For Love and Family (15 page)

Hunter shook his head, but Terese wasn't sure if it was in denial of that opinion or out of sympathy for her.

“I'm so sorry, Terese.”

That made her smile slightly again. “You didn't do any of it.”

“I know. I'm sorry anyone did. That anyone would do anything like that to you. And that your
own family… You deserve so much better,” he said, reaching a hand to cup the side of her face.

It was strange, but merely the touch of his hand seemed to ease most of the bad feelings brought on by talking about Dean. It made everything that had happened with Dean seem less important. As she looked into Hunter's handsome face she had the fleeting thought that Dean had only been a shallow reflection of a man, but that here was Hunter and he was the real thing…

Something about that sent a shiver through her. Hunter saw it, or felt it, and interpreted it to mean that she was cold now that the car was turned off and so was the heat.

He took his hand away and said, “Let's get you inside where it's warm.” Then he got out of the truck and rounded the rear to her side to open her door.

Neither of them said anything as she got out and they headed for the cabin. The silence and the cool, clean air helped clear Terese's head of thoughts of her past, and by the time they reached her doorstep, Hunter was all she was thinking about. And the fact that even though they'd been together most of the afternoon and evening, it didn't seem as if she'd seen enough of him. Certainly not enough to send him off for two weeks.

Maybe his trip was on his mind then, too, because as she unlocked the cabin door he said, “Do you think we covered everything you need to know while I'm gone?”

“Let's see. You walked me through it all three times today. You left me lists and instructions and telephone numbers. Willy and Carla will be here every day to help and in case anything comes up that I'm not sure about…yes, I think I'm covered, don't you?”

“I s'pose I do,” he said, settling a shoulder against the doorjamb as he always did when they were about to say good-night.

Terese was in her position, too, just inside and facing him. And not wanting to say good-night at all.

But Hunter didn't seem any more eager than she was because that wasn't what he did. Instead he repeated something else she already knew. “I'm leavin' here a little after 5:00 a.m.”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“There's no sense in you getting up that early so I guess I won't see you again before I go.”

“I
could
get up.” And then she could see him again and this, right now, wouldn't have to be goodbye for a whole two weeks.

“I think that would just make it tougher for me to go,” Hunter said in a low voice.

“It would?” Terese asked before she'd thought about it, surprised that she might have that effect on him.

Those topaz eyes of his penetrated hers. “I've never wanted to go and leave Johnny, but all of a sudden—today especially—I keep thinkin' that I don't want to go and leave you, either.”

“Because you don't trust me with Johnny?” she
asked, wary of believing Hunter was saying what she thought he might be saying.

“No, I trust you with Johnny. It just struck me that he's not the only one I'm going to miss.”

A second shiver took her and again he saw it. Or sensed it.

“You're really chilled tonight,” he said, pushing away from the jamb and stepping inside to reach both hands to her arms. He rubbed them up and down to generate heat as she tried to think of what to say to him.

“You do have to go, though,” she reminded him with an echo of regret in her own voice.

“Yeah, I do. But this last week…” He inclined his head and shrugged one of those substantial shoulders. “I don't know. It just feels like I'm leavin'more behind than I was before.”

Terese didn't know how to answer that, either, and could only look up into his sculpted face and bask in the warmth of his gaze.

As she did, time seemed to stand still. The rest of the world receded and all that remained was Hunter. And her. And being there with him like that—alone, close enough together that she could smell the scent of his aftershave and see the shadow of his beard and the lines that sunshine and laughter had begun to etch at the corners of his eyes.

And in that moment when nothing existed but the two of them, there were some things she couldn't help thinking about. Things like the fact that he was leaving in a matter of hours, and how much she
wanted those hours to be special, memorable. Things like that thought she'd had earlier about how she might have passed up her only chance the night before. Things like how much more she'd regretted that as today had gone by…

As if she'd spoken what was on her mind and given him the go-ahead, Hunter tightened his grip on her arms and took yet another step closer, pulling her toward him to kiss her.

He kissed her without any hesitancy. Without any timidity. Almost as if he were picking up where they'd left off the previous evening because he knew she'd been sorry she'd ended it prematurely.

His mouth came over hers, claiming it as if he had the right. Terese met and matched him, claiming some rights of her own, even as she asked herself if she really did want to give in and just let nature take its course.

But the answer was right there, at the forefront of her brain. Nature was stronger than she was. And yes, she did want to give in to it. She wanted to stop fighting what she felt for this man. She wanted to stop fighting all he brought to the surface in her. And tonight that was exactly what she was going to do—she was going to stop fighting it.

Hunter had come far enough inside to clear the threshold, and almost by reflex Terese reached around him and pushed the door closed.

The sound ended their kiss as Hunter looked up, his eyebrows raised in question.

Now that she'd gone this far, Terese wasn't sure what to do. Or say.

But then Hunter smiled a smile tinged with wickedness and said, “Does that mean you're still cold or is it an invitation?”

“I'm not cold,” she said.

“Or scared tonight?”

The way she had been the previous evening when she'd abruptly ended what had been happening between them because of her own self-doubts.

“Maybe just a little nervous,” she confessed.

“But not enough to send me packin'?”

It was her turn to smile just because he was so sexy whenever he dropped his G's. “I thought you were finished packing,” she challenged.

He studied her face, searched her eyes, as if to be sure she knew what she was doing. But apparently he still wasn't convinced, because he said, “I don't want us havin' crossed signals, so I'm asking. Are you giving me the chance to stay tonight?”

Terese nodded but only barely. “If you want to,” she said almost imperceptibly.

Hunter laughed. “If I want to? I didn't want to let you out of my kitchen last night. Yes, I want to.”

His enthusiasm made her laugh, too. “Okay, then.”

He continued to look into her eyes, to study her face, but now it was as if he couldn't get enough of the sight of her, as if he were memorizing her features. And all with a gaze so intense she could almost feel it.

He raised a hand to the side of her neck then, brushing it with the backs of his fingers as that hand rose into her hair, cupping her head to pull her even closer so he could kiss her again. Not her lips this time, though. This time he kissed her cheek, a bare meeting of supple mouth and warm breath against her skin. He kissed above her eyebrow, one then the other. He kissed her nose. And only then did his lips take hers once more. Playfully. Gently. Short, chaste kisses so intriguing that each one heightened her anticipation of the next.

And then he began to lengthen them. To linger. To draw her lips between his, separately, first the bottom, then the top, easing them apart and then returning with his parted, too. Far enough to send his tongue to lure hers.

That was when mouths opened wider and their kisses deepened.

His hands reached to her shoulders and he slipped off her coat, letting it fall to the floor behind her.

It seemed like a fine idea, so Terese did the same, discarding the jean jacket he had on and tossing it aside.

But once they'd begun, they just went on kissing and undressing each other until Terese was down to her bra and panties, and Hunter had on only his jeans, unfastened and ready to shed.

“Lights,” Terese whispered between kisses that had grown hungry and seeking.

“You want it dark?” he asked.

“Please,” she answered as some of her self-consciousness asserted itself.

Hunter conceded, leaving her to go to the switch near the door. But before he flipped it off, he turned to get one look at her.

It helped that his smile was full of pleasure and appreciation in response to that. It also helped that Terese got to feast on the sight of him, on the sight of those massive shoulders, those carved pectorals, those big biceps, that flat stomach and the line of dark hair that dipped from his navel to disappear into the open front of his jeans.

But still she wasn't brave enough to leave the lights on and so she said, “Off,” and Hunter finally did her bidding.

He returned to her, taking one hand in his, raising it to his lips to kiss the back of it. Then he kept hold of it to take her across the room to the bed.

The glow of the moon coming in through the open curtains was the only light in the cabin, just enough to dust them in gold. Hunter kissed her again at the bedside, taking his time, holding both of her hands in his now.

But despite the slow pace of those kisses, Terese was feeling anything but leisurely. She wanted to know every inch of his body, she wanted him to know every inch of hers, she wanted all he had to offer and she wanted it right then.

With that sense of urgency nudging her and her hands on either side of his waist, she moved them downward, finessing his jeans past his lean hips and all the way off.

She felt him smile as he went on kissing her and then he unhooked her bra and cast it aside before slipping off her panties, too.

Once they were both naked and unfettered, Hunter wrapped his arms around her and held her close, flattening her breasts to his chest where the taut knots of her nipples greeted him impudently and letting her feel his own need of her.

And all the while his mouth plundered hers, his tongue toyed and taunted, and his hands massaged her back, arousing her even just with that.

Then he lowered them both to the mattress.

Terese was on her back while Hunter lay on his side, his big body only half over hers so he could take her breast in one powerful hand.

Oh, but that work-roughened hand knew just the right pressure, just the right gentleness, just the right everything to drive her out of her mind! Kneading her engorged flesh. Pulling and releasing. Rolling the very tip of her nipple against the center of his palm before fingertips took hold to tug and tease her nearly to a frenzy. She arched her back and neck at once and tore her mouth from his.

He kissed the hollow of her throat, the dip of her collarbone, and then began a descent that brought his mouth to replace his hand at her breast. Warm, wet, wonderful. He drew her deeply into that sweet darkness, flicking his tongue against the incredibly sensitive tip, circling and tormenting.

And as if that weren't enough, his hand began its
own exploration, trailing soft caresses to her stomach, to her hip, down the top of her thigh and then back up the inside until he reached between her legs.

A moan escaped her throat and she couldn't help writhing beneath his touch, beneath the softest of fingers that sought and found that moist, secret part of her body, sliding into her and out again, drawing forward in a silken stroke that took the desires that had been building and making them pulsate all through her, pounding within her as loud and strong as her own heartbeat.

She filled her hands with the glories of his masculine body, tracing the muscular expanse of his back, the honed bulge of his pectorals, the tensed mounds of his perfect derriere, the sinews of his thighs and then the long, hard staff of his own desires for her, until she had him every bit as worked up as he had her.

He came above her then, fitting himself in that juncture his hand had just left wanting, capturing her mouth with his in a wide-open play of lips and tongues as that proof of his manhood found its home inside her, filling her with the greatness that was Hunter, diving in and retreating and diving in again as far as he could go.

It felt so amazing Terese could hardly breathe.
He
felt so amazing—on top her, inside of her, moving in and out, in and out with ever-increasing speed and force.

She clung to his back as he lifted her higher and higher until it was as if they'd broken free of gravity.
He took her to soar in a miraculous explosion of ecstasy. Ecstasy that held her in its grip for an unbelievable moment when sensation was all that existed. One incomprehensibly astonishing sensation that melded her to him and made them a single body together in mindless perfection.

And then it dissolved like glitter floating to the ground, slowly taking them with it until Hunter enjoyed one last wave, one last deep, deep thrust that sent shudders through him now. Shudders Terese absorbed and savored.

Then, spent, he relaxed his weight completely onto her.

For a time that was how they stayed, too exhausted to do more than catch their breath.

Then Hunter pushed his upper body away from her and braced himself on his forearms to kiss her again. A slow, soft kiss.

“Tell me you're all right,” he ordered afterward.

Terese smiled. “I'm all right,” she complied. Then she added smugly, “Maybe even a little better than all right.”

That made him laugh. “Only a
little
better than all right?”

“Quite a bit actually.”