Cupid, Texas [1] Love at First Sight Read online

  Dade groaned and stepped back. “I’m not going to let you sidetrack me. We’re doing this my way, got it?”

  Hot desire smoldered deep in his eyes and when he looked at her, she caught fire—combusted. “Got it,” she whispered.

  “So this is your chance. If you want me to leave, say the word and it’s over, forgotten. Nothing ruffled or changed.”

  No, please don’t go. She shook her head. “It’s not that easy and you know it.”

  His smile was wicked. “Gotta admit, you’ve got me wrapped around your little finger.”

  “So we’re doing this.”

  “Looks like it.”

  “How do we start?” It wasn’t this hard in the movies. In the movies, lovers just gave each other sultry looks and then went at it.

  “Here are the rules.” He stroked the back of his finger down her cheek.

  “There’s rules?”

  “Oh yeah.”

  “I didn’t know there were rules.”

  “Don’t sweat it. You’ll be perfect. You’re a great one for following the rules.”

  “I’m tired of following rules.”

  “Not these rules.”

  “Which are?”

  “No rushing. No shortcuts. I’m going to make love to you all night long, until the sun comes over the horizon. You’re not going to get one minute of rest. Do you understand?”

  Wow, oh wow, oh wow. The candle flickered, danced, and scented the air with lemon-lime.

  “Do you understand?” he repeated.

  “I understand.”

  He shook his head.

  “What?”

  “God, Natalie, you are so beautiful.”

  Goose bumps of pleasure rushed over her. Beautiful. Dade had called her beautiful. She smiled, ducked her head. She’d never thought of herself as beautiful, but he certainly made her feel that way.

  “You’re trembling.” He stepped closer, took her hand.

  Who wouldn’t tremble when they’re about to make love to their soul mate for the very first time?

  “I’m shaking too,” he whispered. “I’ve never . . . This is . . . You are the best thing that has ever happened to me. I wasn’t expecting it, but you hit me like a sledgehammer, woman.”

  “Dade.” Natalie inhaled. Sledgehammer. She was his sledgehammer. Floating. She was floating on his words. Had the floor under her feet disappeared? Her head swam and she realized she was holding her breath.

  “Breathe. Just breathe.” He touched his lips to hers, just barely, and instantly she was wet and hot and ready for him.

  She took a slow, deep breath.

  “I want you,” he said, his eyes fever-bright. “More than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life.”

  Omigosh, it was true! There were such things as Cupid and soul mates and love at first sight. Every bit of it was there in his eyes for her to see.

  Overwhelmed, Natalie lowered her gaze.

  Dade ran a hand up the nape of her neck, stabbed his fingers through her hair, and tugged gently, tilting her head, forcing her to meet his gaze. “Look at me.”

  She raised her eyelids.

  “You’re an amazing woman,” he said. “I am the luckiest man in the world to be here with you.”

  I’m the lucky one!

  “Come,” he said, and led her toward the bed.

  In that moment, she saw the only bedroom she’d ever lived in through his eyes. The tall ceilings and thick turn-of-the-century baseboards and elaborately carved crown molding, the walls painted a soft fawn. Her bed was sleigh bed, and instead of a comforter, she used a lace-edged quilt that her gram had hand quilted as a bedspread. Her closet door with the full-length mirror stood up opposite the bed.

  Twin Dade and Natalie reflected back at them. The curtains were simple lace sheers and there was an upholstered window seat, the perfect place to curl up and read. Not that she ever had much time for reading.

  She thought of the disparity in the way they were raised, she in the lap of luxury, he in desperation and despair. But he had grown and changed, and she? Well, she had not. Her heart hurt for the boy he’d been, marveled at the man he’d become. He and she were different in so many ways.

  Her legs were boiled noodles, soft, weak, unable to hold her up any longer. It was about to happen. The encounter she’d been waiting a lifetime for, and Dade Vega was her destiny. She knew it. Was certain of it, even if he was not yet one hundred percent certain.

  His gaze pinned her into place, holding her up when her legs could not. She pulled thin ribbons of air into her lungs. He reached up to undo the clasp on her necklace and then dropped it onto her dresser beside the flickering candle.

  Unable to wrench her gaze away, she memorized his every move, determined to remember this moment forever.

  He toed off his cowboy boots, peeled off his socks, tucked the socks inside the boots, and settled the boots side by side near the door. His bare feet were gorgeous in their nakedness. Who knew naked masculine toes could be so sexy?

  He removed his wallet from the back pocket of his black denim jeans, slipped out two condoms, and settled the wallet on her bedside table.

  Wah! Only two condoms? Would that be enough? He said he was going to make love to her until dawn. Surely they would need more than two condoms.

  He sauntered toward her—cocky, eyes wicked, one hundred percent male. Her heart was pounding so hard that each pulsation rocked her entire body. Lusty, desperate need unspooled low in her stomach and spiraled through her veins, consuming her like a raging fever. It would take a thousand fire extinguishers to put out the flame he’d started inside her.

  Without a word, his fingers went to the hem of her shirt and slowly, he drew it upward, his knuckles skimming her bare belly. She sucked in her breath, raised her arms over her head.

  Surrender.

  Heedlessly, he tossed her shirt over his shoulder and she was standing there in a lavender front-clasp bra. His gaze lasered into her. “Natalie,” he said, husky and low.

  “Uh-huh?” She could barely whisper.

  “Do you have any idea what you do to me?”

  Transfixed, she stared deeply into his eyes, moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue.

  “Or”—his voice deepened—“all the things that I want to do to you?”

  She ran her palm up underneath his shirt, touched the hard lines of his taut belly. Her hand tentatively reached out to trace the definition of his abdominal muscles, felt them ripple and contract beneath her fingers.

  “I’ve been wanting to touch you there since the morning I first saw you in the Piggly Wiggly parking lot,” she confessed.

  “Darlin’, not nearly as much as I’ve been aching for you to touch me.”

  She paused a moment, looked up into his eyes. “Are we moving too fast?”

  “Maybe we are, but I don’t care.”

  “I don’t want you to regret this.”

  He cupped her cheek against his palm. “No matter what happens, Natalie, I will never, ever regret being with you.”

  She caught her breath as part fear, part hope, and part utter joy took hold of her. “No one has ever spoken to me the way you do.”

  “Not even Stan?”

  “No.” It was getting down to it. She was going to have to tell him she was a virgin.

  “Good thing you broke up with him.”

  “Good thing,” she echoed. “Listen, there’s something I have to tell you before we go any further.”

  “What’s that?” he murmured, lowering his head to nibble the top of her ear.

  “I’m . . . I’ve never . . .”

  “Uh-huh?” His warm mouth sent tingles shooting throughout her entire body.

  She couldn’t think. She closed her eyes, savored the erotic sensation of his hot tongue exploring her ear. “Umm.”

  “I’m listening,” he whispered.

  “I . . .” She squirmed. “You’re going to have to stop that if we’re going to have this conversation.”
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br />   His mouth moved lower to her earlobe. “Do we really need to have this conversation?”

  “We do.”

  “Okay.” He raised his head.

  “I’m not . . .” Just say it! “I’ve never done this before.”

  Dade cocked his head, arched a skeptical eyebrow. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

  She tilted up her chin. “Yes.”

  “You’re a virgin?” he asked, incredulous.

  A heavy feeling settled in the pit of her stomach. “I am.”

  He still looked like he didn’t believe her.

  “I know. I’m too long in the tooth to be a virgin, but, well, I had a bum leg and no one was knocking down my door to get next to me and I decided, fine, I will wait for just the right guy, but then he never showed up and by then it was way past the time when most women lose their virginity and it was embarrassing and no one ever came along that was worth that kind of effort and—”

  “I’m worth the effort?” He sounded gobsmacked.

  She couldn’t believe that he was stunned. Didn’t he get it? Didn’t he know? Had his life been so empty of love that he couldn’t fully wrap his head around what he’d found with her? “There is no one else.”

  He reached up to brush a strand of hair from her eyes. “No man has ever cherished you?”

  “No.” She shook her head. “And I was beginning to think no one ever would, I was almost ready to give up and then came you.”

  “All I gotta say is there are some damn dumb men in this town.” He cupped her chin in his palm, smiled down at her.

  “Hordes.”

  “But I thought you said that you and Stan were lovers.”

  “I was trying to make you jealous. I might have overstated that a bit.”

  “It worked. I was damn jealous. What’s a bit?”

  “Third base. We went to third base.”

  “Did he kiss you here?” Dade’s hand had drifted to the sensitive spot between Natalie’s legs.

  She squirmed. “No, not that.”

  “Did you put your mouth on him down there?”

  “No!”

  “Then what exactly did you do?”

  “Kissing. We kissed. And touched.”

  “Touched?”

  “You know, down there.”

  “Hand jobs.”

  “Well, I wouldn’t put it so crudely, but yes.”

  “Hate to break it to you, darlin’,” but you weren’t anywhere near third base,” he said, sounding utterly pleased.

  “I’m glad.”

  “Me too.”

  “But you and me . . .”

  “Yes?” she whispered.

  “We’re gonna hit a home run.”

  Every muscle in her body tightened and melted in an alternating rhythm. A sharp, sweet ache speared the very core of her. She sank her top teeth into her bottom lip as her mind spun with a million dizzying erotic possibilities.

  Dade bowed his head, pressed his mouth to hers, and sucked her bottom lip up between his teeth, nibbling lightly.

  She lit up, a rocket of sensation shooting to the stars.

  He placed soft kisses down her jaw to the throbbing pulse in the hollow of her throat. A shudder pushed clean through her. “You taste so good.”

  His hand flicked to the clasp on the front of her bra; in a second, it was unfastened, dangling open. Dade slipped his fingers underneath the straps of her bra, eased it off her shoulders. She felt him drop it to the floor rather than saw it. Her gaze was adhered to his.

  She arched her back, thrusting her breasts forward. She didn’t have to tell him what she needed. He just knew!

  His unerring mouth found the peak of one hard nipple. He teased it playfully with his tongue until she was moaning softly and then he turned his attention to the other straining nipple. “You have such perfect breasts. Not too big. Not too small. Just right.”

  Her face flushed in the darkness and she threaded her hands through his thick thatch of hair, tugged gently.

  “More?” he murmured, his lips vibrating against her skin.

  “More,” she croaked, shivered.

  While his mouth explored her, her fingers massaged tiny circles up and down the back of his neck. Deep inside, she grew hotter and moister and more desperate—so damn desperate to have him inside her.

  He raised his head, went back to her mouth again, slowing things down. She made a noise of frustration and he laughed. “We’ll get there, darlin’. It’s about the journey, not the destination.”

  “Big talk, big man.”

  “You’re not going to provoke me into rashness,” he said, squeezing her tightly against him and taking her mouth once more in a fiery kiss.

  His fingers moved down her bare spine to her waist and on down to cup her blue-jeaned bottom in his palms. He pushed her firmly into his pelvis and she could feel his rock-solid erection growing against her.

  “And you’re free to drive me crazy,” she gasped, wrenching her mouth from his.

  “That’s pretty much the idea.”

  She clung to his muscular biceps, reveled in his strength. He possessed so much self-control! She couldn’t wait to drive him wild.

  But her plans were foiled when he kissed his way back to her breasts. He lingered, played, driving her completely insane, and then his demanding mouth traveled lower to the flat of her belly as he simultaneously sank to his knees in front of her.

  Natalie gasped as his hot tongue explored her navel. Helplessly, she threaded her fingers through his shaggy hair. Oh God, he was so incredibly hot!

  He tipped his head up to look at her, his long black lashes softening the hard angles of his cheekbones, his coal-colored eyes searching hers. He looked so vulnerable and endearing in that moment that she touched three fingers to her lips. He might be strong and in control, but her love had the power to shatter him into a million pieces, and that knowledge shook Natalie to the core.

  He trusted her!

  And she knew how hard it was for him to do that. Her heart liquefied in her chest.

  While his eyes stayed fixed on her, watching every emotion that flitted across her face, Dade’s fingers plucked at the snap of her jeans. The snap popped open. Millimeter by excruciating millimeter, he eased down the zipper.

  Leisurely, he hooked a thumb in the waistband of her jeans at each hipbone and peeled the pants down her legs, his palms skimming the backs of her thighs as he went.

  Awed, she stared down at him.

  “Mmm,” he said. “You smell good enough to eat.”

  Natalie swooned, had to clutch his hair in her hands to keep from toppling over.

  His face was at the V between her legs. She still had her panties and shoes on, the jeans bunched around her ankles. He tugged at her panties with his teeth, and then pushed them down to her knees with his chin, sending a shuddering thrill shooting through her.

  “Oh,” he said.

  “What?”

  “You don’t remove your hair down there.”

  “Are you disappointed?” she asked, embarrassed. She wished she’d gone over to Junie Mae’s spa and had a wax job, but if she’d done that, Junie Mae would have known exactly what she was up to.

  “Hell no,” he said. “Nothing about you disappoints me, Natalie. I’m just more accustomed to hairless women.”

  Her jeans were still around her ankles, her panties at her knees. Gently, Dade pushed her backward onto the mattress. She caught herself on her elbows, sat watching while he took her right foot in his hand. She pulled it back, shying from him. “Don’t.”

  “I thought you trusted me.”

  “I do. I just don’t want you looking at it too closely. It’s . . .” She swallowed. “Ugly.”

  “Nothing about you is ugly, Natalie McCleary,” he declared vehemently.

  It took everything she had inside her to nod for him to continue. If she were being honest, she’d have to admit that the leg was the biggest reason she’d never had a lover. It took a lot fo
r her to reveal her greatest wound to intense scrutiny.

  Slowly, he undid the laces, slid off the red Keds and matching red sock. Next, he undid the straps on her AFO and slipped that off too.

  In the candlelight, he studied her foot, turning it this way and that. Her last two toes were misshapen, and two long parallel scars ran lengthwise across the top of her foot, and there were six smaller round scars on the side of her foot where the pins had been. The scars were faded, silvered with age, but they were part and parcel of who she was.

  Dade lowered his head, and one by one, tenderly kissed each scar.

  Now who was vulnerable? Now who was in jeopardy of being shattered to pieces by love?

  “Never be ashamed of your scars,” he said. “I’m not ashamed of mine.”

  “Can I see them?” she asked, her curiosity piqued.

  “What?”

  “Your scars.”

  “We’re getting there, darlin’, slow down.”

  He peeled off her other sock and shoe, tugged the jeans off her ankles, and fished the panties from around her knees. He returned to her right leg, studying each scar he found—and there were a lot of them—kissing each one in turn on his way up her thigh. By the time he reached the last scar, halfway between her knee and her hip, Natalie was a quivering mess.

  He stood and stared down at her. It didn’t seem fair that she was totally naked and he was still fully clothed.

  “I’m at a disadvantage,” she pointed out. “It’s time for you to get naked.”

  “There you go again,” he murmured. “Rushing things. Let me just look at you a minute.”

  She squirmed beneath the heat of his gaze, uncomfortable with his cool assessment. She snatched up the corner of the quilt and covered herself with it. “Not until you get naked.”

  “You drive a hard bargain,” he said, and slowly stripped off his T-shirt, giving her full view of his glorious abs.

  She sighed happily. “Much better.”

  His hand went to the snap of his jeans and he shucked them off.

  Holy heavens!

  He was going commando and he was . . . he was . . . Well . . . His height and broad shoulders weren’t the only big things about him. Natalie’s jaw unhinged and she stared at him openmouthed.

  He held his arms wide. “Here I am.”

  “Impressive,” she croaked.