Daisies in the Canyon(18)

The pearl snaps on his shirt made a long series of noises when she pulled the top one with enough force to undo them all the way to his belt buckle. One of her hands inched its way inside his shirt, feeling just the right amount of chest hair and muscles on the way around to his back. His hand made its way from her back to cup a breast. Skin against skin and she didn’t even remember him unfastening her bra. She felt as if they could light candles off the places where he’d touched her skin. His tongue continued to make love to her mouth as his other hand massaged her back in gentle circles, each one creating another ripple of desire.

“Your skin is like warm water on a cold day,” he said.

“And yours is like fire.” She laughed.

He unbuttoned her shirt a little at a time until he could slide it off her shoulders. Kissing each piece of bare skin as he unwrapped her body like a Christmas present, he maneuvered her backward until she was stretched out on the sofa with him on top of her.

In the military they had a code. Red light meant stop right now. Yellow light meant to put the skids on it and take a step backward. Green light meant go right ahead at whatever speed worked best.

All she could see was a big green light when she reached to tug the rest of his shirt from his jeans.

“Abby, darlin’, if you are going to say stop, do it now, please.”

“Cooper, darlin’, I’m not going to say stop,” she whispered softly in his ear.

“Dear Lord,” he rasped hoarsely.

“It’s damn sure not a time to pray,” she said as she undid his belt buckle and unzipped his jeans.

He jumped up off the sofa and said, “Boots.”

She nodded and two pair of boots landed somewhere over beside the door in a pile. In seconds their jeans and underwear joined the boots. She did notice that her bra hung on the door handle and was damn glad that all three dogs were outside. One of them might think it was a new toy.

“I want to play, but it’s been a long time,” he drawled.

“This doesn’t have to be our only playdate.” She wrapped her legs around him and arched her back until her breasts brushed against that luscious hair on his chest.

She gasped when he filled her and started a steady rhythm.

“Did I hurt you?”

“No.” She rocked with him, matching every stroke with her hips, his kisses on her lips, eyelids, and forehead driving her insane. She locked her legs tightly around him, dug her nails into his back, and tried to melt her whole body into his in that instant.

He brought her to the edge of the most intense climax she’d ever known and then they tumbled over the side together.

“Oh, my God,” he whispered in a rasp.

He tried to roll to one side but that only sent both of them tumbling to the floor. His strong arms held her tight as she landed right on top of him.

“You okay?” he asked.

She tried to say something, but there wasn’t enough air in her lungs for anything other than panting so she just nodded.

He pulled a throw from the sofa and covered them with it and pulled her close to his side.

When she could finally talk, she gasped. “This was one hell of a big mistake, Cooper.”

“Probably so,” he agreed.

“It’s going to make things awkward and it can’t happen again.”

“Probably not,” he yawned.

“Holy shit! It’s past noon. They’ll be coming home any minute.”

“Guess we’d best go make the tea, hadn’t we? Unless you want to take this to the bedroom and have another go at it just to be sure that it was a mistake,” he said.

Her hand went to her mouth to see if it was actually as warm as it felt. She was surprised to find her lips were cool to the touch.

“We’ve got to get dressed,” she said. “Church will be over soon.”

She pushed away from him, gathered up all her clothing, and headed for the bathroom. He followed right behind her and turned on the shower. “We’d best take one together since we’re pressed for time.”

She gasped. “We can’t do that.”

“I’d say we’d have to. They’ll be here any minute and one whiff of either of us and they’ll know what we’ve been doing. Oh, and I need a lemon,” he said.

“What the hell for?” She turned on the water.

He adjusted it. “To suck on so I can wipe this smile off my face. It might have been a mistake, but honey, that was amazing.”

“Shit!” she said. “It is going to be awkward.”

“Probably. Want me to wash your back for you?”

“Hell, no! That would start something we don’t have time to finish.”





Chapter Five

Cooper had just turned thirty-one and he’d dated since the eighth-grade Valentine’s Day dance seventeen years ago. He’d had a couple of relationships but nothing serious since his granddad died. That was the year he’d won the election for sheriff, and he’d been busy with taking care of that business, plus the ranch, so he hadn’t had a lot of time for dating. He’d had the occasional fling that usually started in the Sugar Shack on a Saturday night and most of the time ended by Sunday morning when he went home to do chores.

What in the devil had he just done? He’d only known the woman a couple of days. It was too soon even to be kissing her, and yet they’d just had amazing sex. They’d wanted it. They’d had it. Now they had to suffer the consequences.