Montana Sky

BE LIKE THAT .” STILL PINNED beneath him, still joined, Willa lazily played with his hair. “I might have been ready sooner.”
    “I’d say the timing worked just fine.” He had fantasies already working. Pouring champagne over that lovely golden body and licking it off. Drop by drop.
    “I always thought people set too much store by sex. I guess I’ve changed my mind.”
    “It wasn’t sex.” He turned his head, nibbled at her temple. “We’ll have sex some other time. This was making love. And you can’t set too much store by either.”
    She stretched her arms up, then lowered them so that her hands could knead his bottom. “What’s the difference?”
    He was still half aroused, and well aware it wouldn’t take much to finish the job. “You want me to show you?” Lifting his head, he grinned down at her. “Right now?”
    She chuckled and, feeling sentimental, stroked his cheek. “Even a bull needs recovery time.”
    “I ain’t no bull. Just stay right there.”
    “Where are you going?” My, oh, my, she thought, she hadn’t taken nearly enough time to look at that body of his. It was . . . an education.
    “I’ll be right back,” he told her, and strode out without bothering with his jeans.
    Well, well. She stretched again, then shifted so that she was cradled by pillows. It seemed the night wasn’t over. Experimentally, she laid a hand on her breast. Her heart was bumping along at a normal rate now rather than with that snare drum riff it had reached when he’d nuzzled just there.
    It was an odd feeling, she thought, to have a man suckling you, to have him pull you inside him. And to experience those mirror tugs in the womb.
    Everything he’d done had made her body feel different—tighter then looser, lighter then heavier.
    She wondered if she looked different—to herself, to him. There was no denying that she felt different.
    With all the pain, all the grief and fear in her life over the past months, she had found an oasis. For tonight, if only for tonight, there was only this room. Nothing outside of this room mattered. No, not even murder. She wouldn’t let reality in.
    Tomorrow was soon enough for worries, for the fear of what was haunting her ranch, her mountains, her land. Just for tonight she would be only a woman. A woman, she decided, who, this once, would be content to let a man hold the reins.
    So she was smiling when he walked back in. And for a moment, just looked.
    She’d seen him shirtless before, countless times, and knew those broad shoulders, that strong back. One memorable day she’d caught him and Adam and Zack skinny-dipping in the river, so she’d seen him naked.
    But she’d been twelve then, and she wasn’t thinking like a twelve-year-old now. And she wasn’t looking at a teenager, but a man. A powerful one. One that had her stomach flopping around in delighted reaction.
    “You look good naked,” she said conversationally.
    He stopped pouring the glass he’d brought in with him,turned to stare at her. “You don’t look so bad yourself.”
    The fact was, she looked stunning, sprawled over the rumpled sheets without a hint of modesty. Her hair was tumbled, her eyes glowed in the candlelight, and she had one hand low on her belly, idly tapping along with the music.
    “You sure as hell don’t look like a novice,” he told her.
    “I learn fast.”
    Now his smile came, slow, dangerous. “I’m counting on that.”
    “Yeah?” She loved a challenge. “So, what have you got there, McKinnon?”
    “Your champagne.” He set the bottle on her dresser, where candles flickered. “Have a glass.” The one he brought her was full to the rim. “You may want to be a little drunk for this.”
    “Really?” The smile widened into a grin, but with a shrug, she sipped. “Aren’t you having any?”
    “After.”
    She chuckled, sipped again. “After what?”
    “After I take you. That’s what I’m going to do this time.” He trailed a finger from her throat down to her quivering belly. “I’m going to take you. And you’re going to let me.”
    The breath backed up in her lungs and it took an effort to push it out. He didn’t look tender now, or flustered. Now with those eyes so dark, so green, so focused. He looked ruthless. Exciting.
    “Am I?”
    “Yeah.” He could see that pulse in her throat begin to beat and flutter. “It’s not going to be slow, but it’s going to take a long time. Drink the champagne down, Willa. I’ll taste it on