“More?” He held up the bottle and she shoved her glass in his direction.
“I didn’t eat much dinner,” she confessed, the champagne relaxing her.
“You want to eat the cake?”
Hannah giggled. “Why not?” She dropped down onto the woolen blanket, her skirt puffing out all around her. “I feel like Cinderella.”
“Cinder who?”
Hannah took another sip of champagne. “Cinderella. I thought everyone knew about Cinderella.”
“Not me,” he admitted.
“She’s this poor girl who can’t go to the ball until her fairy godmother changes her rags into a beautiful gown.”
Wood cut a sliver of cake. “Was Gabby your fairy godmother?”
“She wanted to be. That’s why I’m wearing this dress and you’re wearing that tux and we have the carriage and this—” She made a sweeping gesture with her arm that encompassed the champagne and cake picnic.
“We have no plates or forks,” Wood told her, a piece of cake in his hand.
“Don’t need any. The groom is supposed to feed the bride.” She leaned toward him, her mouth wide open, inviting him to place the cake in her mouth. However, as he was about to shove it in, she swayed, and he missed his target. Icing glazed her cheek and outlined her lips.
Hannah giggled. “You don’t have very good aim, Wood. Here. I’ll show you.”
She cut a piece of the cake and said, “Open wide.”
He did as she instructed, but she deliberately missed his mouth, smearing the cake on his chin. “Oops!” She gave him an impish look.
“Very funny,” he drawled.
Hannah laughed as his tongue snaked out to lick the frosting from his face.
“Now what do we do? We have no napkins.” He swiped at his chin with the back of his hand.
“Nope.” She reached for the hand towel and waved it temptingly in front of him. “Just this towel.” When he would have reached for it, she snatched it away, hiding it behind her back. “I think I like the way you look with cake on your face,” she said impudently.
“Give me that towel, Hannah,” he ordered her, but she paid no attention.
“Uh-uh. Have some more champagne, Wood. It’s really good.” She took another drink while her other hand remained behind her back.
A devilish fire lit his eyes, but she paid no attention. “Don’t make me take it from you, Hannah,” he said in a dangerously seductive voice.
She should have heard warning bells. Maybe she did hear them and paid no attention. At any rate, she was unprepared for the speed at which Wood’s arms wrapped around her waist in an attempt to get the towel.
“Come on, Hannah. Give it up,” he coaxed as the two of them playfully tumbled onto the blanket—she holding fast to the towel, he trying to pry it loose from her fingers. They wrestled like a couple of teenagers fighting over a loose football.
Knowing her defenses were being stormed, she used the only tactic she had. “Ouch, you’re hurting me,” she cried out, feigning pain.
He immediately loosened his grip on her, allowing her time to slide out from beneath him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean...” He began to apologize only to realize she was laughing, not crying.
“Why, if that wasn’t the most low-down, dirty...” He started to crawl toward her, like a lion stalking its prey.
Aroused by the look in his eyes, Hannah said, “I told you, Wood. Chivalry will get you nowhere.” She inched her way backward until she reached the edge of the blanket.
“Are you saying I should just take what I want?”
Although she knew she was playing with fire, Hannah couldn’t resist asking, “What is it you want?” She dangled the towel in midair. “This?”
With one quick grab he snatched the cloth from her hand and tossed it aside, his eyes never once leaving her face. “You’re tempting me, Hannah.”
“Tempting you to what?” she taunted.
“To forget that I promised not to touch you.”
She hooked her hands over the back of his shoulders, unconsciously offering herself to him. “Is that why you didn’t kiss me when the minister pronounced us husband and wife?”
“Did you want me to kiss you?”
“Not if it would have been fluttery and soft like this.” She barely brushed his mouth with hers, “Then, no. That’s an obligatory kiss and I don’t want any man to feel obliged to kiss me.”
“No chivalrous kisses?”
“Definitely not.”
“What if it had been a wild and hungry kiss given only because the man couldn’t resist making you his?”
She trembled at the thought, her lips quivering, her breasts having. That slight movement was all it took for Wood’s resistance to abandon him. He captured her mouth with his in a kiss that sealed their marital contract. For Hannah it was an exquisite torment, as the intimate exploration of his tongue made her long for another gratification.
She found herself at the beginning of a passionate journey, being pulled along by emotions that refused to listen to anything but the seductive pull of anticipation. Wood’s hands ignited a flame she had forgotten burned deep inside her.
Even though her body rubbed against his, she couldn’t get close enough to satisfy the craving for his touch. Moaning softly, she encouraged the exploration his hands made as they traced patterns of intimacy in places she thought would never know the pleasure of a man’s touch again.
She wanted more, much more than the kisses that only fueled her growing desire for him. Frantically she forced open the buttons on his shirt, loving the heat that greeted her fingers as they roamed across his bare flesh. When her hands found the waistband of his trousers, he shuddered.
“Does this mean you don’t want our marriage to be in name only?” he asked huskily.
Just when Hannah thought she was on the brink of surrender, his words snapped her back to reality. She snatched her fingers away, as if they had been burned.
He tried to recapture the moment, saying, “It’s all right. I don’t mind. Hell, I want you so bad I ache.”
Hannah rose to her feet, turning her back to him. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. If we hadn’t been drinking the champagne...” She fumbled with the buttons that had come undone on her dress.
“I want to return to the home place,” she told him, avoiding his eyes.
Wood felt as if he’d been punched in the stomach. For just one moment he had thought that they might have truly celebrated their union. Now he could see that she wanted nothing to do with him other than to have his name on the marriage certificate.
They said little on the way home. Once they were back at the house, Wood saw how wrong he had been to think she wanted anything more from him. Hannah was as brusque as she had been the first day he had arrived at the farm. Gabby was the one who showed him where he would sleep—for it had been decided that he would take the loft in the house. Hannah’s husband couldn’t sleep in the bunkhouse, and for all appearances he needed to be Hannah’s husband.
Wood undid the buttons on the stiff shirt, remembering how Hannah’s fingers had slipped between the pearly fasteners, sending a river of fire through his blood. He kicked off the rented shoes and sank down onto the bed, wondering what was going through her mind at that very moment. Was she thinking about how close they had come to consummating their marriage?
If only he hadn’t asked that stupid question. Does this mean you don’t want our marriage to be in name only? Why couldn’t he just have let things happen? Because he wasn’t used to women taking the aggressive role in sex. Although it had caught him off guard, it had also excited him. But then nearly everything Hannah did aroused him.
As he hung up his jacket, he remembered the box inside his pocket. He had meant to give it to her during their champagne picnic, but he had forgotten about it in the heat of their passion. He stared at the silver wrapping paper. Iridescent foil, was what the clerk had called it. All Wood knew was that it was unlike any paper he had e
ver seen—just as Hannah was unlike any woman he had ever known.
If only he could find the key to her heart. Instead of sleeping alone in the loft, he could be spending the night with his bride. That’s where he wanted to be. In her arms, with her warm body next to his. He closed his eyes. If he didn’t stop thinking about her, he would never be able to sleep.
But then why should he? It was his wedding night. No, it was their wedding night. And they needed to settle something once and for all. He was tired of her body saying one thing and her mouth saying another.
Barefoot, he padded down the stairs to the second floor. It was dark except for a narrow strip of light beneath Hannah’s door.
With a sharp rap, he called out in a whisper. “Hannah, open up.”
When she answered, she wore a flimsy, pink nightgown that gave a certain part of Wood’s anatomy a quick jolt. She made no attempt to cover up, but simply said, “Is anything wrong?”
He swept her up into his arms, kicking the door shut with his foot. As he carried her to the bed, he kissed her, his mouth hungrily demanding a response. Her lips opened, inviting him to take what he wanted.
Into a tangle of sheets their bodies fell, shifting and gliding until they were stretched out side by side. He was all over her, loving the taste of her. Starting at her neck, then her shoulders, pushing aside the flimsy pink nightgown to find a rosy nipple. Velvety sighs of pleasure encouraged his tongue to caress her hot flesh.
With one easy movement, she lifted the garment over her head and sent it sailing to the floor. She grinned at the sensual surprise in his eyes. If he had thought she was sexy in her tight trousers, naked she took his breath away. Although he could have marveled in her beauty, she was not about to lie idle. She planted a trail of kisses over his face and throat, then unzipped his trousers. As he kicked his way out of the legs, her hands made a journey of discovery across his stomach, up and down his thighs until they found their target.
Never had Wood met a woman who behaved so boldly in bed. He trembled as she wrapped warm fingers around his erection.
“I love what you do to me,” she murmured huskily.
“Shouldn’t I be the one saying that?” His breath came out shakily as she stroked his swollen flesh.
“You make me feel like a woman.”
“That’s never been a question in my mind,” he said, as once more he took a nipple into his mouth, his tongue circling it delicately.
Slowly he caressed her burning flesh, tracing her rounded curves, gliding downward to the center of her desire. As his fingers found her moist, intimate spot, she quivered and arched her body invitingly. Whimpers of pleasure urged him to explore her wetness, the sensitive folds of flesh inviting his touch.
With a brazenness he found irresistible, she guided his swollen flesh into her, moaning as the intensity of his need thrust him deep into her center. They melted together, their bodies suspended somewhere in time as the ageless rhythm of a force neither could control took over.
Their bodies raced in search of pleasure, forward and back in an incredibly sweet blending. She pulled him deeper and deeper, melting his heart, melting his soul. There was nothing else in the world that mattered except the exquisite sensations of being one with her. It was a journey to another dimension, one he didn’t want to see end. But neither one could stop the rush of ecstasy that ruled their actions, pouring out of them in an overwhelming urgent need. Just when he thought she had sent him over the edge, he felt something he had never felt before, an explosion so magical it shook his entire body.
Hannah kissed him tenderly on his cheek. “I think Gabby was right. We fit.”
Wood smiled lazily. “You are one bold lady, Mrs. Harris.” He kissed her nose. “I was wondering how I was going to be able to fall asleep tonight, but after that...” He sighed contentedly.
She ran her hands over his damp back. “Sleep? Why Mr. Harris, have you forgotten what night this is? There’s no such thing as sleep on a wedding night.”
WOOD AWOKE EARLY the next morning, although he wasn’t sure he had even been asleep. It had been a wonderful night with Hannah: He raised himself up on one elbow and stared at the lovely picture she made next to him, her blond curls fanned out on the pillow.
He glanced at the clock beside the bed. When he had made an appointment with Madame Duvalee, he had never expected that this morning he would be lying beside Hannah in her bed. As much as he wanted to stay with her, he knew that if he were going to talk to the psychic, he needed to go now, for she would be leaving town by the end of the day.
He carefully rolled off the bed and tugged on his pants. Then he climbed the steps to the loft, grimacing as each riser creaked under his weight. He changed out of the formal wear and into a pair of jeans. As soon as he was dressed, he headed downstairs.
As he expected, Gabby waited for him in the kitchen. “You’re still going to go?”
Wood nodded.
“I thought that since you and Hannah...” A grin tugged at the corners of her mouth.
“You know?”
“I’m a light sleeper and the stairs creak.”
“You were right, Gabby. She doesn’t hate me.”
She flung her skinny arms around him in a hug of joy. “Didn’t I tell you the two of you would be a perfect match?” She pulled back and studied his face. “So why are you going to see Madame Duvalee?”
“Don’t you see? Now that Hannah and I are married, more than ever I need to know how I got here. If she is a true psychic, as the paper says, then I have to talk to her.”
Gabby looked uneasy. “I suppose you’re right,” she told Wood, although he could see that she really didn’t agree with him.
“Are you going to let me take your car?”
“Of course.” She walked over to the cupboard and pulled out a set of keys. “Be careful that no one sees you.”
“I’m not driving into Stanleyville,” Wood reminded her, tossing the keys into his pocket.
“I know, but you’ll be on county roads.”
“I will drive slowly,” he assured her, smiling to himself as he recalled one of the lessons Gabby had given him and the thrill he had experienced to have so much power at his fingertips.
“What do I tell Hannah when she finds you’re not here this morning?” Gabby asked.
“That I had an errand to run,” Wood answered, then blew her a kiss on his way out the door. “See you in a couple of hours.”
WHEN HANNAH AWOKE and found herself alone in the double bed, she wondered if she had dreamed that Wood had spent the night with her. Then she saw her nightgown in a heap on the floor, and she knew that the aches in her muscles had nothing to do with work. She and Wood had spent a good portion of the night making love in ways Hannah had never dreamed possible. The memory sent a rush of warmth through her.
So where was he? she wondered. When she glanced at the clock, she saw a small foil box on the nightstand. Circling the package was a gold ribbon that had a tiny wedding bell in its bow.
Hannah carefully undid the wrapping and opened the box. Inside was a miniature locket. Engraved on the back were the words “To Hannah from Wood” along with the date of their wedding.
Hannah’s heart swelled with emotion. He had bought her a wedding gift, yet she had given him nothing. Today she would remedy that. First, she needed to see him.
It was with a spring in her step that she showered, dressed and hurried downstairs. Expecting to find Wood in the kitchen, she was disappointed to see only Jeremy and Gabby.
“You look happy,” Gabby commented, exchanging a conspiratorial glance with Jeremy.
“I am happy,” she confessed with a grin, then poured herself a cup of coffee.
“Did you like our surprise?” her son asked as she sat down at the table. “Gabby made the cake but I helped her frost it.”
Hannah nearly blushed as she remembered what had happened as she and Wood had eaten the confection. “It was lovely.”
Jeremy caught her tota
lly off guard with his next question. “Now that you’re married, will I get to change my name to Harris?”
Hannah glanced at Gabby, as if she should have the answer. “I guess I hadn’t thought about it until now,” Hannah answered honestly.
“I think it’d be kinda cool to be Jeremy Harris. Then everyone at school would know I have a father.”
Hannah was at a loss for words. Although she knew Jeremy was fond of Wood, she hadn’t expected that he’d view their marriage as permanent. After all, he knew about the provisions of the will. It was an unsettling thought, especially when Hannah realized that she, too, was thinking her marriage could be permanent.
She wasn’t even sure how Wood truly felt about her. How could she know if he planned to adopt Jeremy as his son? Just because he had made passionate love to her didn’t mean he would stay forever.
“You’d better eat your breakfast and get to your chores,” Gabby advised Jeremy.
“Where is Wood, anyway?” Hannah finally asked.
“He’s not here.”
“What do you mean he’s not here?”
“He’s not gone, if that’s what’s put that look of horror on your face,” Gabby answered. “He’s just not here at the moment.”
Hannah relaxed. “You mean he’s outside.”
“Not exactly.” She was saved from having to answer by the ringing of the telephone. Gabby scurried to answer it. Hannah listened to her end of the conversation.
“Oh, no.” A pause. “Okay.” Another pause. “Uh-uh. I understand.” Then still another pause. “We’ll go find out.”
When Gabby hung up the receiver, her cheeks were pale.
“What’s wrong?” Hannah immediately asked.
“That was my friend Mavis from Spring Valley. She said she just saw Red Murphy handcuff Wood and take him away in his car.”
Chapter Thirteen
“This doesn’t make any sense. Why on earth would Red arrest Wood?” Hannah asked Gabby as the pickup kicked up a trail of dust on the dirt road leaving the farm.
Gabby sat wringing her hands together, wondering if she should tell Hannah about the forged birth certificate or if she should let Red be the one to break the news. For Gabby was certain that the reason Red had taken Wood in was because he had somehow found out about their little adventure into the clandestine side of life.
Mail Order Cowboy (Harlequin American Romance) Page 21
