Sweet and Wild (18 page)

His body stirred underneath hers.

“I’m still angry,” he told her and let
his hands wander further up until they stroked the smooth underside of her
breasts.

Quinn’s eyelids fluttered as he ran his
thumbs across her nipples and admired the way the dusky peaks tightened into
generous pearls.

She looked back at him. “Angry?” Then
she closed her eyes completely. A little gasp escaped her lips.

“Mmm. Fire.”

“The horse?”

Craig chuckled. He enjoyed this.

“Mmm.” He let his hands slowly glide
down her sides.

Quinn opened her eyes and gazed at him.
“Why?”

He ran a gentle finger over the vivid
bruise on her leg.

“I’ll never do it again,” she murmured.

His hands returned to their exploration,
up her thighs to the concave of her waist, his fingers spread out against the
firm, smooth skin of her belly.

“I know you won’t. Or maybe you’ll be
too tempted to wait.”

Her eyes opened wider. Heat swam in
those blue depths. Her gaze could set him ablaze. So could the smile that
curled one corner of her provocative lips and the way one arched brow rose a
little higher than the other.

His hands slid back to cup her breasts
and she arched her back into his touch. She drew in a long, jagged breath.
Still, she didn’t look away from him.

“Maybe,” she admitted. “But I’m a grown
woman and I’ve trained my share of bad ass horses before.”

Her hands reached behind her and
feathered a touch against his thighs. As she straddled him, she looked so
powerful, so in control. Her lips turned up in her sexy little half grin.

God, he thought in tortured pleasure.
How in the world could he ever look at her and not remember this moment?

“That was before I came back to South
Dakota,” he ground out.

The stroke of her hands became bolder.
As bold as her hot blue gaze. “What does that have to do with anything? I’m a
good trainer.”

“Oh, I have no doubt darling, but before
I wasn’t worrying about you. Now I am.”

Quinn leaned forward and pressed her
lips against his, nipping at them gently. “You don’t think I can manage?”

How much longer could this go on, having
this argument while her body pinned him against the mattress, pressing against
his very potent and ready arousal. How could she argue at a moment like this?
But the spark in her eyes as she pulled back proved to him she knew exactly
what she was doing. Every motion was deliberate and she carried them out with
finesse.

“Oh, I’m sure you can manage, but not
without someone around to lend a hand.”

His fingers wandered down her belly,
soft and flat. Lower until he found her hot, sweet center.

She pulled in a sharp, rough breath and
her fists balled.

“Tell me you’re not going to work with
that horse when you’re alone,” he demanded hoarsely. His fingers danced lightly
against her moist flesh.

“You’re mean,” she replied, her voice
raspy and soft as a breeze.

“Tell me.”

She didn’t reply. Instead, she leaned
forward and grabbed another condom from the open drawer. Slowly she tore the
packet open and tended to him. He wanted to take over, but instead let her
fingers work over him. Once sheathed, she gave him a smoky gaze, swung her leg
back over him and lowered onto his rigid shaft.

Any thought he had evaporated with the
way her body enveloped his. All that mattered was the steady, strong rise and
fall of her hips above his, the feel of her skin under his hands as he
continued what they’d started.

Her voice cried out with a throaty moan
as she reached her pinnacle.

He wanted it to go on forever, but there
was no way she was going to allow that and as soon as she came and returned to
herself, he followed. He pulled her to him so his arms wound around her
tightly. His face buried into her thick hair and he inhaled her scent, a
mixture of hay, horse, shampoo and fresh air. His heart in his chest beat madly
along with hers, yet he couldn’t have been more content, more relaxed.

“Hey Craig?”

“Hmm?”

“Did we just have a fight?”

Craig grinned. “I don’t know. Why?”

Quinn lifted her head and looked at him.
“Because if we did that was crazy awesome make up sex.”

Craig laughed hard. “You are something
else.”

“I aim to please.”

For a long moment, she stared at him,
the smile dying from her full lips. She rolled off him and nestled against him,
her soft skin cooling in the fresh air that spilled in from the open window
above the bed.

“You okay?”

Quinn made a content sound, one hand
caressing his chest. “It’s not like me to lounge around in bed, especially in
the arms of a handsome man when there’s work to be done in the barn.”

“We deserve a break. At the moment I
can’t think of anywhere I’d rather be.”

“Mmm. Same.”

She sat back up and turned to face him,
sitting cross-legged on the bed. It did nothing for his peace of mind seeing
her naked and comfortable. His for the taking, and vice versa.

Her face lost that content look. Her
brows furrowed and there was a frown on her lips. What was she about to say?

***

“I need to tell you something,” Quinn
said.

“Okay.”

“I’m not going to mince words. Going to
say it and be done with it. I love you.” When Craig opened his mouth to reply,
Quinn pressed a finger against his lips. “No, don’t say anything. Let me talk.
I love you. I’ve been in love with you all my life, in case you never noticed.”

She spoke quickly so he wouldn’t
interrupt. His wide-eyed stare told her he didn’t expect this. That was okay,
she had absolutely no problem with sweeping him off his feet.

“I don’t want you to say it back to me.
It’s not what I’m looking for right now. I want you, I want to have a wild,
crazy affair with you, but I don’t want you to feel pressured into feeling
something you don’t. I know you care about me. I know you want me. For now,
that’s enough. I’m not looking for any more than you’re ready to give.”

When she finished she felt out of
breath. Her heart slammed in her chest and a tingly sensation ran like an
electrical current through her body.

What a rush! To finally admit it. To his
credit, Craig wasn’t bailing on her. Instead, he looked at her intently; his
blue eyes steady, serious.

He reached out and took her hand, gently
caressed her palm then brought it to his lips. Such a tender kiss, she thought,
but expected nothing less from him.

“So, what about it?” she whispered,
cupping his cheek with the hand he’d just kissed. “Are we going to have a mad,
passionate affair?”

In reply, Craig grabbed her and in one
fluid movement, had her under his body. His mouth moving over hers savagely was
all the answer she needed.

***

As dusk took over the sky with all its
amethyst grandeur, Quinn closed the big barn and headed back to the house. Her
body ached from the long day of work, including the kick she’d taken. Her thumb
throbbed where Fire had taken his bite, but her mind was full and alive.

She and Craig had spent a pleasant hour
in her bed. Best break ever. If she could’ve kept him there all evening, she
would’ve, but the ranch wouldn’t run itself, and she’d left too much undone
when Craig showed up. To her surprise, though, Craig sent over Tom Gibson, one
of his new hires, to help her out, which made the evening chores go much
faster. Apparently Tom was on loan indefinitely. Along with Scott, who’d be
starting the next day, she felt pretty well staffed.

She finished her work, riding on the
high Craig had put her on, and could’ve gone on for several more hours. Her
stomach demanded her attention, though, and it behooved her to comply with its
wishes. She and Craig had no plans to see each other that evening, so Quinn
thought she’d crash and read a good book. And not think too much about the
change in her relationship with Craig. Not think of what she had confessed as
she sat next to him, naked as the day she was born. Not think about the way he
made her body come alive and sent her over the edge of pure ecstasy over and
over.

“Oh holy hell,” she muttered and threw
the book she’d selected aside. If she continued along this line of thinking
she’d be in her truck and heading to the Shady H to seduce him all over again.
Though he was alone, it still wouldn’t do. She would feel uncomfortable there,
as if they’d be discovered at any moment.

No, better to spend the night alone.

Finally, Quinn turned off the lamp and
went into her room. She stopped short, horrified. The room was a disaster area.
Living at Long Knife Creek, she’d forced herself to be neat and tidy, but since
moving over to Emerald she pretty much lived out of boxes and suitcases. An old
pair of boots lay at the foot of the bed, jeans and tee-shirts strewn across
the floor.

God, she hoped Craig hadn’t noticed. But
they’d been too tied up with each other for her to even realize how untidy she
was, until now.

Her bed was as they’d left it, rumpled,
well used. She would’ve bet that if she laid on it she would be able to smell
him on the sheets and pillow. It would be impossible to escape thoughts of him
tonight. Closing her eyes, she drew in a deep breath. Hopeless. She was
completely hopeless.

Now what? She couldn’t sleep, didn’t
have a television she could turn on, had no interest in her book and forbade
herself to visit Craig. It was too late to start on any home improvement
projects. She looked around the room and decided that she really needed to
clean. Force herself back into the neat and tidy mode that had always been an
ill fit.

But if Craig was going to be a frequent
guest, she had to at least attempt to keep the place picked up.

***

Craig moved through the next few days
with almost mechanical efficiency. He had given up pretending he could put what
happened with Quinn on the back burner.

On the contrary, it was the first thing
he thought of when he got up in the morning and the last thing before going to
bed. And much of the time in between. He hashed it and rehashed it, and instead
of fixating more on making love to her, her words stuck harder in his brain. It
didn’t take much reflection to see that as a little girl she had had a crush on
him. He hadn’t noticed it back then, but why should he?

That was then, this was now, and this
was no childish infatuation. She’d said she loved him and he believed her. Yet
she’d forbidden him to admit his feelings. A good thing too, because he had no
idea what those feelings were. Two things were clear; he wanted her again and
he liked her a damned lot. Not that the two were mutually exclusive.

What a pleasure to discover the energy
and passion for life outdoors carried over to her lovemaking. She wasn’t a shy
lover. She knew what she wanted and she made sure she found out what he wanted.
Though when he left her he was thoroughly satisfied, it wasn’t long before his
body and mind wanted her again. It had been nearly impossible not to go back
over there and spend the entire night with her. The fact that he wanted nothing
more than to wake up with her in his arms disturbed him.

Separating the physical want from the
emotional proved difficult. He’d known from day one he liked the person she’d
become; smart, funny, kind and enthusiastic added to her overall sexiness. She
wasn’t a push over for anything and wouldn’t shrink away from a challenge. That
showed with her intentions toward Fire. It was evident with the way she jumped
right in with both feet at Emerald. Evident in how she told him she loved him,
no apologies, and no demands. She said it and let it be.

So, after two days he wasn’t sure how
the hell to deal with it all. He wanted to rush back to her, but he didn’t have
the opportunity and he didn’t want to crowd her. He settled for a phone call,
expecting at least a little weirdness, but instead heard her confidence, still
the Quinn he knew before they took each other to bed.

In fact, frustration probably took more
of a toll on him than her. He wanted to see her, wanted to hear her words
again, to tell her he wanted very much to have that wild, passionate affair
with her. He wanted more though. Not just physical relationship, he didn’t want
to use her just for sex, but instead desired to take her out to dinner, a movie
maybe. Date her like a man would date a woman he was interested in, a woman who
he wanted in his life. The other day they’d put the cart in front of the horse
and now he wanted to do a little switching around and do things the right way.

Because she missed a lesson with
Marisol, Quinn suggested combining two lessons and as an added incentive, she
would teach Marisol what she had been dying to do. Barrel race. After all, she
had the horse for it and she couldn’t have a better trainer, but that meant two
hours with Quinn on his property and out of his reach.