The Outlaws: Jess (12 page)

He kissed her again, and Meg's wits flew out
the window. A moment later her foggy brain registered a new
feeling, one that made the breath catch in her throat. His hands,
his large capable hands, were everywhere, touching, caressing,
arousing. When he cupped her between her legs, panic rose thick and
hard inside her, and she pushed against his chest.

"Stop! This is going too fast. I'm not sure
this is..."

Jess's hands fell to his sides. "You're
right. I'm too damn eager and I should know better. We'll do this
your way, love. Slow and easy."

"That's not what I mean."

"I know what you mean," he said as he tangled
his hand in her hair, easing her head back.

Meg shuddered as he kissed the tender flesh
beneath her ear, the wildly thudding pulse at the base of her
throat. She murmured something incoherent and clung to him. He
found her breasts, kneading them gently through the material of her
bodice. Her fingers dug into his shoulders and she stifled a
moan.

He plucked impatiently at the offending
garment. "This will have to go."

He released the buttons holding the bodice
together and stripped it down her arms, taking her chemise with it.
Meg's hands flew up to shield her breasts. Jess pulled them down to
her sides.

She held her breath as he studied the
puckered scar above her right breast, touching it gently with his
fingertip. Was it so ugly?

"The scar detracts nothing from your breasts.
This isn't the first time I've seen them, you know. They're
beautiful. I couldn't tell you that as a doctor, but as a man, I
can say all the things I've been thinking since the first time I
undressed you.

"Your body is perfect. Strong, athletic, yet
soft and feminine and alluring." He rubbed her nipples with his
thumbs. "I want to touch you all over."

Meg stared into the torrid depths of his
glittering eyes and felt her heart pounding violently against her
chest. She wanted him. The unexpected truth came to her in a
blinding flash when she looked into his eyes and recognized hunger,
the same kind of hunger she was experiencing.

How could it be? Hunger was the last thing
she wanted to feel for a man. She feared the ravening desire Jess
had roused in her. Feared what Jess would do to her. She'd thought
Arlo was s kind man until her wedding night, when he'd torn into
her like a rapacious beast, laughing at her pitiful cries of
pain.

He'd told her she should get use to it, for
he intended to use her youth and innocence to help him step up in
the world, stressing that not all men were gentle lovers like
himself. She'd nearly laughed in his face. She thought he'd merely
been trying to frighten her into submission, until he offered her
as collateral in a poker game, her innocence had been shattered for
all time.

Her thoughts were still focused inward when
she suddenly became aware that Jess had pushed her dress and
chemise down past her hips, taking her drawers with them. They fell
in a puddle around her feet and he lifted her out of them. His face
was stark with need, his muscles tense as he tumbled her onto the
bed and stared down at her. Meg's first inclination was to pull the
covers over her nakedness, but the look on Jess's face told her it
would do her no good. He was determined to have her.

His gaze held her suspended as he slowly
began to undress. She wanted to look away but was unable to move or
direct her gaze elsewhere. His shirt hit the floor. She stared at
his chest and shoulders. Rippling tendons and long muscles jerked
in response to her intense perusal. Meg thought him magnificent and
she hadn't even seen all of him.

When Jess whipped off his belt and opened his
trousers, Meg's fear returned. A small cry of alarm slipped past
her lips when she saw his eyelids drift half closed, concealing the
intense gleam of his eyes. Her heartbeat skittered. With fear?
Anticipation? Probably a mixture of both. Could he tell how
frightened she was?

Jess's trousers and drawers dropped to the
floor and he stepped out of them. Meg tried not to stare, but it
was impossible not to. It was full daylight; sunshine streamed
through the window. Every impressive detail of Jess's hard body was
blatantly displayed. Not an ounce of fat resided anywhere on his
magnificent form. Her gaze flitted down his broad chest, over a
washboard stomach, slim hips, and musclular legs, then returned
again to that rigid muscle standing upright between his thighs.

He was huge. His fully aroused sex rose
regally against his stomach, its purple head moist and throbbing.
Meg gulped back a scream. To a woman who'd only known pain from her
brief sexual encounters, it was an alarming sight.

Jess was thoroughly puzzled by Meg's apparent
fright. Did she think he would hurt her? He couldn't imagine Zach
engaging in rough sex, but nothing was impossible. He eased down on
the bed beside Meg and took her into his arms.

"Fear has no place in this bed, love. I
promised you pleasure and you shall have it."

"Pleasure? Is that possible?"

Meg's question startled Jess. "You've never
experienced pleasure from lovemaking with...anyone?"

Meg shook her head. "I don't believe it
exists. Please, Jess, can't you see this is a mistake?"

A thought suddenly occurred to Jess. What if
Meg
had
been telling the truth about Zach. Maybe they
weren't lovers.

"Are you a virgin, Meg?"

Meg looked unflinchingly into his eyes and
shook her head. "I'm not a virgin."

A sense of disappointment tugged at Jess.
He'd been willing to give her the benefit of the doubt about Zach,
but her words had dashed even that remote possibility from his
mind. How many others had there been before Zach? Why hadn't any of
her previous lovers given her pleasure?

Jess eased down on the bed beside her. "I'm
going to give you pleasure, Meg, never doubt it. Forget your other
lovers, they don't count. Concentrate on me. I'm going to make your
body sing."

He bracketed her face in his hands and took
her mouth. When his tongue filled her mouth she forget her fear.
Blood pounded through her veins so hard she imagined she could hear
it. He brought her beneath him, trapping her. Then he gave her his
passion, his fire, the sweet memorable taste of him.

It was frightening. It was heady and
intoxicating.

She squirmed beneath him, and heard him
groan. The sound returned her scattered wits and she pushed against
his chest.

"I don't want this, Jess."

"We both want this," Jess panted into her
ear. "Don't worry about Zach, he's probably enjoying himself with
his lady friend."

He filled his hands with her breasts,
kneading their fullness, teasing her nipples with his long,
talented fingers. His weight shifted and his hand slipped down
between their bodies, his fingers finding a sensitive spot that
caused her to jerk in response. Her head fell back, and a soft
mewling sound tore from her throat.

Jess raised up on his elbow and smiled down
at her. "See, I told you there'd be pleasure."

Before she could draw a calming breath he
molded his mouth to hers, forcing her lips open in a raw, violent
invasion of his tongue. She felt his finger pierce her from below,
then move in imitation of his tongue. She felt overwhelmed,
possessed. She could think of nothing except the moist heat of his
mouth and the wicked pressure of his finger.

Then his mouth left hers with an abruptness
that startled her. Her entire body felt shaken, her lips swollen
and bruised. Her blood rushed through her veins, pounding against
her temples and that place where Jess's finger tantalized her. Was
this passion? Or was it simple pleasure making her body melt into a
boneless lump? Was there a difference?

She splayed her hands against his chest,
trying to put some distance between them so she could think.

Jess must have read her mind. "No, love,
don't think. Just feel. Experience all the wonderful emotions and
feelings; let your body respond. Lovemaking can be powerfully
rewarding, if you let it."

"It can also be painful and degrading," Meg
whispered shakily.

"Not with me."

Meg wanted to believe him. More than anything she
wanted to forget the painful coupling Arlo had forced on her. She
wanted beautiful dreams to fill her nights instead of the
frightening ones that usually plagued her. Could Jess's lovemaking
be the miracle she'd been praying for? Until Jess she'd never
encountered a man with whom she wanted to explore her sensual
nature, if indeed she had one.

"Stop thinking, Meg," Jess chided, as if
aware of her thoughts.

His pressed his finger deeper inside her. She
gasped and arched against him. "You don't play fair."

A chuckle rumbled in his chest. "Neither do
you. Why do you pretend you're not enjoying what I'm doing to you?
Your face is flushed with excitement and your body is taut as a
bowstring. You're hot and damp and slick as sweet cream. I'll bet
you taste delicious."

His words appalled Meg. But what he did next
left her gasping with shock. His took her with his mouth. At first
she hadn't known what he intended as his mouth slid downward,
between her breasts, over her quivering stomach, lower, to where
his fingers were producing all those wonderful sensations.

Her head tilted back. A soundless cry
vibrated in her throat. Tension pulled her legs rigid. She nearly
jumped off the bed as a trembling ecstasy built inside her. Then
the rough pad of his tongue moved over her, inside her, soothing
the slick, swollen flesh that suddenly felt feverish and taut.

Meg buried her face in the pillow to stifle
the moans of pleasure building in her throat. She'd never known
sensations she was experiencing were possible, much less
existed.

Fiery ripples began deep in her belly, at the
very center of her being, and spread in ever widening waves until
they consumed her utterly. Her body stiffened, held captive in an
exquisite state of violent emotional upheaval. Then everything
seemed to culminate in a blinding flash of raw sensation. Then she
melted.

"Now it's my turn," Jess said, raising
himself above her. "I need to be inside you."

Slowly he sank down on her body. He kissed
her open mouth, exulting in her soft panting breaths. He moved his
arm beneath her, lifting her buttocks toward him as he penetrating
her with a single deep thrust. He heard her cry out but was too far
gone in lust to give meaning to it. There was no maidenhead to
impede him, but she was so damn tight she might as well have been
untouched. She surrounded him so snugly he could feel vibrations
when she took a deep breath.

He nearly lost it when she moved her body to
better accommodate him. "Don't move," he said through clenched
teeth.

She inhaled slowly. A curse ripped from
Jess's throat. "Damn! It's too late."

After a fractured moment he began to move. He
sank into her and felt her quiver. He withdrew and sank into her
again, savoring the slick, scalding heat of her. He held her steady
and planted himself as far as he could go, nudging her legs
wider.

"You're so damn tight," he groaned into her
ear. "Like a velvet glove made just for me."

Jess felt as if he had never possessed a
woman as completely as he now possessed Meg. All the women who had
gone before her were nothing. The intense pleasure searing his mind
and body was centered on the female beneath him, on his possession
of her, on the slick heat of her tight sheath. Suddenly he was
desperate, frenzied, like a volcano about to explode. Tucking her
buttocks more firmly against his hips, he moved forcefully inside
her, thrusting deeply, powerfully.

"I can't wait, love. Hurry," he grated
hoarsely against her lips. "Come with me."

Meg lifted her hips to meet his strokes,
stunned by the powerful sensations racing rampant through her.
Pleasure, relentless, fervent, held her in its grip. She was close
to frantic now, and then he released her in one powerful stroke
that sent her soaring to oblivion. On the edge of her awareness she
heard Jess cry out her name, felt him collapse against her.

Long moments later Meg opened her eyes and
looked up into Jess's glittering gaze. A look of confusion wrinkled
his brow.

"What is it?" Meg asked.

He pulled out of her and rolled over on his
back. "You're a puzzle, Meg Lincoln. "I can't quite figure you
out."

"What do you mean?"

Jess turned on his side and raised up on one
elbow. He lifted his hand to idly draw a finger down her throat to
the swell of her breast, then over her belly.

"When I first started making love to you, you
acted like a scared rabbit. As if you feared I would hurt you. Why
is that, Meg? Who was the brutal lover in your life. Is it
Zach?"

"No!" Meg denied hotly.

Jess's voice hardened. "Keep Zach out of your
bed from no on. Maybe what you feel for Zach isn't love. Could it
be pity?"

"Zach wouldn't stand for my pity," Meg
scoffed.

Jess's finger paused in the soft thatch
between her legs. "What now, Meg? Where do we go from here?"

"What we did just now changes nothing."

Jess went still. "It changes everything. I
don't want you living here with Zach any longer."

Meg surged upright, her expression fierce.
"You have no right to tell me what to do. This is my home. Zach
needs me. He's not a well man."

"He looked fine to me today."

"Zach finally admitted to me that he has a
bad heart. The medicine you gave him helps but we both know his
condition will worsen."

Jess didn't know why he was making demands on
Meg when he had no right to demand anything of her. He was a wanted
man. The law could catch up to him today, tomorrow, or never. He
could offer her nothing except an uncertain future. Meg was a
bounty hunter, how could he expect her to feel anything for him but
revulsion when she learned he was a wanted man?