She wasn’t sure, because of the thunder of her own pulse in her ears, but she thought she might have heard laughter. And not from the horse.
She glanced over to make sure Jack was making it okay. He seemed to be keeping up all right.
It wasn’t far up the bank. The wash wasn’t all that deep. They were up and over the lip in a matter of seconds. The instant the horse settled back into an easy walk Melanie shoved away from Caleb and repositioned herself.
The horse nickered, tossed his head, and kicked out with one hind leg.
“Okay, that’s it.” After looping the reins around the saddle horn, Caleb kicked his feet free of the stirrups, swung his right leg up and over and jumped to the ground. It wasn’t an easy maneuver for a grown man who would never see thirty again, but he was just ticked enough to pull it off.
“What are you doing?” Melanie demanded.
“I’m walking,” he said. “If you find touching me so distasteful that you’d rather irritate the poor damn horse to the point where he’s ready to buck us both off, then I’ll just walk, if it’s all the same to you.”
The anger in his eyes got her own dander up. She moved up into the saddle, then used the stirrup to swing down. She stood before him, her fists propped on her hips. “I just don’t think it’s a good idea for the two of us to get all cozy, that’s all.”
“Cozy?” It was almost, but not quite, a bellow.
The horses moved away to chomp the still-green grass in a less volatile atmosphere.
“You know what I’m talking about,” she snapped. “Every time we get within touching distance of each other you get that look in your eyes like you’re ready to lap me up, and my skin starts humming.”
A quick grin curved his lips. “Humming?”
“Get over it. I’m just trying to keep things simple between us. To keep our friendship safe. All this touching and teasing and kissing is going to ruin everything.” She started pacing back and forth before him, kicking at tufts of grass.
“If we keep it up,” she warned, “we’ll end up in bed together.”
“And your problem is?”
“And if we like it enough,” she said, rolling over his words, “the next thing we know, we’ll be having a hot, torrid affair, then one of us will do something to hurt the other one’s feelings and we’ll break up, and then not only will we not have all that great sex anymore, we won’t even have our friendship.”
Caleb stared at her, dumbfounded. “All we’ve done is kiss a few times and you’ve got us into a torrid affair, and broken up, and not speaking to each other. Gee, did we have any kids during all this time?”
“You are sooo funny.”
“I’m funny? You’ve built this whole scenario out of a few kisses. Do you have any idea how crazy that sounds?”
“Of course I know how crazy it sounds,” she cried, waving her arms in the air. “And it’s all your fault, because you’re making me crazy.”
“I’m making you crazy?” He took his hat off and slapped it against his leg. “What you’re saying is you want a guarantee. Like for a new car. Five years or fifty thousand miles. Is that what you want?”
“No. Of course not.”
“Well it’s a damn good thing, because I’m sure as hell no new car. For all you know, the sex will suck for both of us, we’ll have a good laugh over it and go back to being just friends.”
“Oh, yeah, right,” she said. “Like it would really suck between us.”
“Yeah, I know. Not much chance of that.” He moved closer to her. “It’d be great. We both know it.”
She gave a toss of her head. He doubted that her chin could poke out any farther. “What makes you think that?”
“This.” He pulled her close and kissed her.
Somewhere in the back of her mind Melanie had expected this. Hoped for this. Yet still he managed to take her by surprise and lock her breath in her throat. Along with her heart. She was helpless to do anything other than cling to him and kiss him back.
He felt hard and smooth beneath her hands as she spread them over his back. He tasted of that last cup of coffee he’d had before leaving the house.
She felt as if she’d had entirely too much coffee rather than the single cup she’d sipped. Every nerve ending danced beneath her skin.
And she wanted him. Could finally admit how much she wanted him. But she pulled back slightly and whispered, “Is this a mistake, Caleb?”
He kissed her right cheek, her left, and pulled her ball cap off, tossed it to the ground. “Do we care?” He flicked his tongue across her lips.
“No,” she breathed. “No, we don’t care. But in case we’re wrong, let’s make it a doozy.” She leaned into him and ran her hands up his back and hooked them over his shoulders. She had never felt such urgency before. If she didn’t get closer to him, she might die.
It was only sex. That’s what she told herself. Just two willing bodies coming together to scratch an itch. It didn’t have to be a big deal, and it wouldn’t. It was just sex.
And it was going to be stupendous, she thought with a secret smile.
She raised one leg and rubbed it against his outer thigh, trying to get closer.
Sloan got the message and was grateful for it. He wasn’t sure who took whom down, but the next thing he knew they were rolling in the grass and he had his hand on her breast. At long last. And the feel of her was infinitely better than in his dream. Softer, firmer, fuller. Real.
“I want your clothes off.”
Caleb thought he’d spoken aloud what was in his mind, then realized that was Melanie’s voice. He laughed, delighted. “You won’t get an objection out of me.”
She tugged at the snaps on his western shirt and they popped open. “Is that a fact?”
“As long as I get to return the favor.”
Melanie swallowed. “Be my guest.”
She was afraid to look away from his eyes, afraid she would wake up and find this was only a dream. Sunshine, the smell of autumn grass, a warm southerly breeze, and Caleb.
Don’t let me wake up.
While she pulled open his shirt he worked on her buttons. But he was much too slow for her. She rose to her knees and pulled him with her, where she promptly stripped him of his shirt and took off her own.
Caleb managed, but just barely, to refrain from simply pouncing on her. She was suddenly so confident, so bold and sure of herself, so magnificent with the sunlight pouring over her pale skin, her dark hair. She took his breath away. With hands that weren’t as steady as they should have been, he reached behind her and unhooked her plain white bra.
She felt the air first, then the sun on flesh that never saw the sun. Then Caleb’s hands cupped her, the first man’s hands to touch her this way in a long, long time. She closed her eyes and felt her breasts swell to fill his palms.
“Oh, Caleb,” she whispered.
“You’re beautiful,” he told her.
She shook her head. “I’m not, but you make me feel that way.”
“You are. Beautiful to see, to touch.” He dipped his head down and teased one nipple with his tongue. “To taste.” He took the bud into his hot, wet mouth and suckled.
A deep shudder tore through her and suddenly she was on fire, burning alive from the inside out, and only Caleb could save her. She arched toward him and felt the grass cushion her back as he took her down again to the ground.
When he took his mouth away an involuntary cry of protest escaped her lips.
But he didn’t leave, not really, for he kissed his way across her chest to the other nipple. It was torture of the most exquisite, most pleasurable kind.
She went wild. She had to have him inside her. Now. This instant. But there were still too damn many clothes separating them. She tried to toe off her boots, but she knew better. It took two hands or a bootjack to free her feet.
Caleb felt her struggle and chuckled against her breast. “Damn boots.”
“Help me.”
They rolled together, tugging and laughing and cursing the foibles of well-fitting boots. Leather flew this way and that, followed swiftly by socks. Melanie fumbled her belt buckle open and reached for her zipper.
“Wait.” Caleb pressed his hand over hers. “Let me.” He pushed her gently back to the grass and took his time, tugging the zipper down slowly, one notch at a time, while watching her. He was stunned, humbled, that he could bring her as much pleasure as he saw on her face.
He tugged her jeans down and off, and with them her white cotton panties. No frills for his Mel.
He hadn’t known that plain, white cotton could make his heart pound like a hammer in his chest.
She squirmed on the ground, reaching for his belt buckle, but he was too busy admiring the pale length of her long, long legs to be of any help.
“So perfect,” he murmured.
“Off.” She freed his buckle, lowered his zipper and thrust her hands inside the back of his jeans. Her fingers dug into his flesh. The small pricks of her fingernails shot fire straight to his loins.
She was rushing him, and it was important that with her, for her, he did not rush. He knew this woman. She could face anything that came at her, except her own feelings. Hadn’t she just told him that she had outgrown her feelings for Sloan years before she’d been willing to admit it?
If Caleb wanted her to have feelings for him, he was going to have to make her face them. She was going to have to face that there was more between them now than friendship. And she wouldn’t want to. He had his work cut out for him. But it started here and now, on the grass in an open pasture in the sunlight. No secrets. No more hiding.
“Wait,” he said. “Let me look at you.”
“You can look at me with your jeans off.”
“I can.” He nipped at her lips. “But with my jeans off I’m more likely to do something else.”
She grinned up at him. “That’s the idea.”
He chuckled. “Don’t be in such a hurry.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “You wouldn’t start something you don’t intend to finish, would you?”
“Not finish? Are you out of your mind?”
She smiled again, but it was tinged with wry humor. “I’m here, aren’t I?”
“Oh, that’ll cost you.” He buried his mouth against her neck and made growling noises.
Melanie shrieked with laughter. She’d never laughed before while having sex. Of course, they weren’t exactly having sex yet, but they were getting to it. If she could just hurry Caleb along before things got too intense. She could already feel her emotions bubbling, fighting each other, trying to overtake her. Sex wasn’t supposed to be so complicated. At least, it never had been for her.
This, with the laughter and the yearning in Caleb’s eyes, the tenderness in his touch, was something new, something scary.
Her mind raced in a thousand directions, seeking a way to get them back on an even keel. The laughter was fine. Great in fact. But the yearning… that wouldn’t do. That way lay disaster.
Then he cupped his hand between her legs and her mind blanked. What was he doing to her? Why should his touch, above any other she’d ever known, be the one to melt her bones?
She reached to push down his jeans. Caleb helped her, and as soon as he was naked she rolled him to his back and straddled his hips. “Now.” She grinned down at him.
“Not yet.” With a twist of his hips he had her on her back before she knew it. “Let me in, Melanie.”
“Let you?” She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him close. “I’m about to beg you.”
He traced a finger across her brow. “What are you afraid of?”
“Nothing. I’m afraid of dying before I feel you inside me.”
Her admission was enough to make his blood surge. “I want inside you. Here,” he said, cupping a hand between her legs. “And here.” He kissed her forehead. “And here.” He kissed between her breasts, over her heart. “I want it all. Let me in, Mel, let me in.”
“Caleb.” She gave a frustrated groan and arched her hips against his hand.
Caleb knew what she wanted. He wanted the same thing, wanted to bury himself deep inside her and stroke until they both flew apart, together. He nudged her legs apart and settled between her thighs.
Melanie took in a breath and held it. To feel him there, between her legs, his weight covering her hips, was like nothing she’d ever known. Hot shivers raced over her skin and through her muscles. Every nerve ending in her body danced beneath her skin. But it wasn’t enough. She wanted more. She wanted him.
And then he was there, easing inside her, stretching her, filling her with his hot, hard length in a way she had never before been filled. She raised her knees to take more of him.
With a groan, Caleb pushed in to the hilt. She was so tight, so hot and wet, it was all he could do to keep from pulling out and pounding into her again and again until he lost his mind, until he made her scream with pleasure.
He thought maybe he had already lost his mind, for he didn’t move. “Let me in, Melanie.”
Breathless, she said, “Are you kidding?”
“I don’t mean just here.” He nudged his hips forward. “I mean here.” He kissed her forehead, and between her breasts. “And here.”
Melanie arched her hips. “Caleb, please.”
“Let me in.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, you do.”
“It’s just sex,” she said.
“It’s not, and you know it.” He trailed kisses across one cheek, then the other. “We mean more than that to each other. We deserve more than that from each other. Let me in.”
“I don’t know how,” she cried in frustration, her eyes shut tight. If he didn’t move soon she was going to explode.
“Just let go. Stop trying to think your way through this and just feel. Just feel, Mel.”
“I can’t,” she cried, twisting her head away from his lips.
Caleb kissed his way down her neck, her chest, to the tip of one breast. She was so soft there, but for the hard tip. And sweet, like dark honey. “Just let go.”
And she did. Something inside her, a tight control she hadn’t been aware of, melted away under the heat of his mouth and in his eyes. Suddenly she was soaring.
“Caleb,” she whispered in wonder.
“Look at me,” he asked. “Let me see your eyes.”
She opened her eyes and met his dark brown gaze.
He saw there what he’d wanted to see. A new openness, mixed with deep emotion, something more than just heat. “Oh, yeah.” He took her mouth and devoured it, with lips and tongue and teeth. The need inside him burned, took over. His hands roamed everywhere, eager and greedy to feel every inch of her. His hips flexed, slowly at first, then faster and faster as she moaned and urged him on.
She took him higher than he’d ever been, meeting him thrust for thrust, gasping breath for gasping breath, pounding heartbeat for pounding heartbeat. Harder. Faster.
Melanie felt the pleasure and the pressure and the fire build until she thought she couldn’t bear it, yet she never wanted it to end.
But it did, with an explosion of sensation and emotions that started low and deep, where she and Caleb were joined, and radiated out in waves, taking her with it and flinging her off the edge of the earth. She screamed in sheer release.
And then he was there with her, Caleb was with her, thrusting deep inside with a mighty groan, holding her close, keeping her safe. Sheltering her as they tumbled through space together.
The warmth of the sun on his back tempted Caleb to lie there forever. Two things kept him from giving in and falling asleep. First was that he knew his weight must be crushing Melanie. Second was the dampness on his shoulder where she pressed her face.
“Melanie?” He started to push himself up, but she clung to him with a quiet sob.
“No,” she said. “Don’t look at me.”
“Mel…�
�� He started to raise his hips, to pull out of her and relieve her of his weight.
“No.” She tightened her legs around him. “Don’t leave me. Don’t leave me yet.”
The words were so sweet to his ears, but for the tears in her voice. “Baby, what’s wrong?”
This time she laughed. “Nothing’s wrong. Nothing.” Her arms squeezed more tightly around his neck. Half laughing, half crying, she gave a final squeeze then threw her arms over her head. “Nothing has ever been so right.”
Caleb sagged with relief. “You had me scared. I thought… I don’t know what I thought.”
Inside, Melanie was shaking. Everything within her had shifted somehow, opened, leaving her feeling vulnerable to him in a new and frightening way. She couldn’t let him see. She had to put some distance between them at once.
Letting out a loud sigh, she scrubbed her face dry, then slapped him on the rear. “Let me up. I’ve got a lame horse to get home and tend to.”
Caleb rolled to her side. “I never knew you had such a romantic streak.”
She let out a snort, half laughter, half disgust, and rose onto her knees to start gathering her scattered clothes. “Romantic, hell. What’s the big deal? It was just sex.”
“The hell it was.” He took her arm and pulled her around to face him. “It was more than that, and you know it.”
Melanie shivered. There was more than anger in his eyes. Mere anger she could deal with. But hurt looked out at her from those brown depths. Hurt she had caused.
She felt small and mean. After what the two of them had just shared, there should have been soft words and lingering glances. But the fear in her was bigger than her conscience or her need for reassurance from her lover. Or his need for something from her.
“Okay,” she said, pulling her arm free and picking up her underwear from the grass. “It was really great sex.”
He yanked her panties from her grasp. “What are you afraid of?”
“Right now?” She grabbed up her jeans and tugged them on. “Sunburn. I said it was great sex. So great, in fact,” she added, picking up her bra and putting it on, “that after we get back and I take care of Jack, we can do it again, if you want.”
The Chisholm Brothers:Friends, Lovers... Husbands? Page 30