Tallie swallowed hard. Lobo had her over a barrel. She knew it and so did he. “Let her go, and I’ll give you the camera.”
“No!” Susan screamed, struggling in Lobo’s grasp. “Don’t you dare give him—”
Lobo covered her mouth with his hand, then screeched like a stuck hog when she bit him. In that split second of pain, Lobo released Susan. Tallie gave Solomon the attack order and both she and the Great Dane dived forward, right into Lobo. Susan fell to the ground, rolling over and over, getting as far away as she could.
Solomon attacked, knocking Lobo to the ground. When Tallie thought Lobo was subdued enough to listen to reason, she called off Solomon, then pointed her shotgun in the center of Lobo’s chest.
“Susan, you’re going to have to go for help while I keep Mr. Smothers occupied.”
“I can’t leave you here alone with that man.”
“Susan, go for help. Now!”
Instantly obeying, Susan fled thought the woods.
* * *
Peyton and Lowell saw Susan Williams as she came flying out of the woods into the clearing by the old campsite where they’d parked the sheriff’s car beside Tallie’s Camaro.
She ran straight into Lowell’s arms. He held her, rubbing her back, trying to soothe her.
“Where’s Tallie?” Peyton asked.
Pulling free from Lowell, Susan faced Peyton. “She’s holding her shotgun on Lobo Smothers. Out there in the woods.”
“Show us where,” Peyton said.
“I think I can take y’all straight to her.” Susan tugged on Peyton’s hand. “I ran as fast as I could to get back to the car to go for help, and I tried to memorize the path I took.”
Peyton and Lowell followed Susan into Kingsley Woods, Lowell removing his 9mm automatic from his hip holster. When they were deep into the forest, Susan began to call Tallie’s name. Within minutes, Tallie answered.
“I’m over here, Susan. I’m fine. Have you already called for help this quick?”
“Lowell and Peyton are with me,” Susan said as they came into the clearing. “They’d just driven up to the campsite when I got back to your car.”
If Peyton hadn’t been scared for Tallie and infuriated at her for doing something so totally foolish, he would have found the scene before him quite amusing—almost as amusing as Sheriff Redman found it.
Lobo Smothers, all six-feet-four inches of him, lay flat on his back on the ground. Solomon’s front paws rested on Lobo’s neck, and Tallie held her shotgun an inch away from his stomach.
“How’d you know where we were?” Tallie asked, stealing a quick glance at Peyton before returning her full attention to Lobo.
“Sheila called. She was worried about you and Susan.” Peyton had never before known the mixture of emotions that were stirring around inside him at this precise moment. Fear, anger and passion were a deadly combination.
“She didn’t have to call you. We took care of everything ourselves.” After lifting her shotgun from Lobo’s stomach, she ordered Solomon up. “I’ll turn Mr. Smothers over to you, Lowell.” She held her shotgun in one hand. “And I’ve got some pictures here that I think you and the game warden will be interested in.” She patted the camera hanging around her neck.
“Well, I’ll be damned.” Lowell shook his head. “Get up, Lobo. I’m going to give you a free ride to jail. You’ve got a lot of questions to answer.”
Lobo made no protest when Lowell escorted him out of the woods, his hands cuffed behind him. Peyton zeroed in on Tallie, grabbing her by the shoulders.
“What the hell did you think you were doing, coming out here like this? Lobo could have killed you and Susan.”
“He didn’t, did he?” Tallie jerked away from Peyton. “We’re both just fine, aren’t we, Susan?”
“I’m going to ride back into town with Lowell,” Susan said. “If you want to give me the camera, I’ll see that Lowell gets the film and I’ll answer any questions he might have.”
“There’s no need,” Tallie said. “We can ride into town together.”
“Give me the camera, Tallie.” Peyton lifted the camera from around Tallie’s neck. “I’ll drive you and Susan into town, and then you and I are going to have a long, overdue talk.”
“About what?” Tallie allowed Peyton to take the camera.
“About why you can’t seem to stay out of trouble, and why I can’t seem to stay out of your life.”
* * *
Evening shadows fell across Tallie’s front yard, the sun lying in the lavender sky like a scoop of orange sherbet on a pastel plate. Tallie pulled the Camaro up in the driveway, got out and slammed the door. Peyton followed her, parking his Jag directly behind her car.
Tallie stomped up the porch steps, not waiting for Peyton. By the time he’d gotten out of his car, she was unlocking her front door.
“There’s no need to run,” Peyton called out when she raced into the living room, the storm door banging behind her. “I’m not leaving. Not until we’ve settled things once and for all.”
Tallie flung her shoulder purse and her camera bag down on the coffee table. Then she unloaded her shotgun and laid it and the shells on the dining-room table as she passed through the room on her way to the kitchen.
Peyton caught up with her in front of the sink where she was filling a glass with tap water. He stood directly behind her, but didn’t touch her.
“Go away, Peyt. I thought we’d already settled things once and for all. I thought we did that the other night at the Pale Rider.”
“Yeah, I thought so, too, but I was mistaken.”
“No, you weren’t mistaken.” Tallie lifted the glass to her mouth, took several deep swallows, then placed the glass in the sink. She turned to face Peyton. “Things were settled. They are settled. Nobody asked you to come charging out to Kingsley Woods to save me, did they? No! I sure as hell didn’t ask for your help this time.”
“Are you saying that when you told Sheila Vance where you and Susan were going, you didn’t even once consider the possibility that she’d call me?”
“Of course not! I...well, I don’t think I did. Did I? Oh, I don’t know anymore. Maybe I did. Maybe that’s the reason I told her. I have no idea. I’m totally confused when it comes to you and me.”
“You think you’re confused? How do you think I feel?” He took her shoulders in his grasp, holding her with gentle force. “My life is a total mess when you’re in it, but I’ve found out that it’s not worth much without you.”
“Please, Peyt, don’t say things now you’re going to regret tomorrow. Nothing has changed between us. I’m still who I am, and you’re still who you are. I want a small town, a simple, uncomplicated life. You want to live in Nashville and run the whole state.”
“Tallie Bishop, you live the most complicated life of any woman I know, small town or not.”
Tallie knew she had to escape from Peyton, from the firm, possessive hold of his hands, from the hot, predatory look of passion she saw in his eyes. Somehow, his fear for her safety and his anger over her impulsiveness had combined with the passion he’d held in check for so many years. If she couldn’t stop him now, there would be no stopping him later.
Tallie placed her hands atop Peyton’s, where they rested on her shoulders. “I want you to leave, Peyton. Now.”
“You want me to leave?”
“Yes.”
“I can’t do that.”
She jerked his hands from her shoulders and moved away from him. He grabbed her by the wrist.
Pausing in her flight, caught by his tight hold and by the pleading look on his face, Tallie faced him. “I can take care of myself. You saw that today, didn’t you? I don’t know if I told Sheila where Susan and I were going because subconsciously I wanted you to come to my rescue or not. Maybe I did. But the bottom line is this, I can survive without you.”
“Can you, Tallie? Can you really?” He pulled her to him, slowly, one small tug at a time, until her body touched his. “We
ll, I found out something today, Tallulah Bankhead Bishop. I can’t survive without you.”
She stared at him, unable to believe what he’d just said to her. “You don’t mean that.”
“I do mean it, Tallie.” Holding her to him, one arm wrapped securely around her waist, he raised his other hand to touch her face. “I’m as confused about us as you are. I don’t know if we have a prayer of making things work for us. All I know is that I’m tired of fighting the desire I feel for you. I’m tired of protecting myself from you and I’m tired of protecting you from me.”
“Oh, Peyt.” She understood only too well what he was telling her. It was now or never. If she turned him away this time, they wouldn’t get another chance.
“You’re all I think about, sugar. Day and night. You’re the first thing I think about when I get up every morning, and your face haunts me when I close my eyes at night.”
With the utmost tenderness, he stroked her cheek with his fingertips. “I want you, Tallie. I want you like I’ve never wanted anything in my life.”
Tears welled up in her eyes, caught in her throat and tightened her heart. He hadn’t said he loved her, had made no promises beyond the moment, but she realized he was being as honest with himself and with her as he knew how to be.
“I’ve never wanted anyone else but you, Peyt. Only you. Always you.” She surrendered herself to him, giving him the right to take her and make her his. It was all she’d ever wanted.
Taking her face in both hands, he drew her lips to his, kissing her with tender passion. She swayed toward him, slipping her arms around his waist, urging him closer. He ran his hands down her throat, across her shoulders and arms, then pulled her into his embrace, positioning her body intimately against his.
Their kiss deepened, intensifying until Tallie opened her mouth to give him entrance. He swept his hands over her body as if he longed to memorize each and every curve. His tongue plunged and stroked and tasted. Moaning with pleasure, she rubbed against him, seeking a closer contact, wanting to be a part of this big, overpowering man she loved.
Peyton lifted Tallie into his arms. She clung to him, her arms draped around his neck. Closing her eyes, she sighed deeply as he carried her out of the kitchen and down the hall to her bedroom. The door stood open, a lamp on the bedside table casting a warm, inviting glow across the room.
“I’ve had dreams about this, you know,” he admitted, laying her down on the plaid coverlet. “Laying you down, covering you with my body, stripping away your clothes, kissing every inch of—”
Reaching up, she covered his lips with her finger. “Lawyers talk too much.” She smiled at him when he looked into her eyes. “You don’t have to convince me. You’ve already got me.”
“Do you want less talk and more action, sugar?” Lying down beside her on the bed, he propped himself on his elbow, leaned over her and began to unbutton her shirt. “I have no idea what you like in a lover. Tell me what you want, Tallie, and whatever it is, I’ll do it.”
“I...I’m not sure.” Didn’t he know that she’d had no other lover, that he was the first and only man she’d ever loved? “All I know is that I want you, Peyt.”
“I’ll make it perfect for you, sugar. I promise.”
One by one, he removed the garments from her body. Her shirt. Her bra. His hands caressed, his lips consumed. Her jeans fell to the floor, followed by her panties. While he suckled her breasts, he eased his hands down her hips, lifting her up to meet the hard, aching part of him encased in briefs and slacks. He throbbed with desire, with the need to be buried deep inside this beautiful woman.
But he would not rush her. He’d promised to make it perfect for her, and that’s what he was going to do, even if it killed him in the process. He wanted their lovemaking to obliterate from her mind any experience that had come before, any man who’d ever known the pleasures of her body.
Tallie tugged his shirt free from his slacks, then with awkward fingers, she unbuttoned and removed the soft silk shirt from his body, tossing it on the floor. She ran her hands over his chest, his wide, hairy, heavily muscled chest. She slid her fingers into the thick mat of light brown hair that covered him from armpit to armpit, narrowing only slightly when it delved beneath his slacks.
She fumbled with his belt buckle, but couldn’t manage to release it. She groaned in frustration. Peyton covered her eager hands with his.
“Not yet, sugar.”
“But, Peyt...please.”
“You’re not ready yet.”
“I am.”
“You’re not hot enough, sugar. Not wet enough. Not hungry and hurting enough.” Sliding his hand between her legs, he sought and found her tiny nub of desire. When he petted her, she cried out, lifting herself up to meet his hand. “But you’ll be ready when I take you. You’ll be more than ready.”
Tallie grabbed for him. He took her hands, lifted them above her head and held them down. “I knew you’d be eager, that you’d go about loving the way you do everything else in life. Ah, Tallie, Tallie. My sweet, beautiful Tallie.”
He kissed her, forcefully and with great longing, plunging into her mouth, substituting this act for the more intimate one that he was deliberately postponing. When Tallie bucked up off the bed, rubbing herself against him, twining her legs around his thighs, Peyton felt himself tightening, a wildfire igniting inside him, burning him with his own passion.
He broke the kiss, nipping at her chin, her neck, the tip of her ear. “That’s it, my little heathen. Feel the need. Want me. Want me desperately.”
“I do,” she moaned when his mouth covered her breast, his lips pulling on the nipple, his tongue stroking her. “No, please...please...”
Tallie had no idea how long Peyton lingered over each tingling part of her body. She had lost track of time, even of reality. Her whole world consisted of nothing more than Peyton Rand and the delicious feelings his magic touch created within her.
Hotter and brighter and all-consuming, the fire of passion burned within him. He made love to Tallie as he had never made love to another woman, with all the desperate longing he’d held in check for so many years. He’d never known anything like this—and he knew he never would again, not with any other woman. Only with Tallie. His Tallie.
When he spread her legs and lifted her hips in his big hands, Tallie cried out, uncertain what was happening. And then his mouth touched her, and she melted. Hot and sweet and dripping with desire. Peyton brought her to the brink of completion. She clutched at his shoulders, her short nails biting into his flesh, grasping at his hard muscles. With one final stroke, he toppled her over the brink. Groaning, gasping and finally crying, Tallie trembled with release.
“You’re ready now, sugar.” With great urgency, he shed his slacks and briefs, kicking off his leather loafers and tossing his socks on the floor.
He hovered over her as satiation claimed her. “Peyton?”
“That’s only the beginning. Now I make you mine.” He kissed her quickly, with demanding force. “You want to be mine, don’t you, Tallie?”
“Yes. Oh, yes.”
With one deep, hard plunge he entered her. She cried out from the unexpected pain and the incredible feeling of completion. Peyton stopped, his whole body trembling with the effort to remain perfectly still.
“Tallie?”
She knew what he was asking her. If she admitted the truth, would he stop loving her? “Please don’t stop, don’t ever stop loving me.”
“I don’t want to hurt you, sugar.”
“You’ll hurt me if you stop, if you don’t make me yours.”
Slowly, with great tenderness, he moved deeper, then retreated. She clung to him, encouraging him with her touch. He delved in and out repeatedly, slowly and gently at first, then gradually increasing the speed and force.
He was fast losing control, but so was she. Tallie, his wild little heathen, took all that he gave her and returned full measure, asking for more, demanding every last ounce of strength and powe
r and manliness he possessed.
She tightened around him, grasping him to her, claiming all that he was. And he gave himself over to her, wanting to hold back, to wait, but unable to resist the overwhelming power she wielded over him.
Fast and hot and undeniable, her climax gripped her only moments after Peyton fell apart in her arms, his big body erupting in spasms of release. Trembling with passionate force, she clung to him, riding out the aftershocks, accepting every tiny remaining quiver of completion.
Sliding off her, onto the bed by her side, he gathered her into his arms, holding her to him with a possessiveness he’d never known. She was his. His woman. Now and forever.
“I love you, Peyt,” she whispered, her head resting on his shoulder, her lips against his neck. “I’ve never loved anyone but you.”
“I don’t deserve you, sugar. You’re too good, too honest for a man like me.”
Snuggling against him, she laid her hand on his chest, curling his chest hair around her fingers. “Oh, I think you just might deserve me. I have a feeling that the good Lord decided I was just what you need and that’s why he threw us together and kept us together all these years.”
“We’ll work out all the details of this relationship later, sugar. Right now, I don’t want to think anymore. All I want to do is feel.”
Tallie crawled over on top of him, rubbing against him like a sultry little kitten. “Do you feel that?”
Grasping her hips in his hands, he positioned her over his renewed arousal, lifting himself up and into her. “Do you feel that, sugar?”
She laughed aloud, glorying in the passion that flowed between them like a raging river out of bounds and way beyond human control.
Eight
Peyton lay with his back braced against the headboard, cushioned with two feather pillows. Tallie lay against him, her head snuggled to his side. He’d been watching her for quite some time, awed by her beauty and innocence, filled with emotions he’d never known he possessed. She was his now, as surely as he was hers. There could be no turning back, no running away, no denying that Tallie Bishop was a part of his life. No, not just a part of his life—she was a part of him.
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