“Peyt?”
Once inside, he carried her to the sofa, set her down and then on bended knee took her left hand in his. “Tallulah Bishop. I want you to be my wife.” Grappling inside the pocket of his dusty, torn coat, Peyton brought out a jeweler’s box and snapped open the lid. A dazzling four-carat diamond winked at Tallie from its velvet bed.
“Couldn’t you find me a bigger one?” Touching the sparkling gem, Tallie laughed.
“Is it too big, sugar?” Removing the ring from the box, Peyton held it in front of her. “I almost bought something really big, but I thought about how tiny your fingers are.”
“It’s beautiful, Peyt.” She held out her hand for him to place the ring on her finger. “I want to marry you. I want to be your wife, but I need to know... you have to tell me—”
“I love you, Tallie.” He eased the diamond onto her finger, then lifted her hand to his lips. “I’ve never loved anyone the way I love you.”
“Oh, Peyt. I had such a perfect evening planned. Steaks and good wine and me.” She clutched the neckline of her sundress.
“You were pretty sure of me, weren’t you, sugar?” Peyton grinned, a sense of sublime joy overwhelming him. He couldn’t understand why it had taken him so long to admit his feelings, to accept the fact that no other woman on earth would have suited him half as well as Tallie. In his heart, he knew that she was his salvation. With her pure, compassionate, crusading soul as a guide for his Rand breeding, he no longer feared that he would repeat his father’s mistakes.
“I wasn’t sure of you, Peyt.” Tallie took his face in her hands, pulling him close. “I only knew how much I loved you, and I was counting on your being smart enough to realize that I’m the best thing that could have happened to you.” She kissed him. Quick and hard. “Even Harold Glover agrees with Donna that I’m an asset to you and not a liability.”
Peyton lifted Tallie onto his lap, gripping the back of her head with his hand. “I’ve come to realize something that you should know, Tallie. You’re far more important to me than anything else in this world, and that includes a political career. I’d still want to marry you and spend the rest of my life with you, even if it meant I’d never have a chance at becoming governor.”
“You love me that much?” Tears trickled down Tallie’s cheeks.
“I love you that much.” He kissed her teardrops. “I just don’t know why it’s taken me so long to come to my senses.”
“Because you’ve always been scared of me.” Tallie began unbuttoning his shirt. “You’ve wanted me for just about as long as I’ve wanted you, but you were afraid to admit it.”
Leaning forward on the sofa, Peyton discarded his soiled jacket, then lay back against the cushions, resting his head on the sofa arm while Tallie snuggled between his legs and continued undressing him.
“I used to catch myself fantasizing about you in the middle of the day when I was trying to work,” he told her, raising his shoulders up where she could remove his shirt. “I’d get so horny, I’d turn into a raving madman and make life hell for everyone around me the rest of the day.”
“What was I doing in your fantasies?” Tallie undid his belt.
Peyton grinned. “You were forcing me to have sex with you. I’d protest, state all the reasons why we shouldn’t make love, but you wouldn’t stop. You’d undress me and have your way with me.”
“Mmm-hmm.” Tallie glanced down at the huge diamond on her finger, the evening light from the windows touching it with a hazy pink glow, creating muted sparkles. “Since you’ve fulfilled my most cherished fantasy by telling me you love me and asking me to be your wife, I think I should fulfill your fantasy.”
“I think that’s fair,” Peyton said.
“You, Mr. Rand, have absolutely no say-so in this. I’m going to strip you naked.” She jerked down the zipper of his pants. “Then I’m going to kiss and lick and taste every inch of that big, hard body of yours. I’m going to drive you wild and when you think you can’t take any more, I’m going to...” Lying down atop his body, her breasts pressing into his chest, she whispered in his ear precisely what she intended to do to him.
“Tallie Bishop, a lady shouldn’t know such language.” Peyton slid his hands up underneath her dress, caressing the backs of her legs as he eased upward to clutch her buttocks.
“I’m no lady, Peyt. You should know that. I’m a woman who grew up with three very outspoken big brothers who usually forgot to watch what they said around me.” Tallie licked his throat. Circling first one nipple with the tip of her tongue, she ran her hand down inside his open slacks as she paid equal attention to its mate.
“For someone who was a virgin a week ago, you sure have learned fast.” Peyton pushed her down against his arousal.
“You make me want to learn everything there is to know about lovemaking.” Tallie grabbed his pants, tugging on them until he raised his hips so she could slip them down and over his legs.
“What other words and phrases did you overhear your big brothers saying?” Peyton kicked his slacks onto the floor.
Tallie blushed. “You like it when I tell you what I want to do to you?”
“I like it when you look at me, touch me, kiss me and when you make love with me.” Peyton grabbed her, pulling her to him, taking her mouth with complete loving passion.
When the kiss ended, Tallie lay on top of him, her breathing ragged as she listened to his wildly beating heart. “I love you so much, Peyt. Sometimes I love you so much, it hurts.”
“I know what you mean, sugar. I never knew I could love anybody, want anybody, need anybody the way I do you.” Lifting her skirt, he hooked his fingers inside the elastic of her bikini panties and eased them downward. “I know it’s crazy, but...I need you, Tallie. I need you like I need air to breathe.”
Her dress flew off over her head, landing in a pink cloud on the wooden floor, her strapless bra following. Then Peyton’s briefs joined the heap.
Tallie kept her promise, learning every hard, masculine inch of Peyton’s body, stopping to savor the most delicious parts, driving him to the brink of madness as her untutored mouth learned one of the age-old, courtesans’ techniques for pleasuring a man.
By the time Tallie drew the last drops of control from Peyton’s body, he toppled her over onto the floor, both of them frenzied with an elemental hunger that bordered on insanity.
“You’re wild with wanting it, aren’t you, little heathen?” Peyton lifted her hips in his hands, spreading her legs as he prepared a place for himself. “You’re hurting as much as I am.”
“I’m dying, Peyt, dying. Take me. Please. Now!” She grabbed his shoulders when he rammed into her, bending her knees, clutching him around the waist with her legs, lifting herself to meet each powerful lunge.
In a tumult of overwhelming, uncontrolled lust, man took woman and woman took man. They mated in nature’s procreative dance, coupling with the same red-hot drive with which lovers have exchanged pleasures since time immemorial. Tallie and Peyton made love, the rich fullness of their animal natures enhanced by the beauty of the true love in their hearts and the timeless passion in their souls.
In the moment of completion, their bodies slick with sweat, they cried out their fulfillment as ecstasy claimed them.
Peyton leaned over and kissed Tallie, then lifted her to her feet. “Right now, I can barely walk,” he told her. “But I know this wasn’t enough. I’ll never get enough of you.”
“Let’s go to bed.” Tallie slipped her arm around his waist. “I have satin sheets on my bed.”
“You hussy.”
“When it comes to you, Peyton Rand, I am a hussy.”
“Don’t ever change, sugar. I like everything about you just the way it is.”
When they fell into the bed, Tallie snuggled against Peyton, her hand resting on his chest, her fingers twisting into his hair. “Oh, we’ll both change, and the changes will be good for us. But there’s one thing that will never change.”
“What’s that?” He cupped her naked hip in his hand.
“I’m always going to give you a hard time.”
Peyton burst into laughter, dragging Tallie off the bed and over on top of him. “Is that a promise?”
Gliding her hand downward, circling him with her strong little hand, Tallie whispered what she intended doing to him, then laid her head against his heart and vowed loudly, “That is a promise.”
Epilogue
Six months pregnant, a radiantly beautiful Tallulah Rand held the bible on which her husband laid his hand while being sworn in as the new governor of Tennessee. It was a precious moment that would live in Tallie’s heart forever. Together, she and Peyton had planned and worked and achieved their dream.
Never had two such mismatched lovers been so perfect for each other. Even though each of them had retained the essence of their personalities after they married, they had each changed in subtle ways as they learned to compromise. Peyton had helped Tallie learn to think before acting, and she had taught him to trust his own emotions.
When the swearing-in ceremony ended, Peyton drew Tallie into his arms, kissing her boldly, there before God, Spence and his family, their friends, their acquaintances and, via television, the entire state of Tennessee.
“Welcome to Nashville, Mrs. Rand,” Peyton said, nuzzling her ear. “Did you ever think we’d make it?”
“I never doubted for a moment that you would become governor. This was your destiny.”
“It would have all been meaningless without you, sugar.” Peyton led Tallie down the steps and through the crowd of well-wishers and reporters.
“Yeah, well, I’m just glad my big brother had the good sense to marry you, Tallie,” Spence said as he put his arm around Pattie, and their family followed Peyton and Tallie toward the waiting limousine. “Now I don’t have to worry about him turning into just another crooked politician.”
Speaking loud enough for only those closest to him to hear, Peyton said, “That’s not something I have to worry about as long as Tallie’s at my side. This little heathen has kept me on my toes since the day I met her, and she’s still nothing but trouble for me. You wouldn’t believe all the things she expects me to accomplish in my first four years as governor.”
“I have no doubt that you’ll accomplish everything she’s expecting of you,” Spence said.
“I’m sure going to try. I never want to let Tallie down, not as long as I live.”
Together, Peyton and Tallie turned to face the reporters, smiling and waving and speaking to the ones they recognized, calling them by name.
The evening papers would show two pictures side by side on the front page. One of an adoring Tallulah Rand watching her husband being sworn in as governor. The other of the new governor and his first lady waving at the crowd, one of the governor’s arms draped lovingly around his wife’s shoulders, his other arm crossing her waist, his hand resting possessively on her round stomach.
* * * * *
ISBN: 978-1-4592-8647-4
Nothing but Trouble
Copyright © 1994 by Beverly Beaver
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