Page 58 of Mountain Rescue
“Oh, I’m sure you have, just not to your face.” She traced the bucking horse on his belt buckle. “I wish I could have seen you ride one of these. I bet you looked hot doing it.”
“Come to Montana and I’ll ride a bronc for you. You can judge for yourself.”
Dallas riding a bucking horse? Oh, yeah. Definitely hot. Rachel bet during his bronc days the cowgirls were lined up, hoping to get noticed by him. She tugged on the belt buckle. “Off.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
He unbuckled the belt, then unbuttoned his jeans. She lifted her eyes to his to see that his gaze was on her. Mercy, he could melt her on the spot with all that heat in his eyes. When his hand moved to his zipper, he lifted his brows. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.” She didn’t think she’d been surer of anything in her life, but she liked that he asked. She already knew he was a good man, but he kept proving it each time he did or said something like that. Her gaze followed his fingers as he slowly lowered the zipper, then pushed his jeans over his hips, revealing a pair of dark blue boxer briefs. A thin line of hair dissected his stomach, disappearing below the waistband of his briefs, drawing her gaze downward, to the proof of his arousal. She swallowed hard.
This was really happening.
“Rachel?” He cupped her chin, lifting her face. “You can tell me to stop at any time.”
She put her hand on his chest, over his heart, felt it beat hard against her palm. She lifted her eyes to his, saw the raw hunger in them. “Don’t stop.”
“Thank God.” He dropped his hand to the neck of her T-shirt, dipped a finger inside and tugged. “Can I undress you?”
“Yes, please.”
“Don’t move.” He set her suitcase on the floor, then dropped his duffel next to it. “We’ll be needing that bed real soon.” He picked up his jeans and pulled out his wallet, taking a condom from it. “We’ll be needing this, too.” He frowned. “I only have one, so we’ll need to stop at the store tomorrow.”
“Okay.”
“You weren’t thinking this was going to be a one-time thing, were you?”
Honestly, she didn’t have a clue what she expected to happen between them, but... “I was hoping not.” Jeez, that smile of his. It could melt a girl’s panties right off.
“Me, too.” He sat on the edge of the bed and spread his legs. “Come here.”
As she stepped toward him, her eyes roamed over him, and she smiled at all the hotness sitting there, waiting for her. When her gaze reached his legs, she gasped. Dear God. His legs were as scarred as his chest and arms, and she tried and failed to will away the tears burning her eyes. He wouldn’t want her pity. How had he endured that kind of torture?
“Don’t.”
His harsh voice was jarring. Did he think she was disgusted by his scars? His eyes, filled with heat and desire a moment ago, were now stormy, turbulence swirling in their hazel depths. “Don’t what, Dallas?” She dropped to her knees, put her hand over a scar on his inner thigh, and looked up at him. “Don’t hurt for what was done to you? Don’t look at the scars scattered over your body and want to do serious damage to the people who did this to you? Don’t still look at you and think how beautiful you are, both inside and out? Which of those don’t you want me to do?”
“Rachel,” he whispered.
She stood and stepped between his knees. Leaning down, she softly pressed her lips to his. A shudder passed through him, and for the first time since she’d met him, she felt his pain. Had he buried what had happened to him so deeply so that he couldn’t feel anything? Was that why she hadn’t been able to read him? Was he opening up to her now? It was something to think about but later. Right now, she had an almost naked man on the bed, and she needed him as much as he needed her.
“We gonna get it on or what, cowboy?”
He stared at her for a moment, the ghost of a smile appeared, and the storm that had been building in his eyes calmed. “We’re gonna get it on.” He slipped his hand under her T-shirt and cupped her breast. “There are too many clothes between my skin and yours.” He tugged on her bra, then removed his hand and leaned back. “Take your shirt and bra off.”
“I thought you were going to undress me.”
He braced his hands behind him and stared at her with smoldering eyes. “I changed my mind. I want to watch you get naked for me.”
“Do you now?”
He nodded, and she decided to torture him a little. With the speed of a turtle, she lifted her shirt, baring her stomach an inch at a time. When she had it up to the bottom of her bra, she paused, and gave the man who loved to smirk a smirk of her own.
He growled his impatience.
That growly noise coming from deep in his throat did funny things to her, things like made her feel like the room was too hot. “Are you hot?” she said, then wanted to slap a hand over her mouth.
He grinned. “Do you mean that as is it warm in here or am I hot, like are you asking me to rate myself?”
