Forever Buckhorn: Gabe

Pulling himself together, he cleared his throat again and looked at her face. Her head was down, her long braid hanging over a shoulder, touching a hipbone. He bit his lip, feeling the heavy thumping of his heart, the tautness of his muscles. “Lizzy?”

Her arms tightened around herself. “Hmm?”

Belatedly he understood her anxiety at being on display. He felt like a jerk, and tried for a teasing tone despite the urgency hammering through him. “You comin’ in or not?”

“Do I get a choice?”

He didn’t hesitate. “No.”

Slowly her gaze lifted to his. “You’d better be worth this.”

Oh, he’d show her just how worthwhile he could— No, wait. Wrong thought. He hadn’t brought her here for that. He’d brought her here to convince her to forget about her silly ideas of heroism.

He scowled with determination, but his carnal thoughts seemed less and less wrong with every second she stood there, her small body the epitome of sexual temptation. He unglued his tongue and said, “Come on. Quit stalling.”

She licked her lips and he groaned, practically feeling the stroke of her small pink tongue.

She glared at him suspiciously, then looked over the side of the boat, looked at him and licked her lips again. “How?”

Without even thinking about it, he found himself wading to the boat, holding up his arms and inviting her into them.

And just like that, she closed her eyes, muttered a quiet prayer and fell in against him.

CHAPTER THREE

GABE FOUND his arms filled with warm, soft woman. It wasn’t the first time, of course, but it sure felt different from any other time. Unexpectedly, her scent surrounded him. Lizzy smelled sweet, with a unique hint of musk that pulled at him. Her fingers were tight in his hair, her arms wrapped around his head in a death grip. His mind went almost blank. He could feel her firm, rounded bottom against his right forearm where he’d instinctively hooked her closer, to keep her from falling when she’d jumped in against him. His left arm was around her narrow waist, his large hand splayed wide so that his fingers spanned her back.

More momentous than that, though, was the fact that his face was pressed between her breasts. They certainly felt real enough. Jolted by the sexual press of her body, he froze, not even breathing. She was wrapped around him like a vine, but she didn’t seem to notice the intimacy of their position.

Gabe noticed. Damn, but he noticed.

He shifted the tiniest bit so that his hand could cuddle a full, round cheek, and felt the shock of the touch all the way to his throbbing groin. She panted, but not with excitement.

“Lizzy?” His voice was muffled, thanks to having his face buried in lush breasts. His hand on her bottom continued to caress her, almost with a will of its own.

Her arms tightened, her legs shifting to move around his hips in a jerky, desperate attempt to get closer to him. The movement brought the open, hot juncture of her thighs against his abdomen, and he sucked in a startled, strangled breath. If they were naked, if he slipped her down just a few inches, he could be inside her.

He was losing his grip on propriety real fast.

“Lizzy,” he said, speaking low to keep from jarring her, “you’re afraid of the water?”

Her growled, “No…yes,” almost made him smile. Even now, she tried to hide behind her prickly pride.

“It’s okay. There’s nothing in here to bother you.” Nothing but him, only she didn’t need to know that.

“I’ve never…never swam in a lake before.”

Her lips were right above his ear. She sounded breathless, and her voice trembled. “There’s nothing to be afraid of,” he crooned, and then, because he couldn’t help himself, he turned his face slightly and nuzzled his nose against the plump, firm curve of her breast.

She screamed, making his ears ring. In the next instant, she launched herself out of his arms and thrashed her way wildly to the floating dock. The back view of her awkward, hasty climb from the water didn’t do a thing to cool his libido. She seemed to be all long legs and woman softness and enticing freckles. The suit, now wet, was even more revealing. Not more revealing than a bikini, but that didn’t seem to matter to his heated libido. He watched her huddle on the dock, wrapping her arms around herself, then hurriedly survey the water.

He owed her an apology. That made him disgruntled enough to grouse, “I’ll be deaf for an hour. You screech like a wet hen.”

Lizzy shook her head, and her teeth chattered. “Something touched me. Something brushed against my leg!”

Gabe stalled. So she hadn’t screamed over his forwardness? From the looks of her, he thought, seeing how wild-eyed she appeared, she probably hadn’t even noticed that he was turned on, that he’d been attempting to kiss her breast. Making a small sound of exasperation, Gabe said, “It was probably just a fish.”

She shuddered in visible horror. “What kind of fish?”

He looked around, peering through the water, which was stirred up from her churning retreat. “There.” Pointing, he indicated a small silvery fish pecking at bubbles on the surface of the lake.

Lizzy carefully leaned forward on her hands and knees, making her breasts sway beneath the wet green suit. “Is it a baby?”

He kept his gaze glued to her body. His tongue felt thick and his jaw tight. “No. A bluegill. They don’t get much bigger than that.”

Her gaze lifted and met his, forcing him to stop staring at her body. “What’d you expect,” he asked, “Jaws?”

Her face heated. To Gabe, she looked sexy and enticing and adorable, perched on the edge of the floating dock, her bottom in the air, her eyes wide and her cheeks rosy. Her brows angled. “Are you laughing at me?”

“Nope.” He waded over to her then leaned on his forearms. No way could he join her on the dock. His wet cutoffs wouldn’t do much to hide his erection. “I didn’t realize you were afraid of the water,” he told her gently. “You should have said something.”

After a deep breath, she sat back. She drew her knees up and wrapped her arms around them. “I was embarrassed,” she admitted with a sideways look at him. “I hate being cowardly.”

“It’s not cowardly to be unsure of things you’re not familiar with.”

“Will you still answer my question?”

Annoyed that she wouldn’t forget her purpose for even a minute, he shrugged. “Get it over with.”

Her blue eyes lit with excitement, and she dropped her arms to lean toward him. Her nipples, he couldn’t help noticing, were long and pointed.

She smiled. “What were you thinking when you went into the water to save those kids?”

“Thinking?”

“Yes. You saw they were in trouble, and you wanted to help. What did you think about? How you’d get them out, the danger, that your own life wasn’t important…”

“Oh, for pity’s sake. It wasn’t anything like that.” Forgetting that he needed to stay in the water, he levered himself up beside her on the dock in one fluid movement. The dock bobbed, making her gasp and flatten her hands on the wood for balance. Water sluiced off his body as he dropped next to her then shook his head like a wet dog. Lizzy made a grab for him to keep from getting knocked in, but she released him just as quickly and frowned at him.

“So what was it like?”

He leaned back on his elbows and surveyed the bright sun, the cloudless sky. “Hell, I don’t know. I didn’t think anything. I saw the boat, saw the kids—and just reacted.” Before she could say anything about that, he added, “Anyone would have done the same.”

“No one did do the same. Only you.”

He shrugged. “I’d already gone in. There was no reason for anyone else to.”

“You were quicker to react.”