A Moment in Time (25 page)

      
Cole remained quiet, like a statue attached to the boulder.
 
Without thinking, she crept up behind him and slid her arms around his waist.
 
She felt him tense even more as she rested her cheek against his muscular back, her breath catching.
 
He felt so good, so solid, so warm.
 
A sigh escaped her parted lips, carried upward by the breeze until quaffed by silvery moonlight.

      
She rubbed her cheek against the rough fabric of his shirt, felt the rumble in his chest before she heard it as a low, primal growl.
 
He slipped from her arms and whirled around to face her, but she barely had time to mourn the loss of physical contact before she found herself wrapped in the warmth of his embrace and pressed intimately against his full length.

      
Chest to chest.
 
Belly to belly.
 
Pelvis to pelvis.

      
She'd known he was a man among men in more ways than one, but this intimate contact told her more than she could possibly have imagined.
 
And she'd imagined plenty.

      
The moonlight bathed his dark head in silver, but she couldn't read the expression in his eyes.
 
With one hand, he brushed the backs of his fingers against her cheek, the rough pad of his thumb along her temple to her jaw.
 
Then he cupped her chin and lifted her face upward, lowering his lips toward hers one breathtaking inch at a time.

      
Jackie's innards turned to Great-Aunt Pearl's oatmeal, hot but the consistency of glue.
 
Her knees trembled and she doubted her ability to support her own weight as his warm, moist breath fanned her face and incited her hunger.

      
His lips were firm but gentle, shaping hers to his will.
 
After a moment, the kiss grew to something with a power all its own, mouths open, tongues no longer timid.
 
Feverish, desperate, wanton, they devoured each other, taking and giving, tasting and tantalizing.

      
Moaning, she wrapped her arms around his waist and clung to him, savoring the molten surge of her blood as he hardened and pulsed against her.
 
They would be so good together.
 
If only the barrier of their clothing were gone, she could wrap her legs around his waist and take him deep inside her and hold him tight, lose herself in the bliss of mind-shattering sex.

      
Her breasts swelled against his rock hard chest and she ached to free them from the confines of this prudish dress.
 
She wanted to be naked in his arms.

      
She wanted
him
naked in hers.

      
He brought his hand along the side of her rib-cage and caressed her breast.
 
Gently kneading her flesh, he eased his thumb between their bodies and brushed it against her taut nipple.
 
Trembling with raw need, she moved her arms to his shoulders, twining them behind his neck, allowing more space for him to fondle her.

      
And he did.
 
He stroked and plucked and manipulated her tender flesh until she moaned into his mouth and trembled against him.
 
Just when she thought she'd go mad with wanting, he abandoned her breast and cradled the cheeks of her butt in his big strong hands.
 

      
Straining on tiptoes, she met his lips more fully, burying her fingers in the fine, silky hairs at his nape.
 
Growling again, he lifted her upward, holding her against his uncompromising arousal.

      
Jackie whimpered, wanting him to do so much more.
 
Wanting him period.

      
A shriek pierced the night, followed by a beastly growl, and this time it wasn't human.
 
Cole jerked away and set her quickly to her feet.
 
She wavered and almost fell, but he steadied her with both hands on her upper arms.

      
"Cougar," he whispered.
 
"Be still."

      
Jackie stood frozen, still throbbing with unquenched passion, and stricken with terror at the thought of a cougar way too close for comfort.
 
After several heart-stopping moments, Cole took her hand and they ran to the cabin.
 
He opened the front door and they bolted inside.

      
Jackie's breathing came in rapid bursts, and she hoped she wouldn't wake Todd.
 
Now Cole would climb the ladder with her and finish what they'd started.
 
Safe from the cougar, all she could think of was the wild beast Cole had awakened within her.

      
Looking for love again, Clarke?

      
No, she couldn't be.
 
She couldn't allow that.
 
She'd never had sex just for the sake of sex.
 
At least she'd always convinced herself there were other, deeper motives involved.
 
Making love.

      
Dangerous thinking...

      
She started to speak, but he held a finger to his lips and shook his head.
 
Then he leaned close and whispered, "Goodnight."

      
Stunned, Jackie obediently scaled the ladder to the loft.
 
Maybe Cole planned to follow after he banked the fire and did all the usual things like he had last night.
 
She undressed and slipped into her bunk without donning the cotton nightgown, preparing herself emotionally and physically for her lover.

      
She listened to the same sounds she'd heard last night as he went about preparing the cabin for the night.
 
The now familiar scent of wood smoke wafted upward to her nostrils.
 
Cole's hair would smell like that when he finally came to her.
 
She took an appreciative sniff.

      
She heard the rustle of fabric as he undressed and her pulse leapt, her body warming in anticipation.
 
What would he think at finding her naked beneath her blanket?
 
The thought brought a wicked smile to her lips as she waited.

      
And waited.

      
After a few minutes, he extinguished the lamp and she held her breath, waiting for the sound of him climbing the ladder.
 
Instead, she heard him climb into his own bed downstairs.

      
Disappointment made her throat and chest burn and tighten as her desire abated.
 
She knew he wanted her as much as she wanted him.
 
Why hadn't he–

      
"You bastard," she whispered.

      
He'd used that kiss to distract her enough to avoid telling her the truth about why he'd kidnapped her.
 
Fury washed through her and she sat up to pull on her nightgown, buttoning it with jerky movements.

      
And she hadn't had a chance to ask him about taking her back to town.
 
She was batting a thousand in failures with this guy.

      
When she lay back down to sleep, she stared at the dark ceiling for what seemed like hours.
 
Cole Morrison had put her off tonight, but no more.
 
Why, he'd actually
teased
her into thinking he wanted her.
 
He'd tricked her.

      
Tonight, he'd called the shots.

      
Tomorrow night was hers.

Chapter 9

      
The moment Cole met the morning with one eye barely open, he grew instantly aware of two things.

      
First, the sun's angle as it slanted across the room told him he'd overslept.
 
He hated to oversleep.
 
It ruined his morning and made him grumpy the rest of the day.
 
His father had always said a man who slept late was wasting his life.
 
Cole tended to downplay most things his father had claimed, but he agreed with this one to a certain extent.
 
Of course, his father would've considered Cole's present vocation a total waste of his life, too.

      
Second, pinpricks of awareness erupted all over his body, alerting him that he was being watched.
 
And, dammit, he knew without looking who was doing the watching.
 
Remembering last night, he decided to feign sleep just a while longer and surveyed his observer through his lashes.

      
He lay sprawled on his back with one hand across his forehead and the other atop the quilt.
 
One of his feet poked out from the covers, drawing his attention to the end of his bed where something blue filled the space beyond his naked appendage.

      
He opened his eyes a fraction farther.
 
That something blue was the wide skirt of a dress Elizabeth hadn't been able to wear after carrying Todd.
 
She'd kept all the dresses from the early days of their marriage, vowing to fit into them again one day without letting out the seams.
 
Of course, Cole had believed her beautiful even swollen with child.
 
Especially then, in fact.
 
His chest knotted in remembrance.

      
Now a notorious saloon singer wore Elizabeth's too-tight dress with ease.
 
Maybe he should be offended, but he wasn't.
 
Elizabeth would've been the first one to insist on giving the dress to someone in need.
 
Considering Lolita-Jackie had come wearing only jeans and feathers, she definitely qualified.

      
Cole gazed up the row of buttons, lingering at the twin mounds outlined by the soft fabric.
 
His mouth went dry as he recalled last night.
 
He had held her, touched her, and had ached to taste as well.
 
His gaze meandered farther up to the square neckline that exposed an expanse of creamy skin.
 
Perspiration trickled down the sides of his neck and he licked his lips, remembering....

      
That kiss.
 
Another few minutes and he would've taken her right there on the ground like an ani–

      
"You going to lie there staring at me all morning, Morrison?"
 
She reached down and trailed her fingernail along the bottom of his foot.

      
Todd giggled and Cole jerked his foot to safety beneath the covers, rolling onto his side in one smooth motion.
 
No need to let anybody see his typical morning randy state.
 
Then again, she'd probably already noticed.
 
With a sigh, he swung his legs to the floor, keeping the quilt bunched in his lap.

      
Squinting, he glanced up at her.
 
"Mind giving a man a little privacy?"