Page 70 of Her Cadillac Cowboy
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Josh laid a finger on her puckered mouth. “Just listen for a minute.”
She leaned back against the doorframe.
“I need you, Sara. I can’t stop thinking about you. Whenever you leave a room I’m in, I hurt. When you enter a room where I am, I feel delirious. Then I want to lift eighteen wheelers, spout poetry, and pick flowers just to impress you.”
“You can’t be saying you’re in love with me?”
He pushed a hand through his hair and turned a slow frustrated circle. “I don’t know. I’ve never felt like this before. I loved my Uncle Sampson, and that sure didn’t feel anything like this twisted-in-knots sensation I get when I’m with you. When I think about you.”
Sara smiled.
“Please, just stay with me tonight. Let me make love with you. I promise I won’t pressure you. If you say no, I’ll rent you the Caddy anyway. I won’t allow this to...”
Sara pressed her own finger against his lips. “I never thought I’d say this to you, but you talk too much.” Her hand slid from his mouth to grasp his jaw.
“But...”
She pushed him into the living room, shut the door behind her, and pulled his face toward hers. “Shut up and kiss me.”
Sara stripped him of his clothes. Each button, zipper, clasp came undone with slow tenderness that fed an aching, wondrous need.
Josh suffered her ministrations with joyful impatience. The fleeting brush of her fingertips against each newly revealed portion of his skin brought delirious pleasure and searing desire.
He’d been in a tortuous limbo far too long.
The closer the moment came when she would step naked into his arms, trusting him body and soul, the greater became his struggle to restrain himself. He wanted for her that exquisite sensation that came with knowing exactly who the person was that you loved. But that realization couldn’t be forced. Like the waves, the knowledge of love had to come to the shore in its own time, its own way.
Accepting this, he stood before her completely nude. He searched her face. Was that eagerness, shining brilliant and unabashed in her sea-green eyes? His body, thick and pulsing, urged him to take her here in the moonlit shadows. But he had to know she wanted him too.
She stepped away, and her gaze stroked his body from toe to top.
Could she see, he wondered, beyond his outer desire to the frightening willingness he gave in his heart but could not find words for. He was lost. His hope of survival rested in Sara. He reached for her, wanting to know in every sense possible the woman who played with his heart like the scent of sea lavender on a westering breeze.
“No.” The word fluttered from her mouth and struck him an almost mortal blow. “Let me.”
He watched in a panic of delight, as she slipped the webbing of thin straps from her shoulders. Moonlight gleamed, and the white dress slid from her body.
Breasts of sea foam and dawn stood proudly revealed. She wore no bra, only tiny white panties above long glorious legs. White sandals displayed the elegant arch of her foot as she stepped from the pool of cloth that flurried around her ankles.
Josh couldn’t breathe. She was indescribably lovely.
When his gaze met hers, he saw something infinitely more beautiful. He saw a longing and a hope that matched his own. His hand reached out to her in an echo of his heart. He drew her to him, bending his head to touch hers. He placed her hand on his shoulder. “Now, let me.”
His lips caressed her mouth, her neck, the swell of a breast, the shiver of her belly, the soft woman-scented mound that hid her most physical secrets. He hooked his thumbs inside the fragile white silk barrier and slipped the panties to her feet. As he bent to complete his task, his body brushed hers. Would she yield those secrets to him as generously as she had yielded to his plea for her to stay?
On his knees before her, he ran his hands lightly up her legs on the outside, filling his palms with the firm flesh of her buttocks while he pressed a deeper kiss to the juncture of her thighs. She swayed.
“Josh.”
Her free hand grasped his other shoulder, and she steadied. He squeezed and felt a shudder run through her. His hands traveled over her hips. Down the flat quivering plane of her stomach. One set of fingers probed the tender, kiss-blessed spot. The other ranged freely about her inner thighs, questing for the softest flesh, the smoothest skin. He raised his head to find her looking down at him a desperate awe written clearly in her wide green eyes and tongue slicked lips.
“Please,” she whispered. “I need you, Josh.”
He could refuse her nothing. And rose, leading her to the patio chaise where he’d dreamed of lying with her. He sat on the firm cushion and pulled her down beside him.
Josh kissed her. She opened and gave him the soft, moist secrets of her mouth without reservation. He’d known how much he wanted this moment. How much he needed the sight and feel of this woman. Yet he wanted so much more, but he had only his body’s eagerness to show her how deeply he longed for closeness beyond the physical. As he stroked her tongue with his he placed his hand on her breast. His palm formed circles, drawing out the nipple with teasing touches as he broke the kiss.
