Chapter 45 Rafe made love that night

Chapter 45 Rafe made love that night
Rafe made love just exactly the way Cara had imagined he would, with total concentration and the kind of raw passion that had been missing from her life. His mouth was hot and clever, but his hands were positively wicked. Long, lazy caresses alternated with skimming, intimate touches that made her crave more. He did things to her breasts that made her cry out and arch toward him, pleading for him not to stop.

And then he skimmed away her sensible cotton panties and began yet another wicked exploration that had her writhing and begging for release.

“Not just yet,” he whispered, his breath cool against the bare skin of her sensitive inner thigh.

He began a whole new assault of kisses that roved from stomach to ankle to toes and back again, until he reached the juncture of her thighs. When he touched her with his tongue, she came apart in a shuddering release.

Clutching his shoulders, she came slowly back to earth, then met his smoldering gaze. She felt a need to say something, to explain how devastating, how incredible the experience had been. “That was—”

“Just the beginning,” he said, cutting off her words with a kiss that sent her senses soaring once more.

Her body was straining yet again by the time his gaze locked with hers. Poised above her, he reminded her of a proud warrior, a little arrogant, a lot masculine. She hadn’t thought it was possible to want more than he’d already given her, but she did. Anticipation and yearning coupled with a building heat as he finally, at long last, entered her.

The sensation, the hard, slick slide of his arousal deep inside her took her breath away. But just beyond that incredible moment of satisfaction there was a hunger for more, a hunger that began with a sense of loss as he withdrew, then deepened as he entered her again.

The rhythm, as old as time, but new to her with this man became a torment and a pleasure. Rafe added nuances she’d never imagined, slow, fast, then slow again, teasing her, streaking toward a peak, then carrying her down, lulling her, before finally taking her to an impossible height, one that had every part of her at

a fever pitch, demanding release, reaching for it.

They tumbled over the edge together, panting, clinging together, crying out in unison.

When the waves of pleasure had stilled, when heated flesh began to cool, she sighed deeply and buried her head against his neck. Then, cradled in his arms, feeling safer than she had in months, maybe even years, she slept. The very last thing on her mind was the future and what it might hold.

Rafe was a little awed, more than a little panicked by what had just happened between him and the woman who was curled so trustingly against him. He was not a man prone to making impulsive decisions. His relationships, such as they were, tended to be simple. He was definitely not a man who thought in terms of forever.

But here he was, completely sated and drained from making love with a woman who had impulsively thrown herself at him, who was about as complicated as anyone he’d ever met and who was definitely all about forever. How the hell had this happened?

Okay, he knew how it had happened. He’d been thinking about Cara in this way for weeks now. Maybe not from the moment they’d met, but certainly from the first time they’d kissed. Once the ethical barrier to pursuing a relationship had been lifted by that agreement he’d made earlier with Emma, he’d been all too susceptible.

He sighed and shifted until she was cradled even more tightly against him. Never one to transfer the blame for something to someone else when his own role was perfectly evident, he forced himself to accept responsibility for what had just happened. Cara might have initiated things, but he’d been an eager participant.

All of which begged the question, what now? If he had a functioning brain cell left, he’d leave the pursuit of Bobby Rinaldi in Emma’s capable hands and hightail it back to New York and his other clients. Sticking around Winding River and carrying on a fling with Cara was a dead-end road for both of them. She would realize it once the initial physical attraction wore off. What was the expression? Their relationship was definitely too hot not to cool down. That was certainly his experience. Even relationships based on more than he and Cara had in common eventually burned themselves out. His mother’s certainly had. In fact, he predicted that after today, now that he and Cara had tasted what had previously been forbidden, the attraction would be well on its way to dying.

He glanced at her, took in the rosy cheeks, the lush curve of breast and hip,

the dark cloud of tousled hair, the thoroughly kissable mouth. His body stirred with all the urgency he had felt not a half hour before.

So much for diminishing attraction, he thought as he ran his hand over petal- soft skin that smelled of citrus and ginger. Her nipple peaked to a hard bud against his palm. She shifted restlessly as his caresses intensified and became bolder.

Then she was wide awake and moving against him, welcoming him, hips thrusting against hips, seeking, urgent. The heat climbed as he buried himself deep inside, withdrew, then sank into her again and again.

This time, she was the first to cry out, the first to reach a shuddering climax.

As the waves washed through her, they set off his own explosion. Muscles bunched, strained, then relaxed into the demanding pleasure of it.

“Too much,” she cried as their bodies mated with fierce intensity, arching together in another wild burst of sensation. Then, “More, please, more.”

Her words were an echo of his reeling thoughts. Being with Cara was too much by far, and yet he knew, with soul-searing honesty, that he could never get enough.

When Cara woke from an exhausted sleep this time, there were no sneaky caresses teasing her awake. In fact she was in the king-size bed all alone. The sound of water running told her that Rafe was taking a shower. His side of the vast mattress was cool to her touch, suggesting that he’d been up for a while now.

It was dark outside. Inside, there was only the glow from beneath the bathroom door and a digital clock on a bedside stand to light the room.

Cara heard the water shut off, the sound of off-key humming, and grinned.

What would he think if she slipped into the room and joined him? Oddly, she felt more uncertain about his reaction now than she might have hours ago.

She had seduced Rafe. There was no question in her mind about that. She had done precisely what she’d told Emma she intended to do. She had wanted something and she had gone after it.