No one had ever kissed her this way, though it was fair to say many had tried. She just hadn’t seen what all the fuss was about. Sex had seemed sweaty and rather nasty, and a lot of work. And, according to several of her friends, unsatisfying.

She hadn’t bothered to find out for herself. She wasn’t a prude, or even shy. She knew how to pleasure herself. She just hadn’t let a man do it.

She would let Tim.

His hands glided over her body, paying special attention to her breasts, before he replaced his fingers with his mouth. That left his hands free to dawdle lower, and dawdle they did, dancing down her belly, which quivered at his touch. Oh, good. Down, down…oh, please to the right spot…but…no. He passed the goodies and swept his fingertips over her thighs and down her legs and…yes. They were coming back!

“Please,” she whispered without meaning to, thrusting her hips toward him in an attempt to help him find the right spot.

He missed it again.

Instead, he played with her thighs while he stretched out at her side, leisurely, as if he had all the time in the world. His mouth played at her ear, at her throat, and those fingers-the center of her world at the moment-came…very…close…but…no. “Tim.”

“Mmm, you’re so sweet.” He nibbled his way to a nipple while he continued to tease her with that barely there caress. Now his tongue brought a new sort of tension, making her arch and writhe.

She was wound up, no doubt, her every muscle tense, shaking. She was starting to sweat, too, and if she didn’t get some sort of…more, she was going to scream. “Tim.”

“Right here.”

Maybe he didn’t know what to do. That was all right, she was a new-millennium type of woman. She could show him.

She spread her legs. Wide. Rocked her hips. And when his fingers skimmed up high on her thigh, she moaned her encouragement. Rocked some more. Tried to give him a clue.

“Ah,” he murmured in a silky voice that brought shivers to her heated skin. “You’re getting ready now.”

“I am ready! I’m really, really ready!”

“Are you? Let me see…” And finally, oh, finally, his fingers caressed the spot, the right spot, over the ohmigod spot, and as a result of that one very slow, very sure caress, she let out a sound that might have horrified her in its neediness if she’d had any modesty left at all.

She did not.

Then he did it again, moaning when his fingers came away wet. “Yeah. You’re right. You’re just about ready.”

“Not just about,” she panted, because he did it again, that just oh-so-perfect glide of his fingers. “I’m there!”

“Well…” He deepened the touch, in just the right rhythm, assuring her he’d known what he was doing all along.

This was no ordinary orgasm she was currently on the cusp of, that much was certain. Her toes curled, her eyes rolled back in her head, and she lost all ability to think as her body hovered on the edge. Hovered and hovered, while he held her there purposely, then finally, finally, did something amazing with his thumb while his fingers-

And she exploded. Burst right out of herself. Saw stars, a kaleidoscope of colors, the whole shebang.

When her senses returned, Natalia found herself still on her back, still in the grass, blinking up at the stars glittering far overhead.

“You okay?” he asked.

She’d just had her first man-made orgasm. A screaming orgasm. And lying there, her skin sheathed in a fine sweat, slowly being cooled off by the lovely night, she laughed.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Tim’s face came into her view as he leaned over her, also wearing a grin.

His seemed a bit tight, though, and she remembered. She’d lost control after all, damn it, and he hadn’t. Not yet. “I believe there’s more?” she asked. Please let there be more.

He arched a brow. “When you speak like that, you do indeed sound like a princess.”

“More,” she repeated.

“Well, yeah, about that.” He grimaced. “We seem to have a little protection problem.”

That she could handle. “In my back pocket.”

He gaped at her. “You have a condom?”

“Amelia always insists I carry one.”

“Amelia?” He went to her pocket and shook his head. “Never mind. I don’t want to know right now.” He opened the packet and removed the condom.

Natalia sat up, reached for it. “Can I?” She’d always wanted to try this part, but when she took it from his fingers, she nearly dropped the thing. “It’s…slimy.” But gamefully, she held it up to the moonlight. “Uh, Tim? This isn’t going to fit.”

With a rough laugh, he took it back. “It’ll fit.” He started to roll it on. “See?”

She could hardly breathe, and certainly couldn’t tear her eyes from the sight of him stroking the condom down his own length. “That’s a very sexy thing,” she decided. “Do men like to watch a woman touch herself, too?”

“A man would die to watch a woman touch herself.”

Something in his eyes made her bold. Whether it was the plain hunger or the even more obvious affection shining there, she didn’t know, but she lifted her hands and stroked them down her own body. She was about to ask “like that?” but before she could open her mouth, he’d growled low in his throat and tumbled her back to the grass, running his hands down her arms, her sides, down her thighs and up the backs of them, spreading them wide so that he could-

“Oh!” she cried when he slipped an inch inside her. She’d had no idea how perfect it would feel-

Then he bent over her, his forearms flat on the ground on either side of her head, sinking his fingers into her hair, kissing her long and hard. “You feel good,” he whispered against her lips.

He felt good, too, but she wanted more, she wanted all of him.

Especially before he figured out she hadn’t done this before.

11

“MORE,” NATALIA SAID so politely Tim might have laughed if he wasn’t on the very edge, barely holding on to any semblance of control.

“Tim?” She wrapped her legs around him and tried to pull him inside her. “I said more.”

“Yes. More,” he promised, and thrust into her.

By the time he figured out the truth, it was too late. She’d arched to meet him at the exact moment of resistance, and then stared up at him in startled surprise at the bite of pain.

“Oh, my,” she said a bit tearfully.

Buried to the hilt, he went utterly still. Not easy when his body had started the happy dance toward orgasm. “Natalia. My God.”

She blinked, sending a tear dancing down her cheek. “Don’t get mad.” She wriggled, just a little, and he clenched his teeth trying not to plunge again.

“Don’t move,” he managed. “I’ll hurt you.”

“You’re going to kill me if you don’t move.”

“What?” This couldn’t be happening. He was hurting her. His worst nightmare. “Sweetheart, I’m sorry. Let me-” He started to pull back but she grabbed his butt with both hands and dug her fingernails into him, but good. She wriggled some more and panted at the same time.

“Tim, wait. It’s good. It’s…” Her breasts were flushed, her eyes glossy as she tossed back her head, pulling back her knees, everything within her power to make him understand.

“Natalia-”

“Please.” Grabbing his hand, she thrust it between their bodies.

And he finally got it. She was good. She was great. She was rubbing herself against his fingers and pushing him in and out of her body, driving them both toward the finish line.

She got there first, but only by a fraction of a second as the sight of her lost in her own pleasure totally and completely undid him.

He was still shuddering when he felt it, something cold and wet nudging against his bare butt.

Mrs. Pig.

Her snout, to be exact, and when he craned his neck and peered over his shoulder, she nudged him again, less politely this time. “Oh, for the love of-”

Oink.

“Damn.” If he didn’t know better, he’d think that pig was grinning. He must have left the gate open in his hurry, which meant both Pickles and Misty were wandering the countryside, as well.

Still deeply embedded in Natalia, he turned back to her.

“Problem?” she asked.

“Oh, yeah.” First, he was never going to rescue another ungrateful animal again. Second, why had she had been a virgin? Why hadn’t she told him?

And damn, that was her blood on his thigh.

“Tim?” She turned her head to the side and came face-to-face with Mrs. Pig. “We seem to have an audience.”

“I know. Natalia-”

“Wait.” She cupped his face. “You’re not going to mess this up by saying something stupid right now, are you?”

“I just might.” He pulled out of her and discovered the third major issue. “Uh…Natalia-”

“Because a speech right now would really be annoying.”

“Natalia.” He swallowed hard and tried not to panic. “I really need to make a speech.”

“No.”

“Yes. The condom broke.”

“Oh. Oh.”

He groaned and rubbed his face.

“Uh…Tim? Do condoms expire?”

He dropped his hands from his face. “Tell me that condom wasn’t old.”

“Okay, I won’t tell you.”


NATALIA WOKE UP with the sun streaming into her bedroom. Stretching luxuriously, she froze as three things hit her at once. Okay, four, but really, the condom thing didn’t count. No use panicking this early, right?

Anyway, first, she was sore. Strange, though, how it was a good kind of sore, if there even was such a thing.

Two, for the first time since she’d arrived, she’d failed to get up before Tim and get breakfast together.

And three…and here was the shocker…she’d fallen hard for the cowboy.