Maureen Child - One-Click Buy: October Silhouette Desire

Bri groaned. She had checked her home phone for messages every day except yesterday and today. “No, I didn’t get it. I, er, I’m not at home, Tanner.”

“Where are you, then?” His tone now held a definite edge. Where the heck did he suspect she might be, and with whom?

“I’m right here in Durango, just a short distance from your apartment.”

He was silent for a moment. “Then get the hell here now. You hear me?”

She smiled. “Yes, Tanner, I hear you. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“You’d better be.”

Her smile widened into a grin. He’d actually growled at her, like the animal whose name he bore.

Bri took only two things with her from the car. She was holding one of them in each hand when she rang his doorbell. It swung open at once, and she burst out laughing at the sight that met her eyes.

Tanner stood with one shoulder propped against the door frame, his long, shiny hair draping his shoulders. In one hand he held a bag of dark chocolate-purple-wrapped Hershey’s Kisses. In the other he held the glittery gold cloth strips of the sandals she had worn the day he’d picked her up.

“Hi.” He grinned at her astonished expression and stepped back, allowing her to enter.

“Where did you find them?” she asked. “I’ve been tearing my closet apart looking for them.”

“They were stuffed under the front seat of the SUV.” He laughed. “If you’ll recall, you tossed them in the back when you put on your boots.”

“Thank you for finding them. They’re one of my favorite pairs.”

“Mine, too.” He eyed her hands. “And what have you got there?” He inclined his head, indicating the folded material she held in one hand and the large, round, old-fashioned hatbox in the other.

Bri was so busy drinking in the sight of him she had forgotten the items she held. “This, I believe, is yours.” She handed over the folded material, which he couldn’t help but recognize as his own hankie he had given her on their last night of the hunt.

“And this,” she said, handing the box to him, “is a present from me to you.”

He looked puzzled. “A present for me? Why would you buy me a ladies’ hatbox from a bygone day?”

She gave him a look and an impatient sigh. “Open the box and look for yourself, Tanner.”

Dumping the sandals, the bag of candy and his snow-white, neatly pressed hankie into her arms, he took the box and set it on the sofa. He untied the frayed laces holding the lid on and gave her a wary look.

“Nothing’s going to jump out at me?”

“Oh, good grief, Tanner!” Bri shook her head. “You’re a big, tough hunter. Open the silly box.”

Laughing, he lifted the lid. His laughter gave way to an expression of wonder. Slowly, carefully, he lifted the buff-colored Stetson from the box. “Brianna…Why?”

“That one doesn’t have a bullet hole in it.” She gave him a teasing grin. “I bought myself one exactly like it.”

“You’re something,” he said, plopping the hat on his head before pulling her into his arms and thanking her with a scorching kiss.

They broke apart for one reason-to breathe. When Tanner lowered his head to her once more, Bri raised a trembling hand to his chest to hold him back.

She drew a deep breath. “Tanner, wait. We’ve got to talk.”

“We can talk later.” He moved forward, backing her against the wall. “But first we’ve got more important things to do.”

“No.” She shook her head, bringing her other hand up to keep him a few inches from her. “No, Tanner. I didn’t come here for sex.” She gave a half laugh, qualifying her statement with, “At least not only for sex.”

His eyes narrowed. “Okay, what do you want?”

“You.”

“But you just said-”

“All of you, dammit!” She glared into those glittering eyes. “I want to be your partner…in every aspect of your life. In marriage, in work-and I do mean in the hunt-and, yes, sex.”

Arching a brow, Tanner took on that austere statue-of-a-saint expression.

She arched a brow right back at him, although she couldn’t match him for austerity. “And don’t give me that look. It doesn’t impress or intimidate me. Oh, Tanner,” she murmured, lifting one hand to caress his face. “I love you. I want to be with you.”

“It can’t work,” he said, shaking his head but covering his hand over hers to keep it where it was. “You’d be a nervous wreck sitting at home, waiting and worrying about me. And some jobs require me to be away for weeks. Hell, I was away over a month in L.A.”

“You’re not listening, Tanner.” She scowled at him. “I said I want to be with you in every aspect.” She slid her fingers slowly down his cheek, smiling as his tight expression softened. “That includes your hunts. You need someone to cover your back, and I intend to be that someone.”

“You do, do you?” He moved closer, his body pressing into hers. “A ring on your finger and one through my nose, huh?”

“Oh, don’t be silly,” she said, smiling as she outlined his lips with her fingertip. “Nose rings are so yesterday.” She gasped as he caught her finger between his teeth and sucked it into his mouth. With his body pressed tightly against her, she could feel his readiness for her and knew he could feel her shivery response. Time to bring out her last weapon.

“Tanner, I love you. And I’ll continue to love you whether you’re here or on a hunt. I would rather die with you on a hunt than live without you near me.”

“You don’t play fair,” he murmured, dipping his head to taste her neck.

“Not when I’m playing for such high stakes.” She arched her body into his, feeling the hard fullness of him against her. “Give me an answer now or I swear I’ll be out of here in a shot.”

“No, you won’t.” He raised his head a bit to smile at her.

“No,” she admitted, snaking her arms around his neck to get closer still. “I won’t.”

He laughed. “You’re still a little nuts, but I like you that way. Brianna, my love, will you marry me…and cover my back on our hunts?”

“Oh, Tanner, yes, yes, yes.” She planted a swift, hard kiss on his smiling lips. When he reached for the buttons on her shirt, she caught his hand, held it still. “Wait, there’s one more thing.”

Tanner groaned. “Brianna, you’re killing me here. I’m ready to go up in flames.”

“Oh, my, we can’t have that,” she actually cooed.

“Then what is it?” He sounded like a man at the end of his rope.

“Could we please use a bed this time?”

Tanner roared with laughter. Sweeping her up into his arms, he strode toward the short hall to his bedroom.

“Oh, sweetheart, have I got a bed for you.”

It was a king-size. Just perfect for two nutty lovers.

Tanner made love to Brianna with his hat on.

One hour ago Mary had expected to lie back on the king-size bed in the most exclusive bed-and-breakfast in Long Lake, Minnesota, and let Ethan Curtis make love to her, with no emotion, zero response from her body. At that very same time, she’d wondered if he’d be rough, cold, like the unfeeling bastard she’d met in her family’s former offices a week ago-the offices he now controlled and ran like a well-oiled, profit-gouging, soul-sucking machine.

His mouth moved over hers, slowly, seductively coaxing her back to the present. Every time his skin brushed against hers, every time his teeth raked lightly over her neck or back or shoulder, she mewled so loudly with desire she was sure the entire inn heard her and knew exactly what she was doing.

Ethan Curtis might’ve been a bastard, but he was anything but cold.

Moonlight spilled into the room, making it impossible not to see Ethan’s face as he pushed into her again, his cut cheekbones, hard mouth, and tanned neck taut with exertion and damp with sweat. His cobalt gaze slipped from her eyes to her mouth, and he lowered his head. Mary’s heart hammered in her chest as she tried to force back the rush of desire in her blood when his full mouth found hers and nuzzled her lips open.

The reality of why they were here in bed together, so that her father was now free from any threat of prison, scratched at the door of her mind. She wished she could crawl out from underneath Ethan and leave the room, but her body continued to betray her. Maybe it was because she hadn’t been with a man in two years. Maybe she just craved the weight and the closeness and the surge of adrenaline, but she wanted this man so badly she ached with it.

Ethan drifted lazily from her mouth to her cheek, then to her ear. She felt the tip of his tongue against her lobe and shivered, her back arching, her hips arching, her body taking him deeper. Her ears were surprisingly sensitive, and she hated that he knew it, that he was having this power over her-yet loved it at the same time. His tongue flicked back and forth as though he were tending to more than just the lobe of her ear, and she trembled again with sudden spasms she couldn’t control. Outside their door, she heard voices, heavy footfall in the hallway, then a door closing. Had they heard her as she moaned with desire, her body begging him for more?

The urge to touch Ethan, grab his lower back and buttocks, sink her fingers and nails into his muscular flesh was almost overwhelming and she fisted the sheets at her sides. It was the one thing she’d promised herself-not to touch him. But the pledge was hurting her far more than it was hurting him, she imagined. His tanned, thickly muscled chest and shoulders had erotic voices of their own and were calling to her as he rose for a moment, then settled back against her breasts.

How could you sleep with a man like this? she heard herself say, though the only sound her throat produced was a deep moan of satisfaction as he lowered his head to her breast and suckled deeply on one hard, pink nipple. How could you desire a man like this?