Loving Lies by Lora Leigh

sight of you, your laughing eyes, that mysterious little smile on your face, the way you look at me in a way you don’t look at anyone else. You make my dick harder than stone, but you make my heart race. You scare the hell out of me.”
    She felt her lips trembling. He was a hard man. He wasn’t easy to get to know, or to get close to. She had known that, even years before, when she first caught sight of him while he was home from college.
    â€œSlade, I love you.” She couldn’t hold the words back, couldn’t have stilled them if her life had depended on it. “I know you don’t love me—”
    â€œDon’t.” He pressed his fingers over her lips. “Don’t tell me what I feel or what I don’t, Jessie. And let’s not rush this. I don’t want anyone else, I want to see what this is. I want to see how to make it work, okay? Just you and me, for as long as it lasts. Agreed?”
    He wasn’t saying the words, but what she saw in his eyes sent her heart exploding with joy. He stared at her as though she was everything. The same way her dad had always smiled at her mom, the same way she knew she watched him. It was there, and the sensations it sent spearing through her were as intense as an orgasm.
    â€œAgreed.” Her hands lifted to his wrists, her fingers flexing at the feel of his hair-roughened flesh, the warmth surrounding her. “I won’t be twenty-one forever,” she finally whispered, unable to still her worst fears. “I won’t embarrass you—”
    â€œDamn, woman, what the hell are you talking about?” He looked at her in surprise. “Is that why you’re as nervous as a damned cat in a yard full of barking dogs? Baby girl, trust me.” He lowered his head, pressing his forehead to hers as he stared into her eyes. “You could never embarrass me. Make me jealous as hell. Tie my guts into knots, but never, ever embarrass me.”
    His lips settled over hers, a kiss, not so much of lust, but of feeling. He moved them against hers slowly, his tongue peeking out to lick at the curves, to press into her mouth as a heartfelt moan left her lips. He wasn’t taking her—he was loving her. Surely to God he was loving her. If he loved her, she could do whatever it took to fit into the world he knew. No matter what it took.
    His lips whispered against hers, nibbling, licking, a slow, teasing benediction that had her breath catching in her throat. Slade raised his head and stared down at her once again, his smile gentle.
    â€œLet’s get dinner, before I snack on you again,” he finally sighed. “Damn, you can make me harder faster than anything I’ve ever known. And there’s no way you can take me again today.”
    She would try, if he pressed. But waiting wasn’t so bad. She had waited since she was sixteen years old, she could wait a little longer.

Chapter Five
    Â 
    The weekend ended too soon. Jessie sat beside Slade as he pulled the RV into the parking lot at the main camp Sunday evening, dressed in another of his shirts and a pair of his sweatpants that hung on her frame despite the tie at the waist. It was that or go naked. She liked the feel of his clothes against her, his scent infusing them, reminding her of why her body was so tender and the cause of the exhaustion tugging at her.
    Jazz Lancing and Zachary Richards were pulling in beside them. Slade’s closest friends and his partners in the business they owned. They had gone through school and college with Slade. They were tall and tough, just as Slade was, and they were good men. Jessie had known them most of her life and she trusted them.
    â€œJazz and Zack.” Slade’s voice was filled with humor and a lazy satisfaction that filled her with pride. “I took you away and didn’t let them know.”
    Jessie smothered her laughter. She should have told one of them where she was heading when things