A Lawman's Christmas

by Linda Lael Miller

  All that mattered, for the moment, was that she loved this man, and he loved her, and she could, at last, abandon herself completely to this one someone, leave behind her practicality and her fears and simply be.

  How odd, she thought, that there could be such freedom in surrender.

  Still soaring from that first shattering release, Dara Rose was only dimly aware of Clay rising, removing the rest of his clothes. But when he lay down with her, on the turned-back sheets, the deepest satisfaction she’d ever known instantly gave way to the deepest need.

  It was primitive, urgent, that need. It rocked her.

  Desperate, she tried to pull Clay on top of her, feverish to take him inside her. Hold him there, to please him and be pleased by him.

  Her body, one with his.

  Her soul, one with his.

  But Clay was as deliberate about making love as he was about everything else he did. He moved with slow confidence, every kiss, every caress, backed with certainty.

  He enjoyed her breasts freely, and for a long time.

  She moaned, her nipples pebble-hard and wet from his tongue, his lips.

  He teased her. He whispered in her ears, and nibbled at her lobes, and traced the length of her neck with the tip of his tongue, leaving a line of sweet fire behind.

  And when he finally lay down flat on the bed, his hands strong, he set her astraddle of his mouth and devoured her all over again, until she was rocking on him, clenching the rails in the headboard of the bed, damp with perspiration, her head tipped back in a low, guttural cry of relief as he finally allowed her to crest the pinnacle and let go.

  As she descended, he told her quietly that he had not yet begun to make love to her, that they’d be at it for a lifetime.

  He told her all the places he would have her, all the times and ways. She reveled in the knowledge.

  “Suppose someone hears?” she fretted, when Clay laid her down again and, at last, poised himself above her.

  “Suppose they do?” Clay countered hoarsely, with a grin. And then, in one long, fiery thrust, he was finally inside her, deep, deep inside her.

  Part of her.

  And all the flexing and needing and carrying on started all over again.

  Just as Dara Rose’s life had started all over again, with the arrival of this man, with his quiet, steady ways and his strength, so at home in his own skin.

  It was the beginning of forever, for both of them.

  And a fine forever it would be.

  ISBN: 978-1-4592-1392-0

  A LAWMAN’S CHRISTMAS: A MCKETTRICKS OF TEXAS NOVEL

  Copyright © 2011 by Linda Lael Miller

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario M3B 3K9, Canada.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

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