He thought of her commanding him to bite into her nipple. Such a small thing, but it spoke of the changes within her. While it had ignited him beyond belief, part of him wanted everything to remain unchanged between them.
Of course that was impossible. They had ten years and a heap of pain, not to mention ex-husbands and Utah’s solitary ways to overcome.
When he’d told his brother he might stay for five years, he’d been thinking of more. Maybe it was time to dig in his heels and stop hiding from the life he probably should have taken over years ago.
Utah searched Caroline’s faded blue eyes. Flinty pain lived there, but so did a spark of his old Caroline.
“Neither of us is the same. But you’re still my baby. And I’m taking you to bed.”
She burrowed her face against his neck. He hitched up his pants and carried her up the rest of the stairs to find her room at long last.
•●•
Utah spread Caroline on the bed with so much tenderness in his gaze, tears tightened her throat. He was right—they weren’t the same. Life had made her tough. She knew the best way to roll to take a kick, knew how to lock up her heart.
Did she want to do that with Utah? Maybe she should. He wouldn’t be sticking around. After he smoothed the business of the will, he’d leave. And where would she be? Neck-deep in love with a man she couldn’t have.
He braced himself on his elbows and hovered over her. As he slipped one big hand under her head, cradling it, a sound broke in his chest.
Being with him made her feel feminine—soft and small. He rubbed her nape with a forefinger, and the rough texture of his skin against hers gave her goose bumps.
“Let me see you.” Using one hand, he pulled the tie of her robe. Her breasts had been previously exposed. Now the cloth parted completely, and she fought to keep from trembling as his gaze snagged every curve. He gave a low whistle. “Hell, baby. I thought I could go slow the second time around, but now I’m not so confident.”
His words made her think of sinning. A single drawl falling from those sexy lips had her pussy throbbing all over again.
But before they sank into more depravity, she took a minute to think of his sperm minnowing toward her center. They hadn’t used protection—no condom. And the day her divorce papers were signed, she’d stopped taking the pill.
Now she lay with a man who was probably as virile as he looked. It might be too late, but thank God she had a store of condoms in her nightstand. The hungry way he was looking at her said she’d be lucky to walk straight after tonight.
Something passed over his face. “Caroline,” he muttered and buried his head against her breasts. Love mingled with panic as she ran her fingers through his hair and let the moment sink in.
Utah in my bed.
If she’d never filled in as bartender, he wouldn’t be here now.
He rained warm kisses on the swells of her breasts, her belly. She watched him slide down her body and settle between her legs. Worry spiked in her. She hadn’t cleaned up after their whirlwind sexcapade, and his juices still leaked from her.
He scuffed his rough jaw over her inner thigh, making her jump. Across the length of her body, their gazes locked. With exquisite slowness, he opened his mouth over her clit in one big bite.
Hips bucking of their own accord, she fought the all-consuming need. He’d always controlled her body this way—brought her to the peak of release over and over. Even when she thought she was sated, he demanded more with lips, tongue, hands.
She cupped her breasts and strummed her hard nipples as Utah swirled his tongue over her clit with total disregard for anything but her pleasure.
Three rotations and she quaked. Four and she lost all sense of reality. The air vibrated with her moans.
When he drove his tongue into her wet channel, she thought she’d die from the dirty pleasure.
“Turns you on, doesn’t it?” he rumbled, toying with her clit again. His eyes were hooded with passion. “I can taste us together. I’ve been waiting a decade to do this, baby.”
He drove his tongue deep again. The thrusts heated her inner walls, and they clamped down. He groaned. Shock speared her as she felt the tip of one big fingertip flat against her netherhole.
“Utah…” Worry resonated in her voice.
“Shhh.” He suctioned her clit in his mouth until she forgot to breathe. Then he gently eased the tip of his finger into her ass. The new sensation stole all resistance. Her body was a live wire under his hands and mouth. She wanted more and more.
“Relax, baby. I’ll make this good.”
“You never…tried this before.”
He breathed hot gusts of air against her pussy. “You were eighteen.”
“So were you.”
He delivered a long, slow lick that made her bite off a scream. “Guess I never thought of it then. You don’t mind me exploring now, do you?”
“N-no.” She shuddered as her body loosened, and he slipped his finger in to the first knuckle.
“Christ, you fit me like good leather gloves. So tight.” He worked his finger deeper while swirling a figure eight over her clit with his tongue.
Waves of pleasure rushed the shores of her consciousness. Pressure built, and a scream gathered in her throat.
He slipped his finger all the way in. She stretched perfectly around him. When he lolled his tongue over her aching clit again, her body squeezed tight, held, and burst.
She came with a cry she didn’t have to squelch to keep their parents from hearing. Her whole body shook as her orgasm whipped her up in a tempest of raw emotion and lust.
Bucking against his lips and finger, she drew out her pleasure. Her sanity fled for long minutes.
Finally, aftershocks made her twitch. Slowly Utah raised himself on his elbows and gave her a satisfied grin she couldn’t help but return.
“Sweeter than ever,” he said, voice strained. He gained his knees, and she saw his arousal, thick and long inside his open fly. The elastic of his boxers lay across the base, which couldn’t be at all comfortable.
She reached for him.
With a shake of his shaggy head, he rolled off to the floor. He tugged off his T-shirt, revealing muscles any fitness cover model would envy. Utah flashed her a bad-boy smile, and she realized her jaw had dropped.
He pulled off worn boots and then shoved down his jeans and boxers. When he stood in the buff, she fought to find words.
Maybe her stare was enough, because he flashed a grin—and the chin dimple—then covered her with his body.
The heavy length of his cock lay against her inner thigh, reminding her that they needed to be careful. She’d just gotten her life together. Getting pregnant to her first love would make its own headline in this small town. And when he left, where would she be?
He fanned his fingers over her side close to her breast.
“Utah, there are condoms in the drawer.”
He froze, the happy expression rapidly fading. Their gazes held, and she tried to convey how wrecked she really was—from his leaving, her stupid decision, and from the mess she’d made afterward by marrying someone who drank too much from the start.
“Dammit, I shoulda come after you and begged you to go away with me, Caroline.”
She opened her mouth to speak, but he flipped off her and extended a long arm toward the nightstand. She stared at his big, tanned shoulder while he found the box of condoms.
He set the twelve-pack on the tabletop with a small
thump.
Irritation rolled off him.
“You don’t like that I keep condoms in my nightstand.”
Piercing her in his gaze, he said, “I don’t like that I was stupid enough to stay away so long. You should be my wife by now.”
Just the word “wife” sent her heart racing. Back when he’d given her a slim engagement ring with a diamond chip, she’d been far from afraid. Now the entire institution of marriage spelled something entirely different in her mind.
Yet the way Utah drawled those words sent undeniable warmth to her heart.
She wrapped her arm around his shoulders and inhaled his spicy scent. She was probably making the biggest mistake of her life, but she didn’t want to stop. “Be glad I’m the kind of woman who needs condoms.”
He grunted and removed a packet from the box. She could show him the trick where she opened the foil with her teeth, extracted the condom with her tongue, and then rolled the rubber over his shaft without using her hands, but he probably wouldn’t appreciate her knowledge.
When he cuddled close, she curled her body around him and let the longing swell again. She’d spent too many years waiting for this day not to take full advantage.
Caroline removed the packet from his hands and straddled his big, hard body. “I like having you between my legs again.”
His hair tumbled into his blazing eyes. Clamping his hands on her waist, he licked his lips with mesmerizing thoroughness. “Get that rubber on me, cowgirl. It’s time for that long, slow ride.”
She encased him in the barrier, grinning like an idiot the whole time. Only when she slid down his thick shaft did she sober. Her breath caught in her throat.
“Hell, baby. You’re so fucking perfect.” He grasped her hips and set the pace. After a full minute of his mushroomed head pounding deep in her body, her wild need took over, and she started to move.
When she went too fast, he whispered, “Long and slow.”
The sensation in her chest scared the hell out of her, but she couldn’t stop now. She’d escaped Jeremy and her former life so she could have experiences like this. Though she knew her encounter with Utah was far from…what had he said? A one-time thing.
Riding him with abandon, driving her pussy down on his big cock, she leaned over and kissed him with every ounce of love coursing through her veins. He locked her to him, his face fierce.
“Take what you need, baby.”
“I should have shown up at the county line.”
With a groan, he thrust his tongue into her mouth, and both of them slipped over the ledge. Tumbling common sense over boot heels, she clung to Utah and rode out her pleasure. She collapsed atop him, and he lashed her body tight against his, breathing so hard her hair fluttered.
“Tomorrow I’ll wake up and discover I’ve typed this story out on my computer screen instead of my feature story.”
His chest vibrated with a laugh. “Maybe this
is
your feature story, Caroline.”
She tucked her head to his neck and closed her eyes. “Whatever it is, it feels good.”
“I’m glad. Because I need to ask you something important.”
“What’s that?” Satisfaction was spreading through her like warm molasses, but a simple stroke to her nipple would spear her with lust all over again.
He tightened his hold on her. The lines of his body tensed. “Come to the lawyer with me tomorrow.”
She raised her head and met his solemn gaze. Worry burned in his eyes, and lines bracketed his mouth. He looked like a man about to open a box filled with live snakes.
“Pa had a secret, Caroline, and I don’t know if I can face it without you by my side.”
Long ago he’d asked her to stand by him, and she’d chosen the wrong path. Not this time. She threaded her fingers with his and kissed his hard lips to seal the promise.
Utah revolved through the front two rooms of the ranch house, past the old dusty leather couch, and on to the front door. For thirty minutes, he’d been walking through these same rooms, waiting for the lawyer to knock.
In Utah’s youth, old Mr. Berger had dropped by more than once with contracts for Utah’s father, but now Utah was dealing with the son. Tom Berger had been a grade below Utah in high school. He didn’t remember much about him other than he liked to run the track.
And he’s late.
He made another rotation through the rooms. Caroline was bent over, her luscious ass pointed his way as she rubbed a cloth over the dining table. A shock of lust speared him. The woman looked alluring as hell, even while vanquishing dust so they could sit and hear what Berger had on Hollis Davies.
God, he wasn’t ready for this. What kind of mess had his father left Utah to scrape off his boots?
As he circled the table, Caroline’s gaze followed him. “You’re like a caged animal.”
Pressure mounted in his chest. “Feel like one.” He shoved his fingers through his hair. Their gazes met, and he softened. Just looking at her gave him warm feelings. She stripped away the years of loneliness.
He lingered over the arch of her throat, still red from the long night he’d spent loving her. His cock twitched at the thought of the hours he’d kept her under him, then in the shower, and after a quick breakfast, on her kitchen table. They’d had maybe two hours of sleep.
She was as fresh and pretty as always. Her hair waved around her shoulders, and she wore a pair of slim black pants and a simple white cotton top. A single gold bracelet circled her wrist, but he wished it were a ring on her finger.
She pulled out a chair and wiped it down. “Sit.”
He shook his head. “Can’t.” Pushing off, he strode back into the living room. What had become of those photos from the safe? Did the lawyer have them? Why the hell was he late?
When the knock he’d been waiting for finally sounded, Utah’s gut clenched. Why the hell had he been so eager? He didn’t want to get this over with.
Caroline drifted past him, rubbing her hands together. She paused to shoot him a look. “You’re a mess, Utah. What do you know that you haven’t told me?”
He didn’t answer. As she opened the door, he held his breath.
“Come in, Tom.” The familiar way she spoke his name raised Utah’s ire a notch. She’d spent a decade without Utah, making relationships with people in town, both friendships and more, as the condoms in her drawer indicated.
He scraped his teeth over his lower lip and stared at the lawyer.
Tom Berger came into the house, and Utah saw with a shock he was disheveled and had a grease smudge on his blue dress shirt. “So sorry I’m late. I had car problems.”
Utah relaxed a bit and offered him a hand. Tom shook it. “It’s okay. Had some vehicle troubles myself not too long ago.”