Seductive Reasoning (19 page)

“Thank you,” her soft voice
intoned.

Seth glanced at her. Even in the
moonlight he saw tears shimmer in her eyes and a profound look of pride settle
on her face. What had her parents done to her? Didn’t they realize how smart
she was? How quick a mind she had? He wanted to pull her into his arms, kiss
her, and soothe away any doubts she had.

“Because the moon is nearly full,”
Seth said instead, “there will be some ambient light that will interfere with
seeing the stars clearly, but I think you’ll be pleased.”

“I’m already pleased.”

He shifted to the side. “Take a
look.”

Kate moved her eye over the
eyepiece and stared at a cluster of brilliant stars. “They’re beautiful.”

There was such awe in Kate’s voice,
as if she were seeing the stars for the first time.

“Would you like to look at the
moon?”

“Oh, yes.”

Seth turned the telescope until the
moon’s surface filled his vision. He moved to the side and nodded. “Go ahead.
Take a peek.”

He listened to her sharp inhalation
of breath, a catchy rasp of excitement and wonder. He remembered the first time
he’d looked at the moon’s surface through a telescope and knew he’d found his
niche.

“It’s so beautiful.” Kate’s soft
voice rubbed tenderly over his nerve endings. She licked her lips and a sheen
of moisture gleamed in the half-light. Seth clenched his teeth to stifle a
groan.

She lifted her eye from the
telescope and gazed at him. Touching his jaw with the tips of her fingers, she
drew closer, and laid her mouth gently over his. Breath backed up in his lungs.
She nipped his lower lip teasingly, then drew away. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For this.”

“You’re welcome.”

She moved her hand down over his
neck and caressed the hollow of his throat with the tips of her fingers. A
little lower, Seth thought. He needed her to go lower.

Her hand dipped lower. Yes. He felt
the backs of her fingers move against his chest as she slipped the buttons of
his shirt from their holes. She rested her palm in the middle of his chest and
glided her hand lower over the slim band of hair that swept over his stomach.
“In one of the astronomy books you gave me to read it said the moon has some
long, narrow valleys on the surface called rilles.”

Like being drawn toward magnetic
north, Seth leaned forward and kissed her. He formed a suction on her mouth so
he could taste both her lips at once and skim his tongue over them. As he did,
she opened her mouth and he thrust his tongue inside. She tasted of wine and
chocolate. A heady taste that filled his brain and stroked his libido. Oh God,
he had to have her.

Kate drew back, her eyes
slumberous. “I’m not finished.”

Neither was he.

“As I was saying,” she unsnapped
his jeans and slid the zipper down with a sharp little rasp stimulating his
nerves. “The book stated that most of these rilles are straight.” Her hand slid
lower and dipped inside his underwear. When her greedy, feminine hand wrapped
around him, arousal pounded through his veins and gripped his penis in a vice
of want and need. “They look like riverbeds,” her husky voice intoned.

She pulled her hand slightly upward
stretching the skin over the broad head of his penis. A groan shuddered from
his throat. He clenched his hands at his sides. If he reached for her now, he
would take her. She rubbed her thumb over the tip then replaced it briefly with
her tongue.

Oh, God.

She pumped him again, moving her
hand in a sensuous and mind blowing motion over his distended and piqued flesh.
The heat built, the rush, the hot driving fire toward climax.

“The book also said they were
probably formed from flowing lava,” she whispered, her voice thick and unsteady.

Seth spilled his seed into her
hand.

Chapter
Ten

Why didn’t he feel embarrassed?
He’d come in Kate’s hand. He knew that climaxing in her hand would never be
enough.

He had to be inside her.

He needed to be inside her.

And yet--when he did, she would
pack her bags, go back to her life and he would return to his as if nothing had
happened. Only something
had
happened, and he was damned afraid he would
never be the same again.

He stripped out of his running
clothes and turned on the shower. He stepped inside and let the hot water pound
over his skin. He should be relaxed. He’d been given a mind blowing orgasm by
Kate, then ran for five miles, and yet every nerve, every muscle in his body
stretched with tension.

Seth grabbed the bar of soap and
rubbed it over his body until he built a thick lather. He turned toward the
shower head and let the water pour over him. He knew how this would end. If he
let her get that close to him again, he would chuck his goal and have at her
like a starving man. That would get her out of his life. Out of his life is
what he wanted--wasn’t it?

What about the money? Why hadn’t he
just pushed her away from him? One answer resounded through his brain and
ripped apart a belief he’d held for years.

She’d challenged him in the worst
way possible. He’d always believed that a woman couldn’t possibly fit into his
life, into his world. In a short span of time, Kate had destroyed that belief.

She expected him to follow through
on what she’d started in the meadow. Kate would be relentless now. She wouldn’t
wait. She’d charge full steam ahead.

Seth knew what he had to do. He
only hoped he had the strength to do it.

Kate stood outside the bathroom
door in Seth’s house and listened to the wet, slippery sounds of the shower.

Seth had gone out for a run as soon
as they returned from stargazing. Upon his return, he’d been sweaty and
flushed. He’d looked so virile, sexy and male that he’d nearly stolen her
breath. She imagined the water sluicing over the toned pectoral muscles of his
broad chest, soaking the mat of dark hair covering his nipples, gliding down
his hard abdomen into a narrow line until it gathered around his sex that
nestled between his legs.

Her nerve endings fired with equal
sparks of anxiety and excitement. She inhaled a deep breath. Oh God, would he
reject her or finally give in and take her in his arms? Only one way to find
out. Thunder rumbled in the distance. Kate tapped lightly on the bathroom door.

“I’m almost done,” Seth called to
her from the other side.

Kate gripped the knob in her hand.
The door opened soundlessly. She eased inside, closed the door, and rested her
back against the wooden panel. Seth’s fuzzy outline met her gaze through the
shower door. Steam billowed in the air and fogged the bathroom mirror. “You’re
not nearly done.”

The shower door slid open with a
jerk and Seth stuck his head out. Water and soap suds dripped from his hair
onto his face. His eyes brimmed with shock and annoyance. Kate’s heart pounded
in her chest.

“What are you doing?”

Gathering her courage, Kate pushed
herself from where she leaned on the door and walked toward him. “Earlier, you
got yours. It’s only fair I get mine.”

“Your what?”

She smiled, unbuttoned her dress,
dropping it to the floor. Reaching behind her, she unclasped her bra, tossed it
aside, and slithered out of her panties. Just before she reached him, he
slammed the shower door. Kate watched Seth’s indistinct form as he shoved his
head under the pulsing shower and rinsed his hair.

Kate clasped the handle of the
shower door, pushed it open and stepped inside. She closed the door at her
back. Seth pulled his head from under the shower and looked at her over his
shoulder. His gaze raked over her swiftly before he turned off the water. He
grabbed the end of the towel he’d draped over the shower door, wrapped it
around his waist then turned to face her. “You didn’t answer my question.”

She moved closer to him. The steam
felt glorious swirling around her legs and over her full, aroused breasts. Wet
heat pooled between her legs. Kate lowered her gaze to the towel wrapped around
his waist. His erection tented the terry cloth perfectly. She smiled. “It’s
time.”

He straightened his shoulders.
“Kate, what happened earlier has a scientific and logical explanation. It was a
simple case of male hormones and sexual drive run amok.”

She was sick of hearing about
science. Her siblings were doctors, and she knew first hand that science never
resolved anything, it just raised more questions. Emotions and issues of the
heart had a beginning, middle, and end. He swiped a sodden lock of hair out of
his eyes. “Get dressed and leave me alone.”

Kate raised her brows. “Is that
what you really want me to do?”

“Yes. Aggressive women don’t turn
me on.”

Determined to prove him wrong, Kate
rubbed her breasts against his chest. He sucked in a choked breath, and she
knew she’d hit home. Kate tilted her head, raised her mouth, and brushed her
lips over his. “You’re a terrible liar, Seth.”

“I’m not lying, Kate.” A rasping
tremor grated from his throat, mocking his denial. “I don’t like pushy women.”

Hearing her name tumble from his
lips in that very male I-really-want-you-voice nearly made her come on the
spot. She pulled his bottom lip into her mouth, then laved it with her tongue.
She snaked one hand down over his chest where her thumb teased a nipple.

Kate lifted her mouth from his and
smiled. The feel of him seeped into her skin and invaded her bloodstream. “I’m
not being aggressive.”

“To hell you aren’t.”

He wrapped a towel around his lower
body in an effort to hide his arousal. The sight turned her inside out. “Not
yet.” She shifted closer until she touched him from her breasts to her toes.
His body, a solid, rock wall pressed against her softer, feminine one, made her
tingle.

Kate nudged her hips forward in a
gentle motion and pushed the soft mound of her sex against his erection. Sweet
God. Heat and a clawing need to mate raced to her core like every hot, burning
fantasy she’d ever dreamed in her life.

She inclined her head and kissed
the side of his neck. She licked her tongue over his wet skin, nibbling with
her lips, scraping her teeth over him lightly. His scent and blatant
masculinity jolted her heart, making her pulse clamor and race.

Kate slid lower and caressed the
base of his neck with a light brush of her lips, then opened her mouth, nipped
with her teeth, and soothed the love bites with her tongue.

Thunder cracked overhead. Lightning
flickered and popped outside the bathroom window. His chest rubbed and
tantalized her tight, aroused nipples. She desperately wanted him to lower his
head, take them into his mouth and suckle until they turned hard and needy.

Stubbornly, he held his hands
rigidly at his sides and balled them into fists. God, he smelled good. Like
soap and aroused male. The scent of their near mating in the meadow mingled
with his own natural scent and fogged her brain. His olive skin stretched over
sinuous muscle and drove her to distraction. Mindlessly, Kate massaged her body
against his like a cat wanting to be petted.

How much more of this could she
take without him touching her, taking her? Not much. She had to feel him inside
her.

“Kate, I can’t do this.”

Oh, yes you can.
She
feathered her lips over his jaw to his ear. She sucked the lobe into her mouth.
Desire crashed through her. “You don’t have to
do
anything.”

“I can’t. Not again. Please, Kate.”

She moved her hand down his chest
and glided over his abdomen. With her fingers, she worked the towel loose. The
terry cloth shielding him from the lower half of her body fell away.

Skin to skin. She drank in the
sight of him, the hard, proud thrust of his erection between his legs. Arousal
pulsed like fire into her core. If he moved a little closer, he could bury
himself inside her. God knows she wanted him to more than she wanted to
breathe.

If he did, she would win.

He would lose. End of story.

Isn’t that what she wanted?

Kate wrapped her fingers gently
around his erection and rubbed her thumb over the tip. She felt a pearl of
fluid seep onto her finger.

“Stop that. You have to stop,” he
protested.

Thunder pounded. Closer this time.
She slanted her mouth over his, smothered his lips, and dipped her tongue into
his mouth. She tasted him fully, thoroughly, her tongue pumping in and out, as
she longed for him to do with his body. His tongue slid over hers, a slow,
silky seduction. Satisfaction burst dazzling and hot in her chest. She lifted
her mouth, but their lips were still touching. “I don’t believe you really want
me to stop.”

“I do, Kate. I--”

At that moment, she moved her sex
over the tip of his penis and let it stroke between the soft folds. “Still want
me to stop?”

Please, don’t say yes.
She
never wanted him to stop. Not in a million years.

“You have to.”

She lifted her gaze and looked
deeply into his eyes for the answer her heart sought. When she found it, her
lips curved into what she hoped were a sexy, siren smile. She slicked the tip
of her tongue over her mouth. “I take that as a no.”

Before he could answer her, she
dipped her head and trailed kisses down his neck and over his chest while her
hands kneaded the muscles in his back and blood roared in her ears. The scent
and feel of his hard, muscled body made her shiver with want.

Finally, she felt him relax. Her
mouth performed wicked, erotic things to his nipples before she moved lower over
his abdomen. She felt him suck in his stomach at the touch of her lips, her
tongue. She used her teeth on him, nipping at his skin, teasing the indentation
of his navel until she thought she would go mad.