Chapter Nine
CHAPTER NINE
“You’re making a habit of this lately,” Rey murmured as he carried Meredith up the stairs to the garage apartment. “I never figured you for a fainter, Meredith,” he added dryly.
He was still bare-headed, but he wasn’t grim now. He was smiling.
“Of course I fainted! I picked up a poisonous snake!” she gasped, still in shock.
“Well, you’ve got guts, woman, I’ll give you that,” he said with a slow smile, shifting her a little closer. “Picked up a poisonous snake with a stick and carried it all the way to the barn, and it didn’t bite you. Now I’ve heard everything.”
“It did hiss a little,” she recalled, shivering.
“It had eaten three eggs,” he murmured. “Probably it was too busy digesting to care where it went at the time. Lucky for you.”
She laid her cheek against his broad, strong shoulder and held on tight. She had a sudden thought. “It didn’t bite you?” she asked worriedly.
“It didn’t get the chance. Didn’t you hear the shot?
I got it as it was crawling down from the corn bin onto the floor.
” He chuckled. “If I hadn’t gotten it, though, Bandit would have.
King snakes are natural enemies of any poisonous snake.
They eat them. I hate to kill even a copperhead, but we can’t have poisonous snakes around the livestock, or the men.
Or, especially,” he added with a warm glance at her, “in the henhouse. At the very least, a bite from one can put a man in the hospital.”
She shivered, and her arms tightened around Rey’s neck.
“I was so proud of myself,” she murmured.
“I had no idea I was taking my life in my hands. It didn’t look exactly like the other snake, but the patterns were sort of similar.
I know about snake bites because I’ve helped treat them, but I don’t know one snake from another unless I see pictures of them! ” she added defensively.
“You’ll learn.” He kissed her forehead with breathless tenderness. “My brave girl,” he whispered. “You’ll never know how scared I was when Whit came running to tell me what you were doing.”
It made soft little ripples of pleasure run through her body when he said that.
He was being protective about her. She closed her eyes and drank in the warm nearness of him, the easy strength of his arms as he carried her.
She felt safe as she’d never felt in her whole life.
It was nice to lean on somebody strong, just for a little while.
He felt the vulnerability. He told himself that he wouldn’t take advantage of it, but who was he kidding? She was soft and cuddly like this, and it was almost an involuntary action when his mouth slowly moved over hers as he reached her door.
The pressure was light, comforting. She sighed under the warmth and delight of it, and her lips parted, just the least little bit.
His whole body contracted with desire at that faint response. He looked down into her half-closed, misty eyes with growing hunger.
The look was as new as the tenderness. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from that dark hunger in his. She forgot the snake, the scare, the people outside in the yard, everything. He bent back to her, and she met his mouth hungrily with her own, her arms clinging fiercely to his shoulders.
He groaned aloud. It was too soon, but he didn’t care.
He managed to open the door and close it behind them, making a beeline for the neatly made-up bed.
He barely took time to put her down on the coverlet before his body slid against and over her own, his arms under her, taking his weight while his mouth made new, insistent demands on her innocence.
He lifted his head a torturous few seconds later, and his eyes blazed into her own. One lean hand slid deliberately under the hem of her tank top. At the same time, one long, powerful leg eased between both of hers and his hard mouth began to tease around the corners of hers.
“Danger will do it every time,” he murmured deeply.
“Will…do what?” she asked, burning with new longings as his hand began to move up her rib cage toward the lacy little bra she was wearing under the top.
“This.” His mouth opened on hers and became quickly insistent.
While he kissed her, his fingers found the catch on her bra and flicked it open.
She jumped when she felt his hand on flesh that had never known a man’s touch before.
He lifted his head and looked into her eyes.
“I know. It’s new territory,” he said gently.
His fingers stroked the delicate, warm flesh as lightly as a breeze.
“Try to think of it as a rite of passage.”
She felt strange new sensations. There was a tightening, a swelling, in her breasts as he touched them. She lifted involuntarily, and her eyes mirrored her surprise.
“Innocence is a rare, rare thing these days,” he said at her lips. “I respect it. And you’d better thank your lucky stars that I do,” he added as his mouth bit hungrily at hers. “Because with an experienced woman, I’d lock the door and I wouldn’t hesitate a minute.”
She felt the words like the caress of his hands on her body.
She moaned huskily under the demanding crush of his mouth.
She felt his tongue tracing her lips, teasing under them, darting and touching and withdrawing.
She felt his teeth, too, in a sensual caress that only intensified the new sensations he was teaching her to feel.
She felt her back arch again as he traced around the curves of her breast without ever touching the hard, taut nipple. She wanted him to touch it. Her body ached to have him touch it. She didn’t understand why it should be such a violent, aching need…!
He laughed in a soft, sexy way against her lips. “Is this what you want?”
He caught the nipple between his thumb and forefinger and she lifted off the bed with a sharp cry. Heat spread over her, through her. Her short nails dug into his back fiercely and she gasped with pleasure.
“Baby,” he groaned roughly, aroused by her unexpectedly ardent response. “Baby, you turn me on so hard…!”
The top was suddenly around her collarbone and his mouth—his mouth!
—was right on her nipple, suckling her while his tongue tasted the hardness with a subtle caress that made her shiver.
Her hands caught in the thick strands of his dark hair and held him to her body while he explored it with his mouth.
She’d never imagined that she was capable of so much passion, and so unexpectedly swift.
He could do anything to her, and she didn’t have the willpower to stop him.
Even a simple “no” was beyond her now. She wanted more.
She wanted his eyes on her, his hands on her. She wanted his body closer.
As if he knew that, both lean hands smoothed up from her waist and onto her soft breasts. His fingers were rough from hard work, but their touch was pure heaven. She caressed his nape, moving rhythmically with each slow brush of his fingers, lost in pleasure.
He lifted his head to look at what he’d uncovered.
She was beautiful, not too big or too small.
She was just right. He loved the way her body moved when he touched it.
He loved knowing how innocent she was. He’d never been with an innocent.
Making love to one was a whole new experience, with levels of pleasure he’d never tasted.
Her soft little moans excited him as much as those enthusiastic fingers caressing his back.
She felt his eyes and she opened hers, looking up at him. “Am I doing it right?” she whispered breathlessly.
His body tautened even more. “Yes,” he whispered. “Just right.”
He bent and drew his mouth gently over hers with a soft, cherishing pressure.
He felt it open under his, felt her arms pulling at him.
It wasn’t a good idea to let this go any farther than it already had.
While he was thinking it, he was moving slowly between her long legs until his body rested in the fork of hers.
He eased down against her, letting her feel the slow burgeoning of his body against her belly.
She caught her breath.
He heard it, and lifted his head. His eyes were smoldering with desire, his body was rigid with it. He was getting little surges of insistent pleasure that ran the length of his spine. Her hips moved as if they were responding helplessly to the touch of him. She was making him ache like hell.
His hand moved to her hip and bit into the soft flesh, stilling the faint motion of her hips instantly while he rested on the elbow of his other arm. “Meredith,” he said softly. “That will get you seduced. Right now.”
She felt hot all over. Her mind seemed barely under her control.
She searched his dark eyes with wonder. Her hands were against his shirt, right on the buttons.
She felt him against the lower part of her body, and it felt right.
It felt wonderful. She wanted to writhe under him and tempt him into intimacy.
His hand contracted and he gave her a wise, challenging stare as he read the look on her face. “Don’t do it,” he said huskily. “I’m years ahead of you in experience, but I can still lose my head. You don’t want me to do that. Not really.”
She pulled at a stabilizing breath. Her heart was still whacking around at the walls of her chest, as if she’d been running a race. “Are you sure I don’t want you to do that? I mean, if you get pregnant, I’ll marry you,” she said breathlessly, and with deathbed humor. “Honest!”
He looked at her as if he couldn’t believe his ears. The passion drained out of him, replaced by howling amusement. He started laughing. “Damn you, that wasn’t fair!” he accused.
“Well, I like that! You’re laughing, and here I’ve made you a solemn promise,” she persisted, eyes twinkling.