Born to Be Wild Read online

  She stood at the edge of the clearing, hands on her hips. The stance pulled at the buttons of her blouse, not letting him ignore the fact that her sports bra was still in his backpack. But he didn’t let his gaze linger on the shadowed fullness of her breasts. Instead, as he closed the distance between them, he kept his attention focused on her. All of her. She’d mystified him as a child, provoking him to do idiotic things that had resulted in alienating her. He stopped a few feet away from her, reveling in the discovery that the enchantment was still there. Only far more potent. Please Lord, he found himself silently praying, don’t let me do anything stupid to mess things up this time.

  “Which way?”

  “The lake is over here.” He gestured toward a gently sloping path that had been recently widened, although he was pleased to see the crew he’d hired had taken pains to keep it from looking that way. The other surrounding paths, as well as the service road they’d hiked up on, had also been recently graded to remove the deep ruts the winter runoff always created. From the looks of it so far, the buggies should do just fine.

  “I know I said it all looked the same earlier.” Dara shifted her gaze to the sweeping vista spread out below them. The fields in the valley were sectioned off, planted with various crops, making them look like an odd game board, with the small farmhouses and other buildings resembling small playing pieces scattered about haphazardly. “But up here the view is simply outstanding.” She turned to face him. “You picked a beautiful spot, Zach.”

  “I think the kids will like it.”

  Dara gave him a “we’ll see” look. He loved knowing he could drive her to complete distraction in less than five seconds almost as much as he loved the reemerging wildness in her. But he realized he was equally drawn to her business-only side, and he actually liked the way she insisted on analyzing everything. Maybe even when it came to the two of them.

  She kept him on his toes, made him look at things from a different perspective, challenging him on levels he’d never experienced. Like one long never-ending thrill ride.

  A ride he was rapidly discovering he didn’t want to ever end.

  “Don’t count your parachutes before they’ve opened, Brogan,” she cautioned. “You still have two days’ worth of a schedule to sell me on.”

  “I know they’ll like it. Just as I know your report to the board and their parents will get it approved. “I mean, I planned it, didn’t I?”

  She sighed and patted his cheek. “Maybe your body didn’t outgrow your ego after all.”

  He laughed and lunged for her, but she was too quick and dashed several yards down the path.

  Zach caught up to her and slipped his hand in hers, liking the way her fingers felt between his. “So,” he asked cheerfully, “you ever fish with live bait before?”

  An owl screeched in the dark, prompting Dara to tuck in her legs Indian fashion and shift as close to the fire as she dared. “This is really good,” she said, scooping up another heaping spoonful of chili.

  Zach polished off the last bite. “I guess it’s a good thing I brought a few cans.”

  “If you’re going to start again on my fishing skills—”

  “What fishing skills?”

  Dara picked up a small rock and tossed it at him. It landed square in the middle of his chili, splattering his sweatshirt with red sauce.

  Zach looked down in disbelief, then across the fire at her. “Oh, Colbourne, you’re gonna pay for that one.”

  Dara immediately set down her bowl and scrambled to her feet, but Zach was already halfway around the small ring of rocks. She turned and blindly began to run, shrieking as she dodged trees.

  “Running won’t save you this time, little girl.”

  “Wanna bet?” Her words were barely audible as she sucked in another lungful of clean night air.

  A hand circled her arm and pulled her around in a wide loop until she landed against the hard surface of his body.

  “Yeah, I wanna bet.”

  She smacked him on the chest. “The least you could do”—she paused to catch her breath—“is be a little out of breath.” She looped her arms around his waist and rested her forehead on his shirt.

  She could feel his heart pounding. The force of it belied his apparent ease in catching her. She smiled against the gray fabric, warmed by his body.

  “You do things to my breath,” he said softly, “that put scaling Annapurna or K2 to shame.”

  A little shiver raced over her skin, making her wonder why she’d worked so hard all afternoon to stay out of his reach. It hadn’t been easy. They’d gone fishing, trail blazing, discussed Zach’s strategies for everything from finding a way for the kids to answer nature’s call to making sure they’d be able to take on most of the camp chores themselves.

  Zach could have easily pushed it, but he hadn’t. She’d been relieved, thinking time would help her put his effect on her in some sort of perspective. But now, in his arms again, she knew no amount of time, short of the rest of her life, would ever dull the impact he had on her.

  Her head buzzed at the feel of his hands. Without actually deciding to do it, she lifted her head and licked at a spot of chili sauce. Then another. And another.

  She felt his chest flex as she continued her quest.

  “Taste good?” His voice was as dark as the night.

  “Mmm-hmm,” she murmured.

  “Makes me wish I’d thought of this when you spilled coffee on your blouse.”

  Dara’s nipples hardened at his whispered suggestion. On impulse, she leaned over and sucked on the nipple barely detailed under his sweatshirt.

  His sudden inward breath pulled his chest away from her, but his arms held her tight against him. “Do that again.”

  She’d started to lift her head away, but the gentle pressure of his hand on the back of her neck was more provocation than she needed. She slowly pulled his other nipple in her mouth until it too could be felt through his sweatshirt. She could hear his breath come even harder. So she did it again.

  He groaned. Setting her just slightly away from him, Zach yanked his sweatshirt over his head, then immediately pulled her back to him. Dara lifted her hands to his waist, then drew them slowly over the contours of his hard, flat abdomen, tangling in the soft dark blond hair that whorled across his upper chest.

  She licked her lips.

  He groaned again, deep in the back of his throat. “Taste me, Dara. Go on.”

  She parted her lips, slowly sliding her tongue out, then very lightly flicked the soft circle of skin around his nipple. Her gaze drifted upward just as her lips closed around the tightened knot of flesh.

  His eyes glittered, looking black and bottomless under the moonlit sky. He pulled her closer, his arm dropping to her waist, then lower, cupping her hips to his. Dara was beyond ready for the feel of the hard length of him. Her knees buckled, but she didn’t have time to worry about standing. Zach pulled her head back and lowered his mouth to hers.

  Then his tongue drove into her mouth, once, twice, then again and again as his hips moved against her, and both breathing and staying upright ceased to matter. Responding to him, his response to her, that was her sole focus. The force of what he made her feel, of what her own actions made her feel, rocked her hard.

  Her hands lifted to his face. She tilted his head as she dueled with his tongue for control of the kiss, reveling in the ferocity of his need for her, but unable to master her need to be fierce as well. So she stopped trying.

  She’d worried about being swept away in a storm of passion like she had with Daniel, but she knew this was far more powerful than anything Daniel had inspired in her. Maybe she’d always known that.

  Zach let her in, let her taste him. He bent and lifted her up, finally, mercifully pressing himself where she needed to feel him most. And it still wasn’t enough. She squirmed in his arms, half wild for him and reveling in the fact that he was equally wild for her.

  “Hold on to me,” he whispered into her mouth.
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  Her arms went around his neck, her fingers digging into the dense muscles of his back. She felt them flex and contract as he moved. She pulled his bottom lip into her mouth. She moved to his chin, then along his jaw, the slight abrasion of his shadowed beard against her already tender lips intensifying the sensations rocketing through her.

  Suddenly there was a rough surface biting into her back, and she gasped.

  She barely had time to register that she was wedged between his body and a tree before he was pulling her legs up over his hips. And when the rigid length of him was finally centered, he began moving against the ache between her legs, easing it, tormenting it, strengthening it. She cried out against the damp, salty skin of his throat.

  “Oh God, Zach.” She breathed hard against his neck, as he continued to ride her. “Oh my God.” She desperately wanted to make him stop so she could tear her pants off, then his, but that would mean he’d have to move away from her, and she simply couldn’t make him do that. Just the thought had her convulsively tightening her thighs on his hips.

  Zach framed her face with his hands and brought his mouth down on hers again. This time he controlled it, he tasted and sucked and licked. She gave in to the tight feeling that was snaking its way up her belly, swelling her breasts, tightening her nipples, making her sweat. He rubbed his flat palm over her nipple until it hardened to a small, hot ache. His mouth trailed from hers. He nipped at her chin, then traced his tongue down her throat. He tormented her the way she’d tormented him until she wanted to claw her shirt off, desperate to feel his mouth, tongue, and teeth on her bare skin.

  And still he rode her, his hips never slowing, never stopping their primal rhythm.

  “Don’t stop,” she whispered, barely able to form the words. “Zach. Zach. Oh … my … God. Zach!”

  The third time his name rushed in a high shriek as the coil whiplashed back down her body and snapped hard between her legs.

  “I’m here, baby. I’m here.” He whispered her name over and over; against her breast, on her throat, along her jaw, and finally into her mouth.

  She felt him shudder against her, his hips bucking hard and staying tight. He gathered her in his arms, turned and slid slowly down the trunk of the tree until they were sitting in a sprawl of arms and legs at its base.

  He kissed her long and deep, his arms tight around her. She held him tightly, too, almost afraid if she didn’t, they’d both implode from the force of what had just taken place. His kisses gentled then, soft, sweet kisses that made her eyes burn, until finally he stopped, leaving his lips on hers.

  “Can you reach my feet?”

  His words vibrated against her lips. His mouth left hers and rested in the crook of her neck.

  She wound her fingers in his hair and held him there. “What?” She knew he’d said something, but the words were so incongruous, her mind refused to interpret them.

  “My feet. I want you to uncurl my toes.”

  “Oh.” She smiled against his hair.

  Slowly the world around them came back into focus. The night breeze, the sounds of the crickets, the frogs, and Lord knew what other slithery mountain creatures, the black sky studded with more stars than she’d thought existed.

  “Dart, I’m—”

  She gripped his head closer against her neck. “Shh.”

  He pulled from her grasp and looked at her. For a long moment they stared at each other, then Zach leaned back against the tree, arranging her sideways in his lap, tucking her against his chest, his arms tight around her.

  “It’s funny,” he said.

  She looked up at him. “Funny?”

  “Maybe ironic is a better word.” Before she could ask, he continued. “I’m thirty. I’ve been with women. Seen lots of breasts. I’ve even had some pretty spectacular climaxes.”

  Dara started to pull from his arms, but they hardened, like prison bars. “Zach, I don’t—”

  “But you will. This time. Now.”

  “I don’t want to hear this,” she said.

  “Yes, you do. Trust me.” It wasn’t a question. But when he tilted her head up to his, the question was there in his eyes. “I need you to understand.”

  She couldn’t look away from him. She’d never seen him like this. She’d seen shades of this side of him that first day in her office, and there had been one or two glimpses since. But she really hadn’t thought he was capable of being this intense, this … serious. She dipped her chin in the slightest of nods, still not really wanting to hear the rest, but willing to. For him.

  “I wasn’t trying to be crude. But it was necessary to make my point.”

  “Which is?”

  “Which is that because I’ve done so many wild things, both personally and professionally, I guess I’d sort of gotten a little smug. Only I didn’t realize it.”

  “Smug?” Her grin came out of nowhere, and she clung to it, feeling normal with him for the first time since he’d caught her when she’d run.

  “Smug,” he repeated. “Oh, I enjoyed myself. Made sure it was mutual. I was smart, made sure I was safe, that my partner was safe. And figured that was as good as it got. And for the most part, it was pretty damn good.”

  Dara looked away. She didn’t know which was worse, the idea of another woman getting pleasure in his arms, or that she was likely just another name on that list.

  “And now?” She forced the words out.

  He took her face in his hands, daring her to look at him again. His eyes never left hers. “And now I realize I didn’t have a clue.”

  Zach lowered his mouth to within a heartbeat of hers. “What just happened between you and me, against this tree … It was wild and hot and out of control. And it should have just been great sex. We didn’t even take our pants off. I wasn’t inside you.” He visibly swallowed. “But it had nothing to do with sex, did it? God help me, Dart, but I don’t think I’ve ever felt like I was deeper inside another person in my whole life.”

  His kiss was gentle yet insistent. She kissed him back, hoping it was what he needed, hoping that when she looked at him again, that awful emptiness would be gone. Not daring to think about what she needed or wanted.

  He didn’t let her see. He simply pulled her head back to his chest. She felt his cheek come to rest on her hair.

  For several long minutes, she just sat there, concentrating on her heartbeat. And his. She felt completely unprepared. And nervous. And big-time scared.

  “You said it was ironic,” she reflected, no longer able to bear the silence of her own thoughts.

  He sighed, but the small chuckle she felt more than heard reassured her. “Being around you, with you … I don’t know. I’ve never felt like this. And I seem to have this compulsion to discuss it with you.” He pressed a kiss to her hair. “Which is natural, since, after all, you’re the champion analyzer of this pair.”

  She smiled, and her muscles relaxed just a little. “And now I’m the one who doesn’t want to talk.”

  “Yeah. Figures, doesn’t it?”

  Dara sat up, holding on to his shoulders for support. She looked straight at him. “Zach, I’m not sure what you want from me.”

  “I’m not sure what you want from me, either, Dara. Maybe that’s what’s scaring the hell out of me.”

  “You’re scared too?” She didn’t realize what she’d revealed until it was too late.

  “Out of my ever-loving mind.”

  It should have made her feel better. And maybe, in some crazy way, it did. “What are we going to do about it?”

  “Follow our instincts?” He winked. “They’ve led us down some pretty interesting paths so far, wouldn’t you say?”

  Her smile was more tentative. “I keep wanting to be smart about this. I had to make some pretty hard choices a while back.” She looked down for a moment, then back up at him. “And until now, I thought I was clear on what was best for me. I honestly don’t know if that’s you. And yet …” She ended on a whisper. “I can’t seem to stop myself.
”

  “Me either.” He dropped a quick kiss on her nose, then another on her mouth. “I know you have reasons for the choices you’ve made, Dara. Just as I know we’re different. But different doesn’t have to mean incompatible.”

  She laughed, the hoarse sound surprising them both. “Oh, I think our compatibility is more than fine.”

  Zach laughed too. “Yeah, well, if all we ever do is make love then we’ll be okay.”

  Dara’s breath caught, and Zach’s gaze swung to hers. Her lips parted, and he leaned in closer.

  “I want more than that,” she whispered.

  “Yeah, I know,” he whispered back. “So do I.” He nipped at her lips. “So do I.” Then his mouth took hers and there were no more words.

  Zach felt his body tighten again. She was returning his kiss, and he didn’t want to stop. But he knew this time it wouldn’t end up with them half dressed, or dressed at all. And it’s not how he wanted them to take the next step. This wasn’t even close to how he’d planned to take the first one.

  He pulled his mouth from hers and gently shifted her from his lap. Standing a bit awkwardly, he reached down and pulled her up into an easy embrace. “I think I’d, um, better go and clean up.”

  She smiled even as she blushed. “Yeah.” She stepped out of his arms and turned back toward camp.

  He tucked her hand in his as he walked next to her. “You want to go with me?”

  She looked at him, her expression unreadable. “I … no. No, I’m all right.”

  She dropped his hand as soon as they were close to their campsite, and Zach dragged his duffel bag out of his tent. He gathered a few things and turned to ask Dara a question, but was greeted by the lovely sight of her derriere poking up in the air as she rooted around in her own tent.

  “No,” he instructed himself under his breath. “Go wash up.” Then he chuckled.

  “What’s so funny?” She turned and sat with her arms crossed over her bent knees.

  “I think I just told myself to go jump in a lake.”

  “Huh?”

  He grinned. “You sure you don’t want to come with me?”

  Her frown changed to a knowing smile. “Zach,” she said sweetly, “go jump in the lake.”