Free Sweet Talking Lawman by M.B. Buckner

that coming back here meant meeting him again was
inevitable, but despite the weeks she’d already had, she still wasn’t prepared
to face Rafe.
    She remembered vividly the
night he’d walked so casually into Howell’s Hideaway.  She’d recognized
him as he lifted a mug of beer from the bar and strolled across the floor to
lower his big frame into a chair at the table closest to the stage where she
was sitting on a stool in front of the microphone.  She remembered she’d
been so surprised, she’d messed up the lyrics of the song she’d been singing,
but thankfully it was one of her newer pieces, so no one seemed to
notice.  It had been a night out of one of her dreams.  Rafe had not
so much as looked at another woman despite the fact that every woman in the
place was eyeing him.  He couldn’t seem to take his eyes off her.  He
kept telling her what a beautiful woman she’d become and later, upstairs, he’d
finally kissed her.
    Trying to plan a quick meal
she’d asked him what he’d like to have and he told her.
    “You, Mesa,” his voice was
rough as sandpaper.  “I want you.”
    His eyes held hers as he
lowered his head and brushed his lips across hers.  That gentle touch
snatched her breath away.
    His chocolate eyes sparkled. 
“I’ve been wantin’ to do that for years.”
    Mesa could hardly breathe as
his head dropped again.  Just before his lips touched hers for the second
time, his eyes closed, his sooty lashes resting against his bronze skin and
then she couldn’t see anymore because her own eyes closed and she lost herself
in the movement of his lips on hers.  The first kisses were tender,
lingering and almost chaste, but then Rafe’s lips separated and his tongue
traced the crease where hers came together, seeking entry.  Mesa wasn’t
even aware that she responded by letting her lips part, but the feel of his
tongue slipping into her mouth, ignited a fire that shot through her body like
a charged flux.  She groaned into his mouth and he pulled her close
against him.
    Then he pulled his mouth away
from hers.  “Lord, Mesa, I don’t think I’ve ever wanted anything like I
want you.”  It was something between a whisper and a growl, and his hot
breathe against her ear only increased the heat rushing through her body, pooling
below her stomach.  When he found her mouth again, he took possession of
it, exploring, coaching, encouraging, inviting, and daring her to respond in
kind.
    Timidly, at first, she did,
but when she sensed the tremor of desire shoot through him, she grew bolder, finding
confidence in her ability to arouse this intensely masculine man.  It was
a fierce, empowering aphrodisiac, knowing that she had the ability to produce
such passion in him.
    “Baby,” he growled.  “I
don’t think I can keep this up.  I’ve got to slow down.” 
Reluctantly, he lifted his head, afraid his overwhelming desire would push her
away.  “I’m not usually so…desperate.”
    She was dazed and shaky not
sure she wouldn’t fall without him holding her up.
    “It must be all those erotic
fantasies I’ve allowed to play out in my mind over the years.”  He was
still captivated by the heat in her response, the soft yielding of her body
against his.
    “Fantasies?” she queried.
    He nuzzled her neck. 
“Mmmm hmm, when I fantasied what would have happened if I hadn’t stepped back
from that bathroom door that night.  In my fantasy, I walk inside and pull
it shut behind me closing the world out and us in.”  His tongue traced a
small circle just below her ear.
    Mesa shivered, and then
pressed her hands against his broad chest, pushing away from him.  Smiling
she took his hand and led him to a closed door.  “Give me a minute and a
half,” she instructed before she slipped through the door, closing it in his
face.
    Rafe later confided how he’d
stood there for a minute bewildered.  Had he been too desperate? 
She’d seemed so timid, but when she’d slipped her