Mountain Mystic (11 page)

“Don’t much matter how it happened, Victoria. All I know is that I can sleep at night ’cause I’m not fretted about my baby no more. Or how I’m going to get a doctor without having the money to pay for the birthin’ till the insurance gets straightened out.”

“You pay what you can. Everything else will work itself out.” Victoria smiled, thinking about the dance with Joshua a few minutes earlier. “It usually does whether you want it to or not.”

Naomi smiled back and said her good-byes with a promise to call as soon as she had more information about the granny-midwife. When Naomi turned away, Joshua appeared at her side, looking at the pregnant woman with a glimmer of recognition in his eyes.

“Wasn’t she your first house call?”

“Yeah. That was Naomi. She’s going to research that midwife I’m trying to find. Her mother knows—” Victoria broke off as he gave her a mock bow and held out her shoes.

“My prince,” Victoria teased, and took the pumps as he steered her toward the lobby.

“Let’s hope you still feel that way when you really get to know me.”
Or when you find out that your midwife is my grandmother, and that I won’t allow anyone to put her under a microscope the way I was.

She patted his arm and followed him off the dance floor. “I learned a long time ago that real princes exist only in fairy tales.” Standing in the foyer, Victoria braced a hand against his shoulder and lifted each foot to slip on her shoes. “The last time I looked, my life was not a fairy tale, so I promise not to be disappointed when you turn back into a frog.”

“And I promise not to turn into a frog too quickly.” Joshua pulled her out into the night, which had cooled enough for Victoria to rub her arms. As if he’d been doing it for years, Joshua slipped his arm around her and settled her next to his body. “I’ve got a light jacket in the seat of the bike. But until we get there, I guess you’ll have to rely on me.”

“What a concept,” she quipped. “Having someone to rely on. Do you suppose it’s possible?”

“You’ll never know unless you try,” he warned her.

Victoria’s hand slid around his waist of its own volition, and they walked entwined to the motorcycle. Verbal conversation ceased, but their bodies began to talk. Their hips bumped and rubbed lightly against each other as they made their way down the steps.

Victoria couldn’t recall feeling so safe and warm. His presence enveloped her, made her aware of the height and breadth of the man. Of the heat of his
body. Of the possibility that the night would end in intimacy.

She couldn’t pinpoint the moment when she had finally given up thinking of Joshua as just a friend. The hours they’d spent together would have taken up two months of dating in the real world, but she still wasn’t sure she knew him well enough. Oh, she knew
him
—that he hated salads and liked his hamburgers with everything; that he preferred prewashed faded jeans; that all the clothes she’d seen him in were natural fabrics; that he was a sucker for shirts in rich brown or gold or burgundy; that he loved the mountains; and a million other details—but she didn’t know about
his past.
All she knew was that he didn’t have much family left in the area, that he didn’t appear to need money, and that he was retired from some vague enterprise that required travel around the world.

Dr. Grenwald had called him a man she could trust with a secret. At the time it seemed an odd comment, since she didn’t have any secrets. Now she understood what he meant. Joshua Logan was an honorable man. He kept his word. He had earned respect.

All these details were more important than a biography, but she couldn’t shake years of hearing her mother say, “You can never know too much about a man, Victoria. People make bad choices because they don’t have the right information.” Hadn’t she made a mistake with Richard because she hadn’t asked what he wanted out of marriage?

Tonight she should have asked Joshua more questions,
made him talk more about himself, what he wanted, and his past. But he always seemed to steer the conversation in the opposite direction. Common sense told her that she should call a halt to the rush of excitement that ripped through her as his fingers stroked her bare arm while they walked. But knowing and doing didn’t always go together.

For once it was nice to do what she wanted and not what she
should.
She wanted to believe in possibilities and not worry about getting too close and the risk of trusting another man with her emotions. She wanted to get on that motorcycle of his and let the wind blow all the bad memories out of her head and—Victoria almost stumbled as she realized why Joshua had the bike. You couldn’t think on a bike. Not when it was going that fast. Not about anything but the road.

She wondered what bad memories he was chasing away. Unconsciously, she hugged him a little tighter. She understood all about getting away from the past.

Joshua felt the gentle squeeze from Victoria. He looked down at the top of her head which lay against his chest as they walked. He felt a momentary stab of guilt at the trust she was placing in him, considering the secrets he was keeping and how little he’d told her of himself. Time was running out. He’d have to tell her soon. The new book was coming out next month.

Carefully, Joshua disengaged himself and pulled a windbreaker from the compartment beneath the seat of the motorcycle. Shaking it out, he offered it to her and waited as she slid into it and reached to straighten
the collar. He noticed the almost imperceptible quiver of her hands as he brushed them aside to do it for her.

In that split second, as their hands touched, the emotions of fear and lust stabbed through him. The emotions weren’t his. They were Victoria’s. For the first time he’d made a connection, even though it was transitory. He pushed, but the wall around her was firmly in place again.

“It unnerves you when I touch you, doesn’t it? I mean, more than you’re used to,” he murmured. The knowledge rekindled his desire to the intensity he’d felt on the dance floor. “More than you want to admit. Even to yourself.”

Victoria lifted her chin and cleared her throat. “Joshua, I’m not a starry-eyed virgin.”

Her skin was soft beneath his fingers, and he could tell that she was holding her breath. “Then don’t act like one. Love, I want the woman I see glimpses of. The one who shakes because she’s afraid of shocking me. You’re holding back. All the time. I’m tired of playing hide-and-seek, Victoria. Try to shock me.” His gaze roamed hungrily. “You might learn something about yourself.”

With as much control as she could muster, Victoria tried to ignore the magic of his feathery touches and said, “I don’t need a lesson in lovemaking. I know what an orgasm is.” Sarcastically she added, “I’ve even had one.”

He traced the line of her collarbone, the length of her neck, and rubbed his thumb across her bottom lip.
“With someone else in the room?” Joshua asked softly.

Stunned, Victoria couldn’t frame a reply.

“I want to be in the room, Victoria. You understand? I want you, and I don’t care what you know or what you don’t know as long as you’re honest about what you want.” Joshua kissed her quickly, softly. “I’ll go first. I’ll be honest about what I want. I want more than friendship.” He ran his hands down over her breasts, and she arched into his palms.

Not responding to her wordless plea, Joshua moved his hands to her waist. He wanted her to let go of her emotions and admit her sensual nature, but this wasn’t the place. He wanted privacy. Slowly he withdrew his hands and asked, “Ready?”

Victoria nodded, unwilling to trust her voice, and waited for Joshua to retrieve the helmets and get on first. Then she tugged her skirt up until she could slip on behind him. The moment her bottom touched the seat, Joshua started the engine. She almost gasped at the effect the vibration had on her. It echoed sensually through her, making her feel empty and aching, making her remember the blunt way he asked for what he wanted and the funny sensation she got deep in her belly when he told her. Heat flooded not only her cheeks but the juncture of her thighs.

Closing her eyes, Victoria swallowed and wondered how she was going to manage the long ride home. More than that, she wondered if Joshua was as affected as she was by the fleeting feel of his big hands against her breasts and by the power rumbling beneath
them. She wondered if he was translating those sensations to mental images that only made the need worse.

As he made adjustments before driving away, he pushed himself firmly between her thighs and ordered, “Get a grip.”

With no more warning than that, he roared off. If the ride during dusk had been unsettling, the ride in the dark was devastating. Nothing existed in the blackness except the feel of his body beneath her hands. Her mother would have called the way her skirt was hiked up indecent, but Victoria was past caring. All she knew was that the man in front of her wanted her to let go. That he told her with a thousand tiny clues to forget the world. He was sharing something with her, sharing his need to forget.

Richard had never shared anything with her, least of all sensual pleasure. He wanted a body in bed; he’d never wanted her. Not really. She knew that now. Richard made her beg for scraps, while Joshua offered whatever she wanted. Except his past.

The night air whipped around them, cool and crisp, carrying the smell of fall. Victoria realized that even nature recognized a time to move on, a time to change, a time to strip yourself bare so you could begin again. Maybe it was time she let down the walls some.

By the time they were halfway home, Victoria’s hands were moving across Joshua’s flat belly, soaking up the warmth and the feel of his muscles. She ran her palms up the washboard of his abdomen and grazed
his nipples with her fingers. His body grew taut, but he didn’t flinch away, didn’t tell her to stop. And his nipples hardened beneath her assault.

Victoria wanted to touch him, wanted to learn the landscape of his body as well as she knew her own. She reveled in his response to her. Something about riding hell-bent-for-leather in the black of night created a whole new set of rules for her, gave her permission to do things she might not have done otherwise.

Just as the ride to the dance ended too soon, so did the ride home. Joshua slowed the bike and turned into Victoria’s driveway, coasting up beside the porch. When he switched off the engine, the silence was deafening.

Suddenly, the anonymity of the night ride slipped away. Victoria’s heart raced, knowing she couldn’t hide any longer. She was going to have to look him in the face and acknowledge that she wanted him as much as he wanted her. Joshua pushed the helmet off his head and ran his fingers through his hair.

“Want to come in?” she asked tentatively, cursing the waver in her voice.

Without turning around he asked, “Do you want me to come in?”

“I don’t want you to go home,” she said honestly, and got off the bike as gracefully as she could, considering her nerves. She took her helmet off and handed it to him.

“Then I guess I’ll come in.” Joshua shifted his gaze to her. His blue eyes glinted briefly, but she couldn’t tell if it was the moonlight or anticipation
that caused the change. Joshua followed her to the door, stopping her with a light touch on her shoulder as she unlocked and opened it. “You have something that belongs to me.”

“Oh,” she said as she remembered the jacket.

When she turned and looked up, he cupped her head in his hands and gave her the kiss he’d wanted to give her on the dance floor. His lips didn’t ease over hers this time. His mouth covered hers swiftly and completely, his tongue sweeping inside to take possession without waiting for invitation. One hand slipped around to the back of her neck and the other slid down the column of her throat.

She arched into him, and Joshua swept the wind-breaker off her shoulders and down her arms, pinning her to the doorframe. Everything about her signaled her consent, encouragement even, to being picked up and carried to the bed. He could still remember what she looked like lying on it, stretching her sexy body like a contented cat. He wanted to sink inside her and satisfy himself, making love hard and furious and fast, but he also knew Victoria wasn’t ready for that. Not yet.

Despite her sensual nature, she was still far from experienced. If he took her too quickly or too roughly, she wouldn’t come with him, and he wanted her with him every step of the way. He wanted to be inside her when she climaxed. Maybe then he’d know what Victoria really felt like. Maybe then he could touch her soul and discover what it was that drew him to her like a hawk to its one true mate.

Victoria struggled to get her hands out of the jacket and around his neck to press herself closer, but Joshua pushed her away. “Wait. This is too fast. Too quick, love. Got any objections if I slow this down?”

Frustration hummed in every pore of Victoria’s being. Disappointment was evident in her tone as she breathlessly responded, “You want to slow down?”

“Yeah, as in—I won’t last two seconds if I let you do anything else to me just yet. You near did me in on the bike ride, Vicky. I’m having a hard time holding on to my good intentions here.”

Joshua’s gruff confession erased her frustration instantly. She handed him the jacket and backed into the dark cabin, dropping her purse and key inside the front door. “I always hated good intentions. You know what they say about them.”

He tossed the jacket in the direction of the bike. “Actually mine are more like dishonorable intentions.”

“I was hoping,” Victoria whispered, but she made one last halfhearted effort to stop the inevitable. “You know that making love is probably the best way to wreck a friendship. We might regret this in the morning. At least I might. We’ve built a friendship that means something to me.”

“We’ve been marking time until you were ready, love. And you know it.” As she backed up, he followed, kicking the door shut with a well-placed boot heel.

Victoria got rid of her shoes. “How can you know me so well? How could you be so sure I was ready,
when I didn’t even admit it to myself until tonight?” she whispered, and stopped retreating when the backs of her thighs touched the bed.