Page 23 of Too Hot To Handle

Reever’s hands shifted, no longer gently pinning Tory’s head in place for his kiss. There was no more need. She wasn’t going to refuse or withdraw from him. He had felt her trembling and the telltale sagging of her weight against his strength, and he knew that desire was claiming her as surely as it had already claimed him. He picked her up and carried her just off the trail to a hollow where grass and wildflowers grew waist-high. Slowly he sank to his knees, lowering Tory into the scented embrace of softly crushed grass and petals.

Tory opened her eyes and took a breath that shook her to her toes. Reever’s wide shoulders blocked out the sky as he bent over her, easing his big, hard hands beneath her, arching her up to his hungry mouth. She wanted to say his name, to ask him why he was doing this and to tell him never to stop, but the look on his face froze the words in her throat. His eyes were narrowed, the pupils wide, the rim of iris a hot crystal glitter that made her tremble with answering fire.

Reever’s mouth claimed Tory’s with a power that made her cling to him. Her hands moved blindly up his arms, across the bunched strength of his shoulders and then swept up beneath his hat, knocking it aside. When she rubbed her palms against his full, thick hair and her fingers found the warmth of his scalp, she gave a husky sound of pleasure. The sound made him shudder against her. His tongue thrust deeply into her mouth, filling her until she arched up to him and her hands clenched in his hair, holding his mouth against hers with all the strength in her young body. She felt as much as heard his harsh groan as he deepened the kiss even more, flattening her beneath him, letting her know the muscular weight of his body all the way to the soles of her feet.

„Am I too heavy for you?“ Reever asked, his voice almost rough. „I’d make two of Jed.“

The glorious feeling of Reever’s body caressing her drove everything from Tory’s mind except the need to get even closer to him. She tried to tell him that, but when she opened her eyes, all she could focus on was the sensual line of his lips.

„Reever,“ she said, and then again, as though the word were being torn from her, „Reever – “

When he heard the passionate breaking of Tory’s voice, his hands clenched suddenly and his whole body tightened as though he were being stretched on a rack. Slowly he lowered his head while he watched her eyes. Despite the sensual tension in his body, his lips barely brushed hers, inciting rather than soothing the fires of her hunger. When his tongue slid over the inner softness of her lips, her honey-colored lashes quivered shut as she was overtaken by the sensations coursing through her. She knew nothing but his heat, his touch and the wild pleasure of his mouth slowly, completely, joining hers.

The sweet consummation of the kiss made Tory cry out. The sound was absorbed by Reever as surely as he was absorbing her taste and the touch of her tongue against his. Her response was both innocent and abandoned, unskilled and unaware, hungry and hesitant. For a long moment he moved slowly over her, caressing her with his hard body, claiming her mouth with the same deep rhythms that he wanted to claim her body. – When Reever shifted slightly aside, Tory followed him instinctively, trying to maintain the unexpected, consuming intimacy of the embrace.

When he thrust into her mouth again, she whimpered softly and arched against him without realizing it. All she knew was that her breasts were full and her nipples were aching, and when she rubbed against him, it started fires inside her.

„What is it, little girl?“ he said, biting her mouth gently, drinking her sudden gasp. „What do you want?“

„Touch me,“ she breathed in his mouth. „The way you did in the kitchen.“

Tory didn’t see Reever’s triumphant smile or the maddeningly slow movement of his hand toward her breast. Her eyes were closed, and she couldn’t breathe for wanting his touch. When his hand stopped just below her breast, she made a breathless sound of protest. She tried to turn, to nestle herself into his palm, but he held her in place. Slowly his hands went from her ribs, to her breastbone, to her collarbone and then back to her ribs. He repeated the caress but came no closer to the aching peaks of her breasts. When he began a third time, she opened her eyes and looked straight into his.

The pale glitter of Reever’s eyes as he watched Tory was like lightning beneath the thick arch of his black brows. His face was taut, his lips slightly swollen from his passionate claiming of her mouth. She looked from his face to his teasing fingers. The weight of his hands had pulled the T-shirt tight, outlining her breasts clearly. There was neither loose cloth nor a bra to hide her arousal. The sight of her own nipples nuzzling against the thin cotton made color stain her cheeks.

„Reever?“ she whispered.

His thumbs caressed the curves of Tory’s breasts but stopped well short of the hungry peaks. „Yes?“ he murmured, smiling narrowly as he watched her tighten and rise even more beneath the creamy cotton knit.

„Don’t you want to – to touch me?“

„How bad do you want it, little girl?“ he asked softly, moving his thumbs slowly, circling her breasts below the nipples. „Bad enough to help me?“

„H-how?“

„Pull up your shirt.“

Tory’s shock showed in the widening of her green eyes. „I’m not wearing – “ Her voice broke as his thumbs barely skimmed the aching nipples.

„I know,“ Reever said, smiling and watching her helpless response. „Think how it will feel. Your skin and mine, nothing between us but heat and my fingers loving those sweet pink buds until you moan.“

Slowly, her hands shaking, feeling awkward and shy and almost afraid, Tory brought up the hem of her T-shirt. The air felt cool against her heated skin as the cloth climbed higher and higher. The material bunched beneath the swell of her breasts and caught on the rigid points of her nipples, making her feel even more awkward. She twisted slowly beneath Reever’s pinning weight, trying to remove the T-shirt entirely, only to end up with it tangled thickly under her arms. She twisted again, getting a firmer grip on the stubborn cloth – and then she forgot what she was doing as her whole body tightened in a wild rush. Reever’s mouth had claimed her breast just as completely as he had once claimed her lips.

Tory’s hands clenched on the T-shirt as Reever’s tongue licked hotly at the captive nipple, ringing it in sensual fire. She began to shiver beneath his weight, and her breath came quickly. When he skillfully stroked the sensitive aureole with tongue and teeth, she cried out and wanted him closer, closer, needing the hard suckling of his mouth the way she needed breath itself. She arched against him helplessly, wholly lost. His hand captured her other breast, kneading it, rolling the tight peak between his fingertips, sending more sensual lightning through her body.

The twin assaults made Tory forget everything but the sweet, consuming wildness of Reever’s touch. Blindly her hands sought his back and shoulders. She tugged futilely at his shirt, wanting to feel his naked skin against her palms. He shifted aside slightly, giving her access to the snaps on his work shirt, but her hands were shaking so hard that all she did was get tangled helplessly in the blue cloth.

Reever looked down into the innocence of Tory’s flushed face. He closed his eyes for an instant, his face tormented. Then with a savage curse he pushed himself away from her. His smoky gray glance swept from her soft, passionately swollen lips to the T-shirt tangled just beneath her arms. Her breasts were full, firm, and their deep pink peaks glistened from the intimate touch of his tongue. Each short, shaky breath she took made her body tremble from her toes to her fingers still caught in the folds of his shirt.

„Did Jed make you want him like this?“ Reever asked harshly, watching Tory with cold fire in his eyes.

„I never – wanted him.“ The words came out in shivering breaths, for Tory could breathe no other way. „Just you. Justyou.“

Reever looked at her for a long, aching minute, and then he closed his eyes.

„Too bad,“ he said, yanking Tory’s hands free of his shirt and standing up swiftly. „I’ve spent all the time I can spare on a clumsy city girl.“

For a moment Tory lay without moving, stunned. She looked up at Reever’s hard face, unable to believe what she had heard. Suddenly she realized that she was half naked, her T-shirt shoved up beneath her arms. She flushed and then went pale. Awkwardly she tried to straighten her t-shirt, but her hands were shaking so hard that she couldn’t manage even that. With a cry of shame she rolled over, concealing her naked breasts.