up at her. “I think you don’t want a man to tell you you’re beautiful. I think you want him to tell you there is something wrong with you so you can haul off and punch him in the face.”
Her entire face paled. Then she scowled. “You think you have me figured out?”
“Not even close. But I have figured a couple things out. You don’t want to be told you’re beautiful.” He let his hand drift from where it was on her thigh, up to her hip. “But you like to be kissed long and deep. You might not want to hear the words, but you don’t mind a man showing you.”
Her dark eyes looked nearly black, the color rising in her cheeks again. “You don’t...you don’t know that.”
Now he knew that she was just challenging him because she wanted a fight. That was another thing about her he’d figured out. “I do know that,” he said, giving her exactly what she wanted. He moved his hand up a little bit further, skimming the underside of her breast with his thumb. “You like that too,” he said, his voice getting rough.
She let out a long, ragged breath. “Cheap shot, West. Very cheap.”
“Why? Because I’m irresistible?”
That made her smile again, and this time she didn’t try to hold it back. When she smiled like that, he had the sense that the sun had broken through the heavy gray mist that hung over the mountains.
“Look, until this week I was a virgin. I’m a pretty easy target.”
“Yeah,” he said, reaching up and grabbing hold of her chin. “You really have made things so easy on me.”
“I just mean, I’m about as hard up as they come. Twenty-eight years without sex is a long time.”
“Come here,” he said.
She didn’t make any move to get down off the horse, so he wrapped his arm around her waist and lifted her down from the horse. Her dark eyes widened and she tried to jerk away from him, but he held her steady. He looked at her, taking hold of her face, sliding his thumbs across her cheek. He traced the line of scar tissue that ran from the outside corner of her left eye down to her mouth.
“Beautiful,” he said, his stomach tight now, arousal welling up inside of him like a hot spring. He slid his thumb down, tracing the edge of her lower lip before leaning in and kissing her.
He deliberately kept it slow, every pass of his tongue going a little bit deeper. He cupped the back of her head, letting his fingers sink deep into her glossy, dark hair as he continued to ravish her mouth.
She whimpered, arching against him, and he moved his other hand from her face, letting his fingertips drift down the side of her neck to her shoulder and down her side to the curve of her waist where he flattened his palm and gripped her tight.
He pressed her body against his, the feel of her firm, small breasts against his chest enough to make him groan with pent-up need.
He moved his hand down lower, sliding his fingertips beneath the hem of her shirt, moving them upward, his other arm wrapped tightly around her waist, still holding her to him.
She pulled away suddenly, struggling to get free.
He released his hold on her and she took a step back, curving her arm over the back of her horse, as though she was using him for protection. “What?” he asked, examining her frightened expression.
“We’re out in the open.” And in the light. The unspoken words were as loud as anything else. She had made him leave the room before she had gotten out of bed this morning. Hadn’t allowed him to see any of her body.
“Right,” he said, not wanting to push her anymore now.
“I can’t... I can’t...” She swung her foot up in one of the stirrups, ready to get on the horse again, and he closed the distance between them, curving his hand around her neck, kissing her once more, long and fierce, before releasing her.
She slung her leg over the back of the horse, positioning herself on its back, her cheeks a brilliant pink. Her eyes were glittering and she was staring straight ahead, careful not to look at him.
“Are you mad at me?”
“No,” she said, “I’m not mad at you.”
“Are you ready to tell me thank-you for saying you’re beautiful?”
“No,” she said, turning her horse around and taking off at a gallop.