“So you think I can’t make it work, either?”
Shaking her head, she tried to quell the strange emotions swirling around inside her. A part of her wanted him to have everything he wanted, especially happiness. But when she thought of him with a wife and children, she couldn’t stop the selfish longing eating at her insides.
“I didn’t say that,” she answered finally. “I just think…it would be a very hard balancing act. Unless you found the right woman.”
A slow smile spread across his face and crinkled the corners of his brown eyes. “She’s out there, Nicci. And I plan to find her.”
Nicci’s heart fluttered like a hummingbird’s wing as she waited for him to go on with some flirtatious line—that he was looking at the right woman. Or that he’d already found the perfect woman and she was standing right next to him. But he didn’t say any of those things. Nicolette hated herself for letting the whole idea leave her feeling as flat as a pancake. What did she expect? She’d taken herself off the market for love and marriage.
“Good luck,” she murmured, then turned toward the head of lettuce draining on a paper towel. “I’ll make a salad while the meat finishes cooking. Do you want tomato?”
She’d hardly gotten the question out when his arms came around her from behind and his lips nuzzled the side of her neck.
“You’re what I want, Nicci,” he mouthed against her ear. “Hell, you knew that when you agreed to come here tonight.”
She swallowed as a thousand butterfly wings rose up in her stomach and attempted to fly out of her throat. “Maybe I did,” she murmured. “And maybe I knew that coming here wasn’t a wise thing for me to do.”
His arms tightened around her waist. “Then why did you?”
Shrugging helplessly, she turned and lifted her face up to his. “Because I like being with you,” she answered honestly. “Because you make me feel…special.”
Surprise flickered across his face. Then his head bent and he pressed his cheek against hers. “Oh, honey, honey,” he whispered, “you make me feel more than special—you turn me inside out. Ever since last weekend I’ve wanted to get you back into my arms. You’re the only thing I can think about—all I want to think about.”
His declaration left her breathless and unable to utter a word. But after his lips fastened roughly over hers it didn’t matter that she’d failed to make any sort of reply.
Kissing Ridge again was pure excitement backed with sweet joy. As his lips searched and plundered, her senses spun faster and faster until her hands were clenching the front of his shirt for stability.
When he finally lifted his head long enough for her to breathe, she warned in a raw voice, “The steaks are going to burn.”
With a seductive chuckle, he said, “Too late. I’ve already put them on a platter.”
His hands were moving in slow, sensual circles against her back, and she felt a coil of longing wrap itself around her loins. “Then we should be eating them,” she whispered frantically.
Lower and lower his hands dipped until his fingers were cupping the curve of her bottom. “The steaks can be reheated.”
“You can be, too,” she pointed out.
Another chuckle slipped past his lips. “See what I like about you being older than me? You’re confident.”
“No! I’m not!” she spluttered. “Right now I’m scared to death.”
Grabbing for a cool breath of sanity, she ducked under his arm and crossed to the opposite side of the kitchen. But before she had time to glance over her shoulder, Ridge had already followed and was standing just as close as he’d been before.
Touching a forefinger beneath her chin, he asked gently, “Why are you scared, Nicci?”
Her heart was pounding like the hooves on a runaway horse, and the crazy thought ran through her head that she was going to end up needing him as a doctor even more than she wanted him as a man.
“Because we can’t…shouldn’t be doing this.”
Flattening his hand, he cupped the palm against the side of her face. Like a cat seeking its master’s hand, Nicolette closed her eyes and cherished the feeling of his skin against hers.
“Doing what?” he asked softly. “Making love?”
Heat consumed her face. “Yes.”
His hand slipped to the back of her head and unfastened the barrette holding her hair. Instantly the heavy weight of brown tresses fell against her back and around her shoulders. Nicolette could hardly breathe as he thrust his fingers into the waves and combed them back from her face.
“I want you and you want me. What else really matters?” he asked.
What else? There were plenty of things that should matter. That would eventually matter. But at the moment she couldn’t think of a one. Not when a deep, unbidden hunger for him was spiraling through her, making it impossible to resist all that he was offering.
“Nothing, Ridge. Nothing at all.”
Chapter Nine
The half-prepared meal was instantly forgotten as Ridge enveloped Nicolette in a tight embrace and sealed her lips with a long, simmering kiss.
As the heat of his body spread into hers, she abandoned the last niggling reservations in her mind and quickly slipped her arms up and around his neck. The silent response caused his kiss to deepen until the urgency to get closer turned into an intangible need for both of them.
Easing his lips from hers, he whispered, “Let’s go to the bedroom.”
By then Nicolette’s senses were so drugged with desire for him that all she could manage was a slight nod. The signal was all he needed, and he quickly slipped his hand around hers and led her out of the kitchen.
His was a small room with a bed of dark oak pushed into one corner, a matching dresser at the opposite end, and a tall chest of the same wood positioned a few steps from the head of the bed.
The floor was oiled parquet with a huge braided rug at the bedside. The unbleached muslin curtains were closed, shutting out the lingering twilight of the evening.
For a brief moment, as her gaze skittered around his intimate sleeping place, Nicolette asked herself if she’d gone crazy. It wasn’t like her to behave in such a reckless, impulsive way. But then, she’d never felt so aroused, so full of need for any man. She couldn’t hide or run from her feelings now. Her throbbing body wouldn’t let her.
Ridge brought them to a stop on the braided rug, but he didn’t immediately lay her on the bed. Instead, both his hands carefully cupped her face and then he bent his warm mouth back down to hers.
As his kiss heated her blood, his fingers went to work with the belt around her waist. Once he had it unbuckled, he allowed the wide piece of leather to fall away. The belt hardly had time to hit the floor when he reached for the buttons on her white shirt.
His fingers dispensed with the tiny fasteners one by one, while the brush of his hands against her breasts sent shocks of hot pleasure dancing along her veins. As soon as he peeled the white cotton from her shoulders, his head bent, and she groaned out loud when his mouth planted itself in the hollow between her small breasts.
He kissed her there, then licked and nibbled his way across the flesh spilling over the lacy cups of her bra. While his tongue danced over her skin, his fingers reached between her shoulder blades and unfastened the scrap of lace covering her breasts.
Nicolette stood motionless, her heart beating in her throat as he pulled the shirttails from the waist of her skirt, then pushed both garments off her shoulders to send them tumbling to the floor at their feet.
She watched those brown eyes of his fasten on her pert breasts and was amazed to see him smile as though he’d uncovered a precious treasure.
“Beautiful.”
His one murmured word was enough to send a warm, embarrassed flush over her entire body. “I’m not twenty anymore,” she countered in a strained voice.
His smile deepened. “Neither am I.”
His quirky reply very nearly made her laugh. But the sound died in her throat as he sudde
nly dipped his mouth to one hard, chocolate-colored nipple. As he rolled the sensitive bud between his teeth and tongue, her head fell back, while a moan sounded in her throat.
Desperate to hold on, to keep him close, she thrust her hands in his hair. Moist, aching heat burned between her thighs, shocking her, thrilling her with the ultimate pleasure of being a woman.
She didn’t know how long his mouth made a lazy foray of her breasts. Time had ceased since they’d entered the room and she was only aware of feeling the cool quilt beneath her back.
Brown high heels teetered on her toes, then fell to the braided rug with a muffled thump, thump.
Ridge placed one last kiss on her mouth, then stood to remove his own clothing. While he dealt with his slacks and shirt, she wiggled out of her skirt and draped it over the footboard.
Once he was standing naked, gazing down at her he said in a low, husky voice, “I hope you’re protected because I don’t want to have to use a condom. I want to feel every inch of you against me.”
She’d not been expecting him to say anything so erotic. She was embarrassed and aroused at the same time. Thankfully the room had grown dim enough to hide the blush on her face.
“I’m on the Pill,” she said lowly. “For regularity reasons.”
Smiling wickedly now, he joined her on the bed and pulled her into his arms. Nicolette sighed with abandon and turned her face to search for his lips.
He rewarded her with a kiss so consuming all she could do was grip his shoulders and try to match the wild, slanting search of his lips, the hungry thrust of his tongue.
Like dust picked up by a slow-moving whirlwind, her senses spun round and round, up and up into a tight funnel of aching need. She’d never felt so out of control, so desperate to be possessed.
His hands were everywhere; his fingers warm bands exploring her back, trekking across her belly, gliding over her breasts. Between his thumb and forefinger, her nipples tightened with pleasure and anticipation. His mouth eased against hers and he nibbled and chewed at her lower lip.
Raw passion was digging, building deep within her, slicking her body with sweat and shortening her breath to quick, silent sups of air.
“Ridge—” She gasped his name while her head twisted from one side to the other. “This is—I want you. Really want you!”
He smiled against her mouth. “Good. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.”
Against her thighs she could feel the soft abrasion of his hairy legs, the brush of his rigid manhood. The idea that she’d lifted him to such a state of arousal was as intoxicating as a swift shot of whiskey. She’d never thought of herself as sexy, but Ridge was definitely making her feel that way.
Lifting his head away from hers, he looked down at her body. Night shadows were drifting into the room, mottling her skin, painting the dips and valleys with soft gray. He trailed his knuckles down the crease of her midriff.
“I knew you would look this way,” he said thickly. “Soft, smooth curves just waiting to be touched. You feel like a piece of satin, my darling Nicci.”
Bending his head, he brushed his lips along the trail his knuckles had taken. Nicolette’s eyelids fluttered down, her teeth bit into her lower lip as pleasure invaded every cell of her body. A sigh whispered past her lips then turned into a needy groan as his mouth dipped lower and lower.
Gripping his shoulders, she waited for the exploration to stop and the coupling of their bodies to begin. She had to feel him inside her, possessing her. Otherwise her body was going to go up in flames.
“And you make me feel—glorious—too glorious. Oh, my. Oh Ridge—” she choked. “Make love to me.”
Her plea sent his fingers to the juncture of her thighs. He touched the moist folds, teased them with the gentle brush of his fingertips until Nicolette was writhing with need.
She was arching against him, her body straining for release when he finally dipped his head even lower and separated the folds of her womanhood with his tongue.
The totally erotic contact was more than Nicolette could bear. He’d barely had the chance to taste her when bright stars exploded behind her eyes and she cried out his name.
When her senses finally drifted back to earth, her eyes were misty, her body limp. “Ridge—you—I didn’t know. Until now. Until you.”
The wondrous look in her gray eyes not only surprised him, it swelled his chest with an emotion too big to understand. His throat was thick when he tried to speak. “Darling, Nicci. I want to please you. That’s what makes me happy—very happy.”
Her eyes were full of tenderness as they slipped over his face and then, with a helpless groan, she pulled him down to her.
Ridge felt his body spiraling out of control as her soft hands skimmed his back, his shoulders and chest, then caught his hips and guided them to hers. He’d wanted to wait before he joined his body to hers. He’d wanted to prolong the exquisite moments of touching her, of watching the rich expressions of desire cross her beautiful face. But the fierce need to have her warmth surrounding him, caressing him, was even greater.
Somehow he managed to enter her slowly, but by the time she began to move against him his head was reeling, his loins on fire. Her legs wrapped around his as their bodies rocked to a rapid, hungry rhythm. Sweat covered him as he fought to stay afloat, to hold back the rush of need building inside him.
Her soft whimpers eventually turned into urgent cries and when she raised her head to search for his mouth, he fastened his lips over hers and let his warm seed spill into her.
Ridge didn’t know how long it took his wilted body to collect enough strength to roll away from her. For the first time in his life, he’d lost all sense of time and place. Making love to Nicolette had sent him somewhere else, and the journey back had left him shocked and disoriented.
The cool air separating their bodies had him reaching for her again. He groaned with utter contentment as she rolled against his side and rested her head on his shoulder.
“That was beautiful,” he murmured, yet even as he said the words he realized they were too trite to describe what had just taken place between them. Beautiful, glorious, mind-bending. None of those came close to the euphoria he’d felt.
His chest was still rising and falling at a fairly rapid rate. Nicolette’s small hand lay against the beating of his heart, until he lifted it to his lips and kissed each slender finger.
“I’m so embarrassed,” she whispered.
Her remark had him tilting his head so he could see her face. “Why?”
“Because—” Her head stirred and she brought her eyes up to his. “I thought I knew what being with a man was all about. But you’ve shown me that I didn’t know…it wasn’t like this before, Ridge.”
The confusion and honesty he heard in her voice pierced him in a way that was both sweet and painful. He stroked her damp hair. “I guess I should be telling you that I’m sorry your sex life was lacking. But I’m too selfish a man for that. I’m glad it was better with me, Nicci.”
Nicolette was also glad, yet there was another part of her that was terrified. No man had ever made her lose control as Ridge just had. She’d always been a methodical woman, one who tried to keep careful control over her emotions. But he’d just stripped away all of that, and she was afraid of the reckless, needy woman he was exposing.
“I didn’t plan on this happening between us tonight,” she confessed.
“I honestly wasn’t planning on it, either,” he admitted, then added with a wicked chuckle, “but I’m damn glad it did.”
Rolling toward her, he placed a hand on her shoulder, then slid it to her bare hip. The simple touch was enough to stir her remnants of desire and push away the doubts she knew would come later.
“So am I,” she whispered, then brought her lips against his. “Are you ready for supper?”
With a pleased chuckle, he rolled onto his back and pulled her along so that she was sprawled over the top of him. “Forget about supper. We’ll cook some eggs
and add it to the steaks for breakfast.”
The next morning Nicolette was sitting at the long pine table in the Saddler kitchen as she absently slathered peach jam onto half of a buttermilk biscuit. Across the way, Cook eyed the bird-size portions on Nicolette’s plate and scolded her soundly.
“You’re gonna wind up having to doctor yourself, Miss Nicci, if you keep up that sort of eating. I’ve never seen such silliness in you young women today. Trying to starve yourself down to bones. Now just look at me.” Not bothering to put down the dishtowel or stewing pot she’d been drying, she held out both arms. “I ain’t fat and I ate three times the breakfast that’s on your plate.”
“I’m not sick, Cook. I’m just not hungry,” Nicolette told her. How could she be, she thought wryly. It had only been a few short hours since she and Ridge had finally gotten around to eating the steaks he’d cooked. She was still full from the meal, not to mention groggy from lack of sleep.
Ridge had tried his best to persuade her to spend the night with him, but Nicolette had refused to take things that far. In the first place, her mother had known she was going to have dinner with Ridge. If she hadn’t come home to the ranch last night, her mother would have easily put two and two together, and Nicci wasn’t ready to deal with Geraldine’s suppositions. Secondly, she’d not wanted to give Ridge the impression that she was handing her life over to him. Because she wasn’t. She couldn’t. Being his lover was one thing, but being anything more was out of the question. He was too young. And she was too warped to ever be the wife he wanted and needed.
Forcing her attention back to Cook, she said, “You’re naturally slim and beautiful. Some of us just have to work harder than you do. Now quit scolding me. I’ll have a big lunch later today. I promise.”
“Flattery like that don’t cut any ice with me, missy,” she said with a snort before she turned back to her task at the kitchen counter.
The Best Catch in Texas Page 12