Sweet Talking Lawman (17 page)

Rafe looked at her, surprise
reflecting in his dark eyes.  He was wearing only a pair of tight jeans,
his feet bare and his ebony hair still wet from a recent shower.  As
usual, Spur was standing at his side, his whip like tail wagging circles of
welcome.

“C…can I come….in?” her voice
was barely more than a whisper.

He opened the door wider and
stepped back.  “Sure.  I’m just surprised to see you.”

She hesitated half way across
the threshold.  “Maybe I should just go.  I was being presumptuous to
just show up.”

“No,” he spoke quickly. 
“Come on in.”  He waved her in with the hand that wasn’t holding the
door.  In it, he held a half empty bottle of beer.

Stepping inside she glanced
around, remembering a lot of the layout of the house from the years she and
Jenny had spent every spare minute together.  She gave the big bulldog a
brief greeting and then faced Rafe.

“Go to bed, Spur,” he said
softly.  Obediently, the animal submitted, by going to the box that held
his blanket and settling down in it.

Rafe couldn’t take his eyes
off her.  She was here!  He couldn’t believe it.  Mesa had come
to him!  His heart thudded against his chest wildly.  He couldn’t
stop looking at her, until finally he saw her face take on a pink glow. 
“Sorry,” he muttered.  “I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable.  I’m
just finding this a little hard to believe.”

She nodded.  “I know the
feeling.  I’m still a little shocked myself.”  She smiled weakly.

Rafe was suddenly feeling
awkward.  In his whole life, he’d never brought a woman into this house
with the intention of spending the night enjoying hours of sweet, uninhibited
sex.  Uci would kill him.  If she knew.  “Would you like a
beer?” he asked, swallowing his tension.

“I’ve never…I haven’t changed
in that way.  Alcohol ruined my childhood.  I still don’t
drink.”  She knew he’d remember that if he only thought about it for a
minute.

He nodded.  “Of course,
I remember.  Sorry.  How about a glass of tea?  A Coke?”

She started to refuse, but
then realized how dry her mouth was.  She nodded.  “A glass of tea
would be great.”

He led the way into the
kitchen and with economical movements soon handed her a glass filled with deep
brown, sweet tea and cubes of ice.  She lifted it to her lips and
moistened her throat.  “That’s wonderful.  I’d forgotten that Uci’s
tea is miles above all other teas.”

Rafe grinned.  “Same
with her cooking.”

Mesa nodded.  “I
remember.  She makes the best fry bread ever.”

“She doesn’t make it often
anymore.  Says it’s not good for us so it’s only an occasional treat.” 
Rafe tipped the bottle up and drained the beer.

Mesa watched his throat as he
swallowed the liquid.  His Adam’s apple bobbed as the bronze skin along
his neck worked over the muscles.  Her heart rate kicked up a notch. 
She lifted the glass, took a cooling drink and after she swallowed it, she
licked her lips.

Rafe groaned softly and she
found his eyes fastened on her mouth.  “Mesa,” he growled placing the beer
bottle on the counter.  He stepped toward her, keeping his hands at his
sides, towering over her but not yet touching.  “You tasted so damn good
when I kissed you today.  To hold you in my arms and feel your breathe
warm against my neck.  I…uh I think I’m addicted to you.”

She placed her hands against
the hard warmth of his bare chest and heard his quick intake of breath and
then, as if he was afraid she’d move them, he covered them with his own,
holding them against him.

“I don’t want Raale to know,”
she breathed softly.

“Then you’d better leave,
before this goes any further.  I don’t do secrets, remember?”  His
hands continued to cover hers, and he lowered his head slightly.

“She’ll take…she’ll
think….she’s a child, Rafe.  She’ll expect happily-ever-after.”  Mesa
was struggling to think as his hands slipped down off hers along her arms past
her elbows and then up again, until they rested gently on her upper arms.

“I know you’re trying to
protect her.  I understand that.”  His head dipped lower, his cheek
brushing against hers.  “I’ll talk to her and try to help her
understand.  I don’t want her hurt either, Mesa, but
secrets….aren’t…healthy.”

His words were a whisper in
her ear.  Mesa inhaled the leather and spice scent that she’d always
identified with Rafe.

Neither of them spoke for a
long minute and Mesa knew he was giving her time to leave if that was her
choice.  Maybe she should, but she knew she didn’t want to.  What she
wanted was to be here with him, to feel his big, gentle hands on her body and
to stroke her hands over his strong, hard limbs.

“You have on too many
clothes,” he finally whispered against her neck.  His lips pursed and he
kissed her soft skin lightly.

Mesa’s breath hitched as his
mouth opened against her neck and his tongue ignited trails of fire over the
small pulse point there.  She stretched up and nipped his collar bone, then
soothed it with kisses.

His hands slipped off her
arms and covered her breasts.  Mesa groaned, feeling the heat of his hands
through the material of her top.  This was what she wanted.

The tightening of her small
pebbled buds against the palm of his hands resulted in a sultry chuckle
bubbling up from his throat.  “No bra?”

Her mouth went in search of
his.  “No panties either,” she confessed as she touched the side of his
mouth with hers.

He crushed her to him, his
hands wandering freely over her body.  “Damn!” he groaned.  “I love
it when you’re naughty.”

His mouth captured hers and
the kiss was long and deep, searching, renewing, devouring, teasing and as he
finally ended it, he swept one hand down behind her legs and lifted her in his
arms.  “I don’t think Uci would ever get over it if she found out we made
love in her kitchen,” he rumbled as he carried her up the stairs to his
room.  “Finding out we shared my room would be bad enough,” he
whispered.  Inside, he stood her down again, and pushed the door closed
shutting the bulldog out, before he turned and watched her looking around his
bedroom.

Mesa was tempted to question
his intention of keeping this a secret from Uci, but decided against it. 
Knowing Rafe, his conscience would force him to confess and Uci would get all
over both of them.

He was surprised when she
chortled softly and then made a surprise confession.  “Once, when I spent
the night with Jenny, I came in here by mistake.  I’d gone to use the
bathroom and must have been still half asleep.  Anyway, going back to her
room, I opened your door.  You were sleeping.  The sheet was pushed
down off your chest.”  She looked up at him and smiled.  “I thought
you were the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.  I think I was fourteen
years old at the time.  Too young to feel what I felt looking at you, but
I had a good long look before I managed to leave.”

Rafe couldn’t speak. 
His heart hammered in his chest and he closed his eyes.  He’d always known
that women found him attractive, but to have this woman call him beautiful,
touched a place deep in his heart.

“Well, I tried to convince
myself that I opened the door by mistake.  Maybe it was.”  She
slipped her arms around his ribcage.  “Make love to me, Rafe.  It’s
been so long and I want you so much.”

“Oh darlin’,” he
groaned.  “I am certainly gonna do that.”

He grabbed the bottom of her
cropped t-shirt and pulled it up over her head while he backed her toward his
bed purposefully.  When the bed was behind her knees, she sat down and
Rafe dropped to his knees in front of her.  Lifting one foot he slipped
her loafers off one at a time, rubbing each foot in his hands, exploring up her
legs as far as the snug leg of her jeans would allow.

“Stand up,” he said, still
kneeling in front of her.

When she complied, he
unfastened her jeans and slipped them down over her hips and off her legs,
discarding them to one side.  He sat back on his heels and looked up at
her.  “You are without a doubt the most breathtakin’ woman alive.” 
He didn’t touch her as he rose to stand in front of her.  “I want to be
inside you so bad right now, but I don’t want to rush this.  I want to
savor every second of it.”

“Whew,” she hissed softly,
“just listening to you is like making love.”

He chuckled and, still
grinning, he found her lips.  The grin faded as desire burned through them
both, their chests meeting, with Rafe’s hands covering her breasts and then
slipping down over her buttocks, lifting her up.  Her legs wrapped around
him, the heat of her pressing against the hard ridge still captive in his
Wranglers.

She whimpered as his lips
left hers to steal down her neck and her head rolled back.  Rafe moved
onto the bed, keeping her wrapped around him as he lowered them both so he was
laying over her, his hips nestled between her legs.  He trailed kisses
down her neck, over her shoulder and across the smooth swell of one soft
breast.  When his hot mouth covered one tight peak, she made a soft
whimpering sound, feeling his tongue stroking gently around it, heat pooling
much further down.

The sounds she was making
were like electricity thrumming through his body, letting him know that this
was what she wanted, that she was enjoying it as much as he was.

He lifted his head to her
ear.  “I need to get off you,” he whispered.

She hadn’t realized her legs
were still wrapped around him, holding him there.  She unclasped her legs
from around his hips and suffered a sudden chill when he slipped onto the
mattress beside her.  He reached behind him and switched on the bedside
light.  “I want to see you.”  His voice was husky with desire as he
sat up beside her, his eyes sweeping over her nude body.

Mesa felt a sudden surge of
delight as she realized how powerfully she was affecting him.  She smiled.

His eyes moved from her face,
down across her breasts and he lifted one hand to follow in the wake of his
eyes.  He stroked her breasts, first one, and then giving the other his
full attention.  Slowly his hand and his eyes drifted lower.  On the
lower part of her stomach he discovered a couple of faint narrow scars and his
eyes sought hers for an explanation while one finger stroked each mark
carefully.

“Stretch marks, from carrying
Raale,” she managed hesitantly.

He looked back at the scars
and then into her eyes again and she recognized the quick flash of pain. 
She was sure the remembered hurt would bring an end to their intimacy, but
after a minute, Rafe bent down and trailed kisses along the scars, then his
hand dropped lower and he sat back up, watching her face.

His hand slipped down and
cupped the mound of her femininity and she whimpered again, her hips moving
involuntarily as one finger pushed its way between the protective folds and
found the tight sensitive nub hidden there.  Her hips moved again as he
stroked over it slowly.  His eyes watched her face, seeing the rise of
ecstasy growing as her eyes fell shut.  “Do you have any idea how sexy it
is watchin’ your face while I pleasure you?”

She whimpered again.

“And to hear all those little
sounds you make that let me know how much you like what I’m doin’?”  His
gravelly voice was yet another stimulus, bringing Mesa that much closer to the
edge.

The tension grew inside her,
tighter and tighter as his voice, his eyes, and his hand continued to stimulate
her body.  Then he stopped.  Her eyes popped open and she looked up
at him.

He grinned.  “Just for a
minute,” he promised, slipping off the bed.  Faster than she would have
thought possible he shed his jeans and quickly located a small foil packet that
he placed on the table beside the bed.  When he pushed his shorts off, he
heard Mesa gasp at the sight of his full erection.  It brought another
smile to his lips and he quickly tore the packet open and unrolled the thin
condom down over his rigid organ.  Slowly he lowered his body back onto
the bed beside her.  He covered her mouth for a deep lingering kiss as his
hand slipped slowly along her body until it located that secret core
again.  His fingers pressed past the nub and slipped inside her and she
groaned into his mouth.  Her muscles tightened around his fingers as he
pushed in deeper, then slowly pulled out again, stroking firmly against the
excited bump.  Her hips moved in invitation and her breathing was ragged.

“Rafe,” she moaned against
his lips, “please.”  She was so close to the edge.

He continued to stroke and
manipulate her core.  “Go ahead, baby,” he encouraged.  “I won’t last
long once I feel you around me.  You are so hot and tight.  When I
get inside you it’ll be hard and fast.”

His husky voice and the words
he spoke contributed to the carnal heat that was building between her legs and
she shattered into a storm of pure ecstasy.  Surge after surge of rapture
shook her body with hot, sensual pleasure and just when she thought she was
coming back together, she became aware of Rafe pressing into her.  He was
fully aroused and as hard as he was hot.  Slowly he pushed into the still
throbbing, fiery inferno that contracted around him and he paused for a few
tortured moments, allowing the tightness of her to envelope him
completely.  “Damn, you’re so tight.  You still feel almost like a
virgin.”