by Merry Farmer
“You always were the handsomest man I’ve ever known in your birthday suit.” She winked, reaching for him and running her hands up his chest to tease his nipples.
“I don’t think it’s particularly fair for you to be standing there in your unmentionables while I’m in this state,” he replied.
She arched a brow. “They why don’t you do something about it, husband of mine?” She bit her lip and glanced down at her corset.
“Don’t mind if I do, oh my wife.”
He reached for her corset, gripping it in such a way that the hooks came easily undone as he worked his way down. Bonnie took a deep breath as soon as he finished and tossed it aside, then gasped as his large hands caressed her breasts through her chemise. That was gone in a matter of seconds too, leaving nothing between the callouses on his palms and the sensitive flesh of her chest. She hummed in appreciation as he squeezed her and brushed his thumbs over her nipples, then gasped outright as he brought his mouth down to kiss and suckle.
She tossed her head back, arching into him, as he used his tongue and teeth and hands to devour her. It was glorious to feel like his plaything. His sighs and ragged breathing told her he loved what he saw and felt and tasted. The physical sensations he created were second only to the bliss of knowing he enjoyed her, that he loved her.
His exploration shifted downward, and he pulled at the drawstring of her drawers, getting rid of them in a hurry. With a powerful swoop, he lifted her off her feet and onto the bed, not even bothering to pull back the bedcover. The kiss of cold air against Bonnie’s heated skin only added to the sensuality that caused her to throb with need.
“Just imagine,” Rupert whispered as he kissed her lips, her chin, her neck, hands caressing her curves, hips nestled tight against hers. “We could do this every day.”
“What a wonderful thing that would be.” She sighed, arching her back as Rupert kissed his way down to her breasts.
Everything in the world suddenly seemed full of possibility. The tragedy of the past was behind them, and for once the future looked wonderful. Particularly when Rupert continued his train of kisses down across her stomach and lower still. She mewled with pleasure as he parted her legs and continued to explore with his lips and tongue. She gasped and arched her hips up as he found her throbbing nub and began to tease it in slow circles. Those circles grew faster as his hands continued to explore the soft flesh of her inner thighs, reaching higher and higher into her wetness.
As he slipped two fingers inside of her, the world burst into wide waves of pleasure that took her by surprise. She’d been certain she could hold off her climax, revel in the pleasure he was giving her a little longer, but she wanted him so desperately that her body took on a mind of its own. Her orgasm stretched out, longer and longer, as his hand and mouth continued their work, until finally she was left feeling loose and sated.
“You are so beautiful,” Rupert whispered, sliding himself up over her tingling body until his erection pressed against the part of her that was still humming with relief. “You always have been, and you always will be.”
“As long as I’m with you.” She tilted her hips, urging him to take her. She wanted him inside of her so desperately that if he hadn’t been as ready for her as she was for him, she would have flipped him to his back and ridden him until they were both hot and dripping with passionate sweat.
He was ready for her, though, and thrust inside of her with strength and purpose, just the way she liked it. She cried out in approval as he stretched and filled her. He dipped down to kiss her lips, then to nibble at her neck, all while pressing harder and harder into her. She writhed against him, the scintillating notion that he could meld with her completely if he reached deep enough carrying her away.
And then he began to move. His powerful thrusts were fast and urgent at first, then he switched to slow and deep. The sudden change in tempo left Bonnie sighing for more and digging her nails into his back. When he returned to a fast, hard pace, she cried out even louder, moving her hips in time with his. Then he was slow and sensuous again. The changes were so unexpected and exciting that they brought her right back to the edge of bliss again.
She could feel his control slipping as he moved back to a faster pace. There was something more primal about the way he took her now. The time for teasing was done. Their mating was all about the union of body and mind. She reached down to grip the tight muscles of his backside, urging him to let himself go. The sounds he made grew more passionate, darker and louder, until he came close to shouting as his body tensed and his seed spilled inside of her.
She cried out along with him, embracing him with her arms and legs, her whole self. This was her husband, and come hell or high water, she would never let him go again.
Chapter 15
Like the fool that he was, as soon as his and Bonnie’s lovemaking was over, Rupert fell asleep. It was the kind of deep, much-needed sleep that took over a body when it’d endured too much for too long and finally came home. It didn’t matter if it was a cabin on someone else’s ranch, a hotel room, or out in the middle of a field, Haskell or Everland, if Bonnie was there, it was home.
That reassurance filled him even more deeply when he woke up later to find Bonnie snoozing in his arms. They’d crawled under the covers to snuggle before falling asleep, and now she rested peacefully in his arms, her back to his chest. They fit together perfectly.
Their lives could fit together perfectly too, with a little work. True, his business and his business partner were in Everland, but the train provided a direct link between the two towns. It wasn’t out of the question to split time between them. His idea to build a new Place on the other side of the tracks from Haskell’s town center was bound to work out, if only because Bonnie was friends with the right people. Rex Bonneville would give her a hard time, but how much could a man who had a ranch to run really do?
Rupert’s own answer to that question wasn’t what he wanted to hear. He had a bad feeling Bonneville could still do plenty of things to undermine life for Bonnie, her girls, and the rest of Haskell. But if they stuck together, if they relied on their friends when Bonneville made his attack, they might just be able to get through the worst of it. Maybe there was even a way folks from Everland could help. Maybe they could…
His thoughts scattered as Bonnie drew in a deep breath, then stretched herself away. The sinuous brush of her body against his was almost enough to ignite his blood all over again.
“Good morning,” she hummed.
“It’s not morning,” he laughed, wrapping his arms around her and turning her so that they lay pressed together. “It’s well into the afternoon.”
“Coulda fooled me.” She wrapped one leg over his hip and threaded her fingers through his hair. “Everything feels so fresh and new to me.”
“It most certainly does,” he agreed. He kissed her, long and lingering, their tongues dancing with each other. It truly felt as though the storm of their relationship had finally broken.
Right up until the point where Bonnie gasped and tensed in his arms.
“Afternoon?” She wrenched away from him and sat upright, holding the sheet to her chest. Her face flushed, and with her black hair tousled and loose around her shoulders, she looked every bit like a woman who had just spent the morning doing very bad things with a man. Although how bad could those things be when they were married?
His smug thought was shoved aside as Bonnie leapt out of bed, scrambling to find her underthings and put them on. “What’s the matter?” he asked, climbing out of bed as well. All of his clothes were in the main room of the cabin. He crossed to the door and pulled it open, hoping no one was peeking in at the windows.
“The wedding,” Bonnie fretted. She’d managed to put on her chemise and drawers, and snatched up her corset before rushing into the main room behind Rupert. “I’m supposed to be getting married in a couple of hours, maybe less, depending on how long we slept.”
A shard of fear struck Rupert
, and he straightened, pulling his drawers up as he did. “Don’t tell me you’re still going to marry Bonneville.”
“No!” Bonnie’s eyes went wide. She pursed her lips and stepped close enough to smack his arm before focusing on her corset. “Of course not. But the rest of the town doesn’t know that. More importantly, Rex doesn’t know that.”
Rupert winced. “You’re right. We should probably hurry back to set them straight.”
“You’re telling me!”
They scrambled to get dressed, and Bonnie raked her fingers through her hair to give it some sense of order. The final result was far from the sophistication she usually displayed, but a large part of Rupert liked her rough and rugged look even more. He couldn’t resist sauntering over to her and catching her in his arms.
“You look as good as sugar candy,” he told her, then planted a kiss square on her lips.
She laughed when he let her go. “You always were free with the ridiculous compliments.”
“Silly goose, they’re not ridiculous when they’re true. Besides, a man should compliment his wife ridiculously whenever possible.”
He kissed her again, but she pulled away before their kiss could deepen. A sudden, guilty flush painted her cheeks. “Rupert, there’s something I haven’t told you.”
Another anxious hitch formed in his chest. He let her go. “What?”
Bonnie bit her lip, wringing her hands. “We’re not married anymore.”
He shook his head, confused. “We’re not?”
“No.” She lowered her eyes. “I filed that divorce decree.”
He crossed his arms. “But I didn’t sign it.”
She licked her lips, then peeked up at him. “Pearl forged your signature.”
Part of him wanted to be angry. The rest of him was entirely too content, after everything that had gone on in the cabin. He even managed to grin at the thought of Pearl signing his name to the document. “Well, it’s a good thing we’re on our way to a church that’s all set up for a wedding, isn’t it?”
Her brow shot up. “Really? You’re…you’re not angry with me for deceiving you like that?”
He reached for her, drawing her back into his arms. “Oh, I’m very angry. I’ll have to find all sorts of ways to show you what a naughty girl you are for doing that.”
If she had any doubt left in her mind about whether he would fly off the handle the way he would have years ago, he silenced it with a kiss. His heart spoke through that kiss, telling her that they’d been through so much already, so many useless disagreements and so much stubbornness, that there wasn’t room left for any more.
He could feel Bonnie’s temptation to forget everything and head back to bed. It was only with a huge sigh and a flirtatious smile that she finally pulled away. “We need to get ourselves over to the church as soon as possible, then.”
She turned and started toward the door.
“Yeah, there’s one problem with that,” he called after her.
She reached the door and turned the handle, only to find it still locked. A very unladylike curse slipped out, followed by, “Now how the heck did they expect us to come to our senses and make everything right if they didn’t give us a way to get out of here?”
He walked up behind her, trying the door himself, even though he knew it was locked. “They must have figured out some way that we’d be able to get out.”
“Maybe a window that isn’t nailed down?” Bonnie suggested.
“Or maybe they expect us to shimmy up the chimney?”
They both giggled. It occurred to Rupert that he would be perfectly happy if they never left the cabin.
“Maybe they left the key somewhere inside, but out of sight, so that we would only think to look after we sorted things out,” Bonnie suggested.
“Seems as likely as anything.”
They set about searching the cabin. Sure enough, after turning out all of the drawers in the kitchen, searching every shelf in the main room, and poking through the wardrobe in the bedroom, they found a single, unassuming key placed just so under the bed.
Bonnie smirked as Rupert handed it to her. “Of course they would hide it under the bed. Either they expected us to end up in bed and then find it, or to find it, then end up in bed.”
Rupert laughed. “You know them better than I do.”
They crossed back through the cabin and unlocked the front door, only to find an empty wagon with the horse hitched and ready to go just outside.
“It’s like they want us to get back to town as fast as possible,” he said, helping Bonnie up onto the seat, then climbing up behind her and taking the reins.
“Makes you wonder what’s waiting for us in town,” she replied, one eyebrow arched.
Rupert could only imagine. He drove the wagon away from the cluster of buildings making up the center of Paradise Ranch and back toward town. On his way out, George had driven, insisting that would get them out to Howard’s ranch—where he’d been told Howard needed desperately to see him before he returned to Everland. It wasn’t a complicated drive, and the road was well worn, but he was glad he had Bonnie to point out turns and keep him from accidentally riding off into the wilderness anyhow.
Nothing seemed particularly out of the ordinary until they reached the edge of Haskell. A pair of black-haired children, a boy with spectacles and a girl, waited near a tree just beyond the last house. As soon as they spotted the wagon, they jumped into action, dashing ahead along the road and on toward the center of town—or rather past the central crossroads and on to the church.
“Uh oh.”
Rupert glanced sideways at Bonnie. “What? Who are they?”
“Minnie Faraday and her little brother, Toby.”
“Faraday?”
“Lucy and Gideon’s kids. They know we’re coming.”
“Uh oh.” Rupert gave the reins a snap to urge the horse on as the out of town road turned into Elizabeth Street and continued past the hotel.
“Oh shoot.” Bonnie shielded her eyes against the setting sun as she glanced up at the large clock on the front of Haskell’s town hall as they passed. “It’s later than I thought. They’ll all be at the church by now.”
“Well,” Rupert rolled his shoulders as he steered the wagon onto the final approach to the church. Several wagons were parked outside. “Looks like we’re about to make a big deal about our decisions, whether that was the plan or not.”
He pulled the wagon to a stop alongside the others and jumped down, helping Bonnie with him. He figured the horse would be fine where it was for the time being, and took Bonnie’s hand, rushing up to the church door with her.
Sure enough, as soon as they burst through to the sanctuary, every eye in the jam-packed pews turned to stare at them. George straightened from where he was standing to the side on the chancel, waiting.
“There you are!” Pearl leapt toward them from the pew at the back of the church where she had evidently been waiting.
“Oh!” Vivian Bonneville—waiting near the back in a pink bridesmaid’s dress that matched the ones her sisters were wearing—squealed and stomped her foot. “She didn’t fall in a ditch and break her neck after all.”
Rupert took offense at her complaint, but he didn’t have time to do anything about it. Rex Bonneville stormed up the aisle from where he had been waiting with Rance at the front. He sent Rupert a look that could kill, but he wasn’t the man’s primary aim.
“Where have you been?” he hissed at Bonnie.
“Rex, we need to talk.” Bonnie held up her hands, either to hold him back or appease him.
“I will not allow you to make a fool of me in front of the entire town.” His scowl and his voice darkened. “We’ll have our talk once we’re married, and it will be a long one.”
Without waiting for a reply, he grabbed Bonnie’s wrist and yanked her forward up the aisle so hard that she stumbled.
“Hey!” Rupert shouted, marching after them. “Let her go.”
Rex stoppe
d three quarters of the way up the aisle and pivoted to face him, his grip on Bonnie’s wrist still tight. “Who do you think you are?” he bellowed.
“I’m the man who loves this woman more than you have ever loved anything in your life,” Rupert shot back. “And if you don’t let go of her right now, I’ll knock every one of your teeth out.”
Whether it was the shock of his defiant reply or the prospect of being punched in the face, Bonneville dropped Bonnie’s hand. That didn’t stop him from puffing himself up to his full height and moving to stand toe-to-toe with Rupert.
“I could crush you in ways far more refined than brute force,” he growled. “I could destroy you to the point where you’d beg for mercy.”
Rupert held his ground, staring straight into Bonneville’s eyes. “I seriously doubt it.”
“Don’t test me, boy!”
“And you’d do best not to test me. A man is willing to risk a lot, sacrifice a lot to protect the woman he loves.”
The congregation around them held its breath, watching what was sure to turn into a fight with wide eyes. George stepped off the chancel at the front of the sanctuary and started cautiously toward them.
“This is nonsense,” Rex bellowed, breaking away from his showdown with Rupert to glance over the congregation, as if appealing to them. He ended his visual sweep of the church by zeroing in on Bonnie, who had shifted to stand by Rupert’s side. “You’re going to marry me, and you know exactly why.”
Rupert surged forward, mouth opening before Bonnie reached out, stopping him with a simple touch to his hand.
“I’m not going to marry you, Rex,” she said, far calmer and more dignified than either Rupert or Bonneville.
“What?” Rex snapped. “We had an agreement.”
“I said, I’m not going to marry you,” Bonnie repeated. “No matter what agreement we had.”
Red fury worked its way up Rex’s neck, turning his face into a blotchy mess. “We had an agreement,” he repeated, emphasizing each word, jaw clenched. “Are you willing to lose everything that agreement entails over this worm?”
