Calder Storm (Calder Saga 10)

The kiss was gentle and deep, more satisfying and seductive than hard passion. The wonder of it was in her blue eyes when she drew back from him. It made it easier for Trey to let her go.

“I’ll only be a moment,” she murmured, her voice just above a whisper, then she moved past him and slipped into the bathroom.

Trey stood there a minute, listening to the sound of water running in the sink. Then his gaze slid to the king-sized bed that dominated the room. Something half the size would have suited him better tonight. This was one night when he wanted to know he wasn’t sleeping alone.

Wasting no more time, he crossed to the head of the bed and peeled back the covers, exposing the bottom sheet. Then he stripped out of his clothes and laid them in a neat pile on the low bureau near his hat.

When Sloan came out of the bathroom, once again wrapped in the terry robe, all the lights were out except for the lamp on the bedstand. Trey was already in bed waiting for her, the top sheet drawn up around his middle, pillows propping him in a reclining position. She ran an openly admiring gaze over his naked torso and those broad pectoral muscles that formed his flat breasts. The ache was there to feel them under her hands.

With slow fingers, Sloan began unknotting the sash around her waist and walked to the bed and the empty space that he’d left on the outside, the sheet folded back in silent invitation.

“I didn’t expect to see you there. I thought men preferred sleeping on the outside.” It was amazing how careless and carefree she felt with him. But the intimacy felt easy and natural.

“Not in this bed, I don’t.” His response was quick and definite.

“What’s different about this bed?” she wondered.

“It’s so big I could lose you in it. That isn’t a risk I want to take.” There was so much written in his eyes that she almost grew dizzy reading all the sensual messages.

A little breathless, Sloan turned and slipped out of the robe, letting it fall to the floor in a pile within easy reach of the bed. She sat down on the edge of it and leaned over to switch off the lamp.

The darkness was total and instant, freezing her in place if only momentarily. Yet before Sloan could swing her legs into bed, a large pair of hands slid onto her waist, simultaneously lifting, twisting, and drawing her onto him.

Her outstretched hands encountered the solid wall of his chest. His flesh was hard and vital beneath her hands, making her conscious of the raw energy rippling through his muscles. Then his mouth sought and found her lips, covering them in a hungry kiss, but not for long.

Abandoning her lips, his mouth took a slow track to the curve of her neck and followed it to the hollow of her shoulder. The grip of his hands tightened, lifting her higher while his mouth continued its downward journey. One hand slipped forward to cup a breast and guide it to his mouth. Sharp pleasure spiraled through Sloan as his tongue and teeth licked and played with its rosy crest.

She curled her fingers into the springy thickness of his hair, cupping the back of his head and pressing him more tightly to her breast. Then he was moving, the moist inside of his mouth transferring its attention to her other breast.

Desire intensified, weakening her limbs. She tried to brace her knees against the mattress while leaning more of her weight on Trey. But that helped only for a short time; then she began sinking.

His arm steadied her a moment. Then he was rolling, flipping her onto her back. In the darkness, she felt the fan of his rough breathing before his mouth nuzzled her cheek. Then it lifted, and she sensed him looking at her.

“It’s hell being apart from you,” he muttered thickly, “even for a few minutes.”

Her breath caught on the stark need in his voice. Then his mouth lowered onto hers and kissed her with drugging insistence. In the next moment, he was levering himself onto her. Sloan felt the stiffening muscle rising from his loins, hard and virile. She had an instant to marvel at the physical differences between a man and a woman—and how perfectly they fit together.

After that, there was no time for reasonable thought as she was caught up in a rush of sensation that engulfed them both. As in the previous times when they made love, she glimpsed this closeness, this raw demand, this wondrous urgency, without ever guessing it could always be that way.

Yet, there was no end to it. Because they could never get enough of it—just as they could never get enough of each other.

Chapter Seven

Early morning sunlight streamed through the motel room window, the heavy drapes being drawn back to let it fill the room. The long angle of its light reached all the way to the first double bed, the covers of which were undisturbed. Only the second bed had been slept in, and it had recently been vacated.

Laredo stood in front of the bathroom mirror, naked from the waist up save for a hand towel slung over his shoulder. Focusing his attention on the reflection in the mirror, he skewed his mouth to one side and watched while the razor stroked a path through the lather on his face.

Stroke after stroke, he scraped away his night’s beard, pausing now and again to rinse the blade under the faucet, then returning to the task of exposing more of his face. The cheeks, the upper lip, the chin were shaved in order. He had only a few more strokes along his neck to finish when he heard a sharp, insistent rapping.

“Be right there!” he called and turned off the faucet. Using a corner of the towel, he wiped the stray bits of lather from his upper face and mouth as he exited the bathroom. Ignoring the door to the hallway, he walked to the connecting door to the adjoining bedroom.

A smile played across his mouth as he opened the door and leaned an arm against it while his gaze wandered warmly over Jessy’s strongly attractive face.

“This is a welcome change,” he declared. “It isn’t often a beautiful woman pays me a visit so early in the morning.”

She looked momentarily flustered and pleased by his remark. And he liked knowing that he could still unsettle that calm composure of hers even after all these years. He liked it even better when her glance darted past him into the room.

“Is Trey up already?” she asked.