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We'll send them out with a bang, though. A literal one--sex after being caught outside in a terrifying thunder storm. There's not much that gets the blood pumping like running for your life through lightning and hail, and once Mateus and Crawford are safe in a barn, they put all that adrenaline to good use.
I'm not posting most of the scene, just the teaser to their sexytimes, but you'll have to trust me that after all the build-up and tension in the book, the climax is electric.
I'll stop with the storm puns now. *g*
These two have tiptoed around each other through tropes and misunderstandings, and by the time they finally get together, there's no doubt they belong together. I had an amazing amount of fun channeling all the old-school Harlequin tropes I used to love as a teenager, and I can't wait to start reading the other Dreamspun Desires books!
Tall, Dark and Deported
They'd made it a few steps before the rain stopped and the sky lightened. It turned a sickly green, which wasn't something Crawford had ever seen before. Apparently Mateus had, because he looped the picnic basket through one arm and reached back with another, grabbing onto Crawford's hand and tugging him forward as he broke into a flat-out run. “Hurry!” he yelled, tucking his head down.
Crawford couldn't even get out a question before he felt something sting the back of his neck. Once, twice, and then suddenly there was a deluge, too many to count, sharp pricks battering him all over. He ducked his head like Mateus, then used his free hand to unfurl the blanket, making a shelter for them. He shook free of Mateus's grip and held it up over them as best he could as they ran. The ground around them was littered with tiny pieces of hail. They didn't look bigger than peas, but they'd felt like boulders when they'd been hitting his skin. The blanket didn't keep them all off, but it was better than just being completely unprotected.
“Do you think it's unlocked?” he yelled as they neared the white clapboard barn.
“Probably not,” Mateus yelled back. “These pole barns have to be padlocked, and I don't see one.”
Crawford had no idea what that was, but he vowed to read up on barns and become an expert if they made it through this intact. They stumbled to a clumsy stop in front of the huge barn doors, and he sighed in relief when he realized it was closed with a large piece of timber. There was a spot for a lock, it looked like, but nothing was there.Mateus hefted the large bar up, and the barn doors creaked open. They rushed inside, but Mateus didn't close the door behind them. There weren't any windows in the barn, and closing the door would plunge them into darkness.
Crawford let the blanket drop with a breathless laugh. “Oh my God,” he panted.Mateus took one look at him and started to laugh. He put the picnic basket down at his feet and closed the distance between them, his hands coming up to pluck at Crawford's hair. Crawford started to laugh when he realized he'd had hail in his hair. Mateus did, too. It felt natural to return the fair, his fingers skating through Mateus's dark locks as he swept the melting ice out of it.
Crawford's heart was pounding from their run, and it felt unnaturally loud to him in the heavy silence of the deserted barn. He and Mateus were standing close enough that their breath mingled, and Crawford couldn't stop himself from stepping up, close enough he could count the drops of water in Mateus's eyelashes.
He hesitated, hovering close enough to kiss him, until Mateus's eyes closed and he leaned in the rest of the way, closing the small gap between them. He tasted like rain, wild and earthy. Electric, like the lightning that had chased them into this musty barn. Crawford pressed in, chasing the flavor across Mateus's lips and into his mouth when Mateus melted into the kiss and let him in.
