The Sheriff (Historical Romance) (22 page)

B
e right there,” Kate answered. Shortly, she came into the room. She had a dress thrown over her arm and a pair of shoes in her hand. Curious, she crossed to where Travis stood before the fireplace, and looked up at him. “What? What is it?”

Travis reached for her. “I missed you,” he said, drawing her into his embrace. “Let your chores go for a while. Stay here with me.”

“Is that all you wanted?” Kate said with an indulgent smile.

“No, that’s not quite all.” He took hold of her upper arms, bent his dark head and kissed her.

In seconds Kate was lost in the steamy kiss. She sighed and dropped the shoes and dress. Soon she felt the nightshirt being eased up her thighs, and knew that Travis was going to make love to her here in the mansion in the middle of the afternoon. Once the
nightshirt was up past her waist Kate helpfully lifted her arms so that Travis could slip the sleeves off and get the garment over her head.

Once it was off, he held the nightshirt for a minute, then dropped it to the floor and reached for her.

For several thrilling minutes they stood there before the warming fire, kissing urgently. His hands gently caressing her exquisite back and flaring hips, Travis murmured endearments and continued to kiss her until he knew she was aroused.

Finally he tore his burning lips from hers, and Kate sighed and laid her head on his shoulder. It was then she glimpsed the two of them in the tall, massive mirror. She blinked in surprise, then blushed with embarrassment. And lastly stared, fascinated. It was an oddly erotic vision: Travis fully clothed, she totally naked, save for the tall rubber boots.

“I want,” he said against her hair, “to make love to you here in this room, on that sofa, in front of this mirror.”

Kate shivered at the naughty suggestion. She buried her face against his shoulder. “Should we?” she whispered, intrigued, but apprehensive.

“You can close your eyes, sweetheart,” he told her. “You don’t have to look. Unless you decide you want to.”

Travis kissed her again and sat her down on the sofa. He knelt before her and removed her boots. Kate took the opportunity to again glance into the
mirror. Her stomach contracted sharply and she quickly looked away, feeling as if her cheeks were on fire.

Once her boots were off he rose and began unbuttoning his shirt. When he whipped it off and tossed it aside, Kate stood up. She licked her lips as her hands went to his belt buckle. Together they anxiously undressed him. When he was as naked as she, Travis was facing the mirror and Kate’s back was to it.

Travis looked over her head to gaze at their reflection. He shuddered with ecstasy. This pale, beautiful woman whose golden hair spilled down around her bare shoulders was gently gripping his ribs and kissing his chest. And in the mirror he could see the tempting view of her fragile back, flaring hips, rounded bottom, shapely legs and slender ankles.

Nature’s finest masterpiece.

Travis’s hands remained at his sides. As much as he wanted to touch her, he was more intent on gazing at her tall slender form in the mirror, unblemished by clothing or his own caressing hands. Looking at her, he balled his hands into tight fists and felt his belly tighten. Suddenly, he became aware of her tongue teasing at a flat brown nipple.

Travis lifted his hands, cupped her face and urged her head up. He bent and kissed her, his tongue sliding into her mouth to toy and tangle with hers. While he was kissing her, he slowly, adroitly began turning
her about. When the prolonged kiss ended and he raised his head, his back was to the mirror.

Just as he’d intended.

Still, he knew she couldn’t see their seductive reflection because he was much taller than she. So he slowly sank to his knees before her, and Kate immediately saw them framed in the mirror. She stared, entranced, and trembled with ecstasy. This dark, handsome man with the gleaming midnight hair was gently clasping her waist and kissing her breasts. And in the mirror she saw the tantalizing image of his beautiful, deeply clefted back, his trim waist, slim hips, firm buttocks and powerful thighs.

God’s finest creation.

Kate’s hands were at her sides. While she yearned to touch him, she was too engrossed by simply staring at his perfect physique in the mirror, unmarred by clothing or her own grasping hands. Gazing upon him, she clenched her fingers into tight fists at her sides. Suddenly Kate became aware of his tongue lightly teasing a tingling nipple.

She lifted her hands, tunneled her fingers into his dark, lustrous hair and pressed his face closer. She drew a quick breath of air as his mouth closed over the aching nipple. He began to suck vigorously, his jaws flexing, his eyes closed, long dark lashes touching her, tickling her.

Kate’s inhibitions fell away as her passions rose and she fully surrendered to the carnal pleasure of the
moment. She found it incredibly thrilling to have her dark lover’s heated lips at her breasts while she unashamedly watched in the mirror.

Kate became intensely aware of her surroundings. She dreamily glanced around, wanting to remember everything exactly as it was on this unforgettable autumn afternoon. The large drawing room where one day they would entertain invited guests was today their private sexual playground where only the two of them could enter. The blazing fire in the grate licked lovingly at their bodies and bathed their bare flesh with a soft rosy hue.

She again looked directly into the mirror, at the pair of naked lovers reflected there—the dark, compelling man and the pale, enchanted woman. She sighed deeply, took her hands from Travis’s raven hair and let her fingertips dance nervously along his broad shoulders.

When his lips released a wet nipple, Kate supposed that he would swiftly rise to his feet and take her to the sofa. She bit her lip when, instead, he remained on his knees. Her heart raced when he wrapped his arms around her, laid his cheek against her stomach and said, “I want to kiss you all over, sweetheart.” He brushed a kiss to her fluttering belly. “And you can watch while I do.”

K
ate felt her heart beating in her ears when Travis lifted his head and looked up at her with his dark, sultry eyes that had the power to mesmerize.

Steadily holding her anxious gaze, he urged her down to her knees before him. For a long, tense moment, they remained in front of the mirror, the only sounds those of the snapping, crackling fire and their own rapid breaths.

Travis lifted a hand, swept Kate’s long golden hair back off her shoulders, wrapped an arm around her waist and drew her up against him. When he bent his head to kiss her, he hesitated.

And he said softly, “I’ll never do anything you don’t want me to do, Kate. Never.”

Then his mouth closed over hers in a kiss that made her heart race and her bones melt. Kate’s weak
arms came up around his neck and she anxiously clung to him as he kissed her over and over again. At some point during the heated exchange, Travis put an arm out and gently lowered Kate to the floor, following her down.

When at last his lips released hers, she was on her back with Travis lying on his side against her. Kate didn’t question him when he said in that slow Southern drawl she’d come to adore, “Turn over onto your stomach, darlin’.”

Kate turned over, but raised up onto her elbows and rested her chin in her hands. At once she became aware of the slightly abrasive texture of the greatcoat beneath her bare body. In her heightened state of arousal, it felt good.

But not as good as the heated lips that began scattering kisses over her shoulders. Then over her back and waist. Kate soon lay down flat, sighing and folding an arm beneath her cheek. She had, by design, turned her face toward the mirror. She lay there and watched as Travis kissed her “all over” just as he’d promised.

She snuggled comfortably against the spread greatcoat while Travis kissed the twin dimples at the base of her spine, then up and over her rounded buttocks and down her thighs, to behind her knees and her calves and ankles.

It was electrifying.

She purred like a cat.

When he eased her over onto her back, she looked up at him and trembled. In his beautiful eyes was all his love, all his passion, plus his promise to cherish her for a lifetime. He leaned down and softly kissed her parted lips, then her throat and her shoulders, his hair ruffling against her chin. He trailed open-mouthed kisses down the center of her chest, around each breast, then enclosed a pebble-hard nipple in his mouth and briefly sucked on it.

Kate again turned her head and gazed into the mirror. She saw Travis’s handsome face and raised a hand to touch his dark head. But before she could place her fingers in his hair, his lips released the nipple and moved on.

Sliding downward.

His hand at her waist, Travis kissed her flat belly. Kate whispered his name as she watched his dark face slowly slip lower. She continued to gaze into the mirror while he probed her navel with the tip of his tongue and then licked the faint line of pale fine hair going down the center of her belly to the blond triangle of curls between her thighs.

Kate held her breath.

Travis brushed a kiss to her hipbone. And then, in one swift, fluid movement, he reached for her hand and drew her up into a sitting position. He clasped her waist in both hands, pushed her to feet and maneuvered her about so that she felt the sofa’s edge touch the backs of her legs. She weakly sank down
onto the couch and shivered when Travis knelt before her.

His hands gripped her knees, and he gently urged them apart and drew her to the edge of the cushion.

He looked directly into her eyes and said softly, “Tell me to stop and you know I will.”

She could barely breathe. As his dark head slowly lowered to her, Kate automatically lifted her eyes to the mirror. She felt his hands gently clasping her hips, felt his glossy hair tickle her belly. Then she felt his mouth, burning hot, on the inside of her right knee. He kissed the skin there and then, his lips never leaving her flesh, kissed a slow, deliberate path up the warm length of her thigh.

An eyelash away from the golden curls of her groin, he stopped, raised his head and said huskily, “Kiss me. Kiss me, sweetheart.”

“Yes,” Kate whispered. She put her trembling hands to his tanned jaws, leaned down and aggressively kissed him, thrusting her tongue deep into his mouth. When their lips separated, Travis again bent to her. He kissed her left knee and, as he’d done before, teasingly nipped and licked and his way up to the edge of the springy golden coils.

Kate was on fire.

She arched her back and gripped the edge of the sofa’s cushion. Her breath was coming in short little gulps. Her breasts were swelling, the nipples standing out in twin points of desire. Her belly was contracting
sharply. And between her trembling thighs, now open to him, the slick female flesh was pulsing with passion and wet with need.

Kate tensed when at last she felt Travis’s breath stir the curls there. She raised her eyes to the mirror. Her back arched again as she waited, her whole body vibrating, her throat dry, her eyes glazed with passion.

Travis nuzzled his nose and mouth in the golden curls, then dabbed playfully with his tongue. Lightly he teased the burning flesh beneath, blowing his breath over it. He tormented her until Kate murmured, “Please. Please.”

“Please what?”

“Kiss me.”

“Show me where, baby.”

Feverish, all her inhibitions burned away in the sexual heat, Kate put her hand between her legs and touched her fingers to the slick, pulsing flesh between her kiss-dampened curls.

“Here. Kiss me here,” she whispered, feeling as though she would die if he did not.

He did.

Travis’s hot mouth immediately covered her fingertips, and for a second, Kate didn’t move her hand. It was tremendously arousing to have his tongue licking her fingers while she touched herself. When she started to take her hand away, he stopped her, swiftly grasping her wrist.

“No, sweetheart. Let’s play awhile,” he coaxed. “Make the pleasure last.”

“Show me how.”

He did just that. And it proved to be a highly exciting diversion. With his tongue, Travis pressed against her slender fingers, and in turn those fingers pressed against the pulsating point of ultrasensitive female flesh. The joy intensified when Travis forced her fingers apart with the tip of his tongue in pursuit of the sweetness beneath.

Kate found this erotic exercise to be unbearably exciting. It didn’t seem depraved or shocking, but merely a delightful sexual game she was more than pleased to play with her trusted lover. She understood that her opponent’s objective was to get his tongue between her protective fingers. Hers was to prevent that marvelous tongue from gaining access. It was fun, it was bawdy, it was terribly exciting.

But it was fleeting.

Kate’s opponent was too talented and she was too incredibly hot to outlast him. The prize for which she could wait no longer was Travis’s burning mouth and stroking tongue on her throbbing flesh.

Attuned to her every wish, Travis immediately let go of her wrist. She stifled a near sob of bliss when his hot, open mouth took the place of her fingers.

The first stroke of his tongue brought an incendiary shock of ecstasy unlike anything she’d ever experienced. That awesome joy intensified when she
looked into the mirror and watched. She moaned as his tongue spread a sexual fire that threatened to blaze out of control and totally consume her.

“Travis, Travis!” She called his name, thrust her hands in his hair at the sides of his head and anxiously drew him closer.

Wild and wanton, she tilted her pelvis up as she opened her legs wider. Her breath was coming in labored pants. Her eyes opened and closed, affording dazed glimpses of them in the mirror. A shuddering climax was imminent; she felt the frightening release coming.

So did Travis.

He slid his hands beneath her and clasped the twin cheeks of her bottom. He lifted her slightly and his dark face sank more fully into her. When she began to frantically call his name, he licked and lashed and loved her, giving her all she needed.

Kate frantically moaned and bucked and writhed. She begged him to stop, then begged him to never stop. She felt that she would surely die if he took his hot mouth from her.

Then it began. Her climax was so wrenching, so intense that she clung to his dark head, frantically pulling his hair and pressing him closer.

The orgasm went on and on, and Kate gasped his name as she looked into the mirror and saw his handsome face buried in her flesh, coaxing the eruptions of ecstasy from her with his masterful mouth.

When the final explosion happened, she screamed and shuddered, and Travis kept his mouth tightly fused to her until she finally collapsed, shaken and gasping for breath, against the sofa’s high back.

Only then did he raise his head.

He came up onto the sofa, put his arms around her and held her close against his chest.