Finally, she reached out and took his cup and set it on the coffee table. “Would you stop being such a gentleman and kiss me?”
That was all it took.
She melted into him. He bent his head, and as if she sensed the subtle movement, she tilted her head up and met his lips. The feel of her in his arms—the way she fit so perfectly—reminded him of when he’d kissed her at the park. They hadn’t spoken of that kiss. He thought he’d be just fine with that, but the minute he’d walked in and saw her on that ladder tonight, he knew he wanted to kiss her again. No, not just kiss her, he wanted to make love to her. Judging from the way she was holding on to him, she didn’t seem to mind venturing out of the friend zone, either.
Her body, so close and supple, made him yearn to explore her swells and valleys. His hands got a head start on doing just that. He kissed her gently at first then more insistently as he pulled her flush against him.
“You are so beautiful,” he said, trailing a finger down her jawline. Then his lips followed the path his finger had traced.
She sighed. It was almost inaudible, but he felt it when he found her lips again. He tightened the embrace in response; his hands swept down her back, over the slight rectangle of bare skin where her cotton shirt met the waistband of her low-slung jeans.
As they deepened the kiss, his tongue swirling around hers, her response was so invitingly erotic that he didn’t even realize the rasping moan echoing in his head had escaped from his own throat.
He pulled back, trying to read her, needing to make sure she wanted this as much as he did. If she didn’t, he would honor that, but they needed to stop now. He needed to take her back to Juliette’s and they needed to say good-night.
“Are you okay with this?” he asked.
“I’m more than okay.” She looped her arms around his neck and brushed a feather-light kiss on his lips. “Ethan, I have a feeling we’re both going to be even better very soon.”
When she covered his mouth with hers, it was all he needed to extinguish any doubts that she wanted him as badly as he wanted her. He longed to show her exactly how hot he burned for her.
He took possession of her body, craving the feel of her hands in his hair; the searing heat of her touch on his shoulders, trailing down his back; the white-hot ecstasy of skin on bare skin as she slid her hands underneath his shirt. They held each other so close he could barely breathe. But her kiss was the only air he needed. She breathed life into him, imbued him with something he hadn’t felt in a very long time. Something he’d been missing. He was finding it in a woman who was getting under his skin as deftly as she crawled in through bathroom windows. Breaking and entering.
Breaking down his barriers and entering his heart.
Even if it would be temporary.
Right now he had to have her. He couldn’t get enough of her. Just like earlier when he’d had a hard time finding the words to explain what he wanted, how he felt. She’d met him halfway, bridged that gap. Now all he could do was show her how he felt.
With Chelsea in his arms, the heaviness he had been carrying around was lifted off his shoulders and out of his heart. He held her close, afraid that if he turned her loose, she might slip away. He kissed her more urgently this time, taking possession of her mouth, craving the shared heat.
Her skin was smooth and her body was firm with a sexy, feminine strength that had him summoning every ounce of self-control to keep from taking her right then and there.
“Let’s go into the bedroom,” she murmured, as if reading his mind.
He kissed her deeply as he backed her down the hall—tongues thrusting, hands fighting with buttons, teeth nipping gently at tender skin.
Their ravenous slow two-step finally landed them in his bedroom.
Need guided his hands as he explored the swell of her breasts and skimmed her belly until he found the tail of her T-shirt and slid his hand underneath. When his hands found her breasts again, she drew in a ragged breath. As he moved his thumb over her nipple, hard as a rock even through her lacy bra, a low moan escaped her lips and he nearly came undone.
* * *
She was spellbound by his touch. He pulled her shirt over her head, and got rid of her bra, jeans and panties.
“Where is it?” he murmured, brow arched in a way that was so sexy it nearly made her come undone.
“Where is what?” she answered in her most playful voice.
“That tattoo.” He ran his hands down the side of her and slid them underneath her so that he cupped her bottom with his hands, pulling her close. She could feel his arousal.
She smiled up at him. “What makes you think I have a tattoo?”
“I gathered as much from that conversation about tattoos we had at the wedding. You made a pretty good argument that even classy women have them, and you’re probably the classiest woman I’ve ever met. Ever since then, I’ve been trying to imagine where a classy woman hides her wild tattoo?”
Chelsea’s breath hitched in her throat. Oh, no. He knew. If they were going to make love, if this was really going to happen she should tell him everything right now, before they went any further.
“On her wild side, of course.” Chelsea wriggled out of his embrace and turned around to show him the spiral of Sanskrit words tattooed on the right side of her derriere. “It means, live with no regrets—contentedness is the only path to happiness.”
A low, sexy growl that sounded like approval escaped his throat. He moistened his lips with his tongue and kissed her again. Even though this relationship, this fling—whatever it was they were doing—was temporary, she should tell him the truth. She wanted to trust him. She did. She had to or she wouldn’t be able to give herself to him. She couldn’t lie here with him, vulnerable, exposed, allowing him to break through her personal barricades, inviting him to partake of her body, if there wasn’t mutual trust.
“Ethan, I need to explain something—”
“Shhhh. Not right now.” He kissed her on the forehead and eased her onto the bed. “Wait right here. I’ll be right back.”
She watched him undress in a small shaft of moonlight that filtered in through a slim gap in the drawn drapes. The faint light illuminated the room just enough so that she could see his muscled body, the long-limbed ease of his gait as he rounded the bed, the plane of his taut stomach, the bunch of his biceps as he bent to pull something—a condom, she guessed—from the nightstand drawer. He lowered himself down onto the bed next to her, stretched out beside her and rose up on his right elbow so that he was looking at her.
“Are you okay?” He ran the pad of his thumb over her bottom lip. “Is this okay?”
She nodded.
Say something.
“We don’t have to do this if you’re uncomfortable.”
“No, I’m fine.”
She needed to tell him the truth, but she couldn’t focus on words with Ethan’s hand tracing circles on her bare stomach. She shivered, unsure if the frisson was induced by guilt or her overwhelming desire for him.
Or maybe both.
Definitely both.
As she watched him slide the condom down his considerable length, all she could think about was what that big, strong body of his would do to hers, the pleasurable heights to which he could take her. The delicious thought pushed the explanation that she’d been piecing together—the words she should be saying right now—out of her head. The clarification of who she really was—why she was in Celebration, why she’d given him a fake name—faded farther and farther into the back of her mind until all she was aware of was the hunger in his eyes and the way moonlight played off his dark brown hair. She ran her fingers through locks that curled defiantly at the nape of his neck, working her way around to push wayward strands off his forehead.
Her confession had to come right now...
But right now he was addling her with gentle caresses and soft kisses that paid homage to her body’s most sensitive places—the tender and oft forgotten spot at the base of her ears, the dip where her neck gave way to her collarbone, the ticklish zone under her arm, revealed when he laced his fingers in hers and pinned her arms over her head. He trailed sweet kisses down her body until he reached the private place hidden between her thighs and his tongue found its way to her center.
He held her under his spell, captivated by pure bliss until she cried out in pleasure that was so powerful it pulsed off her in waves.
Ethan’s gaze locked on hers as he settled himself between her legs and thrust gently to fill her. She gasped and raised her hips to meet him and take him all the way in. She reveled in the sensation, in the wonder of this man inside her.
They both held still for a moment as if they were afraid to break the fragile spell of their joining. She looked into his eyes—eyes that were the deepest shade of blue she’d ever seen, like India ink or a midnight sky—and she smoothed her hands down his back to cup his bum, holding him there.
“You feel even better than I imagined,” he whispered before he lowered his mouth to hers for another kiss.
She pulled him closer, sinking in and savoring the deliciousness of him.
Finally, when he pulled back to look at her and she smiled up at him in a lusty daze, he began to move inside her, slower than she wanted, each movement purposeful and deliberate, promising to drive her mad.
As he thrust again, she rose up to meet him and he slipped his hands beneath her bottom and shifted her so that he could go deeper. Her body ignited with a glorious passion so intense that it flared from the inside out and only got better when he began pumping his hips a little faster.
Chelsea wrapped her legs around his hips as the golden warmth gathered in her belly and blossomed outward. Each stroke, deeper and deeper, brought her closer to release. Her body shook from need as she reveled in the sensation of his every move. Ethan steadily increased his rhythm, and his breathing was heavy and raspy against her ear.
When the pleasure wave crested, a moan escaped her lips. His mouth found hers again. Her release was suspended for a moment that seemed to stretch into eternity before finally spilling over. Ethan’s kiss caught her cry of pleasure and it seemed to fuel his own.
“Chelsea,” he groaned as he made his final powerful thrust.
Ethan’s eyes closed and his body tensed as the orgasm shook him. Chelsea slid her hands up along the rigid muscles of his biceps and shoulders until her fingers curled into his hair. He hovered above her for a moment, breathing hard. He looked sexy as hell and quite satisfied. She tried to pull him down on top of her, but not before he kissed her again as if drawing a sustaining life’s breath from the final moments of their coupling.
Finally, he collapsed next to her, turning her body so that she spooned against him. He pulled her in close with a possessive arm so that her body was flush against his.
Feeling warm and protected and utterly spent, she curled into him, basking in the heat that radiated off his skin.
Their lovemaking had zapped her energy; yet the physical closeness, the way he continued to hold her, filled her heart. Even as her body gave in to the satisfied weariness, every muscle in her body relaxed. If she could only quiet the voices in her head that nagged, You should’ve told him. You need to tell him.
She would.
Soon.
Just not right now.
Chapter Ten
It was nice making coffee for two and bringing a cup to Chelsea in bed. Even so, Ethan hated to wake her up. Instead, he wanted to crawl back under the covers next to her and make love to her for the rest of the day, shutting out the world so it was just the two of them.
However, Ethan had awakened to a text from Tyler Jennings, the vet who looked after the Triple C’s horses, saying that Calendula, a mare they were looking to breed with a stallion on Kingston Farms, was ready to go. Since they were inseminating the old-fashioned way, they’d been on standby for signs that the time was right to deliver Calendula to her stud, and the time had come.
Crawling back into bed with Chelsea sounded a hell of a lot better than delivering a horse.
His body responded, seconding the motion, but good sense reminded him he had a short window to load up Calendula and drive her over to the Kingston ranch in Burleson, about an hour southwest of Celebration. No matter how much every primal cell in him protested, Ethan knew he couldn’t put off the transport or they’d have to wait another month for Calendula to complete yet another cycle.
Chelsea looked beautiful lying there with her blond hair spread all over his pillow. He set the hot coffee on the nightstand and sat down next to her on the side of the bed. As he brushed a wisp of hair off her forehead, her eyes fluttered open. She blinked a couple of times as if trying to orient herself. Then a slow smile spread over her face.
“Good morning,” she said, stretching luxuriously, reminding him of a sleek, golden cat. Her voice was husky with sleep.
“Morning.” He knew he was grinning like a damn fool, but he couldn’t help himself.
“Is that coffee I smell?”
“I brought you a cup. Black. Just how you like it.” Even though he’d just learned how she took her coffee last night, it felt intimate. Like he knew her. It seemed like he did. She felt comfortable and familiar in the best way. A way that made him hungry to learn more. He handed her the mug and she scooted up to a sitting position, modestly covering her bareness with the sheet as she accepted the cup.
“Thank you,” she rasped. “Wow. Coffee in bed. I could get used to this.”
So could he. He would bring her coffee every morning if it meant he could wake up next to her.
“Sorry to get you up so early,” he said. “Turns out, I have to deliver a horse this morning. I didn’t know about it until after the vet had done his rounds.”
“Is everything okay? I hope it’s not an emergency.”
“Nope. Just nature calling. She’s ready to be bred.”
“You don’t do the breeding here?” she asked.
“Sometimes,” he said. “This is a special arrangement and it’s easier to transport a mare than it is to wrangle and move a ton of bucking stallion. We’ve been on standby for days and the vet just gave me the green light that she’s ready to go.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I don’t want to make you late. I can leave.” She held out the cup, trying to give it back to him, but he waved her off.
“No, take your time. Drink your coffee. I have some things I need to do before I leave.” He stood. Before he turned to go, he added, “In fact, why don’t you come with me?”
He hadn’t planned on asking, but he heard the words slip past his lips before he could overthink it.
“To deliver the horse?”
He shrugged. “Yeah, it’s over in Burleson. A couple hours away. It might be nice for you to see some of the countryside. We can drop off the horse and grab lunch on the way back. I can have you back here by early afternoon.”
She made a noise as if the suggestion surprised her. “You know how I love horses.”
Yes, he did know, and it added to what was already turning into a good situation.
“Well, then, that settles it. You have to come.”
“But I’m not exactly dressed for the occasion.” She glanced down and then a wicked smile tugged at the corners of her lips. “I’m not exactly dressed, period.”
“And you look amazing, exactly the way you are.” He leaned down and captured her mouth with his. Her lips were warm from the coffee and tasted like heaven.
She pulled back, nipping gently at his bottom lip. “I’d better pass and let you take care of business. And I need to—” He kissed her again, showing he didn’t intend to take no for an answ
er. But she persisted, “I need to take care of business, too, over at the barn. Time is ticking if we’re going to have that place in shape for the grand opening party.”
“I think I know of a party that would be much more fun...” He kissed her long and slow. “And some business we could take care of together.” He took the cup from her hands and stretched out next to her, finding her lips again. She responded by deepening the kiss, and for a few moments they lost themselves in each other. Until she shattered magic with one single word.
“Franklin.”
“No. Um...I’m Ethan.”
She laughed. “I could not be more aware of who you are, but I need to get back to Juliette’s so I can feed the dog and let him out to take care of his own business. Poor dog is probably about ready to burst, if he hasn’t already. I took him out about nine o’clock last night before I went to work at the barn. Juliette is counting on me and I’m sure he’s wondering where I am.”
Ethan propped himself up on his right elbow and marveled at her beauty—fresh-faced and perfect in all of her imperfections—and there weren’t many. With his free hand he ran a finger down to the sexy place where her cleavage peeked out from the edge of the sheet, enticing him to unwrap her and explore the rest of her all over again. In the early morning light, he was sure she would be even better than last night. She was a natural beauty—wide-set, crystal-clear blue eyes, high cheekbones, Cupid’s bow mouth, small, upturned nose made even more alluring by that spray of freckles and the way it wrinkled when she smiled. He wanted to photograph her with his mind, exactly the way she looked right now.
“That’s an easy fix,” he said. “I can drive you back to Juliette’s and tend to the dog while you shower and get dressed. I would recommend jeans. Although, as I said, I’m particularly partial to what you’re wearing now. In case you needed fashion advice.”
She laughed as she swatted him away. “I can see I shouldn’t take fashion advice from you. You’ll get me arrested for indecent exposure. So you need to let me get out of bed. Otherwise, I might just keep you here all day.”
The Cowboy's Runaway Bride Page 13