The Curvy Astronomer and the Cowboy (He Wanted Me Pregnant!) (5 page)

I pulled away, my heart hammering in my chest.
Did something just nearly happen?
Would that have led to a kiss, in another few seconds, if I hadn’t pulled away?

I brushed my hair back and bent over to look into the eyepiece. “We can probably see Andromeda,” I said. “Let me find it for you.” I began turning wheels and adjusting knobs, bringing it into focus. “So did you always want to work with horses?” I asked.

I heard his feet crunch on the snow. Bent over as I was, I couldn’t tell exactly where he’d moved to, or if he’d just shifted his weight. But when he spoke, his voice came from almost directly behind me. “Always.”

I was suddenly very aware of my position: bent over in front of him, with my rump in the air.
Is he staring at my ass?!
With any other guy, the thought would have horrified me. But with Troy...it sent a deep pulse of heat through my whole body. It seemed to be taking me much longer to find Andromeda than it normally would. “Always?”

“My dad took me out into the wilds, when I was little. Showed me one of the wild mustangs, all full of fire and life. And I thought--”

I finally found Andromeda, stood up and turned to him.
Ulp.
I hadn’t realized how close he was.

“--it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.”

He was looking right into my eyes. God, he was so
big!
I felt my knees go weak.
So that’s what that feels like,
I thought. I swallowed and, when I found my voice, it didn’t sound like my own. “There you go,” I said lamely and nodded him towards the eyepiece.

He swept his hat off his head and lowered his eye to the eyepiece. Now it was me who got to look at his upraised ass, lean and muscular and so
powerful,
God, he’d probably be able to go all night or pin me to the wall and hold me there as he drove into me, harder and harder and--

Easy, Emily….

We stayed there for an hour, with me showing him nebulae and planets and distant stars. I hadn’t done that with anyone for years and the joy of sharing it with someone had me grinning. He was patient and interested. For a moment, it was almost like being back in San Fran with--

Pain swelled up inside me, jagged and raw--

“What?” Troy was suddenly looking at me very intently.

“What?”

“Something’s bothering you.”

My eyes widened.
He can read my thoughts?! No, don’t be stupid, of course he can’t.

“No it isn’t.”

He moved closer--just a few inches, but it was enough that I had to lift my chin up even further to look up at him. “Yes it is. I felt you tense.” He’d been standing beside me, his leg pressed up against mine, when I’d remembered San Fran and Rick.
He got all that from my leg?!

I shook my head. “Nothing,” I said at last. Then, “Nothing I want to talk about.” I turned back to the telescope, shutting him out. “Anyway, I should probably start getting set up for tomorrow night, and then close this thing up in case it rains tonight.” Which was all baloney: there was nothing else to set up and closing the trailer’s shell would take all of two minutes. But I needed some time alone.

He was watching me very carefully. “Okay, Emily,” he said. “But I’m not leaving you out here to freeze. A half hour, okay? Then I’m hauling you in.”

It was funny--normally something like that would have annoyed me. I would have told him to mind his own damn business. But they way he said it--
hauling me in--
didn’t sound nasty or possessive. It sounded nice. I kind of wanted to be hauled in.

I shook my head at my own stupidity. Troy was
gorgeous.
And patient and kind, and probably beating off the local women with a stick. I should stay out here, where there wouldn’t be any confusion. Where I wouldn’t be tempted to kid myself.

But the cold was soaking into my bones and my teeth were starting to chatter. I looked over my shoulder at the log cabin, at the cheery glow coming from its windows. It did look
very
inviting….

I took a deep breath, closed up the trailer and walked towards the cabin.

Chapter 4

Inside, Troy unwound the blanket from my shoulders. “Maybe a half hour was too long,” he said. “Can you still feel your toes? Come on. I’ve got something that’ll warm you up.”

And he led me out of the back door of the cabin and showed me the bath.

It looked like something out of an old Western. Then I realized it very probably
was
that old. It was a bath you sat in more than lay in, made of riveted metal with a raised back at one end. And it was full of steaming water.

“But there’s no power,” I said, frowning. “How did you...?”

“The range,” he said. “The kettle and a couple of saucepans.”

My insides turned to warm, sweet goo.
Seriously?!
He’d spent the time when I was moping outside drawing me a bath, like some old-fashioned servant? A hot bath sounded like the best thing in the entire world. The motels had only had showers and I could still feel the coffee in my hair from that morning. And with the bath outside, it’d be like being in a hot tub: my face chill from the cold and the rest of me toasty warm in the water. It would be idyllic.

Except…it would involve stripping off. I looked down at myself. Some women are confident about their bodies. I’m not one of them.

“You’ll be…inside?” I asked hopefully.

“I was going to sit out here,” he said. “Keep you company.” He nodded towards a stool set at the foot of the bath.

“You’ll be out here?” I said in a small voice.

“Yes.”

“With me?”

“Yes.”

“While I’m…naked?”

“While you’re naked.”

I blinked at him.

He pointed towards the mountains. “I was going to look at the sky over the mountains,” he said, pointing. “I’ll be facing away from you.”

“Oh,” I said disbelievingly. “Oh, you’ll be facing away from me. Oh, well that’s just peachy, then.”

He smiled at me and I felt that deep twist of heat spiral down inside me. A heat that was starting to get familiar, around him.

“You’d better get in,” he said, “if you’re getting in. It’ll get cold.”

And he turned his back and sat down on the stool, facing towards the mountains.

I stood there gaping. He couldn’t possibly be serious. He couldn’t really expect me to actually strip off, right there behind him, and trust him not to turn around? My mind was racing. What the hell sort of game was he playing? If he turned and looked, I’d scream and run. If he didn’t look, he wouldn’t get to see me. There was nothing to gain for him, unless….

Unless he knew, somehow, how I felt about my body, and he wanted to ease me gently into shedding my clothes. No actual sex, just nudity.

I stood there dithering. Troy just sat there gazing into the distance, not giving me any hint as to what I should do. I looked at the bath. I looked at Troy.

“I’ll get a towel,” I said, and raced inside before I changed my mind. I also grabbed some shower gel from my bag. And then I was standing beside the bath again, my heart hammering.
Am I really going to do this?

I thought of that morning, and how lonely it had been sitting by the side of the road by myself. How much better the station wagon had felt, when he sat down in the passenger seat.

“You know, I want that water after you,” he said, his voice an amused, low growl. “Don’t let it get too cold.”

Am I really going to do this? Yes, I damn well am!

The cold gave me a good excuse to hurry. I almost tore at the buttons of my outer shirt, then my inner shirt, then my t-shirt—
God, why didn’t I take off some layers inside?—
and all the while my eyes were glued to his back, ready to leap back towards the cabin if he turned around.

But he didn’t.

I was down to my bra and jeans. I pulled off my sneakers and socks, doing a silent scream as my bare feet hit the snow. Then I yanked the jeans down my legs and stood in bra and panties, shivering. I looked down at my full breasts, at the roundness of my hips and ass. The body I’d spent years hiding. I couldn’t strip off completely…but if I didn’t hurry up and do it, I was going to freeze to death.

Taking a deep breath, I unclasped my bra and dropped it onto the pile of clothes. The cold air hitting my breasts made them throb, and my nipples were already stiff little peaks. I blamed that on the cold. I slid my panties down my legs and off and then I was naked. And I could feel, at the juncture of my thighs, an undeniable heat. And wetness.
That,
I couldn’t blame on the cold.
That
was purely down to what I was doing, and who I was doing it six feet away from.

I stood there for a second. Just a second. I can’t explain why. Did I
want
him to turn around and see me? That’d be crazy, but…yes. A part of me actually did.

And then he moved. He was only stretching his shoulders, but as soon as he twitched I gave a yelp of fear and jumped into the bath.

After the freezing snow, it felt as if I was being boiled alive for an instant…and then there was only deep, hot bliss. I sank down in the bath, bending my knees, until everything but my head was under. I almost felt decent, since I was covered. Except that the water was transparent and, if he so much as turned his head, he’d be looking at me half-reclined and stark naked, in a pose that you could almost call sultry. My knees were together, but it was still as if I was sitting on a bed, propped up on some pillows, waiting naked for my cowboy to…
ahem.

“I’m…in,” I said, because I thought I should. “The water’s, um…lovely. Thank you.”

He nodded. “You’re welcome.”

I swallowed and started to wash. Lathering up meant getting up above the water line. I sat up fully, my breasts swaying and dripping. I was bathed in starlight, my skin turning silver-white. As the water settled around me, it turned into a dark, shining void with its own stars floating on the surface. It felt as if I was floating in space, with sensation the only thing anchoring me. The feel of my palms on my slippery breasts, along with the freezing breeze wafting against them, was incredible. My nipples were harder than they’d ever been, my breasts throbbing with the combination of hot and cold. It felt as if I was feeling my body for the first time.

I did my back and then sank down, gasping again as heat replaced cold. I lifted one leg out of the bath, extending it into the air and watching the steam billowing from it. I started to lather it, still watching him like a hawk. Having him there was turning my heartbeat into a thumping, resonant drum that vibrated through every part of me, making me at once weak and jumpy--almost drunk with arousal.
God, he’s right there! And I’m naked!
I lathered my calves, my thighs...the tops of my thighs. The very
tops of my
inner
thighs. I may have spent more time there than was strictly necessary.

And then I realized I needed to rinse my hair. I should have done that first, but I could still do it--the water wasn’t too soapy. I started to lie back….

And then I realized:
when I’m lying back, staring up into the sky, I won’t be able to tell if he’s looking at me.

My heart thumped even faster. I scooched my rear down to the very end of the bath and lay back until my face and my breasts were just breaking the surface, my hair fanning out in the water like a flower.

I lay there on my back, my legs folded up, my arms down by my sides. Under the water, I was nervously clenching and unclenching my fists. I could feel the chill wind on my naked breasts as they bobbed above the surface, but I could feel something else, too. His gaze, hot as fire as it licked over them again and again, drinking me in.

I swore my nipples got even harder.

I made a big show of lifting my arms out of the water and gripping the sides of the bath to haul myself up. Then I slowly sat up and found--

He was still sitting there watching the stars, facing away from me. Had he ever moved? Had he taken the opportunity, or remained the gentleman? There was no way of knowing.

I felt a rush of dark heat as I realized that I wanted him to have looked.

“I’m getting out now,” I said.

He nodded.

“Don’t turn around,” I said in a querulous voice.

He nodded again.

I stood up, the water coursing down my body in a thousand tiny waterfalls. I reached for the towel and dried off, staying in the tub to keep my feet warm until I absolutely had to get out. And then, when I was naked but dry, I stepped onto the freezing snow. My whole body was throbbing with cold, but I hadn’t started shivering yet.

I stood there naked. He didn’t turn around, but something changed. The mood shifted and he seemed to come alert--I was reminded of an animal pricking up its ears.

He was waiting for me. Waiting to see if I’d make a move. He was playing the gentleman, allowing me to decide. And if I decided to go for it...well, I had the feeling he wouldn’t stay a gentleman for very long. I imagined him hulking over me on the bed.