Someone Like You (Night Riders) (33 page)

The grin that spread across his face said he might be inexperienced, but he wasn’t stupid. His arms closed around her firmly. His kiss was gentle at first, then quickly transformed into a relentless exploration of her mouth. She felt captured and plundered…and hoped he would never stop. She tried to turn the tables on him, but now that she’d granted Rafe the freedom to do what he wanted, he didn’t appear ready to yield the initiative to her.

She decided she didn’t mind, especially when he began to scatter kisses over her cheeks and eyelids, to nibble her ear-lobe. The cumulative effect sent electrical charges arcing throughout her body in great bursts until she felt she would bounce out of her skin. It made no sense that a gentle nip on her ear would cause her legs to feel like they would go out from under her or that a series of kisses along her jaw would make her stomach feel like it had risen into her throat.

Maria had discussed marriage with her mother and both sisters. Her mother was of the generation in which marriages were arranged by the parents and the daughter given to a man she might never have seen before the wedding day. Maria had known there had to be more to a relationship between a man and a woman. She had often wondered what happened between lovers that could cause them to lose sight of all practical considerations, to turn their backs on old loyalties, to destroy the bounds of friendship and family, even to risk death.

Now she knew. She didn’t find it hard to think of running off with Rafe in the face of parental opposition. Nor would she hesitate to follow him to Texas. There wasn’t anything she wouldn’t risk for him. She knew it like she knew being in his arms felt right. It was comfortable. They fit. She belonged here.

Rafe’s kisses on the side of her throat disrupted her thoughts. For a man with little experience, he was quick to figure out how to reduce her to nearly mindless acceptance of anything he did. She couldn’t decide whether her mind or her body was more helpless, but it didn’t matter. Both had willingly yielded to Rafe. It came as a stunning surprise how wonderful it felt to give up all mental and physical control. She’d been responsible for so many people for so long, she’d forgotten what it felt like to have someone assume responsibility for her. It was a very seductive feeling, which drew her even deeper into Rafe’s web of love.

She wanted to be closer to Rafe, to be part of him, to be
absorbed by him without being lost in him. Her mind said that didn’t make any sense, but her emotions said that was exactly right, that her mind should take a rest until it was needed again, which wouldn’t be for some time.

Now Rafe was kissing her shoulder. Who would have thought that caress could make her weak in the knees? It could be because it was unconventional. Maybe her shoulders were extra sensitive, or maybe kisses placed there felt especially intimate. What ever the reason, his kiss turned up the temperature of her body’s response. She had a compulsion to touch and be touched.

She splayed her hands across Rafe’s back. The play of muscles under her fingertips caused her belly to tighten in a not-unpleasant way. Pressure from his body heightened the feeling of coming together, of being molded into one. She knew that was physically impossible, but she wasn’t interested in physical reality when her imagination enabled her to accomplish that and more. Despite the mind-sapping drug of Rafe’s kisses, she retained enough presence of mind to know this had to be an emotional journey. Any attempt to bring it down to earth would destroy the magic.

She had never imagined she would fall in love with a man like Rafe, or that a man like Rafe would fall in love with her, but it had happened and she intended to explore every possible aspect of that love. An insidious voice in the back of her head whispered that something this wonderful couldn’t last, that she had to grab everything while she could. She didn’t doubt Rafe’s sincerity, but the niggling fear wouldn’t be banished.

When Rafe undid two buttons on the back of her dress to give him access to more of her shoulder, she didn’t object. Instead, she undid three more to allow him to slip the dress completely off her shoulder. Her reward was a series of kisses that laid a blazing trail from her neck across her shoulder and down her upper arm. She marveled that her dull, ordinary body could be transformed into a symphony
of sensations that had the power to suspend thought, to reduce her to a helplessness that she wouldn’t have tolerated in any other circumstance. Now she welcomed it, willingly sinking into its velvety embrace.

She experienced a moment of hesitation when Rafe’s hands moved down her back to cup her bottom and press her against him. The double sensation of his hands on her bottom and the swell of his groin against her inner thigh threatened to sweep her away on a tide of hunger so intense, she couldn’t imagine how it could come from her body. Desire was like a sorceress with the power to make her believe that, at this time, she wanted him above all else. It scared her at the same time it inexorably propelled her forward at a pace that left her breathless.

Rafe tilted her head to give him access to her throat. But it was his hand on her breast rather than his kisses on her throat that took her to the next threshold. Like the rest of her body, her breasts were innocent of a man’s touch. Their transformation from an ordinary part of her body to a source of sexual pleasure was a surprising yet pleasing discovery. Rafe kneaded her breasts until her nipples pushed against the restraints of the tight bodice of her dress. She offered no objection when Rafe slipped her dress over her shoulders.

The soft fabric of her chemise separated her from his touch, but it was no bar to the myriad of sensations that bombarded her when he covered both her breasts with his hands. For a moment it seemed as if all her sensory receptors were located under his palms. When his lips moved from her throat to suckle one nipple through the fabric of her chemise, she was certain of it. She moaned softly, arched her back, and leaned forward against him. Her hands moved from her sides to his shoulders and then to his head, pressing him against her. Every part of her being was so focused on what Rafe was doing to her breasts, she didn’t realize he had undone the rest of her buttons until her dress fell to the floor around her feet.

His hands moved down her sides, across her back, over her buttocks, and down her thighs to the backs of her legs. Slowly he turned her whole body into an erogenous zone that needed no more than the brush of his fingertips to set off a storm of sensations.

When he pulled back and stood, she felt bereft, abandoned. Without a word, he led her through the door from the office to his bedroom. Coming to a stop before the bed he’d occupied since he arrived, he asked the question with his eyes rather than words.

She responded by stepping out of her shoes.

Rafe countered by untying her chemise and letting it pool around her feet. For a moment he stood looking at her, no words spoken, his gaze wandering over every part of her body. Just as she was becoming uncomfortable with his scrutiny, fearful he had found something to dislike, he released a long sigh. “Do you have any idea how beautiful you are?”

How could he think she was beautiful compared to Dolores? Even her mother had bemoaned the fact that Maria was cast into a shadow by her older sister. “You will never marry until your sister is married,” her mother used to say. “No man will know you’re in the room as long as Dolores is there.” Faced with the irrefutable corroboration of her mirror, Maria had long ago accepted her lack of beauty—and her role in life as secondary in importance to her sister. Now Rafe was asking her to believe the impossible—that in his eyes she was beautiful, maybe even as beautiful as Dolores.

Rafe was in love with her, not Dolores. Just as she thought Rafe was more handsome than Broc, he believed she was more beautiful than Dolores. It was love that made the difference. This was one time when reality didn’t matter. When Rafe looked at her the way he was looking at her now, she
felt
beautiful.

His eyes, wide and luminous, didn’t waver. He stood, arms at his sides, unmoving. He appeared to be holding his breath, locked in a moment of immobility. The silence was
so deep that she could hear the sound of her own breath, hear the sound of her heart beating against her ribs.

Rafe was the first to move. Reaching out with his hand, he drew her to him, wrapped her in his embrace. The feel of the rough cotton of his shirt, his belt buckle digging into her abdomen, made her acutely aware she was naked while he was still fully clothed. She reached between them to unbutton his shirt. Nerves, or excitement, caused her fingers to fumble.

“Let me do it.”

Maria had seen the naked torsos of many men as they labored in the hot California sun, but none came close to matching Rafe’s body. His skin was smooth with a slight olive cast to it. His arms, shoulders, and chest were developed in a way that implied being a cowhand was strenuous work. Maria couldn’t stop herself from reaching out to touch him. She didn’t know why she was surprised that his skin was soft and warm, incredibly wonderful to touch, to caress. He stood still while she ran her hands over him from collarbone to waistline.

“Let me take off my boots.”

After removing his boots and socks, he stood to remove his pants…and underwear. When he stood, she was made acutely aware that his body was as stimulated as her own.

Rafe reached for her hand with his right hand. With his left under her chin, he lifted her head until she gazed into his eyes. “If anything makes you uncomfortable, just tell me and we’ll stop.”

She wanted to say something, but the words wouldn’t come out because she wasn’t certain what they should be. She didn’t pull away when he led her to the bed. When he tugged back the covers, she allowed him to lift her onto the bed. Almost immediately the bed sagged under his weight as he joined her.

A
re you nervous?” Rafe asked.

Nervous didn’t begin to cover what she was feeling. Nervous. Dazed. Excited. Scared. Curious. Eager. Hesitant. She didn’t know what to say, but she knew she had to follow her heart. “No,” she said.

“If anything bothers you, let me know.”

“I will.”

His touch was gentle as with his rough fingertips he brushed her arm from shoulder to wrist. He cupped her cheek with his hand, moved his thumb over her lips, before leaning forward to place a kiss on her forehead, then on her mouth. A moment later he lay back, gazing at her. “I could lie here for hours just looking at you.”

She loved looking at him, being with him, but she knew it would be impossible just to lie next to him. She let her hand roam over his chest, along his arms, over his shoulders, and back down to his chest, where a small nest of black hair covered his breastbone. Yielding to an irresistible impulse, she rubbed his nipples gently with her fingertips. His body quivered.

“Does it hurt?” she asked.

He smiled. “No. I just didn’t realize I was so sensitive there.”

She didn’t know where the urge to pinch his nipples came from.

“Ouch.”

She giggled. She didn’t understand how it was possible to
be so aroused she could barely take a deep breath and still be able to giggle.

“What made you do that?” he demanded.

“I don’t know.”

He reached out, took one of her nipples between his fingers.

“Don’t you dare.”

“I want to try something more interesting.”

He moved down until he could take her nipple in his mouth. Once more chills lanced through every part of her body, from her scalp to her toes. When he took the tip between his teeth and gently nipped at it, the chills turned to arrows of desire so powerful, her body went rigid, her muscles tight with a delicious ache. The feel of his hardened sex lying heavily against her thigh only served to heighten the sense of urgency building inside her. She wanted him, more of him,
all
of him.

Without releasing her nipple, Rafe let his hand move over Maria’s back, along her side, across her hip, and down her thigh. His feathery touch caused her whole body to quiver with an ache so sizzlingly sweet, she feared she would melt. Being in control had been essential all her life; it was part of who she was. No one had ever caused her body to overpower her mind. No one had promised to take her on a journey so incredible, so much beyond anything she knew, that it would change her life forever. With a sigh, Maria gave herself up to Rafe.

It was a shock when Rafe released her nipple. She felt abandoned, rejected. She pressed against him looking for, and needing, a replacement for the excitement his attention to her nipple had created. She found it when his hand moved between her legs.

Her muscles tightened and her knees clamped together in an involuntary reaction. Rafe pulled back.

“Don’t,” she gasped.

“I won’t.”

“I mean don’t stop.” Her brain felt heavy, foggy, unable to
focus. Her muscles gradually relaxed and her body sank deeper into the mattress. Rafe’s hand moved gingerly along her inner thigh. Drawing on the minimal resources of her brain, she fought the urge to pull away, to defend she knew not what. Rafe loved her. He wouldn’t hurt her. He would stop if she asked.

When his fingers parted her flesh and entered her, it was all she could do to keep from flinging herself from the bed. Instinct urged her to resist the invasion, to fight to protect her body. That was countered by an even stronger need to open up, to yield, to give herself to him.

It became harder and harder to complete even simple thoughts, thoughts that made her wonder why his touch seemed alien and natural at the same time, why she should feel so conflicted about what he was doing, what it would be like to touch him. Just as she felt she was about to get a grip on a thought, he would move his hand in a way that shattered the thought into unrecognizable fragments.

Then he found a spot that not only rendered her brain useless but caused her body to go rigid and arch up from the bed.

“Did I hurt you?”

How could she describe something that made her feel like she was coming apart yet was so wonderful she would beg him to do it again? She managed to shake her head from side to side. “No,” she said with a mere thread of her voice.