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She met his declaration with stunned silence. “You don’t?”
“Of course not. What, you think I carry a supply around with me at all times, just in case I get lucky?”
“Not even in your wallet?”
“Not since high school. These days I have a much better idea of what will and won’t happen with a woman, and I plan accordingly.”
She seemed to be digesting that. “What about in the glove compartment of your truck?” she finally asked.
“Are you kidding? My mom’s been known to borrow my truck, and she’s also been known to get a speeding ticket now and then. I can imagine how much she’d love finding condoms in the glove compartment when she’s digging for the registration papers.”
She gazed up at him. “You know, I’m glad to find out you don’t keep some around at all times.”
“You had me pegged as some sort of sex machine, didn’t you?”
“Not exactly a machine, but everybody thinks you installed that spongy mat in the back of your truck so you could have fun with your girlfriends.”
He let out a sigh of exasperation. “I put that mat in the back of the truck when Mom started refinishing antiques, so she could haul them around without damaging the finish on the furniture.”
“Not for making love?”
“No.”
“And so you’ve never—”
“I didn’t say that. And this discussion’s over.” He swung her up in his arms before she traveled down that road any further. Of course he’d made love in the back of the truck, but he didn’t want to talk about it now.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m taking charge and carrying you to the back of the truck. It’s the manly thing to do.” She didn’t resist, so he concluded she had faith in his self-control. He was putting a huge amount of faith in it, himself.
“Then I guess you don’t want to talk about your love life anymore,” she said.
“You’ve got that right.” Specifically he didn’t want to talk about or think about any other women he’d been involved with, in the back of his truck or anywhere else. They’d been wrong for him, but he hadn’t realized how wrong until a few moments ago…when he’d kissed Tess.
CHAPTER SIX
TESS SAT CROSS-LEGGED on the blanket and waited for Mac to crawl into the bed of the truck and join her. The night was still very warm, but she felt shivery with delight. Maybe it was partly the blanket, reminding her of the tent she’d shared with Mac as kids. They’d hauled comic books and snacks into their hideaway, and there had been nothing sexual about the cozy intimacy of being stretched out beside him in that tent.
Or maybe there had been, and she had been too innocent to realize it. At any rate, she had a delicious sensation now that reminded her of that intimacy, only magnified a hundred times. They were alone, closed off from the world, and ready, in a sense, to play.
“The sky’s so clear,” Mac said as he crawled up beside her. “Let’s lie on our backs and look at the stars, like we used to.”
“And not do anything?” She was hungrier for him than she cared to admit.
He gave her a swift kiss on the mouth. “I’ll tell you my dream.”
“Oh, all right.” She pulled the skirt of her dress down underneath her as she settled back on the blanket and looked upward. “Big Dipper, Little Dipper, North Star,” she said automatically as she searched them out.
Mac lay down beside her, his arm touching hers, his thigh against hers. “Orion’s Belt, and the Seven Sisters,” he added.
“And?”
“And nothing. That’s all I ever learned.”
“Still? I thought you took an astronomy class.”
“I learned things for the test and then forgot it. I only remember what we figured out from that kid’s book you had on the constellations.”
“Slacker.”
“Yeah.”
Tess felt as if they could still be seven and nine, lying on their backs in the cool grass of the park on a summer’s night. Tess’s brothers would be racing around playing tag, and the grown-ups would be sitting in lawn chairs complaining about being stuffed. Meanwhile, Mac and Tess would be off by themselves looking at the stars, probably because they’d been the ones most captivated by Star Wars and galaxies far, far away.
She could almost imagine they’d gone back in time…until Mac reached for her hand, lacing his fingers through hers. Memories of childhood faded. They definitely weren’t kids anymore, and the emotions coursing through her at the barest touch of his hand weren’t the least bit childish.
But the basis of those feelings had been there all along, she thought. What was happening between them now had been simmering within her for years, waiting for a touch, a word, a gesture, to make passion flare to life. He rubbed his thumb along hers, and although it might have been an unconscious movement, she didn’t think so. He had to realize that what they’d taken for childhood play had been more sensual than they’d ever admitted to each other, or themselves.
“Tell me your dream,” she said.
He was silent for a moment. Then, with a little sigh that sounded like surrender, he began. “You’d been invited to a Halloween party, and you asked to borrow Peppermint Patty because you wanted to go as Lady Godiva.”
“What? I would never do such a thing.” She thought of riding bareback with no clothes on. It didn’t sound comfortable, but it was sort of erotic. “Did I have long hair?”
“Down to your hips. You wanted to practice riding with no clothes on to see how it felt before you tried it at the party, so you talked me into riding along the river trail with you. You rode bareback, and you had this loose dress on with nothing on underneath. Halfway along the trail you took off the dress and tossed it into the bushes.”
Tess shivered. It was a sexy image. “But my hair covered me up, right?”
“Not that well. And you know how the trail winds, so even though I was behind you, I got some side views. You were…” He cleared his throat. “You were beautiful. And riding like that, rocking back and forth on the horse, was turning you on.”
“How could you tell?”
“Your skin was flushed, and you were breathing faster, and…your nipples were hard.” Mac clutched her hand a little more tightly and cleared his throat again.
“Oh.” Which described exactly the way she was feeling right now. When Mac didn’t continue with the dream, she prompted him. “Did you wake up then?”
“No.”
“What happened?”
“You had an orgasm.”
“Oh!”
“Which turned me on, and I pulled you off the horse and made love to you right on the ground.”
Tess wasn’t sure who was holding on tighter, her or Mac, but they had each other in a death grip. “Was it…nice?”
His voice was hoarse. “It was a dream. You can’t put dreams up against the real thing.”
Disappointment shot through her. “Then it wasn’t nice.”
“No, it wasn’t nice. It was wild and primitive, no holds barred. I bit your neck and you dug your fingernails into my back. It was…fantastic.”
“Wow.” She wondered what he’d think if he knew how her body was throbbing this very minute. Being thrown to the ground and ravished sounded perfect. She loosened her grip when she realized she might already be digging her nails into his hand.
He released her hand and turned on his side to face her. “I don’t want you to be scared by that description, Tess. I would never be that rough in real life.”
She turned on her side, too, pillowing her head on her arm. But her casual posture belied her racing heart. “Too bad.”
He sucked in his breath. “You’d want that?”
“Would I want you to be so overcome with desire that you’d pull me from my horse and make love to me on the ground? Of course I would. But as you said, it was a dream. In real life—”
“In real life I want you even more than that.”
She gasped. “You do?”
He lifted a hand to her cheek, and as he caressed her, his hand trembled. “In real life, I want to rip that dress away and take you now, right now. But I won’t. It wouldn’t be fair to you.”
“It would so be fair!”
His laugh sounded strained. “No, it wouldn’t.”
She’d never heard that edgy tone in his voice, and it was more exciting than the tenderest of murmurs. She almost wished he would be that reckless, but of course he wouldn’t, which was why she was lying here with him now. She trusted him. “But taking it slow doesn’t seem fair to you,” she said.
He slid his hand to the nape of her neck, massaging gently. “Fair doesn’t even come into it. I never imagined I’d be lying here with you like this. It’s like getting a present I didn’t have sense enough to know I wanted.” He fingered the clasp of her necklace. “What made you decide to wear this tonight?”
“It seemed right.”
“It was,” he murmured. His lips found hers and his kiss soon brought her to a fever pitch.
She didn’t realize he’d begun unzipping her dress until the material loosened over her breasts and he drew back slightly, gently ending the kiss. She opened her eyes. His face was in shadow, but she could see the rapid rise and fall of his chest as he eased the zipper the rest of the way down.
“Stop me whenever you want,” he said in a husky voice.
“I don’t want to stop you.” Her heart pounded as the thin strap of her dress dropped from her shoulder.
“Just know that you can.” He took the strap carefully between his fingers and pulled it down, bringing the bodice of the dress with it, gradually exposing her breast. His breath caught. “Oh, Tess.” He eased her to her back and expertly drew the dress down to her waist. Then he groaned and shook his head.
“What are you thinking?”
“That you’re even more beautiful than in my dream. And that you’ve been right there, all along….”
Her mouth moistened with desire. “All covered up.”
“Yeah. Damn. All these years.”
“Aren’t you going to…touch me?”
“I’m still caught up in looking.” But at last he traced the aureole of one nipple, causing it to tighten even more. Then he cupped her so tenderly, so carefully, that she felt like precious china. She loved being cherished, but she wanted more. Perhaps she needed to show him. Arching her back, she pressed forward, filling his cupped palm.
“Ah, Tess.” Taking a shaky breath, he dipped his head and brought her tight, aching nipple into his mouth.
Yes. She cupped the back of his head and lifted into his caress. Oh, yes. His was the touch she’d been waiting for—the swirl of his tongue, the nip of his teeth, the sweet pressure as he sucked, nursing the flames that licked at the tender spot between her thighs. Shamelessly she offered her other breast, and he lavished the same loving attention there while continuing to give a sweet massage to the damp nipple he’d just left.
As she twisted on the soft blanket, her skirt rode up. Or maybe he pushed it up, in that subtle way he had of making her clothes disappear. He slipped his hand between her thighs, pressing against the damp silk of her panties. The heel of his hand found the spot that ached, and pushed down. She trembled.
He kissed his way back to her mouth, then lifted a fraction away from her lips. “Do you want me to stop?”
“No,” she said, panting. “But I don’t… I’ve never…”
He paused, breathing heavily, too. “No man has ever had his hand there?”
“They didn’t dare.”
He leaned his forehead against hers. “But you must have done this…yourself.”
“No, I—read about it.”
“Not the same.”
“I know but—promise not to laugh—I didn’t want to be alone when it happened.”
“Oh, sweetheart.” He didn’t laugh. Instead, he tenderly kissed her forehead, her nose, her cheeks, and finally her lips. “You’re not alone now,” he whispered between kisses.
And sometime in the midst of those bewitching kisses, he eased his hand beneath the waistband of her panties. When she felt his fingers slip through her damp curls, she gasped.
His hand stilled and he lifted his mouth away from hers. “Is that a no?”
She began to quiver and fought the urge to press her thighs together. His hand resting there felt wonderful, but frightening, too. “Just a…reaction.”
“Should I stop?”
“No. But Mac, this is so personal.”
“Yes, ma’am.” There was a definite smile in his voice. “About as personal as you can get.” He eased his hand down and began a slow massage.
Breathing became more difficult as her body responded to that easy stroke. “At least…it’s almost completely dark.”
“That can help. The first time.”
She felt as if he was transforming her into a liquid, flowing state. “What if I make a fool of myself?”
“I hope you do.”
“I hope I don’t. You’ll never let me forget it.” She gasped again as one of his very talented fingers sought out the sensitive nub that sent shivers zinging through her.
