Worth the Drive (13 page)

He lifted his head, stared at her and nodded, understanding. Looking sorry that he’d brought up the subject. “And the other?”

Other? What other? Then Katie remembered protection was used for more than unwanted pregnancies. It had been so long since unprotected sex was any kind of issue for her.

“I was tested after I found out Ron had cheated. I’m fine.” She wouldn’t go into the humilia
tion she’d felt at asking for
STD and HIV test
s
after being married for
so long
. The nurses had heard, of course, that Ron had left her, had found someone who could bear him a child. They treated her with respect and just a touch of pity. It was another one of those times she hated living in a small town.

“I was tested for my
yearly physical
a few months ago, and have been with no one since,”
Darío
said.

She believed him. Maybe that was naïve of her. But
he
believed
her
. Plus, she desperately wanted this man inside her. To pound into her. To pound out all thoughts. To pound away everything and everybody else. If only for now. If only for one night.

“Then we’re good to go,” she said, wriggling under him. She took a hand from his head and stroked down his back. “Or we will be when you get those pants off.”

He chuckled and kneeled up to undo his belt and fly. She brushed his hands away, undid the zipper and eased his pants and briefs down to his knees just as he made a move to stand up. Her movement made him lose his balance and he fell on the floor, his pants wrapped around his knees.

“Oh God,
Darío
, I’m so sorry. Are you okay?” She peered over the edge of the bed to see him sprawled on the floor, legs held akimbo by his pants, his penis jutting and hard.

He waved away her offer of a helping hand and stood, taking his pants off at the same time. “You know,
Gata
, making love with you could be
muy
dangerous.”

Katie was almost offended until she saw the twinkle of humor in his warm, brown eyes. She sat back on her haunches and deliberately eyed his erection. “Enter at your own risk, then,” she purred.

His crooked smile ran through her,
leaving her tingling almost as much as when he sucked on her nipple
. “I believe I’ll take that risk.” He knelt on the bed, coming eye to eye with her. Without touching her body, he leaned forward to claim her mouth.

His kiss was hungry, urgent. He tasted of coffee and he smelled like sunshine and grass. It had been so long since Katie had been kissed by anyone other than Ron.
Darío
kissed so differently. He was raw, untamed. It was such a contrast to the poised, controlled man Katie had watched on the golf course for two days. This man did not kiss like a man who limited his beer intake. This man did not kiss like a man so disciplined he would shoot balls well into the twilight until he holed ten bunker shots in a row.

This man did not kiss like Ron.

That was the main thing. There would be nothing with
Darío
that would remind her of Ron. They were too different.
Darío
was dark, for one. His arms were much darker than the rest of him, of course, due to being on the course in golf shirts every day. A farmer’s tan was what they called it in Michigan. But the rest of his skin was still a golden brown.

Ron was fair, blond
and blue-eyed just like herself. The golden couple
, people had called them.

She’
d thought they were.

Darío
was smaller than Ron in height, his body more compact, his strength lean and compressed. No bulging biceps that Ron had worked so hard to keep up. She ran her hands up
Darío
’s arms, as if to prove the difference to herself. She liked the way they felt. There was no denying his strength, it
just wasn’t so
blatant.

His hands went to her waist, gently pushing her down to her back, then skimmed her panties off. He knelt between her legs, looking at her. She opened her eyes, knowing what look she’d see on his face. She’d seen it on Ron’s face every time they made love, even in the end. Awe. Reverence.

She supposed she should like that, but it always unsettled her. She knew she had a great body by society’s standards, and if she’d had to work for it, she’d take more pride in it. But, li
ke her high cheekbones and startl
ing blue eyes, she’d been born with these genes, and her body was no more her doing than the shape of her mouth.

But
Darío
’s look was not one of awe or reverence. He did not look at her like she was a prize that he’d won, one he did not deserve. He looked at her with appreciation, sure, but more desire than devotion. More wanting than worshipping
.
And then he gave her that smile and she knew this would not be anywhere near what she’d experienced with Ron.

His hand went to her blond
curls, fingers probing, separating, searching. He found her wet and swollen. A soft moan escaped her lips, her head fell back.

“No, Katie, look at me,” he whispered. When she did, he flashed her another smile and began stroking her on her bud which was quickly becoming
i
nflamed
. “You feel so good. You are so wet, so ready for me. Do you want me inside of you?”

She could only nod her head, so swept up in the sensation. “Tell me, Katie.”

She could barely gasp out the words, he had her so close to the edge now, his fingers circling her clitoris with expert care, quickening his rhythm. “I want…I want… Oh God, that feels so good, don’t stop doing that.” She dropped her head back again, her neck unable to bear the weight.

“Look at me, Katie, watch while I make you come. Watch my fingers dance on you. Watch what they do to you. What you make happen, Katie.” His smile was gone now, but there was no
edge in his voice. He
didn’t seem to be
playing power games,
but more that
he just wanted Katie to share this moment with him.

She raised her head, came up on her elbows and watched as
Darío
stroked her into oblivion. When the shudders overtook her, her elbows gave out and she flopped, gracelessly back onto the bed. She didn’t care. She only cared that this feeling went on and on. He tried to oblige her, coaxing and teasing more out of her, finally letting her come down.

When her breathing felt as though it may – someday – return to normal, she looked up at him, expecting to find a self-satisfied smile. He only looked back at her with a heat and desire that took her breath away. “I want you inside me,” she whispered.

He nodded and
removed his hands from her, causing her to moan again. He ran his hands down her legs, leaving a trail of heat, and took hold of her ankles. He brought them up to his body, kissing the soles of both her feet, then placing them over his shoulders. He saw the look of shock in Katie’s eyes. “Trust me, this will be good.”

It wasn’t as if she and Ron hadn’t tried every position imaginable.
But over seventeen years
. This man had her doing creative things with him on their first night together.

Their only night together, she reminded herself, and allowed her legs to relax, his shoulders taking their weight.

He entered slowly, but without hesitation. “
Sí
, you are
muy
dangerous,
Gata
.”

It had been so long. To have a man inside of her, to feel his pulse deep within h
er
. To be joined. To belong to someone, if only for a while.

He began to move, his eyes never leaving hers. He found different rhythms, tried different speeds, teased her with pulling out till she moaned for more. When she was near to another climax,
he seemed to know, letting
himself go at his natural pace, pounding into her as she’d wanted, grasping her hips as she watched her ankles bounce on his shoulders until they both came in deep, loud gasps.

It wasn’t love. It wasn’t undying passion.
It was physical. It was raw. It was
exactly
what she
needed.

There was no warmth, but there was definitely heat.

Heat that
caused a thaw in Katie’s soul. She thought of those cold commercials where the person freezes solid and then with the right remedy, the ice around them cracks and they go on with their daily lives. Her body felt like it was cracking, as if something cold was falling away and she could now go on with her daily life. She could live again.

Darío
was her remedy.

He played on, his groove just a little off from what it had been the previous two days, but no one seemed to be making a charge up the leaderboard, so he’d probably be in the final pairing tomorrow.

“Not quite what it was the last two days, Guv, but no one seems to be making a game of it,” Binky said, echoing
Darío
’s thoughts.

“A bit different today, without your good luck charm here, right?” Binky teased.

He pulled his eyes from the gallery to nod at Binky as they walked to the green on eighteen. He’d watched the crowd today much more than he normally did. He knew Katie wouldn’t be there, that at this moment she was on a
plane headed back to Michigan? P
erhaps she’d even landed by now. But a small part of him had held out hope that maybe she would change her plans, maybe she’d decide to stay for the weekend.

He’d seen a flash of blond
hair the exact shade as Katie’s when he’d been on the third hole, but had been disappointed. He had an image of Katie below him, her slender ankles hooked over his shoulders. If he was honest with himself, he’d been thinking about her in that position since Barclay had mentioned it on the course Thursday. He was immensely relieved that they were his shoulders and not Barclay’s.

Bah!
He should not let a woman take away his focus on the course like this. It was certainly not the first time he had ended up in bed with a woman he’d met on the course. It wasn’t a regular occurrence, but when you were on the road over thirty weeks a year, sometimes it became a necessity. Still,
Darío
much preferred bedding a woman he knew and liked rather than one for the physical comfort.

But Katie was not like those women, of that he was sure. And that was why he was thinking about her rather than possibly winning a golf tournament for the first time in a very, very long time.

He needed to win this tournament. Winning was important to him. That’s what got him on the cover of magazines and newspapers. The third place finisher didn’t have his name and picture on the front page. And that was important to
Darío
. There was someone out there he wanted to
show that
he was a winner.

Determined to shake Katie from his mind and get back to the task at hand, he asked, “How was the poker game last night, Binky?”

Binky shrugged as he cleaned off
Darío
’s four iron he’d just used to knock the ball four feet from the pin. “Same as always. We all thought we had a chance, but Franny walked off with all our money.”

Darío
smiled. He didn’t ask about the game every week, but it seemed that whenever he did the story was the same. Leave it to a woman to walk into a man’s domain and leave him destitute.

Yes, today, without Katie on the course, even leading the tournament, he felt destitute. He’d felt it when he’d woken to find her gone from his bed, and he’d not been able to shake the feeling all day. Images again rose of Katie, of her long limbs slung over his shoulders, of her body shuddering beneath his
.
It was a night he would not soon forget.

It had been wonderful.

It had been awful.

Well, not exactly awful, but awkward, different. So unlike what she was used to.

Different from Ron is what you really mean.

Her body still tingled in places that
Darío
had paid close attention to. No, definitely not awful. But very, very different.

Katie looked out the window of the plane. They were over the heartland, but it looked like one big brown blob to her. She slid down the window shade and leaned her head back, thinking maybe she could catch up on some of the sleep she missed last night.

“What time did you come into the room? You look so tired, KitKat,” Lizzie asked from the seat next to her.

Lizzie’
d been sound asleep when Katie had crept into the room at six-thirty in the morning. She’d been able to use the bathroom and slide into her bed without waking Lizzie. “I’m not sure, it wasn’t very late. What time did you go to sleep?”

“I’ve been so tired lately, I fell asleep at ten-thirty, can you believe that? How lame, eh?”