The First Law of Love (37 page)

He bit my earlobe, lightly, as he stroked, gentle and slow at first, building towards a faster pace, lifting me higher than I would have ever known possible, my breath coming in gasps.

“You feel so damn good,” he said, low and sweet, and then bit the side of my neck and took me straight off the cliff. I caught his forearm in both of my hands at the last moment and he pressed the base of his broad palm firmly against me as I shuddered almost violently and would have fallen from horseback if not for his arms. Cider's hooves crunched along the gravel beneath us as she continued walking, unconcerned.

“Oh holy shit,” I whispered, eyes closed, and he laughed, low and satisfied, against my hair. I turned enough so that I could press the side of my face to his chest, still trembling a little, and he lifted my chin to place a soft kiss on my lips.

“Thank you,” I told him, breathing against his collarbones. He felt so good and I wanted to be held to his chest like this for the rest of my life. Never letting go, not ever again.

He laughed once more, I felt the rumble of it against my cheek. He said primly, “You're so very welcome. I'm hoping you let me do a lot more, later.”

I looked up at him, his face in shadows in the dark of night, the half-moon hardly enough to light the great sweeping foothill plains, and I painted in all the colors of him from memory. I touched his face, let my fingers trace over his jaw, stubbled with a day's growth of whiskers, my thumb skimming his eyebrows, his beautiful chiseled lips. I thought of the shadows beneath his eyes and touched him there so gently, aching at the pain I had put him through. I knew his face, had known it in another incarnation in the past, and though I hadn't yet explained this to him, I knew he understood. I knew he felt it too.

“You don't know how good that feels,” he whispered, turning his face into my hand.

Cider gave a low whinny, sidestepping a little, as though sensing my urgency.

“Can we go back to your place?” I begged in a whisper.

His eyes glinted with teasing, I could tell even in the darkness, as he asked, “Why's that?”

“I want it to be ‘later' right now,” I explained. And without another word, he halted Cider and turned her about, caught me tighter to his chest and then lightly heeled her flanks. I didn't have to be an expert to know that we were moving as fast as Cider could run, a full-out gallop.

“Oh God, my place is a wreck,” he muttered as we stumbled through the screen door. In the dim interior I wasted no time pulling him to me, needing his taste against my tongue more than I had ever needed anything.

“It doesn't…matter,” I gasped between kisses. We fell against the counter and he groaned and let me yank the shirt from his back; my own made a ripping sound as he freed me from it. With a fluid movement he set me on the counter, my hands all over his shoulders, his bare chest, kissing his neck, his jaw, as he unhooked my bra and wasted no time pressing his face between my breasts, cupping them, stroking with his thumbs as I caught his head and arched towards him. I moaned as he took me into his mouth, one nipple after the other, drawing on me with his hot, stroking tongue, my fingers in his hair.

“Case,” I gasped out, repeatedly, and he pressed hot kisses back up my neck, claiming my mouth again, taking me into his arms, my legs around his waist as he carried me forthwith to his bedroom. I wrapped around him, kissing him feverishly, my breasts against his bare chest. He took us to the mattress where I had once knelt alone, and then clicked on the bedside lamp, both of us breathing as though we'd just sprinted from Jalesville to get here.

He studied my eyes, all of the wonder and love and longing I felt echoed in his expression. He smoothed his hands over the sides of my face as he whispered, “I can't quite believe you're here. I've imagined this so many times. Oh God, you can't know what this means to me.”

“You said a long time ago that you knew I was the one for you,” I said, tears brimming in my eyes. I clung to him with my legs, my hands resting on his broad chest. “You were right. It just took me this long to see it. Oh Case, oh God, I love you. And now I see it with all my heart. I'm so sorry I hurt you, sweetheart. I'm so sorry I fought it.”

I could feel the beating of his heart, matching mine, pulsing beneath my right palm. He said softly, “It's always been worth the fight. I want you to know that.”

“You are such an incredible man,” I told him, touching him without ceasing, caressing his hard, warm skin. “I love that you don't back down. I love that you're so passionate, that you care so deeply about the people in your life. And the animals. I want to be at your side, for always.” Tears were washing over my cheeks, splashing on his hands.

“I knew the moment I saw you that I would do anything it took to keep you here in Jalesville, with me.” He caught my right hand against his cheek, turning his face to press his lips to my palm before he said, softly, “I told myself I'd just stop into Al's that day, just say hello, and then I would go. But then…” his eyes drove into mine. “Then I saw you and I knew I was just as much a goner as I'd ever been. A thousand times more. I took one look at you, the woman of my dreams, the only woman on the earth for me, right in front of me at last.” His voice was hoarse with emotion as he added, “I got back in the truck and I was shaking like a teenager.”

I pressed closer to him, touching his face, stroking him. I said, “And I have spent every day since then wanting to be near you, to feel you touching me. I started falling in love with you that very moment.”

“I had almost given up all hope. I don't want to blink, even now, for fear that I'm dreaming all of this,” he said.

“Case, sweetheart,” I said, hugging him as tightly as I could, his arms wrapping even more fiercely around me in response. “That first day you brought me here, I held your t-shirt to my face, just so I could smell you on it. I didn't know that I could long so hard, that there was so much emotion inside of me. It's you, all you. Oh God, I love you.”

“This makes up for everything,” he said, his eyes intent upon me, even as tears skimmed over his cheeks. He stroked my hair, held my face and kissed my lips with utmost gentleness. He whispered, “I can't tell you how much I love you. There were times I thought my heart might break with it.”

“Your heart,” I said, tipping to kiss his chest in that exact spot. I rested my cheek against him and he cuddled me close. I told him, “I cherish it. I will cherish it always. And you have mine. You have had it since that night at Camille's wedding. I was just too stupid to know it then.”

“You weren't stupid. And I was out of line. But I meant everything I said that night. I knew that we were meant to be together. I know it still,” he said.

I drew back because I wanted to see his eyes, rolling to my knees to get my arms around his neck. My breasts were just at his chin with him sitting and me kneeling and he tipped his head to press a soft kiss just between them. Against my skin he whispered, “You are so beautiful. Oh God, so beautiful. Inside and out. Your sweet, passionate soul is what I love the most, I want you to know that.”

“I do,” I told him intently, pressing even closer. “This summer is what I have been moving towards my entire life.
You
. Towards you. We've been together before now, you know that, don't you?”

“I do know it,” he said, looking hard into my eyes. “I do, Tish. I knew it the moment I first saw your face in the photograph. It's the strongest thing I've ever felt.”

“I have so much to tell you,” I said. “Oh God, Case…I came so close to not even coming out here…I never would have known…I never would have understood…”

“But you did,” he reassured. “You're here now, sweetheart, and that's all that matters.”

Though I wanted to tell him everything I had discovered, there were a few other pressing matters I wanted to tend to first. Threading my fingers into his hair, I whispered, “I think about you all the time.”

“What do you think about?” he whispered, his hands spread wide upon my back, fingers stroking. He opened his lips upon me, gently licking the sensitive skin between my breasts.

“This,” I whispered, flushing hotly. “You holding me…kissing me…oh God…”

He cupped my breasts in his big hands, drawing my nipples into his mouth, slow and heated, as my eyes almost rolled backward into my head. Arching into his kisses, I whispered, “But this…is so much…better…”

He smiled at that, his mouth still upon me. I realized both of us were only half-undressed and a swift urgency overtook me as I grasped his shoulders and bit his left earlobe, close to begging as I whispered, “Can I see you? All of you? I've been dreaming about it for so long now…”

He whispered back, “And people wonder if there's a heaven…”

I giggled then, squirreling to push him onto the mattress. My hair fell all around us as he let me maneuver him to his back. I was still wearing my jean shorts, otherwise naked. He clutched my hips and made to free me from the rest of my clothes, but I ordered, “No. You lie still. I want to touch you.”

His lips lifted in a seductive smile and he cupped my breasts, stroking me slowly. I caught his wrists and pinned them to the sides of his head, which he allowed, letting my nipples skim over his chest. He shivered and the smile fell from his lips as he warned, “I can only take so much lying still, just so you know…”

“You hush,” I told him, licking gently along his bottom lip. “I will have my way with you.”

I removed my hands from his wrists, ordering instantly, “Don't move,” as he moved immediately to reach for me. I whispered against his lips, “Hold still,” and he did, though I could feel the tension of our desire broiling between us, about a minute from exploding and shattering us both. I was trembling as I sat back. My shorts were still unbuttoned, and I stood to slip free of them, leaving just white, lacy panties.

He swallowed hard and shifted towards me, but I begged, “Let me,” and bent back to him, letting my hair glide across his belly, straddling his hips. I skimmed my nipples again over his chest, pressing hot little kisses down the center of him. He made a low sound, deep in his throat, and I resumed my southward course, clutching his hips in both hands, marveling at the freckle patterning on his body, kissing each one I saw as his breathing grew shallow. At last I could take no more of my own teasing and wasted no time freeing his cock from his jeans and he moaned as I took him in hand, rubbing my cheek against his hard, hot, rigid flesh. I opened my lips over him and his fingers went into my hair. I didn't stop him this time, too preoccupied with his cock, still so wet from his hand upon me earlier.

He groaned my name and I took him as deeply down my throat as I could. I wanted every bit of him so much that I could hardly even begin to describe it; I lifted my head only long enough to order breathlessly, “I want you to come in my mouth,” and then bent to him again. A small part of me, the part that retained a tiny shred of rational thought, was rather proud of myself for the sounds I was causing him to make. He changed shape against my tongue, swelling even more as he came, and I took it all down my throat; I had never done such a thing and I almost choked.

“
Oh
…
my
…
God
…” he gasped.

“Case,” I gasped out, giggling convulsively, moving back up his body. “I need…a napkin…”

We were both laughing then, though he was still shaking a little. He leaned and grabbed the edge of a blanket, and then curled me to his chest, kissing my temple, my ear, my neck, as I wiped my mouth and could not stop giggling.

“Holy shit, woman,” he said. “I have never come so hard in my life.”

“I should hope not,” I teased him. “Until the very next time I make you come, that is.”

He grinned and shook his head, rolling us to the side. He said, “You're pretty damn bossy, you know that?”

My giggles turned to a gasp as he smoothed his right hand swiftly over my pelvis and slipped two fingers inside of me, taking up a slow, stroking rhythm that had my fingernails digging into his back.

“You're so wet,” he murmured, his eyes intense upon mine.

I got my arms around his neck and held tightly, studying him just as intently. My breath came faster and faster but I didn't close my eyes. I couldn't bear to not see him, even for a second. I held to him and his eyes drove into mine. I knew he sensed this and felt the same.

“Of course…I am,” I managed to say, hardly able to breathe. “You're touching me…”

He kissed me then and I spread my legs even further around him, lifting against his hand. He bit my chin, this time the one moving in a path down my center with warm kisses. Lower, over my belly and my pelvis, and then he cupped both hands beneath me.

“You're so beautiful, like a flower unfolding,” he whispered, stroking sweetly before lifting me to his mouth and opening his lips between my legs. I sounded as though I was hyperventilating as he built the surging sensation in my body, stronger with each incredible pulse; probably if he had neighbors, they would be calling the police at the sounds coming from this trailer.

I clung to the sheet beneath us for dear life, writhing against him, until I could bear it no longer and begged faintly, “Please…oh God, please…”

He responded instantly, moving swiftly back above me, shifting his hips so that he slid deeply, fully inside my body. I moaned at this, curving around him, and he breathed out in a rush against my neck. He held completely still for the space of a heartbeat and ordered hoarsely, “I want you to come again. Oh my God, come again when I'm inside you.”

I couldn't manage to respond with words, sliding my palms around to pull him even more tightly within. He kissed me, closing his teeth gently around my bottom lip as I moaned and shuddered hard beneath him. He slid both hands down my ribs, taking my hips firmly into his strong grasp, his beautifully-shaped hands that cradled a guitar so lovingly, that held a bow poised so perfectly over the fiddle strings as he called forth a wealth of music. He moved at first slow and steady within me, then faster, and my body responded fiercely, tightening around his as I clung, meeting his deep thrusts.