The Lawman's Noelle (Men of the West Book 31) Page 12

  She tilted her head back to look at him. The movement caused her long, brown hair to fall over his hands. He instinctively snared a few silky strands with his fingers, lifted them to his nose and inhaled the fragrance.

  “Evan, I—”

  “Don’t tell me that I’ve surprised you. We’re adults, not teenagers. I’m fairly sure that you’ve been feeling the same thing I’ve been feeling all evening. At least, that’s the message I’ve been getting.”

  She closed her eyes, and Evan had to fight to keep from lowering his mouth to hers and putting a delicious end to all this talk.

  “I haven’t been sending you a message.”

  He didn’t say anything to that. His silence prompted her eyes to open and her gaze to meet his.

  “Well, okay…I guess…I have been telling you in so many ways that I want you,” she admitted. “But I—”

  “Now that we’re alone, you’re getting cold feet?” he finished for her.

  A torn expression crossed her face. “Not cold feet. I…” Her words trailed away. Then suddenly her arms were sliding around his waist, urging him to close the gap between their bodies. “I haven’t been with a man since my ex-husband. After Phillip, the thought of being intimate with any man always left me sick inside. But you—I don’t know what it is about you, Evan, but you’ve made me want to be a woman again. I’m just not sure that I know how anymore.”

  Her confession shot a bittersweet arrow right through his heart. “Oh, Noelle. Sweetheart.” Reaching for her hand, he lifted it to his lips. “There are more womanly cells in one of your little fingers than in any whole female I’ve ever met.”

  She groaned. “I don’t want sweet talk from you, Evan. I’d rather have straight talk.”

  Realizing she’d been conned by a jerk in the worst kind of way, he understood how important it was for her to know whether the things he said to her were genuine or spoken to play on her emotions.

  “That’s the truth,” he said. “And here’s the rest of it. I have no idea where any of this might take us. We might decide we don’t like each other after all. Or we might decide we’ll be together for a long, long time. Either way, I want to find out. Don’t you?”

  A part of him expected her hands to fall away from his back. Instead, he was thrilled to feel them tighten.

  “No promises to give me a life in paradise? Or vows to love me until the end of time?” she asked sardonically.

  If he hadn’t known how hurt she’d been by her ex-husband, the tone of her voice would’ve had him turning and walking out of the house. But Evan understood she wasn’t really a hard-hearted woman. It was the pain inside that made her hide behind a wall of sarcasm.

  “I can’t make those sorts of promises,” he said. “Not yet, at least.”

  Pressing her cheek to his chest, she murmured, “I wouldn’t ever want you to make those sorts of promises to me. Those are the kinds that are always broken.”

  “Always?”

  Tilting her head back, she looked at him, and Evan didn’t miss the smoky allure in her brown eyes. “That’s been my experience. I can’t see why yours would be any different.”

  Touching her face, he moved his fingertips over her high cheekbones, down her straight nose, then on to the plush, velvety curves of her lips.

  “You talk tough, Noelle,” he whispered. “But you don’t feel a bit tough to me.”

  Something soft and needy flickered in her eyes. Her hands began to move against his back, creating sizzling patches of heat across his skin.

  “Right now, I think you’re talking too much.” Her voice was hoarse with desire, and the sound of it ruined Evan’s plan for them to take things slowly and safely and thoughtfully.

  Without another word, he slipped one arm beneath her thighs and lifted her up to his chest.

  “Evan!” Gasping, she flung her arms around his neck. “I’m too heavy for this!”

  He chuckled at her panicked protest and started out of the room. “Like I told you at the parade, you need to see I’m not a weakling.”

  Other than the kitchen, living area and bathroom, there were only two other rooms in the house, and it was easy for Evan to find which bedroom she slept in. A tiny night lamp illuminated a portion of the bed with an arc of muted light. He carried her straight to the bed, but as soon as he deposited her on the worn patchwork quilt, her upper body popped straight up.

  “My boots are dirty. Let me—”

  “I’ll take care of your boots,” he interrupted her in an urgent rush. “I’ll take care of everything.”

  Pushing her back against the mattress, he pulled off her scarred cowboy boots and tossed them aside. But the moment he started to remove her clothing, he forced himself to slow and his hands to calm.

  Except for the ticking of an old bell alarm clock on the nightstand, the room was incredibly quiet. He could hear each breath she took, and between the rapid intakes, his heartbeat was pounding in his ears, adding its own rhythm to the sounds.

  He had yet to kiss her or touch her bare skin, but his body was already aroused to the painful point. The realization shocked him. He couldn’t remember wanting any woman this much. Just thinking about being inside her was nearly enough to send him over the edge.

  The fight to contain his desire was making his hands shake. He fumbled with the top button on her blouse, then the second and third, until Noelle let out an impatient groan and attempted to push his fingers aside.

  “I can do this much faster,” she told him.

  Evan carefully placed her hands above her head. “Faster isn’t always better,” he said, his voice thick.

  Lifting her hands to his head, she pushed her fingers through his hair and shoved them down to the scalp. “Don’t worry. If you stick to this pace, we’ll soon be hearing the rooster crow.”

  Laughing softly, he dropped his lips to the bared skin above her lacy bra. “Funny, Noelle. I didn’t know you had a rooster. And I sure don’t know whether I should feel insulted or flattered by that remark.”

  With each word he spoke, he moved the tip of his nose against her creamy, soft skin and allowed the scent of her to fill his nostrils and his senses. At the same time, his hands worked to push her blouse over her shoulders.

  “You should feel— Oh, my, Evan—you’ve convinced me,” she whispered as she arched her back to allow him access to the clasp on her bra. “Slow is nice. Very nice.”

  The skimpy black garment fell away from her breasts. After he tossed it aside, he cupped the full mounds with his hands while his tongue lathed first one nipple and then the other until the sensitive flesh puckered into hard little buds.

  “You taste too good, Elle. Too sweet and precious. Just like I knew you would.” His voice sounded so hoarse that he hardly recognized it as his own. But then, nothing about the way he was feeling and reacting to this woman was familiar to him. It was as if she’d turned him into an animal filled with the primal need to mate. And if he didn’t make her his own, something inside him would wither and die.

  Eventually he moved away from her breasts long enough to take off the remainder of her clothing and then deal with his own. He was standing at the side of the bed, stripped down to his boxer shorts, when it suddenly dawned on him that he wasn’t carrying any condoms with him. The reality was like a cold dose of water.

  “What’s wrong, Evan? Is the idea of having sex with me turning you into an icicle?”

  She was teasing, but he couldn’t find anything amusing in having to walk away from her bed. He sure as hell didn’t figure she kept a box of protection in her medicine cabinet.

  “I—uh—wasn’t planning on anything like this happening,” he finally said. “And it’s rather embarrassing, but I—well, I don’t have any protection with me. You know. Birth control.”

  She must have sensed that
he was finding it awkward to bring up the subject, because an understanding smile crossed her face. Then, reaching up, she caught his hand and tugged him down beside her.

  “Forget that. I’m on the Pill,” she murmured against his lips. “All we need is each other.”

  A breath of relief rushed out of him, while hot desire rushed to his loins and tightened them in a viselike grip.

  “Each other,” he whispered in agreement. “Yes, that’s all we need.”

  He closed the last fraction of an inch between their lips. For the next few moments, he kissed her deeply, hungrily, until the room around them was a spinning blur and nothing mattered except the incredible need to connect his body to hers.

  The same wild desperation must have been building in her, because she suddenly tore away from the kiss and rose to her knees. When her fingers dived beneath the band of his boxer shorts, he knew her needs had grown to equal his. He lifted his hips from the bed to allow her to remove the last barrier of fabric between them.

  Her hands moved urgently as she slipped the shorts down his legs and onto the floor. Then, lying on her side, face-to-face with him, she slipped her hand over his chest and down his belly until she was touching his erection. The instant her fingers wrapped around him, he couldn’t stop his groan.

  Pausing, she whispered sexily, “Am I hurting you?”

  “No. You’re killing me!” Panting, he caught her wrist and gently placed her hand aside. “I can’t hold back with you touching me like that.”

  She nuzzled his cheek, her lips lingering at the corner of his. “Mmm. I don’t want you to hold back. We have all night, don’t we?”

  All night? Oh, yes, it would take all night and many more to quench the lust this woman had built in him, Evan thought.

  “And I don’t want to waste a second of it,” he murmured. Rolling her onto her back, he brought his lips down on hers and kissed her until her fingers were digging into his shoulders, her hips arching desperately up to his.

  His temples pounding, his body on the verge of exploding, he finally ended the kiss and set his mouth on a downward path, between her breasts and past her navel. By the time he reached the juncture of her thighs, she was making little noises in her throat, and the needy sounds pushed him to a place he’d never been before.

  Her legs parted, and he took his time tasting the soft skin of her inner thighs, drinking in the essence of her womanly scent. His tongue finally slipped between the intimate folds, and he could think only that she was like a flower with a sweet, sweet center, beckoning him to taste and drink his fill.

  When he began to feel her tighten and her breathing turn to harsh rasps, he brought his head up and quickly positioned his body over hers.

  “Oh, Evan—I—I’m aching! Love me—love me!”

  Her desperate plea ripped through him like a burst of blinding light. As he drove himself into her hot body, he was consumed by a wave of emotion. It swelled his chest and drowned his senses to the point that he was battling to stay afloat. And then suddenly, it didn’t matter if he surrendered to the chaos inside him. He didn’t care if he allowed her to view a part of him that no one else had seen before. As long as she rode out this emotional storm with him, he could survive anything.

  Like a wild wind blowing faster and faster across the desert hills, they moved together, all the while climbing, climbing, until Evan was certain his heart was going to burst wide-open and his lungs burn in the aftermath.

  Beneath him, she was all heat and softness, melding and blending with his body as though she’d been made especially for him. Oh, yes, she fit him, he thought. She touched him in all the ways a man needed and wanted to be touched. Without even asking, she was taking something from him that couldn’t be defined or measured.

  “Noelle—Elle. My sweetheart.”

  The words came out between fierce gasps. As he mindlessly drove himself into her, she slipped a hand behind his head and tugged his mouth down to hers. The intimate connection was all it took to send him spiraling headlong into a dark, magical place where he was lost in a whirl of sensations so incredible that he couldn’t breathe or think. All he could do was hang on to Noelle’s slick body. As he waited for his world to stop spinning, he realized just what it was she’d been snatching from him with each and every kiss, each caress of her hands. She’d been taking bits and pieces of his heart.

  * * *

  Several moments passed before Noelle’s heart slowed and her breathing returned to normal. By then, Evan had rolled his weight away from her. Now he lay next to her, his arms resting on the pillow behind his head. The faint glow of the night-light bathed his rugged features. As her eyes wandered over his strong, straight nose and the arrogant thrust of his chin, she wondered what had just happened to her.

  The moment their bodies had connected, she’d lost every last ounce of self-control. He’d made her feel things she’d never felt before. He’d made her ache with want and then given her everything she’d asked for and more.

  Now there was a soft radiance warming her from the inside out, pushing away the long, lonely years she’d endured since she’d moved onto this piece of land. Yet somewhere among all the tender thoughts she was having about this man, a part of her was remembering that he was wealthy by birth and a lawman by choice.

  Up until a few days ago, Andy’s picture had sat on her nightstand for the past five years. But after she’d shown Evan the album of wedding photos, something had told her to store the image of Andy away. That it was time she move on and put the incident behind her.

  Now she could only wonder what her little brother would think if he’d known his sister had made love to a man who wore a badge and carried a gun. Would he think she’d betrayed him? That she’d deserted him in death the same way she’d let him down while he’d been alive?

  Before she could let herself dwell on that somber question, Evan stirred beside her. As he reached over and drew her to him, she refused to let anything ruin this special night. Tomorrow would be soon enough for her to feel guilty. Tonight she simply wanted to feel loved and needed.

  Pillowing her cheek against his shoulder, she wrapped her arm around his chest and snuggled close to his side. “I saw Jessi at the Grubstake this morning. She tried her best to talk me into going to the Christmas parade with her tonight. When I told her no, she practically got angry with me. She thinks I ought to get out and have more fun. She doesn’t understand what makes me happy.”

  His fingers gently stroked the damp hair clinging to her temples. “What does make you happy?” he asked drowsily. “Riding Driller or Lonesome?”

  “I do love my horses.” Smiling faintly, she used her forefinger to draw lazy looping figures across his chest. “I didn’t think having you here with me like this would make me happy, but it does.”

  His hand rested against her back. “It makes me happy, too.”

  Tilting her head, she flashed a glance at his face. “Does it really?”

  “More than it should.”

  Sighing, she rose on her elbow and gazed down at him. He was being far more pensive than she’d thought he would be, and that worried her. Having sex with this man was one thing, but what would she do if he actually got serious about her? How could she explain that Andy’s death had skewed everything she’d ever thought or imagined a man of the law to be? Her bitterness would no doubt squash any feelings Evan might have for her. And God help her, as much as she wanted to forgive and forget the cause of her brother’s senseless death, she couldn’t.

  Swallowing at the thickness in her throat, she said, “You sound like you regret what just happened between us. Why?”

  “I don’t regret anything. But I’m wondering where this is going to take us. Whatever you might think, I’m not a man who jumps into a woman’s bed just for the fun of it.”

  “And I’ve already told you that I ha
ven’t slept with a man since my ex-husband. But why should we worry about any of that or where this might lead us?” she countered. “Isn’t it enough that we can simply enjoy each other’s company?”

  His fingertips stroked her cheekbone. “You’re right. There’s no need for us to be serious or worried. We’re just now getting to know each other. And tonight we’ve gotten off to a good start, don’t you think?”

  “The best,” she whispered. Then, closing her eyes, she lowered her lips to his. When he deepened the kiss and her body began to burn with desire once again, she tried to forget that this time with him had to be short-lived.

  Because no matter how wonderful this man made her feel, in the long term, she couldn’t let herself fall in love with a lawman.

  Chapter Nine

  A week later, on Tuesday afternoon, Noelle was back out at the gulch, slamming the posthole digger into the hard earth. Five more holes to dig and then she’d be able to set the last of the cedar posts she needed to reach the boundary fence that ran alongside the country road. The work was slow and exhausting, but she was proud of the progress she’d made. With the fence completely repaired, there would be no chance of any stray cattle wandering onto her land.

  She was leaning on the posthole digger, catching her breath, when she heard a vehicle approaching and glanced around to see Evan’s truck pulling to the side of the blacktop road. Even though he’d spent the past three nights with her, the sight of him sent a thrill of joy through her.

  While he left the truck and ducked under the barbed-wire fence, Noelle left the digger propped in the shallow hole and walked through the dead grass and sagebrush to meet him.