Trespass (8 page)

“I’m gonna come.”

She knew it was a warning, one she had no intention of heeding. His hips thrust, speeding her strokes, the fingertips of one hand set just behind her ears. For the few moments she had left, she spoiled him rotten, sucking hard, swirling her tongue over his head each time he withdrew. She took him deep as his cock shuddered, took all he gave her and moaned for him, feeling warm and content and happy as though she were the one who’d just climaxed.

Russ slumped back against the sink. “Oh God.”

She swallowed, then accepted his shaky hand and let him pull her to standing. His face was flushed pink beside the white shaving cream.

She laughed softly and smiled. “You’re very handsome when you’re incapacitated,” she said, picking up the razor.

His reply came out breathy. “Oh yeah?”

She nodded. “You’re handsome when you’re up to your elbows in horse shit too, but it’s tough to top how you look right now.” She touched his chest and ran her thumb across his bottom lip, dabbing away a fleck of white. “I better finish what I started.”

Russ let her shave the rest of his chin, his expression placid, eyelids heavy with post-sex laziness.

“All done.” She rinsed the razor and Russ did the same with his face. They toweled their hair and stole looks at one another’s bodies. She knew her chances to enjoy this man were ticking away, going, going, gone as the sun inevitably lowered and set and the moon rose. But the longer she put off the inevitable, the harder it would be to go through with it. And the crueler it would be to Russ. She swallowed a lump of sadness as she hung her towel up and slipped back into her clothes.

“So,” she said. “What’s next?”

He looked up from fastening his belt. “Did you… What just happened. Can I return the favor?”

She ran a palm over her cheek. “Is my five o’clock shadow coming in?”

“You know what I mean.”

“Later, Russ. I’ll let you make it up to me, I promise. For now, just put me to work. Let me earn my stew.”
Let me make this up to you…or start to.
Maybe in a couple of years, by some miracle, she’d be in a position to undo what she had planned for tonight. Maybe she’d be able to come back under some other name and knock on Russ’s door, accept the abuse she’d have coming and tender a little restitution.

“So what’s next?” she repeated, hating the faint shake in her voice, a tremble Russ wouldn’t hear.

“Now I check my phone, make sure there’s no surprises. Then you’re helping me mend a fence. How’s that sound?”

She nodded and put on a brilliant display of fake cheer, so good she nearly bought it herself. “Whatever you say, boss. Doc. Dr. Boss-man.”

Russ held his hand out and she preceded him into the den. She watched him putter for a few minutes, making them a fresh pot of coffee and decanting it into a battered old metal Thermos. She studied his back, his arms, his wet hair. All these little details that added up to the kind, generous man before her, his packaging so fitting for all the beauty inside, all his trust and patience and good humor. She’d hurt people before…badly. Always with some measure of regret, but always with good reason. Not Russ. When she left here she’d do so with guilt rising behind her like dust, and for once she wouldn’t be able to justify her way out of the bad memories. She only hoped she’d be able to kick up enough dirt to obliterate her trail.

Russ held the door for Nicole just as the sun dipped behind the mountains to the west…early. That time of year again. He loved fall for its smells and the colors and the blissful cool creeping into the air, but he missed the sunshine already. He missed the productivity it offered as much as he dreaded the boredom of winter. He felt the chill now and set to work prepping a fire. Nicole disappeared inside the bathroom, probably to try to lose some of the dirt and grime she’d picked up while helping Russ around the property.

Stacking the logs in the hearth brought back memories of everything from the previous evening…her body, her eager hands. God, her voice. By the time Russ had realized he could easily have dreamed up an excuse to drive to town and pick up condoms, it’d been too late.
Idiot.
But there was always tomorrow, presumably. Nicole seemed happy helping him out here and hadn’t made any noises about moving on. Unless he managed to screw it all up tonight, tomorrow was another day.

She appeared from the bathroom looking tired, frayed around the edges, surely ready for a good meal and a rest. Russ diplomatically cooled his body, preparing himself for disappointment if she wanted to forgo the exertion he’d been aching for since the long kiss they’d shared after a quick lunch…after what she’d done to him in his bathroom.

“I better take it easier on you tomorrow,” he said as she sank into the couch cushions. He got a record going and watched her flexing her slender feet on his coffee table, thinking that lapse in etiquette was just about the sexiest thing he’d seen in ages.

“I like working,” she said, watching her wiggling toes. “My life’s been chaotic for the last few weeks. It’s good to have assignments to keep my brain busy, I guess.” She met his eyes and smiled tightly.

Russ smiled back and studied her face in warm glow of the now-crackling fire. “How many beers you think it’ll take for me to get your story out of you?”

She glanced down at where her fingernails were cleaning one another in her lap. “I’m a pretty private person.”

Russ waited until she looked up again then nodded. “Understood. Well, we worked too late for me to make anything thrilling for dinner. You mind leftovers?”

“I love leftovers. Bring it on. Anything I can do to help?”

Russ shook his head. “Take it easy. Probably bad form that I’ve been putting my patient to work all day. You just relax.”

“When do the dogs eat?” she asked.

“After the humans.”

“Could I feed them, later? Maybe bring them a couple treats from the stew? I’d like to make a better impression on them than my first one.”

Russ opened the fridge and hauled out the pot. “Sure. Feeding those two will definitely put you in their good graces. I’ll show you where the kibble is later.” Flipping on a burner, he left dinner to warm. He grabbed two beers and headed for the living area. With a sigh he sat on the coffee table, registering the day’s work in his body.

Nicole accepted her bottle with a warm, tired smile and clanked it against his. “Thanks. Cheers.”

“Cheers.” Russ took a drink and thought it tasted sweeter than anything he could remember. Well, nearly. Beer, Roy Acuff on the turntable, fire in the hearth…yet nothing tasted, sounded or smelled better than the woman sitting in front of him. He studied her face as she did the same to the flames across the room behind Russ’s back. He wondered how long she’d stay. He wondered how long he could make it before he started scheming of ways to try to get her to stay indefinitely.

“How soon ’til dinner?” she asked. A sip from her bottle hid a smirk Russ could swear he’d seen forming on those wide, mischievous lips.

“Long as you please.”

“Maybe twenty minutes?” she asked, definitely smirking.

Russ nodded, waiting for her to make the move that would confirm his most selfish hopes. She set her bottle beside his butt on the table and slid forward, nestling her knees between his.

“Can I see your bedroom?”

Half the blood in Russ’s body rushed south, leaving him dim-witted and pulsing with the animal urges left once the rational human in him took off. Now that he knew her intentions, he was ready to do what he hadn’t last night or this morning—be the man, take the lead. He stood and let her skirt the table before he struck, hooking an arm behind her knees and hauling her into his arms.

She laughed and held on. “Oh my. Going caveman tonight, are we?”

“I’d never drag a lady by her hair.” He walked her into his dark bedroom and nudged the dimmer up with his elbow. Tossing her bodily onto the bed, he earned a gasp and creak of springs. Russ stood before her and stripped his shirts away, dropped his jeans and toed off his socks. Nicole stared, her slow, greedy smile lighting up the dim room. Russ grabbed her elbow and pulled her to standing, dragging her top up her slender trunk and arms, and tossing it aside. He reached around to fiddle with her bra clasp and let out a low gasp of his own when her palm cupped his straining erection. Hands already shaking, he slid the straps from her shoulders. He fought to ignore memories from that morning, how she’d dropped to her knees, mouth inches from his cock, her hungry expression making promises to him just as it was now.

Russ swallowed. He clasped her wrist and moved it from his dick to his thigh. “Lie down with me?”

She sat and reclined without a word, her wide, eager eyes on him as arousing as the filthiest diatribe she could have recited. Russ lay down beside her, and they kissed for all of a minute before his hands took over. He tangled his fingers in that insanely soft hair, devoured her mouth with his lips and plunged his tongue in for deep tastes. Their bellies touched, then their hips. Russ let her feel how badly he wanted her, and prayed she wanted him back even a quarter as much. Her hands had him believing it. The scrape of her nails over his shoulder blades set Russ moaning, shifting him wholly from man to animal, from horny to ravenous. But he owed her first, from earlier. He’d make good too, pay up and earn the selfish things his body was burning for here in his bed.

“Turn over,” he muttered.

She flipped onto her other side and Russ pulled her tight against him. He got her jeans open and together they managed to kick them down her legs and onto the bedspread. Russ slid an impatient hand between her thighs, met by shocking heat and a deep groan as his fingertips traced her through her underwear.

“Russ.”

It was his turn to moan. He pressed his face into her hair and neck as his fingers explored. He breathed her in, memorized her. His hips pressed closer, rubbing his stiff cock against the soft flesh where her thighs met her butt. He needed more, needed it dirtier and closer, crueler.

“Take these off,” he whispered and did the same to himself, pushing his boxers down his legs. When their bodies came back together, Russ thought he’d die from the pleasure, from the hot drag of his bare skin against hers. He reached down and got his cock between her thighs.

“God, Russ.”

Her legs tensed around him, then released as his fingers coaxed her back open. He moved them to her lips and found her wet. Sliding two digits inside, he took them away to taste, remembering how thoroughly he’d wanted to drown in her the previous night. He put his hands back to work, getting his fingertips slick and rubbing them over her clit.

Her words came out through a gasp. “I want you.”

Russ pumped his hips to thrust his cock between her legs. His head slipped against her lips with each push, the most wonderful and maddening feeling.

“I want you too.” He wanted a dozen things, among them to lose his good sense and forget the existence of condoms or consequences… Hell, keep the consequences. His body wanted to get this extraordinary woman pregnant and wake up with everything he’d been wishing for the last few years, all the things that at thirty-six he’d already begun giving up on. He slid his free hand beneath her hip and held on tight, hammering his body against hers as his fingers circled her clit. He fantasized about making a miraculous mistake, angling his cock and sliding inside her, getting lost in her heat and depth and wetness.

“I want you so bad.” He spoke the words against her neck and felt her second the wish as her hand reached back to squeeze his shoulder. He held his breath, waiting for permission to do the wrong thing.

“Tell me how you’d do it, if you could,” she whispered.

Russ’s excitement surged to drown out a flash of disappointment. “I like being on top,” he murmured. His fingers stroked her faster, driven by the thrill the idea gave him.

“How do you want me?” she asked.

“On your back. I want you to watch me.”

“Show me now.”

Russ let her scoot away to settle against his bedspread. He knelt between her thighs, attention tugged in a hundred directions across the landscape of her body. A moan lodged itself in his throat as she lay her wrist at her belly, slim fingers taking over where Russ had left off. He fisted his cock and watched her tease her clit. What he’d said about wanting to be watched…that was true right now. He loved her eyes, and he loved how it felt when they were on him, like an invisible hand spreading warmth across his skin. Like an extra sense science didn’t know about.

“You look so good,” she murmured. Her gaze was on his hand and dick. “And you taste good.”

Russ tightened his grip and shut his eyes, remembering that moment when she’d welcomed his release, drunk him down like wine. He opened his eyes to stare at her face. “Tell me what
you
want.”

She licked her lips, and her eyes lost their focus as she thought about the question. “I love your body. I want to see you working when you take me.”

That dovetailed nicely with Russ’s wishes. He leaned back a fraction, coaxing her hand away to rub the tip of his erection against her clit.

She groaned, eyes clamping shut. When they opened, they were locked right on Russ’s. “I want things that probably aren’t all that sexy or practical in reality.” She smiled up at him.

“Like what?”

“Like I want you to take me outside, take me in the grass or the dirt, or the bank of a river somewhere.”

He let those ideas tumble around in his skull, finding no issue with any of them. “People got it on without beds and sheets for millennia.” He swirled his cock head around her clit in tight circles. “Still do.”

She smiled again. “Maybe.”

“You’re a long way from home, city girl.” Or so he guessed. “If you want to get laid in the great outdoors, just ask me.”

“There’s a lot of bugs and dirt and lumpy rocks around here. I think it probably works better as a fantasy.”

Russ shrugged as best he could without interrupting his hand’s rhythm. “I’ve got nice clean blankets too.”

She bit her lip. “True.”

“Cool air and warm sun on your skin. Chilly water everywhere except where our bodies are touching?”