He traced her lips, entranced. “I used to dream about that afternoon with you,” he said in a sensuous tone. “I woke up sweating, swearing, hating myself for what I’d done.” He laughed hollowly. “Hating you for what I’d done, too,” he added. “I blamed us both. But I couldn’t forget how it was.”
She colored delicately and lowered her eyes to his broad chest under the shirt he wore. The memories were so close to the surface of her mind that it was impossible not to glimpse them from time to time. Now, they were blatant and embarrassing.
His lean hands moved up to frame her face and force her eyes to meet his. He wasn’t smiling.
“No other man will ever have the taste of you that I did, that day,” he said roughly. “You were so deliciously innocent.”
Her lips parted at the intensity of his tone, at the faint glitter of his green eyes. “That isn’t what you said at the time!” she accused.
“At the time,” he murmured huskily, watching her mouth, “I was hurting so much that I didn’t take time to choose my words. I just wanted you out of the damned truck before I started stripping you out of those tight little shorts you were wearing.”
The flush in her cheeks got worse. The image of it was unbelievably shocking. Somehow, it had never occurred to her that at some point he might undress her, to gain access…
“What an expression,” he said, chuckling in spite of himself. “Hadn’t you considered what might happen when you came on to me that hard?”
She shook her head.
His fingers slid into the blond hair at her temples where the long braid pulled it away from her face. “Someone should have had a long talk with you.”
“You did,” she recalled nervously.
“Long and explicit, the day afterward,” he said, nodding. “You didn’t want to hear it, but I made you. I liked to think that it might have saved you from an even worse experience.”
“It wasn’t exactly a bad experience,” she said, staring at his shirt button. “That was part of the problem.”
There was a long, static silence. “Sally,” he breathed, and his mouth moved down slowly to cover hers in the silence of the porch.
She stood on tiptoe to coax him closer, lost in the memory of that long-ago afternoon. She felt his hands on her arms, guiding them up around his neck before they fell back to her hips and lifted her into the suddenly swollen contours of his muscular body.
She gasped, giving him the opening he wanted, so that he could deepen the kiss. She felt the warm hardness of his mouth against hers, the soft nip of his teeth, the deep exploration of his tongue. A warm flood of sensation rushed into her lower abdomen and she felt her whole body go tense with it. It was as if her body had become perfectly attuned to this man’s years ago, and could never belong to anyone else.
He felt her headlong response and slowly let her back down, lifting his mouth away from hers. He studied her face, her swollen, soft mouth, her wide eyes, her dazed expression.
“Yes,” he said huskily.
“Yes?”
He bent and nipped her lower lip sensuously before he pushed her away.
She stared up at him helplessly, feeling as if she’d just been dropped from a great height.
His eyes went to her breasts and lingered on the sharp little points so noticeable at the front of her blouse, the fabric jumping with every hard, quick beat of her heart.
She met that searching gaze and felt the power of it all the way to her toes.
“You know as well as I do that it’s only a matter of time,” he said softly. “It always has been.”
She frowned. Her mind seemed to have shut down. She couldn’t quite focus, and her legs felt decidedly weak.
His eyes were back on her breasts, swerving to the closed door, and to both curtained windows before he stepped in close and cupped her blatantly in his warm, sensuous hands.
Sally’s mouth opened on a shocked gasp that became suddenly a moan of pleasure.
“I won’t hurt you,” he whispered, and his mouth covered hers hungrily.
It was the most passionate, adult kiss of her life, even eclipsing what had come before. His hands found their way under her sweatshirt and against lace-covered soft flesh. Her body responded instantly to the slow caresses. She curled into his body, eagerly submissive.
“Lord, what I wouldn’t give to unfasten this,” he groaned at her mouth as his fingers toyed with the closure at her back. “And sure as hell, Stevie would come outside the minute I did, and show and tell would take on a whole new meaning.”
The idea of it amused him and he lifted his head, smiling down into Sally’s equally laughing eyes.
“Ah, well,” he said, removing his hands with evident reluctance. “All things come to those who wait,” he added.
Sally blushed and moved a little away from him.
“Don’t be embarrassed,” he chided gently, his green eyes sparkling, full of mischief and pleasure. “All of us have a weak spot.”
“Not you, man of steel,” she teased.
“We’ll talk about that next time,” he said. “Meanwhile, remember what I said. Especially about night trips.”
“Now where would I go alone at night in Jacobsville?” she asked patiently.
He only laughed. But even as she watched him drive away she remembered an upcoming parents and teachers meeting. There would be plenty of time to tell him about that, she reminded herself. She turned back into the house, her mouth and body still tingling pleasantly.
CHAPTER FOUR
JESSICA WAS SUBDUED AFTER the time she’d spent with Dallas. Even Stevie noticed, and became more attentive. Sally cooked her aunt’s favorite dishes and did her best to coax Jess into a better frame of mind. But the other woman’s sadness was blatant.
With her mind on Jessica and not on time passing, she forgot that she had a parents and teachers meeting the next Tuesday night. She phoned Eb’s ranch, as she’d been told to, but all she got was the answering machine and a message that only asked the caller to leave a name and number. She left a message, doubting that he’d hear it before she was safely home. She hadn’t really believed him when he’d said the whole family was in danger, especially since nothing out of the ordinary had happened. But even so, surely nothing was going to happen to her on a two-mile drive home!
She sent Stevie home with a fellow teacher. The business meeting was long and explosive, and it was much later than usual when it was finally over. Sally spoke to the parents she knew and left early. She wasn’t thinking about anything except her bed as she drove down the long, lonely road toward home. As she passed the large house and accompanying acreage where her three neighbors lived, she felt a chill. Three of them were out on their front porch. The light was on, and it looked as if they were arguing about something. They caught sight of her truck and there was an ominous stillness about them.
Sally drove faster, aware that she drew their attention as she went past them. Only a few more minutes, she thought, and she’d be home…
The steering wheel suddenly became difficult to turn and with horror she heard the sound of a tire going flatter and flatter. Her heart flipped over. She didn’t have a spare. She’d rolled it out of the bed to make room for the cattle feed she’d taken home last week, having meant to ask Eb to help her put it back in again. But she’d have to walk the rest of the way, now. Worse, it was dark and those creepy men were still watching the truck.
Well, she told herself as she climbed out of the cab with her purse over her shoulder,