by Lynda Bailey
She turned toward her bedroom. He came around the table to block her escape. “Where are you going?”
“To pack my gear. If I’m not going on the drive, there’s no reason for me to stay any longer.” She elbowed past him.
He blocked her path, a deadly calm shrouding him. “If you think you’re leaving to go anywhere by yourself, you’re wrong. It’s too dangerous.”
Her small laugh held no humor as she cocked a hip and crossed her arms. “You want me to go to Kansas City, yet you don’t want me to leave. Which is it?”
Pain twitched behind his left eye. “What I want is for you to be safe. I’ll take you to Kansas City myself.”
“Then who’ll ramrod the herd? You’re the owner, but you’re willing to let someone else drive your beeves north?” She shook her head. “I thought you were a good cattleman.”
He narrowed his eyes as the twitch became a stab. “What the blazes are you prattling about?”
“That if you so all-fired concerned about my safety, maybe I shouldn’t leave. Maybe I should just stay here and help with the drive. I’d be with you the whole dang time then, right? And you could make dang sure I stayed safe.”
He rubbed his throbbing forehead. “You’re not making sense. What about you going to Kansas City?”
“That’s not important.”
Disbelief rippled through him. “Not important? It’s all you’ve ever talked about as long as I’ve known you. How is it not important now?”
“Because other things are more important.”
Logan went still inside, not daring to breathe. To hope. “Just what is it that you’re saying, sweetheart?”
She rolled a shoulder. “That it’s silly to send me packing with money you’re going to need for the drive. I’ll stay until after Abilene. Then…”
“Then…what?”
Her shoulder hitched up again as she glanced away. But not before he witnessed the naked vulnerability in her gaze. His knees buckled and his hands itched to pull her close. “Why would you give up the opportunity to leave Indian Territory?”
Her swanlike neck labored to swallow. She looked back at him. “I don’t think I ever truly wanted to go. I just wanted to belong. Somewhere. I never felt wanted by my pa because I didn’t believe he loved me. It hurt so bad for so long that I thought if I left, I’d never hurt again.”
“And now?”
A ghost of a smile touched her lips. “Now I know Papa loved me in his own way. I don’t feel the driving need to leave any more. I know I belong. Right here.”
Logan slipped his hands into the rear pockets of his Levi’s. He was both confused and bowled-over by her admission. She may not want to stay to be with him, but if she was willing to stay at all, he wasn’t going to argue. “So what do we do now? Go back to the way things were before? To our previous agreement where you get a share of the stock yard sale in Abilene?” It took three tries for him to swallow. “And get an annulment after that?”
She slowly shook her head. “I don’t want things to be like they were before. And I don’t want an annulment.”
His breath hooked in his chest. “You don’t?”
“No.” She stepped toward him. Her heated scent filled his senses and his body tightened in response. “Do you remember what you told me right before the stampede? That the next time you touched me, it would only be to bed me?”
His blood immediately simmered in his veins. “Yep.” The single word chafed his throat.
“You also said you’d only do that if I asked.” She rested her hands on his chest. The warmth from her palms scorched a path down to his groin. “Well I’m asking, Logan. I’m asking you to take me to bed. Like a man would his wife.”
He pulled his hands from his pockets and fisted them at his sides. He was pulled tighter than a hair trigger. “I won’t let you go then. You won’t get your annulment. You’ll stay right here. With me.”
Her smile didn’t faltered. “I know.”
“Be sure about this.” His voice was hard. “Be very sure.”
“I am.”
Emotions so strong and powerful strangled him at her simple statement. While she wasn’t claiming any love for him, she did want to stay. He turned his head at a strange stinging in his eyes. Wouldn’t that just beat all if he broke down and cried?
The ring on the table caught his eye. He picked it up then went down on one knee in front of his wife. Her gasp rang loud. He took her hand and slipped the ring onto her finger.
“Will you be my wife, Matilda Cartwright?” He held her hand to his chest. “For better and Lord knows for worse?”
The tears shimmering in her green eyes sent an arrow through his heart. “I will.”
“Until death us do part?”
“Until death us do part.”
He stood and wrapped her in a hug. They might not have said they loved each other, but he knew she was committed to their future, just like he was. He kissed her. A tender kiss that affirmed his love for her. But it didn’t stay gentle for long.
When she stroked her tongue along his lips, hot desire blazed through him. With one hand behind her head, he plundered her mouth while the other cupped her butt to bring her lush hips tighter to his swelling groin. She clung to him like moss on a tree. Her arms around his neck, her mouth covering his, her tongue dueling with his.
His cock grew thicker and harder than a rail spike. He wanted this woman with a need that burned his blood like a prairie fire.
His mind cleared of any thought, save Matt. All the longing, mixed with worry and uncertainty, narrowed his vision to just one thing, getting buried inside this woman as hard and as fast as possible.
Breathless, he tore his mouth away to nuzzle her neck. “You best be real sure about this, sweetheart,” he warned again. “Because there’ll be no going back once I get you into our bed. I’m going to make you my wife. Once and for all.”
“Talk, talk, talk,” she grumbled. “A woman could expire from wanting with all this damn talking.”
“That so, Mrs. Cartwright?” Logan reached low, grabbed a butt cheek in each hand. A thought struck him. “I want you to wear your dress.”
“You do?”
“Uh, huh,” he muttered against her neck.
“But I thought you were angry about the money I spent.”
He looked at her. “I was angry because I thought I’d never see you in it.” He lifted her up and pushed his cock against her pussy. Her moan melted in his ears. “Do you have frilly underclothes to go with it?”
“Some.”
His prick thumped in his pants. “Will you wear the dress for me? Frilly underclothes and all?”
She nodded, kissing his chin and jaw. “You gotta stay here, though. Agreed?”
“Agreed.”
He released her and she went into the bedroom. The minutes crawled by. He paced from one end of the room to the other. What the devil could be taking so long? Just as he was about to bust down the door, it opened.
And there stood his wife. In her gleaming green gown. Stars formed at the edges of his vision. It was then he realized he wasn’t breathing.
She turned in a slow circle. “Do you like it?”
“It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever since,” he rasped. “Other than you.”
She smiled and extended her hand. He took it, allowing her to lead him into the bedroom.
The daylight through the curtains cast the room in a golden glow. A magical glow. Matt looked magical. Like Princess Cinderella from the Brothers Grimm fairy tale his mother read to him as a small boy.
Desire eddied through him. He took her into his arms. Every soft curve of her body tortured him, made him mad with wanting. He dipped his head to settle his mouth over hers. He swept his tongue through her sweet recess.
Impatience quivered through her as, button by button, he undid the front of her dress. Her hands fumbled to help his effort, but he brushed them aside. He would take her as he’d always dreamed he would.
> Slow.
Even if it killed him. Which it just might.
Buttons undone, he caressed the fabric open. The feel of the material was so smooth. But her skin was smoother.
Once the dress was past her shoulders, it fell into a green pool at her feet. She did have lacy undergarments on. “What are these called?” His strained voice hurt his ears.
“This is a chemise and this is a petticoat.”
He curved a hand around her breast through the thin material. Her nipple pearled into his calloused palm. He stroked and tweaked. Taunted and teased.
He kissed her again with the flaming need that burned through him. His hands wiggled under the ties holding her petticoat. It joined her dress on the floor. He lifted from her mouth. The words “I love you” hammered in his head, but he feared breaking the spell they were both under. “Do you know how badly I want you?”
A siren smile on her lips, she lowered herself onto the bed. “As bad as I want you?”
He followed her down. “More.” She nipped at his jaw as he again molded a hand around her breast. “I love your breasts. They’re so beautiful. And your nipples taste so sweet. I want to suck them. Feel them bead against my tongue.”
Her arms ringed his neck and she arched her back. He suckled her through the fabric, extracting those husky moans that drove him mad. His heartbeat, already erratic, pounded harder in his ears.
He pulled the chemise down to reveal her silky shoulder. He nipped and kissed her skin, lower, and then lower still until his lips closed over a naked, rigid nipple. He drew her deep into his mouth, starved for her taste. She grabbed his shoulders as her keening moan crowded the air.
He tugged at the material. She wiggled her arms and shoulders. Finally the chemise was below her breasts. He gently wormed the garment down past her belly. Past her nether hair and glorious pussy until he whisked it off her legs.
Green eyes, darkened to the color of a forest, stared at him. Her nostrils flared. Her lips parted. Her eyelids drooped.
The scent of her, so earthy, yet sweet made him drunk. He palmed her sex, his fingers stroking through her moist womanly folds. He sought and found her clit, that button of pleasure. He flicked it. Her eyes closed on a sharp intake of air.
“You like that, don’t you, sweetheart?”
Her gaze impaled him. “You know I do.”
He dove back to her mouth. Wild. Insistent. She matched his ardor and tore at his shirt. He moved away long enough to yank the garment from his body. Her hands stroked his chest and he gloried in the feel of her small palms against him. He was desperate to be closer. To be inside her.
Leaving her on the bed, he hopped on one foot, pulling at a boot. She laid back, her eyelids sagging, and her sexy legs wide. Then, wanton wench that she was, she tweaked a nipple.
He ceased his frantic movements to gape at her. She pinched the nipple again. Rolled it between her thumb and finger. She closed her eyes as her head dropped back, her whimpered sigh searing his brain.
His growl packed the room. Rose up from the depths of his soul. His cock thundered for release. He wrenched off his boots.
She opened her eyes with a smile. “I want you in my mouth,” she murmured low. “I want to feel you grow thick against my tongue.”
He didn’t pause in the fight to get out of his denims. “That ain’t gonna happen, sweetheart.”
“Why not?”
Freed of his pants, he tossed them aside and towered over her. Her musky feminine perfume enveloped him. Became his air. “Because I’ll come in your mouth instead of your pussy. That what you want?”
In answer, she entwined her arms around his neck and pulled him on top of her.
He chuckled knowingly. “Figured as much.”
Once again, he laid claim to her lips. She thrust her hips up. His engorged cock rubbed through her delicate folds and he quickly rolled to his side. He wouldn’t last two seconds if she kept that up.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” His hand skimmed across her belly as he nipped her jaw line. “I just want to make sure you’re ready for me.”
“If I get any more ready, I’ll explode.”
His fingers toyed with her nether hair as he chuckled again. He slithered down until poised between her legs. He blew against her sensitive skin then licked and sucked her, drinking in the essence that was his wife. She fisted her hands into his hair and moved her hips to the tempo of his tongue stabbing her pussy.
“Logan, please.” Her voice shook. “I need…”
“Want do you need, sweetheart?” he mumbled. “Do you need to come?”
“Y…yes. Please. With you inside me. Now. Please.”
“In good time, sweetheart. All in good time.” He eased a finger deep inside her. “The first time can be painful for a woman.”
“I don’t care.” Her voice sounded like sand.
“But I do care.”
His second finger joined the first. He probed and stretched her internal muscles as his mouth licked and sucked. He rose up. “You’re so tight, sweetheart. So damn tight,” he gritted out. “It’s gonna feel like heaven when I get inside you.”
“Now.” He heard the sob in her voice. “Come into me now.”
“Soon sweetheart.”
He swooped onto her pussy again, hungrier, more demanding. He pulled back her folds to expose her clit. He suckled it into his mouth as his fingers drove in and out of her honeyed canal.
She spread her legs wider, tightened her hands in his hair. Her whole body trembled with tension. “Oh, God, Logan. Don’t stop. Don’t ever stop.”
Her cry screamed in his ears. Through his chest. Her release splashed against his tongue. He lapped it up, surprised he didn’t come himself at her reckless reaction.
With her muscles still contracting, he hovered over her, his hands on either side of her face. “Keep your legs open for me.”
She did and her hot breath cooled his face. Pleasure coiled up his spine at the first touch of his cock pushing into her.
“Wider,” he demanded on a stifled whisper. “Hook your feet behind my knees.”
She complied and he pressed forward. The feel of her, so tight, so incredibly tight, sheathing him was beyond ecstasy. He wanted to sink into her, immerse himself in her sweetness. Be baptized by her purity. But he wouldn’t risk harming her.
She thrashed beneath him, her hips bucking upward.
“Slow down, sweetheart,” he croaked.
“I don’t want to slow down.” Raw need rang in her voice. “More,” she begged. Her hands plowed into his buttocks to bring him closer. “I want more.”
She dug her heels into the mattress and he knew she was readying to impale herself on his cock. He gripped her hips to hold her immobile. “Patience,” he gnashed. “I’ll hurt you if I go too fast.”
“I’ll hurt you if you don’t.”
A throttled chuckle escaped him right before his lips kidnapped hers again. He thrust his tongue deep into her mouth to silence any more protests. She writhed and wiggled beneath him, but he kept the pressure constant. Controlled.
Her slick juices coated his prick as her contracting sex muscles drew him in. Rapture, pure and simple, encased the head of his throbbing member at the constricted feel of her pussy. He continued to fill her until her startled gasp halted his movement.
He lifted up a fraction. Sweat glistened on her upper lip and her eyes, huge and shiny, pierced him. He caressed her cheek. “I want you to take a deep breath, sweetheart. When you let it out, I’m gonna push past your maiden barrier.”
She licked her lips. “And then I’ll truly be your wife?”
Tears smarted his eyes as he tenderly laid his forehead to hers. “And then you’ll truly be my wife.” He kissed her, as gentle a kiss as he could. “Ready?”
Her nod was wobbly.
“Okay, sweetheart. Grab onto my shoulders and take that big breath for me.”
She did, tunneling her face into his neck, her nails b
iting into his skin. With one hand on her hip and the other cupping her face, he plunged down.
And straight into paradise.
Heaven couldn’t be this beautiful, this rich with sensation.
He was going to die. Right then and there, he was going to die from lack of oxygen. The bliss surrounding him overcame his ability to breathe.
Hell if he cared. He didn’t want to breathe. He only wanted to feel. Feel Matt’s pussy rippling around his cock. Feel her milk him from base to tip. It was everything he’d ever dreamed.
And more.
“Oh, Lord, sweetheart,” he growled. “You feel so good. So damn good. I knew you would, but sweet, sweet Lord, this is better than anything I could imagine. So tight.” He lifted up to whisper kisses on her eyelids. “Tell me you like it.”
Her tongue grazed his lower lip. “I love it. I love having you inside me.”
For the first time in his adult life, held secure in the cradle of his wife’s body, Logan was home. That realization shook his soul while emotions clogged his chest. He tucked her face to his neck and fought to cage the rampant feelings.
He was home.
He swallowed the lump in his throat and, with a possessive groan, kissed her. His hands framed her face as his hips pulled up then sank back down over and over again. Each time he surged deeper. Then deeper still.
Sensations slammed into him, one on top of another. Her knees hugging his torso. Her short nails sinking into his skin. Her earthy moans bouncing in the room. Her wildflower aroma infusing his senses.
All the while, he crammed every pulsating inch of his cock as far as he could inside her.
He tore from her mouth. “I’m gonna come sweetheart,” his scratchy voice rasped. “I’m gonna fill you with my seed. Mark you. You’re mine. You hear? You. Are. Mine.”
He punctuated each word with hammering thrusts of his hips. Her pussy curled around his cock. Her cry of pleasure reverberated in his ears. Washed all the lonely, homeless years from his memory.
He rose up, arms locked straight, and pounded her mercilessly. She shuddered and twisted beneath him as his hips continued to hurtle into her. Pleasure swelled in his balls, chased up his spine to his chest. His heart.
