Peppermint Creek Inn (12 page)

She tried hard not to look at him, but she couldn’t resist glancing now and then at his long legs, his sexy hips or his thick sinewy arms as they bulged when he clasped his large hands over his flat stomach.

“Tell me more about this place,” he asked as he looked up at the sky.

“What do you want to know?”

“Why it feels so relaxing here. Almost like something magic is in the air.”

Sara laughed. “There’ll be lots of stuff in the air in a couple of weeks. Black flies, mosquitoes, horseflies, deerflies—”

“Your laugh is very nice. You should do it more often.”

Their gazes locked for a moment and her breath slammed into her lungs at the dark, lusty way he was looking at her. She could fall in love with this man. So easily. The thought shocked her senseless and Sara looked down, trying hard to concentrate on another square of material in her picnic quilt.

“The bugs don’t keep the customers away?” he asked softly.

“They complain about it,” she joked, avoiding eye contact. “But every year they come back in droves. I’ve had to cancel all the advance reservations because of the inn burning down but I’m still going ahead with the cabins and the campground on the other side of the lake. I’m going to have to get started on rehiring some of the people too for when I reopen. And I need a handyman to clear the fallen tree, repair some of the cabins.”

“Maybe I could hire on temporarily?”

Sara swallowed tightly at his comment. Oh, dear. Having this hunk hanging around for a few more days was really going to be hard on her. Every time she looked at him, she wanted to jump his bones.

“I’m sure you’re still too sore to do that sort of work.”

“Actually it doesn’t hurt too badly. I took a look at the wound in the mirror and it’s not too deep. Just a graze.”

He frowned as she shook her head. “It’s more than a graze and I think it’s still too soon.”

“I can go slow. I really don’t want to lay around another day, and I do feel a hell of a lot better. I wouldn’t be offering if I didn’t think I could handle it.”

Who was she to tell him not to do something anyway? He was a grown man. He knew his limits.

“The phones are still out. What if something happens to you?” God forbid, she didn’t want a repeat performance of him lying in bed totally at her mercy…touching him intimately while he slept.

To her shock, she felt her face warm up.

“I promise I won’t overdo it.”

Tom rolled over onto his belly and awaited her answer. Excitement flashed in his eyes as he gazed up at her with anticipation, his smoldering gaze once again locked with hers and she felt momentarily breathless. “I’ve had enough rest and relaxation the last few days to do me a lifetime. Besides, I’m stuck here, right?”

Stuck? Did that mean he didn’t want to be here?

“Okay…sure. But don’t overdo it. Okay?”

“You’re the boss.”

God! Was she insane? Hiring him to do stuff around her place when he was recuperating from a bullet wound? Keeping him here at Peppermint Creek Inn, in her bedroom with her sleeping on the couch right next door?

Oh, boy! Now that he was up and about, he was going to be even harder to avoid. Besides, how was she going to get at her vibrator with him around?

He nodded toward what had once been the main attraction of her establishment, the burned-out remains of her inn.

“I’m assuming that’s what’s left of Peppermint Creek Inn.”

“I’ve got the contractors already lined up. I’ve given them the plans to the old inn so they shouldn’t have too much trouble duplicating it.”

“What happened to it?”

“Arson. This past winter.”

“Arson? Why? Who? What was the motive?”

“They don’t know. The police found empty jerry cans behind the barn.”

Sara hauled her legs up against her belly and wrapped her arms around her knees. Sadness wrenched her gut as she looked at the black charred remains of the log inn they’d built from the trees on their property. It was a horrible shame someone had torched it.

“Someone’s breaking your windows, throwing around dead carcasses, burning your buildings. You have any ideas who? Or why?”

A bite of tears touched her eyes as she remembered watching the orange flames roaring through the two-story building that awful night. “Let’s not talk about it, okay? I just want to enjoy this beautiful day. It’s been one wild and cold winter, and it just feels so good to have warm air on my face again.”

Tom didn’t reply. Instead, he plucked up a long, yellow blade of grass and plunged it between his teeth gnawing on it thoughtfully.

Closing her eyes, she relished the cheerful sounds of the chickadees singing in the nearby pine trees, the wind playing with her hat and his steady, deep breathing.

The picnic had gone quite well, Sara mused. She’d actually enjoyed herself and had forgotten how good it felt to simply relax, but Tom’s next words ruined everything.

“This quilt is something special to you, isn’t it? By the way you keep looking at it and touching it, it gives me the feeling that I shouldn’t have brought it along.”

Oh, shit!

She kept her eyes closed, trying hard not to frown, pretending as if the question didn’t pierce her heart.

“I’m sorry, it’s none of my business,” he said quickly.

She bit her lower lip and tried to squash the tears that suddenly bubbled up in her eyes and trickled down her cheeks.

God, how embarrassing. How could she just lose it like this?

In a split second, he was beside her, cradling her in his strong muscular arms as if she was a sobbing, blubbering idiot.

She noted his gentle hand softly rubbing her back. Felt his other hand caress the full length of her hair.

“It’s okay. Everything’s okay,” he soothed. “I’m sorry. So sorry.”

Listening to the softness of his voice and the soothing touch of his hands, she found herself melting against his hard chest. His wonderful body heat seeped through her clothing and caressed her skin, and then she felt a finger touch the underneath part of her chin and her face being tilted upwards.

His velvety breath fell delicately against the tip of her lips unleashing spirals of desire deep into her vagina.

Her eyes popped open.

His face drew closer.

Oh, my God! He was going to kiss her.

His lips danced over her wet cheeks, feathery sensual brushes against her mouth that made her heated body jump for joy. Like a hummingbird drawing nectar from a tasty flower, her lips melted and parted into his firm, moist mouth. Eagerly she accepted the gentle probing of his tongue and a few seconds later the kiss deepened, turning from a gentle invasion into an intense exploration. From somewhere deep within her throat, a low moan stirred.

He responded with a sensual growl and his arms drifted to her waist. He hauled her closer, crushing her quickly swelling breasts against his muscular chest.

Her arms automatically flew around his warm neck, and she pulled his head deeper into the searing kiss. His hat fell off and the elastic he’d used to pull his hair back into a ponytail abruptly broke free as her fingers plunged through his silky hair.

She felt as if her entire body was melding with his. Becoming one. She’d never been kissed this intensely before. Never. She could lose herself in this man’s arms forever and never return to reality.

Oh, God! She needed to lose herself in these sensations! Lose herself inside him.

“Please,” she whispered against his mouth, not knowing what to say or how to say she wanted him to make love to her.

He sensed what she needed and his lips became more demanding, intoxicating. Fire raged through her and it stormed through him, too. She could feel how he tried to restrain it. Could feel his body tight with pent-up passion.

She found herself being pressed backward and whimpered as he lay her down onto the quilt.

Strong masculine fingers curled around the hem of her shirt lifting it up, baring her belly, raising it higher until her modest breasts were exposed to him.

She looked up at him. Saw the lust flushing his face.

A low erotic growl rumbled deep inside his chest as he looked at her nakedness.

“Your breasts are so gorgeous. Your nipples so velvety,” he whispered as a finger lightly circled the areola of her left breast before twisting her nipple sharply, unleashing a coil of raw need deep inside her womb.

She shivered as both his palms smoothed over her mounds, cupping her breasts. His flesh felt hot, his fingers unbelievably gentle as he massaged her buds and twisted them until they were rock-hard.

The craving for him to make love to her roared higher as his head lowered and his luscious mouth sucked a nipple between his warm lips.

She shivered beneath the onslaught of lusty sensations.

Sweet mercy! This felt too heavenly to be true.

Reaching up, she smoothed her hands over his shoulders, her fingers exploring the hardness of his male muscles. Wonderful pleasure sifted through her and she found herself moaning, whimpering, needing to be loved.

She gasped as his mouth found her other nipple and he bit gently to this side of the sweetest pain she’d ever felt in her life.

“I want to lick your breasts,” he growled as he broke the erotic bite and laved his tongue around the sensitized pain.

“I want to bite your nipples. Make love to them.”

Again he bit into her flesh, harder this time but it was sweet just the same.

She wanted to tell him to do it, to make love to her breasts, to make love to her, but the words were somehow trapped inside her throat, paralyzed by the wild lust she saw in his eyes as he gazed down at her.

He un-cupped her breasts and his lips moved lower scorching a trail of fire as he kissed her pale belly until she quivered beneath him.

Long masculine fingers tugged open the clasp of her shorts and the sound of her zipper lowering on her shorts made her heart crash against her ribs. He tugged at her pants and she lifted her hips allowing him to move her pants and underwear lower. He slid them off expertly and his hot hands spread her thighs.

Her pussy convulsed wildly as he whistled lowly.

“You shave.”

She nodded. She’d always shaved her pussy. Always kept it nude and baby-soft for Jack, in the hope he would take her whenever he wanted to, which hadn’t been often enough for her.

After he was gone, she’d just kept doing it out of sheer habit.

“Do you do it for anyone in particular?” His words were tight, and she detected a tinge of jealousy in his eyes.

“No,” she found herself whispering. “No one.”

“For me then,” he groaned.

She nodded.

“How long since you’ve been with a man?”

“More than two years.”

He swore softly.

My God! She couldn’t believe she was having this conversation. Couldn’t believe she was allowing a perfect stranger to touch her like this. To look at her like this.

But it felt so right.

And it felt so beautiful.

He was climbing between her widespread thighs now and her mind screamed at him to stop.

But her body had a different agenda. Her body needed him. Needed him bad.

She could literally feel the hot cream of her anticipation slide down her channel toward him, moistening her, preparing her for him.

The instant his hot breath caressed the inside of her thighs, she couldn’t stop herself from lifting her knees and spreading her thighs wider, tilting her abdomen higher, giving him a perfect view of her quickly moistening pussy.

She loved the way he looked at her, his eyes powerfully bright with feverish lust. His mouth moist as the tip of his pink tongue swiped over his lower lip.

“What do you want me to do, Sara?”

“Taste me,” she found herself whispering, her belly clenching with excitement.

His eyes widened slightly and then his warm hands were intimately cupping her ass cheeks, tilting her hips even higher for him.

His head dipped between her legs.

She cried out as his delicious tongue swiped against her pulsing clitoris, hot and demanding. Mind-numbing strokes, sweet sucks and searing kisses had her bucking against his face in an instant.

Gosh! She felt so hot. So responsive.

So sexually wild!

Sweet mercy, the way his tongue lashed her clit felt fantastic! She groaned at the sensual quivers racing through her.

His hot mouth seared over her swollen pleasure nub and he sucked so hard she saw silver stars and felt her pussy cream soaking her inner thighs. He let go and his teeth nipped gently at her labia until she burned and moaned from carnal pleasure.

A finger slipped inside her tight, wet pussy and she jolted against his mouth. Erotic pleasures racked her mind, her body. A second finger slid into her. Then a third.

The pressure of his large, long fingers stretched her, had her lungs scrambling for breath.

She hissed as he began a tender rub against her swollen clit and his fingers began a slow thrust. In and out of her drenched vagina he plunged.

Slurpy sounds split the air and joined the intertwined sounds of their harsh breaths.

Her body tightened. Her tummy clenched. Her pussy throbbed.

The fiery heat of arousal slammed into her hard and fast, making her clench her teeth together at the powerful impact.

Oh, yes!

Beautiful!

Perfect!

Sexual tension exploded, making her jerk and writhe as the brutal waves crashed over her. She cried out at the heated satisfaction enveloping her. The pulsing orgasm carried her away. The intense pleasure quickly made her forget her past. But it made her remember how good it felt to be with a man.

It made her want more from him.

The pressure against her clit deepened, intensified. His fingers plunged harder. Faster.

Sweet mercy!

More erotic explosions ignited inside her. She gasped as another orgasm zipped through her, enveloped her, pummeled her.

She cried out his name. Grabbed his feathery hair, pushed his face into her hot and wet pussy.

Hips bucking, she pressed hard into him. Grinding her hips until the excruciating pleasure shimmered around her.