Texas Rose (10 page)

And as long as she was away from home, from all the things she normally held dear and that dictated the path she had to walk in her life, these feelings
would
last forever.

The trick, she'd discovered, was not to think. At all.

“You got yourself a rare woman,” the carriage driver said in a deep cockney accent. It went with the tall, stovepipe hat he wore. Turning, he winked at Matt to underscore his pronouncement.

“I already know that,” Matt told him, looking down into Rose's face.

Unable to help herself, she placed her hand on his cheek, pulling his mouth down to hers. The kiss that flared between them was passion itself.

Her head began to spin instantly, the way it might have if she'd had wine with her meal. But she hadn't had a meal, hadn't had wine. Only ice cream.

Can you get intoxicated on ice cream? she wondered. Or was that the man who was doing this to her? Was it Matt who was scrambling the blood in her veins and the thoughts in her mind?

She didn't know, she didn't care. All she knew was that she liked this wild, heady feeling coursing through her and wanted more of it.

Most of all, she didn't want it to end.

“Okay, this is it, folks,” the driver announced, accompanying his words with a loud, polite cough designed to force them apart. “We're back to where we started from.”

Feeling more than slightly dazed, Rose pulled away and blinked, taking in the carriages lined up ahead of their horse. The majestic Plaza Hotel stood regally in the background.

“He's right,” she murmured. A smattering of sadness slipped into her words.

Rather than step down, the driver looked at them over his shoulder, playing with the reins. “I could take you around again if you like, but it would be the same rate as before.”

Matt was perfectly willing to continue going 'round in circles for the rest of the night, as long as she remained in his arms. Matt looked at her quizzically, but Rose shook her head.

There was someplace else that she wanted to be, someplace with secure walls, where no prying eyes could find them.

“Maybe next time,” Matt told the man.

Matt slipped the driver a large tip and then got down off the carriage. He turned and placed his hands on Rose's waist to help her down.

The driver beamed at the bill he unfolded in his hand. “I'll be here,” he promised.

But he was talking to himself. Matt and Rose were walking, arm-in-arm, toward the entrance of the apartment building where Beth lived—completely oblivious to Rule Number One.

T
he elevator doors parted and Rose stepped inside with Matt. Several other people got in with them, eating up the space and forcing them to stand close to each other. Extremely close.

The ride up in the elevator was the longest three minutes she'd ever endured.

Desire had already taken up residence within her and it was pulsating through every pore. Rose felt as if she would explode any second unless she got a chance to be alone with Matt.

Really alone.

Resolutions were all well and good if the man she was resolved never to be with again was a thousand miles away, safely out of sight if not out of mind.

But when he wasn't even one thousandth of an inch away, her resolve shredded faster than a wet tissue in a hurricane.

As it did now.

She would have liked to have blamed it on something—the moon, the carriage ride, his coming to her rescue. But it was none of these. It was him and the
fact that she had never really even come close to getting over him and probably never would.

She knew that every time she looked into her child's face, she would see Matt.

Passengers trickled out on each floor. By the time they reached the twentieth, they were almost alone. As the elevator door slid open and they got off, Rose slipped her hand into his.

Matt looked into her eyes and knew that they were of like mind. The waiting was over. He wasn't sure what the step after the next one was going to entail, but he damn well knew what his very next step was going to be. Making love with her.

It was either that, or self-destruct. He'd come to the end of his control, the end of his restraint.

Unlocking the apartment door, praying that there would be no answer to her greeting, Rose called, “Aunt Beth, are you home?”

There was no reply.

Mentally, she crossed her fingers, knowing she shouldn't. Knowing that if they were alone in the apartment, the right thing for her to do would be to leave again. Because to stay would mean the inevitable.

She prayed for the inevitable.

Glancing at the marble table, Matt saw a sheet of notepaper with his and Rose's names written across the top in Beth's flowing hand. Scanning it, he smiled and blessed the woman for her foresight.

“Looks like we're alone.” He held up the note. “She's gone to the theater for the evening. To see a revival of
My Fair Lady
and to a party afterward. Won't be home until after midnight.”

He let the note fall from his fingers, his eyes intent on Rose's face. They were alone. Finally, completely alone.

Her breath grew short. “I guess that means we have the run of the place.”

Suddenly nervous, she took a step back, her shoulders coming in contact with the wall. She looked at him, her heart beating in double-time.

His eyes holding her prisoner, Matt reached for the first button on her blouse and slowly slipped it from its hole. “I guess.”

Desperate to say something, not wanting him to know that she was so eager for him that she was almost jumping out of her skin, Rose mumbled, “What would you like to do?” The words were thick as they left her lips.

The second button was freed, and then the third. His smile slipped over his lips as easily as the buttons slipped out of their holes.

“You guess.”

She swallowed, but there was no moisture to be had within her mouth. It had gone drier than sand. “How many chances do I get?”

The blouse undone, he tugged it out of the waist
band, then pressed a single kiss to her throat. He felt her pulse beating wildly beneath his lips.

“Depends.” He raised his head to look at her. “How many will you need?”

Anticipation danced along her body like a ballerina whirling out of control.

“Shut up and kiss me,” she ordered, unable to wait a single second longer.

Catching her hands and holding them above her head, against the wall, Matt threaded his fingers through hers as he pressed his body against hers. The heat that shot through him was like a long-lost, dearly missed old friend.

“Yes, ma'am,” he said, a sliver of humor curving his mouth one second before desire chased it away.

His mouth came down on hers, dissolving any further words, any further thoughts, save one. That he wanted her. Wanted her the way he wanted air to sustain himself. Wanted her more.

Over and over again, his mouth slanted across hers, his body trapping her between him and the wall. Releasing her hands, he let his roam her sides, reveling in the familiar feel.

Reveling in the homecoming.

Damn, but he had missed her. He hadn't realized just how much until this very moment. Until desire all but threatened to completely shred him apart.

His mouth curved again as he felt her hands urgently race over him, tugging at the ends of his shirt,
trying to loosen it in the negligible space that existed between their bodies.

He was vaguely aware of taking a half step back from her to allow Rose room to work. To allow himself space to do the same.

An urgency Rose could not begin to harness assaulted her as she almost ripped all the buttons off his shirt. They wouldn't undo easily and she was eager to touch his chest.

To feel his flesh against hers.

Her mouth still sealed to his, she finally managed to pull his shirt off his shoulders, doing so at the same time that he slipped her blouse from hers.

She shivered even though she had never been this warm before.

And then she felt the clasp between her shoulder blades being undone.

The next moment her bra straps were sliding down off her trembling shoulders and then the bra itself peeled from her breasts. It fell to the floor between them.

Fire licked the center of her very core as she felt the light hairs on Matt's chest slide against her breasts.

The next instant he was coaxing her skirt down over her hips until finally, all she was left wearing was a small scrap of white lace.

Rose felt more than saw Matt sink to his knees in front of her, his mouth pressing a hot trail of open
mouthed kisses from her waist down to where her lacy underwear met her quivering abdomen.

She sucked in her breath as his lips went lower, kissing her through the material.

And then he was tugging the material away.

Rose felt the final barrier slide down her thighs slowly, was consumed by the fire he was generating as his mouth took possession of what had already been his.

Groaning, she buried her fingers in his hair, pressing him closer. Biting back a moan before it turned into a scream.

Her body grew damp despite the air-conditioning.

Her breath completely vanished as Matt thrust his tongue in between her legs, bringing her to a climax before she even knew she was on the verge of having one.

The shudder went through her entire body.

Moist, stunned, she tried to focus as she felt herself being swept up into his arms.

Reacting, she threaded her arms around his neck and cleaved to him. She was still throbbing as he carried her to her room.

To her bed.

Laying her down gently, Matt quickly pulled off his trousers, kicking them aside before he began to shuck his underwear.

Watching him, her eyes wide, she whispered, “No. Let me do it.”

Her husky voice traveled the length of his body, exciting him.

“Always glad to oblige.”

Matt lay beside her, struggling to hold himself in check as he felt her cool fingers urge the cotton material from his hips. The path was impeded by the swell of his desire.

He closed his eyes, absorbing her touch as her palm lightly glided over him before she continued pulling the material ever downward. And then, changing gears, she swiftly yanked his briefs down his legs and tossed them aside.

Matt saw the glint in her eyes. She would have slowly dragged the length of her body over his, tantalizing him to the breaking point, but he pulled her to him, need preventing him from patiently waiting for contact.

Fitting her against his body, he raised his head and caught her lips. With his hand to the back of her neck, he held her in place as his mouth savaged hers.

It was then he knew that he would never get enough of her.

The more he kissed her, held her, touched her, the more he needed to.

Shifting so that it was her back against the bed instead of his, Matt reined himself in enough so that he could re-explore terrain that he was already achingly familiar with.

So that he could reclaim all that had once been his.

Beneath him, Rose twisted and turned, eager to feel, eager to experience. With each pass of his hand, each kiss he pressed to her skin, she grew more and more excited, wanting it to go on forever.

Wanting to take the final plunge.

The opposing desires warred with each other, just as they had all along. There was no resolution. All she knew was that she was just barely holding on to the precipice by her fingertips and that if they didn't come together soon, she wouldn't be responsible for her actions.

He made love to every part of her, glorying in the silky feel of her.

Grateful for the second chance.

She was his.

No matter what she said to deny it, he knew she was his. She'd surrendered herself to him at the very first touch. And it humbled him and filled him with joy at the same time.

Passion all but burned away the sheets that tangled beneath them as first he led the way, then she did, each taking a turn at dazzling the other. At being the jailer and the jailed.

Sweat slicking her body, her heart pounding almost beyond its limit, Rose looked up at him.

“Please.”

He hardly heard the word. It was more as if it was echoing in his brain, in his soul.

The smile that came to his lips was soft, sensitive.

“Never ask for what you already have,” he whispered against her cheek.

And then, raising himself up on his elbows, Matt parted her legs with his own and slid into her, at first gently, then with increasing urgency. Sheathed within her, he caught her hands with his own, and held them above her head.

His eyes on hers, satisfying himself that she felt the same desire, the same sense of urgency mingled with contentment that he did, Matt began to move. At first slowly, then faster and faster until it seemed as if the whole world was moving to a wild, furious tempo that had seized their bodies within its grip.

Rose cried out his name as she felt herself being hurled first up and then over the summit.

As Matt sank down against her, his breathing labored, she knew that he had reached the peak at the same time she had.

The knowledge made her smile.

Whatever happened after tonight would be all right, she thought. She could handle it because she had this to remember.

And this time had been the best time.

Exhausted, Matt began to shift his weight from her, but he felt her arms tighten around him.

“Not yet,” she told him, so tired she could hardly form the words, but unwilling to lose the moment. “Wait a minute longer.”

“A minute longer and it'll be shorter,” he mur
mured against her cheek, grinning as he brushed a kiss there. “Wouldn't want to be embarrassed in your presence,” he teased, shifting to the side. He slipped his arm around her and pulled her closer.

She clung to the rosy afterglow surrounding her. “Trust me, you will never have anything to be embarrassed about.”

He raised himself up on one elbow and leaned his head on his fisted hand, looking down at her. “Oh, and you've made a study of this, have you?”

He'd been her first and they both knew that. And her last. That was something she alone knew. Because there'd never be anyone like him in her life again.

“No, it's just something a woman just knows,” she told him.

He laughed, his fingers lightly stroking her breasts. “Just make sure you don't decide to do any extensive research on the subject,” he warned. His grin widened as he saw her nipples harden beneath his hand. He rubbed his thumb against one peak, enjoying the way she moved in response. “Chilly?”

Silently she moved her head from side to side in denial, desire creeping up her toes like a hot ray of sunshine taking possession of the land. A moment ago she could have sworn that she barely had the strength for breathing. And yet here it was, out of the blue: desire. All dressed up and ready to go to town again.

What
was
it he did to her? “Just the opposite.”

Matt raised a brow, amused. He gathered her to
him, his body already hardening in anticipation. “Got a fire you need putting out?”

She turned her body into his. “Think you're man enough to do it?”

Catching her earlobe between his teeth, he suckled it before saying, “Man and a half.”

Never in her wildest dreams did she think that any man could have her burn so brightly. She'd just finished making love with him and all she could think about was doing it again. And again.

“Think a lot of yourself, do you?”

“Actually, it's you I'm thinking of.” He wove his fingers through her hair, brushing it from her face. “You could raise the dead if you wanted to, Rose. And make a celibate man forget his vows.”

She laughed, curling her body into his. “Oh, like you were ever celibate.”

He felt himself becoming more and more aroused. “Never said it was me. But I have been,” he told more seriously. “Since you.”

She thought her heart would burst with the surge of love she felt.

Taking his face between her hands, Rose lightly framed it with her fingers as she raised her head to press her lips against his.

And to begin the second round of what was to be a three-round match that night.

 

Moving on tiptoes, Beth slowly closed the door behind her. The play had been wonderful, the company
divine, although she had to admit that time and again, her thoughts strayed to what might be happening within her apartment while she was gone.

The lights, she noted, had been left on in the living room. She wondered if that meant they were still up and out here.