Staking His Claim (8 page)

She slowly opened them and watched him
leaning against the wall, waiting on her. "Are you mad at me?" She
knew he was.

"Yep," he answered succinctly.

She shivered at his one-syllable response as
a chill went through her, but she didn't budge from her spot in
front of him. "I don't want to go, Raul. I've seen--I've seen you
mad before, and I don't like it."

"I'm not going to hurt you." The frown line
between his brows deepened, and he looked like he was trying to
temper his voice. "Go on now and get your purse. I'm ready to
leave."

"Maybe you should go on without me. We can
talk tomorrow." She tried to placate him with the suggestion.

It didn't work.

He pushed off the wall, prowled over to her,
and crowded her back against the doorframe. Towering over her, he
invaded her space and leaned his weight on his forearms, on either
side of her head.

He reached one hand down and lifted her chin
up until her eyes were glued to his. Her breath became shaky. His
voice was low but firm when he spoke. "We got shit to work out
between us, Elaina. But it's all real simple. You either want me,
or you don't."

He held her chin as her breath came harder.
She blinked up at him, but still didn't speak as she waited for him
to continue.

"As for me--I guess it's pretty damn obvious
I want you. I've been wanting you bad since the night we met, five,
six weeks ago." His thumb reached out and swept across her bottom
lip. "I admit I've been an asshole a lot of that time, but that's
'cause I was trying to stay the hell away from you. I didn't like
that--didn't like that shit at all. Now somewhere along the line,
we had a miscommunication." His voice became acerbic. "See, I
thought you were a teenager all this time. But you're not,
are
you?"

His words stopped and he waited until she
softly shook her head.

"No, you're not," he agreed with her silent
answer. "You're twenty-two now. Have I told you happy birthday
yet?"

Her head jerked up and down, just once.

He continued, "Yeah, well, I think it's more
like
happy birthday to me
. You know what I mean? Now, here's
the deal. I've told you I'm not going to hurt you. We're just going
to sail right past the age thing and continue on as we mean to go
forward." His calloused thumb swiped across her lip again. "And I
mean to go forward with you in my bed. All you have to do is decide
if that's what you want, too. See what I mean? Very simple,
baby."

Elaina tried to get a grip on her emotional
state, and to think calmly about what he was saying. Her nerves
clanged silently in her eardrums. As much as she wanted to deny it,
she couldn't.
He
was right.
He was still pissed, but
he was right. All she had to do was decide if she wanted him or
not.

It was really no decision at all. Or if it
was, she'd already made it, unconsciously.

She licked her lips, sucked in a sustaining
breath and opened her mouth to speak. "I want you, Raul." She felt
a vibration go through his body as he leaned in closer to her. "I
know you're pissed at me. Maybe I deserve it, maybe I don't. But
you need to remember a couple of things," she remonstrated as her
voice grew stronger. "Yeah, I'm twenty-two. But you're still a
shit-ton older than me. How old are you, anyway?"

"Thirty," he gritted out between clenched
teeth.

"Yeah. Eight years older. So, okay, I'm not
as young as you thought I was. But I didn't lie earlier. I'm still
a virgin. That hasn't changed," she reminded him tartly, her words
coming to a momentary halt as he gripped her more tightly. She
looked down at his fingers fisted around her and then back to his
face. "
Yeah
, so why don't you think on that for a bit and
calm the hell down some while I go get my things."

She pushed away from his arms and turned
toward her bedroom.

****

It was after midnight and since the party was
beginning to break up anyway, it was relatively easy for Elaina to
slip away. Janie had merely raised her eyebrows and nodded her head
in acknowledgement of where Elaina would be when she had told her
aunt she was leaving.

Raul made quick work of ushering her out to
his truck. Thick silence arced between them on the drive.

He pulled the truck behind the house, and
with a hand at the small of her back, led her through the darkened
interior.

Bright moonlight spilled in through the
windows helping Elaina's vision adjust to the dimness surrounding
her. Her legs trembled from the milestone about to occur. The heady
knowledge of what was about to take place beat swiftly through her
veins.

She wanted it to happen.

And she wanted it to happen with him.

But beyond that, she wasn't willing to
think.

He slid his hand from her back and
encapsulated her wrist as he moved in front of her, leading her
through the kitchen and down a darkened hallway. He didn't speak,
and he made no move to turn on any lights.

She followed closely behind, the subtle scent
of his skin and the virile magnetism of his hot, steely hand
holding her in an uncompromising grip going to her head like a fine
wine on an empty stomach. The blood beat hotly in her veins and she
wondered if he could feel it where his fingers wrapped around her
directly on her pulse point.

He stopped abruptly and the forward motion of
her body brought her stumbling into his back. She felt his corded
strength, smelled the clean, potent masculinity that exuded from
his lean, muscled body. It was the same masculinity that had
fascinated her from the first time she got close to him. A thrill
of frightened anticipation washed through her, a subtle excitement
that she could have so completely attracted a man of his caliber.
It seemed almost too much to take in, and the fact that in a matter
of minutes, she would undoubtedly have Raul Vega hanging over her
naked body, was enough to blow her mind.

She quivered and tried to rein in her fragile
control by remembering how much she wanted this, and reminding
herself of how he had made her feel earlier when he held her out by
the barn. She sucked in a small, shaky breath.

He pushed open a door and moved through the
threshold of what Elaina knew had to be his bedroom.

In this room, as in the kitchen, the
moonlight came in through the windows, illuminating the space
around them just enough to cast a sensuous spell between them.

He moved to the large bed that dominated the
room, and sat down on the side, bringing her between his spread
thighs. Her hands fell lightly to his shoulders and she felt his
tensile strength under her fingertips.

His palms began a smooth glide up and down
her body, going from the outside of her thighs, over her hips, to
the indent of her waist and back again. He dragged air deeply into
his lungs, breaking the silence of the night.

He made no move to deepen his caresses and
she stood in front of him, her body shivering softly as she waited
expectantly for his next move.

Her breathing fractured from his nearness as
she continued to wait. Helplessly, her body swayed toward his and
she put her lips against his ear and softly kissed him. His body
tightened against hers. The oxygen stalled in her lungs and she
asked, "Why aren't you doing anything?"

His hands gripped her hips more tightly and
the air hissed from his lungs. "I'm fighting myself," he answered
her with distinct mockery, cold sarcasm directed at himself. "As
you so eloquently reminded me, you're a virgin and I'm still too
damn old for you." He anchored her to him, his grasp restraining.
"I keep telling myself not to start this, not to start something
with you that you won't be able to handle." He sucked in a lungful
of oxygen. "But it's not working. I'm losing the fight. You're
standing sweet and compliant in my bedroom; I don't have the
strength to do what I know I damn well should." He pushed her away
from his body, but kept his fists manacled around her upper arms.
He focused on her eyes watching him in the darkness of the
room.

"Why the change of heart?" she asked
softly.

"It's not a change of heart. I haven't
changed my mind. I'm just trying to give you a fighting chance,
baby."

"What's got you so worried? You weren't
worried before."

He let out a sound of self-directed
criticism. "All I could think about before was that I couldn't have
you. Now I can and I'm worried you're gonna hate me
afterwards--hold it against me."

For the first time since she had known him,
he was showing her a side of himself that wasn't one hundred
percent confident. "Why? Why would I hate you?"

"Because I'm not giving you a choice. I'm
rushing you into bed--intimidating you to get what I want." He
sucked in a breath and his shoulders tightened under her hands.
"Tonight I learned you've been through hell and back. And right now
I'm finding out that I'm such a fucked-up bastard, that apparently,
I don't give a shit."

His hands clenched in a restraining hold that
spoke eloquently of his intent to proceed.

A tiny smile played around her mouth. "You're
not a fucked-up bastard. I had a choice and I made it. I'm here,
aren't I?"

"You keep thinking that, sweetheart. You keep
thinking you had a choice." He looked deeply in her eyes, gave her
a layered look filled with conflicting emotions. "I don't think you
understand how this is gonna play out. There's something about
you--something that makes me lose control. I haven't even had you
yet, but already I want the next time and the next time
and the
next time after that.
This shit isn't going to just go
away--you're addictive, baby."

"But you're saying that you're willing to let
me walk away right now? To drive me back to the house?"

His jaw clenched and his lips flattened into
a distinct snarl. "If I have to, yeah," the words rumbled from his
chest with menacing heat.

She ignored the threatening anger in his
voice and focused on the content of his answer as she continued to
beat the point home to him. "So you'd let me go if I thought it was
the right thing for me?"

"
Yeah.
I just said that." His words
were as much an accusation as an agreement.

"Why?" she questioned softly.

"Why?" His eyebrows pulled down. "Because I
want what's best for you," he spit out, giving her a brutal and
accusing glare that was in direct opposition of the words he spoke.
"I care about you. I want you to be happy."

She nodded her head at his tortured
clarification. It was really all she needed to hear. "I'm not going
to hold anything against you. I want this, Raul."

His hands moved and splayed over her butt as
he hauled her closer. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," she whispered.

He tightened his grip with a steely, almost
imperceptible nuance of threat. "Last chance."

"Pass," she murmured as her lips softly
touched his.

Raul felt her soft lips against his and let
her magic roll through him. Never in his life had he felt a need
this intense. It had been like this for every godforsaken day since
he'd met her. It beat deep from his soul and he knew in dark
exasperation that it would never go away.

He reached between them and began undoing the
buttons that went all the way down her dress. When the slight
curves of her soft white breasts were revealed above the lace of
her bra, he lowered his head and took her silky skin in his mouth
and suckled her there.

She squirmed in his arms and lifted her hands
between them, going to work on the buttons of his shirt, excitement
boiling up within her. Her movements became frantic.

"Shh. . . slow, sweetheart." He lifted his
mouth from her breast and they worked on each other's buttons, the
silence of the night broken by the panting breaths they were
taking.

They finished releasing the buttons together,
and she began pushing his shirt off his shoulders. He complied with
her silent request and shrugged his arms from the shirt, dropping
it to the floor at her feet.

Her dress hung on either side of her body,
the buttons parting it in two, her bra and matching lace panties
peeking through.

He sucked in a breath and brushed the dress
away from her waist and sank his fingers into her soft skin.
"You're not on birth control, are you?"

She stiffened in his arms. "No," she
whispered, and he could tell she was shocked by the question.

"I'm clean, baby, I promise. What are the
chances you could get pregnant tonight?" His lips fell to her
shoulder, his hands gripping her as he waited for her to
answer.

"Can't you use something?" she asked.

"I
could
use something. But I
really, truly do not
want to take your virginity with a
condom between us. I'll do it if I have to. I just don't want to
have to."

He lifted his lips from her shoulder as he
watched her face scrunch in concentration. She spoke hesitantly, "I
think it'll be fine. But what if I'm wrong? What if--"

"I wouldn't let anything bad happen to you.
We'd handle it together, okay? Are you close to ovulation or
not?"

"No, I'm pretty sure I'm not, but you know
what they say,
shit happens
."

He let out an abbreviated snicker. "Yeah. I'm
okay with taking the chance, but only if you are, too."

She bit her lip and ran her tongue over the
abraded flesh. Her eyes rested on his, studying him. Her body
quivered and she began a subtle move back from him. "I don't know,
I--"

He interrupted her before she decided to back
out all together. "It's okay. I'll use a condom." One hand left her
briefly while he dug around in the top drawer of his bedside table.
He pulled out a small plastic square and laid it down within easy
reach.