A Moment in Time (38 page)

      
"Wait for what?"
 
She pursed her lips and tried to pull an innocent look, but she'd never felt less innocent in her life.
 
She bit her lower lip.

      
"That 'pistol' in my pocket is loaded."
 
He growled low in his throat and threw her over his shoulder.
 
"You still want a picnic?"

      
"Yes."
 
She laughed and pounded on his back, pretending

–unconvincingly, she hoped–to resist his Neanderthal approach.
 
Who would have thought that Victorian men liked sex games?

      
"Then we'll have us a picnic," he said, throwing the bolt, then heading toward his bunk.
 
He dropped her onto the bunk and unbuttoned his shirt.

      
Jackie smiled up at him.
 
"I thought you said we were going on a picnic, big guy."

      
He slipped off his suspenders and peeled off his shirt, then fell down beside her.
 
"Later," he growled.

* * *

      
Hand in hand, Cole and Jackie walked slowly to the waterfall.
 
The purpose of his last few visits was nothing but a memory now.
 
Today, he and Jackie would bathe in the falls together and make love on the quilt he'd stashed in the basket of food he carried in his free hand.

      
Make love.

      
He swallowed the lump in his throat.
 
How would she react to his plans?
 
Giving her hand a squeeze, he glanced at her profile and his determination renewed itself.
 
He was doing the right thing.
 
Now, if only she agreed...

      
Last night's cool rain had bathed the air with freshness.
 
It really felt like spring now–not the unusual drought they'd been having.
 
He chuckled to himself.
 
Springtime in the Rocky Mountains typically brought snow, snow and more snow.
 
The unusually dry weather had seemed more like late summer than late spring.

      
He'd lost track of time since Jackie came into his life.
 
Was it June yet?
 
He shook his head and pushed a branch aside and held it until she passed safely, then ducked through behind her.

      
The waterfall came into view and they paused to admire it.
 
"Spring thaw is what feeds this creek, but the snow in the high country is almost gone now," he said.
 
"Pity."

      
"That can change pretty fast up here."
 
A distant expression entered Jackie's eyes.

      
"Have you spent a lot of your life in the mountains?"
 
He knew very little about her, yet he felt so close to her.
 
And he was looking forward to getting a
lot
closer again today.

      
She shook her head.
 
"No, but I got caught in a June blizzard.
 
Once."

      
"You've probably been all over the world," he said, leading her to the boulder where he usually put his clothes.
 
He set the basket on it and leaned against it, facing her.
 
"Have you?"

      
"Have I what?"

      
He touched her shoulder and she turned toward him.
 
"Jackie, something's bothering you."

      
She gave a quick shrug, but her eyes clearly revealed her anxiety.
 
"Nothing important," she said.

      
"All right, if you say so."
 
He massaged her shoulder and placed his other hand on her tiny waist.
 
"I asked if you've traveled all over the world."

      
"Not hardly."
 
She gave a short laugh.
 
"Great-Aunt Pearl considered a Sunday drive in her old caddie the equivalent of a trip to Europe."

      
"What's a caddie?
 
And did you live with your great-aunt?"
      

      
"A, uh, caddie is a type of carriage."
 
Her cheeks turned crimson.
 
"My mother died when I was about Todd's age, and my great-aunt raised me.
 
So to speak."
 
Jackie rolled her eyes and released a ragged sigh.
 
"Enough about me."
 
She reached for the buttons of his shirt and waggled her eyebrows.
 
"Let's frolic like wood nymphs."

      
Cole laughed and shrugged out of his shirt, then reached for the buttons on her dress.
 
"You be the nymph and I'll be the satyr, thank you very much.
 
My mother would've loved talking to you."

      
Jackie's expression changed again, her gray eyes solemn.
 
"Really?
 
Even though I'm corrupting her son?"

      
He eased her dress from her shoulders.
 
"I'm thirty-four years old, Jackie."
 
Resting his hands on her bare shoulders, he massaged her soft flesh with his thumbs.
 
"Way too old for corruption."

      
"I wouldn't be too sure of that."
 
She flashed him an impish grin and bent over to untie her strange shoes.
 
After stepping out of them, she placed them on the boulder with her dress.
 
"I bent over for you again, big guy," she said, facing him.

      
"I definitely noticed."
 
He'd been hard since they left the cabin.
 
And ready.
 
Seeing her standing here in her unmentionables made him want to ravish her without delay.
 
But he also wanted to take this slow and easy.
 
Maybe if he could learn more about her, he would have better luck predicting her reaction to his announcement.
 
Maybe.

      
"Yes, my mother would've really liked you, Jackie.
 
Why is that so hard for you to believe?"

      
She shrugged again.
 
"I don't know.
 
It just is."
 
She tilted her head to one side and gave him a quizzical look.
 
"What was she like, Cole?
 
And your father?"

      
"You keep changing the subject."
 
He smiled and placed his hands on her upper arms again, remembering that the only thing separating him from her beautiful breasts was a thin piece of cotton.
 

      
"I'm curious about you, too."
 
She opened his belt buckle and released the top button.

      
His breath caught and he tried not to think about the throbbing between his legs.
 
"My father was a professor at the University of Missouri in Columbia."

      
Another button popped open.

      
"A professor?
 
Wow."
 
She eased her cool fingers beneath his waistband and gently massaged his lower abdomen.
 
"So," she continued, her breathing ragged, "that's why you like books."

      
"Yeah, I suppose."
 
He flinched, pulsing with rising hunger as her fingers grew closer and closer to the part of him that screamed for release.
 
"My..."

      
She released another button and rested her cheek against his chest, her warm breath fanning his bare flesh, leaving goosebumps in its wake.
 
"What was I saying?" he asked, so aroused he could barely put words together, much less think coherently.

      
"You were telling me about your parents."
 
She opened the last two buttons and slid her hands inside the waistband, slipping them lower on his hips.
 
"What about your mother?"
 
Gazing up at him, she bit her lower lip and pressed her full length against him, cradling his throbbing arousal against her soft, flat belly.

      
"My...mother?
 
Oh, yeah."
 
He wrapped his arms around Jackie and held her against him, relishing the feel of her softness against his hardness.
 
Knowing what it was like to be buried deep inside her made him want it all the more.
 
There was no such thing as being sated where this woman was concerned.
 
He would always want more.

      
"Your mother what?"
 
She traced a line of fire with her tongue across his chest, drawing torturous circles around his nipples.

      
He shuddered, trying to remember what they were discussing, what he needed to tell her, the questions she'd asked him.
 
Oh, yes.
 
"My mother was a teacher before I was...born."
 
He sucked in a breath as his dungarees fell to his knees, freeing him to her explorations.

      
And explore she did.

      
She cupped him in both hands and nipped his nipple with her teeth.
 
"What was she like?" Jackie whispered, wrapping her hands around him.
 
"Hmm?"

      
"Uh, she loved books, too.
 
Read to me all the time, like you do to Todd."
 
Cole grabbed her shoulders and set her away, untying the ribbons that kept her gorgeous breasts hidden.
 
"She taught me to love books."
 
He spoke very fast now, eager to finish this and give all his attention over to making Jackie writhe and moan beneath him again.
 
"She especially loved fairy tales and mythology."
 
He eased the camisole over her head, revealing her full, perfect breasts and tawny, erect nipples to his starving senses.
 
"God, you're so beautiful."

      
"So are you."
 
Jackie came closer, wrapping her hands around his swollen organ again.
 
Her nipples brushed against his chest and he reached behind her to release the drawstring at her waist.
 
As the fabric fell away, she gave him a playful little shove and he fell back against the sun-warmed boulder.

      
She slithered out of her underthings and tossed them carelessly onto the boulder, then bent over–Lord, he loved it when she did that–and removed his boots and dungarees.
 
He started to stand up straight, but she giggled and shoved him down again.

      
She wanted to play games and was killing him with the delay.
 
His gaze traveled the length of her–down her silken throat, along the curve of her shoulder, lingering at her breasts to watch her nipples tighten even more.
 
With his gaze, he worshipped her, savoring the way her small waist flared to her hips.

      
And those legs...
 
Long, supple, strong.
 
Very strong.
 
She'd wrapped those beauties around him last night and there'd been no escape.
 
Of course, escape had never even crossed his mind.
 
Eager to have her in his arms again, he pushed himself to his feet, only to have her shove him down again.

      
"Why'd you do that?"

      
She closed the small distance that separated them, her hips swaying, her breasts jutting forward invitingly.
 
"I aim to have my way with you, big guy."

      
Her gaze rested between his legs and he hardened even more beneath her ardent scrutiny.
 
Anticipating.
 
"Woman, you can have anything you want," he breathed, "as long as you get to it before this hankering kills me."

      
"Hankering?"
 
She made a wicked little sound in her throat that sent shivers down his spine.

      
And other places.

      
"I'll show you hankering."
 
She covered him with her lovely body and kissed him fiercely.

      
Lips, tongue, mouth–she threw everything into that kiss and he gave in turn.
 
He reached for her breasts, but she slithered lower, eluding him, laving and nibbling his nipples until he groaned and shuddered.

      
He'd never had a woman do that to him before, though he supposed it made sense for it to please him since it pleased a woman when he did it to her.
 
Right now, there was only one woman whose breasts he wanted to taste, and he aimed to taste every exquisite inch of her before this day ended.