by Stacy Reid
“I insist that we discuss it now.”
She seemed to think on her words and he almost smiled when she grudgingly tacked on ‘please.’ She was a persistent thing, but he knew the best thing for her would be to leave the territory. Perhaps it would be best for his sanity as well. It would kill him if she were to be harmed.
“Beth is my dearest friend. She is very fragile and she needs me. Grayson is like my own son. The ranch is their home and if I were to leave Beth would not want to stay without me. I cannot protect them. I have a bargain to offer you.”
“I am not interested.”
“Whispering Creek is my home Elijah, my home.”
Her soft words punched into him, cracking the wall he had been trying to erect. He knew what having a place she called home meant to her. He ignored the pleading in her eyes, and gathered his weapons to clean and oil them for their journey in the morning. He did not believe in bringing a gunfight to what could be an amicable discussion, but he certainly believed in being prepared. “Mr. Sullivan truly offered marriage?”
Her eyes widened at his unexpected question. “I...Yes.”
“If you are not willing to leave, accept his suit. You will be on the neighboring ranch and will be able to see Beth and her son.” Denial burned in his gut at the very idea of her in another man’s arm.
Pain darkened her eyes. “I see.”
He had never heard her voice so hoarse. The devastation of her face was real. It gutted him to see it, but he would not offer false hope.
“You would easily relinquish me to another man?”
He slowly walked over to her. Her face looked bloodless, her eyes wide, huge pools of hurt. “You were never mine, Sheridan. There had been a time when I wished for it to be so. That time has passed. We will leave at first light…get some rest.”
He did not wait for her reaction. He slammed out of the cabin into the bracing cold, heading for the barn to ensure his horse was protected against the storm that was brewing. A snarl slipped from him as he slammed into the barn. Damn! She needed him. And he had to be there for her; even knowing to be in her presence would only slide him deeper into the abyss of failure and nightmares he’d been slowly pulling himself from. He would have to guard himself to ensure he never fell back into the trap a woman like her presented. A trap offering false hope, and certain death.
Chapter Five
Sheridan closed her eyes tightly, wondering if she was being silly and reckless in her need to seduce Elijah. God, she had never expected him to be so cold. Deep inside her heart she had harbored hope that the connection that had burned between them in the past would have been reignited.
She wished he would listen to the offer she had, but he would never marry her. She was relieved he never gave her the chance to suggest they wed. It would have been a marriage in name only until she made him fall in love with her, but she doubted that would have mattered to him. He would have shredded her.
There had been a time when Elijah hungered for her, a time when he had seemed so gentle. Remembered feelings of being protected and safe in his arms swept over her, burning behind her eyelids. She wanted it back with a fierce need that made her tremble. She wanted to be branded by him, kissed by him, loved by him.
It was moments like these she wished her mother was alive. Though Sheridan had lost her at the tender age of seven, she recalled her mother had always soothed her fears and uncertainties. Never had she been so sure about a path she should take, but also unsure. Her options felt few, and she despised the desperate sensations that wormed themselves through her heart. The last time she had felt like this was amongst the ton, where her life, her speech, her mannerism had been under such scrutiny. She had wanted to be away from polite society, from her father’s constant indifference, and her stepmother’s unrelenting disapproval and petty jealously. Sheridan had escaped to find such joy here, and now it was irrevocably threatened.
Could she marry someone else, while loving another? She instinctively rejected such a notion. That would make her just as vile as Thomas. He had loved another dearly, and had married Sheridan for her wealth. The love he’d possessed for his lover, had seen him treat her with contempt and indifference, leaving her caged in a marriage without love, respect, or affection. She would never do that to another person. Even if she would strive to respect someone else, she could never allow intimacy, knowing her entire heart belonged to Elijah.
Seduction…how the ladies of the ton had made it seem easy. The delicate flick of a fan, flirting, dropping a handkerchief in front of a beau, and conspiring for them to be seen together alone. Here was so different…Beth was correct, less polite. Sheridan would have to be bold and wanton…and so very unladylike, much like how she had been in the past when she had given herself to Elijah. Or rather, allowed him to take her. But the situation was much different now; he wanted nothing to do with her.
The fire roared and the room’s warmth soothed her nervous shivers. Sheridan’s hands clenched in her lap and she wished she could storm at him with anger and demand he listened to her. But that was not his way.
The first time she had met him, he had seemed so hard and fierce. Everything about him had been raw, untamed, and utterly intriguing. Elijah Kincaid. There had been a razor edge to his personality, something tortured, and lonely. She had been drawn to him, wanting to soothe the wildness. She had understood his profound loneliness after enduring it for more than half her life.
He had sent heated shivers through her. He had always done so, from the moment Beth had introduced him as Thomas’s ranch partner. Sheridan had avoided Elijah the first few weeks he had been on the ranch, startled by the need he roused in her. She had watched him as he wrangled broncos and tamed the wildest of stallions they had on the ranch. Something about him had commanded her attention, but she had been too wary, too shy to approach him. He had noticed her watching him several times and he had only returned her stare with a sensual slant of his lips. It had always created a flutter of need in her, which had only drawn her to him more. But he had never approached her.
One day when the sun had felt divine, and the world itself seem lazy, she had done the unthinkable, she’d stripped bare and dipped into the river. He had saved her from drowning after she had been determined to learn how to swim. As a Viscount’s daughter she had been cosseted most of her life, even when locked away behind the cold iron doors of a boarding school. Being on the frontier had been very different, but it held the same barren existence. She had wanted to do something daring. In hindsight it had been incredibly dangerous, but for a while she had dared.
Elijah had been so furious with her. He had drawn her over his knees, and his rough hand had descended on her buttocks with firm force. She had been enraged, bucking and screaming at the humiliation and his high handiness. At his release she had surged to her feet, slapping him with rage, and he had stunned her by hauling her to him and kissing the fight out of her. She had sampled her first taste of desire, and bliss had seared her.
Sheridan sank into the rustic bed, regretful tears streaming down her face. When he had asked roughly against her lips if she was spoken for, she had lied. Desperate to ease the ache of loneliness, she had foolishly lied. She had pretended Thomas was her guardian while in America instead of her husband, albeit he had been her husband in name only.
Thomas had never touched her, never made love to her, and had treated her presence with constant annoyance. When she had tried to climb into his bed six months after being married, hoping that if he could give her a child so she wouldn’t be so lonely, he had her removed from the connecting chambers and deposited her in another section of the sprawling ranch house. The eighteen-room ranch house that had seemed so grand and beautiful had become a lonely haunting prison.
Thomas had been impervious to her demands as to why they were not living as man and wife. It had taken her seeing him with his lover, one of the ranch hands, befo
re she had fully understood how he had used and deceived her. They would never have a real marriage. She simply held no appeal to him because she was a woman. It had all been about her money. He had cruelly deceived her, and had been willing to rob her of a child and a family, all for money.
With Elijah it had been so different. Her heart had pinched with guilt and fear when he spoke tentatively of marriage, and she had been in agonized doubt how to tell him. She had confided in Beth and she had been horrified. Beth had demanded Sheridan reveal all to him, and when she crept into his room that night, after spending the day shoring up her courage, she had succumbed instead to desire, hoping to have at least one night of passion before he left her.
That one night had turned into two, and then over a dozen. Each day she had been in torment of need for him and fear how to let him know she was bounded. She had reveled in words of affection from him. Elijah had taught her to swim, to ride straight saddle, how to use a rifle, how to hunt. He had made her so damn happy. Then Thomas had come home two months earlier than he had been scheduled to, and everything had gone to hell in a basket.
The wind slamming the door shut startled her. She hastily wiped at her tears, and controlled the ragged edges to her breathing. She listened to Elijah moving in the adjoining bedroom, desperate to go to him and lay her heart bare. But she knew he would crush her if she attempted to.
They would leave at first light for the ranch, and Mr. Sullivan would also return tomorrow. Her stomach tightened in dread. She could not bear the idea of marrying that man. She jerked to her feet and paced furiously, her mind churning as her feet sunk into the plush bearskin rug with each step. Elijah would allow Mr. Sullivan to take her. She was still disbelieving of that, but she did not want to doubt the cold distance she saw in his eyes. She would have to act tonight. He would not give her a chance once they reached Whispering Creek.
She gritted her teeth, ignoring the flare of doubt. Sheridan tried to dwell on the hunger that had leapt into his gaze earlier. She would seduce his body, and pray to God that she could eventually seduce his heart.
***
Elijah tensed as a whisper of sound rode the air, alerting him to Sheridan’s presence. He hardened himself, fighting the surge of need. There could only be one reason she would come to him. “Go back to your bed.” He deliberately made his voice disinterested.
“No.”
There was a slight tremor in her voice. He tilted his head from the sofa in the room where he lay towards her. “Fucking hell!”
She hesitated slightly at his harsh snarl. She walked toward him with the innate sensuality of a seductress. The quilt wrapped loosely around her slithered off her body to pool on the floor as she came closer. She stood naked, hair rippling down her back to her hips, glorious jet-black hair, almost blue in its richness, against creamy white skin. She could not know how she looked to him, nervous, defiant, and hauntingly beautiful.
“I have missed you, Elijah.”
Tensions swirled hot and thick in the air at her announcement.
And I have missed you, so damn much. The words begged to tumble from his lips, but he held them in. She sauntered to him with naked lushness, tempting his control. A whiff of her unique scent, and feminine arousal, reached his nostrils, and it went straight to his head. Her breasts stood taut and firm, her stomach smooth and flat with rounded hips. Her curvaceous body looked so soft, and he knew she would feel as sublime as he remembered. His cock thickened on a pleasurable pulse.
He narrowed his eyes to slits watching her. He could feel her nervousness and he noted the slight trembling in her frame. She stopped a mere foot away from him. Her eyes darkened with sultry sensuality, but widened from her nerves.
“Go back to bed, Sheridan. I am not interested in anything that you are offering.”
His cock twitched in denial, and his heart thudded. Elijah wanted so badly to just touch her. He missed her scent, her taste, her laugh, her curiosity about life…he missed everything about Sheridan. He fought to keep his face a mask of stoicism. It would not do for her to see how she tempted him. The enticement of her naked body was unbearable.
“Do not push me away, Elijah. I can see you want me. I miss your kisses, your touch, and the way you smile at me, the way you make me belong.”
He froze completely, her husky words unravelling the chains of restraint he’d wrapped around his desire. “Sheridan—”
“Only tonight, Elijah…for now.”
A jolt of pure lust tore through him. His mind latched onto ‘only tonight,’ completely ignoring the ‘for now,’ and the hint of future liaisons. He’d been hungering for her for months. And she now offered herself so freely. He slowly sat up on the couch, silently beckoning her closer. He told himself it was not the need in her eyes he wanted to soothe, not the desire that emanated from her he wanted to immerse himself in. His resistance crumbled, and he convinced himself he only had one purpose in loving her. And that was to take her in every way possible, and exorcise her from his dreams before he exiled her from his life.
***
Sheridan saw the desire in Elijah’s eyes as she tempted him with her body. His voice was flat and indifferent, but the naked hunger in his eyes encouraged her. Her heart stuttered in both arousal and fear when he shifted, sitting up on the sofa and watching her with savage need.
She could not miss the rampant erection that strained against his buttons. He seemed hard and edgy and she knew taking him wouldn’t be easy. Her heart jerked at the thought. He’d always been so considerate of her, ensuring her pleasure, gentle with her always. Instinctively, she knew he would ride her hard and rough, if he gave in to his desire. He seemed too desperate. But she did not mind, for she felt the same fever of desperation igniting in her blood.
He held himself rigid on the sofa as she approached. She sank onto her knees gracefully holding his gaze, praying the hunger she spied would prevent him from pushing her away. “I have been without your touch for months, Elijah. I do not ask for promises. I know you have none to give, but I hunger for you.” Liar…her heart screamed, and she choked back a sob, for she wanted everything from him, especially his love. She rested her hands on muscular thighs and squeezed.
A rough, hungry sound escaped from him. The sound sank into her, making her bolder, her hands more confident. She snaked up and cupped his hardness, and her breath hitched when it flexed in her palm. All sense of shame and decency fled under the overwhelming desire that carved his features.
She rose and slowly straddled him, her knees bracketing his thighs. She fought to control her shivering as she sat on his lap and his rough denim scraped so sensitively between her legs. His nostrils flared, and she fought the blush that burned her body. She had never been so bold before.
She met his gaze, baring her emotions, hoping he would see the hunger and the entreaty for forgiveness. He shifted and need bolted to her core. She felt hot and restless, her limbs heavy and aching. Need poured from her, dampening her core, wetting his pants.
Calloused hands shifted from his sides to cup her breasts. His thumbs swiped over her nipples, before capturing the hard pebble between his thumbs and forefingers. The flood of sensations was so potent they bordered on pain. Her skin felt hot and tight.
“Elijah,” she gasped at the lighting pleasure that forked through her. She gripped his hair and leaned down to kiss him. “I missed you so much.” The words rushed from her as the ache became unbearable. “I miss our long walks, the way we held hands and talked for hours. I miss your smile.” She licked his lips, loving the texture. She rocked on him gently, more liquid seeping from her, wetting his denims. She groaned as his lips parted slightly and she slipped her tongue in between them.
He tasted of coffee and fire.
Her tongue pressed and dipped, and she moaned softly when his tongue twined with hers. He took the kiss from her and she freely relinquished it, loving the delight th
at warmed her blood.
His fingers dug into her hip and one of his hand trailed down across her belly to her core. His fingers delved between her swollen folds to caress. He thrust a long finger in her depth and she bucked into the sharp pleasure. She held her eyes open as his mouth ate hers. His expression was so sensual it dampened her more, easing the way as he added a second finger. His palm rested on the hot knot of flesh between her legs. He rotated his hand, pressing against her mound, and his eyes flared, then narrowed with sultry arousal.
He wrenched his mouth from hers and with one strong hand he lifted her slightly off his lap. The other hand went to his buttons and she watched as he cautiously, with a pained expression, released himself. His hardness pulsed with vitality, strong, hard, and thick.
He drew her to him, notching his length at her wetness. He nudged the broad head at her opening and pushed in with slow determination. She groaned low in her throat as he excruciatingly drew her down onto him, burying his length another fraction. She felt overstretched and she gripped his hair so tightly she feared she would pull out strands. She tried to pull back but he didn’t let her retreat. He slowly pulled her onto him, impaling her in delicious increments.
He paused. “All right?” he murmured, his voice was guttural with arousal.
She burned uncomfortably, but gloried in the delicious feeling of fullness even though he had sunk less than halfway. “Yes.”
Hard calluses abraded her skin as he hugged her to his chest even closer, and she shivered.
“Spread your legs wider.”
She moaned weakly at his rough command. Bliss seared her as he simultaneously pressed a thumb and circled her knot of pleasure, and captured one of her nipples between his teeth. Raking talons of need slashed at her as he did something with his thumb, a deep press and then quick rotations that had lightning racing through her blood stream. Desperate to feel filled with all of him she sank a little further, head thrown back in wanton bliss, her hand gripping the head that feasted at her breast.
