NOAH WAS GLAD he’d ordered the fruit to go along with the sandwiches. With a willing woman like Keely, a guy could find all kinds of interesting things to do with fruit. He’d turned her into quite a fruit cocktail before he’d finished. And in the process she’d become a real fan of multiple orgasms.
Then she’d become creative with the mayo she’d scraped off her club sandwich and he’d gladly served as her private bedroom deli. He might not have been able to do the multiple-orgasm thing like she could, but the climax she’d given him had almost killed him.
All in all, it was the most excellent meal he’d ever had—best food, best atmosphere, best company.
He wondered why he’d never tried eating naked with a woman before. You could save a bundle on napkins. If either of you happened to drip, the other gladly licked it off. Personally he’d made an effort to be messy and he figured she had, too.
With all the interruptions, their lunch had taken quite a while. He realized just how long when he had to switch on a light to see Keely better. At the same time he glanced at the numbers on the digital bedside clock. Damn. His plane left in two short hours.
“Why the frown?” she asked, snuggling into the pillows. “Indigestion?”
“No.” He settled down next to her and cupped her breast, rubbing her nipple to erectness with his thumb. “It’s just that I can’t stay much longer.”
Her green eyes flashed with alarm. “Really?”
“My plane leaves tonight.”
“Miss it.”
“Can’t.”
She reached down and circled his penis with her hand. “Are you quite sure about that?”
He closed his eyes as she stroked and tickled him into aching readiness in no time at all. In the past forty-eight hours he’d become like his bulls when they were in the same pen with a heifer in heat. He couldn’t get enough.
But he’d promised Jonas he’d be home tonight. Because of his promise, Jonas and B.J. had left the ranch that afternoon bound for Phoenix to check out wedding decorations. They’d planned to stay in Phoenix a couple of days and Noah needed to be at the ranch to take care of business while they were gone. Several matters demanded his attention, and he intended to keep his word to be back on time.
Keely scooted down and placed a kiss on the tip of his penis. “I’m sure you could get a plane in the morning.” Then she used her tongue to add more fuel to her argument.
His breathing roughened and his voice grew husky with a passion that seemed to have no end. “Keep that up and I’ll be able to fly there without a plane.”
“I want you to stay with me tonight,” she murmured as she nibbled her way from base to tip.
“There’s nothing I want more. But I can’t. I—” He drew in a sharp breath as she took him fully into her mouth and applied gentle suction. “But you have amazing powers of persuasion.” By all rights he shouldn’t be getting hard again, but damned if he wasn’t. If he didn’t stop her, she’d make him come, and he didn’t want to spend the last orgasm he would share with her in that way.
Ah, but she gave him such pleasure. Reluctantly he combed his fingers through her hair and cradled her head, drawing her slowly away, bringing her tender mouth up to meet his. “Time for one of those little raincoats,” he murmured between light kisses. “I want to be inside you this time.”
“Okay,” she said in a breathy, excited voice as she met his teasing kisses with ones of her own. “We can try a new position.”
“I had in mind something boring. Hang on a sec.” He turned over and grabbed a condom packet from the bedside table.
“Boring?” She smiled at him. “Here, let me put that on.”
“I thought you’d never ask.” He gave her the condom and she made a big production of unrolling it over his totally recharged penis. He loved her careful attention and tried not to think about this being the last time he’d feel her hands on him.
“I don’t see how anything we do in this bed could be boring.” She gave one last little tug on the latex. Then she cupped his balls and massaged them gently as she glanced up at him. “Not considering what we have to work with.”
He couldn’t believe he was so hot for her again, but she seemed to know instinctively how to touch him to turn him into a raging maniac. “Then you wouldn’t mind the plain old missionary position?”
She gazed into his eyes. “You mean no props, no unique location, no thrill of discovery?”
“That’s right.” He searched her eyes for the emotion he wanted to find. “Just you and me.”
“Scary.”
“I know. Think you can handle it?” There. He thought he saw the visual clue he was seeking, but then it was gone again.
“I don’t know.” She looked nervous.
“Let’s try it.” He eased her to her back and braced his hands beside her shoulders as he moved between her thighs.
She ran her hands lightly down his back and paused as her fingers encountered the ridge of a small scar. “How did I miss this?” she asked softly. Slowly she traced the ridge with her forefinger.
“You couldn’t have discovered everything. It’s only been a weekend.”
Regret flashed in her eyes. “That’s right.”
He gazed down at her, memorizing what he saw. This was his last chance to awaken real emotion in her. If he failed, he would never see her this way again.
Her tousled hair fanned out against the white pillow in waves of dark red, the color of desire. His glance raked over her, from her flushed cheeks to her passion-darkened nipples, from her flat belly to the red-gold curls between her thighs. A shell-pink treasure beckoned to him, peeking out from beneath those soft curls.
He focused on her face again—full lips parted, nostrils flared, green eyes dark with secrets. He held her gaze and moved his hips forward, easing partway in, adjusting to her heat so he could build his control.
“That feels so good,” she murmured.
“Nothing like it.” And he wasn’t talking about sex in general, either. He’d never experienced anything to compare with making love to Keely. He was beginning to understand how rare this connection was…for him. But he didn’t know how rare it was for her. Not yet.
Taking a deep breath, he pushed home. Slowly a flame grew in her eyes, a flame that warmed his soul. Maybe they had a chance. But he wasn’t putting anything on the line by speaking about it. Instead, he’d talk around the problem. “Just so you know, I’m not going for the multiples this time.”
“Okay.” She swallowed and tried another smile, but it faltered. “Back to basics?”
“Yeah.”
“You’re leaving after this, aren’t you?”
“Yeah.”
Her grip tightened on his back and she closed her eyes. “I thought so,” she whispered, her voice choked.
“Keely, open your eyes.”
She shook her head.
“Please.”
Her lashes fluttered upward, and her eyes glistened with tears.
Those tears hit him like a fist in the gut. “You’re crying,” he said, his throat raw.
Her voice was tight. “I think I have something in my eye.”
“Bull. You don’t want this to end any more than I do.”
“It has to end.” Her voice quivered. “I can’t go back.”
His heart sank. “To the ranch?”
“To the ranch, to my family, to my old life, to anything.”
She didn’t think he was worth the sacrifice. He could beg her to change her mind. And then what? Convince her to live a life she didn’t want because he couldn’t imagine giving her up? No.
“I guess this is it, then,” he said.
“Yes, this is it.”
“Well, you’d better hang on, sweetheart, because it’s gonna be one hell of a goodbye.” He began slowly, making each stroke count, and even her tears couldn’t put out the flame in her eyes. “You know this is about more than sex,” he murmured.
She didn’t reply, but the flame burned brighter.
“It’s about more than games and thrills.” He increased the pace, building that flame. She cared about him, damn it. He could see that she did. “It’s about more than orgasms.”
Tears dribbled from the corners of her eyes, and her gasps sounded almost like sobs, but she kept her eyes open and her gaze locked with his.
“But if I can’t give you anything else, at least I can give you that.” Shifting his angle slightly, he came in high and tight, stroking relentlessly now, drawing broken cries of pleasure from her lips. “Good, isn’t it?”
“Yes!” she cried, helpless in her need.
“The best, right?”
“Yes, oh…yes.” She met him thrust for thrust.
“Even just the basics.”
Her fingers dug into his back. “I love…the basics,” she said, panting.
His heart wept. She’d nearly said it. “I love…the basics, too,” he murmured.
“Oh, Noah…Noah…now!”
As she tightened around him and pushed upward, he spiraled out of control with a groan of surrender—to his passion, to Keely, to a future that would not include this flame-haired woman. Shuddering, he held her close and gulped back a sob of frustration. It was over.
KEELY STAYED IN BED, cocooned in the covers while Noah dressed. Part of the time she watched him and part of the time she closed her eyes and battled tears. The gutsy move would be to get up and put her clothes on, too, but she couldn’t bear to leave the haven they’d shared for so many hours. She wanted to stay here for as long as his scent remained in the sheets.
They’d had lots of sex in this room, but they’d only made love once, this last time. That cataclysmic event had nearly destroyed her. Their love, unspoken but real, was incredibly beautiful and absolutely hopeless.
Oh, if they could live their days in this room, if they never had to put on the clothes that branded each of them with the roles they’d chosen, then they might be able to make a go of their relationship. He’d just proved to her that they’d crossed into a whole other realm, one in which the mating of bodies was overshadowed by the joining of souls.
But they couldn’t live in this room, and he was already dressed in the clothes of his chosen profession. Buckling his belt, he went in search of his hat. He was headed back to his ranch, and she had a story to finish for the magazine. In the real world they’d make each other miserable. She had to let him go.
He might think he wanted her around, but good sex had muddled his brain. Maybe, in the hot flush of desire, he’d imagined that he could mold her into the kind of rural woman he needed by his side. She, on the other hand, had never even considered asking Noah to become a city man.
As if he ever could. He stood in the middle of the hotel room smoothing the brim of his black hat, his long legs tucked into denim, his broad shoulders covered in soft chambray. He might own a computer and understand the principles of investing in the stock market, but in his heart he was a cowboy.
And she loved him that way. She wouldn’t urbanize Noah even if she had the power.
He looked at her for a long moment. “I’ll stop by the desk and settle up with them about the sheet.”
She propped herself up against the headboard while holding the bedspread over her breasts. They’d dared everything with each other, and yet nudity seemed inappropriate now. “What are you going to say?”
A faint smile touched his mouth, the mouth she would never kiss again. “I’ll tell them we each took a strip of it for a souvenir.”
“That’s an idea.”
He pulled a rolled strip of white material out of his back pocket and showed it to her. “I thought so.”
She stared at the piece of sheet he’d carefully preserved and meant to take home with him. For some reason, that sentimental gesture got to her more than anything else, and she swallowed several times, praying she wouldn’t break down.
“I have to go,” he said softly.
She nodded, not trusting herself to speak.
“I’d better not kiss you goodbye, or I’ll never leave.”
She cleared her throat. “Okay.” She clutched the bedspread and tried to breathe normally.
He walked toward the door.
In that moment she imagined how a condemned person must feel in the last few seconds of life. She’d known heaven today. In less than a minute she’d know hell.
Perhaps she could make things easier for herself if she looked away while he twisted open the dead bolt and reached for the doorknob. But instead, she watched every move, cherishing each second that he remained.
He turned the knob and opened the door. She braced herself. Then, slowly, he closed the door again and faced her. Her heart thundered with new hope, even though she couldn’t imagine that he’d found a solution.
“At least come to B.J. and Jonas’s wedding,” he said.
Her heart twisted with agony. The wedding. Of course. What had she expected, that he’d fall to his knees and declare he couldn’t live without her? That only happened in the movies. Somehow she managed to speak around the lump in her throat. “I’d only cause problems.”
He shook his head. “I really think B.J. would love to have you there, and so would Arch.”
She didn’t know where she found the reserves to discuss this with him, but she dug deep and came up with a reasonably coherent response. “I haven’t spoken to either of them for ten years. I can’t just waltz in there in the middle of B.J.’s big day. That wouldn’t be fair to anyone.” And loving Noah as she did, she’d want to touch him, hold him, make love to him. Knowing that she couldn’t would be torture.
“All right,” he said quietly. “What if I mentioned to them that I ran into you and—”
She started. “Noah, you can’t be planning to tell them what we—”
“No. I wouldn’t do that, Keely. What we’ve done this weekend is our own private business.”
“Thank you.” The panic quieted in her chest. Noah had been a safe choice for adventure because he would never endanger her, physically or mentally. She knew that, but he’d given her a scare for a moment.
“Would you like to be at the wedding?” he asked.
Such a complicated question. But in the end, when she considered that her baby sister was getting married, that it was a day that could never be repeated, there was only one answer. “Yes.”
“Then let me mention that I saw you. I’m sure they’ll want you there, but I can drop you a line and let you know for sure, so there’s no doubt that they’re expecting you.”
“There’s another issue.” She held his gaze, her heart thumping. “We both agree there’s no future for us, right?”
His expression was guarded. “That’s what you said.”
“It’s what I believe.” She ran a tongue over her dry lips. “So how will that be, if I come back to the ranch for a couple of days? Can we handle that?”
His glance settled briefly on her mouth and heat flickered in his eyes. Then he looked away and cleared his throat. “Looks like we’ll have to, for B.J. and Jonas’s sake. Like you said, we don’t want to take the focus off their big day.” He faced her again and his chest heaved. “If you can deal with it, then I can.”
She had no idea if she could or not. “Like you said, we’ll have to. For the sake of the people we love.” And she included him in that category.
“Right.”
“Thank you for suggesting that I go,” she said, meaning every word. “Assuming B.J. and Dad want me, it’s the right thing to do. After all, B.J. and Jonas will probably have kids someday.”
“Yeah, they probably will.” His response was rich with longing.
Of course, he wanted children, she thought with a pang of regret. She hadn’t ever considered kids, but if she could have one who called Noah daddy, that would be…special. Talk about a daydream. “I’ll want to see my nieces and nephews,” she said, “so I need to get past this awkwardness with B.J. and Dad, and the sooner I do that, the better.”
He nodded. Then he stood there gazing at her until the air seemed to crackle between them.
She wondered what he’d do if she flung back the covers and opened her arms. From the look in his eyes, he’d miss his plane. But he didn’t really want to do that.
So she would help him. “You need to go,” she murmured.
He closed his eyes. “Keely—”
“Go, damn it! I can only be noble for so long!”
Without another word he left, closing the door carefully behind him. The automatic lock clicked into place.
She lost track of time as she sat staring at the closed door, willing him to knock and ask to be let back in. She stayed rigid and motionless until her head pounded and her eyes stung. But no knock came. He’d accepted her decision to end this amazingly beautiful connection between them.
The words she’d never spoken aloud rose in her throat, demanding to be free. “I love you, Noah,” she whispered hoarsely into the silence.
KEELY DIDN’T WANT his love. Noah struggled with that knowledge as the plane left Las Vegas. In spite of everything, he’d been about to tell her that he loved her, but she’d cut him off, as if she didn’t want him to make the mistake of declaring his feelings and saying things he couldn’t take back.
Maybe she even loved him a little bit, too. He would have sworn that was love he’d seen in her eyes toward the end of their precious time together. But loving a guy like him would only tie her down, so she’d do her best to get over it. He wondered how well she’d succeed. As for him, there was a hole in his heart big enough to drive a truck through.
Suggesting that she come to the wedding had been a desperate attempt to maintain a tie with her. He suspected that B.J. and Arch would be thrilled to have her come home for the big day, and Jonas would be happy about it, too. Noah was more than willing to do them a favor, but his motives were purely selfish. Keely might not want his love, but the closer he came to Arizona, the less he was prepared to accept that as a final decision.
Still, he knew there were rough times ahead, and he was glad he’d arranged to get Keely back on Twin Boulders soil, where he was thoroughly grounded. In order to perform a miracle and coax Keely into his life, he needed all his strength, and he drew that strength from the land where he was born.
Yet he had to be careful that he didn’t overpower her and force her into a life she didn’t want. He was counting on the fact that she might not know what she wanted, or more precisely, what she needed. She’d convinced herself that she couldn’t possibly fit in at the ranch, but he wanted to see that for himself.
Maybe she was right. Maybe when he looked at her and visualized her surrounded by their children, he was experiencing hallucinations brought on by the greatest sex he’d ever known. But after making love to Keely the way he had that last time, he couldn’t imagine anyone else as his mate or the mother of his kids. A few other times in his life when he’d been sexually involved with a woman, even thought himself in love, he’d tried to picture that woman pregnant with his baby. The image had never come into focus.
But now…now it was clear as a bell. He could feel himself thrusting deep inside Keely and spilling his seed. Then, in a few weeks, they’d share the joy of knowing that she’d conceived. He could picture her eyes lighting up at the moment they knew for sure. Her body would grow round and ripe, sensuous in a new way. The image brought a rush of anticipation. Then the hour would come when she would give birth, and he would hold the child they’d created, the baby who was a visible sign of their passion….
He must be going crazy. Only a crazy man would fantasize about making a woman pregnant when she didn’t want to admit that she loved him and certainly didn’t want him to tell her of his love. Only a crazy man would think he had enough imagination, enough moves, enough love to satisfy a wild child like Keely Branscom.
But Noah would give ten years of his life for a chance to prove that he was the only man fit for the job.