9
KYRA STARED into Jesse’s magnetic brown eyes and knew she would get sucked in all over again. They’d left Clint far behind in the training yard, along with any other potential prying eyes. That left little distractions for her to take her mind off what she really wanted.
She’d half managed to convince herself she was insane to pursue any sort of physical relationship with him. He’d broken hearts too numerous to count, after all. And he’d been able to walk away from her for nearly two weeks after a night that had practically set her on fire inside and out. Obviously, the man was well versed in separating himself from the erotic draw of sensual experience.
Kyra, on the other hand, was not.
She’d been thinking and fantasizing about Jesse’s hands on her body nonstop for days on end. As much as she wanted one more night with him—one real night where they saw their attraction through to its natural...climax—she had grown a tad more leery about the potential risks to her heart and their friendship.
“Did we say that?” she asked finally, wondering if he felt the nervous pump of her heart right through her skin. “I got the impression that you weren’t ready to explore things quite as...thoroughly as I’d wanted to.”
“Maybe I changed my mind.” His wide shoulders shielded her from any view of the exercise ring, Clint or her traitorous horse.
She had no choice but to focus solely on him.
And the words that signaled a provocative new twist to their friendship.
“Meaning you’re ready to finish what we started?” An electric jolt of sexual energy fired right through her. Still, she wanted to make absolutely certain they were discussing the same thing.
She needed to sleep with him and get over her crush on him. Dispel the myth, the local legend that was Jesse Chandler.
Even as she thought as much, a little twinge of worry wondered what would happen to them afterward, but Kyra shoved it firmly aside.
He stared down at her with that dark, suggestive gaze of his. “Meaning it’s taken me this long to realize we already did finish what we started, and I’m kidding myself to pretend otherwise.”
“I don’t follow.”
He looked around the grounds for a moment, and then led her inside the stables through a back door. He didn’t stop there. Guiding her through a maze of the training facility’s back corridors, Jesse brought them through a side door into his old office in the converted old barn that housed the Crooked Branch’s lobby and business offices.
She hadn’t been in here in ages—partly because all their files were electronic and she could access any of his paperwork via computer, but also because being around his things was such a guilty pleasure.
High-gloss hardwood floors gave the office warmth and an aged appeal all the high-tech computer equipment couldn’t negate. Because Jesse’s office was at the back of the building ensconced in one of the two turrets of the old-fashioned structure, the walls were rounded with only a few high windows. He’d added a skylight over his desk to flood the room with natural illumination.
Now, he led her past his hammock installed between two ceiling support beams and gestured toward the curved sectional sofa that lined part of the wall. He’d bought it along with a television wall unit so he could keep tabs on the Devil Rays score while he worked. His Work Hard, Play Hard ethic would no doubt raise a few eyebrows in the corporate world, but Jesse was one of the most fiercely productive people Kyra knew.
When he wanted to be.
Sinking into the bright blue sectional, Kyra watched him pace the hardwood floor.
He scrubbed a hand through his dark hair. “It’s taken me this long to realize it, but I’m not as virtuous in all this as I thought.”
She blinked. Twice.
He stopped pacing. “I figured I was being so damn noble by not committing the final act that night we spent together. But the more I thought about it—and believe me, I’ve thought about it a lot—I realized that we’ve already committed the acts that really matter.” He dropped down to sit on a sanded crate that served as a coffee table directly in front of her. “I mean, it’s sort of splitting hairs to say nothing happened between us just because we didn’t...finish. When it comes down to it, something big did happen between us and there’s no sense running from that fact.”
Nodding slowly, Kyra absorbed what he said but couldn’t possibly fathom where he might be going with it. “So you figure now you’re off the hook with me because you’ve already crossed the sexual line?”
“No. I figure now that I’ve crossed the sexual line, I’m an ass if I don’t go for broke before you wise up and boot me out of your bed.”
“Oh.”
“The question is, are you still game?” He crowded her. Stole the air.
The ramifications washed over her with enticing sensual possibility. She became acutely aware of Jesse’s knees brushing hers, two layers of denim between them not even coming close to stifling the sparks they generated.
“That depends.” Her practical nature demanded they hammer this out right now, despite the rising temperature in the room. She refused to worry and wonder for another week about where things stood between them. “Let’s say for a moment that I am game. I wouldn’t want to be treated like a best friend once we hit the sheets.”
“Who said anything about sheets? I was thinking of much more imaginative scenarios.”
Her breath caught. Refused to come back for a long, pulse-pounding moment. “A figure of speech. Regardless of where we conduct our liaison, I just want to be certain there’s no attack of conscience midstream.”
He crossed his heart with the tip of one finger. “Luckily, I left my conscience back at my apartment. I’m morally free to have my wicked way with you.”
Gulp. She was having a devil of a time staying on track here. “Which brings me to another point.”
“I have to say, Kyra, I’ve never been with any woman who ironed out the details quite so thoroughly as you.”
“If we are going to indulge one another in this way, I want the full tutorial in wickedness.”
A smile hitched at his sinfully beautiful mouth. “You’re not asking what I think you’re asking.”
Damn straight I am.
“You’ve got all the experience in this arena, Jesse. Teach me a few things from that seductive arsenal of yours.” This way, when he left her—and he would leave her—she would at least have a little more confidence about physical relationships.
Not that she could currently envision using provocative wiles on any man except Jesse, but she refused to dwell on that fact. She had to believe that a night with Jesse would shatter his mystique just a little—at least enough so that she could look at other men and maybe find someone more suitable, someone more practical down the road.
“How could I unleash you on an unsuspecting male population then? Wildly beautiful and an expert in titillation? I think that would be giving you too much of an advantage.”
“Wildly beautiful?” Kyra suspected Jesse had earned his bad-boy reputation with sweet-talking lines like that one. “We both know you’re exaggerating. Wildly. I think a little more provocative advantage would be a good thing for me.”
Jesse studied her. Frowned. “This is against my better judgment.”
She folded her arms, growing more confident with every moment he sat across from her that he wouldn’t—couldn’t—walk away from this. The attraction between them was like the force field between magnets just barely out of reach from one another. She had all she could do to stay in her seat and not give in to that pull. “It’ll be a deal-breaker.”
“You drive a hard bargain, woman.”
“I’m thinking it’s easier to deal with you in a businesslike fashion than as a pirate hussy.”
He pointed a finger at her. “Don’t you dare knock the pirate hussy. I’m going to have a lifelong fascination with leather corsets thanks to you.”
“So do we have a deal or not?” she pressed, more than ready to put the business part of the night behind them so she could cash in on all that Jesse magnetism.
“Deal. But I have a condition of my own.”
She had a good idea what sort of conditions he might come up with. “Forget it. I already sent the corset to a leather cleaner.”
He leaned closer to plant his arms on either side of her against the couch, effectively cranking up her pulse with every inch he closed between them. “I mean it. If I’m going to be in an instructor position, I want you to agree to be a dutiful student.”
She caught a hint of his scent—motorcycle exhaust, leather and male. His knees edged more firmly between hers. Licking her lips, she met his gaze. “Trust me, I’m pretty eager to learn.”
“That means you’ll do whatever I say?”
She couldn’t wait. “Within reason.”
“This could be a deal-breaker.” He tossed her own words back at her, but she sensed he was bluffing when he slid one of his hands into the back of her hair to tease sensual touches down the curve of her neck.
Shivers of anticipation coursed through her. “So keep your requests reasonable and we won’t have any problems.”
He stroked his way over her shoulder and right down into the vee of her tank top. The palm of his hand skimmed the curve of her breast and practically made her flesh sing.
“Tonight’s not going to have a damn thing to do with reason.” He nudged the edge of his hand into her shirt until he reached the barely-there red bra she’d bought to go with her new top. “Or practicality.” Plunging deeper, he smoothed the pad of his finger over her nipple. “It’s going to be all about sensation.”
Sensation poured over her in time with his words as he teased the pebbled flesh between his thumb and forefinger.
The man certainly knew how to get his point across.
“Yesss.” The word hissed out on a sigh of pure pleasure.
And just like that, she found herself agreeing to anything—everything—Jesse had in store for her.
* * *
“EXCELLENT.” Jesse bent to kiss a path between Kyra’s breasts, mesmerized by the accelerated rise and fall of her chest. “I think we can safely say that lesson one is Jesse knows best.”
Her back arched as he drew on her flesh, her hips wriggled with a delightfully restless twitch.
Most tellingly, she didn’t argue.
“Ready for lesson two?” He released her long enough to murmur over her skin.
“Hopefully it’s less talk, more kissing.”
His hand strayed over her hip and toward the snap of her jeans. “Actually, it’s less denim, more skirts. Preferably without panties. There’s a good reason why men find dresses sexy, you know.”
“Duly noted.” She flicked open the snap herself to help him. “I can appreciate practicality.”
He dragged her zipper down a few notches to discover a swath of shimmery red silk beneath the stiff fabric of her jeans. His practical business partner was full of surprises. “Although when the panties look like this, I can definitely see the appeal.”
He smoothed his hand over her abdomen, teased the edge of the silk with one finger. Her skin felt so creamy perfect to his touch it was difficult to tell where the silk left off and her skin began.
Her breathing hitched as the heel of his hand nudged farther south.
“I’m ready for more,” she whispered against his ear. “More lessons. More touches.”
“Keep in mind lesson one.”
She pried an eyelid open to stare at him with a mixture of confusion and pure lust.
“Jesse knows best,” he reminded her, leveraging his position of power to the fullest.
Instead of conceding his superior sexual wisdom, however, Kyra merely reached for his belt buckle.
“Hey!” He nearly choked on the word as her fumbling struggle brushed a straining erection. God, she was going to be the death of him. “What are you doing?”
The look she gave him was pure menace. “Fighting fire with fire.”
Heat flashed through him. No other woman had ever given him so much hell in bed. Or out of it for that matter. Still, he couldn’t help but admire her for not letting him get away with anything.
And truth be told, her touch felt like heaven as she slipped questing fingers beneath the denim to curve around him.
With an effort, he stopped her. Tugging those adventurous hands away, he stretched her arms up over her head as he dragged their bodies down to lie on the couch. “The most important lesson of all is patience.”
She squirmed against him. “Not my forte. Especially not when I feel so...edgy.”
Jesse was right there with her in the edgy department. If her hips brushed over his one more time he’d be lurching over the edge pathetically premature, in fact. He needed to take charge here if he wanted a fighting chance of maintaining his status as Kyra Stafford’s private sex tutor.
“I can take the edge off,” Jesse assured her, already sliding off the couch to help her find a release or two of her own before allowing himself the full pleasure her body had to offer him.
She grabbed his hand as he reached for jeans. “No, wait. You need to show me how to take the edge off for you. The lessons are to teach me, remember?”
Jesse felt his eyes bulge from his head like a damn cartoon character.
And that wasn’t the only thing bulging.
“No.” The protest croaked out a mouth gone dust-dry.
“Yes.” Kyra sat upon her knees, already sizing up the situation. “And don’t look so worried. I’m sure I can do this.”
His blood pounded through his head so damn loud he wasn’t sure he’d heard her correctly. “Are you telling me you’ve never done this...I mean, that...before?”
He’d suspected that Kyra didn’t have a huge amount of sexual experience. She’d never indicated any of the guys she dated were superserious. But then again, she’d definitely had her fair share of dates. Obviously, none of those guys had been all that adventurous in the bedroom.
“Unless you want me to ask a bunch of nosy questions about your sexual past, I don’t think it’s very polite to quiz me about mine.” She whipped his leather belt from the loops, doubled it up and then slapped the sides together with a snap. “Now, get comfortable and tell me what I should be doing to drive you wild.”
This had gone far enough. And if Jesse had been able to breathe past his raging lust, he might have explained as much to her.
As it stood, he settled for roping her with his arms and hauling her back down to the couch alongside him.
He muted all potential protests by clamping his mouth to hers in a kiss designed to make her forget anything and everything but him. He slid the leather belt from her hands and flung it across the office. Then he dragged her jeans down her hips, over her soft thighs and past her feet.
The patience he had touted a few minutes ago was gone, but he was determined to get it back.
Not until Kyra was naked, however.
He slid her tank top up over her arms and tugged her bra off her shoulders until both garments were somewhere in the middle of the hardwood floor. She was left clad in nothing but a scrap of shimmering red silk, a scrap which he hooked with one finger to shift and maneuver against her skin in a teasing caress.
Only when she upgraded from incoherent sighs to breathy pleas for fulfillment did he pull the panties down her legs.
“Apparently you’re having a problem with the whole patience concept in all of this.” He confided the words into her left ear, the one that was closest to his mouth. He nipped her earlobe for good measure, still struggling with his own desire to explore their attraction at full speed ahead.
It galled him that he, of all people, had to be the responsible one in this.
“It’s never been my strong suit,” she admitted, arching her neck to give him better access.
“Since it doesn’t seem to impress you when I tell you that patience pays, I think I’d be better off proving it to you firsthand.”
* * *
KYRA HEARD JESSE’S words somewhere in the back of her passion-fogged brain and knew she was headed for the equivalent of sensual torture. How could the man be so cruel to make her wait?
As for her lessons—forget it! She didn’t have a chance of retaining any good provocative moves when she was so thoroughly engrossed by them. All in all, the man turned her on far too much to be of any use in her sexual education.
Then again, he turned her on far too much for her to ever consider stopping him.
Next time she’d pay closer attention. Next time she’d retain more of the nuances of his technique. For now, his fingers were finally creeping up her thigh and she thought she might come totally unglued.
She’d waited and waited for him to touch her and now—finally—he eased his hand around the wet heat of her, slid one finger deep inside of her.
And ohmigod. All the waiting had made her ready.
Her body clenched involuntarily around him, just one quick spasm she knew would be a precursor to so much more.
He must have felt it as plainly as she did because he released a stifled groan and lowered his mouth to her breast. His tongue laved her swollen flesh and nipped at the peaked center of her.
Heat radiated from the places he kissed to the most intimate places he touched as if the two were on an electric current traveling in both directions. Kyra ground her hips against his hand, but he withdrew his finger, teasing her slick folds until she thought she’d die of pleasure.
Once, she crested so high she could barely catch her breath and then he slid two fingers inside her, heavy and deep. The pressure inside her burst, exploding out in an orgasm that rocked her whole body. She dug her heels in the couch and pressed herself against him, greedy for every silken sensation Jesse could provide.
When the sensations finally slowed and then stopped, Kyra could barely scavenge a thought other than that she wanted Jesse even more than she had two hours ago and ten times more than she wanted him last week.
She experienced a twinge of fear that her plan to get over him by indulging in him completely was going to crash and burn in a big way. The man was seriously—frighteningly—addictive.
He walked his fingertips up her bare belly. “You ready to see why patience pays?”
“Very ready.” Her whole body burned with the truth of the sentiment.
Unfolding himself from his place on the couch, Jesse rose to pull his T-shirt over his head. He cast a molten glance in her direction before he retrieved a condom from his pocket and shoved his way out of his jeans.
Kyra practically purred at the sight of him as he sheathed himself for her. He was all bronze skin and hard muscle—emphasis on the word hard. The man should have been statuary in a world-class museum. Jesse was male perfection at its most devastating.
Any lingering strains of satisfaction from the orgasm he’d given her faded in a new surge of desire. Any nervousness she might have experienced about her first time had deserted her as soon as Jesse touched her. She couldn’t be in more experienced, or more talented, hands.
She glanced up at his eyes to gauge his expression. The answering heat she found there reassured her. Despite his qualms about sex complicating their friendship, he wanted this every bit as much as she did.
He lowered himself over her. Her legs inched farther apart seemingly of their own will.
The sleek male power of him gave her a secret thrill, a feminine rush of delight.
And then he was nudging his way inside her, slowly and carefully in spite of his bad-boy reputation. She was grateful for his gentleness as her body stretched to accommodate him. Muscles she’d never known she possessed protested the invasion.
A little spark of fear flared to life inside her. Not that she didn’t want this, but what if her body’s resistance tipped him off about her virginal status? Or worse yet—turned him off?
But as she met his gaze in the dimming illumination from the skylight from over his desk, Jesse’s eyes held no reproach, just a little concern and a lot of restraint.
Then he reached between their bodies to touch her and the rush of desire returned. Her body gave way to his, opening itself to a delight even better than all the other pleasure he had given her so far.
He continued to touch and tease until he could move inside her without hurting her. Until every move of his body added fuel to the fire that raged inside her all over again.
And once again, his patience paid off.
Kyra felt the sensual tide rising up, lifting her beyond the couch and into the realm of sublimely erotic. Only this time, when she thought she would explode with the sweet joy he gave her, Jesse found his release, too, and shouted his satisfaction to the rafters.
Afterward, as they lay quiet and still together on the curving sectional couch, Kyra wondered if he’d say anything to her about her lack of experience. Could men really tell? And if they could, would Jesse be upset with her for not telling him in advance?
She rather hoped he had no idea. Dealing with the fallout from tonight would be fraught with enough land mines without having the virgin issue thrown in the mix.
He’d touched places deep inside her on so many levels. Physically, he seemed to take over her whole body. Emotionally, she couldn’t begin to contemplate the effects of this new connection with him, but she knew she’d never walk away from tonight without some kind of indelible stamp on her heart.