He turned back and she looked at him through concerned eyes. “Is something the matter? You look like you saw a ghost.”
“I don’t know,” he answered automatically, then corrected himself, “I mean, I thought I saw Duane coming out of the restaurant and I came over to ask him something, but when I got here, he wasn’t here.”
She shrugged. “It probably wasn’t him.”
“Maybe not.” But if wasn’t him then who the hell was it? Or what? Just his imagination. It had to be. Any other answer was unthinkable.
“But?”
He frowned. “But what?”
“You look like you wanted to say something else.”
“Oh.” He should know better than to try to hide things from her. After his initial lie, the mammoth one he had to thank for having her in his life, she could read him better than anyone else he knew. Right now she clearly could see he was holding something back. Still, he couldn’t tell her the whole truth, if there was any truth to it at all.
Nate wrapped his arm around her shoulders and nodded toward the truck. They fell into step as he considered his response. “I just thought I saw…a wolf, I guess.”
“Well, that’s sort of strange, but not unfeasible. People spot them up in the mountains from time to time and that’s only about twenty-five miles from here. Or it might have just been a dog. Some of the larger breeds are huge.”
A dog? Was that possible? A dog that wore clothes and walked on its hind legs until it wasn’t convenient to do so. No, it couldn’t have been a dog. His earlier reasoning had to be the answer. He was losing his damned mind. Or maybe he was delirious. It wouldn’t be the first time Kelsey’s handling had had that effect on him. With her impromptu cock-tease, she’d successfully managed to drain all the blood and therefore judgment from his brain and send it directly to his balls.
Nate’s temporarily forgotten erection jerked to life with the memory of her bold moves. He stopped their slow stride to his truck, turned her in his arms and captured her mouth in a hot, hungry kiss meant to rejuvenate every bit of the longing she’d lost in his brief absence. Kelsey surprised him when instead of responding tenuously, as the very open setting would seem to indicate she would do, she tugged him closer yet and rubbed her breasts against his chest while she met his tongue thrust for needy thrust.
She pulled back after several long seconds, her breasts rising and falling rapidly and the edge of her hard nipples abrading his chest. “Unless you plan to run in and ask Duane that question, I suggest we see about getting to that dessert.”
Nate forgot about his odd sighting completely with the joint forces of humor and promise that filled her dark eyes. “What you’re saying is you’re ready for your ride?”
“I’d say the answer’s pretty obvious, but if you need a clearer picture, just keep standing there and you’ll find out up close and personal along with your entire family.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
She dropped her hands to the waistband of his slacks and the glint of humor in her eyes faded to raw appetite. “Get moving. If you’re lucky you’ll make it inside the truck before I start molesting you.”
Chuckling at her audacious behavior, he hefted her in his arms and hustled to the truck. He lifted her through the driver’s door then closed it and came down on top of her on the bench seat. She wriggled against him, breathing out in shallow gasps and cries when her mound contacted with the hard muscles of his thigh. Her fingernails urgently nipped past the thin material of his shirt and she whimpered her impatience.
A husky rumble of laughter drifting from his lips, he snagged her wrists in his hands and pinned them near the armrest on the passenger’s side door. “Always my little aggressor, after me for sex and nothing more,” he teased.
“Oh, yeah, you know me so well, Nate.”
He grinned with the truth in her words, even if they had been spoken sarcastically. He did know her so well, in a way Joe had been so sure he’d never accomplish, in a way Nate himself had nearly been convinced he was incapable of knowing a woman. His heart swelled with pride and awe as he looked into her smoky eyes and the infinite trust that shone there, at the knowledge of how much she knew him in return.
Kelsey yanked at her bound arms and squirmed harder then, the hard ridge of her mound hitting his cock in just the right spot to have the few brain cells that remained above his waist zipping downward. He laughed once more at her futile attempts and held tight to her wrists with one hand while he popped open the buttons of her shirt with his other. The thin lace of her pink bra was the style she favored, the style he’d quickly learned to favor as well. The kind that revealed more than it concealed.
His tongue moved against his mouth in anticipation of taking the aroused nipple that winked at him from beneath the pale material into his mouth and sucking and biting at it until she begged for him to stop. He bent his head slowly, savoring the shudders of her body beneath his, the spasms of air that slipped from her slightly parted lips. Then just when he was about to touch down on the aroused dusky bud, he looked up at her flushed face and the expectancy and love that filled her eyes, and smiled. “Yes, sweetheart, I do know you so well. Know you and love you like no one else in the world. Now be a good girl and lie still while I enjoy my dessert.”
About the author:
Jodi Lynn Copeland resides on 30 acres of recreational woodland and farmland, minutes from Michigan's state capital. She has been writing since her junior year in college when she began a romantic suspense novel. Since then she has written numerous books, which range from single title mystery to erotic romance, and has won various writing awards. When not writing, she enjoys time in the outdoors—hunting, fishing, playing ball, or just spending time with her family and pets. Weekdays are spent on her day job as a technical writer, graphic designer, and web programmer for a national engineering firm, and evenings and weekends bringing tales of passion, romance, and adventure to life.
Jodi is a member of Romance Writers of America (RWA), Greater Detroit Romance Writers of America (GDRWA), Mid-Michigan Romance Writers of America (MMRWA), Cata-Romance, and a dedicated critique group.
Jodi Lynn Copeland welcomes mail from readers. You can write to her c/o Ellora’s Cave Publishing at P.O. Box 787, Hudson, Ohio 44236-0787.
Also by Jodi Lynn Copeland:
Gold, Frankincense and Myrhh
Naughty Mistress Nita
Sons of Solaris: Aries
Sons of Solaris: Taurus
Uncharted Waters
Discover for yourself why readers can’t get enough of the multiple award-winning publisher Ellora’s Cave. Whether you prefer e-books or paperbacks, be sure to visit EC on the web at www.ellorascave.com for an erotic reading experience that will leave you breathless.
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