by Diana Palmer
Amy seemed to accept that, and to relax. She smiled. “Polk and I think you’re the greatest. Guy just doesn’t want you around because he thinks Emmett and our mother will get married again someday.” She grimaced. “But they won’t.”
Melody wondered at the wisdom in that small voice. Amy was something of a conundrum. At times she seemed much older than her eight years.
“Do you love Emmett?” Amy asked out of the blue.
Melody blushed, embarrassed.
“Yes. Do you?” Polk seconded, joining Amy, his eyes large under the spectacles as he smiled at her.
Emmett pursed his lips, and his eyes twinkled. “That’s it, kids, make her tell you!”
Melody glared at him. “You can be quiet.”
“I want to know,” he persisted. He chuckled softly. “Never mind, then. I’ll find out for myself, later.”
That went right over Amy’s and Polk’s heads, thank goodness. They began to talk about school and soon afterward, supper was put on the table. Guy’s was taken to his room by an irritable Mrs. Jenson, because he refused to come out.
The boy’s behavior was the one regret in Melody’s mind when Emmett left the kids with Mrs. Jenson and drove her back to Houston.
“He isn’t going to accept it,” she said, when they were in her apartment and the door was closed. She looked up at Emmett worriedly. “I can’t come between you and your son… Emmett!”
He’d lifted her off the floor in midspeech and carried her without a word into the dark bedroom. He laid her gently on the coverlet and slid onto it beside her. When she tried to speak, his mouth covered her protesting lips. Seconds later, she couldn’t speak at all.
Guy and his attitude were forgotten in the slow, tender moments that followed. Emmett eased her out of her dress and slip so gently that she hardly noticed, and his warm mouth moved slowly over every inch of her, kindling unmanageable sensations that quickly made her writhe and moan.
Her eyes grew accustomed to the semidarkness, so that when he removed her bra, she could see his eyes glitter as he looked at her.
“Sometimes I think I dreamed you,” he said huskily. Then his head bent, and what he’d once described to her began to happen all at once. His warm mouth nibbled tenderly at her taut nipples before it moved hungrily over the swollen softness around them. He held her and caressed her to the point of madness, and when his hands invaded the most intimate part of her, she was helpless, enslaved.
He whirled her body against the length of his and enveloped her while he kissed her mouth into submission. The abrasion of his jeans and shirt against her unclothed skin was as exciting as the mouth that was tutoring her own.
She clung to him when he lifted his head. He was breathing roughly and his chest was shaking with the beat of his heart. Against her stomach, she could feel the hard, impatient maleness of him.
“Emmett?” she whispered unsteadily.
“Do you want me?” he asked in a harsh, husky tone.
“Oh, yes,” she said honestly.
“All of me, right now?”
“Yes!”
He sat up, and it was an effort. His hand shot out and the room exploded in light.
For a shocked instant, Melody lay on the coverlet disoriented. Then she saw him looking at her body, at the soft pink nudity that her thin white briefs did nothing to disguise, at the taut, swollen evidence of her desire. She went scarlet and began to lift her hands to her breasts to hide them.
He shook his head, and his hands caught hers. “You’re mine,” he said quietly. “We’re engaged. That gives me the right to look at you like this. In fact, it gives me a few other rights that I’m damned tempted to exercise.” His hot gaze fell to her stomach and lower, to her long, elegant legs. His hand followed his eyes, and she gasped and moved restlessly, helplessly, on the coverlet.
He eased down, his face somber, almost stern, as his fingers trespassed gently past the elastic band. He touched her and she fought him, wincing.
“Easy,” he said gently. “It isn’t supposed to hurt.”
“It…does!”
He bent and brushed his lips tenderly against her wild eyes, her cheeks, her trembling mouth. “You’re frightened. There’s no need. None at all. When it happens, it will be as easy as falling into water, as easy as breathing. Your body is soft and elastic here,” he whispered. “It will absorb mine, like a glove absorbing a hand.”
The analogy made her shiver. He kissed her flickering eyelids, tracing her long lashes with his tongue. “I don’t want you to be afraid of me. I promise that I won’t hurt you, in any way.”
She looked at him worriedly, her eyes big and uncertain.
He nodded. “I suppose I knew all along that it would take more than words.” He reached over and turned off the lamp before he slid alongside her again. “It will be easier for you in the dark, won’t it?” he whispered.
She didn’t understand what he meant until it began. The soft, stroking motion kindled explosive feelings in her untried body. She tried to fight them at first, but the tide of pleasure he induced was as overwhelming as life itself. She gave in to it, gloried in it, wept and writhed and moaned in an anguish of hot, building tension that finally splintered into the most incredible surge of pleasure she’d ever imagined in her wildest dreams.
He gathered her close and held her trembling body, fighting his own demons even as he banished hers. His lips smoothed over her hot face, tenderly calming her.
“That, magnified,” he whispered at her ear, “is what I’m going to give you on our wedding night.”
She clung to him, dazed. “I never dreamed…!”
“You’re more than I ever hoped for,” he said quietly, cradling her in his arms. “You don’t tease or play games, do you? And you’re not ashamed to feel what I can give you, or to admit that you do feel it.”
She touched his lean cheek and felt the muscles taut in it. “I like to think I’ll be able to give it back, when I know how,” she murmured shyly.
He kissed her with aching tenderness. “You will,” he said quietly. “Lovemaking should be mutual. I won’t ever take my pleasure at your expense.”
He was a surprisingly considerate man. She had a fleeting glimpse of him as a lover, and her body moved unconsciously on the coverlet.
“I want you, too, very badly,” he said, feeling and understanding the movement. “But we’ll wait until after we’re married. I don’t want a tarnished memory of our first loving. Hors d’oeuvres, on the other hand,” he murmured wickedly, “are perfectly permissible.”
He bent and nuzzled his mouth over her breast, feeling her instant response, hearing her urgent cry.
It couldn’t last. He was too hungry for her, and the risk grew by the minute. Finally he groaned and got to his feet, shivering a little with the effort.
“I’d better go home while I still can,” he mused wryly. “Don’t get up. And try not to faint. I’m going to turn on the light.”
She would have protested at the beginning, but it didn’t matter now. He knew her almost as well as a lover.
The light came on and she lay there, letting him look at her. The briefs he’d stripped from her were tossed onto the foot of the bed. There was nothing between her and his narrow, hungry green eyes.
“I hope you don’t believe in divorce,” he said in a faintly strangled tone. “Because you’d have to change your name and move to the jungle to escape me.”
She stretched deliberately, glorying in the growing tautness of his lean, fit body. She could imagine how it was going to feel grinding into hers, and her lips parted on a rush of breath.
“That goes double for you,” she whispered. “You’ll belong to me, too, when we’re married.”
“It’s more than desire for you, isn’t it?” he asked quietly.
“Yes.”
He searched her eyes. “For me, too, Melody,” he replied. “It’s more than enough to start with. I’ll arrange the ceremony for next Saturday.”
&nb
sp; “All right.”
“I’ll make sure I’ve got what we need to keep you from getting pregnant right away,” he added.
“I can see the doctor and get him to put me on the pill,” she began.
He sat down on the bed beside her, his eyes troubled. He drew the cover over her prone body with a rueful, reluctant smile. “Too much temptation can kill even a strong man,” he said dryly. The smile faded. “Listen, I know the pill is pretty foolproof, and everybody says it’s safe. But I feel uncomfortable about letting you take chances with your health.”
“If I don’t take the pill… Well, I’ve heard that some men don’t like using what they have to use,” she said hesitantly.
He touched her face tenderly. “Well, I’m not some men,” he replied honestly, “And I believe pregnancy shouldn’t be an accident.”
“I know.” She traced his hand where it lay on the cover beside her head. “The kids will need time, too, to get used to me before we start creating new complications.”
“In the meanwhile, I can take care of it.”
“If you’re that worried about the pill, you can come with me and talk to the doctor yourself,” she said. “There are other ways.”
“How do you feel about it?” he asked.
She flushed and averted her eyes.
He turned her face back. “It’s too serious an issue to evade because of modesty. How do you feel about it?”
She searched his hard face. “I’m not afraid to take the pill. I don’t think it’s so risky. And I want to be…very, very close to you when we love each other,” she said huskily. “As close as we can get when we fit together.”
His face went ruddy. He actually shivered.
“Oh, Emmett, I want you…!” She drew him down and kissed him with helpless urgency, feeling him throw off the covers as he levered himself over her. His knee urged her legs apart and he slid between them, shaking as he pushed down, letting her feel him in total intimacy.
He groaned harshly, his body stilling suddenly as the danger of the situation cut through his desire for her.
Her body was new to pleasure and hungry for it. He understood her headlong rush toward it, but he had to protect her from a danger she still didn’t understand.
“Lie still. Lord, baby, please…!”
His hands forced her a few inches away from his tormented body. She moaned, but he persisted. “Melody, it hurts me.” He ground out the words.
She lay still, curious. Her big eyes found the pallor of his face even as she felt him tremble.
“Hurts?” she asked uncertainly.
He dragged her hand up against him. “Here,” he said huskily. “It hurts like hell. You’ve got to stop moving against me. All right?”
“Yes.” But she didn’t move her hand, even when his withdrew. She moved back a little and looked down with open curiosity.
He saw her expression and sighed heavily. “All right. Here.”
He rolled over onto his back and lay there, stoically letting her look and touch and experience him. He shivered a little, but her touch soothed more than it wounded.
She drew away almost at once, embarrassed by her own boldness, and smiled at him.
He threw the coverlet at her. She understood without words, wrapping herself up in it to remove the threat with a wicked smile on her face.
“Witch,” he accused.
“You liked it,” she said right back.
He stretched, winced and put his hands under his head while he studied her. His body began to relax, but slowly.
“When you’re through having anatomy lessons, I’ll leave,” he said pointedly.
Her eyebrows lifted. “You call this an anatomy lesson?” she asked with mock surprise. “When I’m totally nude and you’re lying there with all your clothes on?”
“I’m modest,” he informed her.
She pursed her lips and stared at his jeans. “Take them off. I dare you.”
He laughed with pure delight. “No! Damn it, woman, have you no shame?”
“Shame is for people who don’t want to have sex with other people.” She leaned closer, fanning the coverlet between her breasts. “I’m famished!” she whispered with a mock leer.
He chuckled at her uninhibited display. “Come here, you torment.”
He pulled her down and kissed her, but with slow, sweet tenderness, not passion. “I adore you,” he whispered. “And I take it back about the jungle. If you ever want to get away from me, it had better be Mars.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” She kissed him back. “I really don’t mind taking the pill.”
He nodded. “It’s your body. It has to be your decision.” He smiled ruefully. “Having just discovered you, I don’t want to risk losing you.”
That made her feel warm all over. “You won’t,” she said softly. She pushed back his thick, dark hair. “Can I love you?”
He threw his arms out to either side and closed his eyes. “Go ahead.”
She hit him. “You know what I mean.”
He searched her face for a long moment. “You’re serious.”
“Yes.” She traced his chin and then his mouth as her eyes levered back up to hold his.
He smoothed his hands over her shoulders, under the coverlet, savoring her magnolia-petal skin. “Love is important to a woman, isn’t it?” he asked with faint cynicism.
“It’s important to most men, too,” she said softly. Her eyes were warm and steady, without deceit. “I’m going to love you anyway. I just thought it would be polite to ask. But if you’re going to be difficult about it, just pretend you don’t notice that I’m crazy about you.”
He sighed and smiled. “It would be pretty difficult to miss. Even your breasts blush when I look at you.”
“They do not… Emmett!”
She made a grab for the cover, but it was too late. “See?” he asked, nodding toward the faint ruddy color below her collarbone. But the smile faded almost at once. He touched her reverently. “You are so incredibly lovely,” he whispered, almost choking on the emotion he felt. He closed his eyes and dragged himself off the bed. “I have to go. Now. Immediately. Without delay.”
She had to fight back a smile at his desperate look. She pulled the cover back around her and got up, looking so smug that he glowered at her.
“Proud of yourself?” he muttered, blatantly aroused and with no way to hide it from the new wisdom in her twinkling brown eyes.
She glanced down and back up. “Yep,” she said, grinning.
He laughed defeatedly, shaking his head. “I’m out of here.”
“Until Saturday,” she reminded him pertly as she walked with him to the door. “After that, you’re mine!”
“And you’re mine,” he returned. He caught the door-knob and glanced down at her with quiet introspection, taking in her flushed face, her swollen mouth, her joy-filled eyes. His soul seemed to clench at the pleasure it gave him to want her.
She saw that tension and understood it. “I won’t ever hurt you,” she said suddenly, dead serious. “But I’ll love you until it hurts. If you really don’t want that, you’d better say so now. Once I’ve lived with you, I honestly don’t know if I can let go…”
He pressed his fingers against her lips. “You won’t have to,” he said quietly. “Love doesn’t come with money-back guarantees. It’s a risk. We’ll take it together.”
“All right.”
He sighed gently, and he smiled at her. “Sleep well.”
“No, I won’t,” she said.
“Neither will I.” His eyes darkened. “I do want you so desperately,” he said huskily, emotion throbbing in his voice.
“Then stay with me,” she invited quietly.
“I want to,” he said fervently. “But we’ll do things properly. Not for our sakes, but for the children’s. A white wedding may be old-fashioned in this unstructured society, but I want one for us.”
She smiled at him. “So do I. But I’d do anything for you.”
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Incredible, the burst of inner light he felt at the words. He smiled, a little dazedly as he let it ripple through him. “Anything?” he murmured.
She studied him. “Well, almost anything. I wouldn’t kiss a snake or eat a chocolate-covered ant for you.”
He bent and kissed her quickly. “Okay. No kissing snakes and eating ants. Now good night!”
“Good night.”
He winked at her and went out the door. She locked it behind him. On second thought, she mused privately, if it wasn’t a venomous snake, and she could keep her eyes closed while she kissed it…
Emmett had just finished arranging the small service when Guy came into his office, his hands in his back pockets, looking repentant but still belligerent.
“Well?” Emmett asked curtly.
Guy’s thin shoulders rose and fell. “I’m sorry,” he said stiffly.
“For what?”
“What I said. The way I acted.” Guy stared at the floor. “My mom really won’t come back?”
“No.”
He took a slow, audible breath before he glanced at his father. “But she didn’t go away because of me?”
“Of course not,” Emmett said. “She loves all you kids. If you want to know, I wouldn’t let her near you after she left,” he confessed heavily. “I was wrong, too. Dead wrong. If you want to see her, talk to her, it’s all right.”
Guy didn’t say anything for a minute. “Melody hates me, doesn’t she?”
“No. It isn’t in her nature to hate people,” Emmett said quietly. “But you haven’t gone out of your way to endear yourself to her, either.”
“Yeah. She won’t forget about the cat, I guess.”
“If you meet her halfway, it won’t matter at all,” Emmett said. “You have to compromise. I’m a hell of a bad teacher, in that respect, but I’m learning. We’ll both have to learn.”
“Okay. I’ll try.”
Emmett smiled. “And you might reconsider getting used to the business side of ranch work,” he added.
Guy shrugged. “I guess I could.” He glanced warily at his father. Emmett looked pretty different lately. He looked happy.
“Things going better at school, are they?”
