Page 44 of Thunder Pass

“Does this mean what I think it means?” he murmured.

“I think so. Yes. It means…” She dried herself off, then slid the towel away from her body. Never before in her life had a man seen her completely naked. Daniel had barely seen one of her nipples, once, very quickly. “It means I’d like to try having sex with you.”

Amusement flashed across his face, but she decided to ignore it. She might say things awkwardly, but that was okay. Gunnar knew all about her and how she’d grown up; he didn’t expect her to be anything other than who she was.

And that, she realized, was the problem with every other man she’d tried to form a connection with this past summer in Firelight Ridge. With Gunnar, there was no need to even try to explain. He understood certain things about her already.

“Are you sure? That’s a big jump, from kissing to sex. And kissing…” He lifted one shoulder as a way to finish that sentence. At the same time, he slid a hand along the curve of her lower back, his fingers trailing across the upper part of her buttocks and sending her mad with desire.

“I know, it didn’t go so well last time. I’ve learned a lot since then. You don’t have to worry. I won’t expect to get married after we have sex. In fact, I doubt I’ll ever marry.”

“Oh?” He lifted his eyebrows. “Why not?” His strong fingers traced the lower curve of her butt now, where it joined her upper thigh. She bit her lip against the surge of sensation. She hadn’t known that part of her body was so sensitive. How many more things was she going to discover about herself?

“I don’t want to be under anyone’s,” she let out a soft gasp as he pressed her closer to him, “thumb.”

“Yeah, thumbs are good for a lot of things, but not that. They’re great for times like this, though.” He brought his thumb to his mouth and licked it, then gently squeezed her nipple between that wetness and his finger. A jolt shot through her body, so strong that she jumped. He paused. “Did you like that?”

She nodded, nearly mute with pleasure.

“Good. But you gotta promise to tell me if you don’t like something, okay? I’ve never been anyone’s first time before. If anything doesn’t feel right, or hurts, tell me, okay?”

“I will.” Right now, it was hard to imagine that possibility. But she knew it could hurt; once she’d walked in on Jared and his wife while they were copulating. She’d been crying tears of pain. “But you don’t have to worry. I’m a virgin, but you know I ride horses and I doubt that my hymen is intact.”

He gave a little snort. “Is that from your Internet research?”

“Yes.” She gave him an impish smile. “Kathy scolded me because she thought I was looking at porn. I wasn’t, but I sort of wanted to, because one of the sites I looked at said porn can be very instructive.”

“Instructive, huh?”

“Yes, is it?”

He struggled for a long moment, then gave up and burst into a laugh. “Not the word I’d use. Come on.” He scooped her back into his arms and whisked her back to the bedroom. There, he tossed her onto the pillows still strewn across the bed and began stripping off his clothes. “Don’t go anywhere. I’m going to take a shower myself, if there’s any water left, and then we’re going to do this sex thing that everyone’s talking about.”

She didn’t want him to leave. She didn’t care if he needed a shower. She wanted him right now. He must have seen it in her face, because he kneeled on the bed and braced himself over her. “How about we do something else first?”

Oh yes. She didn’t want to beg, but that sounded wonderful. She nodded, and he lowered his head to her right breast and tongued her nipple. She’d never felt anything like it. By herself, she left that part of her body alone, focusing only on the spot between her legs. But his wet, firm mouth swirling around her nipple, tugging, nipping, pulling sensation from deep inside her body—that was entirely, spectacularly new.

Her nipple responded by swelling to nearly twice its size. She could barely believe it when she glanced down at her right breast after he moved to her left side. What had he done to her? In wonder, she touched it herself and gave it an experimental squeeze. Yup, it felt good to do that, but not quite the way it felt when he sucked on it.

Then she stopped taking notes and abandoned herself to the wild and wonderful things he was doing to her body. His tongue went everywhere, and where it wasn’t, his hands took over. He found the particular spot between her legs, but not quite right…not quite the way she did it for herself. So she guided her thumb to the exact right spot and moaned out loud when he stroked her there.

After that, she couldn’t compare the way she did it with the way he did it anymore…it was two entirely different experiences.

Soon—almost too soon—that magic wave washed through her body. With Gunnar, it had a different dimension to it—a swelling of her heart, a sense of amazement and gratitude that another person had helped her feel such pleasure.

22

Of course, Gunnar didn’t have any condoms with him. Why would he have brought such a thing on a trip to see Ruth’s mother in prison? It had never occurred to him that things would go this direction. Maybe it was better if they just left things right where they were…with Ruth all pink and satisfied and happy, but still a virgin, and him gritting his teeth and picturing unsexy things like carburetors to make his erection go down.

Except that carburetors were pretty damn sexy, and it wasn’t working, and Ruth’s soft hand was now touching his cock and…fuck.

His thoughts scattered as she lifted herself up on one elbow and explored him by hand and by eye. The sensation was excruciatingly arousing; he felt he might burst at any moment. “So that’s the famous ‘manhood,’” she said softly.

“Manhood? I usually just call it my dick. Or my cock. Or my penis.”

“I’ve seen farm animals get aroused, but never a man.” She stroked her fingers down his length.

He clenched his jaw tight. “Not even Daniel?”

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