by B. J Daniels
“It’s not an actual yurt like the nomads of Mongolia used. The construction is much more solid than skins on a frame. Most yurts are portable. This one isn’t going anywhere. But you like it?”
“I love it. How did you find it?”
“I asked around and found out it was for rent. I wanted to take you to some place special.”
“Max, that’s so romantic.”
“That’s me, Mr. Romance,” he joked as they walked to the door, and he swung it open in a grand gesture.
Kat caught her breath. The inside couldn’t have been more perfect. A fire crackled in a small woodstove in front of a large leather couch and two chairs. On an end table nearby she spotted champagne chilling and two glasses next to it. There was fruit and cheese and strawberries dipped in chocolate.
And then there was the bed. Under a sheer canopy were piles of pillows, dozens of them atop a large, wonderfully soft-looking bed. Candles burned on each side of the bed, casting everything in a golden warmth.
“Max, it’s...perfect.” When she looked over at him, she was surprised to see that he had been worried she wouldn’t like it. She flung her arms around his neck and kissed him.
Lifting her, he carried her in, kicking the door shut behind him. When he set her down, he pulled her close and kissed her slowly as if they had all night.
* * *
SARAH FINISHED HER drink but shook her head when Buck offered to refill it. She felt antsy and couldn’t help being upset. She’d come home to get to know her daughters and look how that had turned out.
“Kat apparently hasn’t mentioned her suspicions to her sisters?” she asked, wondering if he knew more than she did. “They, at least, aren’t treating me like I’m a pariah. Yet.”
“Kat can be impulsive, but I think she’s been waiting to be sure she isn’t making a mistake. You can’t blame her, though, Sarah. You have to admit, the so-called evidence is pretty strong.”
She nodded. “Kat always was the one who wouldn’t take no for an answer. I remember how she argued and pushed me to the point where I wanted to pull my hair out.” She looked up, seeing the shock on his face. “Not that I didn’t love her as much as the others,” she said quickly. “It is just interesting to see how their personalities haven’t changed since they were young.”
“I hadn’t realized what it must have been like for you, trying to raise so many children,” Buck said.
“I was the one who wanted a houseful. I would never change any of that. Of course there were days when I was harried and felt like a failure at motherhood, but, Buck, I love each and every one of them. I’m just so sorry I missed so much. They weren’t the reason I drove into the Yellowstone River that night. I still can’t imagine why I would do that. I know it had nothing to do with my daughters or you, though.” She prayed that was true.
Buck sighed. “I’ll admit I went through hell when I found out that you hadn’t tried to brake before you went into the river. I was angry with you, Sarah, for so long.”
“I know,” she said, stepping to him. “Buck, I don’t want to cause you any more trouble. I would have taken off after Kat showed me that photo of those awful people, but I was afraid it would only make me look guilty.”
“I’m glad you didn’t. I can’t lose you again. We’re going to get through this. If I have to give up my run for the presidency—”
“No, that’s always been your dream. Buck, there has to be a way that we can be together, and you can still win the election. If there is one thing I know, we were meant to be together.”
* * *
KAT WALKED AROUND the yurt, taking it all in. To anyone else but him, she would have looked excited. Max knew her, though. He could tell she was nervous.
Maybe they should have just made love in the back of her SUV at the make-out spot before she had time to really think about it.
No, he thought, he didn’t want their first time to be like that. He didn’t want her to have any regrets. She might have regrets no matter what he did, he realized, though. Maybe this little romantic setup he’d paid to have ready wasn’t such a good idea after all. Maybe it felt too much like a seduction. Or maybe it was just too soon, no matter what she said. He mentally quit arguing with himself.
This was Kat and he was crazy about her. He could make this right. Or at least do everything in his power to try.
“Champagne?” he asked.
She nodded, but he noticed that her fingers shook a little as she took the glass he offered her before she went to sit on the couch in front of the fire. He didn’t want her to be nervous. “Max, this is amazing.”
He smiled as he brought his glass over and sat down next to her. “You deserve the best, Kat Hamilton.”
She looked as if she might argue that.
He shook his head and leaned over to kiss her. It was a soft, friendly kiss. No pressure. Still, he felt her tense.
“You’re right, we don’t need this,” he said, taking the glass of champagne from her and putting both glasses on the coffee table. “All we need is each other.” He pulled out his cell phone. “And music, of course.” One of his favorite songs began to play. “Too bad you don’t dance.” Before she could argue, he pulled her to her feet and into his arms. “I’ll have to dance for both of us.”
Her laugh wasn’t as nervous. “You’re crazy. What am I going to do with you?”
He pulled back to wink at her. “I have a few ideas, but right now, we’re going to dance.” A fast song began to play on his phone. He started dancing around her. He grabbed her hands and began to jitterbug with her.
Laughing, he said, “You do know how to dance. You’ve been holding back on me, Ms. Hamilton.”
He swung her out, pulled her back, spun her around and into his arms. Then he swung her out again. She was laughing as he twirled her around and around in front of the glow of the fire. Her face was flushed, her eyes bright. She was having fun. He couldn’t have asked for anything more.
Max took a mental snapshot of her, wanting to remember this moment, her hair flying out to one side, the smile on her lips, the joy in her expression.
He drew her back as a slow song began, another of his favorites.
He pulled her closer. They were both breathing hard from the exertion and their laughter. She smiled up at him, their eyes locking.
* * *
“MAX, I...” KAT SWALLOWED, realizing she’d almost said that she loved him. But she did love this crazy man. He made her feel beautiful and free and...happy.
“I know,” he said. “I feel the same way about you.” He bent to kiss the side of her neck as they swayed to the music.
“You don’t know what I was going to say,” she protested.
He straightened to smile at her. “Wanna bet?” He went back to kissing her neck as he pulled her against him.
His body was so solid, so strong, so warm. She leaned into it, feeling safe and yet excited. His kisses dipped lower. Need ran like liquid fire through her veins. Her aching nipples pressed hard against the fabric of her bra.
If she didn’t give in to these feelings for this man soon, she thought she might explode. “Max,” she breathed as his kisses burned across her flesh. “Please.”
He straightened to meet her gaze as another song began on his phone. “Please? Another dance?”
She could see that he was teasing her. He knew exactly what she wanted. What she desperately needed. Him. She shook her head.
“Another kiss?”
She shook her head.
“I’m here to please you. Anything you want.”
She swallowed again. “You know what I want. You.”
His teasing expression turned serious as he swept her up and carried her over to the bed. As he slowly put her down, he kissed her just as slowly, deepening the kiss.
/> She pulled him down with her until they lay side by side looking at each other. All she could think about was pressing her palms to his naked chest. She grabbed each side of the Western shirt he wore. She yanked, expecting the snaps to sing.
Instead, buttons flew everywhere.
* * *
MAX LAUGHED AT her shocked expression. “Let me guess, you don’t sew on buttons either.”
She covered her mouth with her hand, her eyes swimming in tears.
He pulled her hand away.
“I am so bad at this,” she cried.
“No, you’re refreshingly wonderful.” He kissed her as he unsnapped her Western shirt a button at a time.
She wore a white bra like one he thought a very old grandmother might have worn. But on her, it was sexy as hell.
He bent toward her to kiss the tops of her breasts. Freeing first one, then the other, he kissed her hard nipples. Kat arched against his mouth as he bathed each with his tongue and felt her shudder.
Leaving a trail of warm kisses, he slowly worked his way down her body. As he unsnapped her jeans, he heard her take a breath and hold it. Slowly, he worked the jeans off as she let the breath out. He had to smile. She wore a pair of white granny panties. Damn, but he loved this woman.
He met her gaze as he slipped his hand under the fabric. Kat let out a low moan as he began to gently stroke her. He figured she hadn’t done this in a very long time. Nor had she probably pleasured herself. Because she came almost at once. Whatever had happened to her had left her telling herself she never wanted this again. But her body knew better.
He removed her panties before working his way back up to kiss her again as he took off her bra. She clung to him, pressing her freed breasts against his chest. He felt his own desire spike and had to fight his growing need to move faster. He wanted this woman like he had never wanted any other. But he was determined to take it slow.
* * *
KAT THOUGHT SHE might go crazy if she didn’t feel Max inside her. She wanted him, needed him, couldn’t wait to feel his naked body against hers. She eased off his shirt, letting her fingers run down his muscled back. He shuddered, and when his gaze met hers, she saw the heat of his desire.
He was holding back, taking it slow for her. He knew somehow that she needed that. But right now, she needed him to make love to her.
She worked at the buttons of his jeans until he was as naked as she was. “Please,” she pleaded.
Max propped himself up on his arms and looked down at her, and then he smiled as he slowly lowered himself on to her. She felt his warmth, some of his weight, and then he gradually began to enter her. She clung to him, wanting to yell, “Just do it!” but when she reached for him, he drew back.
* * *
“KAT, OPEN YOUR EYES.”
She opened her eyes and looked up at him. Desire sparked and burned in those gray eyes like lightning in a snowstorm. Max eased himself into her. She let out a cry, then clutched at him, her eyes locked with his as he began to move. And then she was moving with him. Making love with him, her face filled with the same joy that he knew was on his own.
Holding her, he rolled over on his back, taking her with him. She sat up slowly, her gaze locked with his. He cupped her breasts as she began to ride him, arching against him, her head flung back. He saw her surrender, looking as wild and free as one of the horses on the ranch.
Like when they’d danced, she laughed with abandon as they rolled around on the bed and, finally spent, lay in each other’s arms.
“I love you, Kat,” he whispered against her hair.
“I know. I feel the same way,” she said.
Brushing her hair back from her face, he smiled at her as she lifted her cheek from his chest to look at him. Then she told him about what had happened at a college fraternity party. The drug someone had put in her drink. The rape. The shame.
“You didn’t report it?” he asked, fury in his voice at the men who had used her.
She shook her head. “I felt so...stupid. I never told anyone.”
“Oh, baby,” he said, pulling her more tightly against him. “I’m so sorry. I won’t let anyone hurt you ever again.”
“I confronted him...” She wiped at the sudden tears. “He laughed in my face and told me how stupid I was. He said I’d asked for it dressing and acting the way I did.”
“Tell me his name, and I will kill him for you,” Max said.
She shook her head. “He was driving drunk a few months later, lost control of his car and died. Because I’d wished for something awful to happen to him...”
He drew her closer. “Now I get it,” he said against her temple. “This is why you closed yourself off, why you’ve been denying yourself. A part of you died with him because you thought you deserved to be punished. Oh, Kat, you’re so wrong. It wasn’t your fault. None of it was your fault.”
* * *
“MAX.”
“Yes?” he asked sleepily. They had made love, gotten up long enough to eat something, and gone back to bed, made love again, and apparently gone to sleep. Kat had felt safe for the first time in years. Finally telling someone about what had happened had released her pain. She felt...free. Max, wonderful Max, had made her want to truly live again.
“Will you tell me about your marriage?” she asked quietly.
He hesitated only a moment. “The short version? We were high school sweethearts. We thought we had the rest of our lives together. She was diagnosed with cancer our second year of marriage. She died four months later.”
“Max, I’m so sorry.”
He drew her closer. “I never thought I’d ever feel like that again.” Pulling back, he met her eyes. “You’ve made me feel joy again.”
They made love once more. Daylight had waned to dusk outside the small windows, Kat saw. Inside, the fire had died to coals.
She snuggled against him, feeling the outside world starting to intrude on them. “Max, if you’re right about my mother being programmed, then who pushes the button to make her turn into Red?”
“Dr. Venable.”
Hadn’t she known that was what he would say? The sheriff had told them that no one knew where the doctor was, but they suspected he was either on his way to the States or already back.
“It’s just hard to believe they would still be so...fanatical after all these years. I wonder about the other members and what they’ve been doing all this time.”
“There are five members unaccounted for. Several of them would be in their sixties or early seventies by now. But the others would be close to your mother’s age, some I suspect even younger, and who knows if they’ve recruited more members by now?”
Kat shook her head, the thought giving her waking nightmares. “But they’ve been quiet all these years.”
“Quiet in this country.” He yawned. “I suspect they’ve been active elsewhere but might be planning to come back now because of your father’s place in the polls.”
She lay back to stare up at the cracked ceiling. She’d never slept naked in her life, but it felt so right here with Max. Still, she pulled the sheet up over her breasts. Max pulled it back down and kissed the tips of both breasts.
“Do you need me to take your mind off everything again?” he asked, his voice low and seductive.
She shivered, remembering their lovemaking. “Maybe he won’t win the election.”
“I wouldn’t count on that.”
“Then he has to drop out of the race.”
“And do what his father did?” Max shook his head. “Won’t happen.”
“What do you mean? Do what his father did?”
“Didn’t you know your grandfather had made a bid for president?” He saw that she didn’t. “You do know he was a senator, right?”
“He d
ied so long before I was born, I guess I never realized... Why didn’t he run?”
Max shrugged. “No one knows. Maybe your father does. As far as I’ve been able to find out, there wasn’t a scandal, though there was talk of another woman in his life other than your grandmother. Then your grandmother died. He resigned as senator and dropped out of the presidential race. Apparently everyone was shocked because like your father, he was the one to beat.”
“When was this?” she asked, chewing thoughtfully at her lower lip.
* * *
MAX WATCHED HER, wanting to bite that same lip. For a moment, the thought made him forget what she’d asked.
He slid closer, tucked her hair behind one ear and then bent to kiss the spot right behind it. She shivered and pulled away.
“Max! You still can’t be...starved. You were telling me about my grandfather. I wonder why my father never mentions him?”
He tried to focus. “It all happened not long after your mom and dad got married.”
“That’s odd, isn’t it?”
“Hmm,” he said, as he trailed kisses down her throat to her bare shoulder. “I thought so.”
“Just be serious for a moment.”
“I thought I was being serious.”
She shook her head. He loved that they were able to laugh during lovemaking. Most lovemaking was serious and certainly not as much fun as it was with Kat. He loved seeing the pleasure in her face when he touched her.
But she refused to let him distract her right now. “My mother would have known what kind of man my father was before she married him. She would have known my grandfather was a senator and was planning to run for president.”
Max could see where she was headed with this. “You think she sought your father out, knowing who he was.” He rolled up on one elbow so he could see her face. “That would mean this plan had been in the works for...years.”
Kat nodded. “Just as Wallace McGill told me. Remember? He said something about it all being in the works before I was even born. And didn’t you tell me that these kind of antigovernment radicals are rabid, planning far into the future?”
