A slow grin spread over Drake’s lips as he leaned toward her. He pushed a chestnut curl from her temple, his fingers lingering on her cool brow. “And what’s that, sunshi
ne?”
The grin blossomed into a wicked smile, and her eyes sparkled with mischief as she reached up and cupped his cheeks in her palms. “Incentive.” She breathed the single word with tantalizing slowness as she pulled his lips down to hers.
A groan tickled the back of Drake’s throat as he grudgingly pulled his lips from Hope’s. “Your shoulder—”
“Is fine. Believe me for once, gunslinger.”
His gaze darkened as it roved her face, then cleared with relief and a goodly portion of desire. “In that case I suppose supper could wait. Nah, you must be starving... so maybe I should....”
Hope fixed Drake with a stern look.
“Ah, hell.” He could resist the temptation no longer. With a growl, his mouth crashed down on hers. “Payment,” he whispered hoarsely against her lips as he devoured her honeyed softness.
She lost herself to his kiss. Unconsciously, she slipped her hand beneath the neck of his shirt, letting her fingers glide over the smooth muscles rippling in his shoulders. Trail dirt still clung to his skin but Hope didn’t care. She was enticed by the feel of his flesh gliding beneath her hands, and the magic of his deepening kiss.
Slowly, Drake lowered himself to her side, careful not to let his weight or hands brush against her wounded shoulder. The risk of what he was doing was lost to the scent of her hair, the feel of her hand on his back, the sweet, buttery taste of her tongue. A small corner of his mind remained alert to any sign of pain as he let his hand trail down her arm. His index finger drew a slow circle on her palm before sliding over to the gentle curve of her hip. With a moan, he stroked the white cotton that covered her skin. Lying down on the mattress, he pulled her hard against him and arched into her side.
A moan of pleasure rumbled in her throat. She drank fully of him, her tongue matching his in the game they played, while her hand strayed to the paper collar of his shirt. One by one she slipped free the buttons, exposing the golden hair that matted his chest in a widening vee. When she reached the bottom, she spread the shirt wide and slipped it with delicious slowness over a broad, sun-kissed shoulder.
His skin tightened as her palm roamed up the taut line of his stomach, higher, teasing the golden curls and the hard nipples buried there. White-hot desire surged through him as her hand slid over the quivering flesh covering his ribcage. He trapped it against his side with his arm, halting her torturous investigation to launch a counteroffensive of his own.
His mouth shifted from her lips to her neck. His teeth nibbled on the slender throat, teasing the sensitive place where neck met shoulder. When she groaned aloud, he knew he had found his spot. Nestling down on the mattress, he pushed away the cumbersome tresses and buried his face in her neck. His tongue teased the sensitive flesh, and each hot breath that washed over her skin made Hope tighten with pleasure.
With exquisite slowness, his fingers trailed down the outer stretch of her thigh, catching on the hem of the chemise where it had bunched around her knees. An inch lower and his hand had found its way beneath the hem. His fingers tickled the back of her knees before beginning a breathtaking ascent.
Hope’s breath caught in her throat as his fingers grazed the inside of her thigh. His mouth kissed the frantically pulsating hollow in her throat. A large palm brushed a nest of chestnut curls. He teased that spot for less than a heartbeat then ascended higher.
Hope moistened suddenly parched lips as he passed over her waist, drew a line over several ribs, then closed tenderly over a creamy breast. A wave of new sensations crashed over her, razor-sharp sensations expertly honed beneath his hand. And, oh, what he did to her neck and shoulder was almost indecent.
Dragging the back of her fingers down his side, she slipped her fingertips beneath his waistband. The boldness of her actions surprised them both, and for the space of a sigh, neither moved. But her curiosity was whetted, and passion goaded her on.
Undoing the buttons of his snug-fitting trousers without ripping open her stitches proved to be a lesson in coordination. Once she almost gave up, but the feel of a curiously solid pressure down there doubled her determination. When the last button finally slipped free, she gave a throaty giggle of victory. An added victory was to be had, it would seem. The second Drake felt her hand struggling with the buttons of his trousers, he’d stopped nibbling on her neck, and the hand that had been gliding over her ribs stopped abruptly on her abdomen.
She didn’t immediately seize the advantage of her conquest. No, she had some well-deserved teasing of her own to do first. Dipping a finger just beneath the parted waistband, she drew her finger up in a long, straight line. What started out as a thin mass of golden curls beneath her inquisitive fingertip noticeably thickened the higher she went. Her lips curled into a smile as she heard Drake’s breath deepen to a thick, ragged gulp.
Her fingertip teased each small nipple in turn before straying down the same slow path it had just ascended. His stomach muscles contracted as she passed, and a pent-up sigh whispered through the air as her hand disappeared in the open trousers and her fingers curled around him.
“I hope you know what you’re doing, sunshine,” he growled in her ear, as his hand parted the creamy thighs and slipped between.
“And if I don’t?” she asked huskily, draping a leg across his hip. “What happens then?”
“You learn.”
Gently, she found herself pressed back against the mattress. Her hands were again free, and she used them to run a smooth path over his arm and shoulders as he slipped the rest of his shirt free and tossed it aside. His trousers were quick to follow, as was her chemise.
Even cloaked in shadows, Hope thought, he looked magnificent, what with his broad shoulders, lean hips, and various other enticing commodities. Every muscle flexed with life. Her palms itched to reach out and caress each sinewy tissue, but there wasn’t time. Drake, having divested them of their clothes, had returned to her side.
His thumb traced the cloth wrapped around her shoulder. “I don’t want to hurt you,” he said, his voice serious.
Hope caressed his cheek, his neck, his shoulder. “You won’t,” she assured him, then reached up and pulled him down on top of her.
Drake took full advantage of the invitation. As his lips sought her mouth, his knee worked its way between her thighs. She moaned with pleasure, opening to him fully, the way the dewy petals of a rose open to the first kiss of a morning sun.
No further enticement was necessary. Keeping as much weight off Hope as was possible, Drake buried himself in her sweetness.
His movements were sure and firm, igniting a fire from what had, only seconds before, been a slow, exquisite spark. She matched him thrust for thrust, wrapping her legs around his rock-hard thighs and urging him deeper. Like a tidal wave, their pleasure increased, driving them closer and closer to the fulfillment their bodies feverishly craved.