Chapter Twenty-Six
The Hickory Creek Inn did indeed have a room set aside. And Frank Buckley, although he looked to Miles every inch the tough Texas Ranger he’d once been, took one look at Riley, smiled, and handed her the room key card without comment.
But he did have something to say to Miles, gripping his arm to slow him as they turned to go. “Good to see,” he murmured. “But don’t hurt her and make me come after you.”
One glance at the man’s steely eyes told Miles he meant exactly what he’d said.
“No, sir,” he said, making sure his tone was beyond respectful. He saw it register in the now innkeeper’s face, and with a nod the man sent them on. This Last Stand was indeed a different sort of place.
“What was that about?” Riley asked as they headed for the back of the spacious inn, where apparently that room was kept open.
“A warning.”
She looked up at him, looking almost worried. “To you?”
He nodded. “That if I hurt you, he’ll come after me.”
She looked nothing less than startled and turned her head back toward the lobby. “But why would—” She broke off, then smiled. “Oh. Because right now my dad can’t.”
“Sounds about right, for this place.”
She sighed, rolling her eyes. “Good Lord. I can look out for myself.”
“Maybe I should be the one he worries about then,” he said, barely hiding his grin.
When she looked up at him then, with an entirely different expression, she said huskily, “Maybe.”
That opened up a rushing stream of images in his head that took his breath away. And he couldn’t find another word before they were at the door of the assigned room. She slid the card through the lock and he heard it release. She started to open the door, then looked back at him.
“You know, somewhere in town somebody’s probably laying odds on this happening.”
He had a feeling Nic might be at the head of that betting pool, but right now he didn’t care. He reached out and pushed the door open.
“That’s not the laying I’m concerned about,” he muttered.
Riley gave him a startled look. And then a peal of laughter burst from her, a light, unfettered, delighted sound that made him feel as if he’d slain some dragon or something.
She stepped into the room. He followed, closing the door behind him and making sure it was locked. He wanted no interruptions tonight. Or tomorrow. Maybe the next day. Maybe the next week.
But when he looked around the room, he was a little surprised.
He’d expected some small nook tucked away, but this was a suite, with large windows that faced the stream outside he gathered must be the Hickory Creek of the place’s name.
It also had a fireplace fronted with a comfortable-looking sofa, and from what he could see a spacious bathroom with a big tub.
A big enough for two tub.
He mentally filed that away for future reference, then looked to his right. That bed, he thought, just might be big enough. Maybe.
Riley tossed her small bag on the bench at the foot of the bed. She really didn’t carry much around with her. And suddenly something he’d totally forgotten hit him.
“I…Riley, I didn’t think to…I’m not prepared for this. I guess I should be, but—”
She stopped him with a hand placed gently on his chest. “It’s all right. That is, if you’re talking about what I think you are.”
He tilted his head, trying to figure out what that undertone in her voice was. It seemed, sad, regretful, almost dark. “Riley?”
“I won’t get pregnant, if that’s what you were worried about.”
“Yeah, it was. I didn’t even think about it until now.”
“No disease, either,” she said.
“Ditto. Not that I thought about that, either,” he admitted. “I was…all tangled up.”
“Tangled up?”
“In wanting you,” he said simply, relieved that he wasn’t going to have to call a halt to this crazy ride because he’d been too stupid to prepare.
She reached up then and cupped the side of his face. Just that light touch of her fingers sent his pulse racing. “I suddenly know the feeling. And it’s not one I’m used to.”
“Me, either, believe it or not. I…it’s been a while. A long while.”
“So Jackson told me.” He blinked. She and Jackson had talked about him…about that? “He told me you were not a player. That if anything you have a rep for being the opposite.”
Thanks, bro.
If there was one thing he learned in the next few minutes, it was that once Riley Garrett made up her mind, there was no holding back.
For every kiss he gave her, in every spot, she returned the favor.
He’d already been wound up, but the feel of her lips moving down the side of his neck as her fingers stroked the skin under his shirt seared through him like wildfire.
And suddenly he didn’t care about anything except that fire, stoking it, building it, and if it burst out of control he didn’t care about that, either.
*
She’d forgotten how beautiful a man could be.
It had been so long. But Riley knew it wasn’t only that.
It was that Miles was a stellar example.
And as she helped him shed their clothes, every inch revealed—including several vital ones—kicked her pulse up another notch.
She’d swear it also heated her blood, because she felt as if she were on fire.
She was aching in places she’d almost forgotten existed.
But even stranger, he seemed to sense those places somehow and was caressing them, stroking them, and then sending her breath rocketing out of her by kissing them.
She heard his whispered words, dizzy though she was, and that he sounded as awed as she felt was the final torch needed to light the conflagration.
Suddenly nothing, absolutely nothing else mattered.
She wanted this man in every way she could think of.
And more, she wanted to make him feel as she was feeling now, as if she owed him that because he’d awakened every nerve ending in her body.
And when at last he made that move, the sheer slickness of his entry told her how utterly ready she was.
He filled her, stretched her, and the low, harsh groan he let out as he slid home told her all she needed to know.
They clung, clawed, and gripped each other, him driving forward, her arching up to meet him, until she couldn’t, didn’t want to, hold back any longer.
With a cry unlike any she’d ever made before she let go.
She didn’t know how long it was that sensations she’d never felt before rippled through her.
It felt both too short, and as if it were a wave she could ride forever.
And the harsh moan of her name he let out as he pulsed inside her sent her flying all over again in a final wash of sensation.
And as she let out a final, wondering breath of pleasure at the feel of him shuddering in her arms, she realized she’d never really known before what this was supposed to be like.
What it was supposed to be.