“Don’t judge Shirley by the woman you remember, or have you forgotten what I used to be, and I didn’t say I was interested in her.” He reminded her softly.
Her eyes stretched wide. “Oh my Lord, Jory. Sometimes I do forget what it was like. I’m sorry.”
“It’s alright, honey. Now, why don’t you go over to Rafe’s place and see what happens,” he suggested. “One of you has to take the first step.”
She snorted again. “Oh, I know exactly what’ll happen.”
Jory smiled. “Well, maybe after that, you two can actually have a conversation.”
About thirty minutes later, Mesa stood on the porch of the Storm Horse home, butterflies in her stomach migrating up into her throat, threatening to choke her with all that frantic fluttering they were doing. Panicked, she started to go back to her car when the front door was pulled open.
Rafe looked at her, surprise reflecting in his dark eyes. He was wearing only a pair of tight jeans, his feet bare and his ebony hair still wet from a recent shower. As usual, Spur was standing at his side, his whip like tail wagging circles of welcome.
“C…can I come….in?” her voice was barely more than a whisper.
He opened the door wider and stepped back. “Sure. I’m just surprised to see you.”
She hesitated half way across the threshold. “Maybe I should just go. I was being presumptuous to just show up.”
“No,” he spoke quickly. “Come on in.” He waved her in with the hand that wasn’t holding the door. In it, he held a half empty bottle of beer.
Stepping inside she glanced around, remembering a lot of the layout of the house from the years she and Jenny had spent every spare minute together. She gave the big bulldog a brief greeting and then faced Rafe.
“Go to bed, Spur,” he said softly. Obediently, the animal submitted, by going to the box that held his blanket and settling down in it.
Rafe couldn’t take his eyes off her. She was here! He couldn’t believe it. Mesa had come to him! His heart thudded against his chest wildly. He couldn’t stop looking at her, until finally he saw her face take on a pink glow. “Sorry,” he muttered. “I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I’m just finding this a little hard to believe.”
She nodded. “I know the feeling. I’m still a little shocked myself.” She smiled weakly.
Rafe was suddenly feeling awkward. In his whole life, he’d never brought a woman into this house with the intention of spending the night enjoying hours of sweet, uninhibited sex. Uci would kill him. If she knew. “Would you like a beer?” he asked, swallowing his tension.
“I’ve never…I haven’t changed in that way. Alcohol ruined my childhood. I still don’t drink.” She knew he’d remember that if he only thought about it for a minute.
He nodded. “Of course, I remember. Sorry. How about a glass of tea? A Coke?”
She started to refuse, but then realized how dry her mouth was. She nodded. “A glass of tea would be great.”
He led the way into the kitchen and with economical movements soon handed her a glass filled with deep brown, sweet tea and cubes of ice. She lifted it to her lips and moistened her throat. “That’s wonderful. I’d forgotten that Uci’s tea is miles above all other teas.”
Rafe grinned. “Same with her cooking.”
Mesa nodded. “I remember. She makes the best fry bread ever.”
“She doesn’t make it often anymore. Says it’s not good for us so it’s only an occasional treat.” Rafe tipped the bottle up and drained the beer.
Mesa watched his throat as he swallowed the liquid. His Adam’s apple bobbed as the bronze skin along his neck worked over the muscles. Her heart rate kicked up a notch. She lifted the glass, took a cooling drink and after she swallowed it, she licked her lips.
Rafe groaned softly and she found his eyes fastened on her mouth. “Mesa,” he growled placing the beer bottle on the counter. He stepped toward her, keeping his hands at his sides, towering over her but not yet touching. “You tasted so damn good when I kissed you today. To hold you in my arms and feel your breathe warm against my neck. I…uh I think I’m addicted to you.”
She placed her hands against the hard warmth of his bare chest and heard his quick intake of breath and then, as if he was afraid she’d move them, he covered them with his own, holding them against him.
“I don’t want Raale to know,” she breathed softly.
“Then you’d better leave, before this goes any further. I don’t do secrets, remember?” His hands continued to cover hers, and he lowered his head slightly.
“She’ll take…she’ll think….she’s a child, Rafe. She’ll expect happily-ever-after.” Mesa was struggling to think as his hands slipped down off hers along her arms past her elbows and then up again, until they rested gently on her upper arms.
“I know you’re trying to protect her. I understand that.” His head dipped lower, his cheek brushing against hers. “I’ll talk to her and try to help her understand. I don’t want her hurt either, Mesa, but secrets….aren’t…healthy.”
His words were a whisper in her ear. Mesa inhaled the leather and spice scent that she’d always identified with Rafe.
Neither of them spoke for a long minute and Mesa knew he was giving her time to leave if that was her choice. Maybe she should, but she knew she didn’t want to. What she wanted was to be here with him, to feel his big, gentle hands on her body and to stroke her hands over his strong, hard limbs.
“You have on too many clothes,” he finally whispered against her neck. His lips pursed and he kissed her soft skin lightly.
Mesa’s breath hitched as his mouth opened against her neck and his tongue ignited trails of fire over the small pulse point there. She stretched up and nipped his collar bone, then soothed it with kisses.
His hands slipped off her arms and covered her breasts. Mesa groaned, feeling the heat of his hands through the material of her top. This was what she wanted.
The tightening of her small pebbled buds against the palm of his hands resulted in a sultry chuckle bubbling up from his throat. “No bra?”
Her mouth went in search of his. “No panties either,” she confessed as she touched the side of his mouth with hers.
He crushed her to him, his hands wandering freely over her body. “Damn!” he groaned. “I love it when you’re naughty.”
His mouth captured hers and the kiss was long and deep, searching, renewing, devouring, teasing and as he finally ended it, he swept one hand down behind her legs and lifted her in his arms. “I don’t think Uci would ever get over it if she found out we made love in her kitchen,” he rumbled as he carried her up the stairs to his room. “Finding out we shared my room would be bad enough,” he whispered. Inside, he stood her down again, and pushed the door closed shutting the bulldog out, before he turned and watched her looking around his bedroom.
Mesa was tempted to question his intention of keeping this a secret from Uci, but decided against it. Knowing Rafe, his conscience would force him to confess and Uci would get all over both of them.
He was surprised when she chortled softly and then made a surprise confession. “Once, when I spent the night with Jenny, I came in here by mistake. I’d gone to use the bathroom and must have been still half asleep. Anyway, going back to her room, I opened your door. You were sleeping. The sheet was pushed down off your chest.” She looked up at him and smiled. “I thought you were the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. I think I was fourteen years old at the time. Too young to feel what I felt looking at you, but I had a good long look before I managed to leave.”
Rafe couldn’t speak. His heart hammered in his chest and he closed his eyes. He’d always known that women found him attractive, but to have this woman call him beautiful, touched a place deep in his heart.
“Well, I tried to convince myself that I opened the door by mistake. Maybe it was.” She slipped her arms around his ribcage. “Make love to me, Rafe. It’s been so long and I want you so much.”
> “Oh darlin’,” he groaned. “I am certainly gonna do that.”
He grabbed the bottom of her cropped t-shirt and pulled it up over her head while he backed her toward his bed purposefully. When the bed was behind her knees, she sat down and Rafe dropped to his knees in front of her. Lifting one foot he slipped her loafers off one at a time, rubbing each foot in his hands, exploring up her legs as far as the snug leg of her jeans would allow.
“Stand up,” he said, still kneeling in front of her.
When she complied, he unfastened her jeans and slipped them down over her hips and off her legs, discarding them to one side. He sat back on his heels and looked up at her. “You are without a doubt the most breathtakin’ woman alive.” He didn’t touch her as he rose to stand in front of her. “I want to be inside you so bad right now, but I don’t want to rush this. I want to savor every second of it.”
“Whew,” she hissed softly, “just listening to you is like making love.”
He chuckled and, still grinning, he found her lips. The grin faded as desire burned through them both, their chests meeting, with Rafe’s hands covering her breasts and then slipping down over her buttocks, lifting her up. Her legs wrapped around him, the heat of her pressing against the hard ridge still captive in his Wranglers.
She whimpered as his lips left hers to steal down her neck and her head rolled back. Rafe moved onto the bed, keeping her wrapped around him as he lowered them both so he was laying over her, his hips nestled between her legs. He trailed kisses down her neck, over her shoulder and across the smooth swell of one soft breast. When his hot mouth covered one tight peak, she made a soft whimpering sound, feeling his tongue stroking gently around it, heat pooling much further down.
The sounds she was making were like electricity thrumming through his body, letting him know that this was what she wanted, that she was enjoying it as much as he was.
He lifted his head to her ear. “I need to get off you,” he whispered.
She hadn’t realized her legs were still wrapped around him, holding him there. She unclasped her legs from around his hips and suffered a sudden chill when he slipped onto the mattress beside her. He reached behind him and switched on the bedside light. “I want to see you.” His voice was husky with desire as he sat up beside her, his eyes sweeping over her nude body.
Mesa felt a sudden surge of delight as she realized how powerfully she was affecting him. She smiled.
His eyes moved from her face, down across her breasts and he lifted one hand to follow in the wake of his eyes. He stroked her breasts, first one, and then giving the other his full attention. Slowly his hand and his eyes drifted lower. On the lower part of her stomach he discovered a couple of faint narrow scars and his eyes sought hers for an explanation while one finger stroked each mark carefully.
“Stretch marks, from carrying Raale,” she managed hesitantly.
He looked back at the scars and then into her eyes again and she recognized the quick flash of pain. She was sure the remembered hurt would bring an end to their intimacy, but after a minute, Rafe bent down and trailed kisses along the scars, then his hand dropped lower and he sat back up, watching her face.
His hand slipped down and cupped the mound of her femininity and she whimpered again, her hips moving involuntarily as one finger pushed its way between the protective folds and found the tight sensitive nub hidden there. Her hips moved again as he stroked over it slowly. His eyes watched her face, seeing the rise of ecstasy growing as her eyes fell shut. “Do you have any idea how sexy it is watchin’ your face while I pleasure you?”
She whimpered again.
“And to hear all those little sounds you make that let me know how much you like what I’m doin’?” His gravelly voice was yet another stimulus, bringing Mesa that much closer to the edge.
The tension grew inside her, tighter and tighter as his voice, his eyes, and his hand continued to stimulate her body. Then he stopped. Her eyes popped open and she looked up at him.
He grinned. “Just for a minute,” he promised, slipping off the bed. Faster than she would have thought possible he shed his jeans and quickly located a small foil packet that he placed on the table beside the bed. When he pushed his shorts off, he heard Mesa gasp at the sight of his full erection. It brought another smile to his lips and he quickly tore the packet open and unrolled the thin condom down over his rigid organ. Slowly he lowered his body back onto the bed beside her. He covered her mouth for a deep lingering kiss as his hand slipped slowly along her body until it located that secret core again. His fingers pressed past the nub and slipped inside her and she groaned into his mouth. Her muscles tightened around his fingers as he pushed in deeper, then slowly pulled out again, stroking firmly against the excited bump. Her hips moved in invitation and her breathing was ragged.
“Rafe,” she moaned against his lips, “please.” She was so close to the edge.
He continued to stroke and manipulate her core. “Go ahead, baby,” he encouraged. “I won’t last long once I feel you around me. You are so hot and tight. When I get inside you it’ll be hard and fast.”
His husky voice and the words he spoke contributed to the carnal heat that was building between her legs and she shattered into a storm of pure ecstasy. Surge after surge of rapture shook her body with hot, sensual pleasure and just when she thought she was coming back together, she became aware of Rafe pressing into her. He was fully aroused and as hard as he was hot. Slowly he pushed into the still throbbing, fiery inferno that contracted around him and he paused for a few tortured moments, allowing the tightness of her to envelope him completely. “Damn, you’re so tight. You still feel almost like a virgin.”
“Almost,” she sighed. “It’s been…what? Almost six years?”
Rafe stopped. “Mesa, are you telling me there hasn’t been another man in your life?”
Her hands reached down and pulled his buttocks toward her, her hips rising to push around him. “Just you,” she whimpered. “Never anyone else.”
He groaned coarsely. “It’s so good, baby.” He pulled out and pushed back in and she realized how close she was to another explosion of epic proportions. Rafe straightened his arms and lifted his upper torso off her so she wasn’t being held down by his weight. He pulled out again and pushed back again, his hardness rubbing seductively against the tiny nub of sensitivity that brought her the most pleasure and Mesa gasped.
“Oh, sweet mercy,” her head rolled from side to side.
Her muscles convulsed again, tightening around him as he drove into her hard and fast, again and again, and when her body bucked uncontrollably beneath him, he shuddered with his own explosion. For a few precious seconds they were both frozen in a haze of pure rapture.
He collapsed against her and shifted his upper body to the side slightly so he wasn’t lying completely on her, but didn’t withdraw from her as the two of them lay panting.
“You okay?” he finally managed to ask.
She nodded and he was satisfied to feel her answer.
A little later he moved slightly and groaned. “I need to go get rid of the evidence,” he whispered against her ear. “Don’t move. I’ll be right back.”
He wasn’t gone long and when he came back she was able to watch him walk toward her from the door that he pulled shut behind him. His muscles were long and smooth, the bronze color striking in the subdued light from the lamp that still burned. His eyes held hers and she knew she’d never seen a more beautiful man and never would. Rafe was her idea of physical perfection.
He stretched out on the bed beside her, pulling her close against him, their naked bodies reacting immediately to each other. It was enough to take her breathe away again.
“I thought I was too old to be ready again so quick,” he whispered after he’d located another condom and slipped inside her. It was slower in arriving, but the climax was no less powerful or enduring when it came and when it was over, he carried her down the hall into the bathroom. Standing her on th
e floor, he grinned. “The first time I saw you as a woman, was in this room,” he said.
She nodded. “Life was never the same after that. It was probably the first time I was glad to know I was a woman. As you backed out, before you shut the door, I saw desire in your eyes and just knowing you liked what you saw was one of the best moments of my life.”
He slipped his arms around her, pulling her shoulders back against his chest. “Maybe we should have made love in this room that night. I wonder what would have happened.”
She giggled. “You’d have gone to jail for molesting a minor and Uci would have scalped us both, alive.”
He turned her around for a quick kiss before moving past her to turn on the water and adjust the temperature. Grinning at her, he beckoned her to him. “We might as well see what we missed.”
Mesa didn’t think two people could really make love, standing in a shower, but Rafe showed her just how easy it was and left her glowing with satisfaction. Then they soaped each other all over and were soon snuggled back between the sheets in Rafe’s bed.
“I should go,” she finally said, not wanting to leave, but not wanting Uci to walk in on them when she came home.
“No,” he argued. “I want you here when I wake up in the mornin’.” His arms tightened around her as if to hold her, but she knew if she insisted, he’d let her go.
She sighed. “I can’t move in here, Rafe. You know that.”
He nodded. “Yeah, Uci would whip both our asses.”
A girlish laugh reminded him of Raale and he rolled onto his back, pulling her up over him, her lower body angled to the side. “How’s this goin’ to work, Mesa?” he finally asked. “You know that this is not just a one-time thing. I don’t think I’ll ever get enough of you.”
“I don’t know Rafe. I’m open to suggestions.” She traced the grooves in one of his cheeks idly. “With you, it seems I’m open for a lot of things.”
He laughed softly, turned his head and caught her finger between his teeth, his eyes sparkling with mischief as his tongue toyed with the tip of it. “I have a lot of things to suggest,” he teased as he released her finger. “You’re a very inspirin’ woman.”
Sweet Talking Lawman Page 15