Yeah, what?
Utah got up and approached her chair. Pulling her into his arms, he said, “A road trip. You, me, six states, and twelve strangers.”
Her lips were dark pink and ripe, parted slightly for him. He stared at them until his cock swelled. “I just have to pack a bag, and I’m yours,” she said.
“Oh you’re mine, all right.” He squeezed her ass, and she squirmed. Dark passion wove through his body. Plucking her off her feet, he whirled her and deposited her on the table.
For the moment he’d forget about the mess his pa had left.
“We’ve never christened this table, baby.”
•●•
She dragged her short nails down his chest. “Not yet. Your ma would be horrified.”
“Hell, yeah.” He shoved the pictures and file out of the way and stretched her out on the table. Her eyes hooded with want, and she reached for him.
He entwined their fingers and pinned her hands to the wood. Lust burned in her core, and her pussy squeezed. The blazing look on his face jerked her mind from information hunts to white-hot need in seconds.
She wriggled against him. He pushed his cock against her sex, and juices soaked her panties.
A sudden memory of his first hesitant attempts to get her to date him loomed in her mind. As a gift, he’d brought her a jar filled with bugs. Disgusted that he was just another immature boy, she’d set the jar outside on the porch step. That night when she’d looked out her window, she’d found the jar glowing.
With a gasp, she’d realized they were fireflies. At that moment her heart had given way to him fully, and she’d never looked back.
She wiggled her fingers in his tight grip against the table, but he didn’t let her up. He ducked his head to her throat and kissed a steamy trail up to the corner of her lips.
Need burst in her mind. Gasping, she twisted her head to bring their mouths together. The first taste of him was so good, so right. How had she lived without him for so long?
The rough hair on his jaw burned her sensitive skin, and her pussy throbbed in response. After last night, she’d thought to be sated for half a year. But all he had to do was give her that look, and she was on fire again.
Her building tension stole all thought. She opened her mouth for the invasion of his tongue and drowned for long minutes.
He rocked his erection against her pussy. Was it possible for him to feel bigger than last night? Hell, the ridge of his erection swelled to monumental proportions.
He tore his mouth away and hovered over her, nailing her to the tabletop with nothing more than his primal expression. He was like a wild horse breaking across the plains. She couldn’t look away.
Surging upward, she bit his chin lightly. Then she dropped back in time to see the dimple flash across the spot she’d just tasted.
“Fuck, this wanting has never been stronger,” he grated out.
“If you don’t touch me soon, I’m going to burn up.” As his expression intensified, she panted. Her heart was all tangled up with this man again, but she wasn’t going to get relief from this soul-deep throb until she was pressed between him and a mattress—or table.
He uncurled his fingers from hers, but she kept her hands beside her head, watching him unbutton her blouse. When he exposed the lace of her nude-colored bra, he groaned.
“Damn, you’re sexy as hell. I want you on this table, then that chair. The piano—”
“The piano!”
“Mmm-hmm.” He nuzzled the swell of her breast. “Then I’m taking you right up to my old bed and making love to you until you can’t think straight.”
“I can’t think straight now. Do the bedsprings still squeak?”
At that, he vibrated with laughter. Using only his teeth, he tugged the cup of her bra down. A swipe of his tongue found her nipple.
Arching, she cried out. Her heart fluttered like hummingbird wings. The need inside her intensified. She could hold back no longer and locked her hands on his big shoulders.
“Nope. Put those hands back on the table, baby. I’m in charge.”
“You always were.” As he bit into her nipple, she sucked in a harsh breath. He worried the bud between his teeth until she bucked against him.
“Not always,” he grunted, giving her a look that curled her toes. “Last night when you went down on me, you were pretty much holding that leash.”
She moaned, the memory of his cock in her mouth nearly undoing her. She disobeyed and moved her hands so she could yank off his shirt. The cloth was scented from his skin, and she wanted to inhale it. Instead she pressed her nose to his bare shoulder and sucked in a deep breath.
With sure, rough movements, he peeled away her blouse and bra. The cool, hard table under her spine might have been the softest bed. She wanted him so badly, she didn’t care if she laid in a thorn bush.
He clamped his lips around her other nipple and bathed it with his tongue. She let her hands roam over his spine, relearning the contours of muscle put there by time.
But he encircled her arms with his fingers and pressed her hands back to the table. “I’m in charge.” The deep rumble made her ache.
She closed her eyes and let him have his way with her. He nibbled a path to her bellybutton. His hot breath passed over her navel and down to her waistband. In two swift tugs, he divested her of high heels. Her black pants and thong underwear followed.
“Holy hell,” he growled when her pussy was exposed. This morning he’d quivered, watching her shave in the shower. Now her sex was totally bare.
And dripping with want.
He burrowed between her thighs, thrusting his tongue deep. She parted her legs for him and cried out. As he lapped a trail of heat up to her clit, circled it, and then moved back down, she shook.
God, she was on the edge. This man had always stolen her control, but now that they were older, it was amplified. Those exercises in the hay loft and fields had only been warm-ups.
Except she was very much changed. During their lovemaking last night, she’d seen the questions in his eyes. She wasn’t the same girl he’d known, and she knew it worried him.
Ragged breaths left her as he slid his tongue down to her entrance again. When he plunged it into her sheath, she began to pulsate.
“Oh yeah, baby.” He waved his head back and forth, fucking her deeper with his tongue.
She squeezed her eyes shut as her insides blistered. The orgasm shook more than her body. Her heart was beginning to beat for Utah again.
Who am I kidding? It always has.
When her breathy cries lessened, he raised his head. Over the length of her body, their gazes met.
“Nothing on Ma’s table ever looked so appealing.”
She threw her head back and chortled to the dusty chandelier. As she continued to quiver from aftershocks and laughter, he gathered her up and carried her into the living room.
Even before he hooked a toe around the leg of the piano bench, she knew his intention. He set her on the closed lid. Watching him unbuckle his belt was the most decadent pleasure, better than any male strip show. The movements of his long fingers and the hair on his broad wrists made her stomach flip.
He bent to pull off his boots and dropped them with twin thumps. When he shoved down his worn jeans, she held her breath.
The sight of his thick cock jutting toward her turned her on more than anything.
“Hell, baby, there you go licking those sweet lips again.”
“Can’t help it. I want a taste.”
“No.” His tone was unarguable. “Can’t last if I sink into that pretty mouth.” He shed the rest of his clothes and fisted his cock.
She groaned. Dark pleasure shot across his face. “You like that, baby? Watching me rub my cock?”
“Yeah. Is it wrong that I want to see you shoot?”
“Hell.” He stopped the motion of his hand and squeezed his cock hard. The head grew purple, and his jaw worked. That dimple in his chin played hide and seek.
“Get that rubber on, Utah.” She reached up and smoothed her thumb over his chin cleft—her plaything.
He swiped his jeans off the floor and rustled in the pocket for a condom. In seconds, he’d sheathed his erection. Then he took a seat on the wooden piano bench. Legs extended, he looked like a god. Carved from years in the mountains, but he’d always be her cowboy.
“C’mere.” He caught her hips and pulled her onto his lap.
She held his gaze and wrapped her thighs around him. Her wet pussy kissed the hot skin of his cock. They shared a moan.
“We’ve been quiet for too long. Let’s shake the walls of this house, baby.” His blue eyes darkened.
Rubbing her breasts against his chest, she let her gaze roam over his rugged features. Separately they were beautiful, but all together, they took her breath away.
He seemed to be examining her too. It felt as if they were seeing each other for the first time. “You’re prettier than I remembered, Caroline.”
Warmth bloomed in her belly. “I was thinkin’ the same about you.”
He huffed out a laugh and arched a dark brow. “Pretty?”
She reached between them and encircled his cock with her fingers. He growled and pushed into her hand. “Yeah, pretty hard.”
A bracket formed around his crooked smile. “Whatcha going to do with it?”
“This.” She angled it right at her wet entrance. When she shoved down onto him hard, taking him right to the hilt, they shared a room-shaking shout.
Releasing that uninhibited cry only turned her on more. She’d never had noisy sex, but this seemed to be the right time. She twisted his nipples as she slid up his cock again.
He rumbled appreciation. Latching onto her hips, he guided her up and down. Her pussy clenched his cock on every upward stroke, and a quake began in her core. Something bigger than she’d ever known was happening.
It took her five more strokes to realize his angle was assaulting her G-spot. She’d never had a G-spot orgasm, but it seemed she was about to.
“Utah!” She kissed him as the fire raged. He plunged his tongue into her mouth, stealing her control. She bucked harder, felt his cock lengthen another fraction…
And burst. She tumbled into the waters of bliss. Waves pummeled her as Utah continued to thrust. He tore his mouth away long enough to roar his release. She issued a long moan to complete the symphony and collapsed against his sweat-dampened chest.
For a long minute, she fought to calm her heart. He stroked her hair and back, raising shivers. His heart thumped hard against her chest too.
At least I affect him as much as he affects me.
She’d agreed to go with him on this search for his siblings. It still stunned her that Hollis Davies had done such a dastardly thing. He’d seemed like such a straightforward man. And the whole time he’d been cheating on his wife, making more families.
It proved people weren’t always what they seemed.
It was exactly the kind of story she chased.
Thoughts for her human interest story swirled in her mind. Too easily she could plug this information into an article and blow the newspaper sales through the roof.
But no, of course she’d never do that to Utah. On the road trip, she hoped a story revealed itself.
How crazy that she’d fallen right back into his arms as if he’d never left. However, the same girl wasn’t in Utah’s arms now—she was harder, more jaded by life. Judging by that crease between his brows when he looked at her, she puzzled him. Even when she’d spoken to Tom Berger, Utah had looked at her as if she were a stranger. And if she knew anything about Utah, it was that he didn’t like change.
Could he really love the new Caroline? She was about to spend days, possibly weeks, in close company with him.
She’d find out soon enough.
The trip into town for supplies had gone better than Utah expected. Being seen with his ex-fiancée was no small thing in South Ogden. While he expected people’s lips to be flying, they simply nodded and smiled.
“’Bout time everyone stopped giving their forty-two cents about our relationship,” he muttered.
Caroline pushed her hair behind her ear but remained silent. He made a left turn to head back to the ranch and then looked at her hard. Even to someone who was out of touch with humanity, it was apparent that buying toiletries together hadn’t upset her.
“What is it?”
She shook her head but didn’t meet his gaze. He rested a hand on her warm, bare thigh. After coming down from the ranch, they’d stopped at her house, and Caroline had changed out of her dress clothes and into cutoff shorts he ached to peel off her.
Soon he would.
They’d also spent an hour with Mrs. Wilks, settling the kitten she’d been asked to pet-sit. Caroline’s ma hadn’t batted an eye at seeing them together, especially after his late-night house call to find out where Caroline lived. She was as sweet as pie, offering homemade cake and iced tea, talking to Utah as if she’d never plotted to keep her daughter from becoming his wife.
“Talk to me, Caroline.” His tone came out harsher than intended, and he caressed her thigh to soften the words.
She twisted and looked through the passenger window. The houses in town stretched out and soon gave way to fields. Still, she didn’t speak.
He pinched her inner thigh, not enough to bruise, but it made her squawk. She slapped his hand away. “Ow!”
He let his eyes hood. “I’ll make it better soon, I promise.”
Lips twitching, she covered his hand. “I’ve just been thinking about all of this.”
“What? You worrying about leaving the kitten?” He knew it wasn’t the case, but he’d always pried up the wrong corner to loosen the others.
She sent him a sidelong glance, obviously aware of his strategy. “I’ve only had Arial a short time. Ma will love having something to take care of. I’ve been trying to talk her into getting a pet for years.”
Okay, so they’d use the cat to get to the real problem. “But you’ll miss the kitten?”
“Well yeah. I guess. It’s something warm in bed with me.”
“You’ve been lonely?” He guided the truck down the road leading to the ranch. They’d make one more stop there, lock up, and then hit the road. It was late afternoon, but they’d have some traveling hours before night descended. Then Utah planned to stop at a decent motel and keep Caroline screaming in pleasure until everyone in the place knew his name.