followed by a series of ear-piercingly loud beeps. Once he turned around on the ground, he motioned her over.
“Climb in,” he yelled. “I’ll show you how to work the controls.”
“Where am I supposed to sit?” she yelled back.
He patted his lap and grinned.
“No way. There’s no room.”
“You’d be surprised at the room in here. Come on. Don’t be a chicken. It’ll be fun,” he shouted.
Fun. Yeah right. Her parents never even let her near the riding lawn mower. If she told Nathan of her inexperience when it came to machinery, he’d recant his offer. Crashing the damn thing didn’t seem as mortifying as admitting her ineptitude.
Cursing her sundress, she crawled inside the cab and perched on Nathan’s knees. Her body slid down his muscular thighs until her butt met his groin. The unmistakable hard lump in his shorts revved her pulse back into overdrive. Turning her head, she lifted a brow.
“See what you do to me?”
“More like I can feel it. Maybe this isn’t the best idea.”
“Ah hell, Tate. What’s a little erection between friends?”
“Not little at all,” she pointed out, then pinned him with a curious look. “Friends? Is that what we are, Nathan?”
Something elusive skated through his eyes. “You even have to ask me if we’re more than friends?” he replied with a tight smile. “Anyway, just ignore it.”
“Is that what you’re doing, my friend?” She pressed the issue—and her bottom—down firmly, wanting more than a short answer. Didn’t seem likely they were only discussing an untimely erection. “Ignoring it?”
“At this point I don’t have a choice. Neither do you. Now listen up.”
Tate shifted forward on his legs. The cramped space, their raging hormones and no condom weren’t doing either of them any good. Ditto for the veiled conversation. She tried to concentrate, but the cadence of his low voice made her eager to hear that baritone whispering dirty talk in her ear.
“Tate?” he said impatiently. “Are you listening?”
No wonder her parents hadn’t ever let her use the weed whacker, her concentration was nil. “Umm, sure.”
Nathan demonstrated the lever’s functions. With no steering wheel, gas pedal or brake on the floor, the machine she’d deemed cute seemed dangerous with the constant vibrations that caused a low-level hum throughout her body.
After handling the controls under Nathan’s watchful eye, she decided it was sort of fun zipping around. Powerful. No wonder men had such a hard-on for machines. Geez. Her brain affixed a sexual connotation to everything lately.
They circled the dump truck twice before Nathan jammed the levers in neutral and climbed out, leaving her alone in the driver’s seat.
Tate tried not to panic. “Where should I go?”
“Behind that pile of gravel and park. Go slow.” Nathan gave her arm a reassuring squeeze, then plopped a hideous orange hard hat on her head. He smirked. “You look sexy. Don’t hit the floor control on the right because it drops the bucket. I’ll be right behind you if you need anything.”
The machine lurched as Tate eased both levers forward. Somehow she managed not to scream. The gravel pile seemed to grow farther away with every vanishing minute of daylight. She clamped a lid on her fear. Nathan would rescue her if anything went wrong. She sped up from her turtle-like speed, shocked by the increased humming vibrations in the seat.
Wow. That felt kind of good. Kind of kinky, but good nonetheless. She wiggled down and her flimsy sundress moved up, exposing her bottom directly to the seat. Slow tingles started at her epicenter, teasing all the way to the back of her bare thighs. Buzzing pinpricks like hot fingers danced across her skin. Helplessly lost in the erotic sensation, she bit back a moan. The hard hat tilted forward, blocking her vision.
Nathan’s unexpected warning shout had her jumping. Embarrassed, she turned around to see not concern but a gigantic grin creasing his face.
Had he known the effect of the vibrations? Was that why he insisted on this test drive? Additional stimulation was the last thing she needed. Heat rolled over her, from the tips of her tingling toes to the hair standing up on the back of her neck. She clamped her legs together to stave off another round of tremors, but the clenching of her outer thighs made the throbbing in her interior muscles more pronounced.
Tate threw the levers to full throttle and aimed for the gravel pile. Nathan’s shouts fell on deaf ears. She ignored the aching buzz between her legs. The sooner she climbed out of this life-size vibrator, the better.
She circled the pile of rocks four times before she remembered how to stop the contraption. Needing to regain some semblance of rationality, Tate parked, left the Bobcat idling in neutral and wiped the guilty sweat from her brow.
“What the devil just happened? Why did you take off like that?”
Tate couldn’t meet his gaze. Her insides quaked, her outsides shook and she was one twitch away from complete orgasmic meltdown.
He reached in and switched off the engine. “Tate? What’s wrong?”
She sensed him studying her. Taking in her shallow breathing, her suddenly rosy skin. She tried to scramble away from him before he could discover the shocking truth. Then Nathan’s rough-skinned hand coasted up her arm and nearly set her off.
Great. Now she was practically having orgasms from his accidental touch.
“Look at me.” He pushed her back into the seat, tilting her face toward his. Recognition lit his eyes. “You’re turned on. From driving around—”
“As if you didn’t know,” she snapped. “This is not funny.”
His eyes went wider. “You think I planned this?”
“Come on. You had me ready to explode by the pickup before you tricked me into taking this crazy X-rated ride.”
The fingers gently stroking the pulse hammering in her throat changed into an insistent caress. “And now?” he murmured.
Tate would rather bury herself face first in the dirt pile than confess the truth. “It’s worse, a lot worse, thanks to you.” Or no thanks to you, she added with a mental raspberry.
“Gee, Tate,” he said silkily, without an ounce of remorse. “What can I do?”
“Just ignore it.”
“Let me help.” Nathan boosted her up onto the back ledge of the chair. Her head nearly poked out the top of the machine. Her bottom was perched precariously on the edge of the vinyl seat. With little space to move inside the tiny cab, his long legs hung outside the open doors.
“What are you doing?” He had a decidedly wicked gleam in his eye.
He straddled the small seat, making his face level with her crotch. Tate felt his every expelled breath across her skin. His fingers traced a subtle path up and down her calves, front and back.
He slowly pushed on the insides of her thighs until she was spread open to his liking.
“What are you doing?” she repeated.
Nathan’s gaze dropped from hers as he deliberately nudged the sundress up to her hips, revealing the bare skin of her legs a scant inch at a time. “Helping you.” The husky intensity in his voice was unmistakable even over the steady thrum of her pulse.
“How is this helping?” she said.
No answer.
He scooted closer and didn’t seem to notice he’d banged his knees into the metal. After removing her sandals, he flicked his tongue against the bones on the top of her left foot above her toes. Kissing his way up her foot, he swirled his naughty, talented tongue around her ankle. His slight beard scraped the instep. He used his teeth for a tiny, impudent nip, which he immediately soothed with his hot mouth.
“Holy buckets.”
He smiled before settling her twitching toes on his broad shoulder. She nearly came at the touch of her heel pressing against the smoothness of his muscled flesh. He did the same procedure on the other foot, but in no way was the erotic process tedious.
Tate whimpered, afraid and excited by her lack of co
ntrol.
Then Nathan lowered his dark head between her legs.
“We’re in public…” Her protest died when he brushed wet, open-mouthed, drugging kisses on the underside of her thigh. Her nipples went rigid. Her leg started to shake like a dog getting its belly scratched. Except Nathan’s gaze was nowhere near her tummy.
“I don’t care,” he said, dropping another prolonged kiss on the other leg, higher up. “Let me taste you. I’ll make the ache go away.”
Oh God. It was all she could do not to latch on to his ears and drag that marvelous mouth exactly where it needed to be. “Umm…this won’t help you,” she offered feebly.
His chuckle bordered on amusement. “I beg to differ. I’ve been dying to show you this lesson.” He blew hot breath across her wet entrance. “And it happening in the Bobcat fulfills another longtime fantasy of mine.”
Her breath hitched.
“You are my ultimate fantasy, Tate.” His hands smoothed over her arms, raising them above her head. He placed one hand on each side of the black steel roll cage surrounding them.
She clenched the metal until it bit into her skin. Halfway up her left thigh, his mouth stopped teasing kisses, and he lifted his head.
“Do you trust me?”
“Y-yes.”
“You still willing to push those sexual boundaries?”
“Y-yes.”
His wicked grin had her fingers curling around the metal lattice tenfold. The pine-scented air turned thick and hot.
Tate couldn’t think. She couldn’t breathe. Mostly, she couldn’t wait.
“Then hang on tight,” he advised as he once again bent to his task. “I have a feeling this is gonna be one wild ride.”
Nathan forced his mouth to wander slowly up the silken expanse of Tate’s thighs when he ached to race to her creamy core. The scent of her arousal tormented him, along with the need to taste her, bury his tongue inside her where her juices were as sticky sweet as wild honey.
He drank in her face flushed with passion and gave her one long lick right over her soaked panties.
Her eyes fluttered closed. She threw her head back and moaned. The hard hat crashed behind her, but she didn’t notice.
“Like that, don’t you?” He lapped at her again. Finesse be damned. Another vigorous sweep of his tongue. Followed by another. He yanked aside the flimsy barrier of her panties and used strong, quick and short flicks of his tongue.
She wiggled closer to his mouth, her gasp ending with a softly pled, “More. Please.”
Nathan wasn’t sure he didn’t flat-out growl at her sexy request. Drawing out her pleasure at this point wasn’t an option. Still, he wanted to make his first intimate kiss memorable.
Like he’d ever forget the way her legs trembled. How her abdomen quivered. Her needy cry when his hot breath gusted over her swollen flesh. Or his first glimpse of the glistening folds of her pink sex engorged with blood. God. She was gorgeous. Sweet. All soft and swollen and wet for him.
Spreading her open with his thumbs, Nathan zigzagged his tongue up and down, around and inside her opening, rimming the outside, sucking the fleshy lips of her sex. Letting his tongue torment her everywhere except the spot pouting below her pubic bone.
Tate thrashed side to side, shaking the cage. “Don’t tease. I’m so close that it almost hurts. Nathan, please.”
At her plea, Nathan settled his open mouth over her clit and sucked hard on that hot button until it contracted beneath his flickering tongue. Until she twisted off the seat, her hands rattling the cage as she came, bucking, straining, grinding her wet, throbbing sex against his face.
The pulsating against his mouth had slowed but hadn’t stopped. “Again,” he demanded, lapping at another rush of moisture.
“I can’t,” she whimpered, whipping her head side to side.
Somewhere in the distance a coyote howled.
“You can.” He bit the soft inner flesh of her thighs, licked and soothed the bite with his tongue. “You will.” Instead of backing off, he shifted, inserting his middle finger deep into her slick opening.
She gasped, pressing her mouth to her upper arm to muffle the cry. Her abdomen clenched and pushed his finger higher inside.
Patiently, Nathan used tiny whips of his tongue, gentle nips of his lips until she was ready for direct contact. Adding another finger, he curled the tips against the inside wall, connecting with her hot spot the same time his mouth fastened to her clit. He plunged and withdrew his fingers until she began to pump into his rhythm. His thumb drew her sweet wetness down to the crevice of her bottom and pressed against her rear opening.
She stiffened up.
“Relax, baby. That’s as far as I’m gonna go.”
In the ultimate show of trust, she tipped her hips back and spread her thighs even wider.
Feeling her, tasting her, Nathan knew he’d never been this in tune with any woman. No woman had ever trusted him so completely. And for the first time, he believed he might be worthy of such a woman.
He continued to work her to an orgasmic frenzy.
Tate’s modest moans built into a full-fledged scream. Her whole body convulsed at every contact point, around his fingers, his tongue, his thumb, strangely synchronized to the pulsing in his own groin.
While repeatedly rubbing his hips against the back of the seat as he pleasured Tate, his cock demanded release. His balls lifted, his brief pause for control a tiny memory.
Nathan had no choice but to let go.
He came with her, hard, in a burst of hot satisfaction. Blood roared in his ears, blocking light, sound and motion.
Time lost all meaning.
Finally, he roused himself from where his cheek stuck to Tate’s still-quaking left thigh.
Normally he’d be mortified at his lack of control. But what just happened between them transcended embarrassment. It transcended logic. It even transcended sex.
Nathan had fallen for her. All of her: her sweetness, her sexiness, her stubbornness. Mostly her complete acceptance of everything about him.
God help him but he loved her.
And there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.
Or stop her from leaving.
If he told her how he felt right now, she’d dismiss any declaration of love as the aftereffects of incredible sex.
When had his experiment with romance gone so terribly wrong? Why had everything between them felt so magically right from the start?
Two quick vibrations broke through his daze. Reluctantly he glanced down to the cell phone attached to his belt.
Richard.
Perfect timing? Or lousy? Either way, he was saved from voicing his conflicting thoughts.
“Yes, Mom.” Tate withheld a bliss-filled sigh as Nathan’s warm, rough tongue licked a path down her spine. “Don’t worry. I’m being careful.”
She eyed the half-empty condom box and grinned. She and her mother were not holding the same conversation. Nathan’s chin dug into her tailbone. Tate squeaked, “What? Sorry. No, the TV distracted me. What did you say?”
“TV, my ass,” Nathan grumbled, chomping her left butt cheek.
She clapped a hand over her mouth, smothering another squeal. “No. I haven’t heard a word from the board. Of course I’d call you.” An impatient breath exploded. “Geez, Mom, I’m twenty-nine, not nine… But—” Her protests died against her mother’s usual rant.
Tate banged her head against the braided rug. Ouch. Nope, not a bad dream. She really was trying to have a normal conversation with her mother—as if that were ever possible—stark naked, sprawled facedown on the floor after another rigorous bout of Nathan’s lovemaking.
Not lovemaking, she mentally corrected, awesome sex. Phenomenal sex. Rug-burns-on-her-butt-till-she-couldn’t-move-her-butt sex.
She waited for her mother’s rebuttal to end and said, “I’ll call the minute I hear anything. Bye.” She flung the phone aside. “Shoot me if I answer the phone again.”
Nathan’s r
ough-skinned palms moved up her back to cup her