Staking His Claim (11 page)

"No, I don't.
Christ,
wait--what are
you asking me?" His eyes flared and his fingers entwined with hers,
grasping her hand completely.

She remained silent as he studied her.

His voice was firm when he spoke. "I haven't
had any virgins before you."

Pleasure, sharp and intense slid through her
system. She was about to try to convey that emotion to him when her
eyes looked past his to see the man coming up from behind him and
toward her.

It was Mr. Reynolds, from the bank. He had a
smile on his face and stopped in front of their table.

Elaina looked up at him and gave her best
attempt at a smile as she retrieved her hand from Raul's. Had the
banker heard Raul's last statement?

Mortification pierced her, but she didn't
have time to dwell on it as the man moved on to the business at
hand.

"Elaina, I've been trying to find the time to
call. We want you to start on Monday if you're still interested in
the job."

Surprise and pleasure lit her face as she
began nodding her head. "Yes, sir! Thank you, that would be great."
As exhilaration infiltrated her, she knew she needed to introduce
the two men.

She was about to do just that when she
realized it wasn't necessary. Mr. Reynolds had obviously only now
discerned who she was with. He held his hand out to Raul for a
handshake as his eyes darted between the two of them in
inquiry.

"How are you, Raul?"

"Good. You?"

"Fine, just fine," the other man said as he
looked like he was recovering from finding his newest employee
having a
tete-a-tete
with the town's hard-nosed, yet most
eligible bachelor.

Gossip was rampant around here and everyone
would know they were seeing each other long before she showed up at
work on Monday.

She thanked Mr. Reynolds and watched him walk
away and pay his bill at the counter. She looked back at Raul and
found his frowning attention fixed on her.

"I didn't know you were actively looking for
a job."

"I was, I'm not anymore," she said with
satisfaction in her voice.

His frown became a scowl. "Why do you want a
job so bad?"

"I
need
a job."

"You don't need a job."

"Yes, I do! I can't leach off Janie and Brian
forever," she said with a distinct chill.

Raul was about to respond when he thought
better of it. She already looked about to come unglued on his ass.
He could almost see the steam rising off her. He was irritated with
her wanting a job, but he had enough brains to realize this was the
kind of shit she was pissed about. The reaction he was trying to
suppress was exactly why she wasn't
comfortable
with
him.

He bit the inside of his cheek until he
tasted blood and took her hand back in his again.

He gave her his best smile. "Fine, baby."

Elaina almost laughed out loud at the play of
emotion streaking across Raul's face. Tension gripped his shoulders
and he held himself so tightly he looked like he might snap. His
face was twisted in a sad imitation of a smile that totally failed.
She choked back the humor in the situation and focused on how he
was attempting to respond. There was no telling what it was taking
for him to back down. Pleasure spiked through her.
He was
trying
.

She was going to give him this one.

She wasn't keeping score.
She
wasn't
.

Still, an imaginary line went up in the
chalkboard in her head.

One point for Raul.

****

The windows were foggy and her panties were
hanging from one ankle. They were in the backseat of his truck and
he was pulling her over him in a straddling position while he sat
in the middle of the bench seat.

She thought parking meant petting
. She
was wrong. Evidently, it meant seducing her into going all the
way.

She was semi-ashamed to admit to herself it
wasn't taking much seducing.

She clenched her hands on his shoulders and
tried to lower herself over him. "Mmm," she let out a tiny moan of
anticipation as her legs shook with the effort of holding herself
over him.

A drop of sweat dripped down his face and his
control threatened to snap as he rasped out, "Hold still and let me
get the condom on."

They were on a narrow dirt road at the back
of his property. It was dark outside but there was just enough
moonlight shining in for her to see what he was doing.

His erection pulsed thick and hard and ready.
There was something incredibly sexy about seeing him holding his
engorged penis while he rolled the condom down its length. She bit
her lip and tried to push her torso closer.

"Baby, just--okay,
now
." His hands bit
into her hips as he lifted her over him and began pushing up into
her as his grasp on her silky skin pushed her down to meet him. He
adjusted her legs, moved her minutely and then impaled her
completely.

He sucked in a shuddering breath and threw
his head back against the rear window as the fierce pleasure from
their joining consumed him. The vibrations from her sharp
inhalations reverberated through him. He expelled his breath as the
provocative feel of the shiver that attacked her body flowed into
him, from her sweet silky arms wrapped around his neck.

They panted together for the titillating
count of five heartbeats and then he lifted her, introducing her to
the motion of riding him.

She sucked in a breath and he helped her take
another stroke. And another.

He felt a rush to his head as she took over
from him, lifting and falling on him, creaming for him so sweetly
he had to grit his teeth and start counting backwards from
one-hundred.

When he thought he had a modicum of control
and couldn't stand it anymore, he put a hand on her jaw and lifted
her face to him. His mouth sunk down on hers, opening her lips and
plunging his tongue inside for a hot, wet, deep kiss that blew his
mind.

He was close, but he needed her to come
first.

While she clung to his lips and gyrated over
him, he slipped a hand between them and began rubbing her sweet
spot.

It was silky, so silky, and the combination
of her internal muscles clenching him was too much for him. He felt
a last surge of blood thickening him, making him even harder and
then his mind shut down to everything but the ecstasy consuming
him.

Only when he was at the peak of pleasure did
his disjointed mind realize she was feeling it too.

They were coming together.

****

Two weeks slid by. The best two weeks Elaina
had experienced since before her mother had fallen ill.

The time was magical. Her days were spent
learning her new job, and her evenings were spent with Raul.

By the time he came and picked her up after
he finished working on his ranch and she got back from her job in
town, there was no sunlight left to do anything outside.

But he came and got her every night. And they
spent every evening together, either cooking at his house or having
supper at the diner in town. They watched movies sitting on his
couch together and usually never made it to the end of the film
before they were touching each other and were out of breath and
naked.

He never complained about her job, but he did
ask her leading questions that at first seemed innocuous. But the
more nonchalant the question was, the more she knew the answer
meant to him. Finally she threw up her hands and told him he had no
reason to be jealous.
She only wanted him
. She saw that
statement sink in and a calmness come over him that was almost
tangible.

He still brought her back to her aunt's home
every night. He usually became tense but he never verbally
attacked. He never criticized, but he would stand erect, rigid, and
Elaina knew he was never happy to take her home.

But he did, and she gave him points in her
head.

She was immensely happy. He was going out of
his way to please her, and she knew why. He wanted her. Completely.
And he was trying to prove it to her.

He was going for her.

Totally.

For the win.

****

Three wonderful weeks later, Elaina was
heading back to the bank at the end of her lunch break. She'd spent
most of the hour in the small, county library with a yogurt cup and
granola bar, using the internet for nothing more important than a
bit of online shopping.

She was walking past the only grocery store
in town when Trevor opened the door, walked out and bumped into
her.

He reached out to steady her at the same time
he realized who he had in his arms.

His grin was infectious.

"Hey."

"Hey."

They grinned at each other a moment before he
spoke again with the smile still in his voice as he studied her.
"Raul Vega? Seriously, Elaina?"

A small laugh erupted from her throat. "Yeah,
seriously."

Trevor sobered. "He's a good man."

"Yeah, he is."

"Even though you could have had all this," he
lifted his hands from her and motioned to himself like he was a
chocolate donut with cream filling.

"
Right
."

They laughed and chatted a few minutes. She
looked at her watch. She was going to be late if she wasn't
careful. "Later, dude, I need to get back to work."

Elaina turned away from him and kept walking
as he went in the opposite direction.

She was still smiling when she came to the
entrance of the bank and saw Raul leaning against the front of the
building, arms crossed, a frown on his face, watching her.

Her insides quivered and her legs trembled
from the shock of him appearing out of the blue when she wasn't
expecting it. "What are you doing here?"

She came to stand within a foot of him as he
answered, "I bank here, Elaina. It's the only bank in town." His
voice was strained.

She bit her lip against the unintentional
grin that began encompassing her face. She motioned with her head
in the direction she had just come from and asked him, "Did you see
all that?"

His eyes narrowed on her and his lips
flattened. "Yeah."

The smile won and took over her whole
expression. "Really? You saw Trevor? You saw the whole thing?"

His nostrils flared. "Yeah. The whole
goddamn thing,"
his voice hissed out.

Elaina walked the last few inches toward him.
She stood on her tiptoes and wrapped her arms around his neck. She
studied his handsome, virile face and the smile fell from her lips
as a deeper emotion took hold of her. "I love you."

His hands wrapped around her jaw line and
sifted through her hair until he was holding her by the scalp.
"
Jesus
. Finally." His eyes searched hers. "I love you,
too."

He leaned down and put his mouth on hers in a
kiss that sealed her fate.

Five years later

"Happy birthday, baby." It was just past
midnight when Raul came up behind Elaina and wrapped his arms
around her. She turned away from the twin bed and snuggled into his
arms.

He kept his voice purposefully quiet. "Is she
asleep?"

"Yeah, she finally exhausted herself."

He reached down and around his wife to touch
the soft, downy cheek of the three-year old. Her cheeks were rosy
and she looked absolutely cherubic in sleep.

He knew it wouldn't last long. She'd been
giving them fits for awhile now as her
terrible two's
lingered. On fast chubby legs, their daughter was a little
terror.

Raul led Elaina by the hand and walked her
out of the baby's room.

He sat on the couch and pulled her into his
lap and put a protective hand over her swollen belly.

Their gazes tangled and held. "You don't look
twenty-seven. You still look like a teenager. You're just as
beautiful as you were the first time I saw you."

She let out a small, disbelieving laugh.

"I'm serious," he said.

She lifted her hand to his cheek and flashed
wickedly seductive eyes at him. "You don't have to flatter me. I'm
a sure thing, Raul. Haven't you figured that out yet?"

"A sure thing,
hell
." His hand
absently caressed her taut belly where his next baby snuggled
safely. "You put me through the ringer, baby, remember? You were
never a
sure thing
. I sweated bullets thinking you
weren't going to give in."

Their gazes caught and held. "You were hard
to resist," she said.

"Damn straight. I had to be. I couldn't take
the chance of you getting away."

"I never wanted to get away."

He watched her with an appreciation and love
so deep, it vibrated between them.

He leaned his forehead against hers and ran
his hand down and clenched it around the silky cheek of her
butt.

He lifted her chin and his expression grew
serious. "I mean it, baby. I love you so much. More than life
itself."

His eyes swallowed hers and she felt the same
flutter in her stomach as she had when she first met him. "I love
you, too."

He kissed her lips and began the sweet
seduction that still managed to blow her mind. He whispered in her
ear, "Let me prove it."

She kissed him back and asked, "Again?"

"Yeah, again.
Always.
"

###

Sign up for New Releases at:
Lynda Chance
Books

You might also enjoy:

The Diamondback Ranch Series by: Anne Marie
Novark

The Doctor Wears A Stetson- Book One

The Cowboy’s Surrender- Book Two

A Match Made in Texas- Book Three

Other Works by Lynda Chance

The Thrill of the Chase

Warning: Alpha-Males are
everywhere! Three roommates. Three men. Three impossible
situations!
Ashley Weldon runs scared when
Ryan McKay puts moves on her that are too hot to handle! The more
he pushes, the more she pulls back. While Ryan chases Ashley, his
friend Gibson Jones is quietly stalking Ashley’s younger cousin,
Julie. Throw in a hot firefighter, a protective girlfriend, some
sexting and a Corvette or two, and you have Temptation in Texas,
Houston Style!