Renegade Man (21 page)

He stared at her
long and hard, then raked his hand through his hair. “This wasn’t how I wanted
it.” His tone was tight, harsh. He turned away and slammed his fist down on top
of the dresser. At the heavy thud, she jumped. “Damn it, I’ve been at my wits’
end trying to figure you out, trying to figure out what you want, Ritz. I
busted my butt playing the good guy around you, helping you out at the dig,
letting you stay at my place. But that was a mistake, because all you wanted
was to play the same game with me that you did twenty years ago.”

Tears were
streaming down her face. Blindly she reached out for his arm, felt him flinch
at her touch. “No. I wasn’t playing games then, Jonah. Believe me. Please. And
I’m not now. It’s just... it’s been so long for me.... I don’t understand the
first thing about men and women today.”

“I’d say you’re
doing pretty well. You’ve got both me and Gunnerson running after you.”

She wouldn’t let
his anger fire hers. “Don’t you see... all these years when you’ve known as
many women as there are ports in the world...I’ve only known Chap, then Robert,
and for the last three... It’s been too lonely for too long. I don’t know you
anymore. And I don’t know the ways of a man anymore. Please, show me. Teach me.
Touch me.” It was the closest she could come to admitting—to either of
them—what she felt for him.

He looked back
at her, and she saw him shudder. “Oh, Ritz,” he muttered. “This was such an
idiotic thing to do, my coming here like this.”

She was so
afraid that he would walk past her, leaving her standing there, wanting him so
badly. But her pride was hanging in shreds, and there were no words left in
her; she had no power to reach out to him. She waited.

It was he who
reached out, tenderly tracing the tense tendons of her neck with his fingers.
“I can’t promise that I’m any good, either, Rita-lou, but let’s give it another
try.”

He clasped her
shoulders and drew her against him, his eyes searching her face as if making
sure this was what she wanted. Then his mouth settled on hers in a soft, gentle
kiss, melting the years, freezing her in time for just this moment.

The kiss became
wet and sweet, and when his rough tongue nudged her teeth, she took it in,
feeling excitement zephyr through her. Standing on her toes, she wrapped her
arms around his neck and pressed her body as close to his as she could get. She
could feel his heart thudding against her breast.

She had waited
thirty-five years for the perfect kiss. She discovered that it was a gale of
wind, a riptide pulling her loose from the moorings of sanity, powerful
breakers that could crumble her will.

Finally Jonah
lifted his head to gaze down at her tenderly.But his breathing was as ragged as
hers. His fingers stroked her hair, ensnaring themselves in her petal-soft
curls. He bent his head to inhale her sweet scent. “I was born under a
wandering star, Rita-lou,” he murmured against the cloud of her hair. “I’m a
roamer.”

“I know,” she
whispered, her lips pressed to his chest. Its wiry hair tickled her nose, and
she tried to think about that, rather than what his words would mean to her
later, when she was left alone, or the fact that, regardless of how he felt about
her now, she would eventually fade in his memory, just another of his aimless
sexual exploits.

“But there’s
nothing more I want to do in all the world than roam your marvelous mind and
explore your lovely body,” he told her in the most incredibly sexy whisper she
could ever have imagined.

His hands
slipped the robe off her shoulders. It slithered to the floor around her bare
feet. For a long moment he simply stood there, loving her face with his eyes.
“It takes a lot of pain to create a pearl. And that’s how I see you, Ritz. You
are a pearl. You’ve been through a lot of pain, yet you have the courage to
risk everything to get what you want, and you never stop trying.”

“Touch me,” she
begged, and caught his hand, placing it against her neck and thrilling at the
wonderful roughness of his touch.

He lowered his
head and took her nipple in his mouth, his tongue laving it until it swelled
and stiffened. Her body sagged at the waves of pleasure that rolled over her,
inundating her, and she clutched at his shoulders for support.  He caught her
easily in his arms, carrying her to her bed. She stared at him through
love-dazed eyes as he shed his briefs. He was the essence of masculinity—that
was the only way she could put it—hard and rough and solidly male.

And then, as he
had forewarned her, his sailor’s hands roamed her body, every inch of it, and
his lips followed in the wake of his rough-tender hands—in the sensitive hollow
of her neck, over the dusky peaks of her breasts, across the slight mound of
her stomach. They trailed down the long, smooth planes of her thighs, and then
he gently pushed her knees apart to bare her feminine secrets to his gaze.

Reluctance
rooted in cultural conditioning sent waves of embarrassment crashing through
her. “I’m not nearly as beautiful as you are, Jonah.”

He rubbed his
lips against her and pleasure sent reluctance to the winds. “Oh, no, you’re
perfect, with all your gifts waiting for me to cherish them.”

Softly he parted
her. “A pearl,” he whispered with a tender smile, and she knew he was trying to
tease her into relaxing. “I found the most lustrous of pearls.” His head dipped
so his lips could claim his silky find, and lathed it, around and around.  She
was suddenly awash in an agony of need.

She called out
his name and moaned other words.... She wasn’t certain. Her hands cupped his
head and drew him against her. This feeling was like nothing she had ever
experienced. What had been pleasurable and even reassuring in the past became a
glorious celebration of sublime lovemaking with Jonah.

At the sound of
her explosive, strangled cry, he looked up, smiling cockily. “We’re just
beginning, sweetheart, on our own voyage.”

He slipped his
body over hers, and she felt the smooth column of his flesh prodding against
her inner thigh. She couldn’t resist the need to touch, to caress him. “It’s my
turn,” she said, teasing him in turn.

Never had she
known this joyous side to lovemaking. Her hand slid down between them to grasp
him, and he smothered a groan against her neck as her fingers wrapped around
his sensitive shaft. She rolled from under him and buried her face against his
taut flesh, inhaling deeply of his masculine scent. Then, like a greedy
nestling, she opened her mouth, tasting, tormenting, delighting.

“My God, Ritz,”
he gasped, his cry hoarse and deep. He disengaged her hands, which were
clasping his buttocks, and tucked her beneath him again. “I’m afraid this is
going to be over before we even begin if you keep that up.”

“I thought SEALs
weren’t afraid of anything,” she teased, gazing up into his desire-bright eyes.

He rubbed her
nose playfully with his. “Didn’t you know? We SEALs are helpless before the sea
sirens.” He caught her nipple and pulled, elongting them, and she shuddered at
the depths of her pleasure. “There’s only one way to master such a mermaid.”

“Oh?” she said,
her breath rasping in her throat. “What’s that?”

“Spread your
legs,” he growled.

She did as he
ordered, and wasn’t surprised to find how ready for him she was when he
sheathed himself deep inside her, taking complete possession of her. She
gasped. Soft, womanly sounds welled up from some long-empty part of her, a part
that he now filled.

He lay atop her,
unmoving, and she knew he was waiting for her to adjust to him. Then he began a
slow, rhythmic stroking. “Sweet...so sweet,” he murmured as he moved.

She wound her
legs around his thighs and began to arch her hips, taking him deeper, deeper,
deeper within her. His hands captured her hips, held them immobile. “Wait,” he
said huskily, then took over again, thrusting and stroking until she could feel
the explosion coming and knew there was nothing in the world she could do to
hold it back. And then, just as the ancient sailors feared would happen, she
fell over the edge of the world.

She lay there
gasping. Then, as her chaotic thoughts reordered themselves, she wondered how
he could remain so hard and throbbing within her. When she looked up and saw
his frown of concentration, she understood and blushed. Her eyes grew big. “I
was selfish. You delayed for me. What do I—”

“Hush,” he said,
and covered her mouth with his.

The first time
had been slow and sweet. He took her now in a maelstrom of driving desire. She
could think only of typhoons . . . tidal waves . . . whirlpools. Drowning in
her passion, she looked up into his eyes to find him watching her with delight.
Then she shuddered beneath him, unable to control the force of her feelings any
longer.

Suddenly his
fingers dug into her shoulders and he, too, shuddered, like a great prehistoric
sea beast disturbed after eons of hibernation.

For long moments
they lay entwined, chests heaving, lips parted, sweat sheening their bodies.
Slowly her lids drifted open. With his head propped on one hand, he was
watching her again. “That should have happened months ago. Are you sorry?”

She shook her
head. “No,” she whispered. “Is this what I’ve been missing all my life,
sailor?”

He chuckled. “I
do my best to accommodate.”

“That was so—so
relaxing.”

“I hope not.”
His teeth tugged at her earlobe. “Because that was only the first lesson.”

“We’re—we’re
going to do it again?”

His smoldering
green eyes gleamed with amusement. “If I have my way about it.”

His fingers
slipped within her to start their love play, and she whispered thickly against
his neck, “You’re addicting me to this.”

“Then let me
corrupt you some more,” he told her huskily. A quarter of an hour later,
interlocked, they collided with the stars.

* * * * *

Careful not to
disturb Jonah, she slipped from the bed. She couldn’t help but stare at his
marvelous sun-browned body. In sleep his face lost some of its rough edges. He
had been so exhausted these last weeks, and she wanted him to sleep as long as
he could. She wanted him in her bed. Period.

She made it no
more than a foot away before his hand latched on to her wrist. “Where are you
going?” he growled.

“To shower.”

“It’s not even
daylight, for God’s sake.”

She wrinkled her
nose at him. “If you haven’t noticed, I’m smelly and sweaty and stick—and hot
besides.”

One brow rose
sardonically, contrasting with his bold smile. “And I suppose I’m at fault?”

“Yeah, sailor
boy. You could say that.” She yanked her wrist out of his grip and walked away
with the sexiest swing she could manage, what with his cum slicking her innner
thighs.

“Well, I can
rectify that little problem,” he said, and in two strides caught up with her at
the bathroom door. He drew her against his side and pulled her through the
doorway.

“What are you
doing?” she laughed.

“Getting ready
to shower you.” With his free hand he turned on the hot water, then set her on
her feet, only to pin her against the tile wall. It was cold against her
buttocks and shoulders, but she didn’t care, because she saw the gleam of
desire burning brightly in his eyes.

He pulled her
under the warm spray with him and began to cover her shoulders with little
nipping kisses. “Hmmm, good,” he said. “I’m ravenous.” “Again?” she asked
breathlessly.

“Again,” he told
her, looking down at her through water-spiked lashes. Then he stilled her lips
with kiss after kiss and filled her emptiness with his gentle loving.

“All this time
we wasted,” she murmured. “An entire summer we could have – ”

“Twenty years we
could have come to know each other bodies like the backs of our hands. But it’s
never too late to start, I always say,” and he slid his hand between her legs,
his two fingers beginning their deep sea exploration.

“Ohhhhh, God!”
she squirmed.

“No, ‘Oh,
Jonah!” he corrected, replacing his two delving fingers with hig thick jutting
penis.

* * * * *

When next she
awoke, he wasn’t beside her. She heard him foraging in the kitchen and smiled.
The clink of stainless steel against dishes was a homey sound.

She collected
her robe from the floor, where he had dropped it, and knotted its belt around
her waist. She found him standing in front of the open refrigerator. “Your
shelves could stand replenishing, sweetheart,” he said.

All the
gentleness she had seen in his eyes earlier was absent. He had withdrawn into
his loner’s world again. “Well, 1 don’t usually have to feed two!” she snapped.

He swung the
door shut. “Forget it. I can scrape together something in the camper.” He
crossed to her, dipped his head and gave her a quick kiss. “See you,” he said,
his face unreadable.

She wanted
tender words from him, but she wouldn’t beg. She knew he was restless, and
suspected he was afraid. After all, she had had her grandfather and Trace and
Robert to teach her about love. Jonah had never had anyone.