“It’s over here.”
He stopped short several feet away from it, pulling her to a stop, as well. The sculpture had been carved from a tree stump that had been stripped of its bark and polished to a rich golden sheen. Erupting from the base of the trunk was a stampede of long horns. Above that, looking like he was bursting from the top of the cut stump, but actually carved from the tree itself, was a cowboy on horseback. His body was bent close to the horse’s neck, his hand raised over his head with a looped rope poised to be thrown over the small steer that had broken away from the herd.
“It’s…” He didn’t finish.
She looked from him to the sculpture, unable to name how she felt in the face of his obvious awe. She’d felt that same tug when she’d seen it. She knew his family bred and sold cattle, but he was hardly a cowboy. And yet something about this piece, even on glossy magazine paper, had pulled her right in and demanded her full attention.
“I know,” she whispered.
She couldn’t say how long they stood there. Jake finally pulled her forward so he could look at the artistry more closely, from all sides, never once releasing the tight grip he had on her hand.
She couldn’t deny how good it made her feel to know she’d moved him like this. But she also couldn’t deny how nervous it made her. This feeling she had right now had nothing to do with pushing sexual boundaries and everything to do with pushing personal ones.
She wasn’t sure how it would feel to make love to him now. How could it not start to be more than just two people exploring pleasure?
You’re being silly, she told herself. She was reading way more into this than there was. Likely he was very glad to have been introduced to art that was so personal to his past, but it wasn’t going to alter anything else.
For him, anyway.
Still, maybe they should just go back and look at the entire exhibit, she thought, skip the rest of this go-around.
Then he turned to her, and the look on his face told her there was going to be no skipping what came next. She should be strong enough to read the danger signals screaming inside her, but she wasn’t Superwoman. No matter what he was or wasn’t feeling, what she was feeling was too overwhelming to be denied.
“You ready to leave?” he murmured.
She could only nod.
He traced one finger along her cheek. “I’ll be back to see the rest, but right now I want to spend some time alone with you.” He leaned down and kissed her softly. “Thank you for this, Natalie,” he whispered next to her ear. “I want to take you. Right now. Do you know that?”
She shuddered with pleasure.
“Wonder what we’d look like in bronze.”
“Dear God.”
“On horseback.”
She moaned softly.
He grinned and headed toward the exit.
10
THERE WAS NOTHING GENTLE about the way they made love this time. And Natalie didn’t mind in the least. It was probably better this way. No mushy sentimentality to cloud the real reason they were together.
Jake had her up against the wall of the elevator as soon as the door closed. Thank God her room was on the tenth floor, or she might have been unclothed by the time she got to her room. And not have cared.
“Key card,” he said in a heated groan against the side of her neck.
She fumbled it out of her coat pocket. It took both of them several tries before the green light flicked on.
They stumbled into the room, coats dropping, shoes flying before he tumbled her to the bed. “I want inside you right now,” he demanded.
“Please.”
She pulled his sweater off, he unbuttoned her blouse. He did stop to admire the lacy cream bra and panty set she wore. For about two seconds, before all but tearing it off of her. She heard a hook ping.
“I’ll replace it,” he said, his mouth already on the heated skin just between her breasts. “You taste too damn good, Natalie.”
She slid his belt free, almost frantic to feel his bare skin against hers. She had no idea what had launched them into this sensual frenzy. But ever since the museum, when he whispered he wanted to be inside her, the two of them had done everything possible to achieve that single goal. The cab ride to her hotel had been torture. The walk through the lobby even worse.
For once Jake didn’t push it, make it harder or the ache more exquisite by making her wait. He was in as much a rush as she was, and they had all but run through the lobby. And the ache couldn’t have been more exquisite.
She tried to focus on his chest, the way the skin stretched over his muscles, the slight scattering of hair that swirled ever-so-perfectly across his pectorals. But she kept seeing his eyes, the way they looked at her, into her, when he’d thanked her for showing him the sculptures. And it was that look that had her hotter and wetter than ever before.
She couldn’t block it out, so she stopped trying. So there was mushy sentimentality, anyway, no matter the ferocity of their need at the moment. It would likely be weeks before she saw him again. Plenty of time to come back to her senses.
“Slide your legs up over my hips, Natalie,” he instructed, his hands already lifting her as he climbed over her. “God, you smell good.”
He paused and dipped his head toward her belly, already pushing her back, but her body was primed for him, and she wanted to feel every inch of him pushed well inside her. Her muscles were aching to clamp down on him, hold him tightly inside for as long as she could.
“Uh-uh. I want you now.” She tugged his head up, her nails sinking into his shoulders.
He grinned up at her. “Demanding. I like that.” He delayed just long enough to grasp her nipple between his lips. “But I will be back.”
“Yes, yes. Just move up inside— Yes! God, yes.”
“Here?” He pushed deeper inside her and stopped. “Is this where you want me, Natalie?”
“Yes.” Her hips were already pumping, and she could feel the effort it took him not to move. His arms were like steel beneath her clutching fingers—quivering steel.
“Tilt up,” he instructed hoarsely.
She did, and he reached and grabbed a pillow, shoving it under her hips. She groaned long and loud as the position enabled him to sink even more deeply inside her.
“Please,” she murmured, not even sure what she was asking for anymore. Just more of this. Hours of this. Days. Weeks. Eternity.
He held her pinned to the bed, letting her hips barely move up toward him. “Push,” she commanded, almost wild with needing him.
“Say please.”
She opened her eyes in surprise, but although he was grinning at her, the sweat on his brow and the vein ticking in his forehead told her how much this was costing him.
“Maybe,” she managed to say breathlessly. “Maybe not.”
He blew out a long breath of his own as his hips bucked slightly. “You don’t play fair.”
“Guess who I learned that from?” She locked her legs more tightly around his hips and pushed against him as hard as she could, her back arching her off the pillow.
His immediate loss of control came in a long, sweet groan as his body took over and gave her what she wanted. He pumped into her hard. She shrieked with the pleasure that plunged through her as she met him thrust for thrust.
He lost control first, his climax an intense release that made him shout. She followed immediately, the sound of him driving her over the top.
Dizzy with the force of their mutual release, she expected him to fall heavily and limply upon her, which he did, but only for a moment. He pushed her hair from her face and found her mouth with his, kissing her long and hard, with more energy than she’d thought he’d have at this point.
Then he left her mouth and began the slow, sinuous trek down her damp, heated body.
“Jake.”
“No way.”
She smiled and let him do what he wanted. After what they’d just accomplished, she feared she might be too sore…then discovered to her grateful surprise just how restorative a gentle tongue could be.
Her head lolled back, her body relaxed…and then he slowly drove her up that sweet peak. Once, then twice…and then one more time—just because he could.
Finally, when she was nothing more than a languid pool of pleasure without an ounce of energy left in her, he climbed up along her body and silently rolled her against him. He pulled her leg over his thigh and tucked her against his chest, stroking her hair until she drifted off to sleep. Her last thought was that her dreams couldn’t possibly top reality.
JAKE STARED UNSEEINGLY across the hotel room, as Natalie’s breath evened out beneath his stroking fingers.
Boy, he was in big trouble.
He didn’t even have to look down at her to know just how much trouble he was in. He’d never wanted anyone so desperately as he’d wanted Natalie today. It should scare him how badly he’d needed to make love to her. And it did. Just not enough to make him get up, get dressed and get the hell out of there before he did anything even more stupid. Like tell her he was beginning to get serious about her.
You’ve only seen her three times, he argued with himself. Of course you think you’re falling for her. The sex is great. What’s not to like?
But that wasn’t it, and he knew it. Yes, he was incredibly physically gratified at the moment. But, as much as he’d like to believe that was all there was to this sudden tender spot in his heart, it didn’t explain the way he’d felt earlier when she showed him that cowboy sculpture. It should seem sort of silly now, to get all dopey over some old carving. But he didn’t feel remotely dopey or silly.