“I don’t kiss and tell,” Lula said primly, even as her gaze returned to Carter’s strong thighs draped over either side of his horse’s back.
Good Lord, the man looked way too good in blue jeans. Add in the brown sweater that emphasized his broad shoulders and the cowboy hat, and Lula was about to lose her mind. She was at the end of her rope and her cousin’s knowing smile wasn’t helping things.
“Why don’t you go catch up with your husband, Mia?” Lula said, making a shooing motion. “I like you more than I did a week ago, but you can still get back on my bad side.”
“Heaven forbid.” Mia winked. “Sorry Lu, but you’re not nearly as scary since you’ve been in love. You’re pretty adorable actually.”
Lula started to protest that she wasn’t in love or adorable, but what would be the point? Mia was going to believe what she wanted to believe, and the truth was Lula wasn’t sure how she felt. As frustrated as she’d been the past week, she’d also been having more fun than she’d had in ages.
The new memories she and Carter were making together were bridging the distance between the present and the past. It wasn’t so much that the love they’d had was coming back to life, but that something new was arising from the wreckage of their first romance. It was nurtured by the good things from their past and informed by the bad, and in her heart Lula knew it would eventually become something stronger and more solid than the love they’d found the first time around.
It wasn’t simply lust that made her skin hot when she was close to Carter, it was the love she felt for him, longing to be free. She didn’t want to hold back or be cautious. She wanted to show him how much she cared, in a way a man and a woman could only do when clothes were no longer in the equation.
So when Carter dropped her at her house after the trail ride, just as the stars were poking through the night sky and the gas lamps downtown were flickering to life, Lula held on tight when Carter tried to pull away from their hug.
“What’s up, babe?” He ran a gentle hand up and down her back that she knew was meant to be comforting but only made her nerve endings sizzle with more frustrated desire. “You okay?”
Lula shook her head but kept her cheek against his strong chest.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
Lula took a deep breath. “What if I said maybe I’d changed my mind about taking things slow?”
Carter was quiet for a moment. “Have you changed your mind?”
“Maybe,” Lula said, still too nervous to meet his eyes. “Would that be okay?”
Carter took her face in his hands, gently encouraging her to look up until she tipped her head back. When she did, the expression on his face was enough to make her stomach flip and her nipples tighten. Carter looked like a man on the verge of starving to death, and she knew it wasn’t food he was hungry for.
“It would be more than okay,” he said, holding her gaze with a focus that made her shiver. “It’s what I’ve been dreaming about, but I don’t want to hear any maybes, Lu. When you ask me to come to bed, I want to be damned sure there’s no doubt about what you want.”
He leaned closer, whispering his next words inches from her lips. “Because once I get you there, we’re not leaving until I kiss every inch of you and make you come so many times neither of us has the strength to get out of bed for at least two days.”
Lula swallowed and a soft whimper vibrated her lips.
“So think about that tonight, beautiful.” Carter pressed a kiss to her forehead that she felt in a hundred different places. “I’ll be over tomorrow before supper. If you want to stay friends, that’s fine. Just meet me at the door with that pretty red dress on, and we’ll go out to eat. But if you want more, stay upstairs and don’t put on a damned thing, and I’ll have you for supper.”
With one final kiss to her cheek, Carter turned and walked away. Lula watched him cross the street, her entire body sending up a silent wail for him not to go.
She realized what he’d been up to now. He’d been deliberately withholding everything but the friendliest of touches, knowing nothing would drive her crazier. He knew her well, but she knew him pretty well, too, and her wheels were already churning, thinking of all the delicious ways she was going to drive Carter crazy tomorrow night.
8
Carter
To say Carter was disappointed when he crossed the street the next night to see Lula waiting in the doorway of Tea for Two in her red dress was an understatement. He was devastated, deflated, and realized he was in for another lonely night with nothing but memories of Lula to keep him company.