26. Angie

Chapter 26

Angie

F ew experiences in life came around in which the very ground beneath my feet was swept away, leaving me floating without a tether. The first contact from Remi’s lips topped the charts for one of these events. Whiskers from his trimmed beard stimulated my skin, magnifying the effect of his kisses, simultaneously tickling and arousing me.

I hung in the air as if detached, plunged into a new experimental world where nothing but pleasure existed.

All growing up, Mama and I made homemade jam—raspberry, strawberry, and apricot. While stirring the thickening liquid, big bubbles built up over and over again, boiling and popping to the surface. It’d entertained me until one of the blasted things landed a thick glob of goo on my skin. It was molten lava. Pain spiked through my arm. I licked at the semi-cooled filling, and it tasted like heaven.

This same feeling overtook me now. My body ached from impacting the ground, and it ached from the sweet, blessed magic emanating from Remi’s mouth. My insides were a melting glob of sugary, gelatinous berry goodness. Large bubbles heated in my core, growing bigger with each flick of Remi’s tongue. The feel of his hot breath on my skin brought them near to bursting any time he came close to my mouth. The pressure on my back increased and I melted against him.

He massaged the back of my scalp, his fingers toying with my hair, adding to the chills cascading through my body. I closed my eyes, focusing my whole being on him and the torrent he stirred inside me.

What was I thinking?

I couldn’t make out with the destroyer of all things holy. He’d kiss me one minute and rip my childhood home from me the next. This had to stop. I made up my mind to tell him exactly that.

“Uh … oh …” My failed attempt at making words exhaled out of me more like a sigh.

He kissed his way back to my ear. “What was that?” He let out one of the most dratted sensual laughs I’d ever heard as he tormented my earlobe with his teeth.

Fiery waves licked their way down my left side, and with that, my womanhood whipped my mind back into its cage. Brains were only useful at work in the hospital or on the farm, not in situations where a man held me captive in his embrace.

Pure carnal instincts took over. Cautiously at first, I wrapped my arms around his lower back still trying to resist the magnetism pulling me toward him. But after two more expertly executed kisses, I clutched at the fabric of his shirt, fighting to remain upright.

“Please …” I opened my eyes, and my breaths heaved in and out of me as I struggled to draw in air. I wasn’t sure how I planned on finishing that sentence.

Please stop?

Please put your lips on mine already before I lose my ever-living mind?

Remi paused and met my eyes. The brown in them was barely visible, overtaken by his inky-black pupils. They were glazed in an intense longing which spoke directly to the instinctual half of me. The part of me that understood too well his restraint.

Whatever he saw in my gaze caused him to nod. “Okay.” His whisper hung on his exhale.

Wait. I didn’t mean—Did I? I wasn’t ready … Not yet. Don’t stop. I couldn’t—

His lips descended on mine, halting any possibility of cohesive thoughts.

This … happening—now.

An adventure-seeking, bridge-jumping, perfect ten—pain in my patootie, freakin’ hot farmhand turned evilest of all land buyers—was kissing me . Boring old—never-left-Idaho, tractor-driving, horse is my closest friend—me.

He tasted heavenly.

And holy cow, he was a good kisser. His lips were basically demi-gods tasked with the sole purpose of pleasuring mere mortals. I didn’t know what I imagined when I kissed Remi—and I thought of this moment plenty of times—it wasn’t this gentle, patient lesson of mastering passion.

His body movements spoke to me. The way his lips slanted tenderly over mine, they were punctuated by … a question? Testing for my response? Almost like with each shift of his mouth, combined with the havoc he wreaked with his wandering hands, he found new parts of me to savor.

Thorough in everything he did, he took his time exploring every inch of me, yet I sensed he held back … waiting on—me.

Curious, I lifted my arm and weaved my fingers in his black hair at the base of his neck and pressed him to me, opening my mouth further to his oh-so-talented tongue. My simple response seemed to shatter whatever control he was maintaining.

He dropped his grip to my hips and pinned me to the tree. With the added leverage the trunk provided, I curved into him until our bodies fit like puzzle pieces. His hands traveled upward, toying with the edge of my bra. The warmth of his palms seeped through the thin piece of lacy lingerie—chosen more for lack of options due to laundry day than for today’s activities.

Spreading his fingers, he used them to tease, tantalize, and taunt, scorching me from the inside out, driving me to heights I’d never escalated to before in one simple kiss. I lost my grip on reality. Nothing existed aside from the constant thumping of Remi’s heart, his touch, the feel of his beard on my skin, and the pressure of his weight against me. I tasted hints of the Dr. Pepper he’d finished on the drive; his familiar smell cocooned around me.

I reached behind me to find something, anything to cling to.

My hands met a damp pile of leaves and pine needles on the forest floor. Somehow, Remi had maneuvered me onto my back without me realizing it. Yet my body remembered the feel of one of his arms wrapping around my middle, lifting, and guiding me to the ground. With a hand braced behind my head, he pulled up my shirt. Sun broke from the canopy, highlighting Remi’s form above me, sprinkling my face with light.

Tracking kisses down my body—neck, shoulder, chest—he turned his attention to my abdomen. I closed my eyes, relinquishing myself to the waves of absolute bliss crashing steadily over me.

I wanted this. I needed this.

Nothing else mattered more than Remi and his solid body on top of me. Pressing his knee between my legs, he spread them wide, inching his hand toward my waistband—

Almost literal brake lights lit up in my mind. Somehow my brain broke free from the temporary prison I’d placed it in and took control once again.

What was I doing?

This man manipulated people—women in particular—for a living, and I was about to give myself to him.

I grabbed his wrist, halting the progression of his hand. “No.”

Ragged breaths shuddered from him. He rested his forehead against mine.

My former conviction came back to me. I would not be seduced by him—okay … I would only be halfway seduced. I shoved against his shoulders, severing our connection. “I can’t do this.”

Yes, you can, the other half of me screamed, but I didn’t allow these thoughts to slip out.

Remi immediately stilled and pushed up from me, dragging his palm along my bare skin as if resistant to relinquishing his hold over me. Currents of mountain air replaced the heat of his body, cooling me and further clearing my mind.

“You’re right. We can’t do this.” His chest heaved with each breath, and he leaned back to rest against the tree, looping an arm over his bent knee.

I lifted myself onto my elbows, wanting nothing more than to pull him back on top of me and beg him to finish what he started.

But how could I let a professional player have his way with me on the side of an abandoned dirt bike trail? I’d be chalked up as another one of his conquests and he’d leave me after claiming my land.

I fought to get to my feet, cursing the stiff boots Remi had insisted I wear.

I’d chosen Dan. Dan was my future. He wanted kids, a wife, a family. We were planning a future together, and I was one button and a zipper away from ruining everything. As it sat, I wasn’t sure how Dan would react if he found out about this. Long-lasting relationships didn’t start with cheating. And that was what I was. The cheating-est cheater of all time. Damn Remi. Damn him for risking my entire future for one kiss.

What a kiss it had been. I closed my eyes and licked my lips, remembering his touch.

But Remi’d given me no hint he ever wanted to settle down. I’d be no different from any other woman he’d roll around naked under a tree with.

Was this part of his sick, twisted plan? Sex me up enough to sign his purchase agreement?

“Angie—” Remi stood and took one step toward me. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for it to go this far.”

I angrily brushed at the leaves clinging to my hair and jerked my shirt back into place. “Sure. You must have fallen, and your lips locked onto mine.” I turned my back to him and walked to my bike.

“Oh, no you don’t.” He shoved his way between me and my downed metal pony, breaking into my inner bubble once again, he whispered, “You wanted that as much as I did.”

While I didn’t verbally respond to his suggestion, my body gave him all the clues he needed. From my goosebump paralysis the warmth of his breath against my ear caused, to my soft exhale and slight tilt in his direction, my body—the two-faced hussy—all but begged him for the soft kiss he planted on me before he righted my bike and rolled it to the center of the trail.

My mind broke through my temporary immobility. I dug my toe into the dirt and cleared my throat. “Promise you won’t kiss me again.”

He shot me a half smile and winked. How was I supposed to interpret that?

“Is that a yes?”

“What are we, two?” He pressed on the bike’s starter button, and it chugged. “I’m not going to promise you that. What I will promise is you’ll want me to kiss you when I do it again.”

How could I have let this happen? He was my declared super villain. The one person on this planet I was destined to beat. It’d be like Supergirl kissing Lex Luther. Like the coolest members of the X-Men, Storm or Rogue, macking on Magneto.

Like Batman seducing Catwom—wait. Never mind.

“That’s where you’re wrong.” I marched to him, shoving him with my pointer finger. “I’ll never respond like that again. I can’t do that to Dan.”

“What you have with Smoot’s not real, and you know it.” He took hold of my wrist and tugged me to him until we were chest to chest. “This. You and me. This is very real.”

My heartbeat intensified and escalated at the same time. His gaze met mine before it dropped to my moistened mouth, and before I could douse my body’s reaction, I leaned ever so slightly toward him. He lowered his head until he once again claimed my swollen lips with his. This time he toyed with my bottom lip, sending shivers tumbling down my body until I—Wait. No. Not again.

I elbowed him hard enough that he grunted and jerked away from me.

His soft chuckle shredded my nerves worse than Grandmama’s antique cheese grater. He raised one eyebrow at me and quirked his mouth into a crooked smile.

“Dadgummit, Remi.” I tugged on my helmet, more to hide my flaming face than for protection.

Remi burst out laughing. “Don’t you dadgum me,” he said in between his guffaws. “You’re adorable when you’re upset.”

I didn’t bother to respond and latched my strap around my chin. I, after all, was the grown-up in this relationship. Finding my goggles, chest padding, elbow and knee pads, and my pair of gloves, I hoisted my leg over the blue and black vinyl seat. Two solid kicks, and my bike roared to life. The handlebars were bent, so I aimed the tire in the right direction and rocketed forward, my back tire spitting gravel and dirt behind me.