Trouble Me: A Rosewood Novel (32 page)

“Jade.” Her roughly whispered name was a seductive command. Irresistible.

It was impossible to know where this thing between them might lead. But for now, for the present, for tonight, she knew all that mattered. She longed to feel Rob’s arms around her again, to be swept away by the promise of his kisses, to fall under the spell of his mouth and hands caressing her, to answer the pounding rhythm of his body moving deep inside her.

And to offer him the same fierce, glorious pleasure.

The desire she’d battled since parents’ night broke free. She accepted its superior strength, understood that
this man meant too much for her to walk away. What would happen would happen. Her lips brushed his, featherlight. Her hand slipped into his.

“Come with me.”

The hushed, deliberate mood that pervaded was no less potent for its quietness, no less thrilling for its purposefulness. Clothes were shed slowly, to sighs and husky murmurs voicing their appreciation, their pleasure. Naked, they faced each other, their bodies mere inches apart while their hands touched and mouths drank, relearning and exploring anew.

“You’re trembling,” he whispered, trailing his mouth down the slope of her shoulder, breathing in the warm scent of her, as his hands cupped her breasts, kneading gently.

“I know. I can’t stop.”

“Are you nervous?”

“No—yes, I guess I am. This feels different somehow.” How much different, how
important
, she couldn’t admit to him—or herself.

“Yeah. It does.”

It helped to know that he recognized it too; it made her feel less vulnerable emotionally. The physical responses he aroused were overwhelming enough. Like now, she thought, as his tongue dipped into the hollow of her collarbone while his thumbs stroked her nipples in achingly slow sweeps. He remembered just how much pressure she liked. She arched in silent supplication, letting loose a moan of gratitude when his mouth replaced his thumbs, latching on to one breast, then the other, and drawing her nipples deep into his mouth as he suckled.

Liquid heat pooled deep inside her as streaks of pleasure lashed her. The dual onslaught made her knees buckle. Luckily, the bed was within reach. She fell back
upon the blue-and-white-patterned comforter, exulting in the weight of his body as he followed her down. Wrapping her legs about his hips, she rubbed the steel silk of his shaft and felt herself grow slick with desire.

“Please, I need you.”

His smile was fierce, beautiful. “You have me, sweetheart. Take me any way you want.”

The room might have spun a little just then, whirling with all of the ways she’d like to make love with him. A kaleidoscope of delight. The best part was that she could pick one and know she’d enjoy his choice equally. A win–win situation. She pushed Rob over onto his back and climbed over him, pulling her nightstand drawer open and retrieving a handful of condoms, then letting them fall within easy reach.

At his raised brow, she said, “Every modern woman should be thusly equipped.”

He squeezed her butt. “I am in total agreement.”

“Good.” She gave him an impish wink. “Now, I seem to recall this as being very nice.” Balancing with her knees on either side of him, she positioned herself over his hips, letting her short curls brush the tip of his cock. When it lengthened, straining, when his hips bucked in instinctive response, she smiled, awash with feminine power. “Does it meet with your approval?”

“It does.” His voice lowered to a rough whisper. “I’ve dreamed of you like this, Jade.”

“Me too,” she said, and, with the beat of his heart hammering against her flattened palm, she sank down his rigid length, letting him fill her, inch by dizzying inch. To the sound of his soft groans of pleasure, she began to ride.

Rob’s eyes held hers as he answered her every descent with a powerful thrust, watching her graceful body undulate as his hands covered her breasts and fondled them boldly. He kept pace as her rhythm quickened, as
her core tightened, milking him, as she quivered from the sensations racking her.

She was beautiful as she neared her climax, her slender body tensing as she reached for it, her hair flowing wildly about her shoulders, the image of a wanton goddess—
his
wanton goddess, a voice inside him decided possessively. Knowing what would bring her to her peak, and desperate to give her that pleasure, his hands moved. One clasped her hip, urging her to take him even deeper, while the other hand moved between her legs to brush her swollen clit. With a shattering cry, her body bucked and her passion broke over him like a tempest unleashed. The force of it triggered his own climax. With a hoarse groan, he surged into her, coming in a flood that left him shaken and dazed.

Spent and seemingly boneless, she collapsed on him. The slap of their slick bodies made him smile as he lazily wrapped his arms about her damp back. Nuzzling the crook of her neck, he inhaled the floral scent that clung to her hair and realized he felt better than he had in weeks. It wasn’t just the sexual release, powerful though it had been, but the sense of rightness as he held this armful of warm girl close. It felt almost as if he was absorbing her into himself. She might wreak havoc in his life, but she also was a perfect fit.

And she was funny, smart, sensitive, gorgeous, and sexy as hell, and his body was already responding to the sweet curves draped over him. Shifting his head against the pillow, he found her lips and kissed her deeply, savoring her. Languidly, their tongues dueled, and with each thrust, parry, and slow suck, heat built between them.

A roll of their bodies put Rob on top. Dragging Jade’s arms overhead, he gave rein to his hunger, trailing his mouth along the insides of her arms and circling the sensitive underside of her breasts as she writhed and whispered
her need. Her words inflamed him until his own body shook with need.

“My turn. Open for me, sweetheart.” He rocked his hips, pressing his cock against her cleft.

Her breath caught on a soft moan as she met his thrust. Then, drawing her instep up his calf, she teased huskily, “Missionary pose, huh? Kinda dull.”

“Brat.” He laughed and nipped her earlobe. “I promise I’ll do my best to keep your attention from wandering.”

Much later, a sleepy-eyed and sated Jade watched Rob pull on his clothes. She felt too good to move. Sitting up was a definite impossibility. Besides, if she sat up, the graze of the soft cotton sheet against her naked skin would remind her of how his hands had caressed her while they made love, and she would start to want him again.

His lovemaking had been exquisite. Sometimes teasing, other times demanding, he’d wrung responses from her that made her feel as if she’d never really been touched before. At another time it might have worried her that Rob seemed to know her body better than she, but right now all she could think was that she was one incredibly lucky girl. She stretched and smiled, contented as a cat.

“Want to tell me what that smile is about?”

“I’ve decided that maybe the missionary position isn’t so dull after all.”

A grin spread across his face. “Only ‘maybe’? I thought I had you converted.” He gave an easy shrug. “That’s all right, I’ll be happy to continue doing the good work.” Buttoning the top metal button of his jeans, he crossed over to the bed and sat down, his weight causing her to roll into him. She put her hand on
his blue-jeaned thigh and felt his quadriceps harden beneath it.

In response, he laid his hand on her naked shoulder, then slowly trailed his fingers over its rounded contours.

“So about this thing between us: Are you okay with it? Because I want to keep seeing you and spending time with you.”

She tamped down the panic that threatened. “Let’s just take it one day at a time. I don’t want Hayley to figure out what’s going on and begin to form expectations. I don’t want her to get hurt.”

Clearly pleased that she wanted to protect Hayley, Rob nodded. “Fair enough. But, Jade, you should know I believe in commitment. If we’re together, then it’s only you and me. I don’t share.”

Before she could retort that she wasn’t the kind of person who slept around when dating—easy to say, as she’d always avoided relationships—his lips were over hers and he was kissing her with a thoroughness that had her toes curling and her fingers clutching at his back. Then he was gone, the front door shut firmly behind him, and Jade was still trying to catch her breath and calm her pounding heart.

How had this happened? she wondered as her panic returned. How, after going out of her way to avoid emotional entanglements, had she managed to not only find herself in a relationship but in one where the stakes were so high?

Because she was very much afraid that, after tonight, she was already half in love with Rob Cooper.

T
HE PONY
barn was full of little people diligently at work yielding currycombs and bristle and soft brushes. After demonstrating how to use each brush, Jade had divided the group into pairs to work on three ponies first. Walking up and down the aisle, she’d observed them, making sure they were moving safely around the ponies attached to the cross ties. Then at each station she gave a demonstration on how to pick the ponies’ hooves, the most essential grooming lesson of the afternoon.

Once she was satisfied that they’d gotten the hang of manipulating each of the grooming tools, she—along with Tito and Ned, who’d volunteered to help out until the kids reached the stage where they could groom and tack on their own—returned the ponies to their stalls so the other three could be readied.

Next came a lesson in how to tack. Using Doc Holliday because he was an old pro, Jade showed them how to insert the bit of the bridle into his mouth. Something of a show-off, Doc curled back his muzzle as if to show the kids exactly where they should exert pressure against his yellowed teeth. Adjusting the noseband and the throatlatch was more straightforward, involving only a discussion of how snug the noseband should be and how much give the throatlatch should have.

As the ponies all used snaffles and none wore a martingale, she postponed any further discussion of the
parts of a bridle for the next lesson. It was pointless to overload the kids with information they wouldn’t be able to retain, and, besides, she could tell how keen they were to get in the saddle.

Nevertheless, she did take the time to stress the importance of proper saddle placement. A saddle placed too low or high could hurt a pony’s back, causing it to go lame. “And we don’t want that, do we?”

Six heads shook in solemn reply.

She smiled as she ducked down to grab Doc’s girth and buckle it.

This was going to be a really good group. All the kids in it were happy to be there—not a one pushed into taking lessons by an overambitious parent. But even in this eager lot, Hayley stood out. Since walking into the pony barn with Jenny Ferris, the two of them looking adorable in their jodhpurs and paddock boots and with their riding helmets tucked under their sweatered arms, Hayley had been following Jade’s instructions to a T.

It was pretty neat—in fact, what she’d dreamed of when opening the riding program—to spot the passion of a horse lover in a little girl and to know that Jade would be fostering it. Though this was her goal for all the kids in the program, Jade admitted that seeing the telltale spark in Hayley’s eyes was extra-special after sharing the previous night with Rob.

The prospect of being in a relationship continued to unnerve and unsettle her. But this, nurturing a love for these special animals, was something she could offer Hayley. In doing so, she would be giving something to Rob, his only daughter’s happiness inextricably linked to his own.

The weather was cool, but Jade far preferred to teach outdoors. They’d be riding inside and under banks of artificial lights soon enough. Once all six ponies and kids were down at the ring, she instructed them on the
proper mounting technique (allowing for a little boost to the fanny to help the smaller kids pull themselves into the saddle). Stirrups were adjusted so the bottoms of the irons hit at the anklebone. Next she discussed the reins, so that everyone understood how long they should be. Yanking on ponies’ delicate mouths was not allowed. With their eyes up, heels down, backs straight, and knees tucked into the saddle roll, the kids nudged their ponies onto the rail.

With greater and lesser degrees of success.

Little Samantha Nicholls, astride Hopscotch, was going nowhere fast. Poor Hopscotch probably couldn’t even feel the six-year-old’s legs urging him forward.

Jade pressed her lips together to keep her laughter inside. Samantha was too cute.

“Remember how I showed you to soften your hands on the reins, Sam? That’s what you need to do here when you ask Hopscotch to move forward. Give him a little harder of a kick with the heel of your boot—it won’t hurt him, I promise—and a loud
cluck
too.” She made the sound out of the side of her mouth to encourage the chestnut gelding, and fortunately their combined efforts did the trick. Hopscotch obligingly ambled over to the rail to walk behind Archer, who was being ridden by Mack Reynolds. “There you go, Sam. Good job.”