Firestorm (8 page)

Only after he’d tossed them onto the night stand beside her bed did she realize that not once had he stopped looking at her.

“You can put one on me, honey.”

“What?”

“A condom. I don't have sex without one. Ever. Not even if you’re on the Pill.”

Kate’s cheeks grew hot with embarrassment. “I’m not.”

“I didn’t think so.” He moved back within her reach and took her hands. Bending to brush his lips across hers, he dragged her hands to his waistband.

“Feel what you do to me,” he rasped, moving one of her hands down until it rested on his distended fly. “Have you done this before?”

“No.” She’d never considered herself a sexual being before she met Jake. But when he strained against her hand like this, all she wanted was to take his hot, heavy sex inside her.

“I’ll go easy.” His uncharacteristically gentle words poured over her like warm, sweet honey. “I’ll make it good for you.”

“I know.”

“Undress me. Touch me,” he whispered.

Ann Jacobs

Firestorm

46

She rubbed her palm against the heated ridge of his sex, felt him grow even harder at her touch.

“That feels like heaven, honey. Take off my pants. Please.”

Kate hesitated. Then, with shaking fingers, she managed to work the metal button loose. The zipper wasn't as easy. She wondered why its straining teeth hadn't already split apart.

Finally the zipper gave way. With shaking hands, she drew his snug jeans down thighs bulging with muscle and cushioned with soft, dark hair.

He shuddered when her knuckles brushed intimately against his taut male flesh without the impediment of heavy denim.

Knowing her touch affected him so strongly encouraged her to peel off his jeans quickly. When she stood again, she couldn’t help gasping at the way he looked, magnificently sculpted and naked except for the tight, navy briefs that emphasized his masculinity.

“Don't stop. The rest comes off easy.”

“I-I can’t.” She couldn't bring herself to strip away his underwear as brazenly as he seemed to expect her to.

“Okay. We’ll wait.”

“I'm sorry. Do you want me to lie down?”

“Not yet, honey. Come here.”

Instead of taking her in his arms, he knelt at her feet and began stroking his way up her legs. The touch of his rough, warm fingers on her own much softer flesh was incredibly arousing while at the same time it served to soothe her fears.

“What are you doing?” she asked when he moved in closer and blew gently on her pubic curls.

“Making you feel good. Come here.”

Puzzlement turned to embarrassment when he cupped her buttocks in both hands and started nibbling at her inner thighs. But it felt delicious. Tingly and hot and…

Still she almost stopped him when he nudged her legs apart and started caressing her between them with those gentle, work-roughened fingers. She burrowed her fingers into his thick, dark hair and reveled in its silky texture.

The sensations bubbling inside her felt…unbelievable. Like fire and ice, burning and chilling and making her seek something—something more she sensed lay just beyond her reach. “Don’t—don’t stop.”

“I’ve just started, honey.”

Ann Jacobs

Firestorm

47

By the time his mouth took over for his nimble fingers, she was burning as much with embarrassment at the unexpected intimacy as with the pleasure-pain from thousands of sparks converging inside her.

This couldn’t be right. She should stop him.

“Jake…” Oh, God, his tongue felt like hot wet velvet licking her clitoris and making it swell and harden. “Don’t…don’t stop,” she croaked as this incredible sensation of pleasure began there and cascaded through her body in undulating waves of white-hot, pulsing pleasure.

She’d waited all her life to feel this way. And they hadn’t even made love yet.

So hot he was damn near ready to explode, Jake raised his head.

Seeing Kate trembling, flushed and oblivious to everything except the release he had just given her, almost sent him over the edge. The flowery scent of her perfume mingled with smoke, with her sweat and his. He ought to bottle up the smell and sell it as an aphrodisiac.

Barely in control now, he scooped her up and set her on the edge of the bed.

He was beyond ready, so hard he hurt when he shucked his underwear and grabbed one of the tiny packets. Standing nude before her, he dropped the wrapped condom between her legs.

“Look at me, honey.”

When her eyes widened as she stared at his throbbing cock, he vaguely recalled through a haze of need that this sexy, sensual creature who had just climaxed at the touch of his hands and mouth was still a virgin.

He should run, get away. Escape from this woman who apparently was determined to give him much more than he was willing to return.

But he couldn’t.

He had to have her. Bury his cock inside that soft, welcoming warmth and ease the agony in his groin. Agony that spread like wildfire to every cell in his body.

“Touch me. You think I gave you pleasure, touching and kissing your clit? It’s nothing compared to how you’ll feel with me inside your tight little pussy.” God, but her hesitant stroking was going to make him come if she kept it up for long.

Her touch was warm, gentle, almost soothing. But when she touched him with her tongue and sucked the tip of his cock between her lips, he jerked away. He couldn’t take any more.

“Enough. Lady, you drive me wild. Put that condom on me now, or it'll be too late.”

He watched her fingers flutter when she ripped away the wrapper.

“Like this?” She positioned the rolled prophylactic gingerly at the tip of his erection.

Ann Jacobs

Firestorm

48

“Yeah, honey. Roll it on down.” Deliberately, stroking the thin latex over his cock, she sheathed him with a tenderness he could feel.

“Hurry!” She was driving him crazy with that condom.

Before she finished getting it just right, he had two fingers inside her, and the dewy wetness he found there told him she was ready. He shuddered when she traced his length and thickness again with trembling hands.

“You’re so big.” Her voice was tiny, quivering, as if she was afraid.

His cock was getting harder and hotter by the second, and the way she was stroking it was about to send him over the edge. “Just the right size to give you pleasure,” he muttered, hoping he could last long enough for that to happen.

He couldn’t if he waited any longer. As gently as he could, he pushed her down across the bed. Then he spread her legs and knelt between them. Slowly, carefully, he pressed into her hot, tight pussy.

As she let him in, he cursed the latex barrier that dulled sensations. Then, he blessed it, for she felt so unbelievably good. If he’d sunk his cock inside her pussy skin to skin, he’d have been lucky to last two minutes.

She thrust upward with her hips and wrapped her slender thighs around his waist.

He was in heaven, buried to the hilt within her satin embrace.

God, she was tight. She fit him like a glove. Groaning, he wished again that he could feel her hot, wet dew easing his way.

He wanted to savor her slick, hot moisture on the bare flesh of his cock.

He craved more contact. Supporting most of his weight on his elbows, he lowered his body to rest on hers. While he rotated his torso enough to tickle her taut nipples with the hair on his chest, he clamped his mouth over hers and plunged his tongue inside.

He needed to explode in her. But he wanted to stay buried inside her forever.

“Honey, you feel so damn good.” The effort of holding back his climax made him tremble all over.

Hips moving in tandem with the deep thrusts of his tongue in her mouth, he coaxed her to respond. And when she rose to meet him, he drove harder, faster. He gave her all she demanded.

Her fingernails raked his back. Her body quaked. The muscles inside her contracted violently around his cock.

Shuddering at the power of her orgasm, he thrust once more and came. Then he collapsed, pinning her under his nearly dead weight.

Ann Jacobs

Firestorm

49

When he could breathe again, he looked into her passion-glazed eyes. “You’re something, honey.” Taking her with him, he rolled to his side.

Their bodies were still joined, her legs still wrapped tightly around his hips. Her softness still surrounded his wrung-out cock. For a long time, Jake stayed in Kate’s embrace, reluctant to lose the closeness.

Damn it to hell! He didn't want to feel closeness. Just the release he’d sought and found. The feelings he couldn’t suppress reminded him too much of how he had cared for Alice. How much her betrayal had hurt.

He pulled away. When he did, her dreamy expression turned sad.

He felt guilty. But not guilty enough to throw good sense out her bedroom window.

Naked, he stood and touched her shoulder. When those aqua cat eyes opened and focused on his wrung-out cock, he grinned. “I'll be back, honey. I need to check out our protection. Where's the bathroom?”

Her face suddenly reddened, and she seemed unable to find her voice. As he limped off in the direction she had pointed, he thought idly that it had been a long time since he’d seen a lover blush.

* * * * *

Kate lay back, still caught up in the magic. Finally she knew what it meant to be a woman. To love a man.

And what a man Jake Green was!

He was big and tough and earthy. With a body like a statue of some ancient god.

Perfectly honed, beautiful in spite of the bruises that awful man had put on him from head to toe. The crisscrossed mesh of scars on one of his knees reminded her he was human, not the invincible hero he had first appeared to be.

And she had trouble believing how fantastic he’d made her feel.

Nothing in her previous experience compared with the sensation of having him inside her. Even if she could never experience his touch, the physical power of his work-hardened body again, she would be glad for having shared his passion.

But she couldn’t help dreaming that Jake would come to love her. Her eyelids fluttered and closed, and she tried to hold on to impossible illusions.

The cotton sheet slid away, followed by the rough-soft warmth of a damp cloth that moved gently from her belly to the tender, sensitive spots between her legs. Kate opened her eyes to feast on the naked beauty of the man who filled her heart as he had fulfilled her body.

“Sore?” he asked, his tone as intimate as the word was casual.

Ann Jacobs

Firestorm

50

“N-no. Well, maybe a little.” She flinched slightly. The moist heat soothed her, but she wished it were his bare, callused hand—or his hard, throbbing penis with its satiny smooth heat.

“Keep looking at me like that, honey, and I'll forget I need some time before we can do it again.” Jake finished bathing her and set the cloth on the nightstand. “Once wasn't enough, was it?” he asked softly, and from his expression Kate guessed that his question disturbed him.

“Was it for you?”

“Damn it, no.”

He stood and stared at the clothes they had so carelessly strewn across the floor.

Then he came and sat beside her on the bed. “Look. I don't want to leave you here alone. Isn’t there a friend or neighbor you could stay with for a few hours?”

“You can’t stay?”

He shook his head. “I've got to go see what's going on down at the well. Come on, get dressed. I'll run you over to a neighbor’s.”

“I'll be all right here. You don’t need to worry about me.” Kate forced a cheerful smile that didn't reach her heart.

“Yes, I do, for more reasons than the fact that at least one of our arsonists is still on the loose.”

Kate watched him pull up his briefs and jerk his jeans up. She couldn't help reaching out and stroking the silky skin of his bare back when he sat beside her to put on his socks and boots.

“You're so big, so beautiful,” she said, tracing well-defined cords of Jake’s shoulder muscles down to where they converged at his spine. She felt each nervous twitch, each subtle movement beneath her fingers. Maybe her touch affected him more than he wanted it to.

“I’d stay if I could. Believe me, honey, there's nothing I’d like better than to crawl back into that bed and mess around with you all night long.” He reached out and tugged at her hand, pulling her up with him. “Come on, now, get dressed and I’ll drop you off with one of your friends.”

Kate dragged the sheet around her when she realized she was still naked. To her surprise, she found that her still-tingling legs could support her weight. “I’d really rather stay here.”

“Not as long as we’ve got a firebug running loose.” Jake bent and picked up the clothes he’d stripped off her not long before. “Here. You want to call first?” he asked, glancing toward the small table that held David’s picture—and a phone.

Ann Jacobs

Firestorm

51

She couldn’t think of anyone closer than Becky who would welcome her gladly into their home. “I have a friend in Laurel,” she murmured. “But I can drive myself there.”

“No.”

* * * * *

Within minutes Jake had settled Kate into his car and was headed toward Laurel.

They’d stopped at the well to drop off the new drill bit he’d brought from Jackson and find out what progress the security men had made toward catching their other arsonist.

With determination, he pushed aside the memory of what he and Kate had just shared—and the nagging urge to fuck her again and again—while he tried to concentrate on stopping the sabotage once and for all.

“Why did you need another bit?” Kate asked, her soft drawl shattering his shaky willpower as it sent a jolt of need straight to his groin.

“For the new well we’re going to start drilling next week.”

“You’re going to put in more wells?”

He glanced her way. “Yeah. We’ll be drilling wells in this oil field for several years, at least.”

“You mean, you’ll be around here that long?”

“Would it bother you if I were?”

“No. I just didn't know you’d leased any other property around here.”