by Diana Palmer
They were both shaking with reaction when the room came back into focus. She was crying softly, because the force of the ecstasy he’d given her had been devastating.
“I wanted to give you tenderness,” he whispered with exhausted regret. “I wanted it to be soft and slow and gentle and I couldn’t…!”
“But it was,” she protested. She lifted up, resting her arm across his damp, throbbing chest as she looked down into his eyes. “Emmett, it was!”
“Not at the last,” he said through his teeth.
“Oh. Then. Well, of course not,” she murmured shyly. She smiled at him wickedly and laughed deep in her throat. “You lose control,” she whispered. “I like to watch you cry out, and know that it’s because of me, because of the pleasure you get from my body.”
He touched her face with wonder. “I like to watch you for the same reason. Melody,” he said quietly, “I never watched before. The pleasure I gave never mattered that much before.”
“I’m glad.” She drew her face gently against his, wrapping him up in the sweetness of her adoration. “I’d die for you, Emmett,” she whispered.
He drew her down and enveloped her hungrily. His hands in her hair were unsteady as he used them to turn her head so that he could find her mouth. His lips trembled, too, with the rage of feeling she unleashed in him.
Incredible man, she thought dizzily. So much a man…
She eased her hips over his and coaxed his body into deep intimacy, pressing soft kisses over his hair-roughened chest as she shifted over him until he groaned. He lay like a pagan sacrifice, and she sat up, feeling the power of her own femininity as he writhed and moaned beneath the slow movement of her hips.
“I love you,” she whispered, increasing the pressure. “I love you, Emmett, I love you!”
His lean hands bit into her hips and he arched, crying out helplessly as she fulfilled him and, in the process, herself. In the back of her mind she was grateful for the radio. If those kids had heard… She moved again and he lost the ability to think at all.
Breakfast was uncomfortable for the whole next week.
“You sure must like country-western music a lot, Emmett,” Amy muttered. “But does it have to be so loud?”
“All those wailing cowboys,” Polk said with a shake of his unruly hair.
“Sounds more like rock music than country,” Amy agreed.
Melody’s face was scarlet. She didn’t dare look at Emmett. The muffled laughter coming from the head of the table was bad enough.
“I’ll try to keep the volume down,” Emmett promised dryly. “It helps us sleep.”
“That’s right,” Melody agreed.
“Bill Turner wants me to go hunting with him Saturday,” Guy remarked. “We’re going after squirrels.”
“No,” Melody said abruptly.
Guy glared at her. “I can go if I want to.”
“No,” she said flatly. “Emmett?”
He glanced at her and frowned. She was giving him muted signals that he didn’t understand. But if she was that vehement about it, there had to be a reason.
“Dad?” Guy asked belligerently.
“Melody said no,” Emmett replied. “Eat your eggs.”
“She’s not my mother!” Guy burst out. “She can’t tell me what to do!”
“She’s my wife, and the hell she can’t tell you what to do! This is her house now, just as much as it’s mine and Amy’s and Polk’s and yours!”
Guy got up from the table. “I hate her!” he raged. He turned and ran out of the house. He’d wanted to go hunting more than anything in the world. It would have been the first time he’d ever shot a rifle, ever hunted anything. He’d been sure Emmett would let him go, and now that interfering woman was telling him he couldn’t and Emmett took her side against his! He hated her! He ran off into the small wooded glade past the barn and stayed there for the rest of the afternoon, refusing to budge even when Amy and Polk came to find him.
“Why didn’t you want him to go?” Emmett asked Melody after Guy and the other two had gone. “Is it the thought of shooting a squirrel that bothers you?”
“It’s the thought of Bill shooting him,” she replied worriedly. “Emmett, the weekend before we married, Bill was out beyond the barn with a .22 rifle shooting wildly all around the place. He wasn’t even aiming at anything. I yelled at him when one of the bullets whizzed past me and he stopped.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he demanded.
“He begged me not to. He said you might fire him.” She looked up at him. “He promised he wouldn’t do it again, and he hasn’t, but he’s careless and haphazard. Would you really trust Guy’s life to somebody like that?”
“No, certainly not. I’ll talk to Guy later.”
“Thanks.” She grimaced. “I guess I’m public enemy number one again,” she said miserably.
“He’ll understand when I explain it. All the same,” he said with a glowering look, “he’s not going to talk to you like that.”
“Look at you bristle.” She sighed, resting her chin on her hands. “A conceited woman would think you’re head over heels in love with me.”
He stared at her levelly. “I am head over heels in love with you,” he said matter-of-factly.
Her breath stopped in her throat as she met the soft sensuality of his eyes and got lost in their green depths. “You what?” she faltered.
“I love you,” he repeated. “Adore you. Worship the ground you walk on.” He grinned. “We could go into the bedroom and I could tell you some more. But it’s broad daylight and the radio’s unplugged. And Mrs. Jenson won’t confuse wailing with country music,” he added, tongue-in-cheek.
She blushed, laughing. “Well, you do your share of that, too. It isn’t all me!”
“I know,” he said shamelessly. He sighed warmly and smiled at her. “I like just looking at you with your clothes off. Being able to make love to you is a bonus.”
“I used to think I was oversized and plain before you came along,” she murmured.
“Not anymore, I’ll wager,” he murmured, staring pointedly at her breasts. “If you’re oversized, long live big girls.”
She laughed. “Emmett!”
He grimaced. “I have to go to work. I don’t want to,” he added, when he got up and paused to kiss her on his way out. “But I don’t get paid for kissing you.”
“Pity,” she whispered. “When you do it so well!”
He chuckled. “So do you.”
“Emmett?”
He paused. “Hmm?”
“I love you, too,” she said solemnly.
He smiled. “You tell me that with your body, every time we love each other.” He traced a line down her straight nose. “I was telling you, the same way, but you didn’t realize it, did you?”
She shook her head. Her eyes blazed with feeling. “I could walk on a cloud…”
“So could I.” He bent and kissed her very softly. “One day, when the sharp edge wears off the hunger, maybe I’ll be able to make love to you as tenderly as I want to in my heart,” he whispered. “Right now, I can’t tone down the desire I feel for you. If I have any regret, it’s that.”
“Have I complained?” she asked softly. “I want you just as badly, Emmett. It will keep.” She smiled. She beamed. “I didn’t know you loved me!”
“Well, you do, now.” He pulled his hat low over his eyes. “Don’t let it go to your head just because I walk into fence posts staring at you like a love-struck boy.”
She put her hand over her heart, one of his favorite postures, and grinned back at him. “Would I do that?”
His green eyes glittered with mischief. “We’d better find a rock station to listen to tonight,” he murmured dryly.
She laughed with pure delight as he winked and went out the door. She had the world, she thought. She had the whole world. Emmett loved her! Everything was going to be perfect now.
The euphoria lasted until suppertime, when she went to feed Alis
tair. And she couldn’t find him.
She looked through the house, in all his favorite places, but he wasn’t anywhere to be seen. It was cold outside and threatening rain. Surely he wouldn’t have gone out voluntarily! He hated the outdoors. He hated getting wet even more.
Then she remembered that Guy had been angry with her. The last time he’d been angry with her, he’d let Alistair out, and she almost hadn’t got him back. But the boy wouldn’t be that cruel again, would he?
She came back into the dining room, white in the face and obviously troubled.
“What’s wrong?” Emmett asked, pausing with a bowl of mashed potatoes in his hand and an uplifted spoon over his plate.
“Alistair’s missing,” she said unsteadily.
She didn’t look at Guy, but everyone else did.
“I didn’t let him out,” Guy said. He felt frightened. He hadn’t been near the big cat. He liked him, now. The last thing he’d ever want to do was hurt the animal. But everybody, including his father, was giving him looks like daggers. Everybody except Melody, who couldn’t seem to look at him at all.
“I didn’t!” Guy repeated. “I haven’t even seen him today…!”
“You were mad because Melody didn’t want you to go hunting with Bill,” Emmett said curtly.
“I didn’t let her cat out!” Guy got to his feet. “Dad, I’m not lying! I didn’t do it! Why won’t you believe me?”
“Because the last time you got mad at Melody, you turned him out into the streets of Houston,” Emmett said icily. “And he wound up at the city pound, where instead of being put with new arrivals to be offered for adoption, he was accidentally mixed in a bunch scheduled for immediate termination!”
Melody’s gasp was audible. Emmett had never told her that. She shivered, and Guy saw it, and felt sick all over again. She looked devastated. He was sorry he’d been so angry about Bill.
He’d complained to one of the cowboys about being deprived of the hunting trip, and the cowboy had told him, tongue-in-cheek, that Bill couldn’t get anybody to go with him after he’d accidentally wounded his last hunting partner. He’d added that Bill had damned near accidentally shot Melody herself a couple of weeks back, too. Guy hadn’t known that. It had surprised and then pleased him that Melody had argued about letting him go. He wanted to ask her about it over supper and apologize. He’d been about to, when Melody couldn’t find Alistair. And right now Guy felt in danger of becoming the entrée instead of a fellow diner.
Emmett put the mashed potatoes down. “Let’s go,” he said, tossing his napkin onto the table. “Everybody outside. We’re going to find Alistair if it takes all night. Then,” he added with a cold glare at his eldest son, “you and I are going to have a long talk about the future.”
“You can’t send me to military school.” Guy choked. “I won’t go!”
“You’ll go,” Emmett said, and kept walking. Melody barely heard him. She was too frightened for Alistair to notice much of what was being said. Guy had seemed so friendly, until she’d argued over that hunting trip. He was never going to accept her. He hated her. He had to, in order to put her pet at risk a second time. She was devastated.
So was Guy. He was going to be banished because of something he hadn’t even done. He was going to be sent away. Military school. Demerits. Uniforms. No sister and brother to play with. No ranch.
“No,” he said to himself. “No, I won’t go!”
The others had gone out the door. Guy rushed to his room and got the few things he couldn’t do without, including his allowance. He went back through the house, his heart pounding like mad, into his father’s study. There was a small telephone journal, where important numbers were kept. His mother’s number was there. He’d always wanted to use it, but he hadn’t had the nerve. Now he did. He had absolutely nothing left to lose.
The phone rang and rang, and Guy watched the door nervously, chewing on his lip. He didn’t want to be caught. He had to get away, but he needed a place to go. His mother was his only hope. She loved him. He knew she did, even if his father didn’t. “Hello?”
“Mom?” His voice wavered. “Mom, it’s me. Guy.”
“Guy!” There was excitement in her soft voice. “How are you? Does your father know you’re calling me?” she added hesitantly.
“Mom, he’s got a new wife,” he began.
“Yes, I know. Randy’s sister.” She didn’t even sound upset. “Melody is sweet and kind. She’ll be good to you. I’m happy that your father has finally found someone he can really love, Guy…”
“But she hates me,” he wailed. “She blames me for stuff I don’t do. Look, can I come and live with you? They don’t really want me here!”
There was a pause. “Son, you know I’d love nothing better. I really would love to have you. But, you see… I’m pregnant. And I’m having a hard time. I can’t really look after you right now, having to stay in bed so much. But after the baby comes…” she added. “Guy? Guy?”
There was nothing but a dial tone on the other end of the line.
Guy stood looking at the replaced receiver. His mother was pregnant. She was going to have a baby. Not his father’s baby. Randy’s baby. That meant she was certainly never going to come back. She would have another family of her own, Randy’s children.
Now, Guy thought numbly, he had no one at all. His father was remarried and would have other children, too. His mother didn’t want him. He had nobody in the whole world.
He turned and walked out the front door. The rain was starting to come down in sheets. It was cold, and his jacket wasn’t waterproof, but he really didn’t care. He had nothing left to lose. His home, his secure life, his father, his mother, his family were all nothing but memories. He was unwanted and unloved.
Well, he thought with bitter sorrow, perhaps he could make it alone. He had twenty dollars in his pocket and he didn’t mind hard work. There had to be someplace he could go where nobody would care about his age.
He started walking across the field toward the main highway. He didn’t look back.
“Alistair!” Melody wailed. They’d been searching for half an hour, with no success at all. The big tabby cat hadn’t turned up yet.
“You won’t stop me this time,” Emmett said angrily as they paused just inside the barn. “Guy won’t be hurt by a little discipline. I’m going to enroll him in the same military school where I went when I was a boy.”
“But he was getting used to me,” Melody said miserably. “I know he was. I shouldn’t have said anything about Bill…”
“And let him go off with the man and get killed?” He stared at her. “Melody, part of being a parent is knowing when to say no for a child’s own good. You have to expect rebellion and tantrums, and not let yourself be swayed by them. Parenting is a rough job. Loving a child isn’t enough. You have to prepare him to live in a hostile world.”
“I guess there’s more to it than I realized.” She looked up at him. “Guy is so like you,” she said gently. “I care about him. I don’t want him to be hurt.”
“Neither do I, but education isn’t a punishment. I think he’ll like it. I was homesick at first, but I loved it after the first two weeks. If he doesn’t take to it,” he added quietly, “he can come back home.”
She smiled through her sadness. “You’re a nice man.”
“I’m a wet man,” he replied. “Let’s look for a few more minutes…”
“Emmett!” Amy shouted. “Emmett, he’s here, he’s here!”
“What?” He went into the barn, following her excited voice.
Emmett and Melody peered over into the corn crib and there, curled up on some hay, was a sleepy, purring Alistair.
“Oh, you monster!” Melody grumbled. She picked him up and cradled him close, murmuring softly to him.
“Found your cat, did you?” Larry, the eldest of the cowboys, asked with a smile. “Meant to tell you he’d got out, but we had a few head get lost and I had to go help hunt them. He ran out past
me when I was talking to Ellie Jenson in the kitchen. Guess my spurs spooked him,” he added ruefully. “No harm done, though, I suppose, was there? I’ll be more careful next time, boss.”
He tipped his hat and went to put up the tack he was carrying, water dripping off his hat.
Emmett and Melody exchanged horrified glances.
“Guy!” she whispered.
He drew in a deep breath. “Well, I guess I’ll eat crow for a month,” he muttered. “Come on. I might as well get it over with.”
But it wasn’t that easy. They went back into the house and the telephone was ringing off the hook. Mrs. Jenson had gone home an hour earlier, and Guy was apparently unwilling to pick up the receiver.
Emmett grabbed it up. “Hello?”
“Emmett! Thank God! It’s Adell,” she said.
Hearing her voice threw him off balance. He’d avoided talking to her for two years. Now, it was like hearing any woman’s voice.
“Hello, Adell,” he said pleasantly. “What can I do for you?”
“It’s Guy,” she said. “I’ve been trying to get you for a half hour. Guy called, and he sounded pretty desperate. He wanted to come and live with me, but I blurted out about the baby, and he hung up. I’m so worried. I didn’t mean to tell him like that, Emmett. I didn’t mean it to sound as if I didn’t love him or want him…!”
“It’s all a misunderstanding,” Emmett said gently. “Now don’t worry. He’s hiding in his room and we’ll get it straightened out. He’ll be fine.”
“I knew it would be hard for the kids when you got married again, but Melody’s so sweet,” she said softly. “She’s just what the four of you need. The boys will worship her when they get used to her, and so will Amy.”
“They already do,” he said. “I’ve been pretty bull-headed over this, Adell. I’m sorry.”
“I did it the wrong way,” she confessed. “I ran when I should have stood up and been honest with you. I guess if we’d really loved each other it would have been different. But I didn’t know what love was until Randy came along.” She hesitated. “I hope you know what I’m talking about.”
