Page 29 of Too Hot To Handle

Although Tory’s voice was calm, Reever could feel the sudden tension in her body when she spoke about her knee. For a moment his hand tightened over the smooth flesh of Tory’s upper thigh. Slowly his fingers relaxed, as though by a deliberate effort of will.

„Did you hurt your knee again today?“ he asked, his voice strained.

„I zinged it once or twice,“ Torv said carefully, „Nit nothine – “

„You little fool!“ Reever snarled, not letting her finish. „I would never have let you walk back if I had known that your knee was – “

„Whatever happens to the knee is my fault, not yours,“ Tory said quickly, cutting across Reever’s angry words. „As you’ve pointed out a hundred times, I’m clumsy.“

Reever’s mouth flattened beneath the thick black of his mustache. His ice-gray eyes glittered fiercely at her. „You keep pushing, little cat, and you’re finally going to make me mad.“

„Really?“ Tory asked bitterly. „How will I know the difference? Will you wear a sign?“

Reever uncoiled in a single swift movement that ended only when Tory was stretched full-length beneath him, pinned to the bed by his weight. Yet even then he avoided hurting her knee by settling his leg between hers so carefully that she didn’t even know what had happened until she took a deep breath and felt him from her shoulders to the soles of her feet.

„You innocent little fool,“ Reever breathed, his voice ragged as he lowered his mouth to Tory’s. „You just don’t know when to stop, do you?“

„Reever – “

„Sorry, honey. I warned you. It’s too late now.“

„No!“ Tory said, turning her face aside despite the emotion that had darkened her eyes to emerald.

She wanted Reever’s embrace with a wildness thai frightened her. „I’ll come apart when you touch me, and then you’ll pull back and cut me to ribbons because I’m so clumsy that I turn you off. I can’t take any more of that,“ she said desperately. „Please, Reever, I promise I’ll never talk back to you again. I’ll leave first thing in the morning. Please! I can’t take any – “

Tory’s frantic words ended in a gasp as Reever’s teeth fastened lightly on her earlobe. He laughed softly at her response and traced the sensitive rim of her ear with his tongue until she shivered, and he laughed again, triumphantly.

„Sweet little virgin,“ he whispered, biting hei ear with gentle care despite the hunger racing through him with each heartbeat. „I didn’t stop making love to you this afternoon because you turned me off. God,“ he groaned, moving his hips slowly over hers, both easing and increasing the ache of his aroused flesh, „even when I was a kid, I never had a woman turn me on as fast and hard as you do.“

Tory’s eyes widened and she shivered helplessly as she felt the hard, strong, beautiful length of Reever’s body caressing her. „I don’t mean to,“ she said. „I don’t even know how to. I just – “

The words ended in a throaty moan as Reevei thrust the tip of his tongue into Tory’s ear, sending a sunburst of sensation twisting through her.

„Yes,“ he gritted, feeling Tory’s response as though it were his own. „You just come apart when I touch you, that’s all. Knowing you’re a virgin, knowing you would melt and run for me like hot, wild honey – “ He stifled a groan. „It’s killing me, little one. I should be shot for even kissing you, but I want to do more than just this. I want to slide that nightshirt up your beautiful, innocent body and let you feel my hands and mouth everywhere, all over you, every hot, sweet bit of you. Oh, God, green eyes, you can’t even imagine the things I want to do to that untouched body!“

Reever heard the tiny, wild sound Tory made, felt the involuntary arching of her body beneath him as his words set fire to her.

„Don’t,“ he said hoarsely, holding her still, forcing himself not to stroke her body with his own. „I can’t sleep at night for wanting you, but I won’t take your innocence and give you only experience in return. A girl should at least hear ‘I love you’ from her first man, whether it’s true or not – but I can’t lie to you that way, Tory. That’s why I’ve done everything but beat you with a whip to drive you away from the Sundance. From me.“

With an aching sound Reever brushed his open mouth over Tory’s trembling lips, tasting her with tiny touches of his tongue even while he spoke. „I sat on that damned ridge this afternoon and I watched you through the glasses and I hated myself for hurting you like that. I watched you walk all the way back to the ranch, and I wanted you until I felt like knives were turning in me.“

Reever’s breath washed warmly over Tory’s lips as his tongue dipped lightly into the corners of her mouth. „It tore me apart to watch, but I had to know you were all right. I wanted to go to you, help you, and I knew if I went any closer, I would take you down into that soft grass and love you until you didn’t know where you were, who you were, until you could touch me and not know whether it was my skin or yours you were feeling, my body or yours, because we would be so deep in each other that it would be like dying and being born all over again. It’s never been like that for me with a woman, but I know it would be like that with you. I know it, and it’s tearing me apart.“

The small, involuntary sound Tory made ate at Reever’s control.

„Oh, God, don’t,“ he said raggedly, caressing Tory’s face with his lips, his tongue, his teeth. „Don’t move. Don’t make a sound. I thought I could trust myself, but I can’t. Not with you. And I’ll hate myself if I take you. You deserve a gold ring and sacred vows. I can’t give you that, sweet little city girl. We’re all wrong for each other that way. But I couldn’t let you leave tomorrow thinking I was cruel. Every time I had to hurt you, I bled. I’m still bleeding.“

A shudder went the length of Tory’s body. She closed her eyes, releasing a bright shimmer of tears. She remembered with terrible clarity what Reever had told her – when he married a woman, she would be just that, a woman. Not a young, clumsy city girl.

The thought was a razor slicing through Tory, making her bleed in ways she couldn’t name. She knew that she would never love another man as she loved Ethan Reever. She loved him, and she was leaving him. She would never know what it felt like to give herself to the man she loved.

„Have I ever asked you for anything but a job?“ Tory asked with aching quiet, her voice shaking, her tear-bright gaze holding Reever’s. „This afternoon, did I push your hands away and say that you couldn’t touch me until you gave me a gold ring and told me that you’d love me until you died?“

„No. But you should have,“ Reever said tightly. „You should have made me promise you the moon. I would have. I wanted you so bad I was all but blind.“

„Do you think that’s why I’m still a virgin?“ Tory asked suddenly, as anger curled along her nerves. „Is that how little you think of me? Do you believe that I want to drive a man out of his mind with desire and then hold out on him until I trap him into marriage? You’re wrong, Ethan Reever,“ she said harshly, the words tumbling out in a heedless rush, driven by the three words she could not say: I love you. „I’m a virgin because I’ve never lov – I’ve neverwanteda man enough to let him undress me and touch me until I can’t breathe for wanting more. I’ve never wanted a man to know my body in ways that even I don’t, to be moving inside me, a part of me. I’m nearly twenty-one years old, and I’ve never wanted a man in any way at all. Until you.“

Reever’s eyes narrowed until they were slits of glittering ice. „Haven’t you been listening? I have nothing to give you but passion.“