Debra Webb - In His Touch Box Set (Here To Stay, Up Close, Tempting Trace, Basic Instincts) (15 page)

When she had thought that Nathan had turned to someone else, rejected her, Paige assumed that her father had been right, that Nathan didn’t love her. She had never been able to get close to anyone else. Not that she feared inadequacy, but because she had always loved Nathan, even if he didn’t love her. And then, of course, there was Jesse. The birth of her son had turned her world upside down, sent her on a new journey. A journey that altered the course of her life forever. Paige had bloomed like a rose opening to the sun, become the true person
she
wanted to be. Not the carbon copy her father had wanted her to be.

Now, she sighed and opened her eyes. All she had to do was straighten this mess out with Nathan. She had prepared herself for his hatred. She loved Nathan more than life itself, but she could endure his hatred for Jesse’s sake. Her son needed his father a great deal more than Paige needed a lover.

She started her car and pulled out onto the busy street. She had always known what lay in store for her. One night of love and tenderness hadn’t changed anything. But at least she had a memory or two to hold in her heart. She wouldn’t kid herself about the future. Nathan would hate her when she told him. And she would tell him. Just not today, she decided.

~*~

Sweat rolled down Nathan’s back as he stacked the last of the hay bales nearest to the loft door. The winter supply was almost depleted as always at this time of year. With the pastures growing greener every day, haying the horses wouldn’t be necessary much longer.

He peeled off his shirt and wiped the sweat from his neck and chest, then adjusted the red bandana tied around his forehead. He pitched his shirt on a bale and drew in a long breath of barn scents. Any one of the men who worked for him would be happy to tidy the hayloft for Nathan, but he liked doing this particular chore himself. Working in the barn and caring for the horses came second only to his love of riding.

He smiled. And all that took a back seat to making love with Paige. He hadn’t slept at all last night. He had tossed and turned and relived their lovemaking over and over again. The very idea that he had been the only man to ever touch her did strange things to his heart. He had walked the floors for hours trying to wear off his insatiable need to make love to her again. He couldn’t possibly bang on her door in the middle of the night as he longed to do with Calvin there. Finally, desperate to relieve the ache in his loins he had taken a long walk in the cool night air.

Nathan had taken numerous other women to his bed over the years after Paige had gone off to college and forsaken him. Each time he had hoped that it would be different. That he wouldn’t think of Paige when he should have been thinking of the woman in his arms. And each time he had desperately hoped that he wouldn’t feel empty inside when it was over, but he always did. He had never been able to love anyone else. Hadn’t even wanted to. Not even his doomed marriage had changed that fact.

Nathan surveyed the loft for anything else that needed doing. He just wasn’t ready to call it a day yet. He gingerly touched the bandage on his abdomen. Paige had insisted on coming by this morning and redressing the barely-more-than-a-nick injury. The way she acted, you would think that he had been near fatally injured.

Nathan smiled. She had given him the sweetest kiss before leaving for Memphis. He frowned when he thought of the conservative suit she had worn to work. The damned thing covered up everything from neck to knee. Then again, that might be good, he decided. He didn’t want other men seeing too much of her. Especially that Myers guy, whom Calvin seemed to think had the hots for Paige. Nathan didn’t know Myers, but he didn’t like him. He didn’t like him at all. He had seen him that one time in court. And, come to think of it, there
had
been something about the way he looked at Paige that Nathan found unsettling. The man had damned sure better stay away from her. Because somehow, some way Nathan intended to make her his again.

“No daydreaming allowed, Blackrope.”

He snapped his head around at the sound of Paige’s lyrical voice. His smile returned at the sight of her lovely face. She stepped off the ladder and into the loft, smoothing the dust from her tasteful but prim suit.

“So, how’d it go with Myers?” he asked, watching her move toward him. She removed the clasp restraining her hair and the long, blond tresses cascaded over her shoulders. Nathan longed to run his fingers through that softness.

“Without a glitch,” she told him, sounding breathless. She stopped midway across the loft, tossed the clasp aside, then unfastened the shiny button at her waist. She shrugged out of her jacket and dropped it to the hay-strewn floor.

Nathan stared at the jacket on the floor and then at her. Something was up. He had never known Paige to behave so...so seductively.

“I felt like a female James Bond.” She smiled a sexy smile, her pink lips begging to be kissed. “It was a real rush, arousing... almost.” She slowly, one by one, unfastened the tiny pearl buttons of her blouse.

“Uh... good. I’m—I’m glad your little scheme worked,” he stammered. His throat tightened as he tried to swallow with his mouth feeling like a dusty corral. Fire shot to his groin when the pale silver blouse fell to the wide planks at her feet.

“Myers didn’t know what hit him,” she purred, sliding the skirt down her thighs. Paige stepped out of the circle her skirt made on the floor and moved a step closer to him.

Nathan’s mouth fell open and his heart hammered unmercifully as his gaze moved over her body. A black silk teddy dipped breathtakingly low between her breasts and arched high on her hips. Sheer, black stockings stopped mid-thigh in a band of black lace. Nathan suddenly found it difficult to breathe.

“After that,” she slipped off one black heel and propped her foot on a bale of hay, “all I could think about was you.” She rolled her stocking down ever so slowly, pausing briefly at her ankle. Paige pulled the sheer stocking from her foot, allowing it to glide over her smooth thigh before she tossed the scrap of black nothing to the floor.

“Me?” he asked lamely. His brain had stopped functioning. Nathan squeezed his hands into fists and tried to calm the volcano erupting inside him. He licked his lips and forced his gaze away from the long, shapely legs tantalizing him.

Paige smiled. “Of course, you,” she said sweetly as she removed the other stocking with the same painstaking slowness as she had the first. Barefoot and all but naked, she turned and took the few steps that separated them, her slender hips swaying provocatively.

The contrast of her porcelain skin against the black teddy made his body hum with white-hot desire. A new line of sweat seeped into his bandana. His hardening flesh pressed painfully against his jeans.

“Paige,” he murmured. “You’re driving me crazy.”

She slid her hands across his bare chest. He closed his eyes and shuddered with need. Her hot mouth closed over one nipple. Nathan clenched his teeth against the groan that rose in his throat. Whatever he had done to deserve this, he prayed he would live to do it again.

When she’d had her fill of torturing that nipple, she traced a path with her tongue to the other one. She sucked hard and this time Nathan couldn’t prevent the groan from escaping. Her fingers tugged at his belt and then the snap of his jeans. She slid his zipper down and reached inside.

He grunted a startled, strained sound as her fingers wrapped around his sex. “Paige.” For the first time since she had entered the loft, Nathan allowed himself to touch her. The cool silk sent sparks of heat discharging in his rigid body. He slipped his fingers beneath the fabric he found incredibly erotic to touch her smooth, warm skin. He stroked one firm, full breast.

Paige pushed his jeans over his hips. She dropped to her knees in front of him and dipped her tongue into his naval.

“Wait,” he protested, trying to pull her back up. He sucked in a harsh breath as her soft mouth moved lower. “You don’t have to do this,” he struggled to say.

“I want to,” she told him. Passion glittered in her blue eyes when she stared up at him. She smiled and then licked his length in one long, even stroke.

Nathan closed his eyes and groaned a surrendering sound as Paige continued to pleasure him in the way every man dreamed his woman would. His heart pounded and his senses took flight, soaring heavenward like an eagle. Nothing else existed, only time and space as Paige took him higher. Desire twisted through his body, simultaneously ravaging and restoring.

He reached a plateau of pleasure he had never dreamed of and suddenly he wanted desperately to bring Paige there with him. His passion-clouded gaze dropped to her. His breath caught at the look of love on her face as she gifted his body selflessly. Nathan took her face in his hands and brought her gaze to his. “Come with me,” he whispered hoarsely. Her wide-eyed, sensuous expression wrenched his heart.

Nathan pulled Paige to her feet and slid his arms around her waist. He took her mouth as gently as he could considering he felt ready to blast off. Her arms went around his neck, her tongue invaded his mouth. She moaned softly as he could wait no longer.

He cupped her bottom and lifted her. Paige wrapped her legs around his hips and arched into his groin. Nathan half stumbled to the stack of hay some six or seven feet away. His mouth never left hers as he positioned her on the stack. He fumbled between her thighs to find her special softness.

Paige arched against his hand. “Hurry, Nathan.”

He kissed her harder, filled her hungry mouth with his tongue, drinking in the sweet taste of her. He found the slick heat he had been searching for with trembling fingers. He tested her readiness and almost lost himself in the fire. His knees went weak with emotion.

“Now!”

“Okay... okay,” he mumbled against her lips. Nathan pulled aside the scant strip of silk and thrust inside her welcoming body. A deep, guttural sound echoed in the vast loft as he buried his need deep inside Paige.

She called out his name and tightened her hold on him. She showered his face, neck, and shoulders with kisses as he moved slowly inside her. The sensation of being inside her was incredible. Every muscle in his body felt hardened, every nerve ending acutely sensitized.

He held her hips firmly in place, his lips pressing against her soft hair. He couldn’t hold out... He was going to lose it, but he wanted to make this last. He clenched his jaw and withdrew all the way to the tip ever so slowly. It took everything he had to ease himself unhurriedly back into her fire.

She threaded her fingers into his hair and thrust her hips upward. “Harder, Nathan,” she whispered. “I don’t want to wait.”

The move sent him over the edge. Nathan thrust harder, faster, tension sizzling up the length of him each time he drove into her wet heat. His world tilted when she cried out with release, her feminine muscles gripping him like a hot vise. “I love you, Paige,” he whispered hoarsely as release took him. “
I love you
,” he repeated. Only then did he realize he hadn’t spoken in English.

“Nathan,” Paige whispered and took his face in her hands. Her gaze locked with his. She kissed his lips.

He searched her eyes. He waited for her to say the words he so wanted to hear. But they never came. He saw the love on her face, in her eyes. Why wouldn’t she say what she felt? How could he risk telling her when she held back? He had told her he loved her in the throes of passion, it just came out in Apache. But now, his rational side reemerged. Pride held him silent.

Paige tightened her legs around his hips, pressing him more deeply inside her. “You’re amazing, Nathan Blackrope.” She traced the line of his jaw. “Truly amazing.” She took his lips with hers and Nathan felt himself harden once more. He groaned and began the slow, easy rhythm again.

~*~

Paige paced the entry hall once more as she waited for Joe Myers to call. Calvin shifted restlessly from his propped position against the newel post at the bottom of the stairs. He ran a hand over his face.

“Why don’t he call?” Calvin asked for the fifth time, anxiety tingeing his voice.

“He’ll call,” Paige assured. The telephone rang, startling her despite her anticipation of its ring. She yanked the receiver up and answered with a breathless hello.

Calvin watched as she listened. “That’s just what I wanted to hear. Okay, I’ll tell him. And Joe, thanks.” Paige smiled as she hung up the receiver. “Yes!”

“Well?” Calvin asked, his eyes wide with anticipation.

“The charges have been dropped! You’re off the hook, Calvin!” She hugged him and they spun around in the middle of Robert’s entry hall.

“Thank you, Miss P. I owe you.”

“I say we celebrate! Get your partying shoes on, Calvin, we’re going to Bubba’s.” Paige snatched up the receiver to invite Nathan and Silas.

“All right,” Calvin agreed, slapping Paige a high five.

~*~

Two hours later the four sat around a table at Bubba’s having an after dinner beer, except for Calvin, who had cola. Even on Monday night, most of the booths and tables were filled and country music blared from the jukebox.

“To Silas,” Paige announced, raising her frosty mug, “the mastermind.” She had come up with the initial idea to trap Myers, but Silas had devised the method.

Glasses clinked in agreement.

“What’s this I hear about you retiring, Silas?” Nathan asked after downing a long swallow of foamy brew.

Paige’s gaze flew to her friend. “You’re retiring?”

“It’ time, little girl, I’m sixty-five. I want to see some of this old world before I leave it.”

“This doesn’t have anything to do with Robert getting married, does it?” Nathan asked pointedly.

“Perhaps.” Silas shrugged. “I’m sure he’ll be too busy with his new wife to play poker with me three nights a week.”

Paige’s heart went out to Silas. “We’ll just have to find you a girlfriend,” she offered.

“Bite your tongue,” Silas barked. “I’m my own man. I don’t need a woman telling me how to live my life.” His incensed expression generated a burst of laughter from everyone.

“I’m sorry. It was just a suggestion,” Paige amended.