Page 45 of Wyoming Heart

She laughed. “I’m not a shrimp.”

“Honey, compared to me, you’re a shrimp.” He moved closer, catching her by the waist. He pulled her against him and bent to brush his hard mouth against hers almost tenderly. “You taste like those apples,” he whispered into her lips. “Green. Very green.”

She hated herself because she couldn’t manage to pull back or protest. She looked up into his pale brown eyes helplessly as he teased her mouth.

“It’s a learning curve,” he whispered as his lean hands framed her face. “We all start out as beginners.”

While he spoke, he began to fit his lips exactly to hers, coaxing them to part, brushing and stroking until she was rigid with unexpected hunger. Her hands, still floury, pressed into his blue flannel shirt, feeling muscle and soft, cushy hair under it while she stood, breathlessly fascinated, in his arms.

She felt his tongue easing under her top lip, smoothing against the warm, moist skin with a motion that was arousing. It made her hungry. She went on tiptoe to tempt him to do it harder, but he drew back a breath and started all over again.

His own breath was coming hard and fast. She was delicious. He’d never tasted a woman with such delicacy, such tenderness. He didn’t understand why he wanted it like this. Perhaps because she was so green.First times, he thought,should be tender.

She let him kiss her. It was so sweet, to feel him close like this, to feel his mouth savoring hers like a particularly delicious pastry. She smiled under his lips.

He drew back a breath. “What’s funny?” he whispered.

“I feel like a nice dessert,” she whispered back, her dark eyes sparkling as they met his.

He smiled, too. “You do taste delicious, little virgin,” he murmured as he brushed her mouth again. He drew in a deep breath and his lean hands caught her waist and moved her, reluctantly, away.

“I’m not used to sudden stops,” he said. “I’ve spent too much of my life enjoying women I barely knew.” He searched her eyes. “I’m not adding you to the notches on my bedpost.”

She flushed and then laughed. “Okay.” She peered up at him. “Thanks,” she said with a faint grimace. “I don’t know enough to cope with...with experienced men.”

“I noticed.” He was thinking how easy it would be to kiss her into fascinated submission and carry her to the nearest bed. Which was why he backed up a little. A lot of women pretended innocence with a flair. But this one was the genuine article. He’d have bet his life on it. “So we’ll cool it.”

She nodded. “Thanks.”

“I’d prefer to toss you down on the nearest bed, of course,” he confessed, grinning at her scarlet flush. “You are one delicious little pastry.”

“I’d give you indigestion,” she teased.

“I don’t think so.” His face tautened. “You watch McGuire,” he added. “He’s been around the world a few times. Sophisticated men are devious.”

“He’s not like that,” she said. She put some apples into a bowl and found a paring knife before she sat down in a chair at the table with the bowl in her lap. “He really likes me.” She made a face. “It’s worrying.”

He was puzzled. She didn’t act like a mercenary woman. McGuire was rich. But she wasn’t talking about his wealth. She was worried that he liked her.

“You don’t like him.”

She looked up. “Oh no. I like him very much.” She bit her lower lip and tasted Cort there. Kissing him was addictive. She didn’t look at him. “It’s just that what he wants goes beyond liking.”

“Easy fix. Don’t go out with him.”

“Well,” she sighed, “I already promised to go to Galveston with him this weekend.”

“For the weekend?” he asked, angry and frankly jealous.

She laughed. “No, no, no. I balked, and he said it would just be a day trip. He promised.”

Something inside him relaxed, just a little. “Why Galveston?”

“Seafood,” she replied. She laughed. “He seems to know all the best restaurants in the country. In fact, he knows them in Manhattan as well. He offered to fly me up there in four weeks. That one’s a business trip, though.”

He didn’t like thinking of her with McGuire. It made him irritable that he was vulnerable. He’d had so many women. He couldn’t understand why he felt differently about her.

“I see,” he said after a minute.

---