“He won’t run away, will he?” Sunny asked as she watched the horse grow smaller and then disappear over the horizon.
“No, he’ll head straight for the barn. He’s fat and lazy and knows a good brushing and big dinner are waiting for him,” Geo said, staring at her and not the horse. “So, you’re finally here.”
Sunny shrugged and studied the pearlescent snaps on his shirt. “I’m here.”
“You are planning to stay a while, aren’t you?”
Sunny shrugged again and swallowed. “If you still want me.”
Two fingers touched her chin, lifting her head until she looked into golden brown eyes. “I wanted you the moment I started reading your first book. That want grew to a gut-tightening need when I met you at the airport. And in the weeks we’ve been apart, that initial want has grown to a love so deep we might not make it to the house until breakfast.”
Before she could respond, his arms wrapped around her, pulling her close and holding her in the strong-armed embrace that made her knees weak. His lips covered hers and immediately sought entrance, which she gave just as quick. Lifting her hands to his waist, she parted her lips to allow him entrance, thankful she had been sucking on mints for the last hour. The fear that he might not still want her skittered away like a cockroach in the daylight.
Then she smelled herself. She had camped out the last two nights for the experience, and changed clothes and cleaned up in a women’s restroom at a truck stop on the highway that morning. She smelled and felt more than a little grimy. Breaking the kiss, she rested her head on his chest. She could not look him in the eye as she derailed his as-yet unexplained plans. “I love you, too. But I would really like a bath.”
Geo chuckled as he released her and stepped back, leaving her swaying like the grasses around them. “Get whatever you need and we’ll both get cleaned up. And then maybe we’ll get dirty again,” he said with a leering grin, and lecherous wiggle of his eyebrows.
After she grabbed the backpack she had been living out of for the past week, Geo took her hand and led the way across the field toward the pond. She remained silent, not sure what to say to this man who she had come to love the more she knew him. Her paralyzing shyness had returned.
He stopped beside the pond and dropped his bundle. Then he opened his shirt and dropped it to the ground. After undressing to a pair of bright orange briefs with purple stars, he opened the bundle, and she found it was a blanket, with clean clothes and some other things rolled up inside it.
Once Geo organized everything to his liking, he sat down cross-legged facing her, a prominent bulge of erection pressing at the fabric of his shorts. “Strip for me, baby girl. Give me a show.”
Sunny swallowed hard before she managed to say, “Here? Now?”
“Yes, sweet Sunflower. You have done so many brave things since our first meeting, just think of this as another way to kick down that box your sweet shyness has kept you trapped in all these years.” Geo did not move except to lean back on strong, thick muscled arms. “No one will bother us. And you said you wanted a bath. Now strip.”
Sunny looked to the horizon then slowly turned a full circle. They were indeed alone, and though she had no idea how far they were from the main buildings of the ranch, she had a strong suspicion that Geo had warned others to keep away from this area for just this purpose.
Turning to face the pond, all that water under the sun did look inviting. With a smile, she began to hum a song she had heard innumerable times on the radio during her travels. It seemed the song had come out of nowhere and was flying up the charts. So of course, every radio station from North Carolina to Texas had to play it at least once an hour.
Closing her eyes, she hummed softly, the soft breeze in her face and warm sunshine overhead making her feel sexy. She began to swing her hips side to side and shift her shoulders around as she kicked off her shoes and then lifted one foot and then the other to strip of her socks. Then, barefoot, she began to dance in circles, the belly-dancing class she had taken years ago surging forth in her memory.
Once her shirt was off, she smoothed her hands up and down her body, cupping them over the red lace bra before raising her arms over her head as she danced around the blanket. Once she was back in front of Geo, her hands went to her jeans. She opened the waistband then slowly, slowly lowered the zipper before turning her back to the man who watched her every move with eyes that glowed like a shot of whiskey in the sun.
Feeling playful, she turned her back to Geo. Holding the top band of her jeans, she lowered it halfway, to show off the matching lace thong. Shopping for new clothes from the skin out had been but one of the changes she had made since Geo’s visit to her hospital bed.