STORY EXCERPT

Tina bit her lip and looked around the kitchen for something to do to occupy her hands. They were shaking. She didn’t want Rick to notice it either.

Her stomach was tied up in a ball of nerves. She was beginning to wonder if she was going to survive this week without having a total breakdown.

She frowned at the thought. You’re stronger than this. David would be ashamed of you if you ended up a blubbering mess just because you’ve ventured out into the world for the first time since losing him. But the ebb and flow of these emotional tides that battered her in waves were wearing her resolve to get through this paper-thin. On top of it all, she had begun to hear David’s voice, and she felt an attraction to Rick Mills. Was that a betrayal of the love she still held in her heart for David? Was her attraction to another man a form of cheating on David’s memory? It couldn’t be, could it? Her jitters were only getting worse with this line of thinking. She desperately needed something to do.

Crossing to the stove, Tina took a deep breath and tried to clear her mind. The pot boiling on the stove gave off the starchy scent of potatoes. Her stomach growled. She’d barely had anything for breakfast or lunch. The heck with losing a few pounds, she thought, picking up the spoon to stir the sputtering pot. Steak and potatoes sounded delicious. “If your nervous stomach will let you eat it,” she said.

“Hungry?” Rick asked, coming in the door.

“Oh!” Tina jerked. The spoon went flying, splashing boiled potato water all over the stovetop. The spoon landed with a clang in the sink. The stovetop sizzled, the sprayed water bubbling on the heated surface. Tina grabbed a dishcloth from the countertop. “I’m so sorry,” she said, turning to mop up the spill. She slammed directly into Rick, already wiping it up, his elbow connecting soundly in her solar plexus. Tina felt her breath rush out with an oomph, and then she was bent over, struggling to gasp for breath.

“Shit!” Rick grabbed her. “Damn, I didn’t mean to do that.”

Tina shook her head, gulping for air. There was no way she could answer him. Hand to her stomach, she sucked in a breath just as her bottom connected with a kitchen chair.

Three deep breaths later, she could finally swallow. Then she coughed. Swallowed again. She was bent over, elbows on her knees, her eyes squeezed shut.

“You gonna be okay?” Rick asked, his voice low and close to her face. Then there came a loud sizzle. “Shit!” he said again.

Tina felt him move away from her.

She heard him utter another curse, and then there was the sound of metal against metal. Tina opened her eyes and swiveled her head. Over her shoulder, she saw Rick at the sink, flapping one hand in the air. Then his fingers went into his mouth. He turned toward her. As soon as he saw that she was looking, he popped his fingers out of his mouth and wiped them on his apron with a wince.

“Can you breathe yet?” he asked, crossing to her and kneeling so that they were eye to eye.

Tina nodded, hugging her stomach.

“Can you talk?”

She felt heat where his hand rested on her knee. Concern showed in his hazel eyes. She wanted to just sit like this for a moment without moving, without breathing—freezing the moment in time. When the concern in his eyes deepened and a worried frown creased his forehead, Tina heaved a sigh. “I can talk,” she said, straightening up. Her voice felt a bit raspy, but she would be okay.

“I didn’t hurt you, did I?” he asked, removing his hand from her knee and settling back on his haunches.

She shook her head. “No.”

“We’re going to have to be careful, you and I,” he said. “We seem to keep tangling up together. That’s not good on Black Mountain.”

“Yes. Careful.” Tina felt an odd movement in her stomach. A sort of warm ripple.

“I’d hate to see one of us get hurt.” His eyes searched her face then came to rest on her lips for the span of a heartbeat before returning to meet her gaze.

Her heart thumped against her breastbone. “No,” she said. “I wouldn’t want one of us to…get hurt.”

ADULT EXCERPT

“I’ve never been on a bed this high before.” She ran her hands up his forearms, feeling the corded muscles beneath the skin, as he moved in between her legs to stand at the edge.

“I think you’ll enjoy it, but I’ll warn you…antiques like this one tend to complain if you get too rough with them.” He moved closer still, his hands on her thighs, urging her legs open wider.

She breathed in sharply when the head of his cock brushed against her heated center. “So,” she said, struggling to form the words, “you’re telling me the bed squeaks.”

“Yep.” His hands moved up, cupping a breast in each one.

His touch was warm, sensual. She slid her hands to his shoulders and arched her back.

He rubbed his roughened thumbs over her taut nipples, sending sparks of delight all the way to her toes. “Feel good?” he asked, his eyes locked on hers.

“Yes,” she said quietly.

His cock twitched at her wet opening as if anxious to fill her. He shifted his hips slightly.

Tina gasped again, his movement causing the head of his cock to caress the swollen bud peeking out of her womanly folds.

He rolled her nipples between his thumbs and fingers and captured her mouth for a deep, mind-numbing kiss.

Her body was humming. Her hands flexed and unflexed. She wasn’t sure which part of her was experiencing the most enjoyment. She felt alive and fully awake for the first time in three years. Rick groaned, his tongue thrusting into her mouth. She stroked it with her own, sucking at him. His callused fingers teased her sensitive nipples, sparks skittering through her as she arched, pressing herself closer to him. He moved his hips with a slight back-and-forth motion. She moaned and widened her legs, spreading herself as far as she could. Every time he moved, his cock slid into her cleft, stroking her clit, driving her that much closer to insanity.

He pulled back, gasping for breath just as she was. “I want to be inside you. Are you ready?”

“Oh, God, yes.”

Rick stole a kiss, nipping her bottom lip. “Stay just where you are and lie back. I want to see all of you while I bury myself inside you.” His eyes flashed a hunger she hadn’t seen before.

Heat raged inside her as she lay back, doing as he asked. She and David had normally not talked during sex—and it wasn’t a bad thing, the not talking—but Rick and his roughened Southern drawl… “Talk to me,” she said, gazing down her body at him. “I want you to talk to me.” She stretched her arms above her head, feeling more wanton than she ever had in her life.

Rick chuckled, taking her feet and placing them on the rail that ran down the side of the bed, holding the mattress up. “You want me to talk to you, hmm?”

She wriggled. “I love your voice.” His voice was like a caress, wafting through her like smoke.

He centered himself between her legs then ran his hands over her stomach and up to her breasts. “Baby, I don’t have any protection.”

Tina could barely breathe for want of him. “I can’t get pregnant, and I’ve only ever been with one man my whole life.” The words spilled from her as she took his hands in her own and rubbed them over her pebbled nipples.

“Then we’re okay. I haven’t been with anyone in years.” He pulled his hands from her grasp.

She let her hands drop to her breasts while he stroked his way back down her body to the apex of her legs.

“You are so beautiful,” he said, spreading her legs and flicking his thumb over her clit. “You’re ripe as a peach, and later, I’ll have to taste this juice.” He circled her clit with his thumb then rubbed across it. “I can’t wait to find out just how sweet you taste.”

Tina shuddered, a tense coiling beginning inside.

“Are you ready for me, Tina?” He dipped his finger inside her opening.

She gasped, her muscles twitching.

“Mmm,” he crooned. “So wet.” He spread her juice over her folds, paying special attention to the hard little nubbin in the center. “I’m going to slide my cock inside you now. You tell me if I hurt you.”

She bit her bottom lip. He did look rather large, larger and thicker than David had been.

He eased himself into her slick passage then stopped, only the first few inches of him inside. “Oh, baby, you are so tight.” His hands kneaded her thighs, hot and grasping.

She was flaming. Her pussy muscles pulsed, urging him deeper. His eyes held a smoky passion, his gaze locked with hers. Ever so slowly, he delved deeper.

Tina whipped her head to the side, bunching the bedcover in her fists. She was stretching inside, the feeling of fullness so good, so good…

“More, Tina?” His voice was tight, gravelly. “Look at me.” His thumb stroked her clit.

She jerked, a sudden rush of fire assailing her. She looked up at him and pressed her heels against the rail. “More.”

His thumb continued to work her clit as he shoved forward.

“Ahh,” she called out, her hands going to her breasts, grasping.

“Aw, Lord, woman, you are tighter than a virgin.” He began a slow rhythm, in and out, deep and shallow. “Does it feel good?”

She couldn’t think. Her body was all sensation, her nerve endings firing like lightning. She writhed on the bed, trying to buck her hips against him, wanting him deeper, the stretching of having him inside coming with a little pain, heightening the sensation of being filled with a man.

“Tina?”

Thrust. Deep.

“W–What?” Her throat worked. She moaned, pinching her nipples.

“More?” Sliding out, thumb teasing her swollen nubbin.

“Oh, God,” she gasped. “Fuck me.”