One Unforgettable Night: Wild at Heart / From This Moment On / Her Last Best Fling. Debbi Rawlins
They’d been hot for each other last night, and he was still burning, but she might have cooled down since then.
Well, he’d find out soon enough. In the meantime, he’d act as her research assistant, which wasn’t a bad deal. In fact, he considered it a privilege to be involved, even a little bit, in her work.
“After they leave the nest, will you have any way of tracking what happens to them?”
The steady click of the keys stopped for a moment. “No. I won’t be banding them. It’s too invasive.”
“I agree.” He went back to describing the movements of the eagles, and she continued to type.
Then she paused again. “I take it you got the afternoon off?”
“Yes, I did. Okay, it looks like the father is getting ready to leave the nest.”
She started typing again. “When do you have to go back?” The keys clicked rhythmically.
“Tomorrow morning.”
Her typing came to an abrupt halt.
Although his back was to her, he swore he could feel the intensity of her stare. Suddenly it seemed several degrees warmer on the platform. “If that’s okay with you.”
Behind him, the laptop closed with a soft snap.
“I won’t interfere with your work.” Lowering the binoculars, he turned around, hoping he hadn’t misjudged, hoping he would find…Yes. The same emotion sizzling in his veins heated her blue gaze. His pulse hammered as he held that gaze.
Slowly she stood. When she drew in a breath, her body quivered. “Interfere with my work.” She stepped out from behind the small table. “Please.”
EVER SINCE LUKE had come charging toward her across the meadow, Naomi had felt like a shaken bottle of champagne ready to blow at any second. Intellectually she’d known that leaping from his horse and scaling the platform would be silly, but her romantic heart had wanted him to do that all the same. She’d wanted to be taken in a mad rush of passion that gave her no time to think.
But he’d taken freaking forever to deal with his horse, which was a good thing but didn’t scream eagerness on his part. So she’d concluded he was here as much to see the eagles as to see her, especially after he’d mentioned them before he’d ridden over to the campsite.
But now…now he looked the way she felt. His throat moved in a quick swallow. “How sturdy is this platform, anyway?”
Her heart rate climbed. “Sturdy enough, but—” She thought of the logistics. Both of them were wearing complicated clothing.
“Right. We’re both way overdressed for this.”
“We are.” She thought longingly of her transparent nightgown and the entrance she could make if they were in a hotel room instead of on a wooden platform twenty feet above the ground. Instead she wore extremely unsexy hiking shorts, a T-shirt and, most problematic of all, hiking boots.
No man should be forced to remove his lover’s lace-up hiking boots before they had sex. So that meant she needed to undress herself. Then she thought of what fun it would be to watch Luke strip down right here on her observation platform. Anybody could make a luxury suite seem seductive, but how many people could say they’d had sex in a tree?
She turned and grabbed her camp stool. “I don’t know about you, but I’m going to slip into something more comfortable.”
A slow smile made him look even more breathtakingly handsome. He took off his hat and laid it brim-side up on the platform. “I knew we were going to get along.”
“That’s a different hat.” She unlaced her boot and pulled it off along with her sock.
“Sarah’s going to see what she can do with the other one.” He unsnapped his cuffs as he watched her pull off her other boot. “But if you ask me, one ruined hat is a small price to pay.”
Her body tingled from the gleam in his eyes. “You don’t know that yet.”
“Yes, I do.” He unsnapped his shirt.
“I might be lousy at sex.”
He laughed.
“Really, I might. You know that underdog syndrome we talked about?” She stood and the wood felt warm under her bare feet. “Those are the guys I tend to pick.”
“So I’m an underdog? Ouch!” He pulled off his shirt and dropped it to the platform.
“Oh, no.” Her gaze traveled lovingly over his broad chest. “You’re no underdog.”
“That’s a relief.” He sent her a sizzling glance as his hands went to his belt buckle. “Better get moving, Perkins. You’re falling behind.”
“No, I’m not.” But she’d been caught standing motionless and staring. She’d admit that. “You still have your boots on.”
“So I do.” He paused, his fingers at the button of his jeans. “After you take off your shirt, how about tossing that stool over here?”
“I can do it now.” She reached for it.
“Please pull off your shirt,” he said softly. “Your boots seemed to take forever. I thought I’d go crazy.”
She paused. Until now she’d been so focused on him that she’d forgotten that he might be as eager to watch her undress. “Don’t expect sexy underwear,” she said.
“Why would you wear sexy underwear when you’re camping?”
With a smile, she echoed his earlier comment. “I knew we’d get along.” Then she grabbed her T-shirt and yanked it over her head.
“Mmm.”
His murmur of approval sent heat flooding through her, and moisture gathered between her thighs.
“More.” His voice sounded husky. “The bra, too.”
She trembled as excitement warred with her natural modesty. “I’ve never stripped for a man in broad daylight.”
“I’m honored to be the first.” His chest expanded as he dragged in a breath and let it out slowly. His glance was hungry. “Come on, Naomi. I want to see you with sunlight on your breasts.”
Pulse hammering, she reached behind her back and unfastened the hooks of her white cotton bra. Then she drew it off and let it fall to the platform.
His gaze held hers for a few seconds before dipping. Then it returned to lock with hers. His voice was tight. “You’re incredible. And I want to touch you more than I want to breathe.”
Her nipples tightened and she quivered with longing. “Then touch me.”
With a groan of surrender, he eliminated the space between them and crushed her in a fierce embrace. Bare skin met the solid wall of his chest, and she gasped at the pleasure of that first contact.
“I need you so much.” His mouth found hers as he pulled her in close, letting her feel the hard ridge beneath the fly of his jeans.
The urgency of his kiss drove her wild. No man had ever wanted her like this, as if he couldn’t contain the passion gripping him. Keeping her firmly wedged against his crotch, he continued kissing her as he leaned back enough to cup her breast in one large hand. His moan of need vibrated through her.
His hands were calloused from his work, and that only made his touch more erotic. She squirmed against him, aching for relief from the tension that tightened with each thrust of his tongue into her mouth and squeeze of his hand on her breast.
Desperation