"You have plenty of brains." His head lowered, his lips feathered against hers. "Enough brains to know whose arms you belong in. Enough to know where you're safe."
Noah wasn't fighting it. He knew now wasn't the time to take her. Her common sense would kick back in, she would blame them both when morning came, but the adrenaline was racing through him. The mix of whore's dust and lust was torturing his cock, filling it with blood as his balls felt tortured between his thighs.
It had been over six years since he had taken his wife, since he had known the tight grip of her hot, sweet pu**y. Since he had devoured her, licked her from head to toe, and heard her screams for more echoing in his head.
All he knew now was the hunger. A hunger that clawed at him, that had him lifting her into his arms as he claimed her lips. Slanting his against them, his tongue pushing inside, tasting her, the sweet, delicate taste of passion and woman and the wine.
He wanted to pour that wine over her body and lick it off her. He wanted to watch it stream over her pu**y and bury his lips between her thighs to consume it. He wanted to be drunk on her, drunk on the lust and the need and a pleasure he had never been able to forget. Never been able to escape.
"God, the taste of you," he groaned, sipping at her lips as her head fell back, her hands pressing to the back of his head, tunneling into his hair.
Oh, he knew what she wanted. A hard smile tugged at his lips as he let his beard rake over her neck, felt her shudder as he lifted her.
Noah set her on the counter before moving between her thighs. The thin shorts did nothing to protect her from the hard, denim-covered length of his cock. Pressing against her, he swore he felt the heat and dampness of her. Remembered how tight her grip was, how that sweet sheath rippled and hugged him.
Her moans were like fuel poured to the fire raging inside him. He tasted her neck with his tongue, gave her the caress of the rasp of his beard and felt her grinding against him.
No sheriff to stop them now.
His hands lowered to her top. She wasn't wearing a bra beneath the loose T-shirt. Her pretty br**sts were unbound, ni**les hard and hot. And he wanted to taste. Needed to taste.
Sabella moaned, cried out at the sensations racing through her body. They were wicked, carnal, so intense she couldn't think, didn't want to think. The rasp of his beard was a dark pleasure, his kiss like a potent wine. He made her head spin, sent her senses reeling and her heart hammering in her chest.
And she needed more. She needed his touch. As his hands slid beneath her T-shirt she pressed closer, begging silently for his callused palms against her ni**les, because she needed now as she never had. As she had only needed with one man, and the need now was brighter, stronger, and dug its claws deeper inside her.
She wanted Noah Blake more than she could ever remember needing her own husband.
Fear sliced through her. Shock. Fury. Fury at herself as well as Noah.
It took everything she had, every measure of inner strength, to jerk back and force him to release her, to jump from the counter and stumble away from him.
"This is what I should know not to do." She placed several feet between them. "This is exactly what I don't need. Now, please, just get the hell away from me. Just go, before I end up doing something we'll both end up regretting."
Noah stared back at her for long moments. He could have her, so easily. Touch her, hold her, ease some of that pain in her eyes. And he wanted to, needed to.
God help him, what had he done to his wife? She was standing before him, staring at him as though he were her destruction rather than a man she ached for, longed for. And he could see the guilt in her. The guilt that another man could make her respond, that another man could touch her as only he, her husband, had done.
And added to that was his own damned jealousy. The parts of him that had been Nathan hadn't died as thoroughly as he had thought they had. The man that was Noah, darker, more dominant, more arrogant, hated the man he had been as Nathan. Because it was Nathan she ached for. And it was Noah who was left living to hunger for her.
"I'll see you at the garage in the morning," he finally told her, shaking his head at his own thoughts as he turned and left the house.
Tortured. His dick was pounding and the pulse of lust in his blood was like fire in his veins.
* * *
CHAPTER NINE
Sabella dragged herself out of the bed and stumbled to the shower the next morning. By the time she made it to the kitchen and the pot of coffee waiting on her, thanks to the timer, she wondered if she would ever force her eyes open enough to actually make the breakfast date she had arranged last night with Sienna Grayson, the sheriff's wife, and Kira Richards.
Ian Richards had been Nathan's best friend. His marriage several years before to socialite Kira Porter had been a surprise to the small community. The fact that they still returned each summer to the house Ian had kept since he lived in Alpine with his mother was even more surprising.
They'd become friends over the years, though only in the past year had Sienna been able to join their breakfast dates. Sienna did not like getting up early.
This morning, Sabella well understood the feeling.
She felt flayed by the dreams that had tormented her the night before. Duncan's accusation, Nathan's wild blue eyes staring at her in love, in pain. And Noah, reaching out for her, but he had Nathan's eyes, and Nathan's voice. They were more vivid, more terrifying, than the past dreams had been. Or perhaps they just seemed more vivid because of the short break she had been given.
As she pulled her car into the Richardses' driveway, she breathed out a hard breath as she glimpsed Ian's tan-colored Jeep sitting in the driveway. The Richardses lived in a sprawling single-story ranch in the National Park area. Surrounded by cliffs and pine, this area's stark, desolate beauty always managed to steal her breath.
Sienna pulled in behind her.
"It should be illegal to get up this early, Sabella," Sienna stated as they got out of their vehicles. "I should have Rick arrest you."
Sabella stared at her friend closely. Despite the perfect makeup, Sienna had dark circles under hazel-green eyes and an edge of worry at her brow.
"I have to work this afternoon," Sabella told her. "Morning is the only time I could get away." She frowned as she gave her friend a quick hug and felt that Sienna had lost weight in the past weeks. "Are you doing okay?"
"Me?" Sienna gave her tired smile. "I'm fine. Rick's been busy and you know how grouchy he gets when he can't solve a case. Those deaths a few months back are driving him crazy."