Page 23 of Pure Temptation in Cowboy Boots

“No.”

“And so you’ve never…”

“I didn’t say that. And this discussion’s over.” He swung her up in his arms before she traveled down that road any further. Of course he’d made love in the back of the truck, but he didn’t want to talk about it now.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m taking charge and carrying you to the back of the truck. It’s the manly thing to do.” She didn’t resist, so he concluded she had faith in his self-control. He was putting a huge amount of faith in it, himself.

“Then I guess you don’t want to talk about your love life anymore,” she said.

“You’ve got that right.” Specifically he didn’t want to talk about or think about any other women he’d been involved with, in the back of his truck or anywhere else. They’d been wrong for him, but he hadn’t realized how wrong until a few moments ago... when he’d kissed Tess.

Chapter Fourteen

Tess sat cross-legged on the blanket and waited for Mac to crawl into the bed of the truck and join her. The night was still very warm, but she felt shivery with delight. Maybe it was partly the blanket, reminding her of the tent she’d shared with Mac as kids. They’d hauled comic books and snacks into their hideaway, and there had been nothing sexual about the cozy intimacy of being stretched out beside him in that tent.

Or maybe there had been, and she had been too innocent to realize it. At any rate, she had a delicious sensation now that reminded her of that intimacy, only magnified a hundred times. They were alone, closed off from the world, and ready, in a sense, to play.

“The sky’s so clear,” Mac said as he crawled up beside her. “Let’s lie on our backs and look at the stars, like we used to.”

“And not do anything?” She was hungrier for him than she cared to admit.

He gave her a swift kiss on the mouth. “I’ll tell you my dream.”

“Oh, all right.” She pulled the skirt of her dress down underneath her as she settled back on the blanket and looked upward. “Big Dipper, Little Dipper, North Star,” she said automatically as she searched them out.

Mac lay down beside her, his arm touching hers, his thigh against hers. “Orion’s Belt, and the Seven Sisters,” he added.

“And?”

“And nothing. That’s all I ever learned.”

“Still? I thought you took an astronomy class.”

“I learned things for the test and then forgot it. I only remember what we figured out from that kid’s book you had on the constellations.”

“Slacker.”

“Yeah.”

Tess felt as if they could still be seven and nine, lying on their backs in the cool grass of the park on a summer’s night. Tess’s brothers would be racing around playing tag, and the grown-ups would be sitting in lawn chairs complaining about being stuffed. Meanwhile, Mac and Tess would be off by themselves looking at the stars, probably because they’d been the ones most captivated by Star Wars and galaxies far, far away.

She could almost imagine they’d gone back in time... until Mac reached for her hand, lacing his fingers through hers. Memories of childhood faded. They definitely weren’t kids anymore, and the emotions coursing through her at the barest touch of his hand weren’t the least bit childish.

But the basis of those feelings had been there all along, she thought. What was happening between them now had been simmering within her for years, waiting for a touch, a word, a gesture, to make passion flare to life. He rubbed his thumb along hers, and although it might have been an unconscious movement, she didn’t think so. He had to realize that what they’d taken for childhood play had been more sensual than they’d ever admitted to each other, or themselves.

“Tell me your dream,” she said.

He was silent for a moment. Then, with a little sigh that sounded like surrender, he began. “You’d been invited to a Halloween party, and you asked to borrow Peppermint Patty because you wanted to go as Lady Godiva.”

“What? I would never do such a thing.” She thought of riding bareback with no clothes on. It didn’t sound comfortable, but it was sort of erotic. “Did I have long hair?”

“Down to your hips. You wanted to practice riding with no clothes on to see how it felt before you tried it at the party, so you talked me into riding along the river trail with you. You rode bareback, and you had this loose dress on with nothing on underneath. Halfway along the trail you took off the dress and tossed it into the bushes.”

Tess shivered. It was a sexy image. “But my hair covered me up, right?”

“Not that well. And you know how the trail winds, so even though I was behind you, I got some side views. You were... “ He cleared his throat. “You were beautiful. And riding like that, rocking back and forth on the horse, was turning you on.”