Heart of Fire: a Moonbound World series (Witches of Whitewood Book 1) (8 page)

Lana stamped her foot. She hated when he used her childhood nickname, and it was the only thing that would instantly raise her hackles. “I can’t just
miss
you?”

“You don’t miss me. You had no idea I’d even be here.” Kyle took a breath and tried to push down the slow bubble-up of anger. He’d wasted enough time getting angry at her actions. Or inaction. “You never really cared who was on your arm, as long as he was
a somebody.
It took me way too long to figure that out. But you can’t fool me anymore. I’m done being your stooge.”

A hurried set of approaching footsteps stopped him, his heart in his throat. But no one materialized and he kept stirring his risotto.

Kyle released the air he’d inadvertently trapped in his lungs. He needed to talk to Jamie. In private. Tell her the truth about Lana and hope she would take his side. He couldn’t afford to lose this job, but he couldn’t lie anymore.

To Jamie. Or himself. Or anyone.

K
yle stored
the last of the leftovers in the refrigerator and stretched out the anxiety residing in his back and shoulders. It’d been a long night. Lana had avoided him a little too openly, and he was glad Jamie hadn’t been around much, even though he’d been looking for her
all night. She hadn’t eaten dinner, and one of the leftover ramekins of apple crumble had disappeared from the cooler, so he stopped looking.

He wanted to have it all out. It might not assuage the ache he felt, but it would make it easier for him to kiss her boots right off, like he wanted to. Instead, he hitched the makeshift doors of the kitchen cage and walked toward his tent.

It was late enough that most of the guests were sleeping, and the campfire had been doused, which was good, because he’d spent entirely too much time relaxing against the tree he’d pinned Jamie to the night before.

Closing his eyes, remembering the feel of her lips, the heat that built inside and threatened to explode.
She was so cold today.
Almost like she was a different person. But it only made him want her more.

Kyle went to his tent to get his backpack, and walked over to the other side of the banks, near the edge of the dark water, where he could get a full-body wash, even if it froze his balls off. Might do them some good.

Once he was far enough off the trail that the light disappeared, he flipped on his flashlight to keep his footing. A quick glance behind him said no one followed, so he slid down the bank to the edge of the river and splashed over the bank.

Effin’ cold, but not as cold as it would’ve been in April or May with runoff. No swimming pool, no Jacuzzi tub, but it would do for a good cleaning.

The river, which was really more like a creek, was slow moving and shallow around the camp. Likely, that was why they’d chosen this particular spot, because in other places, it was much more of a river. But it was safe enough a person could stand in it and not worry about getting washed away.

Kyle set his backpack on a big rock and shed his shirt. He kept his shoes on just in case of slick rocks, and waded out into the dark to find a little deeper water. Not five minutes passed before he’d soaped up every inch of his body, removed and washed his shorts and boxers, rinsed them and himself, then returned to the rock, naked and clean.
This is pretty heavenly.

He sat on the rock with his towel, drying his hair, when he heard a shuffle to his left and froze. He had no idea if there were bears out here, but even a mountain lion or cougar or, hell, a badger…bad news.

Kyle pulled the towel around his neck using as little movement as possible, his heart pounding in his ears. There was no flashlight, so it had to be an animal. Maybe if he held completely still, it would pass him by. After all, he smelled like Irish Spring, and not sweaty man. Maybe that would work in his favor.

A flash of white came sliding down the bank and straight into the water near him. He waited for his eyes to adjust to whatever had narrowly missed his very vulnerable man parts. But it wasn’t an animal at all.

A white shirt smacked him in the face, and he grunted. The first noise he made drew a tiny scream, and he hushed whoever it was, peeling the shirt from his head.

Jamie’s alarmed face crystallized in his night vision, and his heartbeat ratcheted up again. She was naked, standing in the middle of the river with water up to her waist, holding her hands over a pair of beautifully pert breasts, staring at him like he was the wild animal. His groin stirred as he quickly imagined the million things he’d like to do to her in this river.

“Holy hot damn, Jamie.” Kyle laid the t-shirt on the rock over his still-wet shorts and boxers, and slipped the towel over his uncomfortably growing erection. “You scared the living shit out of me.”

“I scared you? Jeez.” She moved one of her hands as though she might gesture, but quickly replaced it.

Not a glimpse of those breasts he’d been thinking about since he first drove up to the Silver Spring Ranch.

“You flew down that bank and didn’t even use a flashlight. I thought you were a cougar or something.”

Jamie shook her head. “We don’t have cougars out here.”

“Like I would know that.”

She shifted her weight in frustration. “Just throw me my shirt.”

He lifted the tee from the rock and prepared to toss it to her. Kyle
could
torture her with this. But she’d never let him live it down. He tossed it across the distance and she reached for it, dropping the cover of her breasts.

And they were just as gorgeous as he’d imagined they would be, even if he only saw them for a moment. She had large, dark nipples that stood so erect, they’d cut his skin like diamonds if he pressed her against him. It’d be worth the pain.

Jamie slipped material over her head, and he lost sight of those gorgeous breasts, but his dick didn’t back down.

He’d gotten his appetite whet, and even a dip in the river wouldn’t calm down his blood flow anytime soon.

Jamie held her arms out as though to balance, and the T-shirt clung to every line of her body as she stepped through the water toward the rock.

“Need some help?”

Her face crooked into a frustrated scowl. “Not all women need help from big, strapping men.”

“Does that make me the big, strapping man in this scenario?” Kyle pressed his heels into the spongy earth, prepared to leap if she mis-stepped. But she finally reached the bank and came around the rock, as far from him as she could get and still be touching the same surface.

Jamie leaned up the bank and grabbed her discarded towel. “I didn’t get clean, really. I was just… I was so hot, after I finished eating that apple thing you made. I couldn’t…”

As she wiped her arms, those big, erect nipples became visible through her shirt, and warmth sloshed through him.

“I can leave if you want. I’ve gotten as clean as I can.” He shifted to stand and lost his footing, tumbling toward the river.

Jamie was at his side in a split second, kneeling in the water and putting her warm hands on his shoulders. She smiled into his eyes. “Need some help?”

“That depends.” He cocked a grin at her. “Does this make you the big, strapping man in this scenario?”

They both laughed, and he shifted his hands to get better leverage so he could push himself up, even to be kneeling. When he did, Jamie’s gaze dipped below his waist, and Kyle froze. He had the sudden awareness of two things. His dick could have cut granite, and the towel was gone.

* * *

J
amie had seen
plenty of naked men in her life. But none of them would be as memorable as Kyle Harris. The man sat in eight inches of slow-moving water, bare as buckskin, with a tantalizing erection sticking up out of the black river. Something hot and urgent breezed through her body and, as cold as the river was, she could’ve been next to a roaring fire.

She had an unmistakable urge to reach for his hard dick, but instead, grasped his arm and stood, pulling him up.

His fully naked body towered over her, and his eyes locked with hers. It seemed like they were engaged in some kind of elaborate dance. Some prehistoric ritual that predated language, where with the slightest nod of her head or forward lean of her torso, there would be no return to this limbo. Before she could contemplate too much, something flashed in his eyes, and he started to step back.

That was the moment
.

This would never happen again. He was naked, hard, wet, and clean. Ready. They were secluded.

This was her chance. All she needed to do was give him permission. Make the first move. And he would do the rest, she could feel it.

Never wanted anything so much
. Jamie’s throat clenched and memories of Sam covered her in gooseflesh. There had been this moment with him, too. Where her strength had given out, and she’d fallen into his gravity.

There had been no stop to that fall, and in a lot of ways, she might still have been falling, only through the center of the earth and with so much force, she was going to keep gathering speed until there was no choice.

She didn’t want to go supernova again.

Tears choked her, but did not fall.
Why can’t I leave Sam in the past? Why does he always make my choices for me, even from years ago.

“Kyle,” she whispered.

He stopped his retreat and leaned forward, starting their dance all over again. Jamie reached up with a finger and wiped some trickling moisture from his cheek, resting her hand on his face. Her skin sizzled and his mouth came down on hers with quick ferocity.

She met his kiss with equal energy and opened to receive his tongue. He threaded his arms around her and pulled her against him, groaning as her stomach contacted with his erection.

Kyle pulled her to him and turned her around, walking them back until her butt felt the cold rock. She wrapped her fingers around his dick, and one of his hands snaked between her thighs. The delicious coldness of his skin was a sharp contrast to the warm, wet feeling she’d been trying to ignore most of the night.

Lost in his kiss, she almost stopped breathing when his fingers found first her clit and then the lips of her sex. And disappeared inside her. She could have ridden his fingers, they were so long and strong and thick.

But she wanted him inside her. Jamie shifted against the rock so her pelvis welcomed him and her thighs parted. In one swift movement, Kyle was inside her, filling her. He paused when he’d buried himself fully, as though coming up for air for the first time.

“Come on, baby,” she urged, grinding her hips against him. She felt some pressure on her clit and looked down to see his hand in the shadows.
Beautiful man
.

He finally pulled out and started to fuck her, grunting with each thrust.

“Careful,” she said. “We have to be quiet.” To shush him, she pulled his head down for a kiss, and he groaned into her mouth.

While the tension built between them, Jamie could feel the orgasm approaching, and she had no idea how she was going to hold in her cries. She’d already almost drawn blood from biting her lip.

Then Kyle’s finger found the sensitive underside of her clit, and she launched forward, burying her face in his shoulder.

“That’s right,” he coaxed, bringing his thumb around again.

Her eyes almost rolled back in her head. She opened her mouth as the wave of her orgasm started to take her, and he pulled her closer. She couldn’t help but bite down on his neck a little to muzzle herself as she started to come.

She hit the peak, but Kyle took her mouth again, and she whimpered into his kiss. As though she set him off, he groaned and his body stiffened, but he slid out of her and for a split second, she missed the feeling of him coming inside her.

What kind of lust haze had she gotten caught up in? Not a condom? Not a request for a pull-out.
Dammit, girl.

Kyle turned around, cradling her against him, as he laid on the rock and panted like a marathon runner. Jamie straddled him, leaned onto his big chest, and caught her breath in similar gusts.

Lying against him, she listened to the staccato of his heartbeat and looked off into the darkness, waiting for whatever has clicked inside to shift back. Instead, she heard the quiet rush of the river, and the thrum of her heart in her throat. And she wanted to stay like this for a while.

Kyle pulled at her chin until she found his eyes. He was looking for something, and searched her face. A quick pang in her chest snapped her back to reality, and she turned her head toward the camp.

They hadn’t been caught yet. Maybe this could remain between them. Maybe no one would know.

“You okay?” Kyle trailed his fingertips over her shoulder.

Jamie smiled and laid her cheek on his chest. “I just need to catch my breath.”

Kyle reached over his head, and she felt the plush warmth of her towel on her back, followed by the pressure of his arms. “I know the feeling.” He laughed. “You warm enough?”

“For now.” She clutched at him with her legs, loving the feel of his solid body underneath hers, and the warmth around her, and let herself be the girl who gets what she wants. Even if it wouldn’t last.