Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
T hey took Freddy’s truck into town. “Let’s hit the drugstore first,” Ry said. “I don’t want to forget the most important part of this trip.”
“As if you would.”
He loved the warm color on her cheeks and wondered if he could intensify it. “Actually, there’s no chance I’ll forget. There is a chance I’ll try to seduce you somewhere along the way, and I want to be prepared.” As he’d hoped, she blushed even pinker.
“Ry, for heaven’s sake. It’s broad daylight and were heading into the heart of the city.”
“Which presents a challenge, I’ll admit, but I’m getting used to that with you.”
She wheeled the truck into the parking lot of a strip shopping center that contained a chain drugstore.
“Okay, Mr. One-Track Mind. If you’ll make the purchase, I’ll use that pay phone to call Ballesteros and tell him we’re on our way.
It’s getting close to lunchtime and we don’t want to sit and cool our heels waiting for him. ”
“Good point.”
Moments later, he returned to the truck with a small plastic bag. “All set with Ballesteros?”
She leaned one arm against the steering wheel and gave him an assessing glance. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you planned this, but I guess it would have been virtually impossible, even for a man of your imagination.”
“I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”
“Ballesteros has left for lunch, and after lunch, he has an appointment that will keep him occupied until two.”
Awareness flickered in his blue eyes. “Really?”
“We could drive home and come back, but that would take almost an hour by itself.”
“I see.” Ry turned casually and peered down the road. “I could take you to lunch.”
“That’s a possibility.”
He pointed to a hotel a few blocks down the road. “Ever been there for lunch?”
“They don’t have a restaurant.”
He turned back to her, his gaze intense. “Exactly.”
Tension coiled within her. “Ry, I’ve never checked into a hotel for two hours in the middle of the day. I’d feel like?—”
“Someone’s lover?” He didn’t touch her, but his glance caressed her with bold intimacy. “You are.”
Her fingers trembled as she turned the key in the ignition. “I suppose you’re used to this sort of interlude, a big-city boy like you.” She checked the rearview mirror and backed out of the parking space.
“Right. Two-hour lunches with the well-stacked secretary are commonplace with me.”
She hit the brake. “They are?”
He chuckled. “No, Freddy.”
She pulled into traffic with the deliberate care of someone who’d had one too many drinks, which was the way she felt — high. “But I’ll bet you’ve done this before.”
“I think I can handle the registration and checkout without blushing, if that’s what you mean,” he said.
“Won’t they ask you about luggage, and when you’ll be checking out, and stuff like that?”
“I’ll tell them the luggage is in the truck and we’ll be checking out in the morning. Then when we leave, I’ll explain that we had a sudden change of plans.”
“But they’ll know. The maids will see the bed’s been…”
“Well-used?” he supplied.
She nodded as her heart pounded furiously.
“Does that mean you’d rather find a coffee shop and have lunch?”
She took a deep breath. “No.” She flipped on her turn signal and swept into the hotel’s drive-through entrance.
“Want to come in with me while I get us the room?” he asked.
“No.”
He chuckled again. “Be right back.”
Freddy sat in the truck trying to figure out what she’d say if anyone came by who recognized her sitting there in plain sight with the True Love Guest Ranch brand on the truck’s door panels.
She ran a guest ranch. Why would she be parked at a hotel in town?
She thought for a minute. She was... comparing room rates.
That was it. She and a friend were checking out the going rates in Tucson, to decide if their own pricing structure was reasonable.
But no one came by, and within minutes Ry was back, a key in one hand.
“Drive around behind the place,” he said, climbing in.
“I thought you’d rather not park the truck where anyone on the road could recognize it. ”
Freddy let out a breath. “Thank you.”
“I want to give you pleasure, not embarrassment.”
Pleasure . The word echoed in her mind as they parked the truck in the nearly deserted lot behind the hotel.
The rooms all opened to the outside, and Ry guided her toward one on the ground floor, put the key in the lock and opened the door.
She stepped into the cool interior with a shiver of anticipation.
Behind her, the lock clicked into place and the curtains swished closed, throwing the room into twilight.
The air conditioner hummed in a unit beneath the window.
In front of her was a king-size bed, quilted spread neatly tucked under the pillows.
Now that they were here, alone and undetected, the thrill of being sinful took hold.
“Stay there,” she said to Ry, her command coming out in a sultry murmur, “while I redecorate.”
“Be my guest.”
She laid her hat on the built-in that held the television set as she walked past it to the far side of the bed. In one movement, she swept back the spread and the top sheet, destroying the atmosphere of neatness. Then she plumped the pillows against the headboard.
“Finished?” Ry stood watching her with his thumbs hooked through his belt loops.
“Just getting started.” She reached down and pulled off her boots. “Do you come into town often, cowboy?” she asked as she began undoing the snaps on her shirt.
“Not often enough, obviously.”
“Gets lonely out on the trail, I imagine.” She held his gaze while she popped the snaps at her wrists and took the shirt off with sensuous rolls of her shoulders.
“You can’t imagine how lonely.” Passion blazed in his eyes.
She unbuckled her belt and pulled it slowly through the loops. “Days without the soft comfort of a woman’s body can take its toll on a man.”
“It can make him crazy.”
“And are you going crazy?” The jeans slithered over her hips and she kicked them away.
His reply was husky. “Insane.”
“Good.” She unhooked her bra. “That’s how I like my men.”
“So I figured.”
She dropped the bra to the floor and cupped her breasts. “How long has it been since you touched a woman?”
“Too long.”
“Well, I hope you have some staying power.” She smoothed her hands down her rib cage, hooked her thumbs in the elastic of her panties and tugged them down her body in one continuous motion.
“I’d hate for everything to be over prematurely.
” She held her panties dangling by two fingers.
“If you know what I mean.” Then she tossed them across the room toward him.
He caught them without taking his gaze from hers. “I don’t think you’ll have any complaints.”
“Now, that sounds promising.” She stretched out on the bed and propped her cheek on her fist. “Would you care to make good on that boast, cowboy?”
He took off his hat and dropped her panties into the crown before setting the hat next to hers on the built-in. “Reckon I would.”
He leaned against the built-in to pull off his boots.
Then he rounded the end of the bed, working on his shirt buttons as he walked.
She lay back against the pillows as he came to stand beside her and placed the box of condoms at the precise center of the bedside table. “Your underwear was damp,” he said.
Her heartbeat thundered in her ears. “Is that so? I wonder what could have caused that?”
He unbuckled his belt and gave her a tight smile. “I think we’re about to find out, Liebchen .”
“A cowboy who can speak German. Oh, my.” Freddy ran her tongue over her dry lips as he eased the zipper past the bulge of his arousal.
Her heart was chugging like a freight train going up a rise, and the ache within her grew with each bit of magnificent man Ry revealed.
When his manhood sprung free, so ready for her, she sucked in her breath.
All his clothes gone, he placed a knee on the bed and leaned toward her. “Is that how you want me to make love to you, little lady? In German?”
“No, cowboy,” she murmured, reaching to cup his face and pull him down for a long-awaited kiss. “I want to understand every word you say.”
But he didn’t need many words to tell her how much he wanted her.
Braced above her, he roved her face and neck with his hungry lips.
She arched upward to receive his kisses at her breasts.
His touch had already become achingly familiar, and she responded with lush abandon as he stroked her hips, her thighs, the backs of her knees.
When he caressed her between her thighs, he groaned softly.
“I think we’ve found out why your panties were drenched, chérie . ”
She gasped with longing and gripped his shoulders as he probed deep. “Love me, Ry.”
He braced his elbow beside her head as he reached for the box. “And what else did you ask for?” he murmured in her ear. “Staying power?”
“That might not... be necessary.”
“Ah, but it would be more fun.” He nibbled at the lobe of her ear. “Help me with this, chérie . I want to feel your hands on me.”
She took the packet and ripped it open with shaking fingers. Then he whispered instructions in her ear as she fumbled with the task, bringing them both to a fever pitch of excitement. Finally, she managed, and in a breathless voice announced her success.
His response was hoarse with need as he moved between her thighs. “Never has incompetence felt so good.” Poised above her, he smoothed her hair back from her face. “We’ve made love in so many ways, but this was what I really wanted.” He eased forward. “This.”
“Yes.” She lifted her hips to meet him, tension throbbing through her, demanding release. “Please, Ry.”
He slipped both hands beneath her hips, and with a sharp intake of breath he plunged deep. At that first thrust she erupted into a dazzling climax, calling his name as she writhed in his arms. He moved with each spasm, heightening her pleasure until she became delirious with sensation.
Gradually, she regained the ability to breathe, and her heartbeat slowed a fraction. Yet he was still within her, the sweet pressure producing tiny aftershocks, and a renewed curl of tension. She looked up to find him smiling gently as he gazed at her.
“Good?” he asked.
“Oh, yes.” Good didn’t begin to describe the pleasure he’d given her, but she had no idea how to tell him that she’d never reacted so quickly and thoroughly with anyone.
“There’s more.” Lacing his fingers through hers, he stretched her arms above her head, lifting her breasts for his mouth. Nuzzling her pert nipples, he began a slow rhythm with his hips.
Each sensuous thrust set off a responding pulse beat within her, fueled even more by the flick of his warm tongue against her breasts.
Sanity slipped away again, to be replaced by the ever-tightening grasp of need.
He had pleasured her well the night before, but now he touched elements far more basic as he again and again probed her moist center, claiming his place there.
With a cry of surrender, she arched upward as he pushed her once more into the shattering world of release.
Before she’d completely recovered, he wrapped his arms around her waist and rolled to his back, carrying her with him and holding her tightly locked against him.
She braced her hands on his chest and absorbed his hot gaze as it traveled over her breasts and down to the juncture of their thighs.
He glanced back up into her eyes. “Love me,” he murmured. “Ride me, chérie .’
With a smile of female anticipation, she rose slightly on her knees and settled back down over his heated shaft.
He moaned. Her palms flat against his chest, she repeated the motion in a faster rhythm.
He clutched the sheet in both hands as his breathing grew labored.
Faster she moved, and faster, until he was gasping.
She gave him no mercy. She wanted his surrender to be as complete as hers.
His shout of release seemed torn from his soul. As she leaned down to kiss him, he looked into her eyes and she knew he was hers.