by Merry Farmer
“All right,” she said in as quiet a voice as she could manage. “I’ll give it a try. Just tonight. If I don’t feel any safer under the wagon than I do inside of it, we’re going back to the old arrangement tomorrow.”
“It’s a deal.” Cade seemed far too satisfied with himself for Lynne’s liking.
Still, the prospect of having someone else close, of knowing that anyone who might get it in their head to come after her would be in for a surprise, unwound the coil that had ravaged her gut since the moment she found her father’s picture vandalized.
As Cade pulled off his boots and hung his hat on a nail hammered into the side of the wagon, Lynne climbed into the wagon bed to unlace her own shoes and put them aside. She had a nightgown that she’d been sleeping in half of the time on the trail, but it was still damp from washing and the night was hot. She figured it wouldn’t hurt anything to strip down to her chemise and drawers. Cade was smart enough to know how to build a bed that would fit the rules of propriety.
Or so she thought.
When she climbed down from the wagon and crawled into the pitch-black haven Cade had made underneath, all she could find as she felt her way around was a single nest of blankets and Cade’s warm body.
“Where’s my pillow?” she whispered. She was more loathe than ever to draw the attention of anyone nearby who might still be awake.
“Up here,” Cade answered in a hushed voice.
Lynne swallowed and felt her way up the edge of the blanket. Maybe just a chemise and drawers wasn’t such a good idea after all. Her body heated and her skin prickled at the sound of Cade’s soft breathing. When she felt across the blanket to get a sense of where he was, her fingers brushed across bare skin. Her mouth went dry and her breath caught in her throat as she spread her hand across the hard plain of Cade’s side. He was all firmness and strength covered by smooth skin. Her heart thundered against her ribs.
“Lynne?” his voice resonated in the enclosed space, tempting, teasing. “What are you doing?”
“I’m trying to figure out where you are,” she answered, a little too breathless for her liking.
Cade’s low, slow laughter sent tendrils of molten excitement straight through her gut to her core. This was a terrible idea.
“I think you found me, honey.”
There he was, calling her that name again. Only this time it didn’t sound so offensive. This time it matched what it was: rich and sweet. She crawled a little closer to him, hesitant to lie down beside him but aching to be closer. Her hand slid up to find his chest. His heart beat fast and hard against her palm.
“You planning on getting any actual rest tonight?” he asked, teasing.
“I plan to sleep like a log,” she answered. To prove it, she twisted and flopped to her back.
It was the wrong move. In the dark, without being completely oriented, the move settled her tightly against his chest. He circled his arm around her and pulled her against him as if it was second nature. In her effort to put a little distance between them, she swung her arm back, only to have it land squarely on his hip.
She knew she should move her hand, especially when the temptation to spread her fingers across the span of his thigh and inch her way to a particular part of him became too much. At least he still had his pants on. Or maybe they were his drawers. If she could just reach a little closer to his backside, she might find out. She squeezed her eyes shut. She should stop, she should stop, she should stop.
“If you don’t relax, you’re never going to fall asleep,” he murmured in her ear. He was so close that she could feel the heat of his breath against her neck.
She let out a breath with the full intention of forcing herself to relax. The quick up and down of her chest caused his hand to slip from her side to her stomach. If he moved only a few inches up, his fingers would brush her breast.
“Shh.” He nuzzled his face against the hair at the back of her neck. “This is supposed to make you feel safe and calm.”
“I am calm,” she panted, anything but.
He chuckled, his whole body shaking against hers. Lynne writhed as if she might come out of her skin. Instead of making her feel better, the motion caused him to suck in a breath and hold her tighter.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he said.
She twisted to peek over her shoulder at him. In the darkness, she could only barely make out the outline of his jaw, the rise of his shoulder, the muscles of his arm. He adjusted against her, his body as tense as she was. For a moment, she thought he would pull away, that he would roll over and find a better sleeping position. Her heart trembled in disappointment.
A moment later, he surged closer to her, spreading his hand across her stomach. Butterflies exploded at the touch, fluttering lower and lower. She strained closer to him, unsure whether she was brave or possessed. All she knew was that she couldn’t stand the tension for another moment. She found his lips in the dark and kissed him.
Cade’s response was slow at first. He took control of the kiss, teasing her lips with his tongue. The sensation was so wonderful that Lynne closed her eyes. She moved her hand from his hip and rested it on top of his as it cradled her stomach. His fingers inched lower as the power of his kiss increased.
She didn’t resist any of it. When he parted her lips to run the tip of his tongue along the inside of her bottom lip, she welcomed him. He was warm and solid. The scent of his skin was purer than the fresh prairie air. He shifted just enough to lay her head against the pillow so that he could kiss her more deeply. She let him. The intensity with which he explored her mouth filled her with dazzling light in the deep of night.
His hand slipped lower still. Every reasonable part of her told her she should stop him. She should push him aside and scold him and march out of the nest he’d made for them. Instead, when he hesitated, she pushed his hand lower. His fingers dipped below the waist of her drawers, brushing the thatch of curls at the juncture of her thighs. That part of her ached for his touch. The wanting drove her wild, pressed the air from her lungs even as he continued to tease and invade her mouth.
He was so close to sliding his fingers into her curls and deeper when he hesitated.
“Don’t stop,” she whispered, desperate for more.
He shifted to his side, stretching beside her and laying her fully on her back. His face hovered inches above hers, and yet she could still only see the glint of his eyes as they searched for hers.
“You don’t know what you’re asking,” he said, rough and hoarse.
“I do,” she replied. To prove it, she felt along his side, sliding a hand over his chest and brushing across the tightness of his nipple. “I know what I want.”
She proved it by lifting her head to kiss him. This time she took what she wanted. She was brave and bold, parting his lips and following an age-old instinct that told her to love him. As her mouth explored, her hand continued its journey, across his arm and around his back and down to the tight muscle of his backside.
He twitched and pressed closer to her in response, trying and failing to swallow a groan. The hot hardness of his manhood pressed against her thigh. It was a wonderful fascination to her. She squeezed his backside, then trailed her fingers over his hip to close her palm around his length.
Cade tried to suppress a growl. He jerked, pressing into her palm to rub himself against her hand, then pulling away.
“I can’t do this to you,” he said. “I’m supposed to protect you.”
“What if I want you this way?” she asked. She did. She truly did.
“You’ll hate me for it.”
“I will not,” she insisted. She stroked his length to prove it. He was only wearing drawers after all. She could tell by the suppleness of the cotton. “You must want this too.”
Inch by inch, she could feel his resolve crumble. He ground against her grip, capturing her mouth to savor it for a moment. She rested against the pillow, drawing him closer. When she shifted her hand up to the small
of his back, he continued grinding against her hips. She gasped at the giddy sensations the contact sparked, even with two layers of fabric between them.
She wanted more than just teasing. Without letting herself think about the consequences of her boldness, she reached between them to tug at the tie of his drawers. The knot came loose and she pushed the thin fabric down over his hips and thighs. His staff sprung free against her abdomen. She gasped at the feel of it, slid both hands along it to learn him. In the dark he seemed immense and hard. Her core ached to feel him inside of her, to discover what women had known from the dawn of time.
“My brave vixen,” Cade murmured above her. “You really do want this.”
“Of course, I do,” she whispered.
“I won’t go any farther if you don’t want me to,” he said, propping himself above her. “I swear it. I won’t harm your virtue if you want to change your mind right now.”
She shook her head, body alive with fire. “I won’t change my mind. I want you.”
“Then prove it.”
“How?”
“Take your clothes off.”
Her breath caught in her throat. Every inch of her skin tingled with excitement. Could she do it? Was she actually that brazen?
She answered herself with a resounding yes. Cade kept himself propped over her as she fumbled for the hem of her chemise and tugged it up. She wriggled and squirmed to get it off over her head in the tight space Cade allowed her. She felt him suck in a breath as she tossed it aside. He lowered himself close enough for the fine hair on his chest to tickle her bared and sensitive nipples.
The sensation was heavenly. She reached her arms around him and tried to tug him down on top of her. He resisted, so she pressed her breasts against him, disappointed when he didn’t immediately kiss her and touch her and give her what she wanted.
“All of your clothes,” he growled.
A shiver swirled through her at the fierce command. A fear that wasn’t fear at all prickled her skin. She reached around his arms, readjusting so that she could untie her drawers and push them down over her hips. He groaned as she wriggled and kicked them off. When they were gone, the truth hit her. She was lying naked under him and he was naked and aroused above her. And every bit of her cried out for him.
“I want you,” she whispered.
She might not have known what she was doing, but she knew enough to part her legs and open herself to him. She even arched her hips up to find his and show him how brave she was.
Cade relaxed over top of her with a groan that rumbled from somewhere deep inside of him. He must have known she was serious about making love with him. All of his restraint vanished. He captured her mouth in a kiss that left her dizzy with desire. It was all she could do not to cry out with the joy of it. His hand moved to cradle her breast as he balanced himself on one arm. He rubbed her nipple with his thumb until it stood pert and tingling. Then he inched down to close his mouth around it and suckle.
She pressed her lips shut to hold back the sigh of triumph that wanted to escape from her. Instead, she bucked against him as his tongue laved her nipple. Just when she thought the pleasure he was giving her was as beautiful as anything could get, he brushed his fingers down over her abdomen and into the curls between her thighs. He sought out the very spot that throbbed for him to touch it, circling the nub with light strokes.
His breath came in ragged gasps now, and tension poured off of him, as though he was trying to slow down and speed up at the same time. That urgency only pushed her higher. She pressed herself into the wild sensation his fingers were producing, like a spring winding tighter and tighter. The ache grew so fast that when it burst into pleasure all through her, she couldn’t help but cry out with it.
Before the blissful tremors had subsided, he positioned himself between her legs and thrust into her. Lynne gasped as the gentle yet insistent pressure met a fleeting second of resistance and pain. It was no more than a quick sting that was forgotten the instant he let out his breath with a sound of such intense satisfaction that she felt it reverberate in her chest. That sound alone could send her to heaven and back.
He didn’t stop there. More slowly than he had thrust into her, he pulled out, then surged to fill her once more. Lynne clasped her arms around his back as he rocked out then pushed in again. She curled her fingertips into the tight muscle of his back, dug her nails into his flesh. Cade responded with a stifled moan and increased the pace of his thrusting.
It was madness. Utter madness and purest joy. Lynne didn’t know whether to let her hips relax as he took her or to hold tight with her outer and inner muscles. She squeezed herself around him, and when he growled like a wild animal in the back of his throat, she knew what he wanted. He thrust over and over, faster and harder, until Lynne felt the uncommon pleasure building in her again. She thanked heavens for the solid ground beneath them, because they were off among the stars.
With a pitched moan and a tremor that shook Cade’s entire body, his thrusts suddenly slowed. He rocked into her a few more times with increasing tenderness until he loosened and collapsed by her side. Both of them were left panting and dripping with sweat. Lynne had never been so happy to be so hot in her life. She smiled and closed her eyes as her body radiated heat and pleasure.
Cade’s breathing slowed beside her. Bit by bit, her heartbeat returned to normal. The air under the wagon was stifling with all the heat they’d generated. She reached out to lift the skirt hiding them from the world to let in fresh air.
Like a crash of lightning, reality slammed back into her. She yanked her hand away from the thin layer of fabric separating her and Cade from the rest of the wagon train. It separated her from certain scandal. Anyone could have heard the sounds they’d made, even in the middle of the night. Anyone could know what had happened. Her reputation could already be in tatters.
What had she done?
Chapter Eight
His great-aunt Elizabeth’s ring would do.
The thought hovered around the edges of Cade’s consciousness before he was even fully awake. Not that he’d let himself fall asleep for more than an hour or so. He’d made that mistake before. He wouldn’t fall asleep on the job ever again and he wouldn’t let Lynne out of his sight either. Permanently. His mother had carried Great-Aunt Elizabeth’s ring all the way across the prairie from Maine when they had moved west when he was a boy. It would suit just fine as an engagement ring for Lynne now.
He stretched and rolled away from Lynne, fumbling for his clothes in the dim dawn light. Moving slowly so that he didn’t wake her, he dressed in the clothes he had worn the day before. It wouldn’t do any good to alert half the wagon train as to what had happened between them by emerging from under the wagon undressed. It was wrong. He shouldn’t have let himself get carried away. But his heart had pushed him forward when his little head had jumped for joy at her consent.
He would make it right as soon as possible.
First, there was work to do. He slid to Lynne’s side and kissed her cheek. If he was a betting man, which he wasn’t, he would say she was wide awake but pretending to be asleep. The idea made him grin. She was unique, his soon-to-be wife. Let her pretend all she wanted to. Let her pretend she was asleep or that she wasn’t afraid. He would keep her safe either way and let her keep her pride too.
The wagon train was already up and active by the time he crawled out from under the wagon and went to rekindle the fire he’d built the night before. He needed coffee before Pete Evans pushed them all to keep going. Lucky for him, he’d left the coffee pot and cups by the fire the night before.
He looked around the camp with a satisfied smile as he tossed a handful of coffee grinds in the pot and filled it with water from a cask. It didn’t even bother him that the general mood of activity around the wagons was tense. The miners could cause all the fuss and trouble they wanted. The good people on their way to new, productive lives could get as anxious and suspicious of the miners as they cared too. More
than a few were busy rearranging their things in the back of their wagons to keep them protected from thieves. Cade didn’t mind any of it. He was in love with the most beautiful, passionate woman the West had ever seen.
The coffee was done when Lynne crawled out from under the wagon. She only peeked briefly at Cade, her expression still clouded with sleep, before climbing up into the back of the wagon. Cade smiled and sipped his coffee. He would fix a cup for her in a minute to be sure it would still be warm when she was fully dressed and prettied up. He would make coffee for her every morning. If she was an early riser, he would find a way to get up before her every day to make sure breakfast was waiting when she came downstairs from the house he would build for her. George Tremaine was sure to keep him on in spite of circumstances if he was married to the man’s niece. As long as they didn’t go blabbing about what precipitated the union.
He swallowed the guilt that poked him with a mouthful of coffee. He shouldn’t have let things go so far, but what was done was done.
It was a long time before Lynne emerged from the back of the wagon. She had dressed in clean clothes, or what passed for clean on the prairie. Her long, dark hair was brushed and caught up in a pretty style that was just a touch too elaborate for the trail. Cade liked it, though. He liked how unusual Lynne was. He took a last drink of his coffee, poured a cup for her, and got up to take it to her. He should really find a way to make his proposal special, but he wanted the right to call her his fiancée immediately. He’d make it up to her with roses and moonlight once they were in Denver City.
“Morning,” he greeted her with a wide smile.
“Good morning,” she said, eyes downcast. “Is this for me?” She took the coffee from his hand and turned away, striding to the fire.
Cade’s smile stayed where it was, but his gut tightened.
