by Kim Redford
“Unlike kids today.”
“True. But nowadays, noise isn’t a matter of life and death.”
“I’m glad we live in a world where our children are safe.”
“The Comanche were willing to pay whatever price it took to keep their families safe.” He pulled Lauren into a tight embrace. “That’s the world I want for Hannah. And my children.”
Lauren leaned into him, feeling his warmth and strength and determination. “I’m so glad I came home.”
“We need you here.” He tightened his grip. “I need you.”
She reached up and wound her arms around his neck, tugging his face toward her. “No more than I need you.”
He kissed her, a light touch rather than hard heat, and raised his head. “If I’m moving too fast, tell me. I can slow down. Well, I think I can.”
She felt warmth spread from her heart, radiating outward until her entire body felt ablaze. “If you slow down, I may just have to knock you to the moon where you can join that big, bad owl.”
Kent chuckled, captured her face with both hands, and pressed his lips to her mouth. But again, he didn’t go further. “You want to go to the moon?”
“Only if it’s with you.”
He nodded, eyes shimmering like the river, then stepped back, clasped her hand, and tugged her toward his truck. “If we’re going to make a long trip like that, it’s time we got comfortable.”
“And maybe filled our bellies.”
“That, too.”
As they walked back to Kent’s truck, she dropped his hand and headed toward the passenger door. “I just remembered I left my phone in my purse. I’d better get it. With a child as young as Hannah, you just never know.”
“Good idea. You should be available.”
She tossed him a grin, once more glad that he so understood the needs of her daughter. She quickly opened the door, pulled out her phone, and tucked it into her front pocket.
“Grab the drinks while you’re up there, will you?”
She picked up the drinks, now sloshy from melting ice, and closed the door with her hip. “I’m guessing they’ll be kind of weak by now.”
“If you want, we can toss them and start with fresh ones from my cooler.”
“Let’s try these first.” When she walked to the back of the truck, Kent had already laid the yoga mats flat with the unzipped sleeping bags on top. “Looks comfy.”
“Better be.” He leaned over the side of the truck, took the drinks from her hands, walked back to the cab, and set both drinks in the open ice chest. He looked back at her and gestured for her to join him.
She hesitated a moment at the down tailgate, thinking back to all those times they’d come out here when they were young. Somehow or other, she just didn’t feel that much different, particularly not when she was with Kent.
“Need some help?”
“Maybe in fifty years, but not tonight.” She turned around, used her palms to brace her arms, leveraged up, and sat down. “How was that?”
“Looks like you’re as spry as ever.” He sat down and leaned back against the cab.
“This is cozy.” She walked back to where he’d piled pillows against the cab and sat down beside him.
“Best I could do on short notice.” He tossed a towel in her lap from the pile beside the cooler on his right side. “That’s just in case the barbeque gets messy.”
“Thanks. It always does.” She rubbed her fingers absently across the rough fabric. “I remember when you’d throw a few old quilts back here, along with some cans of Dr Pepper, and we’d be as happy as if we were rodeo winners.” She adjusted the pillows behind her back and snuggled against him so that their bodies were touching all the way down to their feet.
“We were winners. And we didn’t need any old rodeo to make us that way.”
She felt her spirits lift at his words, and so much emotion flooded her that she didn’t feel capable of responding with words. Instead, she clasped his hand and felt the rough calluses that hadn’t been on his skin when they were so much younger. She rubbed her thumb back and forth across his palm, getting to know this small part of his body again.
“If you don’t stop that,” Kent growled in a deep, rough voice, “we’re never getting to the barbeque.”
She picked up the towel from her lap, slid it around his neck, and pulled him toward her by holding both ends of the fabric. “Do you care?”
“Hell, no. I was trying to be a gentleman.”
“Don’t.” She tugged harder and was rewarded when he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her onto his lap.
She dropped the ends of the towel and snuggled into the warmth of his body, feeling a close connection like she hadn’t since the last time she’d been with him on Lovers Leap. There’d been Jeffrey, but now she realized he’d only been a poor substitute for Kent Duval. And with that realization came the thought—rather the desire—that he feel the same about her.
“You’ve gone far away,” Kent murmured against her hair as he gently stroked a palm up and down her arm in a comforting gesture. “What are you thinking about?”
“Me. You. Us.”
“And?”
“You were engaged to a beauty queen, I heard.”
“Flashy model.”
“Same thing.” She almost shrank in on herself at his words. “I’m not pretty like that.”
“Shhh.” He put a fingertip to her lips. “You’re beautiful, both inside and out.”
“But—”
He gave a big, heartfelt sigh, set Lauren back, and looked into her eyes by the light of the moon. “I don’t like to talk about it. But you ought to know. Charlene wasn’t the love of my life. I guess she filled the emptiness for a moment—too damn long, if you want my opinion—and then she rode off into the sunset with a diamond rock on her finger big enough to choke a mule. Maybe that’s all she ever wanted from me, but she couldn’t stand the country either. I guess, in the end, she couldn’t stand either of us.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry.” Lauren felt small for having pushed him into this confession. “You don’t have to tell me about her. It’s just that—”
“It’s okay. People want different things in life. She wanted city. I wanted country.”
“That’s so true.”
“Now, I want to know about your husband. Were you desperately in love with him and mourn him still?”
She buried her face against Kent’s warm chest, feeling his muscles contract under her as if he were willing himself to stillness. “I guess my tale is sort of like yours. Jeffrey flew off into the sunset in a single-engine plane, plummeted to the ground, and never returned to us.”
“That’s not what I asked you,” Kent said in a steely voice.
“Did I love him?”
“Yeah.”
“Yes and no.” She sat back up, holding their connection as if onto a lifeline, and looked into his eyes again. “We got married because I was pregnant with Hannah. I loved him for giving me what is best in my life—my daughter. But I hated him—maybe that’s too strong a word but it’s not far off—because he wasn’t there for Hannah and she loved and missed him so much. Jeffrey was a player, as I found out later, and our little family was never enough for him. I guess, like your situation, we wanted different things in life.”
Kent wrapped his arms around Lauren and held her tight, as if he could squeeze away all the old, hurtful memories.
“Hannah deserved better. I deserved better.” Lauren realized that in Kent’s arms she no longer felt her old despair over her failed marriage. “I’d already talked with an attorney about divorce when the news came about Jeffrey’s death.”
“Did you feel guilty?” Kent pressed a tender kiss to her temple.
“Yes. And I mourned what never was and never would be.”
“And now?”
“I realize Jeffrey had to live on the wild side. He couldn’t settle down to married life. It simply wasn’t in his nature.”
“Sounds like Charlene.”
“Did she hurt you very badly?”
“She hurt my ego more than anything.”
“Mine took a beating, too.” She rubbed her face against Kent’s chest, listening to the strong beat of his heart. “But I’ve worried most for Hannah. She needs love, family, friends, and community.”
“She’s got those here.”
“That’s why I brought her home. I wasn’t sure it’d work, but I’ve seen her blossom in Wildcat Bluff.”
“She reminds me of you.”
“Now, maybe, but we were both sort of lost in Houston. I don’t know. Maybe it’s something in the water or the land or the people. But for me, and now Hannah, this is the very best place on Earth.”
Chapter 34
Kent gazed out into the night, realizing how much he’d changed since Lauren came back to town. “Now I agree, but not a few days ago.”
“What do you mean?” Lauren lifted her head from his chest to look at him with eyes turned mysterious dark pools of silvery moonlight.
He tucked a soft strand of hair behind her ear, taking a deep breath as he considered his next words. “I guess I was pretty dense for a long time, or maybe just too young.”
“You’re confusing me.”
“Once you left, Wildcat Bluff was never the same. I kept twisting and turning to make it right, but it just wasn’t.”
“But—”
“Wait. What I’m trying to say is that I realize now that you’re home with Hannah that this is the very best place on Earth.”
“Oh, Kent, that’s so sweet.” She pressed a hot kiss to his mouth before nibbling across his lower lip.
“It’s true.” He groaned as he felt a rush of heat spiral outward in a blaze of desire. “One thing for sure, I’m not feeling one damn bit sweet.”
“Good. I’m not either. Or hungry.”
“I’m hungry all right, but not for barbeque.” He licked across her lips, tasting her tangerine lip gloss that made him want her even more.
“Oh, Kent, I just wish, I wish—” She clasped his shoulders and tugged him closer, as if she would never let him go.
“I know. I wish this was our first time. It could’ve been. It should’ve been.”
“But we were waiting for—”
“We waited too damn long.” He pressed hot, hard kisses across her jaw to her ear, where he traced the intricate scrolls with the tip of his tongue.
“But how could we have known Daddy would get that great job and I’d be gone in a week?”
“Just another year. That’s all it would’ve taken. You’d have been out of high school and we would’ve gotten married right here in Wildcat Bluff.”
“I know. And then—”
“I should’ve come after you.”
“No. It wouldn’t have worked, not after I’d been in Connecticut a year and we’d both moved on with our lives.”
“I figured you’d taken to city life and wouldn’t want a country guy anymore.”
“Silly.” She lightly bit the tip of his nose in a rebuking tease. “You’re twice the man of any guy I ever met.”
“And you’re the love of my life.”
“Oh, Kent, really?”
“Can you doubt it?”
“I love you so much. I’ve always loved you.” She held his face with both hands and looked deeply into his eyes, blinking back tears of happiness. “Forget the past. Let’s make this our very first time.”
He crushed her to him, feeling his heart thud hard at her words. He’d never thought to have her love again. Now that they’d given each other their hearts once more, he’d do everything within his power to make her happy. He couldn’t go back in time, but he could make the intervening years a distant memory that no longer mattered to either of them.
“I want to see you,” he said in a voice gone deep and husky with emotion.
She gently traced the contours of his face. “Don’t you remember? You already did see me naked as a jaybird.”
He chuckled, pressing a kiss to her palm. “That was skinny-dipping years ago.”
“I’m plumper now.” She pulled back and walked her fingers down his chest, grabbed a fistful of fabric, and jerked the shirttail out of his jeans.
“Good. More to love.” He groaned at her actions, realizing she’d learned a thing or two over the years. Maybe he didn’t want her to forget everything after all.
“You skinny-dipped, too.”
“Did you look?”
“I’ll never tell.” She chuckled as she gave him a mischievous wink. “But now I definitely want my eye candy.” She stroked her palms across his broad chest. “I bet you packed on more muscle since that time.”
“Wrangling horses’ll do that to you.”
“Uh-huh.” She gave a little, low growl as she walked her fingertips back to the top button of his pearl-snap shirt. “You know, they say these snaps were invented so shirts could easily be ripped off when tangled on barbed wire to save cowboy life and limb. But I don’t think so.”
“No?”
“Well, yeah, on one hand.” She jerked hard and all the snaps popped open to reveal his bare chest. “But on the other, women were making clothes at home back then, so I’ve got an idea they made snap shirts so they could get their hands on their favorite cowboy faster.” And she leaned down, hair cascading around her face, to press kisses across the hard muscles of his chest while she moved lower to toy with his belly button.
“Lauren,” he groaned, unable to say more as he dug his fingers into her soft hair while she continued to explore his bare flesh.
If he’d been hot before, now he was on fire. He sat up abruptly, taking her with him, and shucked off his shirt. He tossed it toward the end of the truck bed and turned toward her. She was hungrily looking at his chest, shoulders, arms. He clinched his fists not to grab her and quickly ease the ache that was trapped behind his zipper. Yet he’d promised her this would be good, and he’d hold back till he kept that promise. But it wouldn’t be easy.
“My turn.” He reached out and tugged at the shoulder of her jean jacket.
“It’s too cool to skinny-dip,” she teased as she shrugged off her jacket and tossed it beside his shirt.
“I’ll keep you warm.” He grinned, thinking how much he wanted her, how much he’d missed her, how much he needed her. And more than any of that, now she belonged to him. And he’d treasure her. Forever. “Come here.”
She shook her head, moonlight turning her blond hair a silvery hue, as she smiled mischievously and scooted back from him. She quickly pulled her red T-shirt over her head and lobbed it at their growing pile of clothes.
He caught his breath at the sight of the lacy red bra that barely covered her generous breasts. If she’d been a handful when she was younger, now she was big enough to make a guy give thanks to the great goddess of women. As he watched, growing harder by the moment, she toed off one soft moccasin then the other to reveal long, slender feet. She glanced over at him, looking all soft and silvery in the moonlight. He couldn’t wait a moment longer.
He lunged for her, caught her around her hips, pulled her toward him, and unzipped her jeans. “We better get these off you before I tear them to shreds.”
She chuckled as she lifted her hips and allowed him to tug them down, down, all the way down to her slim ankles. He jerked the jeans completely off and tossed them behind him, breathing hard as he looked at her nearly nude body. She wore nothing but a little red lace that accented more than it hid from sight.
“Lauren, I—” He caught his breath as he sat back on his heels and simply looked at her one inch at a time. “I’m on my knees to you.”
She
gave him a slow smile as she reached behind her back, unhooked her bra, and tossed it on top of the pile of clothes.
He groaned, all control snapping at the sight of her pink-tipped breasts, and nudged her backward as he positioned his body between her legs.
She moaned in reply as he teased and tormented one round globe then the other, kissing each tip to a hard peak. When he felt her fingernails raking across the hard planes of his back, urging him harder and faster, he slipped his hand into her panties and stroked her hot, moist center, causing her to writhe up against him, as if begging for more.
He exhaled hard like he’d been running a mile. He unzipped his jeans, then remembered he had a phone in his pocket but no condom. He groaned in frustration and sat up.
“What is it?” She rose slightly and leaned against one elbow, a slow smile tilting up one corner of her full lips. “Please don’t stop now.”
“I’ve got condoms in the glove compartment, I think.”
“Aren’t firefighters always prepared to do their duty?”
“If it involves fire extinguishers, I’m ready.”
She chuckled, a low, tantalizing sound. “I’ve got a better idea as to how to put out your fire.”
He groaned in response, shaking his head. “Not funny.”
“Yes, it is.”
“Hold that position while I get down from here and—”
“Kent, do you really want to use protection?”
He felt everything within him go still, not daring to believe what she might be implying. If anything, he got harder at the thought of creating a baby between them. But surely she couldn’t mean right now.
“We were always meant to have a child of our own.” She held out her hand to him, palm upward. “Is now too soon to try?”
He went down on his knees before her again. “I’d like nothing better, but I don’t want to rush you.”
“Hannah needs a little brother or sister to make her world complete.”
“I’ll be happy to adopt Hannah, if you’d like or she’d want.” He lifted Lauren’s hand and kissed her palm, lingering over the softness. “But I don’t want to rush you or her or anything. This is too precious to me.”
