“I never would have taken you for a ball player, Princess.” This time, princess was spoken with reverence.
“There’s still a lot you don’t know about me, cowboy.” She threw another ball and sank him again, wearing a huge grin while she did so.
After Colt’s turn in the tank was over, she gave him a longing smile when he stepped from the changing tent, his hair wet, his cheeks glowing, and his shirt hugging his damp body. Neither of them said a word as he rushed to her, lifted her in his arms and gave her an explosive kiss.
“We can either sneak off into the woods or go out on the dance floor,” he whispered.
“The woods, please. After seeing you all slick and wet, I’m burning up.”
That was all Colt needed to hear. Grabbing her hand, he led her away to a much more private place.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Colt felt like a teenage boy as he slipped off into the woods with Brielle. That’s how she made him feel all the time, lightheaded and excited. He never wanted the days to end — or the nights.
She was passionate and stimulating, adventurous, and just all-around amazing. And how she made him feel about himself was the most thrilling of all. She made him feel invincible.
He would never forget the talk he’d been given when he was getting ready to head off to college and his dad had taken him fishing down by the lake. His father had told him that if he ever found a woman who made him believe in himself, he’d be a fool to let her go, because that was the type of woman a man held onto forever.
Colt had found that woman. He just had to make sure she loved him enough to get past the information he hadn’t given her about himself. Sure, he hadn’t actually lied, if he wanted to get technical. She’d just assumed he worked for her. But not telling her the truth was a lie — some might call it the sin of omission.
He pushed that from his consciousness, because they were now far enough away from the townspeople that he could ravish her, make her forget about anything other than how great the two of them were together.
He’d been playing in these woods since he was a young boy, running through them with his friends, playing cops and robbers, hide-and-seek, and so much more. Sure, he’d kissed his share of women while hiding behind a tree, but he hadn’t made love even once on the soft moss that covered the ground.
He was practically shaking as he thought about stripping Brielle down. Just the idea of seeing her na**d under the canopy of blue, with the sunlight streaming over her perfect curves, had Colt pumped up for action.
They reached a small pond that held a lot of memories of swimming, fishing, and swinging from the trees into the water on a long rope. This was the perfect place. It was quiet, well sheltered, and the epitome of the picturesque.
Colt turned to Brielle and lowered his eyelids. Her answering grin made his heart pound. Unable to keep her from his arms for even a second longer, he pulled her close, captured her beautiful pink lips, and felt her sigh vibrate in his mouth.
His hands slid hungrily beneath her blue tank top and moved up the heated skin of her back.
“You turn me on so much,” he murmured when their lips broke apart.
“Oh, Colt, no one can compare to you, or how you make me feel.”
He felt like Superman.
Lifting her tank top up over her head, he tossed it behind her and took in the lacy black bra she was wearing, her lush br**sts filling it well and leaving ample skin sticking out for him to swirl his tongue across. He leaned down and sucked on her delicate cle**age, eager for a taste of her pink ni**les, but reluctant to rush the moment, and glorying in that sexy bra.
His hands wandered down her back, slipped inside her soft cotton skirt, and easily pushed it down, so she was standing in his arms in nothing but her black bra and matching thong panties.
Taking a step back, he paused, devouring her with his eyes, loving the soft curve of her waist, how her perfect h*ps flared out just right, loving the indents on the sides of her stomach and the way the soft skin led so tantalizingly to the top of her panties.
He couldn’t help but groan as his eyes traveled down her milky thighs and calves. Toned. Shapely. Flawless.
“I want to look at your body, too,” she told him, and he looked back up, complete satisfaction filling him at the look of hunger and self-confidence in her eyes.
She knew how much he wanted her, and she was no longer embarrassed to stand there nearly na**d in front of him. She trailed a long, slim finger down the center of her cle**age and over the quivering muscles of her stomach, spreading her legs open as she leaned back against a tree right behind her.
He wished he had a camera, wished he could capture this moment, but he knew the image would be burned forever in his mind, and all he’d have to do was close his eyes to see her like this again and again.
He threw off his shirt, then began unbuttoning his jeans, never once looking away from her. As much as he loved the bra, he now wanted it far, far away, wanted to see her br**sts free and swaying before him. He pointed and said, “Take that thing off.” His voice was gruff, demanding.
Her lips turned up and, without hesitation, she reached up and undid the clasp on the front, then peeled the scrap of lace away. Her br**sts slid out, her ni**les already hard and waiting for his mouth.
“Beautiful! You are so incredibly beautiful.”
“I feel the same about you, Colt” she whispered, and her breathing stuttered as she shifted, opening her legs even more.
Both of them were so ready for each other, but Colt couldn’t move. He loved the foreplay of nothing but words, of sight.
Every time with her was more exciting than the last, more adventurous. This definitely wouldn’t ever end. He would make sure it didn’t. Colt wouldn’t let this woman go — no matter what it took.
“Do you trust me?” he asked as he stepped forward and his chest brushed the tips of her br**sts. A soft sigh escaped her, and then she traced the perfection of her parted lips with her tongue, making his erection jump painfully against the tight confines of his unbuttoned jeans.
“More than anyone.”
Her words gave him pause, but only for a moment. He would soon tell her the truth, but this wasn’t the time. He would make this right.
“Good, Brielle. Now close your eyes.”
“But I want to watch you take off your jeans.”
“Close your eyes,” he repeated, getting more and more hot as he changed the rules, as he took over and braced his hands on the tree on either side of her.
Without another protest, Brielle did as Colt had ordered and closed her eyes. He also had to close his eyes for a second because he was so near to falling over the edge. Picking up her small tank top, he lifted her arms just over her head and positioned her wrists on a tree branch. With quick movements, he secured her hands to the branch, and her eyes popped back open in surprise.