Reno made a thick sound and pulled Eve closer, taking and giving a kiss that made him realize he had never really kissed a woman before-not like this, two hungry flames burning, twisting, straining toward each other across the barriers of flesh and clothing.
When Eve finally tore her mouth from Reno’s, her breathing was ragged and her mouth felt empty without him. She looked at him with dazed, eyes. His smile was dark, hot, and as male as the power in his body. His fingers sank into the resilient flesh of Eve’s hips as he dragged her against himself, letting her feel the fire she had started.
Then Reno was kissing Eve again, sending the night spinning darkly around her. She was aware only of his strength, of his heat, of his tongue’s rhythmic stroking over hers. Holding him as tightly as she could, she let his heat sink into her.
«Gata. You’re burning me alive.»
«No. It’s you. Burning me.»
Reno lifted Eve, holding her suspended in his arms, while his mouth made hot entreaties to hers. He wanted to take her down to the ground and bury himself in her warm and willing body, but knew it would be foolish.
Even worse, it could be fatal.
Damn Slater, Reno raged silently. I should have killed him in Canyon City. Then I wouldn’t have to spend every minute looking over my shoulder.
Reno’s arms tightened and he took Eve’s mouth as he wanted to take the rest of her sultry body. Without breaking the kiss, he carried her the two short steps to the weathered sandstone ledge and sat down.
Eve made a surprised sound when the world shifted and she found herself sitting across Reno’s legs. Quickly he pulled his six-gun and set the weapon within reach on the ledge. With a stone wall at his back and a lap full of warm woman, he was as safe as he was going to be.
Not very damned safe, Reno thought sardonically.
But when Reno lowered his mouth to Eve’s once more, Jericho Slater seemed very far away. Her kiss was as wild as his, making and meeting sensual demands.
Neither skilled nor coy, Eve’s kiss told Reno that she wanted him enough to forget for the moment all the cold tricks women played on hungry men, tantalizing them until they would agree to anything to get at the hot lure that was burning just beyond their reach.
Reno had never had a woman want him so much that she forgot the coy game of tease and retreat and ended up burning in her own fire. Knowing that Eve wanted him that much made Reno shake with a hunger greater than he had ever known.
«Sweet God,» Reno said heavily. «It’s a good thing that dress doesn’t have any buttons.»
«W-why?»
«I’d have it down around your waist before you could blink. And that would be a mistake.»
Before Eve could say anything, Reno’s mouth fastened almost savagely on hers. The cloth of the dress she wore was frail with long use, and so thinned by age that it was little barrier to his caresses. She wore nothing underneath but the heat that radiated up to him, stripping away his restraint.
The feel of Reno’s fingers shaping and stroking her breasts made Eve tremble. Heat bloomed within the darkness of her body. The pleasure his kiss gave her was heightened by the sensual, shifting pressure of his hands caressing her.
Then Reno’s mouth replaced his hands, testing and tugging at Eve’s sensitive flesh through the cloth. Her nipples hardened in a rush of sensation that dragged a low cry from her. Surprise and currents of pleasure arced through her body, making her feel as though she had been struck by tender lightning.
The husky sounds Eve made sent Reno very close to the breaking edge of his restraint. His hands tightened reflexively as he fought to control the unexpected fury of his need. As his fingers clenched, the worn-out cloth of her dress gave way at the shoulder seams. A flap of material fell forward, revealing one perfect breast.
Reno groaned. He hadn’t meant to tempt himself like this. But having done it, he couldn’t resist.
He lowered his head and took the hard peak deep into his mouth. She tasted of hot summer nights, of lilacs and hidden springs and secret pleasures. The husky sound he drew from her throat was a siren song urging him to forget whatever danger might wait in the surrounding darkness.
The rest of the dress gave way with a soft sound that was lost in the rippling cries Eve made while Reno’s mouth and hands drew her breasts into a sensitivity that was almost painful. She knew she should protest the intimacy, yet the pleasure he gave her was so great she couldn’t make herself draw back.
Eve didn’t realize that Reno had eased his hand between her legs until only the fragile barrier of old cloth separated his fingers from her hidden softness. All she knew was that she had never felt the way she did now, a fire spiraling and burning, reaching toward something unknown, something both fierce and beautiful, something she must have or die from its loss.
Passion burst though Eve, drenching her in liquid heat, yet there was no relief from the urgency driving her. She twisted like a flame on Reno’s lap, seeking a release from the searing need she had never before felt.
«You’re killing me,» Eve whispered raggedly.
Reno laughed almost painfully. «No. You’re killing me. Do it again, sweetgata.»
«What?»
His hand moved once more, tightening around the soft flesh that wept passionately at his lightest caress.
Eve gasped and felt liquid fire spread from her body to Reno’s hand.
Abruptly Reno lifted and turned Eve until she sat astride his thighs. When he pushed up her skirt, she saw that his pants were undone. The blunt evidence of his arousal gleamed in the moonlight between her thighs.
Too late Eve understood what the fire had been reaching for, and who would ultimately burn with regrets.
Only one thing a man wants from a woman, make no mistake about it.
«No,» Eve said. «Reno, no!»
«You want it as bad as I do. You’re shaking with it.»
«No!» Eve said frantically. «You promised you wouldn’t take me if I didn’t want it. I don’t want it!»
Reno hissed words that made Eve turn pale. Without warning he shoved her off his lap so fast she barely caught her balance against the stone ledge. She yanked her dress up and faced him with an anger that was as great as her passion had been.
«You have no right to call me names!» she said in a shaking voice.
«The hell I don’t! You teased me and —»
«Teased you!» she interrupted wildly. «I wasn’t the one taking off your clothes and putting my hand between your legs and —»
«— you were all over me like spilled honey,» Reno snarled, talking over her.
«I didn’t — didn’t mean to,» Eve stammered. «I don’t know what — what happened.»
«I do,» Reno said savagely. «A cheating little tease found herself dangling at the end of her own damned rope.»
«I’m not what you think!»
«You keep saying that, gata. Then you keep proving yourself a liar. You wanted me.»
«You don’t understand.»
«The hell I don’t.»
Eve closed her eyes and clutched the worn, ragged cloth against her body with fingers so tightly clenched they hurt. All of her ached and trembled, and she wanted to scream.
«Why do men want only one thing from a woman?» she asked angrily.
«Honesty?» Reno retorted. «Damned if I know. I don’t think it’s in a woman to be honest.»
«And I don’t think it’s in a man not to take what he wants and then walk away without a thought to what he’s done!»
«What did you have in mind — marriage?»
Reno’s sardonic question was like a whip.
Eve opened her mouth, but no words came out. Pain rippled through her as she realized Reno was right. She wanted a man to love her enough to build a life with her. But she was too smart to speak about love with the gunfighter whose nakedly aroused body gleamed in the moonlight.