“What?”She roused herself and stared at him.“Quinn, you make love like no man I’ve ever known, but your after-the-loving conversation needs work.This is not the time to discuss hair treatments.”
He chuckled, and as he gazed at her he felt as if someone had poured warm melted butter over his heart.Yeah, he probably loved her, loved her strong enough to last clear into doddering old age.“Or I could shave my head.That’s popular these days.”
“I’m not wild about that look, if you’re really determined to discuss this now.And blond won’t go with your skin tones as well as dark brown does.What’s this about?”
“I’m trying to figure out how I could sneak back to see you again after I leave town.I think the blond hair would work.And maybe a mustache and glasses.”
She cupped his face in both hands.“Let’s just tell everybody you’re not Hastings.”
“No.I can’t let you do that.”
“Well, I can’t let you dye your hair.Your friends and clients would wonder what on earth was going on.I don’t want to be responsible for making you look dumb in front of everybody.Let’s tell.”
“No.I’ll dye my hair.”
“No.”She combed her fingers through his hair.“I love it this color.That’s partly what makes your eyes look so incredibly blue — your skin is a nice bronze color.”Her voice grew soft and wispy.“The contrast is, wonderful,” she murmured, drawing him down to her waiting lips.
Incredibly he began to get hard again.He deepened the kiss and kneaded Jo’s firm bottom, just to see where that would take him.Sure enough, it took him right back to where he’d been when he’d first lifted her to the perfect level for this activity.Maybe it was the wildness of making love to a woman sitting in the crotch of a tree that was causing him to feel randy as a seventeen-year-old who’d just lost his virginity.Or maybe it was simply Jo, the scent of her, the taste of her, the feel of her.
And judging from the way her breathing had changed and the hungry way she opened her mouth to his kiss, she also wanted him again, and that was another small miracle.Heart soaring, he gave thanks for his foresight and prepared to enter paradise a second time.How he loved the supple feel of her muscles beneath his palms as she moved in response to his thrusts.
He longed to see her face, but even though he lifted his head to gaze at her, the shadows were too deep.“I wish I could look into your eyes,” he murmured, his voice already rough and trembling, his climax hovering near.
“Do you?”
“Yes.”He heard the quiver in her voice and knew she was on the edge, too.How quickly they could excite each other.Like lightning.
“Why?”
“Because.”He pushed in again, listening for the catch in her breath that meant she was ready.When it came, he slowed, wanting to draw the moment out this time.“I want to see how your eyes change when you’re close, like now.”
“Are you…?”
“Yes.”He drew back ever so slowly and slipped in with practically no force at all.Easy, easy.“Very close.”
She trembled in his grip.“I want to see your eyes, too.”
“It’s too dark.”He held back, but even his lazy strokes were going to get them there very soon, no matter how much he wanted to draw out the process.
“I know how your eyes look.”She gasped as a tremor shook her.“Like blue flames.”
“And yours are like warm chocolate.”She was there, and he couldn’t keep himself from going with her, moving faster, pushing deeper, trying to touch that part of her that would make her his.“So rich...so hot.”
“Quinn.”His name was a moan on her lips.“Kiss me, or the world will hear how I feel right now.”
He took her mouth with some regret.Maybe the world shouldn’t hear just yet, but he’d like to.When he carried her once more into the whirlwind, he wished he could listen as she moaned and cried out his name.He wanted all the sounds he’d helped create as she trembled in his arms.
Because those sounds might include the words, “I love you.”
ChapterTwenty-Two
Jo clung to Quinn for many long moments, savoring the closeness and the incredible pleasure.But at last he eased back and lifted her gently to the ground.She leaned against the tree, feeling weak and just the slightest bit bowlegged, while he turned and got himself together.
When he turned back to her, he had picked up her silk boxers from the ground.“Want some help putting these on?”he said with a smile in his voice.
Incredibly, considering all she’d experienced, a shiver of desire went through her.“No, thank you.”She took the boxers from him and put them on.If she let him help, he might begin to think she was insatiable.Which she might be, but she still didn’t want him thinking she was.Besides, as it was, she’d have trouble sitting a horse tomorrow.Much more of Quinn’s loving and she’d be crippled.Happy, but crippled.
“Stay there,” he said.“I think I heard Fred leave the house.I’ll go make sure.”Quinn left the shadow of the tree and crept around the house.
