by Webb, Peggy
“Oh, I am,” he murmured as his lips caressed her throat. “I’m very serious.
Maggie closed her eyes and let the sensations sweep over her. Her hands reached up to explore the muscled strength of his back. Tension built within her as Adam’s embraces traveled lower, and her body arched against his seeking tongue.
He murmured unintelligible things as his lips and tongue sought every crevice, every secret hollow, every inch of soft, yielding flesh on her body. The blood quickened in her veins as she rocked against him, fitting herself to his sensuous exploration.
“Adam,” she whispered. Under his passionate onslaught, she was on fire.
With the urgency of the first time gone, Adam took his leisure on his journey of love, lingering over ever inch of her until Maggie thought she would fly off the edge of the earth.
“Maggie...” he said softly as his lips left their brand on her stomach. His mouth sought hers, melding them together in a scorching, searing kiss. Maggie opened to him, and once more they were forged together in an ancient bond.
With tantalizing slowness Adam moved against her, while outside their window, snow continued to blanket the earth in mounting fury. But they were oblivious to everything except the searing heat of love.
The pleasure built within them, creating its own storm. Sweat glistened on their bodies as they hovered on the edges, drawing out the anticipation until it was strung between them as tight as a bowstring. Slowly they allowed the tumult to build again, until it exploded into a mind-shattering ecstasy.
Like a drowning man coming up for air, Adam leaned his dark head against her golden hair. “Maggie... Maggie. How can you deny our love?”
“Don’t talk. Just hold me.”
Maggie lay in his embrace, content to listen to the crackle of the fire and the combined thrumming of their hearts. She was afraid to move from her warm spot on the rug lest she leave behind all the magic she had found there. Her hand idly caressed Adam’s shoulder. Her Adam. The man she had fought tooth and toenail. The man she had tried desperately to shove out of her heart.
“Are you cold, Maggie?” He lifted his head and looked at her.
She smiled a lazy cat’s smile and shook her head.
“Well, I am.”
“That’s because you’re on top and I’m on bottom.”
“Some people have all the luck.” He sat up and reached for the green shirt. Shrugging into it, he reached for the buttons and then grinned sheepishly as he realized they were lying scattered about the floor. “I don’t suppose you sew?”
Maggie stretched and yawned. “I don’t suppose you have any thread?”
“Never had occasion for it before. I don’t make a habit of being a bodice-ripper.”
Maggie laughed and sat up beside him. “Hey, that’s my shirt.”
“I guess we’ll have to share.” Adam pulled her onto his lap, crushed her against his chest, and wrapped the shirt around them both.
“It’s a little small,” she noted as she cuddled against his chest.
“But cozy, don’t you think?”
“Hmmm.” She took small, biting nips at his neck. “I hate to be mundane,” she said between nibbles, “but do you have anything to eat in this cabin?”
“Just me.”
“I mean anything else.”
“I’m crushed. How can you prefer ordinary eggs?”
She leaned back in his arms and smiled up at him. “I don’t suppose Jefferson Place would be interested in delivering an order of fried zucchini, do you?”
“Fifty miles? And in this snow?”
“Snow?” Maggie jumped up and ran to the window. “It’s snowing,” she wailed. “Why didn’t you tell me it was snowing?” She whirled around to face Adam.
“I like you in the buff, Maggie. I think I’ll keep you that way.” Adam pulled on his jeans and fastened his belt buckle, then ran a hand through his tousled hair.
“How can you joke at a time like this? Where’s the phone? I have to get out of here.”
Adam walked up behind her and encircled her with his arms. “I don’t have a phone in the cabin. Anyway, I’m sure nothing is moving on the roads now, from the looks of this snow.” He pulled her back up against his chest and propped his chin against her hair. “What’s the matter, Maggie?”
“Don’t you see? I can’t stay here with you like this. It can never work for us. Our beliefs will tear us apart. You’ll always be a hunter and I love animals, and that can never be reconciled.”
“Shh.” He swayed gently, rocking her in his arms. Taking her head in his hands, he turned her so that she was looking out the window. “Look how beautiful it is, Maggie. How many years has it been since you saw a snow like that in Mississippi?”
In silence they gazed together at the perfectly white world. The wind had stopped blowing, and the forest outside was a wonderland. As they watched, a pine bough too heavily laden tipped its load, and snow sifted to the ground like white powder.
“It’s breathtaking.” Maggie rested her head against Adam’s shoulder as she reveled in the winter scene before them.
“It’s like a gift, Maggie. A gift to us.” Adam turned her in his arms so he could look into her eyes. “We’ll be stranded here together until the snow and ice melt.”
“No,” she protested faintly, though she knew perfectly well he was right. There were no snowplows in Mississippi because there was hardly ever a need.
His fingers traced her lips. “Yes.” He bent over and placed a kiss on her forehead. “And while we’re here, Maggie, well forget all about hunting and protesting and all the things that stand between us. It will be just the two of us and our love.”
If Maggie had possessed a magic wand, she would have waved it over them, locking them forever in this time of love and beauty. She wanted to close out the world, to shut out reality, so it could just be the two of them, a man and a woman in love. She pressed against Adam, wrapping her arms around his middle. He seemed to understand her need for an interlude of fantasy.
“Just the two of us,” she whispered.
“And...”he prompted. He wanted her to admit her love.
“I won’t say it. It can’t come true.”
“Ever my stubborn tigress.” He smiled at her.
“How about those eggs?” She grinned. “And some clothes.”
“Party pooper,” he chided her as he went to his closet and found her another of his shirts.
“That’s what Martha Jo calls me,” Maggie told him as she buttoned the blue-checked flannel shirt.
Adam reached out and stopped her hand two buttons down from the top. “I won’t let you spoil all my fun.”
“Are you a voyeur?” she teased.
“A shameless Peeping Tom where you’re concerned.” He took her hand and pulled her toward the kitchen area of the cabin. “How are you with eggs?”
“My eggs are on a par with my tea.”
“Ugh. I’ll do the cooking and you can do the washing up.”
Maggie placed her hands on her hips and glared indignantly at him. “What’s wrong with my tea?”
“Don’t even ask, Maggie. It would take an Act of Congress to fix your tea.” She could see Adam’s shoulders shaking with laughter as he cracked eggs into a bowl.
“Then why were you so all-fired anxious to have a cup? ‘I’m shivering in the cold, dying for the lack of a little hot tea,’ “ she said, mimicking the words he had used after the WI banquet.
“That’s good. Maggie. Have you ever thought about a television career?” He whisked the eggs with a wire beater, his shoulders shaking with mirth.
“Why, you impostor! Posing as a tea lover just to get inside my house.”
“I’ve found that subterfuge sometimes works with wary tigresses.” His eyes twinkled with devilment as he crossed to the refrigerator. His voice was muffled as he called out to her. “How are you at chopping onions?”
“I don’t chop onions. They make me cry.”
“Then, yo
u do the mushrooms; I’ll do the onions.” Adam tossed a box of fresh mushrooms over to her.
Maggie looked at them in astonishment. “Fresh mushrooms? In Tallahatchie River bottom?” She carried the mushrooms to the sink to wash them.
“I don’t believe in roughing it when it comes to eating. I always bring groceries with me when I come to the cabin.” His knife sliced through the onion and clicked against the cutting board.
Maggie selected a knife and joined him. “May I share your board?” Her nod indicated the cutting block.
“And my bed.” He looked up and their eyes locked, fused by the passion that sizzled between them.
Maggie was the first to lower her eyes. Color suffused her cheeks at the import of his statement. She busied herself with the mushrooms, letting her hair sweep forward to cover her flaming face. Her knife slapped vigorously against the board as she thought of sharing that cherry four-poster with Adam.
Attempting to break the spell of sensuality that had settled over them, she spoke lightly. “I hope you’re not a cover hog.”
Adam leaned over and nipped at her ear. “Just a Maggie hog.”
“What... what do you intend to do?” After what they had shared on the rug beside the fire, there was no earthly reason for her to feel flustered. But she did. It had to be that cherry four poster, she decided.
His eyebrows rose. “To do?”
“With the mushrooms, I mean.” She glanced over toward the bed. It looked twice as big as it had before.
Adam chuckled. “I’m going to put them into this fantastic omelet, and then I’m going to sit at that table over there and have these eggs for my main course.” He reached out and touched her cheek. “You will be dessert.”
Maggie looked straight into his deep, blue eyes. How many times had she dreamed of herself in his arms and thought the dream impossible? How many times had she wanted to whisk him away for an idyll between perfumed sheets? And now he was right here in front of her, offering the romantic interlude of her dreams in his snowbound cabin.
Maggie’s unaccustomed burst of shyness disappeared, and she lifted her chin. He was, after all, the man she had already loved so fiercely in the firelight. Her eyes sparkled when she spoke. “Then, Adam. I have a suggestion.”
“What’s that?”
“Let’s hurry with the omelet.”
“My sentiments exactly, Tigress.”
They laughed and chatted together as the omelet browned in the pan. Outside, the pale sun dropped over the western horizon; inside, the cabin was suffused with the golden glow of firelight.
Adam lit a fat candle in a brass holder and brought it to the table. By its flickering flame they ate their omelets and delighted in their ease with each other.
“This is delicious, Adam. I didn’t know how hungry I was.” She took a big bite of the omelet. “Where did you learn to cook like this?”
“Cooking school.”
“You’re kidding.”
“No, I’m not. After tiring of eating out all the time and suffering through my own inept attempts at preparing lonely bachelor meals, I enrolled in a course at Chez Cuisine.”
“You must have graduated at the top of your class.”
“I’m a man of many talents, Maggie.”
“And I have an insatiable curiosity to discover them all.”
“Then, Maggie, I have a suggestion.” His eyes gleamed at her across the table.
“What?” she asked softly.
“Finish your omelet...” He let the sentence hang between them until the tension was a palpable thing. “In a hurry,” he added as he moved around the table. Lifting her golden tumble of hair, he planted a soft kiss on the back of her neck.
Maggie turned in her chair and caught his face between her hands. “Adam?”
“Yes, Maggie?” The current between them sizzled and snapped.
“Do we have to do the dishes?”
“The dishes can wait.” Taking her hands, he pulled her from the chair and into his arms. ‘They might have to wait a long time.” he added as he nuzzled her neck.
Maggie entwined her arms around his waist as they moved together toward the bed. “Do you know what I think?” she said dreamily as the bed squeaked under their combined weight.
“Hmm?” he murmured as his hands worked to unfasten her buttons.
“I think you’re full of wonderful suggestions,” she said as they moved on to the dessert.
CHAPTER TEN
Maggie felt something tickling her nose. Sleepily she swatted with her hand and mumbled. The persistent something moved to tickle her ear. Groggily, she opened one eye.
“Good morning, sleepyhead.” Adam was leaning on one elbow, smiling down into her face. With the quilt draped over his shoulders and his dark, tousled hair, he looked like a good-natured Indian chief. Except for his brilliant blue eyes.
Maggie’s eyes snapped open, and she grinned like the cat that had stolen the cream. He looked too good to be true. She lifted one hand and pushed a dark strand of hair away from his forehead. “Good morning yourself,” she said softly.
“Did anyone ever tell you how gorgeous you are in the morning?” His eyes swept hungrily over her honey-colored hair, spread across the pillow, and the soft down of her skin, gilded by the morning sun spilling through the window. “I could spend two hours just looking at you if I didn’t have better things to do.”
“Just name me one better thing to do,” she teased.
‘This.” He bent down and kissed her eyelids. “And this.” His lips brushed her cheek. “And this.” He nuzzled her throat.
“That is better.” She wound her arms around his neck. “Much better,” she said against his lips as they moved up to cover hers. And they had their dessert before breakfast.
o0o
Later, as she lay surfeited in his arms, she spoke of practical things. “Adam, what will I do for clothes?”
“I think clothes would hamper our style.”
She rubbed her knuckles across his chin, reveling in the feel of his early-morning beard stubble. “Nothing would hamper your style.” She settled herself comfortably against the warm cradle of his body. “When we get out of bed, we might go outside. Don’t you think I’ll need something to cover my body besides your shirt?”
“Don’t worry about clothes. I plan to keep your body covered.”
“You’re incorrigible.”
“You’re incredible.”
Behind her back, Maggie heard Adam yawn. She snuggled closer to him and drifted off to sleep.
o0o
They were both ravenously hungry when they finally got out of bed. Together they fixed a breakfast fit for loggers, and after they ate, they crowded into the shower stall for a very long bath.
“I’ve always wanted to bathe with a woman,” Adam told her as the hot water swirled over their slick bodies.
“Just any woman?” Maggie slathered the soap lavishly onto his back, letting her hands drift in slow, sensuous circles across its smooth, muscled surface.
“Yes. Just any old woman.”
Maggie swatted his backside with the wet washcloth.
“Particularly green eyed blondes.” Adam’s chuckle was devilish.
“That’s better.” Her voice became dreamy as she moved her hands over his soapy body and felt his rising need for her.
Slowly he turned in the hot, steamy bath and pressed against her softness. Their mouths met eagerly as the soap slipped from Maggie’s fingers. The slippery feel of their bodies only added fuel to the fire that was already raging out of control.
The water splashed around them unheeded as Adam’s eyes became hooded and heavy. His tongue slipped into her open mouth with a desperate need, and she wound her legs around his hips as he lifted her off her feet.
His breathing was sharp and harsh in the close confines of the shower as they surged together in perfect rhythm, a rhythm made more beautiful because of their shared love.
And when at last the rhythm slow
ed and their breathing returned to normal, and Maggie rested her head on his slick shoulder, she marveled at the strength of her love for Adam. Was it possible that ever a woman had loved a man so? She sighed against his shoulder. She thought not.
He released her hips, and her legs slid gently to the shower floor. His hand reached up to turn off the water. “And now, how about that walk in the snow, Maggie?” He took a fluffy towel and began rubbing her vigorously.
“You must be kidding. I was thinking of sitting moony-eyed in front of the fire all day long.”
“Come on, Maggie. We’re in the woods, and nature is calling.” He wound the towel around her hips and leaned down to kiss her.
“I thought it was lust.”
He chuckled against her mouth. “I see I’m trapped with a hoyden.”
“And a shameless one at that,” she agreed as she kissed the top of his wet head.
After leaving their glorious bath behind, they managed to fit Maggie into a pair of Adam’s jeans that settled rakishly about her hips. She buttoned one of his flannel shirts up to her neck and covered the whole stylish ensemble with a fleecy parka of his that fell halfway to her knees.
Adam looked at her scrubbed and shining face, devoid of makeup, and at the beautiful sparkle of her long-lashed cat’s eyes. Planting a kiss atop her nose he ushered her out the door. “You look like a little girl playing grownup.”
“That’s not what you thought a moment ago.” She pulled the hood of the parka over her hair as they stepped out into the white, frozen forest. Grabbing his hand, she pulled him through the snow. “Oh, Adam! Have you ever seen anything so beautiful!”
Their feet made deep tracks in the snow as they ran through the trees. Although the temperature was still in the teens, the sun shone down through the branches, glistening on the ice and snow, turning the forest into a thousand gleaming jewels.
Their breath made clouds in the air as they walked. The forest was silent except for the muffled scrunch of snow under their feet.
Suddenly Adam stopped, putting a restraining hand on Maggie’s arm. “Look,” he whispered. “Just ahead.”
