Beverly Jenkins (18 page)

Her eyes narrowed at that last comment, and he grinned and brought her fingers to his lips. “When the right man comes along, you’ll know.”

That’s the problem, Cara thought. “Suppose he doesn’t?” she asked, freeing her hand from his. “Do I spend the rest of my life wondering what it feels like to know a man’s love?”

Chase had no ready response. “Only you can answer that.”

Cara looked away. She knew he was right, and she came to a decision. She refused to spend the rest of her life wondering what might have been. “Will you make love to me?”

For a moment, Chase did not reply, and she steeled herself for rejection. Finally, he reached over and raised her chin. “Cara Lee, I have spent ten long days doing my best to keep my hands off you. Don’t tease with me now, darlin’.”

“I’m not teasing, Chase,”

And she wasn’t, Chase realized. Her eyes were as serious as he’d ever seen them. “You sure about this? I promised myself after the ride home last night that I would not turn you down again if you asked.”

“I’m sure.”

He searched her face again. Seemingly satisfied, he spoke. “Then let’s close the door.”

When that was done, Cara waited as he walked around turning down the lamps. He left only the small lamp beside the bed lit. The full light had fed her confidence, but the flickering shadows, coupled with his tall, assessing presence, brought on trembles of uncertainty. She looked up as he came and stood before her. He held out a hand. She took it and rose to her feet. He ran a worshipping finger over the delicate curve of her cheekbone, then in a velvet voice asked, “What are you thinking?”

“How very scared I am . . .”

Her guileless reply lifted his mustached lips into a smile. “Don’t be,” he whispered. “The first time should always be special, and it will be. I promise.”

He lowered his head and kissed her with such welcoming tenderness, Cara’s soul cried out from the beauty of it. Her arms wound around him, and in turn he gathered her in closer, letting her experience for the first time the full blaze of his passion. They fed on each other with mating tongues and roving hands, knowing they had only that night.

She felt the warmth of his fingers grazing her back above her nightgown as he moved her thick braid aside, then came the gentle brush of his lips across the tender skin of her neck. The slender
bones felt as if they were melting beneath the sensual assault.

When he eased down the thin shoulder straps of her gown just enough to tease the fiery tip of his tongue against the silken nook of her collarbone, Cara sighed in vibrant response. His big hands roamed lazily up and down her bare arms, gliding over the tense muscles with a penetrating magic all their own until her fears fell away like rain. Every thrilling touch of his lips, and every flute-inspiring pass of his hands, branded her soul. In that instant, she knew that for as long as she lived, there would never be another man able to purge Chase Jefferson from her blood. Never.

Chase had to caution himself. Having her to enjoy at his leisure built a fire in his blood he found hard to control. His lips teased her ear, her throat. His sure hands slipped down to the fullness of her breasts, rolling the nipples through the thin gown until they gave up their own sweet song. If he didn’t slow down, this whole thing would be over in a few quick thrusts right here. But even as the thought surfaced, he slid one bold hand into her still laced-up bodice and filled his palm with the warm nippled treasure within. Behind her, the other hand seductively circled the gown over the rounded curve of her hips.

Cara’s head dropped back under the heat of his lips on her breasts, then her whole world spun from the feel of his hands slowly undoing the laces between them. She trembled as he slid the ribbons from their stitch-worked holes.

He tugged the last length free. Her bodice opened with a flutter, and he moved the unjoined halves aside, palms brushing her hardness. He lowered his head and placed an achingly slow lick against one ripe crest, then the other. Cara pleaded
soundlessly for mercy as he began to love her with his masterful mouth. He sucked her like a piece of rock candy, the sensations hitting her like strikes of lightning. She could barely stand. When her breasts were damp, he left them for a moment to nibble on the lush fullness of her bottom lip, then to brush his hand longingly against the apex of her thighs.

Her legs parted in shuddering response. His first precious strokes against her woman’s heat made her close her eyes. Chase reveled in the gifting of pleasure. Her response, so pure and flowing, emboldened his need to seek and lay claim to all she would willingly offer. “Take this gown off.”

His eyes glittered. Cara’s own breathing roared in her ears. “Is . . . that necessary?”

Chase smiled at her reticence, then bent to once more pleasure a bared, sable-tipped nipple. He lingered until moans slipped from her lips, then ran an adoring finger over the succulent golden undercurve. “Who’s the teacher here, schoolmarm?” His teeth played expertly. Desire surged. Her hand moved to his head and felt the soft, black lamblike curls at the back of his neck as he transferred his kisses to the twin.

“I’ll take off the gown, but you’ll have to turn around.”

Chase smiled. “Cara, that doesn’t make sense. Besides, a man likes to see his woman undress.”

He’d never referred to her as “his woman” before. The claiming set her pulses to throbbing. But she was still hesitant. “I can’t just . . . It isn’t—”

“Isn’t what?”

“Proper.”

Her shyness invoked his tender humor. “Darlin’, nothing I plan on doing to you tonight is proper.”

The lusty heat in his tone touched her like a
brush of his hands. In the end though, it was he who surrendered.

With his back to her, Cara removed the thin nightdress. She could not part with it fully, and when he faced her once again, she was holding it against her body like a delicate shield.

“Oh, schoolmarm,” he chided with a humorous sigh.

She looked so fetching. Just enough of the coppery body was left visible to tantalize. His gaze swept up the sides of her rounded hip to the barely concealed breasts, and his desire pounded to a familiar beat.

“Are you going to put out that last light?” she asked, needing the darkness to bolster her courage.

“Nope.” He discarded his shirt and the light played over the rippling dark beauty of his arms and broad chest. He kissed her, then whispered, “Visual memories are the best.” He nibbled at the sultry petal of her bottom lip. He pulled her back into the claiming circle of his bare arms, paying no attention to the gown she continued to clutch, letting her keep it until she became more comfortable with her nudity.

Cara had had no idea that being naked with a man could be so staggering, so exciting. His warm palms, although callused by the ruggedness of trail life, wandered over her skin like silk. They mapped the thin structure of her neck and the rounded measure of her shoulders before descending down her back to the firm bare flare of her hips. The languid wildfire in his touch spread to the blossom already stroked to full bloom between her legs, and she gave herself up to its tingling heat.

Chase realized he hadn’t even come close to
imagining how good she would feel half-naked in his arms, her head thrown back under his impassioned sucking. The reality of her hard little nipples, and the stain texture of her hips filling his cupping, exploring hands, made him harder than any dream.

Cara was barely aware of his lifting her to the bed, but very aware that his lips never left hers. The mattress gave under their combined weight, then supported them as Chase pulled her in against him.

His bare upper body was hard and warm. Even though he still wore his trousers, Cara could feel every breathing inch of him, especially that hard promise that was a virgin’s forbidden fruit. She basked in the feeling of being naked against him as his caresses roamed freely. The gown lay between them twisted and forgotten until his exploring hand discovered it down by her knees. When he began to move it over her shimmering skin, Cara stretched and moaned. Slow, circling invitations transformed the practical garment into a provocative instrument of seduction. He rubbed it over the flat plane of her belly and the sleek structure of her hip, followed by lazy erotic tracings up to her bursting nipples, then down to the blackberry curls at the apex of her thighs. As he purposefully brought it up against the heat sheltered there, Cara gasped. He lingered, dallied, tempting her to open to him. Under his hand the gown stroked that aching, straining part of herself, coercing her legs to spread wide, then wider still.

Chase kissed her mouth in reward for her exquisite offering and, despite the urgent hardness roaring to be released from the crotch of his trousers, took his time with her pleasuring. For a man who’d always taken his lovemaking lightly, he
was very serious this night. He wanted her ready, as ready as a man would want his virgin wife on their wedding night, ready to receive him and the mysteries of pleasure—all without pain and without fear. This beautiful woman was offering the most precious thing a woman could offer a man. In return, he could give no less.

So he continued to stroke her with feathery, circling promises; promises so wistfully piercing, Cara could not help but cry out. Chase, eyes glowing, watched her body arch to the scandalous manipulations of the cloth, and then, as he moved the garment aside, to the warm surprise of his bare hand.

He leaned down, placed a kiss against her heat and spent a few fire-filled moments loving her as he had the previous night in the dugout. Only when completion tore his name from her lips did he withdraw.

Leaning back, Chase smiled into her eyes. In the soft light she looked highly seductive. Her nakedness coupled with the tastes he’d had of the firm high breasts, the flat satin plane of her belly, and the sweet fragrant honey flowing from the font of cinnamon-gold thighs added up to a desire both hard and true. He stood and began on the buttons of his pants. His manhood would be denied no longer. His black eyes blazed into hers as his fingers worked their way down the placket. When he freed the last one, she hastily turned away.

“Turn around and look at me, Cara Lee,” he instructed softly. The tone, so hushed and gruff with passion, stroked her in all the places still throbbing from the vivid tutoring just moments before. “Men and women are just built different, that’s all.”

Summoning courage, Cara turned back, but her
gaze settled high, on his face. His mustache twitched. “Where’s your thirst for knowledge?”

She smiled. “Do you have any idea what the school board members would say if they could see me like this?”

“Probably the same thing I’m saying, see?”

Innocently, her eyes followed his lead, only to find themselves settling on the magnificence she’d been trying to avoid. Startled and breathless, she looked back up into his smiling eyes. When he came around the bed, moving as fluidly as a cat, she watched him without shame. The light played over his beautifully sculpted strength, while his manhood boldly teased her eyes. He stood with all the arrogant radiance of a Dahomey king and let her look her fill. Even as his presence overpowered her, even as she felt passion renew and build, she suddenly felt inadequate, inexperienced. How could she ever think to please a man as potent and knowing as he?

His soft voice cut into her thoughts. “Thinking again, I’ll bet.”

Guiltily, Cara dropped her eyes.

“If that mind of yours is still going full throttle, I obviously haven’t distracted you enough.”

He climbed onto the bed, placed his large hands on her waist, and drew her to sit before him atop his lap until she was settled in and surrounded by his velvet warmth. His skin seemed to scald her everywhere. His manhood, pressing commandingly against her hips and spine, exuded sensations so unnerving that it reduced her mind to a crawl.

While his mouth whispered passionately over the outline of her jaw, his hands moved wantonly over curves, peaks, and valleys. The kisses descended to the crook of her shoulder and Cara
sighed, trembled, and melted against the strong chest at her back, letting him work his magic.

“Open your legs . . .” Chase slid his hand over her damp warmth, and using his long-boned fingers, gave her a splendid, breath-stealing preview of the bliss to come. “Now,” he murmured. The rhythm tempted her hips and caused them to move in slow seeking circles. Her passion infected him. Her hot little body pressed so intimately against him made his manhood pulse with power.

Cara felt the passion building like a gathering storm, and this time when the waves burst over her she turned her face into the steadying strength of his shoulder as her body splintered into a million brilliant pieces.

Kissing her passionately, Chase laid her down, then, looking into her eyes, eased her thighs apart. He entered her gently, and only slightly. The partial gaining brought on such a rush of roaring emotion he almost succumbed to the urge to thrust himself fully into the silk passage. Biting his lip, he held back. Hands filled with her luscious hips, he waited, pulsing. He had not brought her this far only to inflict hurt now. He’d promised it would be special; the vow would be kept.

So he teased her with the promise of it, sliding first in and then out, gaining entry bit by bit, little by little; feeling himself almost shatter with the desire for more, telling himself he could hold on until she could come with him. His hands then left her hips and moved over her tense, flat belly and the hard crests of jutting curves like the fluttering notes of his flute. He toyed with the portions of herself already attuned to his hands, making her open to receive him, cupping her hips as he convinced her to take in one more tantalizing inch, then another and another. The sweat dampening
his forehead, brow, and back were a testament to granite-hard need and the control he fought to maintain. He bent down and kissed her mouth, savoring the double possession. “It may hurt, darlin’ . . . but just this once . . .”

The last thrust pushed him past her maidenhead, and she stiffened.

Chase kissed her lips softly. “That’s the only time it will hurt. It goes much better from here . . .”