.” She was almost crying now, tears born from the intensity of their coupling. In a delirium of passion she curled her legs around him, seeking to get closer. “I need you. I want to take you in, to pull you in so deep…I need you…”
He rose up then, his hands braced on either side of her. His eyes carried a heavy-lidded sensuality as they drank in the picture she made beneath him. Never in his life had he seen such a heart-lifting, beautiful sight. “Sweet girl…you mean the world to me. This world and the next. Angel girl…”
She bit her swollen lip between her teeth as his thighs gently pushed her legs apart. She wasn’t suffering so much from fear or apprehension, but because his caution was painfully frustrating. “Connor…?”
He lifted his mouth from her breast and gave her a love-hazed little smile. “What?”
“Are you deliberately taking your time?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t,” she begged, her nails digging into the skin on his back. “I’m going crazy.”
He kissed her mouth with infinite tenderness, then slowly began easing inside her. Despite everything Maxie had heard to the contrary, there was almost no pain. Just a blessed pleasure that promised to change to relief. She couldn’t blink, couldn’t take her shining eyes off his face. Her beautiful, kiss-reddened mouth parted on a soft, “Ohhhhhh…”
“You’re so tight,” Connor whispered, holding himself back with every ounce of willpower he possessed. “So small…”
“You’re not,” Maxie gasped, wanting more of him. Want. She felt like a child opening a birthday present. Eager, excited, curious.
She discovered that it just kept getting better. He buried himself inside her, making her gasp. Tightness, then a slow unclenching of her muscles. “Can you get deeper?”
“We’re about there,” he said breathlessly. “You’re all right?”
“Yes. No. Please…” Loving the sensation of him inside her, she raised her hips. She saw the pleasure-pain this gave him and she had to smile, glorying in her new feminine power.
She had taken all of him and experienced a rush of delight she had never known before, but it wasn’t over. Connor started to move slowly, retaining the most fragile hold on his control. He took her with him every inch of the way, lifting her higher and higher. His movements quickened with an agonizing need for release. Thrusting now, holding her eyes with his own as they climbed together. He heard her cry out as her world exploded with fireworks, and the sound pushed him over the edge. He groaned, clenching his jaw and tangling his fingers in her hair. The sweet rush seemed to go on forever with a dizzying force. It was a watershed for him, so complete and powerful, he felt as if he had died and come back with a new soul.
Two a.m.
“Connor? Are you asleep?”
“Sort of.” A mumble. “What’s wrong?”
“I had a bad dream.” She kissed his shoulder, touching her tongue to his warm skin. “Make me feel better.”
Four a.m.
“Maxie? Honey? Are you awake?”
“Mmmmm.”
“I’m cold.” He nuzzled the luscious valley between her ample breasts. “Can I come in and get warm?”
“Yes, please.”
Connor opened his eyes to a room full of sunlight an
d arms full of Maxie. He was almost surprised to discover it hadn’t been a dream after all. She lay on her side, her breathing deep and slow. Poor child. He’d exhausted her, and she had exhausted him right back. Looking at her, Connor could think of only one word to describe the picture she made with her sleep-flushed cheeks and bee-stung lips—precious. What a wonderful word.
He felt new, like a man who had been reborn, who finally understood the joy of existence. Unlike past encounters in his life, he was left with no sense of silent loneliness, no feelings of curious disillusionment. A delicate flame still burned beneath his skin, reaching into the innermost places of his heart.
For the first time in his life, Connor understood the difference between making love and loving. He was ruled by his heart now, and life would never be the same. Before this, before Maxie, it had all been make-believe. There had been dreams of desire, illusions of needs, but never the one true love.
“What took you so long to find me?” he whispered, thinking he should let her sleep and hoping she would wake up. He sighed when she mumbled something beneath her breath and went on sleeping.
There was simply no way he could stay here with her and not make love to her. He rolled quietly out of bed, then poked his head into her closet to find a robe. There was a lovely pink chenille thing that looked rather like a bedspread. He pulled it on, then loved her one more time with his eyes before he left the bedroom. The moment he was in the hall, he could hear Boo snoring. The Calhoon family was sleeping in.
He had planned to fix breakfast in bed for her, then follow her about the ranch and get in her way while she did her chores. He also had hopeful fantasies about a hayloft. He had no idea if her barn had a hayloft, but if it did, the possibilities were staggering.
He’d never been so happy in his life.
Boo finally roused himself as Connor walked through the living room. The dog yawned, stretched, yawned and stretched again. All the effort seemed to exhaust him, but Connor nudged him toward the front door with his bare foot. “No, you’re staying awake, boy. Go outside and do your thing, then I’ll fix you a hearty breakfast. That’s right. Just keep planting one paw in front of the other and you’ll make it.”