Raven’s Prey(23)
Author: Jayne Ann Krentz

She felt her lower body being arched into his and shivered. There could be no doubt that he was aroused and waiting for her. The suddenness of his response brought to life another flicker of panic as Honor sensed her inability to control die situation and she pushed at his chest in an awkward protest. –

“Don’t fight me, Honor,” he half pleaded, half ordered. “Put your arms around me and stop fighting me. Can’t you see that I have to have you tonight?”

Before she could find an answer to that age-old question there was a good-natured hail from across the street as two of the cantina’s patrons went past on their way home. Judd reluctantly lifted his head. The men asked him a quick, laughing question and he responded in the negative. Then he scooped Honor up in his arms and prodded open the door to her cottage with his foot

“What did they say?” she asked uncertainly as he kicked the door shut behind him. “Something about waiting?”

“They asked if I couldn’t wait until I could find a mattress on which to put you,” he explained huskily. “I told them it would be very hard to wait even that long!”

“Judd!” She knew she was turning a dull shade of red and was grateful for the surrounding shadows.

“It’s true,” he told her heavily, carrying her across to the small cot. “I think I began wanting you when I was hunting you, pretending to be after my runaway wife. I knew for certain that I wanted you after that first night when you pulled die gun on me. Why do you think I’ve been willing to spend four extra days in this godforsaken village?”

She watched him in the moonlight as he settled her down on the cot and then sat down beside her. He meant [_it. _]He truly did feel something very strong for her. She could see it in the rigid cast of his features and in the hooded depths of his dark eyes. His ringers trembled slightly as they reached out to curve around the base of her throat.

Slowly he drew his hand from her throat down to the first button of her shirt. Honor lay perfectly still, her eyes never leaving his face as he undid the fastening.

“I don’t know” she whispered huskily. “I’m not sure if this is the right way for us. But, oh, God! I don’t know of any other way to find out what you really feel for me!” She caught hold of his fingers, staying them as they would have wandered down to the next button. Her eyes were wide with anxiety and the beginning flames of desire.

“Honor, I’m not much good with words. I’ve never been good with words. Let me show you how badly I want you. I need you tonight. Dear Lord! How I need you!”

He bent over her, feasting once more on her mouth. Gently he withdrew his hand from her restraining grip and finished unbuttoning the shirt she wore. He pushed aside the edges of the fabric and flattened his palm on her bare stomach.

“Oh, Judd.” She sighed, lifting her arms to circle his neck. “I don’t understand you. Not completely. But tonight—”

“Tonight doesn’t need words,” he muttered thickly against her mouth. “Just touch me, honey. I want you to touch me. I’m aching for you!”

His palm moved up from her stomach and shaped her breast. Honor heard his indrawn breath of satisfaction as the nipple beneath his hand instantly began to tighten. She hadn’t worn a bra since she’d arrived in Mexico. The heat made such a garment uncomfortable. But the lack of it tonight left her feeling very vulnerable.

Or was it simply that Judd Raven’s touch made her feel vulnerable? Whatever the reasons, they was no denying that her body was reacting fiercely to his love-making. Her br**sts felt swollen and taut as he moved his palm slowly across the tips. A slow tendril of desire was uncurling deep in her loins.

“You feel so good,” he breathed, burying his lips against her throat. “When you came up out of the water the other day in the stream your shirt was clinging to your br**sts and I could see the outline of your ni**les. It was all I could do not to reach out and take you right then and there.”

She shuddered beneath the impact of his words and her body curved invitingly toward him. “Please, Judd…” Without a word he took her hand and guided it to the buttons of his own shirt. In slow, aching silence she began to undress him while he watched her face in the moonlight.

Once or twice during the mornings she had seep him bare from the waist up and had refused to allow her gaze to linger on the crisp, curling expanse of hair that covered his broad chest. But now, tonight, she could indulge herself to her heart’s content. As she slipped the shirt from his shoulders Honor caught her breath at the primitive picture he made in the shadowy light

“What is it, honey?” he murmured as she hesitated before touching him again. “What’s wrong?”

“You frighten me a little, Judd. There are so many things we don’t know about each other and you…can be very intimidating.”

“I told you earlier not to be frightened. Of me or anything else.” He unclasped his belt, standing up abruptly to finish removing his clothes. She watched the smoothly muscled, lean length of his body appear and felt a rush of painful awareness at the sight of his uncompromisingly aroused masculinity.

“You look as if you’re on the verge of changing your mind, Honor,” he said as he sat back down beside her. “You look as if you’re having thoughts about running. But you can’t run away now. You know that, don’t you? I couldn’t let you go tonight.”

There was an absolute certainty in his words that told her he meant them. There was no way she could escape what had begun there in the small shack. And deep down Honor admitted to herself that she wouldn’t have been able to run from him anyway. She felt overwhelmed and overtaken. There was no longer a choice to be made. It had been made the moment he had taken her in his arms.

As if he sensed her implicit surrender Judd lowered his head to kiss her br**sts as his hand unzipped the fastening of her jeans. Impulsively reacting to the feel of his sensitive tongue on her aching ni**les, Honor clenched her fingers into the raven darkness of his hair and cried out softly,

“Yes,” he growled in return. [_”Yes!” _]Then he slipped his hands beneath the waistband of her jeans and pushed them down over her hips, stripping her completely in one fell swoop. He did not even leave her the flimsy barrier of her panties as protection.

This was the way he had wanted her all along, Judd realized with primitive exultation: open, vulnerable, needing him. With a sense of wonder and rising hunger he put out a hand to cover the dark, tangled thicket at the apex of her thighs. The feel of her was doing incredible things to him. It would be hard to make the passion last because his body was clamoring so loudly for satisfaction. But he wanted it to be good for her.