Mountain Song (10 page)

Andy leaned slightly
forward, elbows on his knees, hands loosely clasped, his expression
inscrutable. “It was a long time ago,” he finally said. “I had a rough road to
navigate. I gave everything to it. Maybe that was wrong. When my Dad died, I
went through a lot of self-doubt. Thinking I’d cheated myself of those last
months with him. But I knew he would have wanted it this way. For me to
succeed, that’s all he ever dreamed of.”

Claudia saw the naked
sadness on Andy’s face, and without thinking reached a hand to comfort, to
soften the lines around his weary eyes.

She traced the network
of lines down to the deep furrows around his mouth, lines she remembered well
from concentration, from a focus so intense Andy was able to shut out the rest
of the world. The sharp stubble of his beard under her fingers contrasted with
the smooth warmth of his skin, igniting a response in the sensitive nerves that
started in her fingertips and traveled to the rest of her body. Without
thinking, she continued her exploration to his lips, soft and warm, parting at
her touch so that she slid one finger along the edge of his mouth.

And then his hand shot
out and gripped her arm, locked with the strength of iron.

When his voice came,
it was coarse, thick with heat. “Don’t play with me,” he warned, “unless you’re
ready to see this through until the end.”

Claudia heard. She
heard and then, without thinking, she plunged ahead.

CHAPTER FIVE

Andy resisted.

As Claudia let her
fingertips trail down the side of his face, he inhaled the faint scent of her
perfume, some trace left on her wrist. He’d always loved her perfume, one he’d
never detected on any other woman. It was deep and rich and spicy, not at all
girlish, more pine and moss than flowers. She used to stand barefoot in her
simple white bra and panties in the cold of the morning, taking her time,
tracing the crystal stopper of the tiny vial of perfume along her pulse points:
throat, wrists, between her breasts.

And sometimes she’d
pause in her private ritual and lift her eyes to him, a smoldering challenge as
he turned away from his desk across the room and watched, and trace the crystal
down the flat plane of her stomach, dip it to the inside of her pale thighs. Then
Andy would know the books would have to wait that day.

Claudia had been new
to lovemaking the first time she’d shared his bed. But God, she was a quick
study, somehow innocent and wicked at the same time.

And now she was
tracing a single index finger along his jaw, down past his collarbones,
slipping under the collar of his shirt, looking at him expectantly. Her lips
were parted slightly and her breathing quickened.

He’d warned her, but
she’d taken no heed. Reckless Claudia, always taking chances with everyone’s
lives, even her own. No thought to the consequences, to the devastating effects
her actions might have—

Andy seized her
exploring fingers, crushing them roughly in his own hand, and glared at
Claudia.

“You had better be
damn sure this is what you want,” he muttered. But she met his gaze, with a
look that was hungry and expectant and not the least bit intimidated.

And so he stopped
resisting.

Slowly he lifted her
fingers to his lips, kissing them softly. The feather light brush of his mouth
on her knuckles was almost unbearably delicate, especially when he turned her
hand and trailed his kiss up her wrist, up her arm to the crook of the elbow,
and then slowly back down.

When he returned to
her fingers, he slid one briefly into his mouth. His mouth was warm, his tongue
velvet, and the heat coiling in her core bloomed and traveled through her body.

“Kiss me, please,
Andy,” she pleaded, holding her breath as he closed the distance between them
on the couch. In one swift and fluid motion he lifted her legs at the knees and
repositioned them so she was reclining against the pile of old down pillows. He
lowered his lips to hers, meeting her hunger with his own.

She’d expected him to
be rough, but his touch was soft, his tongue tracing a slow path along her lip
before meeting her own. She opened herself to him, twining her fingers into his
hair, pulling him closer to deepen the kiss. At her urging he finally tasted
her, plunging his tongue into the reaches of her mouth with a rhythm that
entered her body and translated itself into the press of her own body against
his.

Long legs insinuated
themselves around Andy’s own, and Claudia shifted deftly so that she lay under
him. His body followed her lead, molding to her, meeting her thrusts solidly. She
wore a simple sea-green shirt and short skirt, and his fingers found with
pleasure that they were made of some thin, suede-like material that slipped
through his fingers like liquid silk. Andy bunched the fabric of her taut
skirt, pushing up to ease the tension on the seams, and as her legs opened he
slid gratefully between.

Claudia arched against
him, meeting his arousal, pulling him even closer to her. He fingered the
buttons on her shirt, tiny pearl-like closures that evaded his hasty attempts,
and Claudia’s fingers flew to help him. In seconds she’d released the buttons
and Andy drew back to watch the silken fabric glide off her breasts.

She wore the same
style of plain white cotton bra, the one he’d always found so sexy in its
innocence, but her breasts seemed different somehow. A little larger, but
softer, more...womanly. Andy released the front clasp and eased his body down,
sliding deliciously along until he was able to examine one lush breast with all
his senses.

Her skin was soft
against his cheek, and he nuzzled briefly, the shudder that went through
Claudia’s body his reward. He sought one nipple with thumb and finger while he
took the other into his mouth. Small, rigid with desire, it was a small pearl
against his tongue, his lips, and he rolled it with exquisite pleasure. Claudia’s
moan resonated against his skin as he tongued her in widening circles,
eventually trailing lower.

As he followed an
invisible line down her stomach, pausing to dip his tongue into her belly
button, Claudia arched her back and let a sigh escape her parted lips. It felt
so right, his caress. Her body, which she had been convinced was closed forever
to sensual ecstasy, had awakened, and right or wrong, she was riding a current
she knew she couldn’t fight.

When Andy reached the
sueded silk bunched at her waist, she met his hand with her own to loosen the
clasp and slide the skirt down her legs. Andy’s hot breath at the top of her
panties nearly drove her wild, especially when he caught the fabric in his
teeth and tugged gently downward. Claudia slipped a finger under the elastic
and sent the wisp of cotton flying off the couch to join the skirt puddled on
the floor.

Naked. She was naked
with a man for the first time since...
him
.
A few times she’d come close, but her body had always shut down. The touch of
other men felt clumsy, leaden. But not Andy’s: his strong hands were warm and
confident against her skin, the stubble of his beard exquisite agony, his mouth
hot and ravenous.

For a second he
stilled, and Claudia tensed, afraid he’d changed his mind, that he was going to
stop touching her when only his touch could ease her exquisite torture. Then he
rested his face on the soft plane of her stomach and ran his hands under her
waist, an embrace of surprising intimacy, a gentle pause in his quest.

But Claudia didn’t
want to wait. She slid one leg along his thighs, teasing his rigid arousal with
her calf, and he responded with lightning speed. He growled and slid out of her
reach, and his movement brought his face down a few critical inches. Before
Claudia could catch her breath he began an achingly slow, wet exploration of her
femininity. Under the ministration of his tongue and lips Claudia writhed, her
hands seeking purchase in the scratchy wool of the couch. And then, just as she
was convinced she couldn’t possibly feel any further sensation, Andy slid a
finger deep inside of her, then joined it with another.

She bucked against him
as he focused his tongue on the tiny nub of her passion, sucking gently and
swirling. With his fingers filling her, she couldn’t hold on any longer, and as
she let go she felt Andy reach up with his free hand and seize hers and she
held on fiercely until the last wave had shuddered through her.

But it wasn’t enough. Even
as she came down on the other side of the majestic peak she’d scaled, Andy
trailed kisses back up her body, reversing the path he’d taken before, and
desire edged back into the pit of her belly. She fiercely needed to join her
body to his. For
real
. His body on hers, his mouth covering hers as they
moved together.

“Andy,” she whispered.
“I want you inside of me.”

Andy tensed, the muscles
in his shoulders hardening beneath her fingers. Did Claudia have any idea what
it was doing to him, feeling her skin, moist from exertion, next to his? Breathing
the heady scent of her pleasure?

“I want to,” he
groaned, “more than you can possibly know. But—I don’t have protection
with me.”

There was a pause, and
then Claudia squirmed out from under him. He watched without breathing as she
retrieved her purse from a small table across the room and rifled through it. She
was a glorious creature, unselfconscious without clothes, standing tall in her
bare feet as she padded on the worn carpets.

Rejoining him she
offered a small packet.

“The only thing is,
this is kind of old,” she said. “Do you think—I mean, do they expire or
something?”

Andy took the packet
from her and squinted, but in his current state he could barely hold the thing
still, much less make out the tiny lettering. “How old?”

“I don’t know exactly.
A year...maybe two.” Even in the dim light he could see that Claudia was
blushing furiously, and once again her combination of innocence and natural
sensuousness claimed him, and he made short work of the foil wrapper.

Claudia had her arms
around his neck before he could balance himself carefully on the narrow seat of
the couch.

“Whoa, girl,” he said.
“I’m hoping to get out of this with only minor abrasions—”

His voice was lost in
a kiss that Claudia claimed, all hesitation gone. She slid the soles of her
feet along the backs of his calves, igniting tiny flash fires along the way,
until she found purchase, and leveraged her body against his.

Andy’s eyes nearly
popped out of his head as she deftly moved beneath him, joining him to her. But
he was ready. God, was he ready. He moved inside her, trying with all his might
to go slow, but after a couple of strokes Claudia bit his lower lip impatiently
and dug her nails into his shoulders.

At that he drove
himself deep within her, unable to withhold any longer. Claudia met his thrust
squarely, a cry of pleasure escaping her lips. As he moved against her, pulled
by a force more powerful than anything he could imagine, she broke their kiss
and pressed her face against his shoulder. He heard her moans deepening, her
breath coming more quickly, and then he heard nothing at all other than the
pounding pleasure in his head as he rode a wave with her. At the moment of his
release, she grabbed his hips with incredible strength and held on, melded her
body to his until it seemed as though they had joined into one being.

Long after the last of
his essence had been released, they remained that way. Slowly, slowly he felt
his own heart calm, felt a cool breeze from the window on the skin, moist from
exertion. Claudia kept her eyes closed, and he took advantage of the moment to
watch her. She stretched one arm luxuriously and then let it fall behind her
head, and her mouth curved slightly at the corners, the ghost of a smile. That
look of feline satisfaction: he remembered it now, the way she liked to take
her pleasure and then stretch her body, drifting off to sleep naked, curled
like a cat.

“Claudia,” he finally
said, “am I that hard to look at?”

Her eyes fluttered
open and she looked at him thoughtfully, taking his question more seriously
than he’d intended.

“Not at all,” she
said. “It’s just...it seems like a dream, what happened just now. I was just
hoping to enjoy it a little longer before I have to wake up.”

“Why would you have to
wake up?” Andy asked softly, brushing a few strands of hair off her forehead as
her eyelids slid down again. “This is better than a dream. It’s real.”

“No,” she murmured,
voice trailing as though she were nearly asleep. “It was wonderful. More
wonderful than anything I’ve felt in a long time. But it was definitely not
real.”

Andy opened his eyes
one at a time in the near-darkness. A sliver of light from the hall traveled
across the bed, slanting through the warm nest of linens where Claudia had been
wrapped in his arms.

How she’d managed to
extricate herself without waking him, he had no idea. He’d never been a sound
sleeper, and during his grueling residency had learned to force himself from
sleep to total concentration at the slightest sound.