Nine Months

by Beverly Barton

  “I swear I won’t touch you, unless you touch me first.”

  “Then I don’t have anything to worry about, do I.”

  He smiled, that damn killer smile of his. “Nope, I guess you don’t.”

  Chapter Eight

  Had she made a deal with the devil, agreeing to stay with Jared for the rest of the week? He had promised not to touch her—unless she touched him first. Would he keep his promise? And could she spend the next few days with him and not succumb to her own desires?

  Despite the chilling autumn wind that whistled around the corners of the three-level cabin, the interior was cosy-warm. Paige snuggled beneath the cranberry red coverlet, soft, thick blanket and flannel sheet. The wind disturbed her. The creaking, house-settling noises disturbed her. The moonlight-illuminated shadows falling across the windows disturbed her.

  Tossing and turning in the queen-size, pencil-post bed, Paige longed for sleep, but sleep wouldn’t come. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t forget that Jared was in the room across the hall. He was so very near and yet so very far away. Distance did not separate them. Only the strength of his promise and her iron-willed determination kept them apart.

  When he’d shown her into this room, one of five guest bedrooms in the sprawling log cabin, why hadn’t she insisted on another room, farther from his, even one on another floor? Why had she so readily agreed not only to stay with him all week, but to sleep directly across the hall from him?

  He had issued her a dare—I won’t touch you if you don’t touch me first—and there was no law saying she had to accept his dare. But she had, and she’d done it without thoroughly thinking through the whole situation. She’d been so damned and determined to prove to him that he wasn’t irresistible and that she could and would hold out against his devastating charm, that she hadn’t taken into account her own desperate desire for him.

  She could deny the truth all she wanted to, but the truth was still the truth. She was in love with Jared Montgomery and probably had been since they’d made love in the elevator. She had tried to convince herself that her cowboy stranger and L. J. Montgomery were two different men. But they weren’t. They were just two different sides of the same man—a man that she now believed she had been destined to love. And even if Jared didn’t know it, she was his destiny—the woman he was meant to share his life with, the woman he was meant to love.

  Paige wanted Jared as she had never wanted another man. The sexual electricity between them was like nothing she’d ever experienced.

  She needed him in her life, caring for her, surrounding her with his protection, loving her completely. If only she could find a way to reach his heart, to break through the protective barrier that he’d built around his deepest feelings.

  Was she longing for the impossible, for a man who believed himself incapable of loving, a man who didn’t even believe the romantic emotion existed, to love her as she loved him?

  She was a fool!

  Kay was wrong, wasn’t she, Paige wondered, if she thought you could teach another person how to love? Love was an emotion, a deep, heartfelt need, not a lesson that could be taught and learned.

  Paige had been surrounded by love her entire life. Conceived in Walt and Dora Summers’ passionate love. Born into the safe, secure love of two devoted parents. Raised in a home filled with genuine, abiding love.

  But what if the circumstances of her life had been different? What if, as Jared, she’d never known real love? Would she be capable of opening up her heart to another and bestowing upon him life’s most basic yet most precious gift? Jared didn’t believe in love because he had never loved or been loved.

  A loud crash came from across the hall, followed by several thunderous bumps and a string of expressive curse words.

  Paige sat straight up in bed. Jared? The noise had come from his room, hadn’t it? She threw back the covers, turned on a bedside lamp and got up. Had Jared fallen? Was he hurt? Did he need her?

  She rushed across the room, opened the door and ran across the hall. Standing barefoot at Jared’s bedroom door, she knocked loudly.

  “Jared, are you all right?”

  “How the hell should I know?” He responded in an angry roar. “I’m lying flat on my back on the floor in this pitch-black room!”

  Paige flung open the door and immediately flipped on the light switch, which activated brass lamps on the nightstands that flanked his king-size bed. The soft, low-wattage lamplight caressed the forty-five-foot-square area, gilding every inch of the room with a transparent golden glow.

  She entered his room, then stopped abruptly after taking only a couple of tentative steps. The sight of Jared, wearing nothing but the pajama bottom that was the mate to the black silk top she wore, took Paige’s breath away. He lay sprawled out on the wooden floor, halfway between his bed and the bathroom. The tip of one crutch peeked out from underneath the bed. The other crutch, which lay on a knotted brown area rug, pointed toward the French doors to the right of the massive rock fireplace.

  Momentarily mesmerized by Jared’s long, lean body, Paige stared at him, scanning every muscle. She noted the width of his naked shoulders, the strength of his powerful arms, the thatch of curling dark hair that covered his broad chest, narrowed to a seductive, thin line and disappeared beneath the waistband of his pajamas.

  Flattening his palms against the floor, Jared lifted himself into a sitting position and braced his body with his arms. He looked up and saw Paige standing just inside the doorway. Every muscle in his body tensed. His heartbeat drummed in his ears. His sex hardened instantly.

  She was beautiful beyond words, beyond reason. Like a vision out of his most erotic dream. She stood there, her skin glistening in the golden light, her mahogany red hair spread out over her shoulders and down her back, her full breasts pushing against the black silk and her nipples tightened to pinpoints. His pajama top hit her mid-thigh, revealing the long, creamy expanse of her slender legs. She stared at him, her brown eyes filled with undisguised longing.

  He groaned, the sound beginning deep inside him, at gut level, rising in his throat and erupting from his lips on one long, agonized breath.

  “You are hurt!” Paige hurried to Jared, knelt at his side and laid her hand on his shoulder. “What happened? Did you injure your sprained ankle?”

  A knot formed in his throat, the tension threatening to choke him. He swallowed, dislodging the emotional knot, then glanced meaningfully at her hand resting on his naked shoulder. “I was on my way back from the bathroom. One of my damn crutches got tangled up in that stupid rug—” he nodded to the guilty object “—and the next thing I knew I landed flat of my back and the crutches went flying.”

  “Do you think you can get up if I help you?” Leaning over him, she slipped her arm around his waist. “Or are you in too much pain to move?”

  He was in pain, all right, but not the kind of pain she meant. He was mad as hell about taking a spill, but the only thing he’d hurt in the fall was his pride. However, he was in pain. He ached with a purely primitive male need that the very sight of her had brought to torturous life.

  “I’m okay, honey. Help me stand up.” He eased his arm around her shoulders, boosted himself upward with his other arm and stood on one shaky leg. “Help me get back in bed.”

  Without a moment’s hesitation, Paige assisted him. Allowing him to lean heavily on her, she led him slowly toward his massive bed.

  “I’m sorry I made so much noise that I woke you,” he said. “I know how important getting plenty of rest is for you and the baby.”

  “I wasn’t asleep,” she admitted, then immediately wished she hadn’t been so honest. He would wonder, wouldn’t he, why she was still awake in the middle of the night?

  “I was having a difficult time getting to sleep, too.” He tightened his hold around her shoulder. “I kept thinking about you being right across the hall. Were thoughts of me being so close keeping you awake?”

  Shivers of awareness rippled
along Paige’s nerve endings. Her femininity tightened and released, tingling with anticipation. “I should have gone back to my apartment tonight. Then both of us would have gotten a good night’s sleep.”

  “But if you’d gone home, I’d have been all alone,” he told her. “With no one to help me.”

  When they reached the edge of his bed, Paige removed her arm from around his waist, then stepped out from under his big arm. Wavering on one foot, Jared held out his hands to her in a pleading gesture.

  “You don’t need me,” she said. “Just sit down.” She nudged him in the middle of his chest.

  He grabbed her wrist, and as he fell backward onto the rumpled covers, he pulled her down on top of him. “But I do need you, honey.” Placing his hand at the base of her spine, he eased it over her buttocks and down her bare legs.

  Squirming against him, she issued a weak protest. “No, Jared. Please.” His sex pulsated against her feminine mound, igniting a gush of warm, damp heat. “You promised.”

  Easing his hand up and under the silk pajama top, he cupped her hip. She moaned. Gazing into her dreamy brown eyes, he slipped his fingers inside the elastic waistband and slid her beige lace panties down her hips. “You touched me first,” he reminded her.

  While he kneaded the firm flesh of her buttocks with one hand, he grasped the back of her head with the other and drew her face to his. “I didn’t break my promise.” He whispered the words against her lips.

  “You don’t play fair.” Her breath mingled with his. “I touched you because you needed my help.”

  He ran the tip of his tongue across her bottom lip. She sighed. He smiled. “But you did touch me first, honey, and there were no stipulations to our deal.”

  “This won’t change anything,” she told him. “No matter what happens—”

  He silenced her warning with his mouth, covering her lips with his, tasting her sweetness as he pressed his tongue between her teeth. She opened for him, like a flower to the sun, giving him free access. Accepting him, welcoming him into her moist warmth, she became a willing participant. She had fought a long, hard battle, struggled diligently not to give in to her own wanton desires, but in the end it all came down to this—this simple, desperate need to be one with the man she loved. And she did love him. Oh, how she loved him!

  Paige’s hot body melted into his, like thick liquid metal, adhering to the solid mass beneath her. He lifted her hips, shifting her up and down, rubbing her intimately over his throbbing sex. As his tongue thrust deeply into her mouth, she reciprocated, beginning a dual dance of passion. He ate at her mouth, devouring her, and she wrapped herself around him, longing for more. So much more. The frenzied kiss ended when Jared released her mouth and took a deep, hard breath. Paige licked her swollen lips.

  She felt just as she had that evening in the elevator when she’d given in to her most primitive longings. Only Jared could make her feel this way. Only Jared had the power to ignite the fires within her and set her body aflame. Only Jared’s possession could consume the blaze and render her to sparkling embers that he alone could set afire again.

  Grasping her waist, he lifted her off his sweaty chest. Paige spread her fingers through his damp chest hair. He groaned. His sex hardened painfully, her very touch taking him to the edge.

  Lifting her up so that she rested on her knees above him, he dragged her panties down as far as he could. Bracing herself with her arms, she lifted one leg at a time and finished removing the sheer lace briefs. She sat on top of Jared, her femininity resting on his silk-covered arousal.

  He looked up at her as she smiled down at him. Her cheeks flushed a seductive pink, her pupils dilated, darkening her eyes from brown to black, and her kiss-swollen lips sighed his name.

  “Jared.”

  That one word branded him, burning into his soul. There was no turning back now, for either of them. The madness had taken over, the pure animalistic need to mate.

  With trembling fingers, he grasped the silk pajama top, ripping it apart, popping the line of pearlized black buttons in his haste to undress her. He spread apart the dark, shimmery material and bared her breasts.

  She shuddered when he exposed her breasts to the air. Her nipples puckered into jutting points. Her flooded femininity ached. Her heavy breasts throbbed.

  When he grasped her breasts in his big hands, she cried out from the relief his touch gave her and from the still hungry need eating away at her insides. He massaged her breasts, teasing the nipples, until Paige thought she would die from the agonizing pleasure of his masterful touch.

  Lifting his hips, he jerked his pajama bottoms down over his hips and to his knees, then wriggled them to his ankles and kicked them off onto the floor.

  Taking her hips in his hands, he positioned her, aligning her body to his. With one quick, powerful lunge, he took her, his strong, upward thrust filling her completely. Crying out her pleasure, Paige tossed her head backward and her long red hair brushed her hips.

  “Ride me, honey. Hard and fast.”

  She obeyed his command, giving herself over completely to the pursuit of her own needs. Rising and falling, she rode him with mindless abandon, spiraling out of control as her senses ruled her, every sensation heightened by their physical union.

  She smelled the musky, earthy aroma of their hot, sweaty bodies. She heard their labored breaths and the wet, undulating rhythm of their lovemaking. She saw the taut, fast-building passion on Jared’s face and knew he saw the same in hers.

  Leaning over him, her breasts pressing against his chest, she licked a moist line up his throat to his lips, tasting the rich, hot dampness of his skin.

  When she braced herself with her arms, positioning her breasts invitingly over his mouth, Jared thrust upward into her, stealing her breath, and latched onto a nipple, sucking greedily. Every nerve in her body screamed for release.

  Paige gasped for air as Jared tormented one breast and then the other, sucking, laving, nibbling. While one hand aided his mouth, he used the other to urge the acceleration of her pace, leading her into a frenzy. She became a sizzling mass of sensations, a being completely ruled by her passion.

  When her body tightened and then released, plunging her into a maelstrom of pure sexual fulfillment, Jared allowed her time for completion before he flipped her over onto her back and took his own pleasure, hammering into her. Fast and furious, he emptied himself. His big body shivered with release. They clung to each other, their breathing ragged and harsh, their bodies sticky with sweat.

  Slipping off her, Jared pulled her into his arms, cradling her head against his shoulder. He kissed her forehead.

  “Jared—”

  He placed his index finger over her lips. “Don’t say anything, honey. Don’t spoil what we have right now.”

  She snuggled against him as he drew the covers up and over their naked bodies. He was right. Now was not the time for talking. Tomorrow would be time enough.

  Paige drifted into a peaceful sleep, draped securely in Jared’s arms.

  * * *

  Jared awoke shortly after daybreak, and for one brief moment he couldn’t believe that Paige was sleeping beside him, warm, naked and sated from their lovemaking. For the past five months he had longed for her, wanted her, needed her in a way he’d never needed another woman. What was it about this one woman that made him want her so?

  He smoothed his hand over the quilted coverlet, gripped the edge and pulled the covers away from her body. She was ripe and voluptuous, her body temptation personified. Her large breasts beckoned his mouth with their fullness. The cinnamon thatch of hair covering her mound tempted his fingers to explore the depths of her body.

  And her little round tummy protruded slightly, just enough so that he could tell his child lay nestled inside. He kissed her belly. Paige stirred, moaning softly. He licked a circle around her navel. Squirming, she opened her eyes and smiled. He lifted his head.

  “Jared?”

  “I want to make love to you,” he s
aid, and before she could reply, he kissed her belly again.

  She grasped his shoulders, urging him to come to her. He eased upward far enough to capture one begging nipple in his mouth and clasp the other nipple between his thumb and forefinger. When he had her writhing beneath him, he lowered his head and painted a damp trail from her breasts to the apex between her thighs. Urging her legs apart, he lowered his head and sought the secret heart of her. She gasped loudly when his tongue laved her intimately. Gripping his shoulders, she held on for dear life as Jared brought her to the brink and, with one final caress, plunged her headlong into rapture. While the aftershocks rippled through her, Jared mounted her, thrusting deeply into her wet body. All the while he lunged in and out, he claimed her mouth repeatedly in quick, smoldering kisses, the musky, feminine taste of her still on his lips.

  He groaned when the force of his powerful climax hit him. Within minutes, she joined him, experiencing a second, even more earth-shattering release.

  He rolled her over on top of him and they went to sleep again, still joined, their naked bodies lying atop the covers.

  When Paige awoke the second time, she was alone in bed. A blazing fire warmed the room and morning sunshine flooded through the French doors and numerous windows. She stretched, then groaned. Her body ached from their passionately strenuous lovemaking.

  Sitting up in bed, she glanced around the room in search of Jared’s pajama top and her panties. She saw the pajama top lying on the floor, at the side of the bed. Reaching down, she retrieved the black silk shirt, slipped it on and tied it beneath her breasts in a loose knot. She finally spotted her panties, curled into a wad at the foot of the bed. Snatching them off the floor, she slipped into them quickly.

  “There’s no need to get dressed, honey.” Jared stood in the doorway, holding an open basket filled with food, while he braced his body on one crutch. Obviously he had showered, shaved and dressed. His hair was moist, his face smooth. He’d put on a pair of faded jeans and a pullover sweater. “I thought we’d spend the day in bed,” he told her.