Secret Love - Brenda Jackson [29]
At that moment, as if she felt his gaze on her, she dropped her hand from shielding her eyes and turned and met him across the distance, eye to eye. For what seemed like an eternity, neither of them blinked. She slowly smiled with wide moist lips, which was not intended to tease, but did so anyway. The attraction that he had tried fighting suddenly intensified to a roaring blaze, a towering inferno.
Jake stared at her for a little while longer before finally making a decision. He slowly moved his horse toward her. When he reached her, he watched as she nervously ran her fingers through her hair and licked her lips, biting the bottom one softly.
“Diamond,” he said quietly.
She raised her face and looked up at him questioningly. “Yes?”
They looked at each other, tension shimmering between them, surrounding them, engulfing them. “It’s getting late,” he finally said. “I thought this would be a good time for me to show you some more of Whispering Pines. Are you interested enough to want to come with me?”
Diamond knew she should turn down his invitation and stay put. Being alone with Jacob was the last thing she needed, but unfortunately it was everything she wanted. She would be returning to the cabin at the end of the day while he and his men continued to drive the herd to the high pastures, a process that could take three to four days to do. The thought of not seeing him for that length of time bothered her. She wanted to spend every chance she got with him.
“I’d love to go with you, Jacob. It’ll only take a minute for me to get my horse.”
“We can both ride mine.”
She frowned, not sure that was such a good idea, but when he reached his hand down to her, without hesitation she placed hers in his. She took a deep steadying breath when he leaned over, reached down with big strong arms and pulled her up into the saddle behind him. She placed her arms around his waist to hold on.
He glanced back over his shoulder. “All set?”
“Yes.”
“Okay then, let’s go.” Setting off at a steady clip, he trotted his horse toward the mountains.
Jake was losing what little control he had. Diamond was holding firmly on to him. With each and every powerful movement his horse made as it galloped up the path, her body rubbed against his. He could feel the softness of her breasts brushing against his back, and the feel of her soft feminine thighs cradling his own as she held on to him around the waist. Neither of them said anything as they rode farther and farther away from camp and deeper and deeper away from the ranch.
When Jake finally brought his horse to a stop sometime later, Diamond glanced around. It was a very secluded place. A little creek ran the length of an area covered by a thicket of pine trees. They had stopped under a huge canopy of thick branches. There were wildflowers and an abundance of bluebonnets everywhere. The place, she could tell, was a private one, some sort of secret hideaway.
“I discovered this place as a kid and still come here whenever I have a lot on my mind and want to think about something,” he said as if reading her thoughts, as he slid off the horse. “It’s still my own special private place.”
When he stood on the ground, he reached his hands up to her. She braced her hands on his shoulders and slid down into his arms. Midway they faced each other before he slowly and carefully lowered her to the ground. When her feet touched the hard earth, she dropped her hands from his shoulders. But he made no effort to remove his hands from her waist.
“You can let me go now, Jacob,” she said in a velvety voice.
A hard sheen of wanting and desire glittered in Jake’s eyes.