But inside, she was as still as a pond in August.
It felt good to rid herself of the turbulent emotion that had rocked so steadily inside her for so many years. She looked over at Rick, at the way the light played on the hollows and planes of his face, and her heart moved in her chest.
And that was a first for her.
She’d always figured the heart that she’d protected for so long had shrunk until it was a wizened little seed like the ones they’d planted at the center. But now it had awakened and throbbed within her. Aching and tenderly new.
She didn’t say anything. Just slid her hand beneath the one Rick rested on the gearshift.
He looked at her.
The air crackled and the mood changed.
No sorrow or tears. Only potential.
“I’ve got to go by the center and check on things. I called the doc and he stayed for a while. Said he was making headway.”
“Good. That’s good.” She studied his face again. What did he want? Where could they go from here?
“Do you want to go home with me?” His words were quietly spoken.
“So I won’t be alone?”
A smile touched his lips. “Yeah, that, too, I guess.”
Kate paused. Did she really want this? Her body did, had already reacted to his words, tightening and anticipating. But she didn’t have the luxury of being impulsive with Rick. He was too important to her. “I thought we’d agreed it would be a mistake.”
He nodded. “I know, but like everything with you, Kate, I can’t fight myself. I can’t let you slip through my fingers and not grab hold of some piece of you. That feeling hasn’t changed.”
He tore his eyes from the lonely road and looked at her. His dark eyes were almost mystical. “You’ll go back to Vegas, but I want the memory of your skin on my lips. The memory of your smell, the sounds you make when you come, the feel of your hands on my body. I’ll keep those memories.”
“What if you hate me afterward?”
Another little smile. “I could never hate someone as incredible as you, Kate.”
She worried her lip as she turned her head and looked out the window. He’d once said she used sex to gain control. Was she doing that again? Trying to recapture herself after pouring everything out in that hospital room? Reestablishing what she’d always been so that she didn’t have to deal with the woman she’d become? A woman who could forgive and maybe love.
She wasn’t sure.
She hadn’t been sure about anything since she’d left Vegas…was it only a little over a week ago? Seemed impossible she’d experienced all she had in the course of such a short time. But there was one thing that was certain, and that, too, hadn’t changed since Vegas. She wanted Rick. Body and soul. And that scared her so badly she didn’t want to think about it.
“Rick?”
He tightened his grip on her hand. “Yeah, babe?”
Could there ever be a future for them? She couldn’t believe she even batted around the thought of commitment. It had been her long-established belief that love was for other people. Not her. Was she contemplating letting herself go there? Long-distance relationships were hard for even the most stable of couples.
Stable
and
Kate
were never used in the same sentence. “Never mind.”
His hand tightened on hers. “Stop overanalyzing. Tonight we won’t think. We’ve done too much of it. No mulling, debating or talking ourselves out of it. Tonight we do. Even if in the light of day, it seems certifiable.”
“No regrets?”
He shook his head. “I’m not a selfish boy anymore, remember? This is not about fulfilling a need, this is about being with you.”
Her heart swelled and contracted. She nodded because tonight was different, almost magical, like destiny was at work again, binding them together.
His thumb stroked her hand in small circles. This time it did not soothe, it stirred.
Moments later, they entered the drive to Phoenix. The lights blazed in the house. There was life there now and it made Kate’s heart glad to know the guys within were on the same path she’d walked. Letting go, nourishing their hearts with forgiveness, growing, becoming something they’d never thought possible.
“Wait here. Won’t take but a moment.”
So she did. And she didn’t think about anything other than the way Rick would feel against her. His mouth. The inked breadth of his chest. His calloused hands clasping her hips. His eyes as he slid into her.
By the time he’d jogged back, she’d worked herself up to a fine level of anticipation. Anticipation for hot sex. No thinking. Only doing.
“Okay, everything’s good.” He slid behind the idling car’s wheel and put the gear into Reverse before he even shut the door. Maybe he’d been thinking the same thoughts she had.
The short ride to his cottage was silent, each of them soaked in the thought of each other.
Rick shut off the car and reached for her.
She was ready and straddled the console to get to him. Her mouth met his as her hands sank into his short hair.
“Oh, yes,” he breathed against her mouth before sliding his lips down her neck. His hands were just as busy, running up and down her back, cupping her ass before sliding up again.
With one hand she groped for the door handle. She had to get closer to him, feel him between her thighs, and she couldn’t do that in the position they were in.
Rick dragged her over his body and out the door that fell open. He stepped out, breaking neither the hold he had on her ass nor the kiss he’d deepened so that she groaned with need. And then they fell onto the cold grass.
“Oh!” she said, landing on his body.
He laughed and rolled her over so he cradled her in his arms. Then he went back to consuming her with his mouth.
She sighed and ran her hands down the muscles of his back. He felt so damn good. So hot. Her body throbbed, pulsed, even, on the cold, slightly damp ground.
She didn’t care if her butt grew numb from the cold. Not when one of his warm hands shoved the hem of her shirt upward then followed the path he cleared. All the way up to where her small breast waited beneath the lacy bra. The sweater was Target, but the lingerie was Parisian. And sexy. That’s how she rolled.
His fingers plucked her nipple before his hand curved round the flesh that barely filled his palm.
“We’ve—” He groaned as her hand closed over the hardness lurking behind his fly. She stoked him through his jeans, enjoying the nice length straining against the denim. Very nice indeed. He ripped his lips from her collarbone. “We’ve got to get inside. Now.”
She smiled. “Yes, we do. No free shows for your boys up there.”
He lifted his head and smiled at her. In one motion, he leaped to his feet and held out a hand.
Kate took it then, as suddenly, she was in his arms, like Scarlett in Rhett’s as he strode up the grand staircase. Except Kate wasn’t fighting Rick, and she was no spoiled damsel. She was a willing participant, so she wiggled loose and swung her legs so they fell. Then she twisted and encircled his waist with them. “Better,” she whispered against his lips as she rocked her hips so his hardness rubbed right where she needed it.
“Mmm…” He groaned against her mouth, grasping her hips and helping her with the delicious friction she was creating with her movement. “My keys…”
He pressed her against the door. The cold window-pane hit her back. She squealed.
“Sorry,” he said, setting her on her feet. “I don’t know where my keys went.”
They both looked back at the red Mustang. The door was open, the interior light was on and the keys dangled in the ignition.
Kate pointed. “I found them.”
“Hell,” he muttered. He jogged to the car, grabbed the keys, pressed the lock down and shut the door with his foot. He returned and gathered her against him as he jabbed the key into the lock.
One twist and they tumbled into blessed warmth.
The house was dark, lit only by moonlight. And it felt appropriately intimate. Rick slammed the door, grabbed her hips and pulled her to him. “Do you know how much I want you, Kate?”
Her hand found him again beneath the zipper of his jeans. He was as hard as she’d left him. “I’m getting an idea.”
She dropped little kisses along the stubble lining his jaw. “Remember that day you brought me here? When you took the shower?”
“Yeah?” he whispered, sliding his hands so they cupped her ass. He pulled her firm against him.
“I’ve been dreaming of you beneath the water. Imagining the water sliding over your chest.”
“You want to take a shower?”
Her answer was to kick off her shoes and grab the hem of her sweater. One tug and it went over her head.
His laugh was throaty. “I’m taking that as a yes.”
He, too, started shedding his clothing, tossing the Turkey Trot T on the floor, revealing to her for the first time the ink that marred the smoothness of his chest. He had no hair, just smooth brandied skin with whorls and images that didn’t matter to her now. She’d have time to explore those later. He toed his tennis shoes off and unbuckled the belt at his waist.
Kate kept her eye on him as she shimmied out of her jeans and pulled the angora socks from her feet. He dropped his jeans to the floor and stepped from them, clad only in tented boxers with little hearts on them.
She paused, standing in her expensive lilac lace underwear.
Rick couldn’t stop himself from growing even harder when he saw Kate framed in the seductive moonlight in the most amazingly delicate and sexy bra and panties. She was like a sea nymph risen from glittering depths.
Then she became a siren, reaching behind her back and unhooking her bra. She dropped it to the floor and tugged the matching panties down.
He couldn’t even swallow. She was magnificent.
Lithe with hollows that rounded out to softness, Kate was all he’d ever imagined in a woman. She was perfectly proportioned with sweet upturned breasts, a sculpted stomach, trim thighs and graceful little feet. Even her bright red toenails were perfection.
“Well?” she said, and looked at his boxers. “Are you going to do the honors? Or shall I?”
He grinned. “Never afraid, are you.”
She cocked her head and lifted her eyebrows. “Are you telling me you got something in there I should be afraid of? ’Cause that’s getting my hopes up.”
Rick slid his boxers off and tossed them over the sofa.
“Oh, yeah. I’m afraid,” Kate said with a smile.
He couldn’t wait any longer. He grabbed her hand and tugged her behind him toward the single bathroom in the house.
Luckily, the cottage was small and it only took a few steps. He turned on only the inset light above the shower so that they were bathed in a soft glow, reached in and started the water, then used his hands to check out the hills and valleys of Kate’s body.
And she did some exploring of her own, sliding her hands across his body like a sculptor molding her subject. She knew how to tease, build anticipation, move him to greater need.
Soon steam curled around them as the tension reached new heights.
“In. Now.” Kate pushed at his stomach before sliding her hand down to grasp the length of his erection.
“Mmm?” he murmured against the sweetness of her upturned breasts. The nipples were small and shell-pink. He sucked one into his mouth just as he swept the hand stroking her hip around her bottom, reaching through to stroke the slick heat between her thighs.
“Eek,” she yelped, widening her legs before sighing.
He smiled against the sweetness of her breast before catching her nipple between his teeth again and tugging. He increased the rhythm of his fingers, teasing her, driving her crazy.
“No. Now.” She pushed against him, more insistent this time. And he complied, mostly because he loved the idea of soaping her up and running his hands over her skin.
He opened the glass door and stepped inside the tumbled stone-tiled shower. It wasn’t very big, but wrapped in each other’s arms they didn’t take up much space. Kate’s mouth met his as the warm water coursed down their bodies, washing away the uncertainty, melting away the questions, leaving only him and Kate and the magic that pulsed between them.
He couldn’t get enough of her. Her hands were everywhere, frenzied and insistent.
“I can’t wait,” she groaned against his shoulder before nipping the skin there with her perfect little teeth. She lifted on her toes and hooked a leg around his waist.
“Kate, we can’t have sex without a condom.”
She dropped her leg and peered up at him with dazed eyes. “Huh?”
He ducked his head and allowed his mouth to explore the tenderness of her neck before working his way to her ear. “We need a condom.”
She rubbed her hands down his back, stroking him as she rubbed her belly against the length of his erection. “Oh.”