“You,” she breathed, her knees tightening as he began thrusting harder, her answer ripping through him, fraying the hold he had on his own need to come. “I needed you.”
Him.
The pleasure tightened around him, inside him, building to a point that he had to lift his head from her, clench his teeth, and it wasn’t enough.
He felt her come. Fuck, he felt her inner flesh grip him tighter, suck at him with increasingly slick, hot contractions. His name was a cry on her lips, and he was lost.
Fuck. Lost inside her, spilling his seed with hard, fierce ejaculations, he fought whatever feeling those words pulled at inside him. Rapture raced through him, pure, white-hot pleasure he’d only found with this delicate, prickly little woman.
And he spilled inside her, without protection.
Holding her while the tremors of her climax rippled over her and his own release weakened him, Jacob lay against her, barely able to keep the majority of his weight from her delicate body.
Small whimpers left her throat as her teeth clenched at his chest, holding on to him with everything she had.
Had another woman ever held on to him so fiercely? He knew there hadn’t been. He knew, in his entire sexual lifetime, no other woman had ever affected him to this point.
Just this woman.
* * *
This wasn’t going to end well, Sallie thought later as Jacob held her against his chest, her head tucked beneath his chin. He’d carried her to her bed, undressed her and himself, and took her again, wringing another brutal orgasm from her before he was finished with her.
Now, in the dark stillness of the room, he was simply holding her, as though he somehow knew she needed to be held. And he couldn’t possibly know that. She hadn’t told anyone how desperately she ached to be held by him, to feel the security, the warmth she’d felt so long ago.
And she fully admitted she was crazy to allow it. When he didn’t seem inclined to get up and rush from the house, she should have rushed him from it herself. Instead, here she lay, basking in his warmth, feeling it seep through her flesh, move inside her, arrowing to that frozen, icy core she often felt growing inside her.
Six years.
Six years ago, she’d spent one incredible weekend with a man that swept her off her feet and stole her heart. He’d disappeared when the weekend was over and from the moment she realized he wasn’t returning, the hurt and lost dreams had begun freezing inside her.
And now here she was, in his arms again, and the frozen shards were slowly unthawing to reveal the ragged, pain-filled edges she hadn’t known she was hiding from herself.
“You’re thinking too hard.” His lazy, satisfied drawl had her fighting a ragged, broken sob.
That sound, the gentle rasp of his voice, the warmth in it, was so reminiscent of the man he had been six years ago that she could feel her heart breaking anew.
“Maybe I’m wondering why you haven’t rushed from the house as fast as possible.” It wasn’t a lie, exactly. Somehow, lying to him wasn’t something she found easy to do.
His hand stroked down her back then up to her shoulder once again.
“Too late to worry about it.” He sighed with a thread of drowsiness. “I’d have stayed the last time I was here if I could have. Someone managed to break into the house while I was here and Gram was alone. That was the emergency at the ranch. I’ve spent the better part of this week trying to figure out who it was.”
Sallie sat up, pulled the sheet around her breasts, and stared down at his shadowed face.
“She’s okay?” she asked, concerned as a frown knitted her brow.
“She’s fine. She fired Granddaddy’s shotgun on him.” He chuckled as his hand ran up her arm to pull her gently back to his chest. “A load of buckshot came at him as he went out the front window. She nicked him good, though. Unfortunately, I haven’t figured out who it was yet.”
“Is someone with her now?” She’d hate to think he left his grandmother alone.
Mary Ann Donovan was a tough, feisty old lady, but facing off a home intruder would be scary for anyone.
“Yeah, despite her objections.” He gave another of those rough little chuckles. “She reloaded her rifle and placed it close to the bed too. I hope she doesn’t shoot my foreman. John wouldn’t like that much.”
Sallie couldn’t help but grin at the thought of the older lady shooting John Grange. He was rarely in the best of moods if his expression was anything to go by whenever she saw him. That might make him a bit ill-tempered.
“Why are you here, Jacob?” The question fell from her lips before she could stop it. “You’re not exactly known for choosing lovers from Deer Haven. And you definitely didn’t spend the night the few times you have.”
He was silent for several long moments. Long enough that she wondered if he was ignoring the question.
“Maybe I’m lazy” he finally said quietly. “And it’s damned comfortable here.”
“Maybe…” she said. “But I don’t think that’s the case.”
“How ’bout I promise to answer that question when I figure it out?” He sighed. “Then, we’ll have a nice long discussion concerning it.”
She almost grinned at the confusion in his voice. He might not recognize her, he may have even completely forgotten the one weekend he spent with her, but knowing he felt some of what she was going through was nice. Because she didn’t understand herself either.
“Gram gave me orders to bring you to the ranch tomorrow,” he said then, that bit of confusion still lingering in his voice. “If you’re not busy.”
His grandmother would probably hunt her down if she refused a summons, she thought, amused. Mary Ann Donovan was known for her determination.
“I wouldn’t dare refuse,” she told him with a light laugh. “She might come after me with that shotgun.”
It couldn’t hurt. His grandmother was a nice woman. They’d met several times at different functions she’d attended, and she had always been friendly. Nosy as hell, but friendly.
“Or she’d use it on me.” He grunted. A second later she felt the yawn he tried to smother.
It would be okay, she promised herself again. He’d leave again soon and then she’d probably not see him again, other than chance meetings. Her past would stay a secret, and until she had to run again, life would go on.
The regrets would mount, she was certain, and when it was over this time, the pain would go deeper. But at least he was here, now, holding her, warming her.
For this moment in time, she felt safe.
“Come on, baby, lie down here and let me snuggle. You’re damned soft and you’ve worn me out.” The lazy amusement in his voice did nothing to quell her misgivings, but she lay down next to him and let him pull her into his embrace.
His warmth seeped into her, wrapped around her like nothing else had ever done. She just wanted to sleep in his arms one more time, she told herself. To sleep deep, secure, as she had during those long, cold nights in Switzerland.
Just one more time, and she’d be content.
And she knew it was a lie.
chapter six
Jacob knew it was a dream.
He always knew when it was a dream.