A Kiss in the Dark (9 page)

“I want you inside me,” she breathed into his ear, and raised a leg across his hips to emphasize her meaning.

Cole lifted his head. Her skin had flushed and her breathing was unsteady. She moistened her lips and squeezed her hand around him, and Cole was a goner.

“A condom,” he managed to mutter. “I don’t have a condom.”

“I’m on the Pill,” she said quickly, and when he sharpened his attention on her, she gave him a smile. “I’ve been on it since college. I’m safe, in all the ways that matter.”

“I’m safe, too,” he finally said. “So if you’re sure…”

“I am.” As if to prove her point, she shifted so that he lay nestled between her thighs, his erection flush against her.

With a rough sound of need, he reached down and grasped her buttocks. All he could think about was being inside her—being part of her. She’d occupied his thoughts every moment of the day. It was like he’d discovered a secret treasure he wanted to keep to himself for as long as possible, while at the same time he wanted to climb to the tallest rooftop and shout it out to the world. She groaned deeply as he pressed, hard and hot, against the most intimate part of her, and then he was pushing himself into her welcoming moistness.

She gasped in pleasure and raised her legs higher, wrapping them around his hips even as she met the thrusts of his tongue against hers with equal fervor. God, she felt incredible, all slick heat and pulsating tightness. He grasped her silken buttocks in his hands and drove himself into her, knowing he wasn’t being gentle, but beyond the point where he could restrain himself. She rode him just as fiercely, moving beneath him with equal urgency. Her fingers speared through his hair and she was moaning into his mouth, making small sounds of pleasure.

He dragged his lips from hers and slid one hand between their straining bodies. “I want you to come,” he growled softly. “With me inside you.”

“You feel so good,” she gasped against his neck.

Cole stroked her hard and she cried out, arching her back. He stroked her again and a shudder went through her body. He felt her tightening around him, gripping and squeezing him until, with a harsh cry, he climaxed in a powerful rush of exquisite pleasure, heat surging up from his balls to explode inside her.

Her arms came around him as he collapsed against her, and the only sound in the room was their harsh breathing. Her fingers stroked his hair, and Cole turned his face and pressed a kiss against the juncture of her neck and shoulder, where her skin was damp with exertion. She smelled wonderful and she felt good in his arms. She’d said she was safe in all the ways that mattered, but in that instant, he knew she was wrong.

She was a danger to him in more ways than she realized.

8

C
OLE
OPENED
THE
fridge and grabbed two bottles of water, tucking them beneath one arm before picking up both plates of sandwiches. “C’mon. It’s a gorgeous night. Let’s eat outside.”

He and Lacey had showered, and while she dressed, he made them both some food. Now he led the way to the porch at the back of the house and settled himself on a swinging settee, indicating that Lacey should sit next to him.

“Here.” He handed her a plate and tucked the bottles of water between them. He nodded toward the horizon. “Take a look.”

Lacey gazed out over the panorama that lay before them, and Cole saw her eyes widen in awed pleasure. It made him feel ridiculously pleased. The cabin had been carefully situated to take advantage of the sweeping vista of valley and mountains, bathed tonight in the soft glow of moonlight.

“It’s beautiful,” she breathed.

Cole hadn’t taken his gaze from Lacey, and now he let it drift down over her profile, over the smooth forehead and gentle slope of cheek and nose, past the softly parted lips to the chin that bore the slightest trace of a cleft.

“Yeah,” he agreed, “it sure is.”

She shot him a swift look and then gave him a soft smile of pleasure. “This is nice,” she said. “Really nice. I’d forgotten how much I love the mountains.”

Cole gave her a warmly quizzical look. “Don’t they have mountains in New England?”

“Of course, but not like this, And I live about five minutes from the ocean, so a trip to the mountains means having to drive for at least a couple of hours.”

“How do you like being on the coast?”

Lacey took a sip of her water and nodded. “I love it. I’m not sure I could be landlocked. Although this would be very hard to give up.”

“Leaving Black Stone Gap was the hardest thing I ever did,” he acknowledged. “But I understand why you love living near the water. My place in Virginia is right on the beach and I fall asleep to the sound of the surf.”

“Wow. That sounds amazing. My house isn’t quite that close to the water.”

“I’ll bring you to Virginia. We can fall asleep together.”

Lacey didn’t say anything. Instead, she slipped her arm through his and put her head against his shoulder. But he knew what she was thinking; that once she returned to New England, whatever it was they had would be over.

He brought her hand up to his mouth and pressed a kiss against her palm.
Baby,
he thought,
you have no idea how wrong you are.

* * *

B
Y
THE
LIGHT
of the bedside lamp, Lacey stared at her own reflection in the overhead skylights. She looked small and alone in the generous bed. She
felt
small and alone. The windows were black, and because she had the bedside light on, she couldn’t even see the billions of stars that she knew blanketed the sky.

How had her entire life changed in the space of two days? She’d never before met a man like Cole MacKinnon. She couldn’t stop thinking about him. She’d insisted on sleeping in the guestroom despite Cole’s objections. Somehow, it had seemed presumptuous of her to assume that Cole would want her to move into his room for the remainder of her stay, and she hadn’t given him the opportunity to try and change her mind. To his credit, he’d apparently meant what he said when he’d told her that any relationship they had would be on her terms.

Now she wished she hadn’t been so insistent on sleeping alone. Once she got home, she’d be alone every night. But Cole was meeting with Buck Rogan in the morning, and she wanted him to be well rested. Neither of them had gotten any sleep the previous night, and he needed to be sharp and alert.

With a groan, she rolled over and buried her face in her pillow, scrunching the soft mound in her hands. Even now, her body craved his touch. She thought of how she’d left him earlier, standing in the middle of the kitchen, watching her through heated eyes as she practically bolted for the stairs that led to the guestroom. She hadn’t given him the chance to pull her into his arms, knowing if he did, she’d be lost. She had no willpower where he was concerned; if he kissed her, she’d be toast.

She flopped onto her back, restless. She didn’t know how long she’d been lying awake, thinking about him. About them. Hours, it seemed. Memories of their lovemaking haunted her. God, she’d been so desperate for him. The only thing that had mattered was him, hot and hard inside her. He’d been so powerfully masculine, surging into her, his face taut with desire.

For her.

Her skin felt flushed and overheated. Just thinking about it made her want him again. Thanks to him, she was becoming familiar with the needs of her body, recognizing the slow, throbbing pulse that signaled her desire. Even her breasts ached, her nipples tight and erect.

With a despairing huff of breath, Lacey threw aside the sheet that covered her and swung her legs over the side of the bed. The room suddenly felt overly warm; suffocating. Even the circulating ceiling fan did little to cool her heated flesh. She thought longingly of the swinging bench on the front porch of the cabin. It had to be cooler out there than in here, and the idea of lounging on the cushioned swing with a bottle of chilled water seemed the perfect antidote to her current ailment.

She crept carefully down the stairs, alert to any sign Cole might not be sleeping. Given her current state, she’d probably attack
him.
She retrieved water from the fridge and headed for the porch. As soon as she stepped outside, she drew in a grateful breath. The humidity had dissipated and the temperature was, thankfully, cooler than it had been in her bedroom. She leaned on the railing, drinking in the cool night air as she tried to push away the thoughts of Cole that still threatened to invade her peace.

The night was far from quiet, however. The sound of crickets was everywhere, interspersed with the occasional hoot of a night owl, and the distant scream of something Lacey didn’t want to think about. Fireflies dotted the lawn below the deck, their blinking lights like a reflection of the overhead stars. Tilting her head back, Lacey studied them. She had never seen stars like this in the city. They were brilliant, and so abundant it was as if some careless hand had strewn billions of diamonds across the sky.

A masculine voice cleared itself behind her. With a small cry of surprise, she jerked upright and dropped the bottle of water that dangled from her fingers. Cole lounged back on the swinging settee, much as she had imagined herself doing. Copper lay sprawled at his feet, and now his tail thumped lazily in greeting. Cole wore a pair of boxer briefs and nothing else. His face, however, was cast in shadow and she was unable to discern his expression.

“I didn’t realize you were out here,” she said. “I couldn’t sleep. It must be the heat.”

Cole sat up and swung his legs to the porch floor. “I didn’t mean to startle you. Come join me.”

Lacey hesitated. She couldn’t be blamed for keeping him awake if he was already up. She was so tempted.

“Come here,” he said gruffly, reading her thoughts. “You just said it was hot up there—stay until you’ve cooled down.”

It
was
much cooler out here than indoors. Surely it wouldn’t hurt just to sit with him for a bit. Picking up her bottle of water from where she had dropped it, she crossed the porch and settled on the swing, tucking her bare legs beneath her. Cole’s arm rested along the cushion behind her head, and he used one long, muscled leg to push them into a gentle swing.

“So what’s up for you tomorrow?”

Lacey fingered her bottled water. “Well, if it’s not too much to ask, I need a ride back out to the Rod and Gun Club in the morning. I’m going to run through several more demonstrations of the GPS units with the team.”

In the darkness, she heard his small grunt of exasperation. “It’s not too much to ask, Lacey. I’m happy to drive you wherever you need to go. You know that.”

She slanted him a rueful smile. “Thanks. I appreciate that.”

“There’s a county fair over in Pikesville this weekend. I could pick you up early and we could head over there.” He continued to push the swing gently with his toe. “You might enjoy it.”

Lacey hesitated. Images of cotton candy, Ferris wheels, and strolling hand in hand with this man through the arcades was more tempting than she cared to admit. “Aren’t you meeting with Buck Rogan in the morning?”

“That’s just an informal meeting. I’m not officially on the clock until Monday morning. It’s supposed to be a gorgeous day tomorrow. It’d be a shame to spend it working.”

The gentle rocking motion of the swing was almost hypnotic. Lacey looked over at Cole; at all that lean, hard muscle gleaming softly in the moonlight. He’d said his meeting with Buck wasn’t formal and he wouldn’t actually begin working in the mines for a few more days. Acknowledging that it was useless for her to even try to resist him, Lacey uncurled her legs and stretched out until she reclined back against his solid frame. His arms came around her, and Lacey sighed in pleasure, admitting that this was what she had been missing, alone in that bed.

“I don’t know,” she mused now, teasing him just a little. “I’m not sure I can spare the time. I have a lot of work to do while I’m here.”

She thought he would tease her a little in return, maybe even use some physical persuasion to get her to agree to go with him. Instead, he was oddly quiet as he continued to push them with his foot.

“What is it?” she asked, twisting to look at him. “What’s wrong?”

“At the club tonight, when I said I didn’t want you to go into the mines, I meant it. I don’t want you near those tunnels.”

“Why?”

Cole hesitated. “Call it intuition. I have a bad vibe about them and I’d feel a lot better if you just stayed away.”

Lacey stared at him, wondering where this had come from. “Cole, nothing is going to happen. I’m not afraid to go into the mines, and you shouldn’t be afraid to let me go.”

“What’s so important about this GPS unit that you need to field-test it inside the tunnels? You won’t be able to pick up a signal.”

“No, that’s where you’re wrong. You see, it’s a prototype that we designed for NASA. It can operate beneath the earth’s surface. The coal mines are the perfect environment to test its functionality. NASA wants us to start full production right away. This contract is huge for StarPoint Technologies, and could really put the company on the map. My boss is depending on me to get this done.”

Untangling himself from her, Cole stood abruptly up, causing Lacey to hang on tight as the swing lurched into unsteady motion. He raked a hand over his hair, seemingly oblivious to the fact he was wearing no more than a pair of boxer briefs.

But Lacey was aware. He was all satiny skin over sculpted muscles that layered their way down his stomach. She could see the faintest trace of dark hair that ran downward from his navel and disappeared beneath the waistband of his boxers. The briefs hugged his lean hips and molded themselves over the tops of his powerful thighs. They clung lovingly to the impressive bulge of his…

With a half groan, Lacey tore her gaze from where it was riveted, closed her eyes and took a healthy swig of the water, but the chilled liquid did little to cool her overheated senses. Swiping the moisture from her mouth with the back of her hand, she looked helplessly up at him.

“You need to trust me on this,” he said. “My best friend died in those tunnels. I won’t let you take that risk.”

Lacey felt her heart tighten with compassion and something else; a recognition of sorts. Setting the water bottle down, she stood up and slid her arms around Cole’s waist. He hugged her fiercely.

“Nothing is going to happen to me, Cole, I promise.”

“You don’t know that. Devon was an experienced miner who always put safety first. If it could happen to him, it could happen to anyone.”

“Listen to me,” Lacey said, using the calm, rational tone that she had perfected when talking with her mother. “I understand your concern, I really do. Don’t you think that I worry about you working in those mines? But I would never try to talk you out of doing your job. And this is my job, Cole. This means so much to me. If I can demonstrate that STAR is operational, the potential for saving lives is limitless.”

“It’s more complicated than that.”

“How so? You’re the engineer—is there something you know about the mines that you’re not saying?”

He sharpened his gaze on her. “What? No. I told you, it’s just a feeling I have. But I do know that the number of mining accidents has increased over the past few years.”

An image of her father lying trapped beneath hundreds of feet of rock flashed through Lacey’s imagination. “Is it just one mine, or all the mines in the area?”

Cole rolled his shoulders and turned abruptly to stare out into the darkness. “I don’t know. Like I said, I just get a bad feeling about it.”

Lacey understood. She dreaded going into those dank tunnels, but her father’s death compelled her to do just that. She’d never rest until she’d assured herself that STAR worked as intended. She wouldn’t be able to think of her father at peace until she found some way to ensure that another miner didn’t die the way he had. So even though Cole might have reservations about her going into the mines, Lacey knew she had no other choice.

“I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not crazy about the idea,” she confessed. “But I have a job to do. Maybe if you talked to Buck Rogan, he’d agree to let you come with me.”

After a moment, he blew out a hard breath. “If this is something you absolutely have to do, I’d prefer that. Would you mind if I came with you?”

Lacey couldn’t help it. Her entire body flushed with heat at his words. Her only excuse was that she’d been consumed with thought about him all night, and now here he was, almost naked and too tempting for her to resist. The empty aching sensation that had plagued her earlier became an insistent throbbing and her nipples tightened instantly. She wanted him again.

Badly.

“I’d like for you to come with me,” she said suggestively. “Over and over.”