Second Chance Cowboy (14 page)

“
Chance, you’re acting
strange.”

“
And you’re being
vague.”

She rounded the desk and bent to kiss
him soundly on the lips. “I won’t be long.”

* * * *

Chance read the clock on his desk.
Four-fifteen. Carly had called him an hour ago and asked him to
meet her. Her voice had sounded thick and he knew seduction when he
heard it. She had warned him to be prepared—whatever that meant,
although he did have a clue.

Damn, he could only extinguish one
fire at a time, and now, his body soared off the charts and his
groin ached for Carly. It wanted release with the woman he loved.
With Carly underneath his nose, sexy and ready, he teetered on
insanity.

Chance shut down his laptop and
grabbed his cell, shoving it into his pocket. He walked outside and
headed in the direction of the pond, following the worn path. He
couldn’t imagine why she wanted him to meet her there.

His neck ached and he rubbed the tense
muscles with his fingers. Each step he took his boots thumped
against the dirt and his heart pinched. His mind moseyed to the
phone call he’d gotten from Leslie earlier. He hadn’t answered it,
but she left a descriptive, and annoyed, voice mail.

Chance messed up, plain and
simple.

Apparently, he’d given her reason to
think they could be more than friends. He never intentionally led
her on, but sharing intimate conversation over late-night dinners
didn’t help. He’d never taken the friendship beyond
dinner.

He didn’t deliberately ignore Leslie.
His preoccupation with his wife held priority. However, he reminded
himself, Carly was no longer his wife. They played house and so
far, her memory hadn’t resurfaced.

Dammit! He found it easy to get lost
in this scheme. Beautiful, sensual, and ready for his taking, Carly
had him in the palm of her hand. Old emotions were at a head.
Revived lust had him cocked and ready to fire.

His tension wasn’t only about sex, or
the lack of. He wanted every part of Carly. He wanted her to be his
wife again. If she wanted a baby, they could have a house full, as
long as she was ready.

Problem was, he wanted those things
with the old Carly, before Devon’s death. The sweet,
breath-of-fresh-air, fun Carly, the one who could smile and melt
his torment. The woman who had talked to him into the wee hours of
the morning, about everything from hopes and dreams to their plans
for the future.

The post-trauma Carly had him clenched
between hot and cold. One second she was attempting to move on from
the pain, and the very next she was yelling at him to leave her
alone. Not only had lovemaking been out of the question, but
intimacy entirely. He’d become lost in his own misery.

When her memory returned, which side
of the fence would she fall on?

Where in the hell did that leave
him?

Screwed.

His days were numbered. How long could
this charade continue? Would her memory suddenly come back and if
it did, would she realize she still loved him? What if someone
blabbed the truth to her? He could only protect her for so
long.

Now she talked babies and family and,
oh hell, she wanted to make love. Making love would be a good
thing. Not only good—a slice of pure heaven. They had powerful
chemistry, with the intensity of an electrical current.

He reached the edge of the pond and
darted a glance around. A strong floral aroma reached his nostrils
from the wildflowers growing in the field. He didn’t see her. He
focused across the grassy knoll, heard the soft splashing of water,
and settled his gaze on her shadowy figure.

“
Hi, handsome.” She swam to
him.

He hunched down near the water’s edge,
taking in the silhouette of her figure submerged neck deep. “How’s
the water?” He dipped his fingers in.

“
Cool.” She dipped her head
back. “Are you hungry?”

“
Starving.”
For
you
.

“
Have a seat. I’ll be out
in a sec.”

She gestured into the distance and he
followed the motion, seeing the blanket laid out under the huge
oak. He straightened and strolled over to the set up. A picnic
basket held sandwiches, fruit and a bottle of wine.

With a smile, he sat down and leaned
his back against the tree, stretching his long legs out in front of
him, and crossed his booted ankles lazily.

He held a strawberry halfway to his
mouth when he heard the splatter of water. He moved his eyes toward
the sound and the fruit dropped from his fingers onto his
lap.

Carly climbed out of the
water.

Hot damn.
She wore a red bra
with matching thong and the wet, see-through material left little
to the imagination
.

His hungry imagination yanked up
images of her sweet, supple body pressed against his. His mouth
between her thighs suckling her most intimate part.

He’d like to have her fingers tugging
his hair, her moist pink delicacy bucking against his lips, while
his name unraveled from her mouth.

His eyes slowly moved in anticipation
to her dripping wet hair, along her partially naked body, down
slender legs. She walked toward him in a powerful display of a
confident woman who intended to turn him inside out. The crotch of
his pants became tight and uncomfortable.

Fuck. Trouble came his way, and he
couldn’t wait.

He noticed the swell of her breasts
rising and falling with each breath, pressing against the wispy red
material that did nothing to hide hard, pink nipples. Her trim body
was soft and round in the right places. The places he wanted to
touch and caress.

She bent over to retrieve the towel
from the blanket, giving him a faultless view of her tight ass. She
wrapped the baby blue material around her bareness and looked like
an angel.

His eyes followed her movements like a
newborn puppy as she came to sit next to him. She swung her hair
over her shoulder, spraying him with droplets of water across his
face and it only triggered his desire more. She looked at him
through the veil of thick lashes as an expressive smile curved her
lips. “Mmm, that was nice.”

He gulped air. He counted to ten. He
focused on breathing, in and out, in and out, until finally he
could find his voice buried behind the lump in his throat. “It was
good to watch.”

Carly beamed. Her mischievous smile
said she knew she had tormented him in the most bittersweet
way.

She took a strawberry from the bowl,
brought it to her lips and bit into the red, delicious fruit. The
juice lingered on her bottom lip and she rolled the tip of her
tongue to lap it up. He could think of a couple more things he’d
like to have her tongue licking.

Did she have any idea what havoc she
wreaked on him? It was getting harder and harder, in many ways, to
remember why he wasn’t ripping her bra and panties off and burying
himself deep within her. She asked for it and he knew how she liked
it...loved it. She wouldn’t be disappointed.

He wanted her back, fully and
completely. Boundaries didn’t matter anymore. He only knew she was
his for the taking and take her was exactly what he planned to do.
Over and over again.

“
It’s nice down here, don’t
you think?” she asked casually.

When she moved, the top of the towel
fell to land across her hips. One bra strap slid down her shoulder,
showing the top of her round breast.

Did she ask him a question? He wasn’t
thinking with his brain at the moment. The blood rushed to his
cock.

She pushed up on her knees, bent
toward his lap, with mouth opened, and his heart slammed against
his ribs. Carly didn’t go for his zipper, but instead the fallen
strawberry he had dropped earlier, bringing it to her lips. Her
teeth bit into the berry. Her gaze slowly met his. He never knew a
woman eating could be such a turn-on. The world could have fallen
down around them and he wouldn’t have cared because he couldn’t
take his eyes off her. “Carly, how are you feeling?”

“
Absolutely grand. And
yourself?”

“
Like I’m about to
explode.” There was no humiliation in admitting his
vulnerability.

She lowered her eyes to his zipper and
moistened her lips. “What a shame it is.”

“
A shame? Why is
that?”

“
You have a lot on your
mind with the ranch. You’ve been worried for me since the accident
and I’ve been pressuring you to, you know, make love.” She smoothed
her hair. It dried fast in the warm air and tangled around her
angelic face. “I can understand so I won’t burden you anymore. It’s
probably best we’re not intimate until things are less
hectic.”

He flinched. What game was she
playing? She couldn’t be serious.

“
It’s not abnormal for
people to go through a period where their libido is—” She slid him
a remorseful, fleeting look. “—not up to par.”

“
There’s nothing wrong with
my libido.” He reached over, grabbed her wrists, and pulled her
down on top of him. “You’re a little tease, aren’t you?” He dragged
the towel away from her body and tossed it to the side.

She looked at him, her eyes bright.
“Chance Michael Taylor, have I told you lately that I love
you?”

His breath caught in his chest.
No,
you haven’t,
he answered silently. “Carly...” He twisted his
fingers through her hair.

Pressing a finger against his lips,
she whispered in his ear. “Don’t say anything. I know you love me
even if you don’t tell me often.” She kissed the tip of his nose.
“It’s not the words, but the actions that count.” She trailed moist
kisses along the line of his jaw.

His hands slid down her warm back and
stopped at the skinny band of her thong. “I want you to tell me,
Carly, tell me what you want.”

She drew her face back, enough
distance to unite their eyes. “Make love with me, Chance. I want to
feel you inside me.”

His mouth took hers in a thrilling
kiss. He delved his tongue into her mouth and licked her silky
insides. She tasted like strawberry and sugar.

When she moaned in pleasure, he rolled
over with her held tight against him. Chance steadied himself on
top, pressing her between his body and the blanket. Gazing down at
her, he rolled a finger across her warm cheek. “Carly, I do love
you. I thought I loved you the moment I said ‘I do,’ but it’s
nothing compared to how I feel now. Remember that,
sweetheart.”

She laid her palm against his cheek,
her eyes reflected a love he’d thought lost. “I’ve never forgotten.
You’re in my heart, Chance.”

He intended to take things slowly, yet
it was impossible. When he removed her bra and thong and she lay
there naked in all her glory before him, he knew it would take
three, four, maybe more times before he would get enough of her to
satisfy the need suppressed within him.

Pulling his jeans off in a flurry of
material, Chance positioned himself between her thighs, plunging
fully into her satin smooth body.

Chapter
Thirteen

AFTER MAKING LOVE under the tree,
Carly lay still in the crook of Chance’s arm staring up into the
branches. A light breeze blew through the leaves of the oak and
across their naked bodies, cooling their moist, heated
skin.

Carly was lightweight, feeling much
like a feather and carefree as a kitten lying with her husband. She
imagined they were the only two people who existed in the entire
world. There were no worries, no concerns. She didn’t want this
untroubled feeling to ever end.

When Chance shifted his body, she
moaned her displeasure. “Don’t move. Not yet,” she
murmured.

He planted a kiss on the top of her
head. “Sweetheart, the sun’s going down and the bugs are coming
out. I’d be more than happy to lie here all night. I’m afraid we’d
be eaten alive.”

She sat up, watching him move around
the blanket. He found his jeans and pulled them on. He took her
thong and held it by the tip of his finger. He twirled it champion
lasso style. She giggled at his playful side. He helped her into
the damp material, sliding them over her feet, up her legs. When he
got to her thighs, she lifted her hips off the blanket so he could
drag the thin lace into place.

Lowering his head, Chance kissed her
stomach before dipping his tongue into her belly button. A giggle,
joined with a moan, came from her in response to his teasing
attention. She dug her fingers through his bedraggled hair,
clinging to him. He left a trail of wet kisses along her hipbone,
down her outer thigh, and close to the sensitive area at the apex
of her thighs.

Then he found her clit. Through her
panties, he suckled the spot between her folds and she arched at
the heavy sensation flowing through her.

“
I...I thought...we were
going to be eaten alive,” she panted the words.

“
One of us is definitely
going to be eaten.” He tore her panties from her body, seams ripped
when the thin strap broke. “I hope those weren’t your lucky
panties.”