I imagined him lowering himself atop me, so that his nipples scraped against me, the hardness of his muscles against the softness of my breasts. I let my thighs open even wider inside the sleeping bag, drawing my knees up as much as the fabric allowed. I was so wet I could hear my fingers moving. I lifted my head, eyes still closed, and the fantasy was so vivid that I could look down his muscled back and see his ass rising and falling between my thighs, hammering his cock into me. Knowing that at any second he would—
The orgasm overtook me, taking me by surprise. He wouldn’t wear a condom and he’d shoot inside me…oh God right inside me, getting me pregnant pregnant pregnant—
The soles of my bare feet clutched and pulled at the satiny fabric of the sleeping bag as I silently screamed my climax.
Chapter 6
I should have slept badly. I should have been wracked with guilt over having some stupid, teenage fantasy about a virtual stranger, or at least embarrassed that I’d strained and trembled and had to stop myself moaning his name while the real Russ sat right outside, oblivious. But you know what? I slept like a baby.
Russ had to call me and I emerged into the daylight bleary-eyed, my auburn hair hanging in tangles around my face. He thrust something into my hand and my half-awake brain recognized the shape of a mug. I knelt there on the grass, just outside my tent, and drank. Coffee. Rich and smoky and with a pleasant edge to it that helped to kick-start my brain. I slowly opened my eyes and took a deep breath of cool air, gazing at the snowcaps on the mountains. The outdoors was starting to grow on me. There isn’t a better view in the world to wake up to.
“Morning.” Russ was grinning, already loading gear onto the horses. His shirt pulled tight across his muscles as he lifted a bundle, his eyes twinkling.
Okay. Maybe there’s one better view in the world. Something about the night before—maybe the conversation about breeding, maybe playing with myself afterwards—had me on cloud nine. I knew, in the cold light of day, that I must have been reading too much into the conversation. I knew he couldn’t want me…but I could at least enjoy the fantasy. I took another deep lungful of air. “Morning,” I said lazily, and sipped more coffee, luxuriating in the cool breeze coming down off the mountain. It caressed my cheek, making my hair stream out to the side. It played with the little dusting of hairs on the back of my arm. It whistled across my bare legs—
Wait. My bare legs?
I looked down. I was still in the t-shirt and panties I’d worn for bed. My top half was decent enough, although without a bra my breasts were pretty obvious beneath the tight green fabric. But because I was kneeling, the hem of the t-shirt only hung to my waist. The entire length of my bare legs were on show, together with my panties. Pink panties, with little flowers on them.
Russ was turned away for a second. I lifted myself up on my knees, grabbed the hem of my t-shirt and stretched it down to mid-thigh, yanking so hard I thought the fabric was going to tear. I sat back down, trapping the t-shirt at a demure level, and shook spilt coffee off my hand—I’d forgotten I was holding the mug.
Russ turned back and looked at me strangely. “You okay?” he asked.
“Fine! Drinking my coffee.” And I drank my coffee to demonstrate.
He turned away again and I tried to remember what his expression had been. I’d been so embarrassed I hadn’t had time to take it in. Had he been amused that I’d finally noticed and covered myself, or….
Or had he looked disappointed?
***
Soon, we were coaxing our horses along steep mountain paths. Russ knew the area well and said he was taking me to where he’d last seen the horse. “I’ll get us up high,” he said, “and maybe we can catch a glimpse of her.”
I nodded. Then, “Why is it that you want this one so much? I mean, there are lots of feral horses out there.”
He didn’t answer for a long time. “Sometimes you just see one that’s special,” he said at last. And, even when I prodded him, he wouldn’t give me a better answer than that.
***
We broke for lunch and then, not long afterward, we crested a rise and looked out over the landscape. We weren’t even close to the top, but we were high enough to get a good view of the valleys below. “We’re close,” Russ said. “Right down there is where I saw her.” We both stood there gazing down for long minutes. I saw a couple of horses, but none that looked sick.
What I did see was beauty. I’d seen it the day before, riding through the grassland, but up there in the mountains, looking down into serene lakes and silent forests, I had to admit that maybe the country had more to offer than I’d thought. And I hadn’t been eaten in the night by a wolf or a coyote, and no poisonous spiders had made nests in my ears. Why was it, then, that I’d always been so attached to the city?
Because it’s easier to disappear in a city, I thought bitterly. Just like the horse we were searching for, out here I was exposed, silhouetted against a huge sky. In the city people hunched behind newspapers, ears blocked with headphones. They didn’t want to see you or know you and most of the time that was exactly what I wanted. I wanted not to be noticed. Except, if you go through life trying not to get noticed…can you blame anyone but yourself if you wind up alone?
I looked sideways at Russ. His easy smile was gone, his jaw set as he searched the countryside below. It was a rare opportunity to really study him, knowing that he was far too preoccupied to notice. I drank in the deep brown eyes, the hard lines of his cheekbones, the slight frown as he concentrated. I’d never seen him so intently focused on something. Except when—
No, that’s ridiculous.
--except when he’d stared at me at the ranch with that I want you look. And then again, with added lust, right after I’d come my brains out in the saddle.
“There!” Russ yelled. “By the lake!”
He pointed and I followed his finger. Far below us, down by the shining silver of a sun-kissed lake, I saw her. A beautiful mustang with a glossy red-brown coat. She was beautiful, and I understood immediately why Russ had wanted to go after her. And then I saw her legs tremble and twitch and my stomach clenched tight. She was definitely ill, just as Russ had said. We needed to get down to her—fast.
Russ coaxed his horse into as fast a trot as he dared on the narrow path, and I fell in behind him. Adrenaline slammed through my veins, making me focus, all thoughts of my stupid crush forgotten.
Russ took the fastest—which meant the steepest—route. The horses had to skitter down loose stones, snorting their disapproval. We had to coax them around narrow paths that wound along cliff tops, too close to the edge for me to comfortably think about. Instead, I convinced myself that there was ground running beside the cliff—nice, soft, grass-covered ground, maybe three feet down. With daisies. I tried not to think about how many seconds it would take to hit the bottom, if I got thrown out of my saddle or if Constantine went over with me still in my stirrups. I tried not to think about cold, jagged rocks far beneath. I just focused on Russ ahead of me and followed, wishing I had my own set of blinkers to wear.
After two hours of nerve-jangling, heart-stopping descent, we made it to the lake. And the horse was nowhere to be seen.
We’d lost sight of it almost as soon as we’d started to descend, but we’d been hoping that the illness would slow it down and keep it in the same area. We’d been wrong.
“Damnit!” yelled Russ, sliding from his saddle. He turned a full circle, taking in the shining lake and the wooded valley. We could see a good distance in all directions, but there was no sign of the horse. He swept his hat off his head and ran his hand through his hair. “She can’t have gone far!” It was the angriest I’d ever seen him.
I looked up and down the valley. “But which way? If we pick the wrong one, we could trek for hours without finding her, then come back here and not know if we went far enough.”
“We have to do something!” I could see the frustration in his eyes and I could understand it because I felt it too. But ri
ght then, he needed me to do what he’d hired me to do. He needed me to think like a vet.
I looked around again. “We should wait here.”
“What?!” He looked at me, aghast. “Damnit, Amanda, we can’t just wait here! She’s sick!”
I forced my voice level. “If it is Triple-E, she’s running a fever. She’ll keep coming back to drink, probably this evening. Staying here is our best shot.”
He looked once more around him, eyes searching every break in the foliage, every opening in the rocks. “You sure?” he asked at last, his voice tight with frustration.
“Yeah.” I was fighting the same instinct he was—the need to run around and do something in an emergency. ”That’s my official opinion, as your vet. Wait here, rest the horses, stay out of sight and wait for her to come back.”
He gave me a long, long look…and then nodded, rubbing a hand across his face. “Okay,” he said. “Yeah, okay. You’re right. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you.”
“You didn’t snap at me,” I said. “Relax.”
“This horse has just got me all….” He trailed off, looking at the ground, and then looked at me.
“What?”
“I’m going to go crazy if I can’t have her,” he said.
We stared at one another, his eyes burning into mine. I could feel every muscle in my body drawing tight, singing like a plucked string.
I quickly slid down off my horse and started leading him to the water so that he could drink. I could feel Russ’s eyes burning into my back the whole way.
Chapter 7
We tethered the horses behind some trees, out of sight, and settled down to wait. It was going to be hours before the horse got thirsty enough to come back…if she did. There was nothing to do except talk, and I was starting to feel all talked out. The tension between us—if it wasn’t just in my head—seemed to be building moment by moment. Something was going to happen, or I was going to explode.
I looked down at my sweat-soaked body. The fast descent had been grueling and I hadn’t been able to take my shirt off or the fierce sun would have burned me even with sunblock on. Now it was clinging to my back. “I’d give a hundred bucks for a shower right about now,” I said without thinking.
Russ was sitting with his back to me. In theory, it was so that we could watch the whole valley more easily, but having him close, but out of my eye line had another effect, too. It meant we could talk to each other without having to look each other in the eye. And sometimes, maybe, that’s what you need.
“You know what’s better than a shower?” asked Russ.
“What?”
I felt his head turn, his short hair brushing against my long locks. He’d turned to look at the lake, gleaming in the afternoon sun, its slow ripples making the surface look as thick as liquid silver.
“Tell me you’re not seriously suggesting skinny dipping,” I said, the syllables slow and unfamiliar on my tongue.
“Why not?”
The words hung in the air. The fact I didn’t have to look at him, that I could blush as much as I wanted to and no one could see, made it easier.
“Because we’re not sixteen!” I said. “And we’re not…together!”
I felt him get up. “Well, I’m going in.”
I half turned around in shock and saw him grinning, lifting his shirt over his hard, rippling abs. I immediately turned around and sat back down again, fixing my gaze on a tree. “You are not!” I said urgently.
I heard the rustle of his shirt. Then the heavy thud of his cowboy boots hitting the ground. “What about the horse?” I asked.
“You said yourself she won’t come back here for hours. Might as well pass the time.” The jangle of his belt as his jeans fell around his ankles. I swallowed and kept my eyes firmly ahead. But my ears were straining for the sound of—
The whisper of cotton as he pulled down his shorts. I’d glimpsed the waistband peeking over his jeans, so I knew they were black. Now they were lying on the grass and, only a few feet behind me, the man I’d fantasized about was completely naked.
All I had to do was turn around. And…what? Throw myself into his arms? Kiss him?
“I’m going to go get in, now,” he said.
“I’m not,” I said quickly.
I heard him pad away through the grass and then the splash of him hitting the water. He’s actually done it!
I turned slowly towards the lake. Russ was about ten feet out from shore, treading water with just his head sticking out. With the sunlight hitting the water, I couldn’t see his body below the waterline. He swam closer. “Come on, Amanda,” he said. “Take a chance.”
I swallowed. “I—I can’t.” I looked over my shoulder at the horses. I wanted to run away. I wanted to get on Constantine and not stop until I reached Atlanta.
Russ swam closer still. “Do you know what I thought, when I saw you?”
A thousand awful things went through my mind. “Don’t,” I said quickly.
“I thought, my God I want that woman.”
The world seemed to stop.
“I thought, she has the most perfect, ripe body I’ve ever seen. She has gorgeous, fiery hair and a killer ass I want to grab with both hands and hang onto.”
I listened, amazed.
“And when I talked to you in the diner I knew you were kind, and whip-smart, and you’d do anything to help an animal. Even come out here, with me. You’re way outside your comfort zone, aren’t you?”
I nodded. “Even if you had clothes on,” I said quietly.
“See? You’re funny, too. And I think maybe you like me. So all you have to do…is take a chance. And get into the water.”
“I can’t,” I said again.
He locked eyes with me, and there was something in his gaze that lent me confidence. “Yes,” he said. “You can.”
My heart seemed to give a gigantic thud, as if all of the beats had been stored up. Which made sense, because I was pretty sure it had stopped beating a few minutes ago.
I stood up. My hands lifted to the shirt and I pushed it back and off my arms, dropping it to the floor. I watched my fingers doing it, but it was almost as if I wasn’t controlling them, as if I was watching someone else undressing. I lifted the tank top and pulled it over my head, then stood there panting in my bra.
“Attagirl,” said Russ. He was transfixed, staring at me. I could see his eyes go from my chest to my face, back and forth, again and again. I reached back and unfastened my bra. Then, before I could change my mind, I stripped it off and dropped it to the ground. My breasts swung free, throbbing in their sudden nakedness.
The moment stretched out as he gazed at me. I wanted to scream, my fingernails digging into my palms. Please, please, say something!
“You’re gorgeous,” he gasped. And it was like a wave of relief had hit my full in the face, soaking into every pore. I wanted to drop to my knees and just absorb it.
I barely had to think about stripping off my jeans. I just wanted to get into the water with him, now. My panties gave me a brief moment of hesitation, but I steeled myself and pushed them down my thighs, dropping them on the pile of clothes. And then I was naked and standing there under his gaze, every inch of me exposed. Please like me. God, please like me.
He didn’t speak. He just gave me that look, the same one he’d given me before, and I knew. He didn’t just like me: he wanted me. Needed me.
I ran into the water, yelling as I dived in and letting the cry carry away the shock of it. It was cold at first, but as soon as I was moving, plunging beneath the surface and swimming towards him, it was just pleasantly cool. I surfaced, gasping, about four feet from him, and then we were staring at each other, just our heads and shoulders out of the water.
“Thank God,” he deadpanned. “I really thought for a second you were going to turn and run. And then I would have had to chase after you. Naked.”
I giggled. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d giggled.
“Ama
nda,” he said. “You’re beautiful.”
The word detonated in my head. Beautiful. He’d said gorgeous before, but gorgeous isn’t beautiful. “No, I’m not,” I said, a warning tone in my voice. I looked down at my body through the water. “Look at me.”
He swam closer and put his hands gently on my shoulders. “I am looking,” he said. “And you are.”
I searched his face for any sign that he was lying, blinking again and again.
“Why are you crying?” he asked, rubbing my tears away with his thumb.
I sniffed, unable to speak.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yes,” I whispered. “Very okay.” And then I leaned my head into his and we were kissing.
Our lips bumped at first, and the shock of it, after all that time, was so much that we both drew back a little. Only his hand, sliding up through my wet hair to the back of my head, kept me from pulling fully away. We stared at each other again, those dark, chocolate eyes burning into mine, and then I let him pull me forward again. I closed my eyes and felt our lips just touch, the firmness of his mouth just grazing the softness of mine in a way that made my whole body stiffen. I twisted my head and fitted myself to him, and as he pressed his lips down on mine I heard him growl in satisfaction. He was tasting me, exploring me, his lips sucking at mine oh-so-gently and then, as my lips slowly parted, the kiss changed. He claimed me with his mouth, taking what was his. I gave a little moan of my own as I felt his tongue dance with mine.
One of his hands stayed on the back of my head, as if he was worried I might slip away from him. The other slid down my back, following my spine, running down my nakedness all the way to my ass. When he squeezed me there the kiss changed again, becoming hot and heavy, our mouths open and panting. My own hands came up to lock around his back, fingers tracing the muscles there. This close to him, my whole body within a few inches of him, the raw presence of him had me almost drunk on sexual heat. The fact that we were treading water made it all the hotter. With my eyes closed, it felt like we were floating at the center of the universe, with nothing but void around us. No one to judge, no one to criticize, no one but us.
The Curvy Vet and the Billionaire Cowboy (He Wanted Me Pregnant!) Page 4