by Twilight
The love and admiration shone like twin beacons in her son’s eyes when they swung up to Rance. Jessica could now only marvel at a child’s capacity for understanding and forgiveness. Yet she’d dreaded explaining it all to Christian when they returned from Wichita. How could she possibly expect him to understand the twists of fate that had brought Rance to them? But she’d determined he had to know the truth, the reasons, even if he didn’t understand them at first. But he had, somehow, his brow puckered with confusion at first, his gaze clouding. The simplicity of his logic...
“But Rance would never hurt us, Mama,” Christian had said softly. “He loves us. He went with that bad man. He saved me, Mama.”
He’d saved them both.
“Tend to the horses, Christian,” she said. Taking her husband’s hand in hers, Jessica turned and headed toward the house. She paused at the door and pressed her fingers against his lips, then gently pushed the door open. Soundlessly she moved across the freshly scrubbed pine floor to the wooden cradle tucked into a shadowy corner. The tiny bundle barely stirred with each shallow breath. Raven-black hair crowned a perfectly round head, and sooty lashes concealed eyes the color of brilliant sapphires.
“She sleeps,” Jessica whispered, her soul swelling with emotion when Rance gently curved his sun-bronzed hand around the tiny head.
“Grace...” he rasped, his thumb tracing the curve of her downy cheek. “My mother would think she has a beautiful namesake.” He seemed to swallow the sudden hoarseness in his voice. “Sadie McGlue wants to know when she can come and fuss over the baby.”
“She’s just six weeks old, Rance. Don’t you think it’s too soon?”
“For visiting?” he murmured, drawing her flush against him.
She stared up into eyes glowing with unbanked desires and felt deep, warm stirrings in her loins. Pushing his hat from his head, she sank her fingers into his loosely curling blue-black hair and drew his head to hers. “Yes,” she whispered, brushing her lips over his. “It’s far too soon for visiting.”
Rance’s long fingers worked over the row of pearl buttons dotting Jessica’s violet-sprigged white cotton dress, one of a closetful of beautiful dresses he’d bought her not a day after they wed. “Christian wants a brother.”
“And what do you want?” she said softly, her breath catching when he drew the gown from her shoulders and it spilled to the floor. Deep masculine satisfaction darkened his features as his gaze plundered the sheer cotton camisole and pantalets. Jessica felt the heat of her flush clear to the tips of her swollen breasts.
In one gentle movement, Rance swept her from her feet and carried her to the bedroom, laying her upon the white coverlet. “What do I want?” he rumbled, stripping his shirt, boots and denims with severe impatience, his gaze burning over her entire length. And then he slowly lowered himself over her, with a reverence and tenderness that tore at her soul. “I want to make love to my wife, Jess,” he rasped against the high curves of her breasts. “I’ve been patient. I’ve waited long enough. And now, I want to love every inch of her skin, taste her, drown in her, and fill her with my seed again and again, just as it was meant to be with us.”
“Yes...” Cool air spilled over her flesh as cotton dissolved beneath his hands. And he was gentle, so gentle upon her tender breasts, stroking and taking her nipples deep into his mouth with smooth, even pulls. “Rance...no... I’m...you’re...”
“Shy Jess—” He kissed her burning cheeks, her trembling lips, his hands smoothing over her slick breasts. “Everything about you, our baby...this life we’ve found, it’s beautiful. As natural and right as the sun coming up every morning in the east. We couldn’t fight it from the day we met. And it’s only going to get better.”
She let the tears come now, felt them spilling across her temples like the love flowing from her heart. Her palms cupped his beloved face, her thumbs lingering in the deep cleft of his chin. “Promise me, Rance, nothing is going to take our happiness from us. It will always be like this.”
He gathered her against the fierce beating of his heart, and for once his strength was enough for both of them. “I promise. And you know better than anyone, Jess, I’m a man of my word.”
* * * * *
ISBN: 978-1-4592-8339-8
Twilight
Copyright © 1995 by Katherine Manning Garland
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