Howard Haskell Takes A Bride (The Brides of Paradise Ranch Book 0)

by Merry Farmer

  The carriage lurched to a sudden stop. The shift to stillness and silence highlighted every passionate sound and sensual movement she and Howard were making. They didn’t truly stop until Moses knocked hesitantly on the side of the carriage.

  “Uh, Miss Elizabeth? We’re home.”

  Elizabeth gasped, more from lack of air than from the fact that she could hear the embarrassment in Moses’s voice. She pushed against Howard, forcing him to sit up straight and straightening with him. Every fiber and sinew of her body wanted to keep going with their reckless behavior.

  “Thank you Moses,” she panted instead.

  “Ma’am,” Moses mumbled. “I’ll just, uh, leave the carriage here for a moment, if you’d like.”

  “Clever boy,” Howard rumbled as they listened to Moses’s footsteps hurry away across the gravel.

  “What do you mean?” Elizabeth tugged at her skirt, patted her hair, and did her best to fight the losing cause of straightening her appearance.

  Howard laughed. His eyes sparkled with desire and mischief, and his color was high. “Your man knows when to leave his mistress alone.”

  “What?” Elizabeth pressed a hand to her heaving chest. “Do you think he knows what we were—”

  “Of course he knows.” Howard stretched toward the door handle, using it to pull himself upright, then turning it and thrusting the door open. “He’s old enough to have engaged in shenanigans himself.”

  “Shenanigans.” Elizabeth breathed out the word, liking the way it sounded. “Is that what we’re doing?”

  “Absolutely.”

  His answer was so confident and powerful that Elizabeth tingled. He climbed out the door, then turned to give her a hand down. As soon as her feet were on the gravel of the drive, he swept her into his arms and kissed her again, one hand closing unapologetically over her breast. The gesture was forward, base, and blatant…and Elizabeth loved it.

  “Quickly,” Howard said, breaking away from her and taking her hand. “We haven’t got as much time as I would like.”

  “Time?” The thrill of behaving like a madwoman was on its way to being overtaken by complete bafflement.

  Howard twisted and turned, looking around the drive and the garden. “You said you prepared the tool shed for us?”

  “Yes.” She tightened her grip on his hand and pulled him off the drive and across the grass, leading him to the shed. “But why haven’t we got much time?”

  Howard laughed, eyes bright. “Armstrong is full of himself, but even his arrogance can only assume I’ve fallen behind instead of fallen out for so long. He’ll realize I’ve abandoned the race, and when he does, he’ll go searching for your father.”

  “Papa. Oh, no.” Elizabeth paused in horror at the thought.

  Howard darted ahead of her, keeping hold of her hand and taking the lead. The shed was in sight by that point, and he knew where he was going.

  “It will take him some time to find your father,” Howard went on. “That crowd at the starting line wouldn’t stay there once the race had gone on. Some of the spectators will have ridden on to the Mill Creek bridge. Others will likely go all the way to Coleman’s estate. Reginald Coleman is a friend of your fathers, is he not?”

  “He is.”

  They reached the shed door.

  “Then my guess is that he will have gone on to that point, meaning Armstrong will have to continue on his way past Mill Creek to Coleman’s estate before finding him. Unless one of his friends was clever enough to bring their carriage along the path of the race, he’ll either have to wait for a ride or go ahead on foot.”

  “Why, then, we have plenty of time.” Elizabeth reached for the shed door. “It could be an hour before they meet up, and even then they will have to work out where you have gone.”

  “Exactly.”

  Elizabeth opened the shed door and stepped inside. Howard took a step after her but stopped. His grinning mouth dropped open in shock as he took in the interior of the shed.

  “Elizabeth! What is all this?”

  His eyes went round as he took in the clean, sturdy walls of the shed, the well-ordered shelves filled with pots of flowers, and the cushioned chaise lounge she’d brought down from the house that morning with Trudy’s help. A skylight in the shed’s ceiling let light into the cozy room. In truth, it looked more like a miniature receiving room than a shed.

  “Do you like it?” A burst of self-consciousness poured over Elizabeth. “I had to take the garden plow and the lawn scythes out this morning. There was the wagon that our old gardener used to use to find a new place for as well, but overall it wasn’t that hard—”

  Howard tugged her into his arms and kissed her soundly before she could finish her nervous explanation. In an instant, her mind and body hearkened back to the carriage, back against the shed wall, her body screaming for release and pleasure once more. This time, Howard seemed intent on delivering it. His hands worked at the fastenings closing the back of her dress.

  “My darling,” he whispered, low and dangerous, as he undressed her. “Do you know how long I have craved the comfort of your body?”

  Elizabeth let out a wild sigh, reaching for the buttons of his shirt.

  “Do you know how desperately I have wanted to cover every inch of your flesh with kisses?”

  “Seven days?” she suggested, hardly able to think.

  “Seven lifetimes,” he answered with a dangerous growl. Her bodice sagged loose. He grasped the front neckline with both hands and tugged.

  The top of her dress came loose with a rip. The violent sound thrilled her, shooting fire through her limbs and molten lava to her core. She let her arms drop long enough for him to push the short sleeves of her gown down, then reached for his suspenders. He shrugged out of them one by one as she pushed, then reached around to the back of her waist to untie her skirts and underskirts.

  Her dress and petticoats were in a heap around her feet by the time she thought to stop. “Wait, wait,” she panted. Her fists were full of the linen of his shirt, pulled up out of the waist of his trousers, which sagged without suspenders to hold them up. “What are we doing?”

  “We’re ripping each other’s clothes off, my love,” Howard answered in a passionate growl.

  The answer was so honest and sensual and absurd that she laughed. “I know that, but why? It may not take Jonas so long to find my father. Mama may have decided to come straight here to check on my headache. We could be discovered at any moment.”

  “I most certainly hope so,” he said with vehemence, reaching to unhook her corset.

  The brush of his fingers against her breasts was so intoxicating that she let him work his way nearly all the way down her corset before continuing.

  “But surely we will not be able to keep silent enough for anyone in the garden to mistake what we are doing.” She drew in a deep breath that left her as dizzy as ever as he dropped her corset to the ground and reached for the hem of her chemise.

  “Let them hear us all the way in California,” Howard insisted. “It’s all part of my plan.”

  He swept her chemise up. She raised her arms, glad to have her breasts free to his gaze and the warmth of his hands at last. She untied her drawers herself, pushed them over her hips, and stepped out of them herself, as brazen as any woman of the night.

  “But what is your plan?”

  Howard rewarded her boldness and answered her question by stepping into her. His hand went straight to the curls between her legs, delving between them as if he owned them. She cried out in bliss at the touch, at the invasion of his fingertip, inadequate as it was. Her hands fumbled around his to undo the fastenings of his trousers.

  “This is my plan,” he hummed against her neck, kissing his way from her shoulder to her ear. “This and nothing more.”

  He rolled his hips as she worked to push his trousers down over his legs. As her palms caressed the curve of his backside, his staff leapt free of its confines. He pressed his heat into her belly as his ha
nd teased her wet folds.

  Elizabeth sighed, throwing her arms over his shoulders and wriggling closer to him. “This is your plan? To ravish me in a garden shed?”

  He withdrew his hand from the part of her that sang for him long enough to lift her off her feet. A few steps was all it took for him to carry her to the chaise and lay her across its length. Like a lion stalking its prey, he advanced on her. He kissed her lips, one hand seeking out the heavy flesh of her breast to knead and tease it.

  A gentleman would have, perhaps, been tender and conscientious with her. He would have tickled and caressed her, maintaining her modesty as he coaxed her to open like a flower. Thank God above that Howard was no gentleman. He nudged one of her legs until it slipped off the edge of the chaise, opening her hips. As his lips teased and tortured hers, tongue flickering in and out, he rolled her nipple with his thumb until it was tight and aching.

  As if that wasn’t enough to leave her light-headed and gasping with desire, he broke away from her lips and shifted to bring his mouth down over her neglected breast. She arched off the cushion as he nipped with his teeth.

  “Howard,” she gasped, fingers tangling in his hair. His passion was brutally raw, the way she imagined a dock worker would make love, and it sent her soaring to the edge of infinity. He held nothing back, so she held nothing back as well, moaning in delight at every touch, pinch, and kiss.

  He shifted again, bumping his hip against her other leg. It was no accident. He pushed again, and that leg slipped off the other side of the chaise. That left her with her legs spread impossibly wide, her feet unable to gain purchase against the floor. With another powerful shift, he jerked further down her body. He planted a quick kiss on her abdomen below her navel. A moment later, his lips made contact with the wet flesh between her thighs.

  She gasped and balled her hands into fists in his hair. She tried to arch her hips, but with her legs splayed and dangling on either side of the chaise, she was helpless. Helpless as his tongue explored her most intimate parts. Helpless as he flicked across the aching nub of her desire. Helpless as he closed his mouth over that nub and began a wild combination of licking and sucking that ripped the cries from her lungs and brought tears stinging to her eyes.

  Her body burst into orgasm with so much strength that she thought she might lose her mind. She bucked against his constraining grip on her thighs, unable to do anything but feel the power of wave after wave of pleasure overtake her.

  Howard wasn’t done yet. He still wasn’t a gentleman, and with muscular swiftness and a groan of triumph, he shifted atop her, gripped her hips in both hands, tilted her still throbbing body up to meet his, then buried himself inside of her with a hard, fast stroke.

  Elizabeth cried out, uncertain whether what she was feeling was pain or pleasure or something else entirely indescribably. All she knew was that she wanted more. She jerked against him, sinking him deeper. Howard felt her response and growled. He inched back, then thrust again, his muscles gone rigid with need. With accompanying grunts of passion, he continued thrusting, hard and deep and commanding. The feeling of him inside of her, claiming her and transforming her was heaven itself. He stretched and filled her, causing the pulsating pleasure within her to burst anew.

  At last, he erupted with a feral cry, his thrusts growing pitched before subsiding. She watched him transform above her from a ravenous beast to a victorious warrior, muscles rippling, to a proud and sated man in all his glory. He was everything she could ever have wanted and more, had made this first experience of forbidden fruit everything she could have longed for and far beyond anything she could have dreamed of.

  “I love you, my darling,” she whispered, breathless, as he sagged to rest on top of her. “I will love you for all my days and all of my eternity.”

  He was so spent he could only reply with a fond grumble. It was more than enough for her. She laughed low in her throat, and wrapped her arms and legs around him, holding him. His decreased length was still inside of her, and she kept her hips still to remain that way. Even spent, he felt delicious inside of her. She could lay like that with him forever and be completely, blissfully happy.

  They did lay like that for some time, whispering silly, sweet nothings to each other as their bodies cooled, and then began to heat all over. As soon as Elizabeth began to feel him harden inside of her again, she squeezed her inner muscles and twitched her hips. Howard laughed low and sensuously in his chest, pressing in and out of her in tiny movements, a pale imitation of his wild thrusts. She traced her fingers up and down his back, over his backside, reveling in the way he sucked in a breath and hardened even more as she dug her nails in.

  “This is glorious,” she moaned when he regained enough energy to nibble at her shoulder.

  He inched one hand up to cup the side of her breast as it pressed between them.

  “It is,” he echoed. “Glorious.”

  It was glorious and beautiful and ripe with joy.

  Right up until the moment when the shed door banged open.

  Chapter 10

  Elizabeth wasn’t certain if she was the one who screamed or if that was her mother. Her mother was most certainly the one who thumped against the shed door as she fainted.

  “Dear God, what is the meaning of this?” her father shouted.

  “Papa?” She gasped and tensed, but considering it was far less of a humiliation for her father to see only her head, arms, and legs while the rest of her body was shielded by Howard—by Howard who was sheathed deep inside of her—she remained perfectly still.

  Howard lifted his head from where he had buried his face in a fall of her hair. He met her eyes. Pure, victorious mischief and unending love shone from his expression. He didn’t seem the least bit surprised or perturbed to have been caught in the most incriminating position a man and woman could be caught in. In fact, he seemed downright tickled by the turn of events.

  “I told you I had a plan,” he whispered, then winked.

  She gasped, the motion sending ripples of sensation through her. A plan. A plan that did not involve winning an impossible race. A plan that was foolproof in its aim to find a way for the two of them to marry with haste and with her parents’ blessing. A plan that would result in the two of them leaving Cincinnati to seek out their new life in the wild frontier before the day was done.

  Howard Haskell was a genius. Diabolical, scandalous, perhaps unforgiveable, but a genius.

  Elizabeth peeked to the side. Her father was red-faced, but had his gaze firmly averted as he helped her mother back to her feet after her faint.

  “You meant for this to happen,” she whispered to Howard, barely able to contain her laughter. It shook her entire body, the result of which was a delicious tightening inside as Howard grew harder. “Stop that.” She swatted his arm, but continued to giggle. And he continued to grow.

  He stole a kiss, still not moving on top of her. “I can think of no more enjoyable way to get rid of an unwanted fiancé and convince unwilling parents to agree to a marriage without reservation.”

  So she was right after all. “But they might not agree.” The truth hit her with withering force, and she resisted the urge to peek at her father again. “They might throw you out and insist I marry Jonas to hide this indiscretion.”

  Howard’s grin didn’t budge. He shook his head. “Unlikely. For you see, my dearest, there are still two more pieces of this plan that will fall into place, clearing our way for a lifetime of wedded and bedded bliss.”

  “Two?” Her eyebrows flew up.

  “Oh, yes.”

  “What is going on back here?” Jonas’s muffled voice floated in through the shed’s open door.

  “Why, here’s one now,” Howard said, grin downright wicked. “Ready?”

  She wasn’t, but before she could lodge a protest, Howard kissed her. It wasn’t even a kiss with tongues, but it was perfectly timed.

  Jonas stepped into the shed’s doorway, took one look at Howard and Elizabeth in their st
ate of scandalous conjunction, and blurted out a string of expletives so violent that Elizabeth burst into laughter. He then stumbled back, thumping against something outside the shed.

  “What is the meaning of this disgusting depravity?” they heard him shout from around the corner a moment later.

  “Right.” Howard kissed Elizabeth once more. “Now that that’s settled.”

  He began to lift himself above her, but Elizabeth gasped and held him tighter. He was, after all, the only thing shielding her naked-and-then-some body from her father.

  “Ah.” Howard nodded. Hunching over her, he turned to Mr. Ayers and cleared his throat. “Sir, would you mind terribly giving Elizabeth and I a few minutes of privacy so that we can put ourselves to right?”

  Mr. Ayers had been busy helping his wife stand straight and recover from her swoon, but now he handed her off to someone outside the shed and whipped to face the two of them. He opened his mouth to rage at them.

  “Is what I think actually going on in there?” Virginia’s voice stopped any tirade before it could start.

  Howard beamed and laughed. “And there is my second safeguard.”

  “Your sister?” Elizabeth balked.

  He shook his head. “You’ll see.” He paused. “Well, you’ll see if she’s done as I instructed.”

  “I will not have the two of you conversing as though you are at a garden party when you are…” Mr. Ayers waved his hand in Howard and Elizabeth’s direction. He made a disgusted noise, then took a step back, grabbing the shed door’s handle. “Five minutes,” he shouted. “I want the two of you up at the house, in my study, fully dressed in five minutes.”

  He stepped back and slammed the door.