“It depends on the mood. There’s a lot to be said for taking it slow and easy.” He splayed his hands across her back and tugged her to him. He kissed her, a slow measured exploration that absorbed every sensation of her sprawled against his chest in the close confines of the car. Her heart thudded against his chest. He slanted his head and showered kisses along her neck, feeling her quiver against him as he nuzzled the juncture of her shoulder and neck.
She smoothed her hands over his chest, stroking, kneading, her fingers exploring him, as if she wanted to memorize every inch of his chest, shoulders and arms.
He really, really wanted to untie those purple ribbons on the front of her bra with his teeth. Given the fact that his head was damn near brushing the roof and there wasn’t much room for him to lean forward with her on his lap—not that he was complaining—he contented himself with untying the bows with his fingers. A secretive smile danced around her mouth.
He tugged one end, pulling the ribbon across her nipple and she shuddered. “That feels good?”
“You have no idea.” Her voice was low, breathy, sexy.
He drew both ribbons at the same time and she arched her back and came up on her knees, banging her head against the roof.
That was not the intended outcome. “You okay?” he asked.
She laughed and rubbed the top of her head with one of her hands. “I’m fine. It just felt so good—” she wiggled in his lap “—when you pulled the ribbon out, not when I banged my head.”
Sunny lost him on the very last part. His attention had been caught and held by her very dark tips peeking out at him through the front openings. She didn’t have dark nipples. Hers were a pale pink that flushed to a light rose when he kissed them. These were much darker.
“See something you like?” she asked with a faux innocence.
“Are they—”
“They are.” She cupped her breasts in her hands and squeezed, sending them farther through the openings. “Lipstick. Mango flavored. What do you think?”
She leaned forward, offering him a darkened peak. He drew her into his mouth and sucked the mango flavor off her sweet nipple. “Harder,” she said, panting, grinding down against his throbbing cock. He licked and sucked both of her breasts until he thought he’d come without ever being inside her. And he very much wanted inside her.
He wanted her with the wild abandon of a horny teenager in the back seat of a car. His chest was heaving when he leaned his head back on the headrest. “I think you are one sexy woman. I think I want to be inside you. Now.”
He unzipped his pants and together he and Sunny shoved them, along with his underwear down to his knees. They fumbled over one another, rushing to roll a condom over his swollen cock. Finally it was on.
She grasped his shoulders and levered herself up over his eager, aching, rock-hard, take-me-inside-you-now dick. He grasped her hips as she slowly sank down onto him. He gritted his teeth. She was so dripping, drowning slick, hot, wet and so damn tight he thought he might actually die.
She stopped and he tried to pull her further down but she had the leverage and pushed back up until he was back out of her. She eased down again, just sheathing the top of his cock in her. He tried thrusting up but with the angle of the seat, his pants bunched around his knees and he couldn’t go far.
“Sunny,” he growled.
She leaned into his shoulder because otherwise she’d hit the roof. This time she slid a little farther down on him, but then slowly, excruciatingly slid right back up.
“Focus,” she said, her voice breathy against his shoulder, “on how good it feels now. Close your eyes and let yourself feel it. Feel how wet you make me. How hot I am for your beautiful thick cock.” She took more of him on the downslide. Jesus, she felt so good and he loved her sexy talk.
Fever gripped him. The world, his existence distilled to this—her slow ride astride him, the snug silken heat of her channel stroking up and down his cock, the warm lap of her juices against him. She held the key. Only she could satiate him. Only she could give him what he wanted, what he craved, what he needed.
When he didn’t think he could stand any more, when he wanted to howl with the need to be buried inside her, she took all of him. He clamped her hips in place and she rocked against him, inching him deeper, more fully inside her.
She moaned and he answered her with his own. She fused her mouth to his and their tongues mimicked their bodies. He shifted his hips and thrust. Now. With him filling her, it was enough to feel her muscles tighten and pulse around him.
Together they shifted into overdrive. She let him set the rhythm as he guided her up and down, faster, harder, her bottom slapping against his thighs. He swallowed all the sexy sounds she made into his mouth. He felt her muscles clench harder as she pistoned faster, her cries becoming more harsh, urgent, her nails scoring his shoulders. She was about to climax and he was ready to explode. Ladies first. He reached between her thighs and found her clit, massaging her pearl.
At the first onslaught of her orgasm he joined her. Sensation ripped him, pleasure so intense it bordered on pain roared through him, carried him beyond reason to some elemental, fundamental part of his being.
Panting against his throat, Sunny licked a lazy path from his neck to his ear and nipped him. “That was some ride.”
* * *
Later, after a much-needed shower, which had taken a detour when Cade offered to wash her back and had wound up washing other parts in a very intimate, thorough manner, Sunny sat at the kitchen counter, wearing one of his sweatshirts, and watched him cook dinner. He’d slipped on a pair of gray sweatpants that rode low on his hips, a worn Tennessee Vols T-shirt hugged his broad shoulders. Desire, always simmering around him, flared inside her. You’d think she’d be spent from earlier, but with him around…She sipped at a glass of buttery chardonnay.
She traced her finger along the glass stem and broached the subject of tomorrow. “I need to go home tomorrow. Could you give me a lift on your way in?”
He paused briefly, putting the asparagus in the steamer, his expression unreadable. “Don’t feel like you have to.”
“I think I should. I need to get back to my house.” Funny but she really hadn’t missed it at all, which was somewhat disconcerting considering it was her space filled with her things. “I’ve got a stained-glass piece I’m working on that I’m itching to get back to.” That much was at least true. She wanted to finish the wolf piece she’d started. And she knew exactly where it belonged. The where was a bank of windows that ran across the back of the dining room, overlooking the meadow beyond. The wolf needed to stand sentinel the same as Cade stood sentinel over the house and his family. And her.
It would be so easy to stay here. This was like being wrapped in a cocoon where the rest of the real world only temporarily intruded. Where Cade cushioned the outside and only bits and pieces filtered through. She could hang out in this fabulous house and do her Web work via the Internet while he cooked and brought her presents and they had glorious sex and bit by bit, she feared, she’d lose her identity to him. She felt herself inextricably intertwined with him, but she also felt a need to set herself apart. He was the type of man a woman could lose herself in.
He nodded and leaned against the counter. “I can give you a ride or you can take the beater until you get your car back. It just sits in the garage.”
“That’s nice but it could be a while before I get my car back. I…uh, did a good bit of damage to the front end. Unfortunately I’ve got lawyer fees to cover and I sunk a lot of money, well, for me it was a lot of money, into my campaign fund.”
“Send your car out here. I’ll take care of the body work.”
“But—”
“Sunny, it’s what I do in my spare time. It relaxes me and I’m good at it.”
She laughed because she certainly knew one thing that relaxed him and he was damn good at. He leaned across the counter and stole a kiss. “I think you have a dirty mind.” He grinned. “
A most admirable trait. We could work out a trade.”
“I don’t know what the going rate is for a front-end replacement.”
He raked her with a simmering look. “I’m sure you can cover the costs.”
“Okay.” Sunny let it go. If he wanted to do it. She just wasn’t used to anyone stepping in to help.
Cade finished up dinner. She loved watching him in the kitchen. Was there anything sexier than a gorgeous caveman in the kitchen? Well, duh. A gorgeous caveman in a Corvette. A shiver slid down her spine just thinking about earlier.
Tomorrow morning she was going home. She eyed the cushions still piled in the sunroom.
“Want to picnic? There on the floor?”
“Sure, why not? You want to eat on the floor, we’ll eat on the floor.” He brushed her cheek with the back of his hand.
Something warm and fragile bloomed inside her. He was such a contradiction, so much more complex than she’d thought he’d be when she tagged him a caveman. She thought it was sweet that he’d so willingly indulge her whim.
“Do you have a candle?” she asked.
“No candles. But I have an oil lamp I keep around for when the electricity goes out.”
“Perfect.”
Within a minute or so he’d lit the lamp and placed it on the floor and brought dinner over on two plates—salmon, fresh asparagus and a wild mushroom risotto. Sunny carried over the silverware, napkins and wineglasses. They each claimed a cushion, beside each other, but facing one another. Sunny sat Indian style while Cade stretched out his legs.
They lapsed into a companionable silence. Sunny was suddenly starving. Great sex worked up an appetite. The fish was moist and flaky, the asparagus tender but still firm, the risotto delicately seasoned. “Do you eat like this all the time?” she asked.
“Pretty much. I learned to cook when…I was teenager.” She was dead certain he’d almost said something else and caught himself at the last minute. She was equally certain it was about the time his mother died and his father fell apart. “And I figured if I was going to cook, it might as well be decent because I like to eat good food.”
“Is there anything you don’t do well?” she said, teasing him. She’d felt the shift in him, the banked pain when he mentioned learning to cook.
“There’s lots of things I’m not good at. Pretty speeches, pretty phrases.” He’d taken her seriously. “I’m not the most sensitive guy. I’m used to having my own way. I can’t dance. My brother and sister are a lot of fun. I’m just the guy who shows up every day and gets it done.”
He shouldn’t shortchange himself. “You’ve sort of had to be, haven’t you?”
He shook his head and speared his asparagus. “Gracie.”
“She mentioned a couple of things.”
“I know my sister. She gave you way more personal information than you ever wanted to know.”
“I didn’t ask…but I did want to know.” Sunny pushed a mushroom around on her plate. She didn’t know what the hell they exactly were. Lovers? Boyfriend/girlfriend? Friends? Her bail bondsman who’d given her some awesome orgasms in the past two days? Well, technically a couple of months if you counted fantasy time and gave him credit for the role he’d played there. “She invited me to the Christmas party Friday night.”
“Do you want to come?”
“You know, caveman, you were dead-on with that pretty speeches thing.” She elbowed his leg. “A little enthusiasm on your part would be appreciated.”
“Do you want to come or not?”
“Am I coming as your sister’s invite or as your date?” She felt like upending her wine over his dense head. She shouldn’t have to ask.
“How about both? Marlene will be beside herself.”
“What about you? Will you be beside yourself?”
“Honey, I’ve been beside myself since the first time I saw that flyer. I knew before I ever met you, you’d be a pain in my ass.”
“Be still my beating heart.” Actually, it was pounding like a runaway train. She sniffed. “I knew the minute I saw you on that billboard you’d be a Neanderthal.” She swirled her wine in her glass. “I’ll check my calendar and make sure I don’t have another date that night.”
“You can cancel it.” His tawny eyes held hers. “We cavemen don’t share.”
While they were clarifying…“Neither do we PITAs—that’d be Pain In The Ass to you.” She smiled sweetly. “I think I’d like to meet everyone. Marlene who has you whipped, your dad, Linc the artist and guitarist—”
“You can also meet Georgia, Linc’s fiancée,” he interrupted her with a possessive scowl.
“The wedding planner.”
“Did Gracie manage to leave any stone unturned?”
“Hey, be careful. That almost had a poetic ring to it. And I have no idea. How would I know if a stone was unturned?”
“In case she didn’t cover it, there’s something you should know….”
“The men in your family like to cross-dress for a party?”
“I’ll let you take that up with Martin when you meet him. That ad campaign we did with Meeks…I told you we were in a financial crunch, but, for what it’s worth, we all voted for you,” Cade said.
“That’s worth—” She had to clear her throat and start again because it choked her up. “That’s worth quite a lot.”
Sunny’s cell phone rang. She checked the caller ID. She’d given Nadine her new number yesterday. She wasn’t up for Nadine. Not now. “It’s my sister. She can leave a message.”
“Does she always treat you like shit or was she just having a bad day the other day?”
She didn’t bother to pretend she didn’t know what Cade meant. “Nadine doesn’t come across well.”
She thought he muttered something along the lines of damn straight under his breath.
“She runs around with her glass half empty but you can’t really blame her. She’s just like my parents.”
“Why do you put up with it? Tell her to kiss your ass.”
“Nadine’s unhappy with herself and it comes through in the way she relates to me.”
“But you’re so strong otherwise….”
Her heart flip-flopped at his offhand compliment. She found herself telling him about her family and Mrs. Pearl but she wasn’t sure if he got it. “We’re not close like your family is. We never will be, but she’s still my family. I love her despite her faults. Forgiving her, accepting her for who she is, warts and all, doesn’t make me weak.” A movement outside caught her eye. “Cade, look.” He had his back to the window. “Outside. It’s snowing.”
He looked over his shoulder. Outside the glass, snow drifted down, big fat flakes that floated lazily past them.
He turned back to face her, his expression uncharacteristically tentative.
“When Linc and I were kids, sometimes we’d camp out here. We could do that tonight. If I stoke the fire just right, it should burn for hours. Most of the night.”
Camping out on the floor while the snow fell outside around them struck her as wildly romantic. “That would be lovely.”
If she wasn’t careful she just might find herself in love.
He smiled his sexy, endearing, lopsided smile, his eyes crinkling at the corners and she glimpsed the boy who’d grown into the man.
Careful had come too late.
Cade Stone owned her heart.
* * *
“That should last for a while,” Cade said as the fire crackled and popped. He stood, brushing off the dirt clinging to his hands.
“Mmm. Nice. I’ve got us set up over here.”
She’d built a cozy little den of sofa cushions, pillows and comforters in the sunroom. She’d extinguished the oil lamp.
He crossed the room and she pulled back the edge of the comforter, silently inviting him in. He lay down beside her and rolled to his side, propping on his elbow. She spooned against him, her bare legs twining with his, her buttocks snugged against his crotch, her shoulders next to h
is chest. Her hair tickled his throat.
He’d known she was a pain in the ass before he ever met her. She’d scattered stuff around his house. He’d had to carry her out to the garage. Pull the comforters off the beds upstairs.
And he had a feeling he was going to miss her like hell when she went home tomorrow. She’d brought vibrancy, a new dimension to his life in the last few days.
Unfortunately, he’d spoken the truth earlier. He wasn’t a man to turn a pretty phrase. And he wasn’t so good at tender, but he’d aim for both.
He curved his arm around her waist. “You look nice in the dark.”
She made a strangled sound and rolled to her back to look up at him. “Did you just say I looked nice in the dark? That means I only look good if you can’t see me?”
“No.” He’d give it another go. “It means I like the way the moonbeams brush your face.” Holy shit, had that just really come out of his mouth? He sounded like one of those metrosexuals. Next he’d be signing up to do an underwear ad.
“Cade—”
“Yeah?”
“I think you’re more a man of action than words. You know, you’re really good with the doing part. You might want to stick with that.”
He was much better with the doing. And he hadn’t forgotten for a second that she wasn’t wearing anything beneath his sweatshirt. He slid his hand up her thigh and she sighed.
He stroked the soft skin of her belly and kissed the side of her neck. “Show, don’t tell?”
“Yes.” She twined her arms around his neck.
He loved those little breathy one-syllable responses she gave.
“Can I say one more thing? It would really help with the showing business.”
“Okay?”
“I sure would like to see you naked in the moonlight.”
“Why didn’t you say so earlier?” She pulled his sweatshirt over her head in one swift motion. For a moment he was rendered speechless, awestruck. The moonlight washed parts of her to an alabaster white, while casting other parts in shadow.
He felt as if he’d taken a roundhouse kick to the solar plexus. “You look like a goddess.”
The Big Heat Page 13