Wrangling the Redhead - By Sherryl Woods Page 0,44
body made for loving.
And she was his, all his, Wade thought with a sense of awe as he stripped off his clothes and joined her.
The heat between them was fanned alive by his first touch, then escalated by hers until there was nothing between them but need and urgency and demanding pleas. He slid off the scraps of lace, tossed them aside and watched, mesmerized, as the gown floated to the floor.
But then the only thing mesmerizing him was Lauren, her gaze dark with desire as he knelt above her, her perfect bow of a mouth parted with a sigh of fulfillment as he slowly slid into her.
This, he thought as the tight, velvet moistness surrounded him, must be what all the books were written about. Not the hasty unions he’d enjoyed in the past, but this sweet mating that began with the quick flame of kindling, built into something urgent and then exploded into a conflagration that could wipe out thoughts and consume a man.
He covered Lauren’s mouth with his to capture a scream just as her body shuddered with a violent release that triggered his own. Clinging together, they let the waves of pleasure ebb slowly.
Reluctant to let it end, Wade stayed where he was until he could feel himself growing hard again inside her, the urgency every bit as powerful as the first time, the release—when it finally came—every bit as satisfying. The amazement and delight in Lauren’s eyes was as rewarding as any gift he’d ever received.
He rolled onto his back, carrying her with him, then gazed into her eyes and grinned. “I think you did it anyway,” he murmured.
“Did what?” she asked.
“Killed me.”
She tweaked a hair on his chest, drawing a sharp response. “Nope,” she said happily. “Still alive.”
“How reassuring,” he said wryly. “You must be awfully satisfied with yourself, coming over here tonight and having your way with me.”
She regarded him with an innocent expression that she managed to make look surprisingly sincere. “Is that how you think it happened?”
“I know it is.”
“Are you complaining?”
“Even if I had any breath to spare, I wouldn’t complain,” he assured her. “You were everything I imagined and then some.”
“Does that mean we can keep doing this?”
Try to stop it, he thought. “I don’t see why not,” he said, careful as he tried to gauge her mood. It seemed a little edgy, a little unpredictable.
“Now?” she inquired.
Wade feigned a moan.
“Are you turning me down?” she asked, wiggling against him.
He laughed as his body responded. “Guess not.”
Satisfied with a job very well done, Lauren showered and scooted down to the barn before dawn. She was coaxing Midnight out into the corral by the time Wade sauntered down a half hour later with a mug of coffee in hand.
“You were up early,” he noted as he handed her the coffee.
“I figured if I didn’t get out of there before you woke up, there was a very good chance neither one of us would get to work today.”
“Grady does owe me a few days off,” he said, giving her a deliberately suggestive once-over. “Today could have been one of them.”
“I would love to have heard that call,” she teased him, feeling amazingly comfortable with their newfound intimacy.
“There’s still time. I can make it now and we can be back in bed in five minutes.”
Lauren shook her head. “Afraid not. I have a date with another male.” When Wade’s expression immediately darkened, she gestured toward Midnight. “Don’t tell me you’re jealous of a horse.”
He shrugged ruefully. “Could be,” he said. “Don’t test me.”
She patted his cheek. “You’ll get over it, once you realize I’m all yours.”
There was an unmistakable flicker of alarm in his eyes. Determined not to let it linger, she quickly added, “As long as all you’re after is a quick romp in the hay.”
His gaze narrowed. “Is that all you really want, Lauren?”
She forced out the words she knew he wanted to hear. “It’s all I really want.” For now, she amended silently.
Wade still wasn’t sure how he’d let Lauren talk him into going to this party with her. What the hell business did he have socializing with a megabucks computer genius like Cole Davis? Unfortunately, his protests had fallen on deaf ears. One thing he was learning about Lauren was that once she got a notion into her head, there was no talking her out of it. And she wanted to go to this barbecue, seemingly every bit as badly as she’d wanted to finesse her way into