Templeton, Julia

by Trail Boss (Triskelion) (lit)

  He glanced at Krista to find her walking toward the door. “We’ll see you all in the morning. Ten o’clock sharp.”

  As goodnight’s resonated about the room, Landon watched Krista head out the back door and take the lighted path to her cabin.

  “Go to her.” This time it was Betty, and she was practically pushing him out the door. “Tell her how you feel. You may never get another chance, my boy.”

  Landon hugged the old woman and kissed her temple. “I’ll do that.” Without a backward glance, he raced after her. She was nearly to the cabin when he called out her name and she turned.

  “Krista.”

  He didn’t get another word out. She flew into his arms and let out a sob that tore at his heart. “What’s wrong?”

  “I don’t want to talk. Let’s not talk. Not now.”

  She took him by the hand and led him into the cabin, where she lit a few candles, tossed her hat aside, and went into his arms with a contented sigh.

  They stood like that for a few minutes without talking. Just embracing while he inhaled the sweet scent of her. He smiled. Vanilla and musk.

  She lifted her face to his, and his heart gave a tug seeing her lashes spiked with tears. He took in everything about her features —— the way her nose turned up the slightest bit, the little freckles that looked like sun kisses sprinkled along her cheeks. The full lips that curved into a smile that made his thoughts turn positively wicked. The white teeth, the shade of her eyes that made him think of the blue sky. The heavy-lidded eyes that told him she wanted him as much as he wanted her.

  As though reading his mind, her hands moved to his pants and she unbuttoned his fly. When her fingers wrapped around his length, he released the breath he’d unconsciously been holding.

  With a groan, he lifted her in his arms and lay her on the bed, making quick work of her mini skirt and blouse. She helped him by kicking off her cowboy boots, and he slid out of his pants and didn’t stop to unbutton his shirt, but ripped it off, sending buttons flying around the room. Her smile said she appreciated the show.

  Her gaze shifted from his, to his cock that reared against his navel. He had never been so ready, and when she lifted her arms to him, he went into them, savoring the feel of her soft, silky skin.

  She rained kisses along his jaw, then down his neck. He kissed her forehead, her nose, her lips. The kiss was one of desperation. Of lovers who had been apart too long, and who would soon part for even longer.

  Her tongue danced with his, then emulated the sex act and he was lost to all reason. He could feel her hand between them, then her fingers encircled his erection, and directed him where he most wanted to be.

  With a single thrust he was inside her. He closed his eyes, savoring the feel of her heated channel, the way she hugged him so tightly. Once again she kissed his neck, her tongue snaking out, licking his ear lobe, and then the inside of his ear.

  He wanted to hold off his climax, but he couldn’t. When she shifted her hips in a way that made him clench his teeth, it was all over and with a groan, he filled her with his seed.

  * * *

  Krista woke to the sound of laughter outside her cabin. She squinted against the sunlight pouring into the room, across her sated body, to the rumpled quilt comforter.

  She turned to Landon with a smile, only to find him gone. But in his place were wildflowers, and a note. Biting her bottom lip, she lifted the paper and read. “Hey Sleepyhead. I’ll see you at breakfast. Love, Landon.”

  It was already nine o’clock and in an hour she’d be in the SUV with the other guests, heading back toward the airport and back to Seattle and the life she’d left. Back to anal-retentive bosses and one-bedroom apartments. Back to frozen dinners and lonely nights in front of the television.

  Climbing out of bed, she went to the bathroom, turned on the shower, and brushed her teeth, waiting for the water to get warm. She hadn’t even bothered to pack last night. She had planned to after the dance, but she’d never made it out of bed. Smiling, she recalled the heated way they’d made love. Then later in the night, they’d slowed it down, and Landon had made love to her with a gentleness that had brought a lump to her throat, clinging to him, not wanting to let go.

  It hadn’t been until later had she realized they hadn’t used a condom that first time. She hadn’t been on birth control since her breakup with her ex.

  What if she had gotten pregnant?

  Rather than the horror that would usually follow that thought, she surprisingly felt very much at ease with the prospect of having a baby. She was twenty-nine, and would be thirty by the fall.

  Her hand fell to her flat stomach, trying to imagine herself nine months pregnant. For a moment she fantasized, seeing herself sitting on the fence rail as she watched Landon work in the fields.

  Her father would actually approve of a man like Landon. In fact, her entire family would adore him. Who wouldn’t? He was perfection.

  That thought was little more than a memory an hour and a half later. Sandwiched between Landon and Betty once, again, Krista stared blindly out the window as they made their way to the airport. The gorgeous morning had given way to a beautiful blue-sky afternoon that made returning to Seattle more than a little depressing.

  Landon had been silent for the past thirty minutes. Everyone seemed to be in their own thoughts, looking out the window, taking it all in before they returned to reality.

  Once again she was straddling the stick shift, but this time she didn’t force herself not to touch him. She wanted his touch. In fact, she yearned for it. His fingers would drift to her thigh, touch her lightly there, with a simple caress that said more than words ever could.

  I don’t want to leave.

  She yearned to scream the words at the top of her lungs. Every time she got the guts to say them, she choked and clamped her lips tight together.

  Landon pulled into a free parking spot, and the other two Lazy Z SUV’s pulled in right alongside them. The guests piled out, but Krista couldn’t move.

  She could feel Landon watching her, a quizzical expression on his face. “Krista?”

  She couldn’t even bring herself to look at him. If she did, she’d cry. “Just a second.”

  From the corner of her eye she saw him nod, then she heard him as he helped the others with their luggage. Soon everyone had gone inside the small airport and it was just the two of them.

  “Come on, Krista.”

  He helped her out, his hand at the small of her back. Ever the gentleman. How would any other man ever compare to him?

  The fact was that none ever could. God had broken the mold when he made Landon Rogers.

  Swallowing hard against the lump that had formed in her throat, Krista looked him in the eye. Her pulse skittered. God, he was gorgeous! Visions of them making love flashed through her mind, and she thought not for the first time this past week how unfair life was that they should be so different.

  “I read your story.”

  Those were not the words she’d been expecting. “You did?”

  His expression was hard to decipher. “And?”

  The side of his mouth lifted slightly. “Did you mean it?”

  “Which part?”

  “About loving me.”

  It had never been easy for her to tell anyone that she loved them. In fact, she never had. But as she looked in his eyes, she realized that she needed to. If ever there was a moment to speak her mind, it was now. “I love you, Landon. I think I loved you ——”

  “The first time you set eyes on me?”

  She nodded.

  “When I looked at you with a sardonic smile and said, “I hope you ——”

  “Brought some other shoes,” she finished for him.

  “How did you know that’s what I wrote?”

  “You asked Cory to fax it for you, and he took the liberty of reading it. He thought that I’d be interested in what you had to say.”

  “And?”

  “I love you too, Krista.”


  His face swam before her as tears blurred her vision and escaped unchecked down her face. A moment later she was crushed in his embrace. “Stay with me, Krista.”

  She had never dreamed he would tell her he loved her, and to have him ask her to stay with him was even more surreal.

  “I know you’ll have to give up your job, and it’s a tough decision.”

  “I don’t care.” She kissed him. “I don’t care about the job. I just want to be here with you.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  Five months later

  Krista watched nervously as the small plane landed at the Willow Bay Airport.

  “Come on, honey,” Landon said, taking her by the hand and walking toward the small plane where the guests were already walking down the steps.

  The sight of her family brought a huge lump to her throat. It had been too long since she’d seen them, and so much had happened that she worried the rift might not be mended. As though reading her thoughts, Landon squeezed her hand and kissed her. “It’s all right. I’ll bet they’re as nervous as you. Maybe even more so.”

  Cory came up on the other side of her. “Is that your sister?” he asked, eyeing Stephanie, who looked stunning in jeans and a t-shirt that molded to her svelte figure.

  “She’s a few years older than you.”

  Cory, still giving Steph the once over, flashed a cocky smile. “I told you before. I like older women. More experienced that way.”

  Landon gave a disgusted snort and shook his head. “Pull your mind out of the gutter, Cory, and help the folks with their luggage.”

  Stephanie raced toward her and Krista embraced her. “My God, look at you,” Steph said, her gaze stopping on Krista’s slightly swollen belly. She was three months pregnant and just beginning to show. “I’m gonna be an aunt.” Her gaze shifted from Krista’s to Cory, and Krista immediately recognized the interest in her sister’s eyes.

  “Hey,” she said to Cory, smiling from ear to ear.

  “How you doing, darlin?” Cory asked, tipping his hat.

  Krista saw Landon approach her parents, shaking her father’s hand and giving her mother a quick hug. With Stephanie chatting up Cory, she turned to her mother and went into her embrace. “Mom,” she said, her voice breaking.

  “Krissy, we’re so happy for you. I can’t tell you how thrilled we all are to be here for your wedding.” She put Krista at arm’s-length and looked at her husband, Krista’s father.

  Krista locked eyes with her father for the first time in nearly eleven years. Unlike her mother, who still looked beautiful, her father had aged at least twenty years in the past decade, and though his face was softer, his hair gray, those kind eyes were still the same. “Daddy,” she said, moving into his arms. As he embraced her, a weight lifted from her shoulders and she felt like a little girl again.

  She heard Landon leading the others away, giving them a moment alone. “You’ve grown into a beautiful woman, Krissy. We’re so proud of you.”

  How long had she yearned to hear those words? “Thanks, Dad.”

  “I’m sorry for ——”

  She shook her head. “I don’t want to go back. Let’s just go forward.”

  He nodded. “I think that’s a great idea.”

  She took hold of his hand and they walked toward the others who were already waiting by the SUV, where Cory and Landon were loading the luggage.

  “He’s a good man, Krissy.”

  She looked to Landon, the man who would be her husband come Saturday night. “Yeah, Daddy, he is.”

  * * *

  On Saturday night, Krista walked down the aisle on her father’s arm. The entire day had had a dreamlike quality that Krista had been afraid to wake from. She had all the people she loved surrounding her, marrying the man of her dreams, living in a place that was the next best place to heaven.

  Life couldn’t get any better than that.