“No!” he shouted, but he could tell she hadn’t heard him. “Damn!” he cried, and kicked his horse in the ribs. In seconds, it was running hard, eating up the ground and quickly closing the gap between him and Melanie.
Melanie happened to look back, and when she saw Eli running his horse, she laughed and urged the roan into a run, too.
“Melanie, no!” Eli yelled. “Stop! Stop your horse or turn around! There’s a cliff ahead of you!”
Giggling, she leaned toward the roan’s head. “Faster, sweetheart, run faster!” she urged. “We can’t let him catch us!”
But he did catch them, and Melanie stopped laughing when Eli’s horse was running parallel to hers and Eli reached out and yanked the reins out of her hands.
“What in hell do you think you’re doing?” she yelled.
“Stopping you from killing yourself and your horse.” Eli reined in both animals, and the horses’ sides heaved from running so fast. “Get down,” he demanded.
“I will not!”
“The hell you won’t!” Leaping to the ground, Eli put his hands on Melanie’s waist and hauled her off her mount. She came down kicking, screeching and slapping, and he grabbed her flailing hands and held them. “I’m going to show you something, and if it’s possible for you to stop screaming and keep your mouth shut for five seconds, I’d appreciate it because you happen to be destroying my eardrums.”
“Oh, drop dead, you holier-than-thou jerk! What’s the big idea, dragging me around like a sack of potatoes? Let go of my wrists!”
“Not until you calm down.”
“I have no intention of calming down!”
“Fine. Then we’ll take our little walk with me hanging on to your wrists!” Eli said as he started walking and pulling her along with him.
“You insufferable bastard! Let go of me!” she shrieked.
“After you see what’s ahead.”
“Well, let me walk!”
Eli stopped and looked at her. “Will you?”
“No, I’d rather be dragged in the dirt,” she said sweetly.
Eli finally let go of her wrists. However, he was ready to grab her again if she tried to get away, and she knew he could do it, too.
Brushing off her clothes, she said icily, “Okay, what’s this all about?”
“Come on and I’ll show you. Take my hand and don’t get ahead of me.”
“I’m not taking your hand.”
Eli shook his head. “Fine, don’t take my hand, but do not get ahead of me. Will you at least agree to that?”
“Yes,” she said in that haughty, frosty tone he’d started to expect from her.
They walked about five more steps, then Eli put his arm in front of her to stop her. “Take one more very small step and look over the edge,” he told her.
“Look over the edge of what?” True, the terrain seemed to take a dip right in front of them, but so what?
“Just do it,” Eli said wearily.
She took that tiny step and gasped. They were at the very edge of a steep cliff that appeared to her to be a good fifty feet higher than a small body of water. “What is this place?”
“That’s Dove Lake, and if I hadn’t stopped you, you’d be swimming in it right now.”
“Or worse,” Melanie said quietly. Moving next to him, she reached out and took his hand. “I’m sorry I called you names. Sometimes my temper gets the better of me.”
“Yeah, I sort of noticed that.”
Melanie looked down at the little lake for a long moment. “Is that water warm or cold?”
Eli shrugged. “I have no idea.”
“You don’t come here and swim in warm weather?”
“No, I don’t.”
“Why not? Don’t you like to swim?”
“I don’t like water, period.”
“Well, I do! And I see a way down this cliff, too!” Releasing his hand, Melanie dashed away.
“Melanie, dammit, what’re you doing now?”
“What do you think I’m doing? I’m going to go skinny-dipping, Eli!”
Six
Eli stared transfixed as Melanie undressed. She did it quickly, shedding boots and socks, shirt and jeans, appearing childlike in her unabashed delight over swimming in such a pristine lake.
“The beaches are usually crowded at home,” she said. “Anywhere you go—the ocean, a lake or river—there are always people. Look at this.” She waved her hand at the scenic splendor all around them. “No one. Not one single soul.” Smiling impishly, she sent Eli a glance. “Except for you and me. Are you really not going to swim with me?”
Trying to shake the sense of unreality that had held him immobile while she removed her clothes, he cleared his throat. “No, and I wish you wouldn’t go in that water, either.” As she stood there in her panties and bra, she no longer resembled a child and Eli’s thoughts were far from being pure.
“Why ever not?” she said playfully, and advanced to the water’s edge to test its temperature with a toe. “Oh, it’s wonderful. Cool but not cold. Perfect.” She looked back at Eli again and said teasingly, “You didn’t really think I would take everything off, did you?” Laughing merrily, she waded out a few feet and then launched herself into the water.
Eli felt himself go pale. His hands clenched at his sides as his heart clubbed his rib cage. What would he do if she got a cramp—or needed assistance for some other reason? He hated and feared water. Ever since his brother’s death in that canoeing accident, he had suffered nightmares about water—horrible dreams that would frighten him awake and then never really go away. Even though the details were half-remembered or even lost, the feeling of terror never decreased, his dread of any body of water seeming to grow even greater.
He couldn’t stand it, knowing Melanie was underwater and waiting for her to surface. It seemed an eternity, and sweat broke out on his forehead. She came up laughing, again very much like a child, and he called, “I’m going to see to the horses. Be careful.” Walking back up the slope to the top of the cliff, he felt queasy. “You deserve to be sick, you damn coward,” he muttered. It was how he thought of himself now—as a coward—even though these panic attacks only occurred around water. It was easy enough to avoid Montana’s lakes and rivers on his own, but then, unexpectedly, an incident like today would happen and he’d have to relive the whole awful episode of Carson’s death and recall how irrevocably it had changed his life. It was times like this that he became heartsick and wondered if his parents were even still alive.
Emotionally overburdened, Eli gathered the reins of the two grazing horses and tethered the animals to a sturdy bush so they wouldn’t wander too far. Then he forced himself to approach the edge of the cliff and look down, scared to death that he’d see nothing but the smooth, unblemished surface of the lake.
But Melanie was floating on her back and she spotted him and waved. “This is incredible! Come on in and cool off!”
“No, thanks,” he called back, and moved out of sight. He sat on a boulder and thought of the picture she made on her back in that water. Wet, her pink bra and panties concealed nothing. Her nipples were upright, and the feminine arch between her thighs was most pronounced.
Groaning, he covered his face with his hands. Why hadn’t he thrown caution to the wind and made love to her that day behind the shed? She’d said in plain language that she wanted him, and like a total moron he’d let what probably would have been the sexual highlight of his life slip away.
Yes, he’d gone to town that night, telling himself all during the drive that he’d relieve the torment in his groin with another woman. But he hadn’t even tried. Unable to get Melanie out of his mind, he’d eaten at the Dairy Queen. Then he’d driven around aimlessly until it was time to return to the ranch. He didn’t want some other woman, dammit, not then and not now.
Rising to his feet, he took another peek over the bluff and heaved a sigh of relief. Melanie was getting dressed, pulling on her clothes over her wet underwear. He hurried
away, going down the slope to help her back up. When he reached her, she was freeing her hair from its confinement at her nape.
“You should have gone in with me,” she said. “It was wonderful.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not all that fond of swimming.”
Melanie wrung the water from her long hair, then leaned her head to one side to fluff it with her fingers. That was when Eli saw that the water from her wet bra was bleeding through the fabric of her blouse; her nipples were almost as visible as they’d been when she’d been floating on her back in the lake.
Because his gaze was so intense, she looked down to see what was attracting his attention. “Oops,” she said with a little chuckle. “By any chance, are these two little bumps bothering you, Eli?”
His expression became resentful and stormy. “You know damned well they are. They’d bother any man who wasn’t numb from the ears down.”
“I wonder why,” she said, deliberately turning thoughtful. “I guess I’ve always wondered why men are so fascinated by breasts. Every woman has them, so it’s not like they’re any kind of rarity. What do you think? Got any ideas on that subject?”
Eli nearly choked. “You just love shocking me, don’t you?”
She gave her head a disdainful toss. “For heaven’s sake, if the word breast shocks you, you’d probably faint dead away if I said… No, I better not chance it. I’d never be able to get you on your horse by myself, and if I left you out here unconscious, wolves would probably have you for their supper.”
“Very funny,” Eli said dryly. “It’s time we started back.”
Melanie glanced up at the huge, bright sun, which was almost directly overhead. “It’s only noon. I was planning on a much longer ride. But you can go back anytime you want. I’m not a bit afraid of lions, tigers and bears. Oh, and wolves!”
“You’re just a riot.”
“Yes, I can see you’re busting your seams from suppressed laughter.” Pulling her hair to the back of her head again, she secured it with a clasp and reached down to the grass to pick up her hat and gloves. She walked past Eli toward the sloping ground leading to the bluff and said, “You really should learn how to relax and enjoy yourself, Eli. If you don’t have a full-blown ulcer yet, I’m sure one is well on its way.”
Eli followed her and tried not to watch the shape of her behind in those jeans. He failed, and it irked the hell out of him that he had so little self-control around Melanie Kincaid. But her rounded buttocks were just the right size. So were her breasts. Everything about her, from her glorious hair to her long legs and small waistline, was perfection itself.
“I do not have an ulcer,” he said through gritted teeth, and the words were barely out of his mouth when Melanie tripped on a rock and fell backward. She landed against him, hard, and he fell backward. Hanging on to her, hoping to save her from injury, they slid all the way to the bottom of the slope, him on his back, her on top of him.
“Well,” Melanie said breathlessly, “that was quite a ride.” Turning over but remaining on top of Eli, she looked into his face and saw that his eyes were closed. “Are you okay? You’re not unconscious, are you?”
“I wish I were because I’m in utter agony,” he muttered without opening his eyes.
“Oh, no! Where are you hurt?” She took his face in her hands. “Open your eyes and let me see them.”
He didn’t open his eyes at all. Instead, he laid his hands on the back of her head and brought it down so their lips could meet. It was a passionate kiss from the start, and she never tried to stop it for a second. He was a wonderful kisser. His lips were perfect, just soft enough, just firm enough, and his tongue in her mouth, touching her tongue and daring her to be as bold as him, made her head spin.
He kept holding her head down with one hand, but the other began moving over her back and hips. She heard his heavy breathing and her own wild heartbeat. This time, she knew, he was not going to stop as he’d done behind the shed. He was not going to call either of them crazy or even mention the word. The onus was on her shoulders. She could say no and it would end, of that she had no doubt.
But she didn’t want to say no. Every cell of her body wanted what he did, and it didn’t matter that they were in the open, with the sunshine warming the earth and the two of them—and also any wolves that might be skulking about—because there was no one else for miles and miles.
Melanie had never before experienced such a profound sense of freedom, and if she hadn’t been in love with Montana before this, she was now. She’d lost her hat in the fall and the sunglasses in her shirt pocket had probably gotten crushed, but she didn’t care. With a haste born of desire so strong and powerful that it was almost painful, she tore at his shirt buttons, wanting him naked or at least naked enough. He did the same with her buttons, and kissing and catching breaths when they could, they managed to undress each other and themselves, and then Eli was the one on top.
In the middle of a long, dizzying kiss, she spread her legs for him, and when he entered her, she moaned and hugged him harder. In moments he was moving in and out of her and watching her face. She looked into his eyes and saw the dark swirls of passion he was feeling. Was this special for him? Was she special to him?
He was special to her, she thought. Maybe too special because she didn’t have a clue about his feelings for her. Beyond the obvious, that was. She’d known all along that he was physically attracted to her, or she’d suspected it, at least. And heaven knew she’d been attracted to him from the first. But was it all physical between them? Could there possibly be more?
Her questions faded away as she felt the beginning of the end. Striving for it, reaching for it, she arched into him, and he placed his hands in the hollow of her back to help support her for the final ride. She began crying out, at first softly, making little whimpering sounds in her throat, but then it became so intense that she wrapped her legs around his hips, dug her fingertips into his back and hoarsely called his name.
“Eli…Eli!”
“I’m here, baby. Go with it. Let it happen.”
It hadn’t occurred to her to do anything else, and something way back in a little crevice of her mind wished that he had said something else, something like, “Oh, Melanie, my darling, you’re positively incredible. I’m so swept away I can’t see straight.”
It was, of course, what she was feeling, swept into another world that was all magic and a dozen beautiful colors.
Then he collapsed on her and she realized that he had not called her name. It was almost as though he had reached the pinnacle without her or maybe lost sight of what woman was beneath him. If she had been alone right then, she would have wept, but she would not cry in front of Eli to save her soul.
She pushed at his dead weight pressing her into the grass. “Get off me!”
Eli raised his head with a startled expression. “You sound angry.”
“Who gives a damn? Just move so I can get up.”
He frowned. “You are angry. Why? Didn’t you…I mean, did I…you know, move things along too fast? I was, uh, sure you were ready, but… Well, it’s hard to tell sometimes.”
“If you dare to compare me with other women right now, I swear I’ll brain you! Now, move!”
Completely dismayed, he rolled to the grass and stared up at the vivid blue sky. Melanie got up and ran down to the lake, and when Eli realized that she was back in the water, his heart nearly stopped and he got up quickly and started yanking on his clothes.
“Come on,” he called gruffly. “I’ve got work to do, and you’re going back with me if I have to tie you to your horse.”
Melanie treaded water and thought about what he’d threatened. He wouldn’t dare! But she was ready to go back even though she would prefer riding by herself. Still, was it worth fighting about? God, how could she have been such an idiot? Why hadn’t she left Eli alone? She had teased him unmercifully in a dozen different ways—especially when she’d undressed down to her skimpy underwear in front of him�
�and known in her heart that he was reaching the breaking point.
Well, he’d reached it, she’d gotten what she’d been asking for, and now she had to live with it, whatever “it” might be.
“Melanie, get the hell out of that lake!”
“Why don’t you come and get me?” she taunted.
“I will if I have to.” It was most definitely a lie, an idle threat, but she didn’t know it, he told himself.
He was dressed and standing with his feet apart and his hands on his hips, looking larger than life and all man. Seeing him like that, Melanie relived every moment on the grass with him on top of her. With both of them naked and him inside her.
“God help me,” she groaned when waves of heat made her feel feverish even in the cool water. “I’m coming out,” she said with all the righteous indignation she could muster. “So take yourself somewhere else and let me get dressed in peace.”
“Good Lord,” Eli muttered, “I’ve just seen and touched every inch of your naked body,” he yelled, “and now you’re pulling the blushing-virgin act on me?”
“Call it any damn thing you want, but leave me alone!”
“Fine. I’ll be up here with the horses. And be careful when you make your way up.”
“I hate and despise you, you egotistical, self-absorbed jerk,” she mumbled.
“What’d you say?”
“I said I’d be careful. What do you think I said?”
Just as Eli had suspected would be the case if he made love to Melanie, he was almost numb from regret. It surprised him, however, that she also seemed remorseful. Not only remorseful, but angry. Surely she wasn’t putting all the blame for what they’d done on him, was she?
Finally, after the two of them had ridden in stony silence for several miles, he could no longer pretend it didn’t bother him. “What’s your problem?” he asked brusquely.
Her answer was swift and direct. “You are.”
“Is that a fact?” he drawled sardonically. “Well, maybe this will cheer you up. You’re sort of a problem for me, too.”
The Kincaid Bride Page 8
