The Curvy Vet and the Billionaire Cowboy (He Wanted Me Pregnant!) (6 page)

I looked down at my sweat-soaked body. The fast descent had been grueling and I hadn’t been able to take my shirt off or the fierce sun would have burned me even with sunblock on. Now it was clinging to my back. “I’d give a hundred bucks for a shower right about now,” I said without thinking.

Russ was sitting with his back to me. In theory, it was so that we could watch the whole valley more easily, but having him close, but out of my eye line had another effect, too. It meant we could talk to each other without having to look each other in the eye. And sometimes, maybe, that’s what you need.

“You know what’s better than a shower?” asked Russ.

“What?”

I felt his head turn, his short hair brushing against my long locks. He’d turned to look at the lake, gleaming in the afternoon sun, its slow ripples making the surface look as thick as liquid silver.

“Tell me you’re not seriously suggesting skinny dipping,” I said, the syllables slow and unfamiliar on my tongue.

“Why not?”

The words hung in the air. The fact I didn’t have to look at him, that I could blush as much as I wanted to and no one could see, made it easier.

“Because we’re not sixteen!” I said. “And we’re not…
together!”

I felt him get up. “Well, I’m going in.”

I half turned around in shock and saw him grinning, lifting his shirt over his hard, rippling abs. I immediately turned around and sat back down again, fixing my gaze on a tree. “You are
not!”
I said urgently.

I heard the rustle of his shirt. Then the heavy thud of his cowboy boots hitting the ground. “What about the horse?” I asked.

“You said yourself she won’t come back here for hours. Might as well pass the time.” The jangle of his belt as his jeans fell around his ankles. I swallowed and kept my eyes firmly ahead. But my ears were straining for the sound of—

The whisper of cotton as he pulled down his shorts. I’d glimpsed the waistband peeking over his jeans, so I knew they were black. Now they were lying on the grass and, only a few feet behind me, the man I’d fantasized about was completely naked.

All I had to do was turn around. And…what? Throw myself into his arms? Kiss him?

“I’m going to go get in, now,” he said.

“I’m not,” I said quickly.

I heard him pad away through the grass and then the splash of him hitting the water.
He’s actually done it!

I turned slowly towards the lake. Russ was about ten feet out from shore, treading water with just his head sticking out. With the sunlight hitting the water, I couldn’t see his body below the waterline. He swam closer. “Come on, Amanda,” he said. “Take a chance.”

I swallowed. “I—I can’t.” I looked over my shoulder at the horses. I wanted to run away. I wanted to get on Constantine and not stop until I reached Atlanta.

Russ swam closer still. “Do you know what I thought, when I saw you?”

A thousand awful things went through my mind. “Don’t,” I said quickly.

“I thought, my God I want that woman.”

The world seemed to stop.

“I thought, she has the most perfect, ripe body I’ve ever seen. She has gorgeous, fiery hair and a killer ass I want to grab with both hands and hang onto.”

I listened, amazed.

“And when I talked to you in the diner I knew you were kind, and whip-smart, and you’d do anything to help an animal. Even come out here, with me. You’re way outside your comfort zone, aren’t you?”

I nodded. “Even if you had clothes on,” I said quietly.

“See? You’re funny, too. And I think maybe you like me. So all you have to do…is take a chance. And get into the water.”

“I can’t,” I said again.

He locked eyes with me, and there was something in his gaze that lent me confidence. “Yes,” he said. “You can.”

My heart seemed to give a gigantic thud, as if all of the beats had been stored up. Which made sense, because I was pretty sure it had stopped beating a few minutes ago.

I stood up. My hands lifted to the shirt and I pushed it back and off my arms, dropping it to the floor. I watched my fingers doing it, but it was almost as if I wasn’t controlling them, as if I was watching someone else undressing. I lifted the tank top and pulled it over my head, then stood there panting in my bra.

“Attagirl,” said Russ. He was transfixed, staring at me. I could see his eyes go from my chest to my face, back and forth, again and again. I reached back and unfastened my bra. Then, before I could change my mind, I stripped it off and dropped it to the ground. My breasts swung free, throbbing in their sudden nakedness.

The moment stretched out as he gazed at me. I wanted to scream, my fingernails digging into my palms.
Please, please, say something!

“You’re gorgeous,” he gasped. And it was like a wave of relief had hit my full in the face, soaking into every pore. I wanted to drop to my knees and just absorb it.

I barely had to think about stripping off my jeans. I just wanted to get into the water with him, now. My panties gave me a brief moment of hesitation, but I steeled myself and pushed them down my thighs, dropping them on the pile of clothes. And then I was naked and standing there under his gaze, every inch of me exposed.
Please like me. God, please like me.

He didn’t speak. He just gave me that
look,
the same one he’d given me before, and I knew. He didn’t just like me: he wanted me.
Needed
me.

I ran into the water, yelling as I dived in and letting the cry carry away the shock of it. It was cold at first, but as soon as I was moving, plunging beneath the surface and swimming towards him, it was just pleasantly cool. I surfaced, gasping, about four feet from him, and then we were staring at each other, just our heads and shoulders out of the water.

“Thank God,” he deadpanned. “I really thought for a second you were going to turn and run. And then I would have had to chase after you. Naked.”

I giggled. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d giggled.

“Amanda,” he said. “You’re beautiful.”

The word detonated in my head.
Beautiful.
He’d said
gorgeous
before, but
gorgeous
isn’t
beautiful.
“No, I’m not,” I said, a warning tone in my voice. I looked down at my body through the water. “Look at me.”

He swam closer and put his hands gently on my shoulders. “I am looking,” he said. “And you are.”

I searched his face for any sign that he was lying, blinking again and again.

“Why are you crying?” he asked, rubbing my tears away with his thumb.

I sniffed, unable to speak.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yes,” I whispered. “Very okay.” And then I leaned my head into his and we were kissing.

Our lips bumped at first, and the shock of it, after all that time, was so much that we both drew back a little. Only his hand, sliding up through my wet hair to the back of my head, kept me from pulling fully away. We stared at each other again, those dark, chocolate eyes burning into mine, and then I let him pull me forward again. I closed my eyes and felt our lips just touch, the firmness of his mouth just grazing the softness of mine in a way that made my whole body stiffen. I twisted my head and fitted myself to him, and as he pressed his lips down on mine I heard him growl in satisfaction. He was tasting me, exploring me, his lips sucking at mine oh-so-gently and then, as my lips slowly parted, the kiss changed. He claimed me with his mouth, taking what was his. I gave a little moan of my own as I felt his tongue dance with mine.

One of his hands stayed on the back of my head, as if he was worried I might slip away from him. The other slid down my back, following my spine, running down my nakedness all the way to my ass. When he squeezed me there the kiss changed again, becoming hot and heavy, our mouths open and panting. My own hands came up to lock around his back, fingers tracing the muscles there. This close to him, my whole body within a few inches of him, the raw presence of him had me almost drunk on sexual heat. The fact that we were treading water made it all the hotter. With my eyes closed, it felt like we were floating at the center of the universe, with nothing but void around us. No one to judge, no one to criticize, no one but us.

His arm came up and wrapped around the small of my back, pulling me into him as he kissed down my neck to where the waves broke against it, then back up to capture my lips again. My breasts crushed against his chest under the water and I let out a high little moan at the feeling. My nipples had already swelled to aching hardness, the cold water making my skin throb even as the heat inside built and built.

He broke the kiss, leaned me gently back in the water and kicked with his legs, swimming and taking me with him. As soon as he reached a point where he could stand, he stopped and stood up. Then his hands slid down to my ass and—

I gasped as he swept my legs up and around him. I swung down and forward, my eyes flying open as—
Ah!

We stared at each other. My legs were wrapped against his waist…and the warm softness of my sex was pushed hard against his pubis. I could feel my lower lips stroking against his muscles, the soft hair there wafting back and forth with the movement of the water. His cock was right beneath me, stroking between the cheeks of my ass, and it felt huge.

His hands slid all the way up my body, from my ass around to my breasts. He cupped them under the water, squeezing them gently, seeming to marvel at them. He took a slow step closer to shore, and my breasts just broke the surface of the water. He played with my nipples, thumbs rubbing the already-hard nubs, and the waves breaking over the surface felt like nothing I’d ever experienced.

He pulled me forward, so that my breasts mashed against his chest again, and kissed me again, long and deep. I could feel the hot, hard length of his cock throbbing right beneath my sex.

He drew his head back. “I want you,” he said simply.

I nodded, unable to speak.

“Here?” He was almost panting. “Or on land.”

“On land,” I gasped. Mainly because I couldn’t go another minute without seeing all of him.

He pulled me tight to him and carried me to shore, legs still wrapped around him. Water sluiced off us, leaving us shining in the warm afternoon sun. We were utterly naked but, if there was anyone watching, we didn’t care.

He laid me down on my back on the grass. Not on a towel or a blanket or anything halfway civilized, but down on the grass, verdantly green against my pale skin. And then he just stood there, jewels of water highlighting the lines of his muscles, and stared down at me. A felt a warm glow travel down my body in a wave: over my breasts, my stomach, my thighs. I should have been cold. I was lying stark naked, soaking wet, but there was so much heat pounding through me I felt like I could lie there forever without starting to shiver.

His eyes locked on the strip of auburn hair between my thighs, just a shade darker than the hair on my head. “Last night, by the campfire,” he said, his voice so low it was almost a growl. “I couldn’t stop imagining what you looked like under your clothes. All of you…but especially
here.”
He brushed the hair between my thighs with the tip of his finger.
“The reality’s even better.”

Just hearing him say that made a ribbon of heat twist down through me, turning to moisture as it hit my groin. “I thought about you, too,” I said softly, gazing up at him. I didn’t actually say
your cock,
but that’s where my eyes were. It was just a little darker tan than I’d imagined it in my fantasy, but the same size, thick and long in a way that made my eyes go wide. But what really got me was the head. He was silky-smooth and gray-purple, and the shape of it, the blunt, throbbing size of it, made me go weak. I imagined it inside me, right up inside me, and my hands unconsciously gripped at the grass in anticipation.

Russ sank to his knees and gently eased my thighs apart. He started to kiss me, and at first I wound my arms around his neck, drawing him down to my lips. But he quickly broke free and started working his way down, following the curve of my neck. Down to my collarbone. Down to my—

My hands clutched at his shoulders. His mouth was hovering above my left breast, close enough that I could feel the heat of his breath on the wet flesh. He kissed the peak tenderly and then started lapping with his tongue, stroking me with the tip, dragging it around and around the edge of my areolae without quite touching the hard nub itself. I started to tremble, then groan, then grind my shoulders and ass against the ground.

At last, he opened his mouth wide and engulfed me, taking my nipple into the hot darkness, slathering me, sucking me, making the pleasure spiral inwards in the shape of his movements, twisting right down to my core. He took my other breast in his hand, working my nipple hard with his thumb, drawing the already-hard flesh up into glorious, puckered tightness. He started to alternate, using both hands and his mouth to cup and squeeze and lick at my breasts until I was panting. When he knelt back to look at me, the soft flesh was throbbing, a flush rising across the top of my chest.