L.A. Caveman (16 page)

He pivoted languorously until his back
was to the fire, his aqua eyes turned black by the backlight of the
flames.

She felt she was in the room with a
predator, and shivered again, this time with pleasure.

Jake felt the fire's heat beating into
his back, but it was nothing next to the radiating inflammation of
his desire.

If she kept looking at him with that
innocent hunger, he’d... he would... what? Make love to his
columnist? He swore softly at himself. She was his employee and
totally off-limits for what he was thinking. He tried to ignore his
discomfort. She couldn't help that her damp tan shorts and white
shirt, combined with her rain-slicked blond hair, made her look
like a fallen angel. Or that the blanket she draped so casually
around her didn't quite hide the telltale nubs of her erect
nipples.

She didn't share his lust. He had to
remember and respect it. He shifted uncomfortably. To distract
himself, he rummaged in his pack, came up with
sandwiches.

He heard her unzip, looked up
sharply.

Her backpack.

He shifted uncomfortably again. She
reached again into her own backpack and fished out Ritz crackers
and Cheez Whiz, offering them up solemnly. He held up his
sandwiches just as solemnly. They both smiled at the same time, and
he wondered if she were as warmed by the simultaneous nature of it
as he was.

"I have something," he whispered
conspiratorially to her, still smiling. He reached back into his
bag.

"Oooh, what do you have," she
whispered back, playing along.

"Voila!" He pulled out a bottle of
Pagor Tempranillo red wine and two gaudy purple plastic wine
glasses, complete with bumpy stems in the shape of grape columns.
She clapped delightedly, like a small child. "All
right!
"

Charmed by her reaction, he modestly
said, "I don't know how well it will complement the
sandwiches--"

"It's perfect," she emphatically
assured him. She glided from the cot and sat in front of him
looking so happily pleased that it was all he could do not to lean
in and kiss her again. He held back by an intense effort of
will.

She had no idea how sexy she was, with
her small body gracefully folded beneath her. Her face glowed from
the fire and her gray eyes sparkled.

He wolfed his sandwich without tasting
it. She tore into hers pretty quickly too, he noticed. Trust a day
of exercise to sharpen the appetite.

He watched her gulp her sandwich then
nibble slowly on her cheese and crackers, wondering if his arousal
would ever go away. Would she inadvertently stimulate him all
night? The thought of Stanna stimulating him all night stimulated
him further.

There was no winning.

As the fire burned lower, they
reclined in front of the warming flames.

Stanna took a sip of wine. "Mmm. Good
stuff… Jake?" she lazily queried, licking wine from her lips. She
stretched out her feet -- clad now only in white socks -- toward
the fireplace. "Are we going to head back down the hill, or stay
here tonight?"

She didn't mean it to sound so sultry.
She only meant… she peeked at him. When she saw the expression of
pure desire on his face, she gasped. "Jake…" she
whispered.

She watched his face darken with some
inner struggle as he put his wineglass down.

"Yes."

She tingled at the sound of his voice.
She heard his voice change, becoming deliberately rough and
callous. "I'm going to give you about three seconds to move your
cute ass away from me."

His cruel mouth was set in its most
ruthless lines. Why on earth was she responding so fiercely to it?
To him? Ever since they'd kissed just inside the door, her arousal
had remained at an all-time high. It was a pleasant sensuality
quite foreign to her.

Move away from him? She didn't think
so.

She tilted her head up defiantly,
smiling slowly at the thin line his mouth made.

She heard him make a small noise. Then
a strained, "I don't think you realize--"

She made a purring, guttural noise of
desire. She couldn't help it, watching his expression reflecting
his struggle. That involuntary noise of hers was evidently his
undoing.

Groaning deep in his throat, he
grabbed her forearms with a restrained ferocity and crushed her
against him. Again his mouth plundered hers, his wine-flavored
tongue stroking hers in a sensuous dance.

He swept her up easily, his lips not
pausing in their movement on hers. He held her cradled to his hard
chest. His sinuous rocking panther-walk, one she’d enjoyed watching
so often, now carried her effortlessly to the cot, which he knelt
before. He gently lowered her, breaking their kiss. In a tender,
unexpected gesture that made her feel precious, he stroked her hair
and kissed her cheek.

She was aware of the briefest cold of
not being in his arms. She protested. He didn't give her murmured
complaint time to exit her mouth before he slid over her, the thin
cotton of their clothes no barrier at all.

His strong hard body covered hers. She
breathed in the clean masculine scent of him, a spicy musk mixed
with smoke and rain. His mouth locked onto hers, and he pressed the
full length of his body against hers for a moment. A startling
hardness pressed between her legs. A surge of pleasure made her
tremble. He felt it. The movement of his lips against hers felt
like a smile.

His strong arms straddled her. They
lifted him above her in an effortlessly sustained push-up and his
darkened blue-green eyes bored into hers. Heat, sizzling, barely
restrained. But it was restrained. He rolled to his side, his left
hand restlessly roaming over her, expertly taking possession of her
body.

He watched her eyes, she thought
wonderingly as his fingers stroked her body in a slow exploration.
He liked reading her reaction, she realized with a warm flush of
heat. Tingles coursed over her skin wherever his fingertips
wandered, over her clothes and underneath them. His small admiring
glances to her gradually revealed body always returned to her eyes.
His commanding stare demanded that she return it, and she did. His
aqua eyes filled her sight, glittering down with dark heat. She
read his own rising powerful lust, watched him hold it in
check.

His adept hands radiated heat on her
skin as he removed her shirt. He lingered over her athletic bra,
seeming to enjoy tremendously the way her breasts, compressed by
the tight cotton material, bounded forth when he removed
it.

Her pleasure spiked almost painfully
when he lowered his silky hair over her chest and breathed warmly
on her bared breasts. His lips, then teeth, grazed her nipples. He
pressed her breasts together and took both nipples into his mouth.
She hissed in a shocked gasp at the slick, hot sensation of
it.

Tonguing her expertly, lovingly, he
explored with his mouth while his restless hands slipped over her
bared belly. A delightful shiver of wanting ran through her. His
mouth and his touch, firm and persuasive, invited more
shivers.

She couldn't resist him if she tried.
The thought spiraled through her head dreamily. He evoked
sensations as elemental as fire, as right as the first man who ever
touched the first woman, and she wouldn't have it any other way.
The thought had a significance that Stanna tried to grasp, but
Jake's talented fingers were removing her shorts and delving
underneath her flimsy cotton panties and the resulting slam of
exquisite delight chased every thought from her head.

She heard his harsh, uneven breath.
His arousal stoked her own even higher, if that were possible,
making her reach for him wantonly. He felt so wonderful… She tugged
him closer, but he resisted. His hand played, deliberately teasing,
drawing jolts of sensation from her body. Every fiber of her being
sizzled with the pleasure he inflicted on her. She writhed beneath
him, eager to touch his skin.

"You like that?" His hot whisper in
her ear, far from distracting, added another dimension to his
loveplay..

"Yes..." she whispered back.
"Please..." She had to acknowledge the commanding smile of pleased
masculine confidence was entirely justified.

He removed his shirt and shorts
quickly, pausing to touch her as if he couldn't stop or help
himself. When she saw the evidence of his desire, she gasped. He
was huge and hard and leaning over her once more. His hands, never
still, skillfully lowered her panties.

She could feel the heat of his entire
body slipping against the length of hers as he firmly, almost
violently parted her legs to lie between them. The heavy heat of
his manhood nudged against her thigh. His hardness electrified her
entire body, and as she felt the hard, frighteningly large part of
him push roughly inside her in a raw act of possession, she soared
to an awesome, shuddering climax.

When her vision cleared again she felt
him still throbbing inside her. Her body shivered with delight when
he began to move again, invading her further with his insistent
manhood. She moved tentatively under him. His ragged breath and his
soft oath encouraged her.

Caressing his back and buttocks, she
pulled him deeper. She ran her tongue up his salty chest, enjoying
the clean-sweat smell of him and the fuzzy feel of his chest hair.
He responded by roughly dragging her against him, impaling her
deeply. A delicious shudder rippled through her body, and she felt
his trembling as he teetered on the edge of his own climax. He
thrust in an ancient, almost punishing rhythm, tormenting her with
new waves of pleasure.

Knowing she gave the same pleasure to
this magnificent man triggered her own, even more intense climax.
As she exploded into a million stars she heard her own loud cry of
pure animalistic joy. His moan meshed with it as he accompanied her
into bliss with his eyes locked on her, narrowed in a pleasure so
intense that it seemed to pin her, joining her to him in spirit as
well as body.

She liked the feel of his body on her,
and loved his eyes as he gazed down at her. She was filled with an
amazing sense of completeness. Her breathing began to settle into a
more even tempo. His eyes... now they were a warm shade of
green-blue. And caring. Vulnerable, even.

She stared up in wonder.

His eyes got closer... closer... and
then she felt the gentlest warm touch of his lips against hers.
Their eyelashes meshed delightfully as he stared into her eyes a
moment longer. His expression reflected her wonder. His arms
gathered her to him and cradled her.

A totally unexpected surge of
affection went through her as she wrapped her arms around him. She
returned the kiss, and her heart skittered alarmingly. She knew
then that she loved the big, dumb Neanderthal. She loved him, and
her breath caught as she looked at the shape his lips made as they
disengaged from her own.

Her heart thudded in an emotional
reflex that she couldn't control. The unsteady beat of it seemed to
articulate the warning:
danger, danger, danger...

But, of course, it was already much
too late.

They cuddled under her picnic blanket
in a ball of body-heat generated warmth. Stanna stretched
luxuriously, enjoying the deep tenor of Jake's voice as much as his
words. His hands were warm on her skin, stroking
soothingly.

"The house is tiny because they
created the set scaled-down. It makes the characters look more
heroic. Bigger."

"As big as you?" she
teased.

"You'll never have the opportunity to
compare," he growled mock-fiercely, but with a truly possessive
glare that Stanna took delight in. She lowered her head so he
wouldn't see her wide, pleased smile. Her eyes focused on the worn,
weathered flooring.

"What's the show? Who’re the
characters?"

He nuzzled her, nipped her bared neck.
She shivered under the blanket. "The show is 'Shaman of the Sky.'
The main character, everyone just calls him “Shaman,” is the here
who lives here. He's an alien from another galaxy who magicked
himself accidentally to Earth in the 18th century, and set up shop
using his healing powers for the good of mankind. Cold?"

His voice rumbled through her, felt as
much as heard, generating heat all by itself. He ran his warm palm
over her hard, erect nipples. She melted, but managed to lie. "Yes,
icy cold. I'm afraid I need more of your body heat. Or else..." she
gasped when his magic hands slipped under the blanket, "...or else
I might become frigid."

"Can't have that." His eyes began to
glow again with their own type of soft and melting heat. He pulled
her against him firmly, and she felt his body rock-hard against
her. Her own body trembled with anticipation of more pleasure to
come. She met his devouring gaze with a ferocity of her own. She
dipped her head to nibble on his shoulder like a playful animal.
She listened to his groan with satisfaction and felt another wave
of affection that took her by surprise. She wanted to please this
man so very much.

How frightening.

He felt her slight stiffening. "What's
wrong?" His gentle voice crept ever further into her heart. She was
so defenseless against him! Her body, her heart... only her mind
was still her own.