by Sharon Sala
“What the hell are you doing?” he growled, as he swelled instantly beneath the zipper of his equally wet Levi’s.
He tangled his hands in the wet fall of her hair, tilting her head until he could see directly into her eyes. Wide, wild, and green, they stared back at him in aching confusion.
“Lily?” The question was a caution and a prayer, all at the same time.
Lily turned her head, looked over her shoulder at the ancient iron bedstead and the pillow-ticking mattress taunting her from the shadows of the roomy cellar and then back up at Case’s face. She leaned back, moving away from his hold just enough to allow breathing room.
It was a mistake.
Her nightgown was soaking wet, and after being plastered against Case, was clinging to her body like wet tissue paper. Every lush curve and dark valley of Lily’s body was there for Case to see. She gasped and started to pull the blanket back up around her in embarrassment when a harsh grunt from Case and the touch of his hand made her stop.
He felt like he had the day the cow had butted him in the stomach. Only this time it was Lily who had him down and helpless. He was hard and aching and to the point of insanity just from looking at the beauty of Lily beneath the wet gown.
Lily saw his hand suspended between the space separating them, unmoving...waiting for a sign... uncertain which way this night would go. She made the decision for them both. It was the only thing she could do.
She stepped forward, letting his hand fall against her breast, and laid her head against his heartbeat.
“Oh God!” Case muttered. “Lily, do you know what you’re doing? In about three seconds, I’m not going to be able to think.”
“Don’t think,” she whispered, as she leaned sideways and flipped off the flashlight. “Just feel!”
Her whispered command was not lost on Case as he swept her into his arms and in one long stride, had her on her back, on the bed, and beneath his wet, throbbing body.
“Lily...Lily...Lily,” he whispered, maddened by the feel of her softness, aching from the need to bury himself in her warmth. “Touch me, love. Help me love you.”
Lily’s hands slipped out from between them as she dug her fingers into the taut band of muscles across his shoulders and arched her lower body into him, desperate to ease the ache between her legs that was driving sanity out into the night with the storm.
Thunder rumbled and the wind sucked through the air vent of the cellar overhead as Lily gave her heart to the man above her. Tonight, no matter what the cost, no matter how wrong, she would not deny this wild need she had to belong to him. If only for a moment, if only for a night, she would have Case Longren as no one ever had. She would make him forget that she was less than perfect to look at. She would be the perfect lover for the perfect man.
Case buried his face in the valley between her breasts and moaned, trying to maintain a level of civilized behavior when all he wanted to do was lose himself in the tempting woman moving in a slow taunt beneath him. He heard her moan, and felt her sigh as she moved her legs just enough to allow him space between them, and then he was lost.
Case grasped the neck of her nightgown, intending to pull it upward and off, when Lily slid her hand off his shoulder and down past his waist into the narrow space between their hips. Her fingers splayed across him, feeling his ache as vividly as if it were her own, and the moan that came up her throat was his undoing.
His hand tightened at the neck of the garment, its fragile fabric weak and pliant from the rain. He yanked downward, splitting it asunder by the lightning quick motion. Lily’s breasts came free beneath his chest.
“Case,” Lily whispered, “make love to me. Love me, if only for tonight, love me.”
“Not just tonight,” he groaned, as his mouth found the aching bud of her breast. “Forever.”
She was sweet and warm, and wet, and she was driving Case wild. Her hands touched, her body moved, and her mouth pleaded and tasted until he was uncertain whether he’d actually made it to the cellar after all. He felt himself lifted and he felt himself fall. She was as wild and unchained as the storm above them, and Case knew that the waiting was almost over.
Lily’s body was humming beneath his fingers, the blood racing through her veins as the madness he’d started overtook and then swallowed her whole. She tried more than once to speak, beg for an end to the exquisite torture of lying beneath Case’s body, but each time she’d opened her mouth, it had taken all of her breath just to get past the touch of his mouth and hands and the wicked magic he was working on her heart.
When he’d moved away only long enough to peel off his wet jeans, Lily had been stunned by the loss she’d experienced. In the instant it had taken for him to slide back upon her body, she’d been overwhelmed by the feeling of homecoming she experienced when he’d wrapped her in his arms and claimed her with a kiss that shook her soul. Nothing in her life had prepared her for Case.
His body was hard, his manhood a constant throbbing ache. Case shuddered, and Lily responded with one silky movement that slipped him down and in place so smoothly he nearly lost control right then and there. And the whisper Lily sent across his mouth finished him. Now there would be no turning back.
“I’m on fire, Case,” Lily begged, as she moved beneath him. “Everything hurts.”
“Not for long, love,” he promised, and nearly lifted Lily from the bed as he took positive possession of his L.A. woman.
The motion was fluid, the movement unbearable because for a heartbeat he stayed motionless, allowing her body to adjust to his presence. Lily began to shake, suddenly aware of how far she’d gone, and the distance yet to go, and began to cry from the joy, softly at first and then frantically as Case slowly moved within her.
Everything came too fast and then not fast enough. His body taught, his body teased, and then his body took her up and over the whirling maelstrom of the storm outside and into a storm of their own that left them both shaking and weak, lost in the quiet aftermath of passion’s tempest.
Soft whispered words of love, endearments so special Lily knew that she’d die before she ever heard anything so sweet again, and gentle caresses so tender it brought tears to her eyes were coming from Case to Lily with love.
She buried her face in his shoulder, digging her nails into his back in an effort to deny what had to happen next. Soon she would have to get up and face him, knowing that what he’d held in the darkness would be less in the light.
Lily had no doubt that Case loved her. What had just transpired between them could not have resulted solely from lust. But it had been in the dark. Lily couldn’t bring herself to believe that he would have worshipped her or her body as well had there been light by which to make love. How could he make love with so much beauty to one so ugly? Lily was convinced she was right. She had to be. Distance and distrust were her only protection against the pain of rejection.
The wind was dying down, the hail had ceased, and it sounded as if the rain had lessened. Case leaned forward, cupped Lily’s face in the darkness as surely as if there were light all around them, and ran his tongue down the thin line of scar across her cheek, letting it slide the full length of the healed cut before slipping it sideways and into her mouth, relishing the shocked “O” her lips made at his audacious action. He made one swift survey of the tasty sweetness of her mouth before withdrawing with a sigh of regret.
“Sounds like the worst of the storm has passed. I’d better get dressed and check. There may not be a house to go back to, love.”
“Oh no!” Lily gasped, as she felt around in the darkness for the remnants of her nightgown. She hadn’t envisioned the possible consequences of such a storm.
“It wouldn’t matter,” Case said quietly, as he stepped into his Levi’s and boots and then felt around for the flashlight he’d left on the shelf. “I have you. That’s the only thing I don’t want to lose. Everything else can be replaced but you, my Lily, and don’t you ever forget it.”
Case switched o
n the light, turned it toward the bed and Lily, and watched the startled expression she wore change into one of quiet acceptance.
She dropped the edge of nightgown she’d started to pull over herself to hide her nudity, and instead, propped herself on one elbow and lay silently beneath the glow of the flashlight as a woman who knows her man. She started to turn away that most hated side of her face when the look she saw in Case’s eyes stopped her thought. Instead she tilted her head back, letting her honeyed tangle of hair fall across her shoulders and back down onto the bed, daring him to stare at the imperfection.
Case’s hands shook as he held the flashlight, and knew an instant of desire so strong it was as if they’d never made love. He started to unsnap the Levi’s he’d just fastened and crawl back into the bed beside her when Duff’s anxious voice and the thump of his boots on the cellar door startled them both. It sent Lily grabbing for her torn nightgown and the wet blanket on the cellar floor.
He helped her cover herself until no one could tell that she’d just been sweetly ravished, placing one last kiss at the worry on her face. He stepped between Lily and the doorway just as Duff yanked back the door, and he shielded her from sight as he answered Duff’s anxious plea.
“We’re just fine,” he said, as he saw Duff peer down into the shadowy depths of the cellar. “Everyone else okay?”
“Yep,” Duff answered, “we went into the old barn. Not a scratch on a soul.”
Case knew that the men always took shelter in one of his dad’s older outbuildings. The lower level of the barn had been built into the side of a hill and served as an emergency shelter from these storms.
“We’re fine, boss,” Duff repeated. “But I ain’t so sure about the stable roof. Grab your light and come with me. The rain’s about over and I got the men out checking on stuff now.”
“Be right there,” Case answered. “I just want to make sure Lily is safely inside the house first.”
“Sure thing,” Duff answered, and left the cellar door open as he hurried away into the night.
Case started to turn around when Lily’s arms came from behind his back and wrapped around his waist. He felt her head against the middle of his back as she whispered softly into the shadows surrounding them.
“I wish this storm had never passed,” she said sadly.
Case turned in her arms and tilted her head up to face him.
Lily stared into blue so hot and wild she started to shake.
“Honey, it’s just started,” he promised, as he bent down and took the breath right out of her body with a kiss that sealed the pledge of his words.
Chapter 8
“Sleep,” Case had ordered, after bringing her back into the house and carrying her safely over the blanket of hail that the storm had left as a reminder of its passing.
And she had...like the dead. Lily never even knew when Case returned from checking storm damage with Duff. She’d abandoned the torn nightgown where it had fallen, shakily pulled on some old, comfortable sweats, and crawled back between the covers.
Next to the last thing she remembered before falling asleep was that she was glad she’d kept taking birth control, because tonight she’d completely lost control. And the last thing she remembered before her eyes closed was how she’d felt when Case had taken total possession of her body...replete...and complete. It was something wonderful on which to dream.
Much later, the smell of freshly brewed coffee drifted down the hallway and into Lily’s bedroom. She wrinkled her nose, turned over on her back and sleepily opened one eye just to see if she was dreaming. Sunlight stared her straight in the face, and Lily nearly fell out of bed, shocked by the sight of so much day.
“Oh no!” Lily moaned, as she glanced at the digital clock on her bedside table. Its little red numbers flashing over and over like a neon sign told her that sometime in the night the power had gone off and her alarm had failed to ring.
She made a run for the bathroom, and less than a minute later was out of her room and down the hall, still dressed in the sweats she’d slept in, heading for the kitchen with her hair flying and shoes in hand.
She didn’t know what she’d expected to see, but it wasn’t Case standing barefoot, wearing jeans and a blue Western shirt that was unsnapped and untucked. The men were nowhere in sight. There was no one but Case, nursing a cup of coffee and staring out of the kitchen window with a frown on his face.
“I overslept,” she mumbled, as he swerved around at her entrance.
“I know,” he said softly, set his coffee down and came toward her, his bare feet making tiny pat-pat sounds on the red-tiled floor.
Lily didn’t know how to act. She’d never had to face “morning afters” before. She needn’t have worried. Case’s smile swept over her from head to toe just as he gathered her into his arms and pulled her off her feet.
“Good morning, Lily Catherine,” he whispered.
He bent down and kissed her flushed cheeks, one after the other, and then moved to the tempting sweetness of her mouth, savoring the lingering remnants of her peppermint mouthwash.
Lily had never before had morning coffee in quite so desirable a fashion. But the taste of it on Case’s mouth as he nipped at the bottom of her lip sent a jolt of adrenaline into her system that no amount of caffeine could have ever duplicated.
Lily was torn between reciprocating and retreating. She didn’t know whether to let what had happened last night be the beginning or the end. She knew what she wanted, she just didn’t know if it was wise. She’d been hurt too badly before to trust her heart this quickly again.
The moment they’d kissed, Case felt her withdrawal. A knot of anger clutched in the pit of his stomach. He set her back down on her feet and released his hold on her shoulders, piercing her guilty stare with icy shards of blue fire.
“Don’t do this, Lily,” he growled. “Not after last night. You can’t send a man to heaven with one hand and yank him to hell with the other.”
His words hurt, but Lily knew he was justified. She remained silent and watched him turn away from her in disgust.
“I’ll be out most of the day,” he muttered, as he turned around, unwilling for her to see the pain on his face. “Just keep a pot of stew or beans on the stove. Nothing fancy. The men will come to eat in shifts. We’ll be cleaning up most of the day.”
The storm! Lily was shocked that she’d just remembered. So much had happened between them last night that she’d nearly forgotten the fierce winds and the rain and hail.
“Was there much damage?” she asked.
“Damage?” He shoved his hand angrily through his hair, shoving its inky black, shower-damp style completely out of order. “Hell, yes, there was damage! All kinds of things were torn up last night. All kinds of things.”
He left her with a hard stare and the cryptic remark that Lily suspected had nothing at all to do with the damage resulting from the storm. She knew Case was referring to what had happened between them. And, with her reluctance to commit herself to a relationship, she’d just torn the first fragile bonds of trust that had been forming. In spite of her fears and her need to protect herself, she wasn’t so certain that it had been the right thing to do.
She heard Case go up the stairs and before long, come back down again, this time booted and ready. Lily started through the kitchen toward the front of the house, intent on catching him—for what reason, she hadn’t decided—but it was too late. She got nothing but a backside view of his ramrod straight shoulders as he slapped his black Stetson on his head and slammed the door shut behind him.
Lily pressed shaky fingers to her lips, intent on stopping their tremble, but it was no use. Tears squeezed past her lashes anyway, running in guilty tracks down the sides of her face. She pressed her palms against her cheeks, bitterly swiping at the tears of regret and made her way back toward her room. She had to get dressed and get busy. It was going to be a long day.
* * *
Noon had come and gone and the day was gr
owing warmer by the minute. She couldn’t believe that the night before it had been cold enough to rain baseballsize chunks of frozen ice; less than twelve hours later it was warm enough for short sleeves. Oklahoma weather was one for the books.
Lily screwed the lid down on the large thermos she’d filled with iced tea, grabbed a big sack of freshly baked oatmeal cookies and started out the back door of the house. The farther she walked away from the house, the more evidence she saw of the storm’s devastating aftermath.
She knew that they’d been lucky in one respect. There had been a tornado. That much had been con firmed by several of the men who’d seen it coming across the prairie, but at the last minute its tail had pulled back up into the clouds and passed over the ranch house with a checkerboard hop. It was the strong side winds and the hail that had done the most damage.
Anywhere Lily looked she could see missing shingles, panels of tin from the barn roof wrapped around fence posts, and broken tree branches and leaves. Several of the windows on one side of the house had been cracked or broken. Duff’s blue pickup truck had a windshield shattered from blowing debris, and a long section of fence was down along the driveway. A wall from a small outbuilding had blown across it and been dragged far enough that it had snapped the top two strands of barbed wire.
Men were everywhere. For the moment, roundup was forgotten as they tried to put the Bar L back into working order.
Lily walked toward the barns where the largest number of men were working. Duff was the first one to see her coming and waved a hello and a happy grin as he spied her carrying refreshments.
“I hope it’s wet and I hope it’s cold,” he said, as Lily handed him the thermos and a handful of paper cups.
Pete dug into the sack, grabbed a couple of the spicy cookies for himself and then passed the bag around as the men gratefully took a break and poured themselves a cup of the iced tea to go with their snack.
“Where’s Case?” Lily finally asked. She suspected that he was purposefully ignoring her.
