Everglades Wildfire, page 4
Amber turned toward the window. Forget about him and his piss-poor attitude. Think about the future. Think about the possible future with Christopher.
Everyone had been so ecstatic when she’d told them the two of them had started dating. Then they started teasing her about a wedding. After she’d realized she couldn’t get excited about Christopher because she still had lingering fantasies about Rick, the crazy idea to come down, to show herself once and for all that they’d never really had a relationship, just great sex, took hold and wouldn’t let go.
Rick yanked the steering wheel, making the truck pitch as he turned off for his ranch. They’d be back at his place soon, right back where she’d started, and nothing had changed.
No, that wasn’t really true. Things were worse. She’d learned that Rick had a whole side she knew nothing about. Last summer she’d been so hungry for his affection that she’d never bothered to try to learn anything about him. Amber slanted a look his way. With his gaze focused on the road, she couldn’t see his eyes, but she could tell by the way he gripped the steering wheel that the visit hadn’t been easy for him. Why had he put himself through that?
She gazed at his hands, remembering the rough texture of his fingers brushing across her neck when he’d pulled her to him. Had that kiss held more than physical desire? Did she mean something to him?
That line of thinking was nothing but trouble. She should know, she’d been down it too many times to count, always coming to the same realization. There was no point in fantasizing about what could never be.
Rick braked sharply, shaking Amber out of her thoughts. He turned off the engine, tossed the single key onto the dash. Instead of getting out Rick twisted, fixed his blue gaze on her, obviously trying to tame the storm brewing inside him.
A flash of shame overwhelmed her. She’d been so ready to believe what he’d told her about himself. That he was a poor gator rancher living from day to day. She’d never even tried to learn the most basic things about him. Like where he went to high school, or what his dreams were. What frightened him? What did he want for his future?
Unable to bear his scrutiny, she looked away.
“Like my family?” His voice was low, held a note of challenge.
She pressed her lips together, trying to hold in the raw mix of emotions churning her insides. Why hadn’t she tried to get to know him? She’d been with him for months and never asked a single question. Maybe she’d been glad that he, like her, had no childhood ties. Believing him to be a kindred spirit had made things easier. But he wasn’t abandoned as a child like she’d been. He had a family.
The oppressive temperature inside the cab weighed Amber down. The buzz of a fly that had flown in through the open window broke their silence. The palms next to the cottage shifted in the wind, rattling like bones. Finally, unable to take the strain any longer, she turned. His blank expression was gone and in its place was a startling blend of longing and sorrow. For the first time that day, she saw his raw, untamed honesty.
Struggling against the hunger he brought to life in her, she sought words, anything, to break the pull of her attraction, to keep her from falling back under his spell. “Maria and your father seem nice. It’s obvious they care about you.” She shrugged. “They seem to care about Henry too.”
He didn’t respond to her words, instead touched her cheek with the tips of his fingers. When he rubbed his thumb across her lip, his gaze lowered to study her mouth. The easy touch sent shock waves through her, lighting a fire in her belly, as hot as the one he ignited with his demanding kisses. She opened her mouth. He pressed his thumb inside for her to lick. Not wanting to resist him, she eagerly complied. His rough skin tasted salty and of him.
“You know how badly I want you, don’t you?” His voice, low and husky, sent a shiver of pleasure down her back.
He shifted over and pressed his mouth across hers. In the back of her mind, Amber knew something was wrong, but as he ran his tongue ever so lightly across hers all desire for rational thought fled. She moaned with pleasure when his calloused hand moved under her shirt and caressed her midriff. His fingers curved around one breast and squeezed gently. Her body kicked into overdrive, sending her pulse racing, her senses reeling.
She twisted to get closer to him, frustrated by the small confines of the truck’s cab. He sensed her need, dropped the hand from behind her head, to push her down onto the bench. Once he had her settled, he jerked off his T-shirt, tossed it to the floor and grabbed at hers. Within seconds, it joined his on the floor. He loomed over her, his gaze on the lacy white bra holding her breasts. He bent to trail kisses across her collarbone, then moved his hot mouth lower. Amber sucked in a breath, arched up to him, wanting more.
She reached for him, tangling one hand in the blond curls falling across his back. Her other hand possessively squeezed his thick shoulder, urging him to take what he wanted. His shaking fingers struggled with the front clasp of her bra. Cursing, he gave up, yanked the lace down, freeing her breasts. He took one nipple into his mouth while he pinched the other with his fingers. The combination of the binding pull of her bra and his hot touch sent fresh waves of need through her. She bucked against him.
He lifted his head to rub his bristled cheek against the side of her smooth face. “I know, honey,” he whispered in her ear.
He braced himself with one hand while he loosened his pants with the other. The split-second break was enough to bring Amber to the brink of reality. In her passion-drunk state, she reasoned that this was exactly what she needed. Making love to Rick was the perfect way to get him out of her system. When she felt him pulling down the zipper of her shorts, she knew she’d arrived at the point of no return. Willingly she crossed it.
Driven by an intense animalistic urge, Rick yanked off Amber’s shorts, grabbed at the scrap of lace underneath, hesitating. A woman, this beautiful, this sexy woman lying below him... No matter how much he wanted her... He’d done a lot of wrongs in his life but taking a woman who didn’t belong to him had never been one of them. He had to stop.
With one last taste of her he’d pull away. He ran his tongue across the smooth hollows of her neck, meaning to ease back, but she lifted her hips, pressing into him. He found himself reaching down, tugging at her panties. She murmured in his ear as he cupped her soft mound with his hand. How he wanted to be inside her, pounding into her, watching her breasts bounce each time he slammed down.
Using what small amount of resolve he could gather, he straightened. She grabbed at him. “Make love to me, Rick.” Her uneven breath whispered across his face. Hot desire flashed in her eyes.
Her desperate command shattered him. With a shaking hand, he opened the glove box and rummaged through. Papers fell to the floor until he found one of the condoms that had been there ever since she’d left.
She grabbed at his hand, “You don’t, Rick...”
He stayed focused on his task. It wasn’t a time for words. Carefully he tore the plastic wrapping with his teeth then sheathed himself. Amber stretched and spread her legs.
With one thrust he impaled her. Months of pent-up desire fueled his need for release. He drove into her, harder and harder with each swing of his body. She gasped. He held back, slowing the rhythm of his movements, reminding himself to bring her pleasure first before allowing himself release.
Her hand tangled in his hair while her lips parted in pleasure as the first contraction tensed her body. Pounding deeper, allowing himself the freedom to concentrate on her beautifully soft body, he caressed her breast. Its yielding weight filled his palm, the tight nipple begged to be tasted. He bent to take it in his mouth, but she cried out, so he plunged harder, faster, gave himself over to taking her deeper into the pleasure.
He groaned as his own climax took him. She wrapped one leg around him and grabbed his hip. Her fingernails dug in, urging him to pump harder. He ground his hips into hers as the spasms tore through his body. Finally, the last of the waves washed over him. He bent down to place a kiss on Amber’s forehead. Her eyes fluttered open.
“Just like I remembered,” she said, waiting for her heart to slow.
“Me too,” he replied, running his hands across her skin one last time, his fingertips skimmed across a tiny beige patch stuck below her hipbone.
“Birth control—contraceptive patch.”
“Guess I didn’t need this,” he said, rolling the condom off and easing himself off her, giving her room to breathe. She didn’t reply to his comment, instead she looked away, pushing her breasts into her bra. When she glanced down at her clothes scattered around the cab, a red flush crept over her cheeks. He grabbed her T-shirt and handed it to her. He pulled his own over his head, turning away.
With his need for her temporarily quenched, his mind backtracked. After he pulled his jeans up, he tugged the band in his snarled hair, tiny bursts of pain pinching his scalp. He’d been stupid to let himself lose control. Not because they hadn’t wanted to, but because it had felt as perfect—as powerful—as it had all those months ago. Now he had a fresh memory of how sweet Amber was. How much he wanted her.
* * *
Amber zipped her shorts and smoothed out her rumpled shirt while Rick struggled with the knots in his hair. Before, when they’d been lovers, she would’ve helped him.
What were they now? It was ridiculous to think she could label him “someone she used to know.” Yet aside from their bodies, they’d shared very little. He’d lied to her, and she’d kept the truth about herself from him. She’d never told him that she’d spent 13 years of her life moving from one foster home to the next.
It was too late to change any of that now. She had to get the papers signed, leave. She swung the door open and got out.
He circled the truck to stand beside her. “Come check out the hatchlings.”
The gentleness in his voice made her pause, but she stepped back anyway. “I have to get something out of my car.”
“It can wait,” he said, his feet crunching on the gravel as he headed to the smallest outbuilding.
Her flight home wasn’t until the following morning. She didn’t have anywhere else to go. A few minutes, long enough to look at the babies, and then she’d get the document.
He’d given up on tying his hair back again. The unruly strands hung loosely down his back. The sun-lightened curls caught the late afternoon rays, nearly glowing with a life of their own. His shoulders swayed while he walked, his long, graceful strides moving him across the ground twice as quickly as hers.
It didn’t seem fair that a man could be so strong, so utterly masculine and also so beautiful. Too many things in life weren’t fair. Amber had had more than her share of them. Now she’d put them all behind her and move on.
He ducked under the low, tin overhang of the dark building that housed the hatchlings. Once they were inside, he pointed. “Only about a week old.”
The creatures’ hides glistered under the red heat lamps. The tiny reptiles managed to be both cute and frightening.
Turning from the pen, Rick said, “Before you leave, I want you to tell me the real reason you came.” The hard edge was gone from his voice. Even in the darkness Amber saw the defeat in his gaze.
Even if she thought she could mend whatever had broken him, he didn’t want her. “I’m getting married, Rick.”
He nodded. “That’s what you said earlier.”
“It’s true.” She tried to muster up some fake enthusiasm. “We’re already making plans.”
“But you said you haven’t picked a date yet.”
“That’s true too. He’s out of town on business. We’re going to pick a date when he gets back.” How easily the lies rolled off her tongue.
“You haven’t been acting like a woman about to get married.” The biting edge was back.
Resentment took hold. Amber turned his anger back on him intentionally asking a question she knew would push him away. “Why was your brother in prison?”
He worked to keep his pain out of his voice. “He broke the law.”
She scoffed. “Obviously.”
To avoid her scrutiny, he reached into the pen, snatching one of the small gators. It twisted in the confines of his hands, its tiny jaw popping open. “Drugs. Selling...”
He didn’t add the rest of the story, that his own brother’s actions had forced him into a vile life, over a year of living in the shadows, spending time with criminals who had friends in prison, people who wouldn’t hesitate to “take care of Henry” if Rick didn’t pay off his debts. It was only by becoming one of them and selling the stash his brother had left behind, that Rick was able to even the score and then break away.
How he hated Henry for what he’d done, for forcing his hand, making him choose between keeping him safe while he was inside or abiding the laws created to protect the people they’d grown up with. And the only thanks Rick had received for what he’d done after Henry went to prison was the disintegration of his family and himself.
Now, with Henry hanging around, a loose thread ready to unravel... What damage would he leave in his wake this time?
“Rick?”
He turned at Amber’s voice. His gaze met hers. “Why did your dad think we were engaged?”
“The last time I saw him, he told me not to come back until I was ready to settle down.”
Amber brushed against him as she reached into the pen to touch one of the tiny creatures. She trailed her fingertips over the ridges of its spine. “He meant get married?”
The tiny reptile in his hands wrestled. He realized he’d been holding it too tightly. “Yeah, get married, have kids, work at his place. All that.”
Her lips formed a small circle, not saying anything. No doubt she was thinking about how all that was waiting for her back in Ohio. The little gator scurried into a corner after Rick set it back under the lights.
“When was the last time you saw him?” she asked.
“Three years.” Rick shrugged, stepping away from the pen. “Give or take a few months.”
“You had a fight?” she asked as they stepped back into the yard.
He nodded.
“I think he’s over that, whatever it was. He and Maria seemed really happy to see you.”
“Yeah.” He brushed away a branch from the overgrown shrubs circling the yard. “That warm welcome caught me just a little off guard.”
She laughed lightly at his understatement. “You’re going to have to tell them about their mistake,” she said. “Soon. It’s not right to let them think we’re engaged. Especially when they’re so excited.”
The slanting sun brightened the reddish sparks in her dark hair and made her already rich eyes glow.
“You’re lucky to have a family who loves you,” she said.
Lucky?
She had people back home, a decent, loving family. What did she know about the loneliness of being an outcast? He cut past her, stepping down the walkway.
Showing that new stubborn side, she trailed behind him, then jogging to catch up and get side by side. “Did you and Henry get along before he went to prison?”
Her gaze circled his face, searching. She’d discovered one of his secrets but wasn’t running away yet. Did he need to tell her more?
Instead of driving another wedge between them, he found himself thinking back to how things had been before. “A long time ago, we were best friends, but that changed when he started high school. He changed, started running with a bad crowd, started getting in to trouble. Same thing that happens to a lot a people when they get that age, but he wasn’t just another guy. He was my brother. I tried to get him to see the consequences of his actions, but...”
“Do you think he’s changed? Is that what he wanted to talk to you about, what he’s going to do now?”
“Something like that,” he managed through his tightening throat.
Edgy, Rick headed toward the shed for one of the wide brooms. The mindless chores of his ranch kept him moving, occupied his mind most of the day. Going to bed bone tired each night was the only thing that kept him from going crazy.
She held the door open for him as he dug inside for the broom. “You aren’t going to tell me anymore, are you?”
“There’s nothing you need to know,” he replied, starting to sweep the walkway surrounding the outbuildings.
“Rick—”
Again, she was staring at his face, searching. He glared back, challenging her to admit to what she saw—a worthless man with nothing to offer her.
“There’s something I need from you,” she said.
“I don’t have anything for you, sweetheart. Not unless...” He cut his gaze across her breasts then settled it between her legs.
“You’re wrong.” She backed away and headed to her car.
No, she was the one who was wrong. He had nothing to offer but pain.
Chapter Four
With her backpack slung across one shoulder, Amber slammed the trunk and crossed the yard. Just watching the muscles in Rick’s forearms flex as he pushed the broom was a thrill. His body made the most mundane tasks a turn-on. The heat, the thick air, the soft steady rhythm of the palms rustling, it was all etched in her memory.
As she approached, the smell of him drifted over her. She breathed deeply. The mixture of sweat and hard work mingled together to make the scent that was uniquely his. There would never be another man like him for her.
Abruptly he stopped pushing his broom.
He eyed her backpack. “Want to stay for a few days?”
At first, she thought he was baiting her again, but when he kept waiting for a reply, she shook her head as she dug for the document she’d prepared.
“Why not?” He reached out, ran his fingertip across one breast. Her nipple hardened instantly. “It’ll give you a few days to get me out of your system. That’s why you came down here isn’t it?”
She ignored him, digging the document out of her bag and then shoved the contract at him. “I need you to sign this.”
