by Janet Dailey
“You’d like it if I would woo you and observe all the niceties of courtship, wouldn’t you?” he guessed and observed her surprise at his accuracy. “You want me to win your love all over again.”
“Is that so wrong?” There was something half-teasing and half-serious in her look.
“It isn’t wrong,” he assured her with a faint grin. “It’s impossible. One week. That’s all you’re going to have before the wedding, and I’m taking you home with me today. I have no intention of letting you change your mind.”
“You like being masterful, don’t you?” Lilli mocked, showing him the bold side of her nature again, rushing in where even fools trod softly. “You like the idea of telling me what to do. Well, it just so happens, Mr. Webb Calder, that it’s what I want, too.”
It was all that needed to be said. The long, drugging kiss affirmed everything else. The thrusting contours of his body were hard against her straining flesh, arousing a desire that had lain dormant for so long. Her emotions no longer had to be repressed; no longer were they withering inside her, but instead were flourishing and blossoming in a way that was basic and timeless. She shuddered at the stimulating nibbles his mouth made on her ear, on the pulsing vein in her neck.
With an effort, he lifted his head and combed his fingers into her hair. “I want you to pack your things.” It would have been easy to continue this embrace through to the conclusion they both wanted. But when she finally lay in his arms, Webb wanted it to be under his roof—not here where she had lived with Stefan. “Only bring your clothes and the personal belongings you want to keep. The rest you can sell or give away. I’ll be back a little later to get you.”
Her hands curved around his neck, bringing his head down for a last kiss. “I’ll be waiting.”
23
The scale of it was massive, like nothing Lilli had ever seen before. Two stories, with a wide porch running the full length of the front, the house stood on a knoll, overlooking smaller and less elaborate buildings. The slanting rays of a late-afternoon sun bathed it in a warm orange light that colored the glass panes with a welcoming glow. Gray tails of smoke came from two of the stone chimneys dotting the roof, slanted to shed winter snows, and waved against a saffron sky.
Webb was standing by the opened door to help her out of the automobile. She finally tore her gaze away from the house to look at him, vague disbelief still claiming her. “This is your home?” She let him take her hand as she stepped onto the running board, then to the ground.
“No. It’s our home,” he corrected and held onto her hand while he led her up the main steps to the front doors. “It’s commonly referred to as The Homestead.”
“The Homestead.” She laughed shortly at the unassuming name, finding it inappropriate for such a grand-looking place.
Webb stopped, turning her so she could look out at the endless brown sweep of Calder land. “This is the site that my father filed the original homestead claim on that was the beginning of the ranch. When he expanded his holdings, everyone started calling this section of land The Homestead to differentiate it from the new properties. Gradually, it came to mean this house.”
Instead of looking at the land, Lilli watched him, catching the pride of ownership in his voice and his eyes—and the hint of humility. Somehow his status of wealth and power hadn’t meant much until she had seen these surroundings. They had demanded a thoughtful study of him, but the man she believed she had known was the person standing beside her. The watchfulness was gone from her eyes when he glanced at her.
“Let’s go inside so I can show you your new home,” Webb stated.
Lilli was eager to see what the house was like inside. He took her on a complete tour of the first-floor rooms that began with the living room and ended with the library-den.
“Are all these books yours?” Lilli went to the shelves, her fingers lightly tracing across the many volumes. Books were such luxuries that she had never known one person could own so many.
“I’m going to read every one of them,” she declared, as excited as a child. Webb was discovering that while she might be awed by things, she wasn’t intimidated. Once she became accustomed to the size of the house, she’d turn it into a home for both of them, filled with warmth and laughter the way it had been when his parents were alive.
“What’s this?” She was behind the desk, looking at the map.
“The ranch.” He came around the big desk to point out landmarks to her so she could orient herself and get an idea of where they were in relation to places she knew. When he had finished, Lilli continued to stare at the map drawn on yellowing canvas. “What are you thinking?” Her expression was unreadable.
“Six hundred and forty acres wouldn’t take up an inch on this map,” she murmured. That was the amount of land she and Stefan had worked.
“The ranch is big,” Webb admitted.
“It’s indecent,” she retorted, but her short laugh took any sting from the reply. “And your father acquired all this.” Lilli turned her gaze to study Webb and try to imagine what his father had been like. “I wish I had met him.”
“He was a remarkable man. It took me a while to realize there was only one Benteen Calder.” And that his path would be different from his father’s, a continuation, but over new ground.
“Most people don’t appreciate their parents until it’s too late. I was like that.” There was understanding in her blue eyes.
When he leaned toward her, she raised her mouth to him and slid her arms around his middle to bring their bodies closer. His hard kiss forced her lips apart and expressed a need for her that was more than just physical. It was a discovery that came late to her. Every ruler needed a mate who would regard him as just a man. He needed her. Her fingers spread over the tapering muscles of his back, her feminine form fitting naturally to his male shape. The smell of him filled her as Lilli knew it would on many nights, warm and musky, scented with the bay rum on his smoothly shaven jaw. The play of his hands on her back and hips caressed and molded, excited and aroused, with their possessing touch. She lost herself in the embrace, blocking out everything but this raw glory she was discovering.
When Ruth noticed the Model T parked in front of The Homestead, she went to the house. Cold water had washed the redness of tears from her eyes, although shadows of pain continued to linger in her pale face. She had guessed Webb had gone to see Lilli, and she had to learn the outcome of his visit. The dreadful waiting was intolerable.
With her habitual quietness, she entered the house and went directly to the den, the only room Webb used with any frequency. Her coat was unbuttoned, but her hands were pushed into the pockets where they could knot into tense fists. Burning logs crackled in the fireplace, she noticed when she first entered the den.
Ruth was three steps into the room before she saw the couple behind the desk, locked in an embrace that was almost sexual. Shock drained the color from her face, dissolving her of all hope. She spun blindly, wanting to escape before they noticed her, and blundered into one of the double doors, knocking it into the wall with a loud bang.
“Ruth!.” Webb’s startled voice was husky and laced with the heaviness of his breathing.
Her back was to them and she didn’t turn around. The pain inside was more than tears could wash away, so her eyes burned with dryness. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to intrude.” It was a hurried apology, offered as she took a step to leave the room.
“Don’t go, Ruth.” He called her back, his voice almost normal. Reluctantly she paused, hearing the two sets of footsteps moving out from behind the desk. Her body was braced and rigid as she slowly turned to face the pair. The pride and gentleness, the love flowing through his rugged features, nearly broke Ruth into pieces. “I want you to be the first to know that Lilli and I are getting married.”
Ruth wanted to scream at him that she didn’t want to be the first, but it simply wasn’t in her to be angry with him. The heat of the repressed emotion put red dots in her cheeks.
>
“Congratulations.” Ruth forced out the word and knew she had to say more. “I know it’s what you’ve been wanting for a long time.” She sincerely wanted him to be happy, but it still hurt that she wasn’t the one.
“You remember Ruth Stanton, don’t you, Lilli?” His arm was around the waist of the auburn-haired woman, keeping her close to his side and maintaining a discreet body contact. “Ruth has always been like one of the family.”
“Yes, I remember her.” Lilli nodded, her lips curving upward in a warm and apologetic smile. “I hope our behavior a moment ago didn’t embarrass you.”
“No. I guess I should have knocked,” Ruth murmured an uneasy response, unable to cope with such frankness.
“No one knocks at The Homestead.” Webb dismissed that idea and looked intimately at Lilli. “We’ll simply have to learn to be more circumspect.”
“I’d like us to be friends,” Lilli stated with an openness that Ruth found difficult to dislike. “May I call you Ruth?”
“Of course,” she agreed. But she needed time before she could handle that kind of relationship.
“You came to speak to me about something?” Webb realized he hadn’t asked the reason Ruth had come to the house.
She used the excuse she had made ready. “I only came to let you know Abe was doing better.”
“I’m glad to hear it. I’ll look in on him later,” he said.
“If you’ll excuse me, I’m sure you’d rather be alone.” Ruth’s voice nearly broke. Neither raised an objection, saying the normal phrases of parting before she left the room.
A brief silence followed the closing of the front door. Webb’s hand rubbed absently along the curve of Lilli’s waist while he looked thoughtfully at the open doors of the den. Lilli couldn’t tell what he was thinking.
“Is something wrong?” she asked.
His glance swung around to run warmly over her features, a caressing sensation in his look. “No. The only way things could be better is if you were already my wife.” His arm tightened around her, then relaxed to let her go. “I’ll bring your things in and show you where you II be sleeping.”
The main bedroom was larger than the one-room shack. A large bed with an elaborately carved headboard was covered with a goosedown quilt. Besides a dresser and a chest of drawers, a pair of chairs and a small sofa covered in rose velvet were grouped to create a sitting area around the fireplace. When Webb set her worn satchel on the floor, Lilli was forcibly reminded of its shabbiness compared to its new surroundings.
“While you get settled, I’m going to check on Abe Garvey,” Webb stated. “Through that door, there’s a private bath. I stoked the heater earlier, so there’s hot water if you want to freshen up before dinner.” He noticed the way she was looking around the room, taking in everything. “Do you like it?”
“Who wouldn’t?” Lilli countered with a wry smile.
His gaze lingered an instant on that smile, but he refrained from kissing her. “I’ll be back,” he promised huskily and walked to the door.
Alone in the room, it all seemed unreal to Lilli for a moment. She was reassured by the sound of his footsteps descending the stairs, and the large room claimed her attention again. She moved around it, exploring, opening up drawers that would swallow her meager wardrobe, testing the softness of the mattress and sitting in the chairs. She paused at the window that faced the south, like the front of the house, and watched Webb walking to one of the buildings. When he disappeared inside it, she let the curtain drop and turned back to the room.
Lilli crossed to the inner door Webb had pointed out to her, turned the brass knob, and pushed it inward. Her eyes rounded in dazzled amazement. There was a porcelain sink with brass faucets for running water, hot and cold, and a white porcelain toilet complete with a chain connecting to an overhead flusher. Lilli tested both of them out, laughing in delight. After so many years of carrying water and heating it on the stove, as well as emptying chamber pots, this was the height of luxury.
She ran her hand along the smooth edge of the large white cast-iron bath, supported by clawed feet, and remembered the small tub she had bathed in when there was enough water to spare. It had been so cramped, her knees poking into her chest, but here, she could stretch out almost full length.
Her eye was caught by the bottles on the marble-topped stand next to the sink. Opening one, she dipped a finger into the creamy lotion and rubbed the dollop into her hand, feeling the silken texture it gave her skin. With her curiosity heightened, she unstoppered a crystal decanter containing fragrant salts. One whiff and Lilli turned to the bath, a totally feminine light shining in her eyes.
Minutes later, the rubber stopper was in the drain hole and the faucets were turned on to fill the porcelain bath with water, water that bubbled with the fragrant salts shaken into it. And Lilli was shedding her clothes to take the first luxurious bath in her life. A toweling cloth hung from a brass ring on the wall, and there was a large sponge on the sink and a bar of scented soap, Lilli could only guess that these feminine toiletries had been the late Mrs. Calder’s, Webb’s mother. They were a temptation she couldn’t resist. Besides, they had obviously been left there to be used by whoever occupied the adjoining room.
When she submerged her naked body in the mounds of scented bubbles and felt the relaxing heat of the water against her skin, she doubted that anything could be so blissful. Stretching out full length, she braced her toes against one end and rested her head on the curved porcelain back. She closed her eyes to savor the sensation and soaked for a long time until the water became tepid.
Uninhibited, Lilli played with the bubbles, scooping some into her hand and blowing them into the air, laughing silently to herself. With her toe, she caught a drip of water dangling from the hot-water faucet, then let her toes play a game of hide and seek in the scented foam. Finally she reached for the sponge and soaped it to wash herself, humming a tuneless melody of contentment and splashing a little.
When Webb didn’t find Lilli downstairs upon his return to the house, he climbed the steps to find out what was keeping her. The door to the master suite stood open. He walked in and saw the satchel sitting on the floor where he had left it, but she was nowhere to be seen.
“Lilli?” He started to raise his voice to call her a second time when he heard the faint splashing sounds from the bathroom. An inner pressure directed his feet to the connecting door, aroused by a stronger force than his sense of proper conduct.
The doorknob turned silently. Lilli wasn’t alerted to his presence until the motion of the door swinging open caught her eye. She turned, her lips parting to round in a small o. A split second later, she recognized Webb and her brief alarm faded. A vague self-consciousness took its place, since bathing had always been a strictly private activity in her experience. The layer of bubbles concealed her nudity from his gaze. For some reason, she found it difficult to summon a genuine protest at Webb’s invasion of her privacy.
“Do you always walk right in when a lady is bathing?” she challenged.
“When you weren’t downstairs, I came up to find you.” His voice had a husky pitch that sent out its own disturbing message.
“Now you’ve found me, so get out,” Lilli ordered, still in a bantering tone, trying to make light of the situation even though her pulse had begun to accelerate. The deep brown of his eyes had darkened to nearly black with the intensity of his gaze. When he took a step toward her, she did something that she knew would provoke him. It was totally instinctive. “Webb Calder, will you get out of here?” She tossed the wet sponge at him, splattering drops on him and the floor, while a breathless laugh came from her when he ducked to avoid it.
“Now you are coming out of that bath,” he growled a mocking threat.
For a few seconds, it was a playful game as Lilli scrunched down in the tub and splashed water at him to fend him off. The instant his hands caught her wet wrists, the laughter left both of their faces. There was a moment when they stared at each
other. Then the steady pressure of his grip urged her from the water. She stood up slowly, strangely unembarrassed by her own nudity.
He couldn’t know that no man had ever seen her before, not in the light, not even Stefan. They had always undressed in the dark, with their backs turned to each other. When Stefan had wanted satisfaction from her, their nightclothes weren’t removed; they were shifted out of the way. She had never questioned the custom of it, or even wondered if others behaved in the same way.
When Webb released her wrists to span his hands around her slippery waist, she reached for his shoulders, holding on to them while he lifted her out of the water. Her wet feet touched the floor inches from his boots, her dripping body brushing against his clothes. A heady silence encircled them as his eyes took in every intimate detail of her. Lilli trembled slightly, unnerved by the wild heat flowing through her veins.
Webb reached for the thick toweling cloth looped through the wall ring and began blotting the moisture and drying bubbles on her skin. He started at the top with her neck and shoulders and slowly worked his way down over her breasts and tightly indrawn stomach, then crouched to dry her hips, thighs, and legs, finishing with her feet. There was a crazy weakness in her limbs when he straightened. Her breathing was no longer deep but very shallow as he wrapped the towel around her shoulders.
Effortlessly, he lifted her into the cradle of his arms. She automatically linked her hands together around his neck. With his face so close to hers, Lilli gazed at his features, so strong and sun-browned, and severely handsome. There was a lightness to everything that she couldn’t explain as he carried her into the bedroom.
In the middle of the room, Webb paused and let her feet settle to the floor. She stood within the loose circle of his arms. The towel had slipped, but an instinctive movement of her hand kept it partially covering her front—not out of any sense of modesty, but simply because it was there. Her gaze drifted down to the wet patches on his shirt. There were more on his pants.
