“You’re still staring,” she pointed out.
“Yeah.” He smiled. “You’re so beautiful. I know that’s not very original, and you’ve-” He started to say she’d probably heard it a thousand times before, but suddenly her eyes misted, threatened to spill over. “Natalia?”
“No.” Clearly embarrassed, she stepped back, not anticipating Pickles, who’d come up directly behind her. Her foot came down on the blind goat’s front hoof, startling the thing into a noisy riot.
The other animals pitched in, as well.
“Oh!” Natalia turned, held her hands out. “I’m sorry.” Awkwardly she stroked the goat, trying to reassure it, and also, face averted, swiping at a few tears glistening on her cheek.
“Hush, Pickles,” Tim said, stepping around the animal who didn’t hush at all. He took Natalia’s shoulders in his hands. “Talk to me.”
“Your horse is frisking you.”
Misty was indeed attempting to get into his back pocket with her soft mouth. He batted at her, but couldn’t have made himself heard over the amazing decibel level Mrs. Pig and Pickles had created. “Come on, we’re out of here.”
She had her hands over her ears. “What?”
“I said-Oh, for Pete’s sake.” Grabbing her hand, he led her out of the pen. Instead of heading back toward the house, he took her on the path toward the barns, only he didn’t turn in there, either. He led her behind them, to a slight rise, where they could sit on a grassy knoll in peace and relative quiet, and look over his land.
It was inky dark, but the moon, hung in the sky like a glowing beacon, lit the way. So did the stars, so many they were nearly on top of each other. And as they sat, their shoulders and arms brushing, he slid his arm around her waist and drew her slightly resisting body a little closer. “Better.” He cupped her face and looked into her troubled eyes. “Tell me. Do you want to leave now? Is that it? Do you miss home? Is my sister being a pain again? What?”
“You…really think I’m beautiful.”
Her nose was running, her eyes red. Her hair was loose about her face, framing it. She had a streak of dirt on her jaw, probably from one of his animals, the ones she said she didn’t like, but fed at every opportunity. His chest tightened. “You
“You mean me, as a woman.”
“Yes.” Who did she think he meant? “Surely you’ve heard that about yourself before.”
“Only as a princess, and then, not so often really.” She sent him a watery smile. “But never as a woman.”
He’d nearly forgotten the princess thing. Had nearly convinced himself she’d forgotten, too.
“It’s why I did this,” she said. “Why I wanted to come here. I wanted to see what it was like to be an independent woman. Nothing more, nothing less, and…” Her voice hitched a little. “I have to tell you, Tim, I’ve never had such a great time.”
He thought of how hard she’d worked, of how much crap she’d taken from Sally. Of how she obviously had never lived in a world like this before, and yet she’d done it anyway, even after she’d earned enough to go where she wanted to go. “I figured by now you’d be running for the highway. This isn’t an easy life.”
“No. But it’s lovely. Here nothing matters, not what I look like or what I’ve done to stir up the press, nothing. It’s…real.” From somewhere behind them a cow let out a long cry. An answering cry came, then another.
And then the distant squeal of Mrs. Pig, which made them both laugh a little.
Her eyes misted again. “I know. But I’m leaving tomorrow, Tim.” She took a shaky breath. “I have to. I want you to know, though, I’ll miss this. And you.”
He wasn’t sure how it happened, but one moment he was staring down into her face at her lovely mouth, parted slightly, and the next moment he’d put his right over it. Just a little kiss. Just a comfort kiss. A you’re-not- alone kiss.
A goodbye kiss.
Only she made the sexiest little sound from deep in her throat. Grabbed his hair in her fists and held him close.
What could he do but keep kissing her? He couldn’t pull away, not when she threatened to pull the very hair from his head.
Her tongue against his ignited all the heat he’d been attempting to hold back. She made it impossible to remember he wasn’t going to do this, wasn’t going to take advantage of her in any way-
But she made that sound again, and pressed closer so she practically sat in his lap, her breasts against his chest, her nipples drilling holes into his skin.
Then she was in his lap, her bottom pressing against the part of him begging for more. His hands moved to her hips, gripping, shifting her back and forth over his hard-on until his eyes were crossed with lust.
And again she made that rough sound, the one that assured him she was feeling as needy as he.
Good. That was good.
No, wait. It was bad, very bad. One of them had to be in control, one of them had to be able to pull away.
But, God, it wasn’t him.
With a little whimper, she plastered herself against him, rotating her hips back and forth in a telltale sign that made him groan. Apparently, it wasn’t going to be her in control, either. “Natalia,” he said thickly, trying to pull back. “We need to stop.”
She tightened her grip on his hair, angled her face the other way and kept kissing him. She also did something pretty amazing with her tongue and his body jerked, getting aroused to the point of pain from just a kiss.
Just a kiss. What a joke. This was no “just a kiss.” They were practically sucking the air right out of each others’ lungs, letting out dark sounds into the night that were earthy and needy and arousing all in itself.
“Natalia,” he said again. Valiantly.
But then she twisted, straddling him. Which meant that her thighs were open, her legs around his waist, the hottest, most neediest part of her was rubbing against the hottest, most neediest part of him.
“I wish I was wearing my skirt,” she said, coming up for air. “Because then I could just lift it and…”
Just the image made him tremble. “Natalia, we need to get a grip.” He had a grip, two luscious handfuls of her perfectly rounded butt, but that’s not what he meant. “This is getting out of control.”
“I want to take this with me, this memory of you and me. What’s so wrong about that?”
“Because it’s not enough, not for you. One night isn’t enough.”
“It is.”
“It shouldn’t be.”
“Here, in this miraculous place, with you, I’m a woman, and I want to feel like one.” Her eyes were wide and dark on his. “Please.” Then she rocked against him until he could hardly remember why he resisted. “There’s no one else who makes me feel this way.”
Which pretty much made him feel like a superhero. “Be sure, Natalia. Be sure.”
Lifting his hand from her hip, she placed it over her breast. “I am.”
His heart nearly stopped. Beneath his fingers, her nipple was a hard, pouting point, and when he stroked it, he elicited a sweet little whimper from Natalia. His other hand got into the game, too, so that both were filled with her. She sighed and pressed against him some more, her head tossed back a little so that her throat was exposed right at mouth level.
He couldn’t help but lean forward and nibble at it.
She gasped and rocked to him. “You have no idea how good that feels.”
Tim felt good, too. And in spite of the very sexual nature of the moment, he felt a rightness of it all that came from his heart, not the hard-on currently making sitting a challenge.
Then Natalia reached down and pulled off her T-shirt.
If he’d thought his heart had stopped before, he was sorely mistaken. Her breasts were barely contained in a white, lacy little demibra with a front hook, her nipples dark and thrusting against the material.
She reached for his shirt, too. “Lift,” she demanded, and when he obliged, lifting his arms, she tossed his shirt over her head and slid herself against him. “I’ve always wanted to be like this, skin to skin with a man.” With a frown, she suddenly sat straight up, unhooked her bra and tossed that over her shoulder as well. He caught a quick
