always went home before morning. Now, he’d let a stranger inside.
But this was different, he told himself. She didn’t know his name. And he didn’t know hers.
“I don’t have a clothes dryer,” Jesse said, “but I’ll build a fire and you can get warm.”
Warm? If she felt the way he did, she’d be better off if he turned on the air conditioner. As he walked over to the corner and crouched in front of an adobe fire-place, Cat sat on a stool and removed her boots.
Moments later flames were licking at the wood. Satisfied that the fire was burning, he stood. “I’m going to get out of this wet shirt and make the coffee,” he said. “The bathroom is through that door. There are towels on the shelf.”
Cat let out a sigh of relief and headed for the door. The bathroom made her smile. A large claw-footed tub filled almost the entire room. On one wall were shelves filled with towels and…rocks. She supposed he must collect them. Her host was obviously a man of the earth. At least he wasn’t a man of the cloth—which was good, considering the way she was feeling. She lifted a towel and turned to go back out to the fire when she spotted a blue flannel shirt hanging on the back of the door. It was soft and dry and smelled like sage, the same smell she’d been so conscious of in the truck. She took in the scent and felt it fuel the fire crackling inside her skin. Moments later, after shedding all her wet clothes, she was snuggled inside the flannel shirt that almost reached her knees.
“Did you find what you needed?” her mystery man asked, rounding the corner into the bathroom and coming to an abrupt stop only inches away from her. At her inadvertent yelp, he apologized. “Sorry. I see you found something to wear.”
“If you need your shirt, I’ll take it off,” she offered, reaching for the top button, then stopped. She’d be completely nude.
“No, that’s okay. It looks much better on you.”
“It’s very soft,” she said, sliding her fingers up and down the flannel fabric. “It feels…good.”
Jesse let out a deep, hot breath. She seemed to be sending him an invitation, but he couldn’t be sure. He desperately tried to hold on to his last thread of control. Then he saw the top of her breasts peeking out the vee of the shirt. She was every man’s wet dream. The thread snapped.
He groaned and reached for her.
“Don’t,” she said, her voice low and tight.
He kissed her.
Silently, hungrily, she responded with such passion that it scared him. She kept her eyes open as he slid his hands beneath the shirt. He started for a moment when he touched her bare hips, then moved slowly upward and cupped her breasts. He felt the pounding of her heart as she slid her arms around his neck and melted against him. He tore his lips away for a moment. “Are you sure about this?”
“That I want you? Absolutely! That it’s smart? Not at all. Now, stop talking and make love to me.”
He lifted her in his arms.
2
BETWEEN KISSES they were soon naked and breathless on his bed, covered with a down comforter that gathered them close and cushioned them in warmth.
He plunged his hands into her hair, pulling it, kneading her scalp as his hot breath brushed her skin. His lips captured hers in great hungry gulps while his hips ground against her, his arousal pulsating with need. The power of his appetite demanded that she meet his every move with equal fire. She did.
Suddenly he pulled her hands above her head so that she couldn’t move. His mouth moved down her neck, tasting her nipple with his tongue and finally capturing it with his lips. Beneath him she writhed, trying desperately to entice him inside her. But he was not finished with her yet. With a hard tug she pulled away from his grasp. Hands free to touch, she explored hard muscles. Soft, pliable skin clenched in its wild need to be joined. Skin against skin, she was on fire, little sparks exploding outward, heating them both, making her wet with want. She knew he could tell she was with him. Pleasure throbbed inside her, growing stronger, frantic to be released.
Jesse was inside her and for a moment any thought of control was gone, until he realized what was happening and forced himself to still. “Whoa, lady,” he said in a tight voice. What was he doing, making love to her without protection? And why hadn’t she stopped him?
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
Everything. Because professional call girl or not, he wanted her.
She squirmed beneath him, crying out with need. He wanted her and he’d gone too far to turn back, but if he was going to break his own code of ethics, he’d still be smart enough to protect himself and her.
He reached past her and fumbled in the drawer in the nightstand. He couldn’t reach it and had to lift himself up.
“Don’t go away,” she said.
He tried to open the packet, dropped it and cursed. The throb grew stronger as if liquid lightning pulsed through his veins.
“You don’t need that,” she gasped.
“You may not, but I do. I don’t take chances.” He grabbed the packet from the floor.
“Give it to me,” Cat said, pushing him to his back as she removed the contents and tossed the foil to the floor. She smiled. He didn’t have to worry, but a little interruption like this always heightened the tension. She slowly rolled the latex down. He moaned and she could feel the muscles in his body contract as she touched him.
“For God’s sake, get it done,” he growled.
“For my sake, I’m trying.”
“Let me.” He pushed her away, finished and moved back over her. Their eyes were only inches apart. Even in the dark he could see the same desire he knew she saw in his. She breathed in the air he breathed out. He felt as though he’d never been so close to a woman before. She made a desperate sound deep in her throat and reached between them to grasp the hard length of him. This time she clasped her legs around his body and forced him inside her. There was no thinking, only her woman smell, his smell and the slight salty taste of her skin. He filled her with the raw sense of his hot sex.
This time there was no stopping. This time he slammed into her and she raised herself to meet him. He heard her gasp for breath, crying out in pleasure. He felt the beginning of her climax and tightened his muscles in an effort to sustain the moment, then groaned and once again plunged deep inside her as release exploded through them both.
Jesse had some earth-stopping climaxes before, but never like this. As the tremors subsided, little sparks of aftershocks continued to fire. He lay there until his heart stilled and his breathing went back to near normal. Then, finally, he rolled off her, pulled her close beside him, and curled his arm around her shoulder.
“I don’t know what to say,” he murmured, no longer loving her with his lips or his hands, yet still connected to her more intimately than he’d thought possible. How could he explain what had happened, how he’d broken his own rule, first about making love to a woman in his own house, then about the kind of woman he’d just shared the most intimate experience of his life with? It had to be an effect
