Intimate (12 page)

Jake stopped just outside the door with his hands on his hips, staring at the wildly overgrown riparian area along the creek. The sun was high in the sky, the day already warmer than Kaz had expected, but she was used to San Francisco's cool ocean breezes and heavy morning fog.

Here, the fog had burned off shortly after sunrise, and the brilliant shadows and contrasts had faded away as the sun moved higher in the sky. The colors in the vineyard and along the hillsides weren't nearly as intense as they'd been all morning, and the once vivid blue sky now had a hazy, dusty look.

Jake turned and slowly surveyed the area. His gaze stopped when it landed on Kaz. He stared at her a moment, one hand on his hip, the other rubbing the back of his neck, then he let out a deep breath. “Why don't you get a shirt and some shoes on. Let's take a look at the creek, see if there's anything there we can use as a backdrop. The light's not very good right now, but I'm not ready to leave. I want to hang around long enough to see what the afternoon shadows look like.”

“Okay.” She carefully removed the silk scarf, folded it, and stuck it in the side pocket of Jake's camera bag. “I need to take the jewelry off, too. I don't want to snag it on anything.”

“Ouch.” He smiled at her, and she felt it right behind her breastbone, that punch to the solar plexus that hinted she might be in more trouble than she'd thought. She had to look away as he grabbed the box he'd brought the jewelry in, so she concentrated on carefully removing the gold rings set with blue tanzanite from her nipples. The chains fell loose, still attached to the ring in her navel.

Kaz handed the nipple rings to Jake and he cleaned each one carefully in alcohol before putting them away. She was actually sorry he hadn't offered to help her remove them. She shivered, remembering the sensual sweep of his large, rough hands brushing against the sensitive underside of her breast, the sensation of those surprisingly gentle fingers removing the rings from her nipples.

Most of his assistance during the shoot had been as impersonal as if she'd been nothing more than a store mannequin, but she'd been fascinated by the way he'd handled both her and the tiny jeweled pieces and chains almost as fine as spider's silk with such care. He'd touched her so gently, with such sensitivity, that it was truly appealing.

Probably too appealing. In fact, it had been terribly arousing, if she'd only admit the truth, and his professional manner had slipped a couple of times as well. She really had to stop lying to herself.

The last thing she wanted to do was send him mixed signals. It was hard, though. He was just so damned sexy behind the camera. She couldn't remember this kind of ongoing, simmering arousal with any other man. Curiosity alone had her wanting to pursue that feeling, to see where it might lead.

Behind the camera
 … of course. He probably acted this way with all his models. He wanted that sexy vibe? He knew exactly how to bring it out during the sessions. Why hadn't she realized that? He'd told her when they met in the coffee shop that relationships, even dating, weren't on his schedule—in fact, they'd both been pretty clear, talking in general terms about relationships, that this wasn't the time for either of them to get involved with anyone.

Now, if she could just convince her blasted libido.

While Jake finished cleaning the expensive jewelry and putting it all away, she replaced her own simple pieces—the turquoise studs in her ears and nose, the silver rings in her nipples, the matching silver ring in her navel.

He didn't look her way at all. Instead, he grabbed the camera cases and the jewelry, put everything in the Escalade, and shut the back, while Kaz slipped on a pair of flip-flops and tugged a snug black cami over her head.

He clicked the automatic locks on the vehicle and they headed down to the creek. Weaving along a narrow path through a thick stand of wild blackberry vines, Jake ducked beneath the low-growing branches of a redwood and took a grassy trail leading to a lower flood plain between the vineyard and the creek.

Kaz followed close behind, ducked beneath the same branches, and stepped into what looked and felt like an entirely different world from the neatly trellised vineyards filling the valley.

Alder trees grew thick along the bank, more widely spaced across a broad, flat area that obviously flooded regularly. The dark loam was muddy and mossy in low places, but ferns framed the trail, making it easy to follow. Shrubby willows and scraggly bay trees reaching for sunlight created an almost impenetrable forest, filled with birdsong and the rush of water splashing over rocks in the nearby creek.

Light filtered through the alders. Their fresh aroma mingled with the sharp tang of bay trees filled Kaz's senses. She stopped, soaking up sounds and smells, and the striking visual of sunlight splintered over dark green leaves and the pale bark of the trees.

A crackling in the brush had her turning just in time to see a doe lunging up the bank from the creek bed. A matched pair of tiny, speckled fawns followed, scrambling awkwardly to keep up.

Almost as a reflex, Kaz opened her hand and Jake caught her fingers in his. She turned and smiled at him, fully aware he'd been reaching for her, even as she'd reached for him. Jake merely glanced at their hands, so tightly entwined.

They stood quietly, waiting until the doe and her babies had crossed the low area and climbed the bank to the level of the vineyard. Kaz watched the two fawns until they disappeared between the vines. “Absolutely gorgeous.”

“I agree.”

But when she turned to smile at Jake, he wasn't looking at the deer. No, he was looking directly at her.

Only at her.

His free hand cupped the side of her face, and she knew he was going to kiss her. She wanted him to kiss her, and it seemed the most natural thing in the world to turn into his embrace and wrap her arms around him. Tangling her fingers in the thick, dark waves of his unruly hair, she pulled him close.

His kiss was soft at first, almost tentative, but then he licked the seam between her lips and Kaz opened for him. She tangled her tongue with his, taking as much as she gave, giving as much as Jake wanted.

He groaned. She tasted his passion. Her own. And the next sound, a soft whimper, was all Kaz. But the need? Both of them, arousal shared, compounded, and expanded as she pressed closer, as Jake demanded more.

His hand slipped beneath her cotton cami. He cupped the side of her breast and rubbed his thumb over the silver ring in her nipple. She groaned, arching into his touch, then whimpered again as he tugged on the ring and blinding lust exploded in her veins, in her breasts, her womb, across her skin. Every greedy inch of her sizzled with heat and passion and she wanted to crawl inside him, wanted to wrap around him and never let go.

She raised her left leg and draped it over his right hip. He wrapped his long fingers around her thigh and pulled her even closer, holding her so tightly against him that she felt the searing heat of his body and the thick length of his erection pressing almost painfully between her legs, riding against that ring of silver over her clit.

And all the while he was kissing her, his mouth moving over hers as if he couldn't get enough, as if their tongues and lips and teeth were conduits for every moment they'd spent together wanting and waiting, avoiding the obvious.

Avoiding desire.

Remaining professional.

Jake was the one who broke the kiss, pressing his forehead tightly against Kaz's, sucking in great draughts of air while she stared blankly at his face, too close to hers to focus on his features, too overcome to understand why he'd stopped.

His snort of laughter wasn't what she expected, but once his breathing had settled down, he laughed again, and then, in a surprisingly tender move, kissed her lips so gently she barely felt his touch.

And still that kiss made her shiver. Made her want him even more.

“I am not going to take you up against a tree in the middle of a bog like some Neanderthal.”

She stared at him, imagining exactly that, and shuddered. She was wet, her sex swollen and lush and so ready, her heart thundered in her chest, but he kissed her again, a little more firmly this time. “Protection, Kaz. I've got some in the camera bag in the car. I hope.”

He set her away from him and took another deep breath. Kaz was still trying to focus on the man who was looking at her as if she'd hung the moon and the stars, while at the same time telling her he didn't want her, and doing her best to make sense of him. But before she could call him out on whatever he was trying to say, Jake put his hands on both her shoulders and stared at her.

“I want you, Kaz. I want you like nothing I've ever wanted in my entire misbegotten life—but not here. Not shoved up against a tree, worrying someone might catch us. I want to bury myself as deep inside you as I can. I want to enjoy those beautiful silver rings, and I want to take my time finding them. Discovering each one.”

“You found a couple last night. Quite effectively, I might add.” She'd meant that to sound light, teasing, but she barely got the words out.

He sounded rough, almost angry when he answered. “That I did. And it's all I've been able to think about all morning.”

She stared into those dark, dark eyes of his and saw her own need reflected back. She grabbed his hand. “There's a lock on the barn door, blankets in the stalls, and fresh straw.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “Have you ever had cowboy fantasies?”

Raising her head, she fluttered her eyelashes. “Hasn't every girl?” She glanced at the bulge in his jeans and raised her eyebrows. “What about you? Any particular fantasies?”

“At the moment? Only you.”

Tilting her head, she kissed him. “At the moment, that works perfectly.”

*   *   *

He stopped at the side of the Escalade, unlocked the back, and reached for his camera bag, hoping like hell he had condoms in the side pocket. Nothing. He checked a couple of zippered pouches—empty. Damn.

Kaz, in the meantime, had grabbed her handbag. “If you're looking for protection, I've got some, and the date's good. I told you I'm not looking for a long-term relationship, and that definitely means I'm not about to risk getting pregnant. C'mon.”

“Good,” he said. “That's good.” Except his mind was spinning, and not in a direction he'd expected. He wasn't looking for a long-term relationship, so why did it bother him when she reminded him—again—that she wasn't, either? And why in the hell did she have him twisted in knots?

He was still staring at Kaz when she slung her handbag over her shoulder and turned toward the barn. “Are you coming?”

“Oh, yeah.” He laughed and caught her hand. “I'm glad one of us is prepared.”

She winked at him, and let out a dramatic sigh. “Only because Lola and Mandy both threatened me.” She reached into her bag and held up a smaller zippered pouch with pink lips printed all over the outside. “Lola's stash. She forced me to bring them. Really.”

His reaction bothered him. It shouldn't matter to him who she'd been with in the past. There was no reason for him to feel jealous when he thought of her with another man. He shoved that inconvenient thought aside, cocked an eyebrow, and tapped the lip-covered bag in her hand. “Is she going to count them when you get home?”

Kaz slanted him a glance. “I'd already planned to restock, if we used any. Before I return the bag.” She held up the little pouch. The painted lips on it seemed to be laughing at him. “With any luck, we'll need to buy more, right?”

Oh, yeah. He locked the car and followed Kaz into the barn. She went straight to the stall at the back, grabbed the colorful blanket off the partition, and threw it down over the clean straw.

Jake shut the barn door and locked it, and then he realized his hands were sweating.
It's just sex, right?

Sure. Just sex.

Sex with the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. The most fascinating, brilliant, funny, amazing woman he'd ever met.

One he'd brought to climax multiple times last night.

No wonder he was so blasted horny. She'd gotten off. He hadn't. That was it. That had to be it.

She waited for him, sitting cross-legged in the middle of the colorful striped blanket covering a bed of fresh straw. They hadn't turned on any lights, and the barn was shadowed and dark compared to the bright sunshine outside. It took his eyes a minute to adjust, and then he couldn't stop looking at her.

She'd tossed her handbag to one side. Her flip-flops lay beside it, but she held the little bag covered in painted lips in her hand. Her hair was still tousled from their frenzied kisses a few minutes ago, her lips still swollen.

And Jake was hard as a rock. He grabbed the side of the stall door for balance and toed off one shoe and then the other. Tugged his socks off, walked the few steps through the straw barefoot, and then knelt in front of her on the striped blanket. Sitting back on his heels, he stared at her.

“Why is it,” he said, saying each word with a depth of feeling that left him shaken, “that you look even sexier like this, more desirable, more beautiful, with your hair all mussed and your lips swollen from kissing?” He reached out and ran his fingers through her dark bangs, through hair sleek as silk.

She shrugged and then grabbed the hem of her cami, tugged it over her head, and tossed it aside. “Probably these.” Without any pretense, without embarrassment, she touched the silver rings in her nipples. “It's one thing to take pictures of them, but altogether another to know they're under my shirt where you can't see them. Better, now?”

“Oh, yeah. Better. Even sexier, though. God, Kaz.” She was right. Jake swallowed and forced himself to look at her face. “It's a good thing you can't read my mind.” He reached out with both hands and lightly moved her fingers aside, grasped the rings. Tugging gently, he pulled her close, and she came to him, straddling his waist as he stretched his legs out, pushing him down against the blanket, controlling him even though he was the one holding on to the tiny silver rings, tugging at her dark nipples.