by Candis Terry
“I only brought one cup.” Her tone suggested she might be a little miffed that her quiet spot was already occupied.
“Lucky for me I quit worrying about cooties in the third grade.” He took the cup from her hand and drank. But not without making a bitter beer face. “Is this your regular brew?”
“It was on sale at the G & G.”
“Ah. You ever had champagne that costs more than a gallon of gas?”
She settled onto the rock ledge a decent distance away and avoided his question. “What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same thing.”
“It’s obvious I needed to relax.”
“No date?” he asked.
“He was called away.”
Fool. Dean didn’t know what stars had aligned so that he was the one sitting beside a very naked Emma Hart, but he wasn’t about to complain.
Beneath the glow of the moon, the sweet curve of her full breasts bobbed at the waterline.
Nope.
Not going to complain.
At all.
She took the paper cup from his hand, turned the rim to the opposite side of where he’d drunk and sipped. Apparently she hadn’t passed the cooties stage. As those soft lips pursed over the paper cup, his heart took off on a high-speed chase.
“No date?” she returned. “No supermodels named Britney Big Boobs to help you carve another notch on your goal post?”
He laughed. “That’s a good one, schoolteacher.”
“Thanks.” She smiled.
Damn. That flare of her full, kissable mouth forced his high-speed pursuit to switch on the after-burners.
“So how’d you find out about this place?” she asked. “I thought I’d have it all to myself.”
He leaned toward the other side of the pool, grabbed the champagne bottle, and refilled her cup. “I’ve been coming here since I was old enough to drive.”
“So you’re a repeat offender?”
“Guilty.” When he sat back down—much closer this time—his thigh brushed against hers.
Her eyes widened. “Are you naked?”
“Well, I wouldn’t want you to be embarrassed by being the only one in that state of undress.”
“Did you watch me take off my clothes?”
“Yes.” He grinned. “Do I need to pay you now?”
She lowered her head back to the rock ledge and groaned. Which tempted him to lean over and kiss that silky column of warm skin down to those succulent breasts.
“Honey. This is a skinny-dipping hot springs. Absolutely no clothing allowed. Didn’t you read the sign?”
“There is no sign.”
“Well, remind me to put one up.”
“What do you mean, remind you?”
“It’s my place. My responsibility to designate this as a clothes-free zone.”
She lifted her head and stared at him. “What do you mean, your place?”
“You sure ask a lot of questions. I suppose that’s instinctive for a teacher person.”
“What do you mean, your place?” she repeated.
“I bought it. Signed. Sealed. Paid-for.”
“You what?” She retreated to the other side of the pool but stopped there. Obviously too chicken to get out of the water and give him another peep show.
“Isn’t that what spoiled athletes do?” he asked. “See something they want and pay cash to possess it?”
“I didn’t say you were spoiled.” She lifted the cup to her lips and slugged down a desperate amount. “Much.”
“Well, at least you didn’t say men like me. That’s a step in the right direction.”
She lowered the cup and looked at him over the rim. “Do you even know how much you don’t make sense? For weeks you’ve been complaining about how you can’t wait to get back to your team. Back to Houston. So why would you put out an ungodly amount of money for a home in this town?”
“Who says I’ve been complaining?”
“Kate. Matt. Your dad.”
“Maybe those are the exact reasons I bought it. So I could be around them more.”
She laughed. “Do you really expect me to believe that?”
“Maybe.” He smiled—something he seemed to do a lot around her. “And maybe if you bring that champagne back over here, I’ll tell you the other reasons I bought it.”
“I don’t trust you.” She hugged the cup to her naked chest. “What have you got up your sleeve?”
“No sleeves.” He held his arms up. “I’m naked. Remember?”
“Vividly.”
If she was picturing him naked that was a very good sign.
“Come on, honey. I’m not going to bite.”
“Fine.” She slid back through the water but sat a safe distance away.
He snatched the cup from her hand, refilled it, and when her mouth dropped open to complain, he handed it back to her.
“Are you trying to get me drunk?” she asked.
“Me? No way.”
Drunk? No. Loosened up? Absolutely.
He pulled a move he hadn’t used since high school. He slid his arm along the rock ledge above her shoulders.
“Doesn’t that hurt your shoulder?” she asked.
“It’s the other side. But thanks for your concern.”
“Only because I know you’re dying to get back on the field.”
“Right.” At the moment, being back on the field was the last thing on his mind. In fact, his mind wasn’t even in the conversation at the moment. Other parts of him? Oh yeah.
“So why did you buy the lodge?” She sank a little deeper into the water and the top curve of her breasts disappeared.
Bummer.
“I can’t imagine spending so much money on a house you’ll live in just a few weeks out of the year,” she said.
“Brenden Jones.”
“What?”
“You know, the little boy who sits in the back of your classroom.”
She nudged him with her shoulder. “I know who he is. I just don’t get the connection.”
“I bought the lodge because of kids like Brenden Jones. See those guest cabins?” He motioned the direction with the paper cup in his hand. “That indoor arena? The corrals where you hung your clothes? And if I haven’t thanked you for that, let me do so now.”
She gave him a slightly inebriated giggle.
“Close your eyes.”
“Why? What are you going to do?”
“Such distrust.” He tsked. “Close them, honey. I promise I won’t touch you.”
“Okay.”
“Unless you ask.”
She sighed. “You are impossible.”
He leaned toward her. “Are your eyes closed?”
“Yes.”
“Then picture this place as a summer camp for kids with special needs.” He told her of his buddy, Bo Miller, and his son, and the equine therapy they’d found so successful. He told her of his plans to form a camp for kids who could benefit from that same type of care. The more he talked, the more excited he became to put his plan into action. “This place can offer hope to parents and add a little fun to the therapy for the kids. Can you picture it in your head?”
“Oh yes.”
The smile in her voice made his heart tumble. “As an added benefit,” he told her, “I’ll be able to offer employment to some of the people in the town I grew up in. And with a few well-planned events, bring some revenue into the area as well.”
She remained completely silent and if he didn’t know her eyes were now open, he’d think he’d put her to sleep. She was the first person to whom he’d revealed his plan. And for some reason her approval meant a great deal.
“What do you think?” he finally asked.
She leaned forward and studied his face for what felt like an eternity before she said, “I think you’re a dangerous man.”
Not exactly what he’d wanted to hear. But she looked so beautiful bathed in wet moonlight he could forgive her anything. “Dangerous
good?” He tucked a strand of blond hair behind her ear. “Or bad?”
A smile curved her sexy mouth. “I haven’t decided.”
He tilted his head, studied that beautiful mouth, and thought he’d like a taste. “Meaning?”
“Either you are exactly the professional bullshitter I think you are, or . . . you are a man with an amazing heart.”
He looked into the dark of her eyes and lifted her small hand to his chest. “Feel that, honey?” His brisk heartbeat thumped against her palm. “What does that tell you?”
“That you’re a very dangerous man with a very strong heartbeat?”
He cupped her cheek in his hand, threaded his fingers through her silky hair. For days she’d haunted his thoughts, his dreams. She intrigued the hell out of him and he didn’t know why. But when he’d bought the house he found she’d been the first person with whom he’d wanted to share the news.
He’d only kissed her once. But it hadn’t been enough. Not nearly enough. “I’m not dangerous at all. I’m just a guy who finds you unbelievably smart and attractive.”
“Oh.”
“I think about you, Emma.” He slowly shook his head, trailed his fingers down the smooth column of her neck to her bare shoulder. “I think about you a lot. More than I should.”
“You can’t get in trouble just thinking.”
A hum vibrated low in his throat. “I think about touching you.” His fingertips brushed the water-slicked cleavage between her breasts. “Kissing you.” He paused and saw the surprise in her eyes.
“I think about making love to you, Emma.”
She swallowed.
“I think about making love to you all the time.”
Unaware that she was doing so, she leaned closer. Beneath his fingers her heartbeat picked up speed. Everything about her called out to him. Made him want to pound his chest, toss her over his shoulder, and mark her as his own. But they didn’t live in prehistoric times. And though he wanted her so much he ached, though he took the chance of her slipping from his grasp, he needed to be completely honest. He needed to give her the opportunity to make a choice.
“I dream about making love to you, Emma. Really hot, and wet, and dirty dreams.”
His hands came up and cupped her face. His thumb brushed across her pillowy-soft bottom lip. He hadn’t imagined her response when she’d kissed him in her driveway that night. And he wasn’t imagining the look in her eyes right now. She was shocked that he thought about her, let alone dreamed about her.
Still, what happened from here was her call.
His voice lowered. “So before you drink anymore of that champagne, I want you to know that you were wrong about what you said at Kate’s house Christmas night. I don’t have to pretend to be attracted to you. I am attracted to you. And any man who would just use you to pass the time is a damn fool.”
“I . . .”
He softly kissed her lips once. Twice. He tried to keep it gentle. To ease into it. But the third time her lips parted and he slipped his tongue inside. The kiss she gave him sucked away all thoughts of being gentle. The kiss she gave him made him hot, and hard, and achy.
He leaned back and looked deep into her heavy-lidded eyes. “I want to make love to you, honey. And if you don’t say no right now, that’s what will happen.”
“But we don’t like each other.”
He kissed the corner of her mouth and felt her melt just a little. “I think we do.” He kissed her lips. Her nose. Then settled in nicely just below her ear for a long, slow lick. “So what do you think?”
“Just like I said.” She tossed the empty paper cup over her shoulder, climbed onto his lap, and wound her arms around his neck. “Dangerous.”
Dean had never been more surprised. Or more grateful. She straddled his lap, pressed her wet, naked breasts against his chest, and fed him a really hot grab-you-by-the-balls kind of kiss. He went from zero to rigid in less than a blink as their tongues touched, swirled, and caressed.
She seduced him like a woman who knew exactly what she wanted. And what she wanted was him.
Happy freaking New Year.
She kissed the side of his neck. Spread her hands across his chest and kissed the three puckered scars on his shoulder.
When she lowered herself until the pinkest part of her gorgeous body pressed against his throbbing erection, he considered that total permission to indulge. He wrapped his arms around her, pulled her tighter against his chest and sank into her feminine curves.
God, she was soft. He didn’t think he’d ever touched a woman so soft before. Didn’t know if he could ever touch a woman the same way again without thinking of how soft Emma Hart felt against him.
Like a feline stretching on a sun-warmed rock, she arched against him. Pure lust shot up his thighs, grabbed hold of his insides, and squeezed. He eased his head back just enough to look into her face. The moonlight glistened on her wet lips. Her beautiful blue eyes were heavy but clear. Her slightly uneven breath pressed the hard tips of her breasts into his chest. His erection nudged the entrance to her hot, slick body.
He slid his hands up her sides, cupped the weight of her breasts in his palms while his thumbs slowly brushed her nipples back and forth. The steamy water lapped the small gap between their bodies as the river behind them bubbled over a cascade of rocks on its way to the lake.
“Emma, honey?” Last chance for her to back out. “What do you want me to do here?”
She looked into his eyes, cupped his face in her hands, and pressed her mouth to his in a kiss so hot he almost quit breathing. Her kiss continued across his cheek and down the side of his throat where she sucked his sensitive flesh gently into her mouth. When she came up for air she whispered, “Me, Dean. I want you to do me.”
“Thank. You. God.” Permission granted, he slid his hands down her silky thighs while her mouth continued to do incredible things to his throat. He was inches from paradise. All he had to do was lift her up and onto him. And yet with Emma, he didn’t want it to be quick. He didn’t want to close his eyes, thrust into her until he came, and then send her on her merry way. He wanted to taste her, wanted her around him, over him. Hell, if he could find a way to have her inside him, he’d put her there too.
He eased her thighs apart and his thumbs found her swollen nub. He circled it and she melted against him. Her mouth broke the suction on his neck and her head dropped back with a long, contented sigh.
Emma shuddered with the unbelievable heat of promise as Dean pressed the long, thick length of his erection against her. She settled down deeper, aching to have him inside her. Before she got too comfortable, he shifted her off his lap and up onto the rock ledge. She shivered when her butt hit the icy rock, but he warmed her when he cupped his hands beneath her bottom and kissed the inside of her thigh. Lightning shot up into her center.
“This is one of those hot and wet things I’ve dreamed about doing to you.” He kissed the inside of her thigh again, then he parted her folds and found her with his tongue.
Oh. Dear. God.
His warm tongue slid across her slick flesh. His moan vibrated against her clit. He knew exactly what he was doing and she was loving every second. He licked her, stroked her, teased her, and sucked her like a ripe, juicy peach. He loved her like there was no such thing as time. When the fireworks began to explode above the frozen lake, he lifted his head. “Can you see the fireworks, honey?”
Her eyes fluttered open. “Not . . . yet.”
“Then lay back.” He chuckled. “How about now?” He sucked her sensitive, swollen flesh into his mouth and rolled his tongue across the tip.
A roman candle shot off above their heads, and a warm, slow tingle started at her toes and moved up through her body. When the hot orgasm hit the target, she moaned. Loudly. “Oh . . . yes.” Her hips lifted from his hands. Her thighs pressed against his cheeks. “Yes. Yes. Yesssssss.”
Dean let her float down from the cloud for just a moment, then he eased her back down into the water
with him. But if he thought Emma was done, he’d be wrong.
Again, she took over, feeding him hot kisses full of passion and desire. He groaned deep in his throat as her hand circled his cock and she slid her palm down to the base and then back up to the engorged head.
“I want you, Dean,” she whispered against his mouth. She climbed back onto his lap and straddled his hips. “And I want you right now.”
He shuddered beneath her touch as she ran her hands up his chest, positioned herself, and slowly sat. As he slid into the gripping pleasure of her body, the breath squeezed from his lungs. His passion twisted into a steamy, mindless coil. He slid his hands to her waist. She felt so hot, so slick, so . . .
He gripped her hips to keep her in place. No time to run in the house and grab a condom. It wouldn’t work in the hot springs anyway.
Between long, wet kisses he asked, “Birth control?”
“On it.”
Another kiss. “Clean?”
“Squeaky.”
“Me too.” Either she was too far gone to care or she believed him, because she lowered herself fully until he was pressed against her cervix. “God, Emma, you feel so damned good.”
Hands gripping her waist, he controlled his thrusts by raising and lowering her onto his cock. He pushed into her with long, powerful strokes, then lifted her until just the head stayed put. Each time he sank into her again she’d moan and her inner muscles would pull him in deeper. He drove into her again and again. He lost himself inside her. Became one with her. And when he felt the tightening of her orgasm, it pulled a release from deep within his soul.
He thrust hard and a gush of liquid heat exploded around him in the most intense pleasure he’d ever known. Fire spread across his skin and his pulse pounded in his blood as he clutched her to his chest. They cried out together as a burst of red and blue exploded across the sky.
They held each other close while their hearts continued to fly. And in that moment Dean thought he just might have died and gone to heaven.
For twenty years he’d played it smart and safe. A guarded heart and reliable condoms.
Emma Hart was his first without either.
CHAPTER NINE