Chapter 15
This had to be the worst idea ever.
As soon as Belle started taking off her clothes, Corbin should have gotten the hell out of there. Instead, he had watched as she’d peeled off her shirt to reveal the sexy-as-hell lavender sports bra that crisscrossed the pale skin of her back and was so thin he could see the points of her nipples.
But the worse agony had been watching her jeans slide down those mile-long legs and seeing the way her panties rode high on those two perfectly curved butt cheeks. He almost swallowed his tongue when she moved toward the springs and the satiny material rode even higher. Desire had punched him hard in the stomach and not even diving into cold water had softened the throbbing hardness between his legs.
He wanted Belle. He couldn’t argue the point anymore. He wanted her like he had never wanted another woman before in his life.
Not even her sister.
Liberty had been a teenage crush. The stunningly beautiful homecoming queen he, and every other hormonal boy at Wilder High, had fantasized about. But he realized now that he’d never known Liberty.
He didn’t know what kind of snacks she liked. Or what kind of movies she loved to watch while eating those snacks. He didn’t know what kind of ice cream she hated and what kind of tacos she preferred. He didn’t know if she sat a saddle like she had been born in it and if she could get people to do what she wanted with only a smile and a few kind words. He didn’t know if she was a sucker for starving dogs and a phenomenal kisser.
But he knew those things about Belle.
He had learned them over the past week.
And they only made him want her more.
But he wasn’t about to give in to his desire. He wasn’t about to fall under another Holiday’s spell. Especially when her friendliness and kisses were all a ploy to get back her family’s ranch.
And yet, there was a tiny part of him that didn’t believe that. A tiny part that, when he looked into her eyes like he was looking into them now, saw something real. Something warm and honest and giving. Something that drew him like a blazing fire in the midst of a blizzard.
He just wasn’t willing to trust that something.
Pulling his gaze away from her, he dipped under the water and started swimming. He didn’t count how many laps he did. He just swam until his lungs hurt and his muscles ached and his cock softened. And the belief that Belle felt something real for him disappeared.
When he finally grew too exhausted to continue and came up for air, he discovered Belle had gotten out . . . she just hadn’t gotten dressed. She was stretched out on a large flat rock at the edge of the springs drying in the sun like a breathtaking sun goddess. Her arms were stretched above her head and one knee was bent and her ebony hair spread out on the rock like spilled ink.
He got hard all over again.
Which pissed him off.
Uncaring that he had a boner he could hollow out and use as a canoe, he waded to the shore. “What the hell are you doing?”
Belle lifted up to her elbows and looked at him. “Drying off before I put my clothes back on. You should probably dry—” Her eyes lowered and she cut off mid-sentence. Her lips opened on a puff of surprise.
“Yes,” he said. “I have one hell of a hard-on and isn’t that what you were shooting for? Take Corbin Whitlock to Cooper Springs and see just how worked up I can get him.”
She sat up and stared at him as if he’d just sprouted horns. “That’s not why I brought you here at all. I brought you here because I thought you’d enjoy a swim after you worked so hard. I did not bring you here to be insulted.” She started to get off the rock, but he grabbed her arm and stopped her.
“Then explain the show you put on of stripping off your clothes, making sure to tease me just enough with your tempting hard nipples and sweet curvy ass. And then when that didn’t get my attention, you stretched out on this rock like some kind of seductive sun goddess.”
She stared at him. “Seductive sun goddess?”
He snorted. “As if you don’t know how seductive you are. You’ve been trying to seduce me since you got here—trying to use your flirty smiles and sultry looks to drive me crazy.” He pointed a finger at her. “But I’m telling you right now, Bella. You aren’t going to succeed.” As if of their own accord, his eyes lowered to her mouth. “I’m not going to give in and taste those sweet lips.” His gaze lowered even more. “I’m not going to touch those tempting breasts. Or cup your sweet ass. I’m stronger than that. Much stronger.”
But if that was so, why couldn’t he turn and walk away? Why was he just standing there with desire and need pulsing through his body and his heart thumping like a trapped rabbit’s?
“Well, I guess I’m not that strong,” she said in a soft whisper. When he lifted his gaze, her mismatched green eyes were dark and needy. He only had a chance to draw in a startled breath before she kissed him.
She kissed him like a woman who knew exactly what she wanted and wasn’t afraid to go after it. Sliding both hands in his hair, she fisted her fingers and held him tight as she greedily stroked his mouth with her tongue.
Like a lit fuse that finally reached its detonation point, all the want he’d been holding back exploded and he realized he wasn’t strong enough either. He no longer cared that this was just part of her plan to get her family’s ranch back. All he cared about was keeping her sweet lips on his.
When her legs opened and encircled his hips, he groaned and slid his hands to her butt, caressing the full sweet flesh before he lifted her off the rock and pulled her flush against his needy body. He loved the way her bare skin felt on his, the brush of her long legs and the press of her hot center. He loved the melting of her breasts on his chest and the curve of her ass cheeks in his hands.
But he needed to feel more.
He wanted to cradle the soft fullness of her breasts in his palm and feel her pouty nipples against his tongue. He wanted to strip her completely naked and stretch her out on the rock and worship her like the goddess she was.
Unfortunately, sports bras weren’t easy to get off.
Especially wet ones.
The stretchy material seemed to be superglued to her body. He struggled to even get his hand under it, let alone get it off. As he tried his best to figure it out, he felt her smile against his mouth and drew back to find her eyes twinkling and her lips quivering with suppressed laughter.
“It’s not funny.” But he couldn’t help smiling when she lowered her legs and leaned against his chest in a fit of giggles. He tugged at the thick elastic band of the bra. “Come on. Help me out here. How do you get this thing off?”
She drew back and blinked at him innocently. “Are you saying you need help undressing a woman, Corbin? I thought you did everything well.”
“I do.” When she lifted her eyebrows, he conceded. “I need help. Please.”
Her smile was almost blinding as she reached down and grabbed the edge of the sports bra. In his defense, it was even difficult for her to get off. With her arms bent and crossed in front of her, she had to wiggle and squirm her way out.
“Speaking of help,” she said.
“Absolutely not. I’m having too much fun watching.”
Fun was the wrong word. He groaned when her breasts popped out of the lavender material. They were small and perfect with the plumpest-looking nipples he’d ever seen in his life. Before she had even gotten the bra over her head, he had them in his hands and his head lowered. She sucked in a startled breath when his lips first touched her and then released it in a soft sigh when he pulled the sweet bud into his mouth.
As he suckled, she flung off her bra before she drove her fingers through his hair, pressing him closer. She didn’t need to hold him. He had no intentions of going anywhere anytime soon. He sipped and tongue-stroked until her nipple was tight and hard before he turned his attention to the other breast. When he finally lifted his head, it was to find Belle’s eyes glazed over and her breathing heavy and erratic.
He felt damn happy that he was responsible.
But he wasn’t finished.
Not by a long shot.
He slipped a finger into the elastic of her panties, but then stopped. “You okay with this, Bella?”
“Please,” she said in a breathy puff of air.
He closed his eyes in thanks for a second before he lowered her panties. After she stepped out of them, he lifted her back to the rock. “Is it too hard? Because we can move to the grass.”
She shook her head and drew him in for another kiss.
“Good,” he whispered against her lips. “Because I want to see you stretched out naked in the sun like the goddess you are.”
She made a sexy mewling sound deep in her throat that had him growing even harder. But it was nothing compared to how hard he got when she stretched out on the rock like a fuckin’ sun goddess. She was so damn beautiful it took his breath away. All he could do was stand there and allow his gaze to greedily run over her from the tips of her perfectly lined-up toes to the top of that wealth of ebony hair.
Hair the same color peeked out from the juncture of her mile-long legs. A thin line that held his gaze and drew him closer. But he wasn’t ready to touch her there yet. There was so much more he wanted to explore first. Every inch of her sun-warmed skin intrigued him.
He took his time, allowing his hands to go where they would. They wanted to touch her everywhere. The smooth slopes of her shoulders and the full hills of her breasts. The soft skin over her rib cage and the cute dip of her belly button. The sexy curves of her hips and the toned muscles of her thighs.
He had told Sunny only hours earlier that he wasn’t infatuated with either twin, and he hadn’t lied. He wasn’t infatuated. He was obsessed.
But only with one twin.
This twin.
He had once thought Belle was the insecure, unassuming follower who did whatever her sister commanded. But the woman stretched out before him wasn’t insecure and unassuming. She was confident and brazen and sexy as hell.
And his . . . at least for the moment.
A moment he didn’t intend to waste with too much thinking.
He slid his hands down her thighs until he reached her knees. With just a little pressure, she spread her legs for him. The view took his breath away. He studied her moist pink center for a moment before he lifted his eyes to find her watching him. He held her gaze as he knelt and lowered his head. At his first sip, desire flooded her eyes and all he wanted to do was keep that look on her face.
Forever.