Only 06 - Winter Fire

hunger went through Case.
    â€œYou keep talking like that,” he said against her ear, “and I’m going to forget all about the Culpeppers’ nasty habit of leaving a man behind to finish off the wounded.”
    â€œTalking like what?”
    â€œAbout biting me.”
    While he spoke, his teeth closed delicately over the rim of her ear.
    She shivered and made a small sound.
    â€œCold?” he whispered.
    â€œN-no.”
    â€œYou’re trembling.”
    â€œNobody ever bit me like that,” she said.
    â€œLike what?”
    Sarah’s teeth scraped gently over a pad of muscle on his chest.
    His heartbeat doubled.
    â€œLike that,” she whispered. “Gentle and teasing.”
    â€œI did. You just don’t remember it.”
    â€œWhen?”
    â€œA few weeks back, when you crawled into my bed.”
    Her body stiffened.
    â€œI didn’t mean that ,” she said.
    â€œSex?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œSarah…” He searched for words. “Honey, sex can be tender and teasing and hot and wild and everything in between.”
    â€œFor a man, maybe. Not for a woman.”
    â€œYou didn’t like my gentle bite?”
    She rubbed her nose against the thatch of hair on his chest.
    â€œI liked it,” she admitted.
    â€œYou didn’t like having your breasts petted and kissed two weeks ago?”
    â€œCase!”
    â€œDid you or didn’t you?” he asked.
    â€œHow would I know? I was asleep!”
    â€œWhat were you dreaming?”
    A shiver went through Sarah as she remembered.
    â€œI was lying in the sun,” she whispered. “I was warm all over, as though…as though…I don’t know. I never felt that way before.”
    â€œYou liked it.”
    â€œHow do you know?” she retorted. “You weren’t in my dream.”
    â€œNo, but I was in your body. I could feel how much you liked my mouth and my hands all over you.”
    A wild, hot thrill went through her.
    I was in your body .
    No other man had been that close to her except her husband. Her only memories of Hal were fear and pain and a throttled kind of rage that she should have to endure being bruised and ill-used in exchange for a roof over her head and food on Conner’s plate.
    â€œIn my body?” she asked thinly.
    â€œNot the way you mean. Just…”
    His voice died.
    How do I explain to an experienced innocent that men tease women with their fingers? he wondered.
    â€œI was petting you,” he said. “That’s all.”
    â€œInside?” she asked, shocked.
    The corners of his eyes crinkled.
    â€œInside,” he agreed. “It didn’t hurt you, did it?”
    â€œI don’t know,” she said through her teeth.
    â€œSure you do. You were awake at the last.”
    â€œI don’t want to talk about it.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œI just don’t!”
    â€œYou’ll face off raiders over a shotgun and you won’t talk about whether or not something hurt you?” he asked. “They’re just words, not bullets.”
    She didn’t say anything.
    â€œYour husband was a piss-poor man,” Case said matter-of-factly. “Most men are more decent to their women.”
    â€œSure,” she said sarcastically. “That’s why men pay women to put up with them. Well, there’s not enough silver in all of creation to make me put up with that again.”
    â€œWhat about your dream of lying naked in the sun, with heat caressing you all over?”
    â€œWhat about it?”
    â€œIt was me.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œI was the sun. I was touching you all over. And you liked it, Sarah. I know you did. You ran like warm honey over my fingers.”
    She went very still, barely breathing.
    â€œWhen you asked me that morning what I had done to you,” Case said, “I thought you were joking.”
    She shook her head slowly. “I wasn’t. I…hadn’t ever…didn’t know…there was never anything like…”
    She gave up trying to talk and buried her hot face against his chest.
    â€œI feel like such a fool,” she whispered.
    â€œYour husband was the fool.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œYou have real passion in you,” Case said. “He never bothered to find it.”
    Sarah’s head came up so quickly she almost clipped his chin.
    â€œPassion?” she asked in disbelief. “You mean I like