The Cowboy's Baby Bargain. Emilie Rose

hand around her nape, he traced her bottom lip with his thumb. The rasp of his skin over her flesh made her quiver. His coffee-dark gaze practically scalded her and his grin was lethal. “I have a hunger for your mouth that just won’t quit. I’m wondering how long you’re gonna make me wait before you put me out of my misery.”

      “My—oh.” She couldn’t catch her breath. Her past partners never talked during. If Caleb talked it might distract her from her goal. It took all her concentration to—to—He lowered his head until his mouth hovered a centimeter from hers and she lost her train of thought.

      “Are you gonna make me suffer, city girl?” His breath fanned her lips, making her heart race like she’d never been kissed.

      She yanked the belt, closing the gap between them. Heat seared her the moment their lips touched. From belt buckle to nose, he burned her. She brushed her mouth over his once, twice. Impatient. Hungry. Cautious.

      The need to let go and see where the current of desire would carry her coursed through her, but if she wanted to get any pleasure out of this, she had to stay in control and focused on the outcome.

      Caleb’s hand clenched in her hair. A groan rumbled in his throat and vibrated through her. Feeling bolder, she sucked his full, lower lip into her mouth and teased the silky inside. He made an impatient sound, but didn’t pounce. She wondered what it would take to push him over the edge. The determination to find his limits filled her, but that would have to wait until she was sufficiently aroused or she’d be left out.

      She traced her tongue along his teeth. He drew a sharp breath, widened his stance and settled his hands on her hips. If the hot length of each of his fingers could arouse her this much through her silk suit she wondered how she’d survive when he touched bare skin. Eager to find out, she cupped his strong jaw with both hands and traced his cheekbones with her thumbs, and then deepened the kiss, tentatively exploring further.

      Caleb startled her by sucking her tongue and pulling rhythmically on her body the way she’d pull on his later when he was inside her—if she was lucky. A thrill shivered over her.

      An impatience to investigate every inch of him enveloped her, but she held back. Her past encounters had been a race to completion, which she often hadn’t finished. Her only chance of finding satisfaction lay in keeping the pace slow enough for her body to warm up. It took her an embarrassingly long time.

      Although Caleb seemed to have given her a head start tonight.

      Closing her eyes, she inhaled deeply, savoring the scent of aroused man and a hint of aftershave. Blindly she explored the width and firmness of his chest, the trimness of his waist and the tautness of his belly above the thick leather belt while she sampled his mouth, his neck, his ears. The first two snaps of his Western-style shirt were already unfastened. She popped open three more and stroked his hot skin. Crisp hair teased her palms, shooting need to her very core.

      “Caleb—” All night she’d wondered how his hands would feel on her belly and breasts, and she couldn’t wait another moment to find out.

      “Tell me what you want.” His voice rumbled against her cheek. His lips feathered over her cheekbone.

      She’d never been a vocal lover. Covering his hands with hers, she slid them upward and whispered, “I want you to touch me.”

      As if he’d been waiting for those words, he yanked her closer. One hand splayed on her buttock, holding her captive against the length of his body. The other tangled in her hair. He captured her mouth in a ravenous kiss.

      Alarm shot through her. The balance of power had shifted. He would race onward and leave her to finish in a frustrated last place. She wanted to ask him to slow down. Her finicky body had certain requirements, but the way he devoured her mouth didn’t leave room for conversation or even coherent thought.

      He danced her backward until the wall pressed her spine. Sandwiched between the cool solid surface and hard heat of his body, she couldn’t move. Her hands were trapped uselessly between them. He thrust his thigh between hers, applying sweet pressure to her most sensitive spot. For a moment she battled a shameless urge to slide against him, but the move seemed too brazen, and it wasn’t something she’d done before. She managed to restrain herself, but it wasn’t easy.

      His hands skimmed over her in the lightest of caresses. Teasing. Tantalizing. Her clothes provided no barrier to the patterns he traced over her waist, her thighs, and along her spine. All the while he did things to her mouth that no man had ever done before. Kissing had never been particularly exciting for her. It seemed to be something her partners enjoyed much more than she did, but Caleb seemed determined to introduce her to what she’d been missing. And she liked it.

      Her breasts ached for his attention. If she could have freed her hands she would have grabbed his and put them where she needed his touch the most. After all, she knew she required quite a bit of foreplay there to get things started.

      As if sensing her thoughts, his hands plunged beneath her blouse. She gasped, nearly sucking the breath from his lungs. His callused palms lightly scraped her waist, leaving a trail of goose bumps in their wake. She shivered despite the furnace heat of his body and the blasts of his scorching breath on her cheek.

      In agonizingly slow motion he eased his thumbs beneath the elastic band of her bra, gliding them backward and forward. His thumbnails scraped the sensitive skin on the underside of her breasts, and her nipples tingled in anticipation. Hunger built in her midsection. She wanted to groan in frustration when he bypassed the sensitive tips to bisect her belly with the rasp of a fingernail. Her stomach muscles quivered.

      He moved to the waistband of her skirt, and with a deft flick of his fingers the button gave way. The zipper quickly followed. And still he kissed her, with silken strokes of his tongue and teasing nibbles of his teeth. It was too much. It wasn’t enough. He made her needy in an unfamiliar way.

      He eased back a few inches and cool air swept between them. Before she could pull him back her skirt puddled at her ankles. Now that he’d freed her mouth she wanted to protest, to slow him down, but when his hand splayed over her belly, a finger edging beneath the band of her panties, the words incinerated on her lips.

      He held her at arms’ length and groaned. “Should’ve known.”

      She shook her head, trying to clear the sensual haze. “Should have known what?”

      “That you wouldn’t wear white cotton. You’re determined to drive me outta my mind, aren’t you, city girl?” He skated a knuckle along her jaw and his lips curved in a slow, sensual smile that sent adrenaline surging through her veins.

      He dropped to his knees and pressed a kiss against her lacy, lavender panties. His breath steamed her through the thin fabric and sent her senses reeling. She clutched his shoulders for support. Caleb was moving too fast and doing things all out of her usual order. She opened her mouth to tell him what she liked and how she liked it, but the words vanished when he stripped her panties with a quick jerk and brushed his lips against her curls.

      Her breath caught at the boldness of his actions and at the strength of her reaction to them. He’d skipped all the preliminaries. There was a certain order to this business that ought to be respected. She shouldn’t be enjoying this, but she was. He hadn’t even touched her breasts. Being so out of control frightened her. Intent on yanking him back up, she curled her fingers into his thick hair.

      In her mind she knew she wasn’t ready for Caleb’s primitive brand of loving, but the sensations coursing through her body argued otherwise. He gently stroked her with his hands and mouth, coaxing a response from her. She knew she needed to tell him…something, but it took all her concentration to keep her knees from buckling.

      Caleb freed one foot and then the other from her skirt and panties then curled his hands around her ankles and eased them apart. He stoked upward in torturously slow circles—the same tantalizing circles his tongue drew on her sensitive flesh. The sudden rush of pleasure made her dizzy.

      Her libido galloped ahead, as if it hadn’t spent the last fifteen years plodding toward satisfaction,