Elizabeth Lowell (19 page)

“Hush,” he breathed against her lips, moving his head slowly from side to side, gentling her with soft kisses. “You’re all right, little one. You’re safe with me. I won’t let anything hurt you.”

She parted her lips to explain that she wasn’t frightened any longer, but the gentle glide of his tongue into her mouth stole from her both the ability and the desire to speak. This was totally unlike the kiss he had given her before. His mouth was seductive rather than demanding, his tongue tempting rather than overwhelming. The sliding, hot, almost secret touches were unbearably sweet.

Without realizing it, she began to return his caresses. At first the movements of her tongue were tentative, but when his arms tightened, bringing her even closer to his body, she knew that he was enjoying the kiss as much as she was.

Ty felt the hesitant touch of Janna’s tongue as though it were a soft flame. The knowledge that she wasn’t frightened of him both reassured him and tightened every muscle in his body with the anticipation and hunger that had been growing in him since he had first looked through a haze of pain into her clear, compassionate eyes. Even though he had been beaten, bloodied, half-dead with exhaustion, some elemental male level of awareness within himself had seen past her clothes and recognized the essential female presence beneath.

“Janna,” he sighed. He nuzzled her lips, trying to part them again, knowing he shouldn’t. He was too hungry, blood rushing too hotly, the aftermath of danger and adrenaline mixed wildly with his need of her. “Let me kiss you, really kiss you. It won’t be like the other time. I won’t hurt you,” he whispered, licking her lips gently, feeling her tremble. “Do you trust me not to hurt you?”

The sweet glide of his tongue over her sensitized lips made her shiver again. She knew that her moment had finally arrived, the moment when she could get even with him for making fun of her lack of allure. He wanted her now. He couldn’t deny it. It was there in the tension of his body, in his ragged breath, in the heat of his flesh hard against her hip.

Trembling, she breathed her answer into his mouth, tasting him. “I trust you.”

With gentle, inevitable movements of his head, Ty fitted his mouth more deeply to Janna’s. She felt herself tasted and enjoyed in the sensuous rhythm of penetration and retreat, advance and withdrawal, the cycle repeated endlessly, like flames dancing up from a campfire. Each caressing movement of their joined mouths brought more and more pleasure until her whole body trembled in anticipation of the next touch, the next intimate tasting, the next languid tangling of warm tongues.

Heat stole beneath her skin, flushing her face, shortening her breath. Bubbles of sensation grew slowly inside her, expanding with each warm movement of his tongue until she shivered and a bubble burst, drenching her with golden heat. And then pleasure gathered again, burst sweetly, made her shiver and moan Ty’s name.

The slender hands buried in his hair flexed and relaxed in the same rhythms of Janna’s tongue—seeking, stroking, finding, mating with the slow, deep motions he had taught her. The sensuous, searching caresses brought a violent hardening of Ty’s flesh that both shocked and dismayed him, telling him that he was very close to the edge of his self-control.

With an effort he turned aside from her mouth.

“Little one,” he whispered, grabbing her hands, stilling them. “Don’t.”

When Janna felt Ty’s withdrawal, she was unable to control a soft cry of protest. “I thought—I thought you wanted—”

Her voice broke. She didn’t try to speak again. The loss of his warmth was devastating to her. Even the hushed light of dusk couldn’t conceal the hurt twisting through her at his abrupt rejection. Just as she gathered herself to turn away from him, he shifted his hands and pinned her in place.

“Hell yes, I want you,” he whispered fiercely, looming over her. “I want your hands all over me. I want to take off your clothes and put my hands all over you, and then I want to open your legs and slide into that soft body of yours and feel you take every bit of me. I want it so much I couldn’t stand up straight right now to save my soul.”

The look of stunned disbelief on her face made him want to laugh and swear at the same time.

“Can’t you feel me shaking?” he demanded, barely remembering to keep his voice low. “Do you think it’s because of that fool snake? Hell, I’ve eaten bigger snakes than that and looked around for seconds. It’s you that’s making me shake. You’ve been driving me crazy since I first came to after hiding from Cascabel and saw your beautiful gray eyes watching me.”

“You th-thought I was a boy,” she accused in a low voice.

“I thought you were too damned sexy, girl
or
boy, because my britches had a better grip on the truth than my eyes did. My eyes kept telling me that you were a boy and I was some kind of crazy to get all hot and bothered when you touched me. My britches kept telling me that you were as female as they come and I was some kind of moron not to peel off your clothes and get better acquainted.”

The hands that had been tightly gripping Janna eased and began rubbing her shoulders with gentle, circular motions.

“I know you’ve been hurt in the past,” he said, his voice low, carrying no farther than her ears. “And I want you so bad that I can’t even think, but I would cut off my fingers rather than hurt you. And the way you were kissing me...” He closed his eyes as a sensual echo resonated through his body, tightening his loins until he had to clench his teeth against the bittersweet ache. “Do you want me, little one?”

Janna tried to speak but she had no breath. Her heart was wedged in her throat, blocking the passage of air. Seeing Ty’s need turned her inside out. She wanted to hold his head against her body and comb her fingers soothingly through his hair. And she wanted to kiss and be kissed again, teasing his tongue with her own and tasting him in a slow, secret kind of dance that made pleasure expand and softly burst deep within her body. Her need to experience that again was so great it was pain.

She wondered if that same need was what drew his face into taut line, and if he ached, too.

“Ty?” she whispered.

His eyes opened. In the fading light they were a green as deep as the forest itself.

“I...” Her voice died. She licked her lips and felt the sudden tension in his body as his glance followed her tongue. “Did you like kissing me?”

He almost laughed in the instant before he remembered that any knowledge she had of men was brief and brutal.

“Yes,” he murmured, brushing his open
mouth over hers. “I liked it. Did you?”

He felt her breath hesitate, catch, then flow over his face in a sweet sigh of agreement. Smiling, he gently caught her lower lip between his teeth, testing the warmth and resilience of her flesh. She went very still in the instant before she trembled and made a small sound.

“I’m sorry,” he said, releasing her. “I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

“You didn’t,” she said quickly. “I don’t know what’s wrong. It just felt so good it made something burst inside me and I went all shivery. I’m sorry.”

His breath caught and his eyes narrowed in sensual response to her words. Whatever might have happened to Janna in the past, she was a total innocent when it came to the pleasure a woman could find in the arms of a loving man. The thought of teaching her the secrets hidden within her body made Ty feel hot, heavy, thoroughly masculine.

“Don’t be sorry,” he said huskily. “I like knowing that I’ve pleased you.”

“You do?” she whispered, looking at his lips, wanting to taste him again, to feel his tongue moving within her mouth.

“Yes.” He smiled and nuzzled the slanting line of her cheekbone until he came to the silky edge of her hair. He stripped off her hat and headband, untied the rawhide thongs holding her braids and unraveled them until his hands were full of the cool fire of her hair. He made an sound of pleasure as he searched blindly with his mouth for the tempting curves of her ear. “I want to please you, little one. Will you tell me if I do?”

“Y-yes.”

“Yes,” Ty breathed as he found Janna’s ear with the tip of his tongue, teased the rim and then penetrated the hidden, sensitive core.

Frissons of pleasure tightened her skin, sending telltale parades of goose bumps up and down her arms. She made a startled sound and her hands tightened on his shirt in sensual reflex. When his tongue repeated the penetration again and then again, she felt a sensation like wires tightening deep within her body, making her feel languid and restless at the same time.

“More?” Ty whispered, biting Janna’s ear delicately.

He felt her helpless shiver of response and his lips shifted into a very masculine smile of approval and triumph. Before she could speak he softly devoured her ear, his tongue pressing into its core with the same rhythmic movements that had made pleasure swell and burst within her before. Her husky, barely audible moan made him feel as though he were being bathed in golden fire.

With a swift movement of his head Ty captured Janna’s mouth. There was no surprise this time when his tongue slid between her teeth, filling her mouth with the taste and feel and textures of his hungry kiss. She answered him by spearing her fingers into his hair and holding his mouth hard upon her own, moaning softly at the sensual heat of him, wanting to take that heat within her own body. The rhythmic caress of tongue against tongue was reinforced by the unconscious movements of her body against his as she tried to ease the heaviness and aching that had condensed in her tightly bound breasts and between her restless legs.

Making a sound halfway between a curse and a prayer, he gently disengaged from her hot embrace.

“Before you ask,” he said, breathing quickly, audibly, keeping his voice low, “I liked having your body rubbing over mine. I liked it too damn much. I don’t want to hurt you, little one. That means we have to take it slow for a bit longer, until you’re ready.” He closed his eyes and wondered how the hell he would manage it. “Which means that you’ll have to give me a minute or two to catch my breath.”

“Can I talk while you breathe?” she asked hesitantly, keeping her voice as low as his.

He laughed softly despite the savage ache between his legs. Leaning down, he brushed his lips over her mouth, tasting her with a single quick stroke of his tongue before straightening and smiling down at her.

“What do you want to talk about?” he murmured.

“I wish it was darker. Then you wouldn’t see me blush when I ask you.”

“I’m glad it isn’t darker,” he whispered, nibbling on her chin. “I want to see you, blushes and all. Especially the ‘all.’ What’s your question?”

“Will it—will you hurt me?”

“Oh, God,” Ty whispered, gathering Janna into his arms and rocking her gently against his body. “No, little one,” he said, kissing her hair, her ear, her flushed cheek, her eyelids, her lips, butterfly brushes that reassured her as
no words could have. “If I go slow and you try to relax and not be afraid, it won’t hurt you at all. And I’ll go slow, Janna. I’ll go slow if it kills me.”

Her arms crept up and around his neck. She pressed her face against the hot skin at the opening of his shirt.

“Will going slow spoil it for you?” she whispered. “I don’t want to make it bad for you. I want to please you, Ty. I want that so much I ache.”

“Going slow won’t spoil it. In fact, it can make it so good you feel like dying.”

“It can?”

Her voice was husky with the conflicting emotions racing through her, passion and nervousness and a hunger to touch and be touched that was completely new to her.

“It can,” Ty said. “At least, that’s what I’m told. I’ve never known that kind of pleasure myself.”

Janna tried to speak but had no voice. She licked her lips and tilted her head back until she could look into the darkly luminous green of his eyes.

“I want to pleasure you like that,” she whispered. “Will you teach me how?”

The husky intensity of Janna’s voice and her honesty made Ty want to ravish and cherish her in the same instant. The thought of teaching her how to tease and ease and pleasure him was more heady than any liquor he had ever drunk. He traced the lines of her face with his fingertips before caressing the taut curve of her neck and the warm flesh inside her collar. Inevitably his fingers found and undid the first button of her shirt. He bent and pressed his lips against the pulse beating rapidly just beneath her skin.

“Janna,” he said, breathing her name as much as saying it, “I hope to God I can set fire to you half as hot as you set fire to me. If I can, we’ll burn down the whole damn plateau.”

“Is that—is that good?”

“Ask me tomorrow,” he said, barely stifling a groan as he felt the leap and quickening of her pulse at the touch of his tongue.

Then he could deny himself no longer the minor consummation of her mouth. He kissed her slowly, deeply, hungrily, as he finished unbuttoning her shirt. When the cloth parted he expected to find the warmth of her flesh beneath. Instead he found thick layers of fabric and no buttons at all. Even after he took her arms out of the sleeves of her shirt, he could see no way of removing the layers of cloth that bound her.

“What the hell?” he muttered.

Belatedly Janna realized that her shirt was unbuttoned and he was looking at the wrapping she used to flatten her breasts, disguising her feminine outline.

“Do you sew yourself into that thing?” he asked, giving her a crooked smile that made her toes curl.

She laughed helplessly, torn between embarrassment and the delicious feeling of having his hands caressing her bare arms. His palms stroked her from her wrists to her shoulders, caressing her inner arms with his long fingers. As he softly probed, he discovered the place beneath her left arm where she tucked in the tail of the cloth, securing the wrapping.

“So that’s how you do it.”

Pulling the end of the cloth free, Ty turned it back upon itself several times, rolling it loosely. When he had unrolled the fabric across her chest and under her other arm, he put his hand just below her shoulder blades and arched her back enough that he could reach beneath, continuing the slow unwrapping.