«Again,» Reno said, rubbing his thumb all around her, teasing her with what he was once again withholding.
She made a broken sound.
«Let me feel your pleasure,» he whispered. «Now.»
Then he touched her and she gave him what he had demanded. The hoarse sound of his satisfaction was another light caress, another delicate flick of passion’s whip across her intensely sensitive flesh.
«You’re like a spring welling up at my touch,» Reno said in a low voice.
His fingertip caressed again, drawing forth another rush of pleasure.
«I like that, gata. I like it the way I like to breathe.»
His fingers moved, barely brushing her slick, hot flesh.
Eve wept and writhed with the honeyed teasing that sent savage streamers of fire through her. She didn’t know when Reno’s fingertips were replaced by blunt, satin flesh. She knew only that he wasn’t touching her the one place she must be touched. Her nails raked down his back in a demand she couldn’t help making.
Reno regretted that his shirt kept him from feeling the sharp edges of his cat’s passionate claws. He smiled and teased Eve some more, circling the tender nub without quite touching it. Her hands raked again, and he laughed deep in his throat despite his own unanswered need.
The twisting motion of Eve’s hips beneath Reno made a fine sweat break all over his body. He had never had a woman want him so completely, her whole body crying her need. The slightest brush of his fingers sent her response spilling over again. He enjoyed it with savage intensity, bathing himself in her passionate heat, wanting to take her so much that his body shook with his need.
Yet no matter how hard she twisted and fought to make him touch the hungry bud he had drawn from her softness, he eluded her.
«Why?» Eve asked finally.
«I want to hear you ask for more.»
She made a frustrated sound and twisted again, and again Reno left her barely touched, wholly aching.
«More,» Eve said, trembling.
Reno brushed against her swollen, sultry flesh.
«Harder,» she said raggedly.
Her fist struck his shoulder as she strained toward the unattainable fire that withdrew just as she reached for it.
«That’s not enough,» she said urgently.
«What if I say that’s all there is?»
«No! There has to be more!»
Reno touched her again, drawing his nails with exquisite care over the swollen bud. She gasped and liquid fire overflowed.
Teeth clenched against the need shaking him, Reno took a deep breath, seeking the self-control that was sliding away. The primal scent of Eve’s passion swept through him. It was like breathing fire.
«Reno,» she whispered. «I —»
Her voice broke as she twisted.
«This?» he asked.
Flesh that was both smooth and hard pressed sensually against her, parting her even as she melted over him.
«Yes,» she said brokenly. «Yes.»
With a smooth, powerful motion, Reno drove into Eve, expecting a sleek, seamless ease to the coupling, for there was no doubt of her arousal.
What he found was a barrier that was breached almost the instant it was discovered. Almost, but not quite. The difference was a tearing of flesh and a moisture that owed nothing to passion.
Eve’s eyes flew open as pain rather than pleasure stabbed through her whole body.
«You’re hurting me!» she said hoarsely.
The motions of Eve’s body as she tried to dislodge Reno stripped away his control. He tried to hold her still, but it was too late, he was far too aroused to deny himself the tight satin paradise he had entered. Release swept through him, burning him with pulses of pure fire.
The wild shuddering of Reno’s body moved him within Eve, but there was no pain for her this time. Instead, tongues of fire licked up from the place where their bodies were joined.
The sharp ripples of passion surprised Eve, as did Reno’s hoarse groans and the rhythmic pulses of his flesh deep within her. She closed her eyes, let out a broken breath, and waited for him to release her.
Yet Reno made no move to do so, even when his breathing slowed. The rise and fall of his chest was enough to move him within Eve. Each small motion sent more currents of unwelcome fire through her body. She no longer enjoyed the sensation, for she knew now where it led — to a feeling of pain and edgy despair.
She had been one of those foolish women Donna talked about, the kind who spread their legs in the name of love. But Reno didn’t want a saloon girl’s love. He wanted only her body.
And he had taken it.
«Get off me,» Eve said finally.
The flatness of her voice angered Reno. She had been so hot, so willing, and now she couldn’t wait to be rid of him. She couldn’t have told him more clearly how little she had enjoyed coupling with him.
Yet he had enjoyed it so much he had lost control too quickly. That had never happened to him before. The knowledge that he had wanted her much more than she wanted him made him furious.
Then Reno remembered the fragile barrier, the tearing an instant before he could take Eve completely. He remembered, but he could not believe it. He could not believe a saloon girl was a virgin.
It must have been a long time since her last man.
That would explain the sleek constriction of her body, a sensual pressure that still caressed him every time either one of them breathed.
Reno realized anew how slender Eve was, how delicately made. He wasn’t either slender or small. He was an unusually large, potent man. He hadn’t meant to hurt her, but he must have. The knowledge simultaneously shamed and angered him, for it underlined the difference in their level of mutual desire.
«Don’t tell me you didn’t want it,» Reno said harshly. «Hell, you asked for it as plain as day.»
Color stained Eve’s cheeks as she remembered her own wanton behavior. He was quite right. She had asked for it.
«I’m not asking for it now,» Eve said tightly.
With a hissed word, Reno shifted to roll aside.
Eve’s breath wedged and a shudder went through her body as he caressed her violently sensitive flesh in the act of leaving her.
Blood glistened in the sun, scarlet testimony to a truth Reno could barely believe. She had felt like wild, sun-warmed honey. He had been so eager for her that he hadn’t even undressed her or himself. He had taken her wearing his boots and pants as though she were no more than a whore bought for a few minutes of ease.
And she had let him. She had begged him.
Reno looked at Eve as though he had never seen her before. And he hadn’t. Not the way he was seeing her now. He hadn’t allowed himself to look past the scarlet dress to the innocent girl beneath; because he had wanted that girl too much to turn aside, no matter what the truth of her innocence was.
«Virgin.»
«That’s right, gunfighter,» Eve shot back. «I’m a virgin.»
Suddenly her mouth drew down in an unhappy curve.
«Well, I was a virgin,» she said. «Now I’m just one more ruined girl who should have known better.»
The word rang in Reno’s mind. Ruined.
Like Savannah Marie had been ruined. Like Willow had been ruined.
A decent man marries an innocent girl if he ruins her.
Suddenly Reno felt cornered. Like any cornered animal, he fought to be free. His fingers wrapped around Eve’s shoulders.
«If you think you just traded your maidenhead for a husband,» he said, «you’re dead wrong. I won you in a card game. I took what was mine. That’s all the payment that’s required.»
«Thank God,» Eve said between her teeth.
For the second time, Eve had shocked Reno. He had expected an argument, a torrent of words telling him how it was his duty as a decent man to marry the girl his lust had ruined. It was an old trick, the oldest and most potent in the arsenal of the war waged between marriage-minded girls and freedom-minded men.