“Well, he was a fool,” Rafferty responded with sudden vehemence. “A blind, insensitive fool, and it’s time a man proved to you that you’re an intelligent woman worthy of walking in the highest circles, if you choose to.”
Once again his words captured her heart, and in the heat of his kiss she could forget that they’d probably never show themselves in society again . . . could forget the degradation of being the dance instructor’s illegitimate daughter, and revel in Rafferty’s unconditional acceptance. This man knew of her heritage, and of the gaping hole in her education, yet he was revealing emotions that had apparently simmered beneath the surface since the moment they met. Jack’s lips set her afire, set her free, and she found herself returning each breathless, urgent kiss as though her life depended upon it.
He felt her hand pause on the placket of his union suit. “Yes,” he encouraged her, “I want to feel your hands on my bare skin.”
“But you’ll freeze!”
“With you holding me?” Rafferty laughed and kissed the bridge of her nose. “You’re burning hotter than the fire, honey. If anything, I should be afraid of melting once I get inside you.”
Amber needed no second invitation. She quickly unfastened the top of his union suit, grinning in eager awe when her hands slipped beneath the damp fabric to splay across his chest. The black hairs curled crisply around her fingers as she followed the curves of his muscles again and again. He felt so solid, so strong . . . looked more dangerously appealing than any man she’d ever seen among Gideon’s crew, or anywhere else.
And his response to her caress was an awesome thing to behold. His eyes closed, and his long black lashes fluttered over cheeks that were going slack as his jaw dropped with passion. His day’s growth of beard enticed her, and Amber ran her tongue along the ridge of his chin and down his neck, reveling in the roughness of the shadow and the soft moan that escaped him. He was shrugging out of the sleeves ahead of her hands, as caught up in the moment as she.
Until she froze. “Jack?”
“What?” he gasped, his eyes flying open.
“Wh-what if somebody comes along and—”
“Maudie’ll bark. Just make love to me, Amber.”
She glanced around, her pulse pounding despite the fact that she neither saw nor heard evidence that they were being approached. Rafferty watched the slender vein in her neck throb and knew he had to recapture her attention immediately, or the mood would be ruined.
It was then that he noticed her blanket had fallen away. She was indeed naked, unaware of the autumn chill, her thighs brushing his as they rested on their knees in front of the fire. He couldn’t recall a more inspiring sight. His arms went around her and he pulled her close for another kiss. “Maybe we will be seen,” he murmured against her hair, “but it’s too fine a day to burrow in the cave like moles when we can bask in the sunshine, under this morning-glory sky.”
His lips found her nipples and she inhaled sharply. Her excitement had been honed to an edge ever since she’d washed in the open air, knowing he could walk in on her, so Amber needed no further encouragement. She gently grasped his head, urging him on in the exploration of her sensitive flesh. Nothing could compare to the way he sent her soaring with the intimate touch of his lips. Nothing mattered, except that this man who held her seemed to need her now as much as she needed him, to survive.
Jack rose with a quick urgency and slid his damp long Johns the rest of the way down. He watched her eyes follow the revelation of his skin, taking in his hips and thighs, and then flitting from his ankles to his manhood as it bobbed with the effort of pulling the knit underwear over each foot. Amber’s inquisitive gaze made him harder yet, and he was damn near ready to explode by the time he cast his clothing aside.
“What do you see?” he asked in a husky voice.
His woman rocked back on her hips to assess him, grinning wickedly. “L for long, luscious legs ... D for the dark down that covers your chest and funnels to a peak above that P-thing. S for shoulders that must be three feet across. And H. Lots of H.”
“For what?”
“Heat,” she said, and with a subtle laugh she rolled forward to grasp his rock-hard thighs. “And now that I’ve learned my letters so well, what else can you teach me today, Mr. Rafferty?”
He held his breath. Amber was licking her lips thoughtfully, contemplating the thick, pink finger that was pointing at her, and he longed to feel the grip of her lips and her warm, wet mouth. “Go ahead,” he murmured. “It’s just like a lollipop you’d get for being my prize pupil. You can lick it, you can suck on it . . . just don’t crack my candy between your teeth, all right?”
His teasing eased her trepidation, and while she was still giggling she slipped him into her mouth. His guttural moan told her she’d found yet another way to please him, and his rocking back and forth was a lesson in loving she knew she’d do well to retain. She was imitating his age-old rhythm, breathing in his muskiness as her own excitement mounted, when he pulled away.
“Not yet,” he rasped, as much for his own benefit as for Amber’s, and then he lowered himself onto his knees again. “This time I’m seeing to your pleasure, young lady, and too much of that organ-playing’s liable to drown out my best intentions.”
His eyes shone warm and dark as he gazed at her. He placed a tender kiss on her temple and followed it with another one on her cheek and then went on to tickle her ear with the whisper of his mustache and the flickering of his tongue. As his lips pressed the sensitive spot at the base of her throat, his fingers found their way between Amber’s legs and she arched against him.
As one they eased onto the blanket’s folds, sharing a feverish kiss. Jack’s hands worked their magic everywhere he caressed her, and she could only glory in the wild, wanton delights he had her gasping for. She cupped her breast, offering it to him, and he suckled as though it were the most precious of gifts. It gave her a shivery, deeply feminine feeling to watch this act, to savor the contrast of his raven mustache on her skin and to witness the utter contentment on his face as he tongued her into a rigid, aching peak.
A finger slipped inside her and then another, and Amber’s eyes widened. “Jack, I—”
“Shhhh, just let me find the right spot here,” he whispered. “Once I do, I’ll always know how to make you climb the cliff and keep you teetering on the edge until you can’t stand it.”
“You won’t let go of me, will you?” she whispered.
“Not a chance. But I’ll let you fly toward the sun until you pass out from the sheer bliss of it.”
Amber realized then that she was panting, writhing against him to create even more of the friction he’d initiated. She was indeed rising higher with each stroke of his skillful hand, aiming toward an intense pressure that threatened to shatter her consciousness. “Jack . . . Jack, I can’t—”
“Sure you can. Unless you want me to stop so you can slow down, and—”
“No!”
He felt her rocking uncontrollably in his arms, and was fascinated by the impassioned expression she wore. Amber was lovely beyond belief, lightly filmed with moisture and letting her head roll from side to side against his arm.
“Come on, honey, reach for it,” he urged her in a husky voice. “Take it now . . . soar off that cliff.”
Overwhelmed by new sensations as she was, she somehow figured out what was missing and grasped his hand. “I want you, Rafferty. Like I had you before,” she breathed.
Rafferty’s desire flared like a freshly-fed fire. “But I want you to—”
“I’m telling you what I have to have! And I’ll take it!”
Before he could cajole her with more love words, Jack felt her drawing his fingers from between her legs. When Amber draped a warm thigh over him, wriggling in search of deeper satisfaction, he rolled her onto her back so he could gaze into her face as he entered her.
“This time I’ll do it right,” he vowed, nuzzling her with a kiss. “This time there’ll be no turning aw
ay in anger ... no turning back, Amber, now that we’ll be together as we should’ve been all along.”
She held her breath, unable to take her eyes from his. Did he feel it, too? Could he be hinting at the mystical oneness she’d always sensed was their destiny? He paused at the brink of her, his smile driving her mindless when he inched inside her. She held back from the brash, untamed urge to surge against him and instead allowed him to work the magic he’d wanted to by slowing her down.
Her heart stood still as he raised up, balancing with his hands alongside her shoulders. Suspended above her, Jack was straining with the effort it took to hold them both back, easing himself out of her and then in again, his entire body rigid with concentration. Amber ran her hands along his sleek sides, circling the halves of his hips as she felt the spiralings inside her tighten with her desperation.
Lord, she was a sight with her hair spilling over the blanket and her heart welling up in her eyes! Rafferty allowed himself to breathe and move just a little, savoring the silkiness of her touch as she coaxed him to rock against her. The sight of her splendid body tensing beneath him drove him beyond the point of all control.
As Amber met him thrust for thrust, she allowed her gaze to linger on the slick, pink shaft that disappeared into her curls again and again. Such a powerful sensation, to feel his frenzy blending with her own until an undeniable madness grabbed her and refused to let go. She clutched him, gasping his name as the tension peaked and burst open into a kaleidoscope of joy and beauty beyond imagining.
Rafferty felt himself reeling, and then came the intimate, repetitive grip of his woman’s release. Only then did he allow himself to follow her lead into his own rapture, a frantic, almost violent eruption that left him too dazed to speak. He collapsed against her, spent, and for several moments he could only lie there, aware of their hearts’ duet and their mingling scents and the wiry softness of her hair.
His name was echoing in his mind, spoken in the husky voice he so loved to hear. Was he recalling her ecstatic cries, or was she talking to him now? Jack shook himself and opened his eyes.
“Rafferty?” she was whimpering—urgently, as though she feared something was amiss.
“What, honey? What’s wrong?”
Amber let out a relieved chuckle and hugged him. “For a minute there, I thought you’d passed to the great beyond.”
“For a minute there, I did.” He roused himself from the sweet haze that seemed to hover around him, to raise up and look at her. “What a woman you are, Amber. Unlike any I’ve ever met or can hope to meet again.”
His words caressed her, filling her with the precious approval she’d yearned for all her life. “I—I hoped I was doing something the right way, but I wasn’t sure—”
“There’s no wrong way for you to love me, Amber,” he murmured, placing delicate kisses along the line of her jaw. Jack studied her flushed loveliness. It was time to share the thoughts that had bubbled to the surface like a wellspring these past several hours. It was only fair to state his case, so she knew where she stood and could make her decision freely when the time came.
“I’m not sure how you’ve done it,” he began, trying not to sound as jittery as he felt, “but you’ve chased away the emptiness I’ve felt for so long now . . . wrapped yourself around my heart until I can’t ignore my feelings any longer. Don’t answer me yet, Amber. Just think about this, all right?”
Her pulse was pounding so loudly she could hardly hear what this achingly-handsome man was saying. She nodded, feeling her soul hold its breath as she watched Rafferty get his nerve up again.
“I...I want us to be together, now and for always. Do you feel the rightness of that, the way I do?”
Nipping her lip, she nodded again.
Jack sighed in relief and kissed her lightly. “All I have to offer is what you see before you, honey. It’s not enough—God knows, you deserve the life I could’ve given you before I had to hide from the law. But if you’ll stick with me—if you’ll trust my best intentions—I promise you that once we’re in Canada, we’ll start fresh and build the life and the family we’ve both been dreaming of. It’s no accident that we found each other . . . is it?”
Amber thought she’d pass out from sheer giddiness. “I felt it when I first took your hand,” she replied in a whispered rush. “I knew things about you—felt pieces falling into place so effortlessly. Yet when you turned from me those times, I thought I’d read you wrong because I so badly wanted us to belong to each other.”
Jack grinned. “I carry on sometimes. Feels funny to be admitting to such things as fate or destiny—not subjects the average man feels comfortable discussing. But maybe if I stop fighting it, things’ll turn around. Lord knows they can’t get much worse!”
“Don’t feel that way, Jack.” She stroked the worry from around his bold, black eyebrows, wondering if her heart would burst with all the possibilities his words presented to her. “I feel very happy with you—complete, somehow. If we were meant to be together, we’ll make it. Come what may, you’ve made me very happy, Jack.”
When a single tear slid down into her hair, he realized she’d spoken in full faith—such a gift, like none he’d ever received, and Amber’s unwavering devotion moved him deeply. Jack kissed her slowly, gradually increasing the pressure as his passions were rekindled. He would give her the gift of himself, mind and body and soul, every moment she stood by him. Because that’s all he had.
And as he loved her again, he sensed that because of Amber’s unquestioning trust in him, a gift of himself would be enough.
As the full moon shed its silvery light around them, Amber pondered this day, to keep it as a cherished memento, alive for the rest of her life. She was curled up in Rafferty’s lap as Smoke picked his way through the gurgling stream. Behind them, Miss Blanche followed on a lead rope with their meager gear and her carpetbags strapped onto her back, while Maudie splashed along the shoreline.
“Saw a farm up this way, when I was hunting our supper,” Jack was explaining. “We’ll stop there, to work in exchange for food and supplies, if they’ll let us. Even if Minnit and that investigator find our campsite, they’ll be hard pressed to tell which way we went from there if we keep to the stream. Can’t take any chances, though. Got to keep pushing north or we’ll never be free.”
Free. . . free.... The word pulsed steadily through her system, filling her mind’s eye with images of love and unparalleled joy. To be free with this man, to experience the blending of their bodies as they made love and the meeting of their minds each time he talked with her and taught her . . . such a vision filled her with a peaceful yet vibrant hope. She’d sensed all along that Rafferty was running from false charges, and his commitment to her today made her determined to right the wrongs in his past. She didn’t know how, but she knew she would. Knew that this was the very reason Fate had brought him to her.
Jack tightened his hold on her. “When we get to this place, we may need to be a little . . . creative with our story, you know?”
“Um-hmmm.”
His chuckle rumbled against her ear. “I just don’t want you to look surprised—or worse—if I tell the farmer we’re man and wife.”
Her heart skipped like a little pigtailed girl. “How do you mean, worse?”
“Well . . . shocked. Or perturbed.”
“Ah. As though you were holding me against my will,” she replied with a light laugh.
Rafferty closed his eyes against a wave of intense longing. A proposal of marriage seemed irrelevant until they came across a preacher—which might take weeks, meandering as they were across Minnesota, and would give her a fair amount of time to come up with her answer, too. But perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to sound her out again, now that they weren’t driving each other to those dizzying heights beside the fire. “Am I?”
“Are you what?”
He sighed at how difficult things could be when his life was on the line with every word. “Holding you against your will.”
>
Amber raised up to look into his moonlit face. The shadow of his hat brim obscured his eyes, but she could feel the weight of his anticipation as he returned her gaze.
“Not at all,” she finally whispered. “You’re holding me against your heart, Jack. And that’s exactly where I ought to be, isn’t it?”
He hugged her close, praying for the hundredth time that he could somehow elude the punishment for his crime . . that a higher power would intervene so that burly detective would give up the chase and allow him a life again, with this woman in his arms.
Chapter 17
Watson groaned and urged his horse toward the clearing ahead, where Gideon Minnit was whooping like a crazy man, galloping his mare wildly while shooting off his pistols. The past few days on the trail from the train station had done nothing to improve his opinion of the flighty little man, and he felt his temper rising to the boil-over point at this new display of stupidity.
“Whoa, dammit!” he commanded, and to emphasize his point he fired his rifle into the air. “Get ahold of yourself, Minnit, before I grab you.”
Gideon flashed him an ecstatic grin. “We found them—their camp!” he shouted gleefully. “We’re right on their tails now, so let’s keep going!”
“And how am I supposed to see any more tracks or traces of them if you trample every square foot of earth around here?” Booth demanded.
At least the fool had the decency to look crestfallen. Gideon glanced at Felicity, imploring her support, but the woman’s black glance only withered Minnit further. They were all tired and testy. Much as he longed to keep moving, Watson knew a night’s rest was the only thing that would keep them all acting somewhat civilized.
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