Good Guy Heroes Boxed Set

by Julie Ortolon

  “This is magical,” she said, her voice trembling, wonder filling her eyes.

  She met his mouth with an ardor that shook his control, and he sensed she was ready to soar. He fit himself between her legs and, finally, thankfully, joined them as man and wife.

  Nothing had ever felt as right or as good as joining his body and his life with Faith’s. He took her to her peak with a slow rolling and thrusting of his hips, her cry of release washing over him, making him want to stay forever, but in the tight heat of her body, her gasps and shudders pushed him into his own soaring climax.

  *

  AFTERSHOCKS OF PLEASURE shuddered through Faith as she lay beneath her husband, breathing in ragged gasps, her mind and body stunned. Iris had told her the difference between intercourse and making love, but now Faith knew for herself. She wasn’t a virgin, but she’d just made love for the first time in her life.

  With her husband, her lover.

  She kissed Duke’s neck, loving the smell of his skin and light cologne. “I didn’t see fireworks,” she whispered in his ear. “I felt them.”

  He pushed to his elbows and looked down at her, his hair mussed and adorable. “I wanted to take it slow for you, but seeing you like this, so beautiful, so willing to please me”—he brushed his knuckles over her jaw—“it just bowled me over.”

  “I love this part of being your wife.”

  A pleased look lit his eyes. “Am I too heavy for you?”

  “No.” She smiled and stroked her hands up his back. “I like you in my arms.”

  “Good, because I’m not going to be able to keep my hands or body off you.”

  He kissed her tenderly then rolled to her side and pulled her into his arms, holding her against his warm body.

  But she felt her secrets lying between them.

  The peepers outside their window serenaded them, and nothing could be more perfect than being held in her husband’s arms, hearing the strong, steady beat of his heart assuring her she wasn’t alone, that she was desired, and possibly even loved. They had so much… to lose.

  She shuddered as warm night air drifted across her skin, scenting the room with cut grass and a hint of their lovemaking. She stroked her husband’s shoulder, wanting to remember everything about this night—his smooth skin and flexing muscles, the sound of his ragged breathing when he’d consummated their vows, the taste of wine on his tongue, and the contented look in his eyes.

  “Are you tired?” she asked, needing his arms and the assurance that he was real, that this was real.

  “Not with you beside me.”

  “I want more,” she whispered. Heat shimmered in his eyes and leaned to kiss her, but she drew back. “I want to learn how to please you.”

  “You please me by being here.”

  “I can do better.” She would do better. “Lie on your stomach.”

  “I don’t think I can.”

  She looked down and gasped.

  A naughty chuckle rumbled in his chest. “There’s the hard evidence that you please me.”

  She stared at him, surprised but deeply pleased they would share bawdy humor in their marriage bed. Maybe they could share more someday. Maybe when she was assured of his love, when she knew he could understand and accept the truth, she could tell him.

  The admiring look in his eyes made her yearn to touch him. She splayed her hands over his broad chest and urged him onto his back, taking her first good look at her husband, the man behind the badge and the clothes. On her knees beside him, she smoothed her palms over his wide shoulders and dark-haired chest then down the hard ridges of his abdominal muscles. “You’re like bronzed steel… strong… beautiful, a handsome warrior,” she said, pleased that her touch was making his body react and his breathing grow ragged. His thighs were rock hard and feathered with hair, tensing beneath her touch, and inviting her to explore his glorious maleness.

  He groaned low in his throat and pulled her down beside him. Their mouths fused with urgency, and they explored each other with tender wonder and intense ardor. And when he pulled her beneath him, she sighed with pleasure and a fulfillment she’d never known. In her moment of soaring passion, she knew she would tell him the truth—when he was ready, when their future would be more important to him than her past.

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  *

  “WHEN DO THEY go to bed?” Duke mouthed to Faith, who was sitting on the sofa with Cora, inventing a story about a moose with one antler. Adam sprawled on the floor with his chin propped on the heel of one hand, studying a book.

  “Soon,” she mouthed back with an intimate, heart-stopping smile that brought his body roaring to life.

  He folded his newspaper and put it on the coffee table. After thirty-one years of living in his parents’ home, it felt deeply satisfying to be sitting in his own house with his own family; but he was more than ready to take his wife to bed.

  “Daddy, do you know a story about a moose?”

  From the minute he and Faith were married yesterday, Cora called him daddy, but each time he heard the word from her sweet little mouth, it melted him.

  “No, princess.”

  “What about a dog?”

  Adam lifted his head as if someone had just handed him a silver dollar. “Are we getting a dog?”

  Faith laughed. “No, Adam. And before you ask, we don’t need a dog.”

  His expression fell and he turned back to his book.

  Duke thought of Boyd’s crazy dog Sailor and knew Adam would love a mutt like that. But he wasn’t talking about pets on his first night of being a family man.

  Cora slid off the sofa and leaned against his knee. “Will you tell me a story?”

  He glanced at Faith, but her smile said she wasn’t about to bail him out of his new duty “Sorry, Cora, I don’t know any.”

  “Just make up something,” Adam said, his eyes glued to his book. “She won’t care.”

  Make up something? Duke had spent so many years teaching himself to be precise, accurate, and truthful, he couldn’t begin to concoct a tale. But Cora’s hopeful stare melted him. Gads, he couldn’t fail at his first test as a father. “All right,” he began, summoning his nerve. He would tell her a true story. “One winter when I was a boy we had a huge storm that buried everything in snow.”

  “What kind of snow?”

  “Um, the white, fluffy kind,” he said, seeing Faith hide a smile behind her hand. “My brothers and I spent the morning shoveling out the entrance to the barn. When we finished, we decided we could slide off the roof and land in the huge snow bank we built.”

  Cora’s eyes goggled. “Was it scary on the roof?”

  “Not really,” he said. “My brothers and I climbed trees much higher than our barn.”

  Adam closed his book and sat up to listen. “Did you go off the roof?”

  “All afternoon. We hit that pile so many times it half crumbled. Kyle gouged a path through it, and before long, we had a long, icy slide. My brother Boyd got this crazy idea about riding our toboggan off the roof. He said we’d slide down the shingles, hit the snow bank, shoot through the grooved path, and sail clear across the yard.”

  Adam’s eyes lit with excitement. “Did you do it?”

  “Unfortunately, yes.”

  Faith winced. “You didn’t.”

  “Radford warned us not to. Kyle said we were crazy. But Boyd made it sound like such an adventure, I had to try. We got the sled clear to the roof peak, but when I jumped on, my weight jerked the sled out of Boyd’s hands. He was supposed to ride with me, but I streaked down the roof alone and shot into the air like a lightning bolt.”

  “Dang! How far did you get?” Adam asked.

  “Too far. I overshot the snow bank and landed in the shoveled driveway. I broke my arm, and when my parents found out what we were up to, we all got a strap laid across our backsides.”

  Faith arched an eyebrow at Adam. “So the moral, young man, is that you don’t climb onto the roof.”

 
“Sorry, wrong story,” Duke said. This job as father was more complicated than he thought.

  “You’re fine,” Faith said, “but I know a certain young man who might be impressed and tempted to try something like that.”

  He’s a boy, Duke wanted to say. Boys climb trees. They swing from wild grape vines to drop twenty feet into the gorge. It was the adventure and the thrill that drove them to be daring—or dumb. Duke didn’t know about girls, but Evelyn had done many of those same daring, albeit dumb, things with them. That wild sense of adventure, to him at least, had been the best part of his childhood.

  Not that he wanted Adam jumping off a roof. But a boy was entitled to some adventure in life.

  Faith chased the children upstairs to put on their nightclothes. Alone for the first time all evening, Duke stole a kiss from her, and she was so warm and willing, he wanted to carry her straight to their big bed and make love to her.

  But that had to wait, because for the first time in his life, Duke helped his wife tuck their children in bed. Adam suffered Faith’s hug then dove onto his new mattress. He sat on the coverlet in his nightshirt looking suddenly uncomfortable. “Um, I don’t know what to call you, Sir.”

  Duke didn’t know either. It would have been easier if Adam, like Cora, was Faith’s child. But he wasn’t, even though she treated him as such. So that left Duke feeling like a father, but relegated to brother-in-law and guardian. “You’re nearly a man, Adam. Why not call me Duke?” He hoped the acknowledgment would allow them to be friends, and still give Adam someone he could depend on.

  “Sure, Duke.” Adam sat up a little straighter on the mattress. “You and your brothers sure did some crazy things when you were boys.”

  “You will too, Adam. I just hope you’ll be smarter and more careful than we were.”

  Adam grinned. “I promise I won’t ride a sled off the barn roof.”

  “Thank you for that small blessing.” Faith kissed his boyish cheek. “Enjoy your new bed and sleep well.”

  “I will.” He flopped to his side and bunched a thick feather pillow beneath his head.

  Duke extinguished Adam’s lantern then they went to Cora’s room. She was sprawled sideways across her bed, lightly bumping her heels against the wall and singing to herself.

  “Time to tuck you in,” Faith said, turning back the coverlet. She swept Cora into a tight hug and kissed her cheek. “Sweet dreams, honey”

  Cora kissed Faith’s cheek then reached so naturally for Duke, he felt his heart do a crazy little somersault. “Goodnight, Daddy” she said. She squeezed his neck with her skinny arms, and kissed his cheek with her puckered lips.

  Being a sheriff for eight years had numbed Duke in some ways, making him able to handle life-threatening situations with a cool head, but nothing had prepared him for the rush of tenderness he felt for Cora. He’d tucked his nieces and nephews into bed many times when his mother kept them overnight, and though he loved those children with all his heart, they belonged to his brothers. This little rose-scented girl with her bright eyes and blabby mouth was his—the daughter he would love and protect and rescue from being fatherless.

  “Goodnight, princess.” He barely squeezed the words from his thick throat. Another few seconds of holding her, and he wouldn’t be able to breathe. “Don’t let the bedbugs bite,” he added, tweaking her side.

  She giggled and squirmed away. Faith caught her and guided her into bed, following with a smacking kiss on Cora’s forehead. “No playing. It’s late.” She pulled the sheet and blanket over the child. “See you in the morning.”

  They extinguished her lantern, left the door open, and hurried to their bedchamber.

  Duke closed the door then started to unbutton his shirt. “Last one to undress has to shut out the lantern.”

  “No fair,” Faith protested. “I’m wearing twice the clothing you are.”

  “Ah… but you’ll have twice the help undressing.” Burning with desire for his beautiful new wife, he gathered her soft, slender body against him and covered her mouth with his, feeling that his arms and heart were full at last.

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  *

  WHEN ADAM GOT to the swimming hole in the gorge, Rebecca was in the water. He hadn’t seen her since Faith and Duke’s wedding three weeks ago, and it was making him crazy. Did she considered him her cousin now? Could they still be friends?

  “Set this in the shade,” Faith said, handing him the huge basket of food she’d brought for the picnic with Duke’s mother and brothers. Everyone from Adam’s family was there, and Doc Milton and Patrick and Cyrus were tagging along too. It seemed like the men were always around now, but Adam liked listening in on their naughty jokes.

  The stones on the creek bank burned his bare feet, and he hurried to the water. Submerged to his shins, Adam watched Boyd swing over the creek on a wild grape vine and drop into the water with a splash.

  Boyd’s four-year-old son Colter grabbed the vine. “I want to do it!”

  “All right, but hold on until I tell you to let go.” Boyd treaded water in the middle of a deep pooled area of the creek, fanning his muscular arms to stay afloat.

  On the bank, Kyle lifted the boy, made sure he had a firm hold on the vine then gave him an easy push over the water.

  “Let go!” Boyd shouted.

  Colter released the vine and fell. As soon as he surfaced from the water, Boyd grabbed him and swam ashore with his dripping, grinning, dark-haired son clinging to his strong back.

  Teaching courage and daring, and giving rescue, was something fathers did that Adam hadn’t known about.

  Rebecca’s dad went in next then waited for his sons. William swam ashore on his own, but Joshua needed some help. After a while, the fathers and sons got all mixed up, and Adam learned that fathers take care of their brothers’ children. Another slice in his heart. Why didn’t his own father want him?

  “Adam!” Rebecca waved to him. “Come try the swing.”

  Anything was better than standing on the bank thinking about a man he hated. The swing was exciting, but it would have been more thrilling if the drop was longer.

  His aunts and Rebecca’s grandmother each took a ride on the swing, hooting and laughing so loudly it embarrassed him. Tansy blew a kiss to Cyrus then dropped into the pool and pretended she was drowning. When he swam out to rescue her, he stole a kiss. Iris hooted like the boys, and kicked her feet so high when she rode the swing, her red drawers showed. It made Patrick whistle like a fool. And Duke wouldn’t stay away from Faith for a minute. She blushed and laughed and pretended to push him away, but she liked Duke’s teasing. Only Aster and Doc Milton behaved themselves while everyone else acted foolish.

  Adam swam downstream where the water rushed over rocks. Alone, he dug up stones and piled them in different shapes, liking the way it changed the sound of the burbling water.

  “What are you doing?” Rebecca asked, from behind him.

  Startled, he dropped a rock against his knee, but refused to wince at the bloody scrape. He glanced upstream where everyone was still splashing and hollering. “My family is embarrassing.”

  “So is mine,” Rebecca admitted. “They’re all playing charades and laughing like they’ve had too much wine.”

  “Are they drinking?”

  “No, just acting silly.” Rebecca dug up a rock and stacked it on the pile. “My dad says we’re cousins now.”

  They were not cousins.

  “I don’t think we are,” she said. “But maybe my dad will let us be friends now.”

  The ache in his chest lightened. “Did you find my note last week?” he asked, fussing with the rock pile.

  “Joshua found it, but I got it away from him before he could show my father.”

  Adam’s gut rolled. “I won’t leave any more.”

  “There’s a better place,” she said, looking upstream to make sure they weren’t overheard. “You know the creek that cuts through our apple orchard?” At his nod, she continued. “Und
er the little wooden bridge there’s an old bird’s nest on the side nearest my house. I’ll check there for notes.”

  He remembered the bridge from when he’d chased Rebecca through the orchard at Faith’s wedding. His stomach was all tight and odd feeling that day. And when he’d caught Rebecca around the waist and she’d brushed against his thighs it made him ache in an embarrassing place. He didn’t touch her after that, but thinking about the way she felt against him made his body start feeling odd and achy again.

  He sank lower in the water. “You better go before your dad gets angry.”

  But it wasn’t her father’s voice that boomed down the gorge. It was Duke’s. “You two get up here where we can see you. I don’t want you floating into Lake Erie.”

  Adam rolled his eyes, and Rebecca laughed then they made their way back toward their noisy, embarrassing families.

  *

  AFTER A MONTH of marriage, Faith still had to pinch herself to know she wasn’t dreaming. She never knew life could be filled with so much joy and laughter, or that she—a prostitute’s daughter—would be blessed with a beautiful home and loving husband.

  Each evening after chores, she and Duke and the children, and sometimes her aunts or his family, would share a filling supper then retire to the parlor to read and play games. After tucking the children in bed, she and Duke would seek their own bed with an eagerness that both thrilled and shamed her—because she still wasn’t going to tell him the truth.

  She couldn’t. He’d been wearing his sheriff’s badge on his leather vest for eight years with pride and devotion. Each morning, he strapped on his gun belt, pulled on his vest, and whistled his way out the door, sure of himself and sure of Faith. He was so content with his new family, and so proud of his new wife, the truth would crush him.

  So now when she ached to confess, she kept her silence to protect her husband.

  In early September, Adam went back to school with a firm warning from Duke to behave himself and stay put in the schoolroom. Adam grumbled, but did as he was told, and Faith was grateful for Duke’s help.