“I was in town early so I thought I'd see if you were ready.” He glanced behind him. “I can come back in fifteen minutes.”
“No. No.” She stepped aside. “Come in.”
“These are for you.” He held out the flowers. Her favorites.
When she took them, the shock of electricity blasted through her all over again. It had been that way seven years ago, and the same held true today. The man made her insides melt and butterflies war in her stomach. What was it about Angus McFarlan that turned her world upside down with just one of his smiles? It was going to be a lot harder than she originally anticipated to walk away from the man this time. Of that she was certain.
But damned if she could do it now.
“Ahem.” Mona cleared her throat. “I'll just be going.” She stepped around them to slide through the doorway. “Angus, treat my girl right. And I don't mean all gentlemanly and the like. Treat her right.” She winked at Angus, and then turned to Gwen. “Call me when you get a chance. I want all the details. That's right,” she whispered to Angus. “We share everything.” She waved her fingers. “Toodles.”
With Mona gone, Gwen had nothing standing in the way of her and Angus. Her nerves tightened and she dove for the strappy stilettos Mona had brought with the dress. “If I'm overdressed, I can change into the jeans your mother loaned me.”
His gaze swept the length of her, from her hair tumbling about her shoulders, down the dress's plunging neckline to the tips of her bare feet. “You look great.”
Her cheeks heated at his compliment. “Where are we going?”
“I thought I'd take you to dinner at the steak house and then back to the Ugly Stick Saloon. If I recall, you like to dance.”
“I do.” She smiled up at him. “And if I remember correctly, I taught you how to two-step.”
“You had the broken toes to prove it.”
She wiggled her toes, remembering, and feeling more relaxed than she had before he'd arrived. “Well, then, let's get going. I'm hungry.” If they kept it light and kept to public places, she might make it through the night without pouncing his body and begging him to fuck her like there was no tomorrow.
According to plan, they ate at the steak house, talking over dinner about the people they both knew from Temptation and about the changes that had occurred over the past seven years to the town and the Ugly Stick Saloon.
Gwen had a single glass of wine, determined not to overdo it after having tied one on the previous night. Not knowing what would happen between the two of them after their four dates, she wanted to savor every moment.
“What about you?” Angus asked. “How did you come to own your own business at such a young age?”
“Seems I have a knack for knowing which products will take off and which won't. It was a small company with a limited budget and marketing plan.” Gwen smiled. “The owner was in her late sixties and ready to retire. She wanted to sell the company to someone who had vision and could take it to the next level.”
Angus nodded. “You were her choice.”
“That was the beginning. I had to come up with the business plan and financing to buy it. With her help and a lawyer friend of mine, we made it happen. Three years and thirty additional employees later, I've increased sales three hundred percent and we're moving for the second time to a larger building.”
“You seem very happy.”
Gwen shrugged. “It's been a challenge to get the right people in the right positions. I finally feel I can take a vacation and not worry that things aren't being run the way I would if I were there twenty-four-seven.” She leaned back, twirling her wineglass in her fingers. “What about you? Are you still contracting with the engineering firm in Dallas?”
He nodded. “I am.”
“I don't know how you have time, with a full-scale quarter horse breeding operation and cattle ranch.”
“I have two full-time ranch hands who help keep me sane, and who take over when I'm on deadline or have to make a trip to the firm in Dallas. But I'm not managing nearly as many people as you are.”
“You're managing a large number of animals and acreage, which has its own headaches.”
His lips curled in a half smile. “Having worked in Dallas in a large engineering firm, I find that I'm much happier working with horses.”
Gwen laughed. “I think it suits you much better. You always had a way with them.”
“And you always had a way with people.”
Her chest swelled. Since her parents had died before she purchased the company, she really had no one with whom to share her triumphs.
“You should be proud of your success, Gwen.”
“Thank you. And so should you.”
He shrugged. “I do what I do because I love it.”
“Same here. I figure if you don't love what you're doing, you're not doing the right thing.” Gwen's heart warmed. She blamed it on the wine, but suspected it was more the company. As they finished eating, the warmth morphed into something more. In her mind, she imagined several different scenarios, all of them more graphic than the last, each including some form of undress and bodily contact.
By the time their table was cleared and Angus held her chair, Gwen's pulse was hopping and her nerves had stretched to a hypersensitive level that had her nearly panting in anticipation.
Angus offered her his arm.
Gwen nearly sizzled with the jolt of electricity that passed from where she touched him, through to her very core. Though he was being the ultimate gentleman, Gwen reacted as if he were stroking her body with the tips of his fingers and his tongue. Her pussy creamed and thrummed with a pulsing need she could no longer deny. She'd been foolish to set the ground rules of no kissing and no sex, when she was ready to throw in the towel, admit defeat and get naked.
“We don't have to go to the Ugly Stick if you don't want to,” she offered, praying he wouldn't think she'd rather end the night there. Other more intimate ideas plagued her mind to the point of obsession.
“Good. I'd rather not share you.”
Gwen slowly released the breath she didn't realize she'd been holding and smiled at his comment. It sounded promising.
“I have a better place in mind.” Angus held open the door to his truck.
“You do?” God, she hoped wherever it was, there was a bed involved.
“Yes, ma'am.” He tipped his cowboy hat.
“And where is that?” she asked, her voice as light as she could make it between gritted teeth as she struggled to restrain herself from out-and-out attacking him. What was wrong with her? Had seven years of abstinence taken their toll? Surely she was capable of controlling her baser instincts long enough to get through the rest of the evening. She feared her iron will and self-control were quickly ebbing away like sand beneath her feet at high tide.
“You'll see when we get there.”
Excitement pooled low in her belly, making her blood burn with the possibilities the evening might hold.
He drove away from Temptation on a highway headed north. After he'd gone what seemed like five miles, he turned off onto a dirt road.
As they bumped along, Gwen held on to the oh-shit handle above her head and laughed. “I'm beginning to wish I'd brought those jeans.”
“I promise not to make you hike in those shoes.”
“I'm going to hold you to that promise.”
The dirt road wound through gnarled live oak trees and crossed a dry creek bed where Angus stopped the truck.
“This is the place?” Gwen asked, glancing out the window at an unremarkable scene barely illuminated by the stars shining overhead.
“Not quite.” He twisted a knob on the dash. “Just shifting into four-wheel drive.”
A nervous chuckle rose up her throat, escaping into the cab.
Angus shot her a look, his brows twisted. “Something funny?”
“Mona swore you wouldn't take me four-wheeling. I knew better.”
He stepped on the accelerator and grinned. “You won't regret it.”
Part of her already was, knowing the more time she spent with him, the worse it would be when she went back to Dallas, leaving him behind for good. After this one date, she wouldn't hold him to the others. Driving to and from Dallas every weekend would be too much trouble. He had his life, the ranch and his horses. She had Dalton, her business and soccer-mom duty.
But, for this one night, she could pretend it was just the two of them and a sky full of stars.
Angus drove up a steep hill.
Gwen held on, leaning forward to see what was on the other side of the hill. “We're not going to drive off a cliff, are we?”
“Not today,” he assured her.
“Good, I didn't want to orphan Dalton because I went on a date.”
“You worry about him, don't you?”
“I'm all he has.” She stared at the dirt track ahead of them. “Mona's his godmother. If something happened to me, she'd take him.”
“It's good to have backup.”
The truck topped the hill and the view took Gwen's breath away. “Wow. You know how to pick the spots.”
The hilltop was a mesa, overlooking the valley and a small lake reflecting the moonlight off its surface like a silvery path to heaven.
Angus switched on the radio and tuned to a country-western station. “Come on.” He pushed open his door and climbed down.
“Really? You said I wouldn't have to hike.”
“I said I wouldn't make you hike. I also promised I'd take you dancing. I live up to my promises.” He rounded the truck and opened her door.
When she started to step down, he wrapped his big hands around her waist and lifted her out, settling her on her feet. Then he took her hands in his, settled one on his shoulder and clasped the other. The moonlight softened his rugged features with an indigo-blue tint. If possible, he was even more handsome than the first time they'd met.
She moved in his arms and smiled up at him. “They're playing a waltz.”
“Perfect,” he said, drawing her closer, his feet barely moving.
“The music?”
“No.” He abandoned her hand and dragged her body against his. “You.”
She stiffened, resisting, for a moment, the magnetic attraction of the cowboy who'd won her heart so many years ago. How could it be they'd ended up in the same saloon on the same night? What were the odds she'd come to Temptation and he'd be up for auction at the Annual Cowboy Auction?
“What made you want to be one of the cowboys auctioned off? It doesn't seem like something the old Angus I knew would ever consider.”
“And I wouldn't have if my mother hadn't set me up.”
“How did she get you to go to the Ugly Stick Saloon on ladies' night?”
He didn't say anything, but his arms tightened around her. “What's it matter? I was there, you were there. Now we're here. Let's dance.”
She laid her cheek on his chest and listened to the beat of his heart, hammering fast and hard. If she wasn't mistaken, he was holding back, not telling her something she suspected was important.
The music played on, his body was warm against hers and she relaxed, inhaling the scent of Angus. She'd give herself this night. One for the memories she'd have to be satisfied with until Dalton graduated high school and she could think of a life for herself.
Gwen slipped her arms around Angus's waist and leaned into him, absorbing his heat, her body generating more on its own. The moon and stars were doing their job and the music sealed the deal. It was a night to rekindle an old flame.
Beware your heart.
Chapter Eight
Angus basked in the honeysuckle perfume of her hair. He threaded his hands through Gwen's thick riot of curls, stirring up more of the intoxicating scent. Then slid his hands down to her middle, across her naked back, the plunging neckline of the dress making it all too easy to touch her silken skin. How easy it would be to slide the straps over her shoulders. The dress would glide over her body and pool around her waist. A quick flick on the zipper would send it floating to the ground around those sexy stilettos.
He brushed his lips across her temple and prayed for patience, something his body seemed short on. Like a stallion sniffing a mare in heat, he wanted to bust through fences and take her as his.
Through years of taming skittish fillies, he'd honed his craft and now drew on that knowledge to woo this beauty back to his arms for good.
Cupping the back of her head, he tipped her face to the moonlight and drank in her features. “You're even more beautiful than the first time we made love.”
“You're not half bad yourself.” She traced the lines beside his eyes with the tip of her finger. “A few more wrinkles.”
He wished he had all those years back that they'd lost between them. “I'm getting older.”
“More distinguished,” she corrected.
“That's what women say when they really mean old.” He bent to nibble at her earlobe.
“And you've had many women say you look distinguished?” She tipped her head to the side, giving him free rein to trail his lips along her long, slender neck.
“Only you,” he responded, his breath stirring tendrils of hair across her skin.
“Uh-huh.” Gwen captured his cheeks in her palms and forced him to look at her. “Are you going to kiss me properly, or do I have to ask again?”
He stared at those full, lush lips, enjoying the way they pouted when she didn't get what she wanted. Especially when what she wanted was him. “Do you want me to kiss you?”
Her gaze fell to his lips, and he could see her answer before she spoke in a soft whisper that stirred his blood more than making love. “Yes. More than I want to take my next breath.”
Her words lit a fire deep inside Angus and it exploded within, his senses flaming to life. He crushed her to him, curved his hand behind her head and kissed her like it would be the last kiss he'd get before the world ended.
When he broke away, he struggled to regain control, realizing he would lose that battle. “You can say no now, and I'll walk away. But, by God, if you say yes, there's no going back. I can't resist you anymore.”
Gwen's nostrils flared and her eyes darkened. For a long moment she stood in the moonlight, her gaze locked with his. Then she dragged in a shuddering breath and pushed aside one strap of her dress, exposing a shoulder. The strap slid lower, revealing one full breast, the nipple already tight and distended.
Angus held her hips, pressing his rock-hard cock against her soft belly. He reached up to slide the other strap off her other shoulder, and watched as it slid over her skin and down to her waist where the skirt fit snugly on her hips. She hadn't been wearing a bra and nothing but the moonlight covered her skin, giving it a soft-blue tone, caressing her breasts with the cool color.
He slipped his hands over her bottom and down the back of her thighs, then lifted her.
Gwen wrapped her legs around his waist and took off his cowboy hat, throwing it through the open window of the truck. Then she threaded her fingers through his hair and leaned close to take his mouth with hers, darting her tongue past his teeth to connect with his. Her naked breasts pressed against his chest, heating his skin through the fabric of his shirt.
The rush of blood to his groin nearly crippled him as he strode with her to the rear of the truck. He popped the catch on the tailgate and lowered it with one hand and then perched her bottom on the edge, stepping between her thighs.
She cradled his head in her hands and drew him to her breasts.
He took one of the turgid peaks between his teeth and flicked his tongue across the nipple.
Gwen gasped and arched her back, offering more.
He accepted, drawing her into his mouth, sucking hard on the nipple and twirling his tongue around the areola. Angus slipped his hands beneath her skirt and skimmed them up the outsides of her thighs.
Spreading her legs wider, she grasped one of his big hands and guided his fingers to her center, pressing one long digit into her dripping channel.
Ah, she was so wet for him. Angus's control shredded. He hooked a finger around her panties, dragged them down her legs and threw them over his shoulders.
Gwen grabbed for his belt buckle, ripping it loose, then struggled with the top button on his jeans.
Angus brushed her hands aside and ripped the line of buttons open. His cock spilled out into her hands, her warm fingers wrapping around his hard length.
“Hold that thought.” Scooting to the edge of the tailgate, she dropped to the ground, landing smoothly on her stilettos.
“Are we done?” The thought of blue balls made him cringe.
“Not hardly.” She flicked the buttons of his shirt open all the way down his front and pushed it over his shoulders. Once his chest was bared to the moonlight, she trailed her fingers across the muscles between his small brown nipples. Leaning forward, she captured his left nipple between her teeth and bit down softy.
He jerked back. “Hey. Those are attached.”
“Umm. I know.” She sank lower, settling onto her knees, trailing her tongue and lips across his torso and abdomen stopping when she reached his stone-hard shaft jutting straight out.
Angus moaned as she took him into her mouth, teasing the rounded head of his cock with the tip of her tongue, darting into the small hole at the center already dripping come.
She took the hooded bulb into her mouth and sucked gently.
Angus surged forward, unable to resist the animal inside.
Her jaw adjusted to his girth, accepting him, taking in his full length until he bumped against the back of her throat.
“Sweet Jesus, Gwen.” Threading his fingers into her hair, he guided her head back and forth to match his thrusts into her wet, hot mouth.
The faster he thrust, the hotter he became. His body tensed. If he continued down this path, he'd come in her mouth. Angus jerked back, gripped her arms, pulled her up his body and lifted her to sit on the tailgate.
Without missing a beat, she wrapped her legs around him and drew him close by pressing her heels into his buttocks.
“Uh-uh.” Angus shook his head. “My turn.”
“Your turn?” she gasped.
“I want you ready.”
“Any more ready and I'll explode.”
“That's my line. Trust me, you aren't there yet.” He pulled her to the edge of the tailgate and dropped to his knees between her legs.
The first time he tongued her clit, her body spasmed and she cried out, “Holy hell.” She reached for his head and pulled it back to her. “Again.”
This time he slipped a finger into her channel as he stroked the tightly strung bundle of nerves.
Her fingers curled into his scalp and her thighs squeezed against his ears. “Sweet Jesus, Angus. You're setting me on fire.”
He blew a stream of warm air over her heated center.
“I need you inside me,” she moaned.
“Not yet.”
“Yes yet,” she said, pulling his hair in an attempt to bring him up.
He flicked her clit and dove in to swirl, tease and relentlessly torment her.
Her body tensed, she dragged in a ragged breath and let out a long, sexy groan. “Oh. My. God. Angus. You're fuckin' killin' me.” Her body convulsed and her hips jerked each time he touched her.
“I can't believe you still talk dirty during sex.” Angus slipped another finger inside her channel, then another, stretching her, preparing her.
“Okay, okay. You have to come inside me now. I don't know if I can live through much more.”
He chuckled and rose to his feet, pressing his cock to her entrance.
“Oh fucking hell!” Gwen cried out, and not in a good way.
Her expletive jerked Angus off course. “Did I hurt you?”
“No.” Her brows dipped in a V. “I forgot the damned condoms. Mona gave me a month's supply, and I didn't have time to put them in my purse.”
“I've got it covered.” Angus reached into his back pocket for his wallet, his hands shaking with the intensity of his need. When he finally found the single condom he kept inside, he held it up. “Is this what you were looking for?”
“Yes.” She snatched it from his fingers, tore it open and rolled it down over his cock. “Now, please, come into me now.”
He obliged, her desperate cries more than he could handle. Angus drove into her, thrusting long, hard and all the way home, his balls slapping against her bottom.
“Again.” She threaded her thumbs in his belt loops and dragged him out then back in again, pulling so hard he rammed into her.
Angus slid in and out, banging harder and harder until his nerves all lit on fire and exploded, sending him rocketing into orbit. He thrust one last time and held her against him, his fingers digging into her rounded ass.
For a long moment he stood in the moonlight reliving every wet dream he'd had of Gwen for the past seven years. When he came back to earth and reality, he captured her face in his hands and kissed her tenderly, brushing his lips across hers, sucking her lower lip between his. When he let go, he leaned his forehead against hers. “Want to lie out and watch for shooting stars?”
“No,” she said, her voice shaky, her eyes downcast.
“What's wrong?”
“Nothing.” A tear slipped down her cheek, the moonlight glinting off the moisture.
Angus brushed his thumb across Gwen's skin, capturing the tear. “Then why the tears?”
“It's nothing. We should go.”
He drew out of her, disposed of the condom and tucked himself into his jeans. Then he pulled her straps back up over her shoulders, straightened her skirt over her thighs and rested his hands on her knees. “You want to talk about this nothing that's making you cry?”
“Not really.” She slid off the tailgate and onto her feet. “I'm just really tired.”
It was more than that, but damned if he knew what had gone wrong when everything had felt so incredibly good, and natural and right. This was where they were supposed to be. In each other's arms, not living separate lives.
He'd never stopped loving Gwen. That was why he hadn't been interested in dating, why he'd buried himself in the ranch and working with the horses. He'd been trying to get over his broken heart.
Nowâ¦
She was here. They'd made love. He refused to think they would go their separate ways. How could he let her go again?
He couldn't. It would kill him.
Gwen sat in silence the entire ride down the hill, along the bumpy dirt road and all the way back to Temptation. When they arrived at the bed-and-breakfast, she got down from the truck before Angus could come around and assist her. She was afraid if she let him touch her again, she would completely fall apart.
And she didn't have the luxury of falling apart this time. Dalton was her world. Her focus had to be on providing him a loving home until he was grown and living on his own. Until then, she had to walk away from what her own heart yearned for, the overwhelmingly beautiful thing she and Angus had just shared.
Angus reached for her arm, but she stepped away. “I can see myself to my door. No need for you to stay.”
“I'm not leaving until I know you're safely inside.”
She stiffened, hardening her heart to what she couldn't have. “I live on my own in Dallas. I know what to look out for, how to take care of myself.”
“So? You're not in Dallas. You're here with me,” he said between gritted teeth. “I'm taking you up to your room.”
Without responding, she turned and marched toward the house, entering the lobby. She hurried up the steps, almost running by the time she reached the top. Angus kept pace, no matter how fast she moved. His longer legs took the steps two at a time to her one.
Gwen didn't know why she was running. No matter how fast she moved she couldn't hide from her feelings for this tall, strong cowboy. Her first and only love.
At the top of the stairs, she dug in her purse for the key and dropped everything. When she bent to pick up her things, Angus bent too, their heads bumping.
He reached out and steadied her. “Are you all right?”
Hell no, she wasn't all right. Her heart was breaking into a million pieces and she didn't know how to make it stop. “I'm fine.” She found the key, opened the door and fell inside.
Before she could close it behind her, Angus stuck his foot inside and grabbed her arm, dragging her up against him. “Tell me what's wrong. I'll fix it.”
“Nothing's wrong. You're freakin' perfect,” she said, her voice catching on a sob and locking down her throat. “It's me. I can't do this again. I can't fall in love with you knowing we won't be together.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” He shook her gently. “We'll be together.”
“We can't,” she said. “I live in Dallas. I have Dalton. You and meâ¦we just were never meant to be together.”
“Bullshit.” His fingers tightened on her arms. “We were meant to be together. If ever there was a reason to believe in fate, it was last night at the Ugly Stick Saloon.”
She shook her head, tears streaming down her cheeks. “No. Fate teased us again. She brought us back together, knowing I couldn't stay and you couldn't leave what you have here. Dalton is my life. He's all I have, and I'm all he has. I won't force someone else on him or him on someone else because of my selfishness. Just leave.”
“I'll leave for now, but this isn't over. It's far from over.” A ruddy flush rose up in Angus's cheeks. “Because, you see, I'm a McFarlan and McFarlans don't give up on the ones they love. Do you know what that means?”