by Diana Palmer
She held him to her, swallowing hard. She looked past his black hair. The pleasure was still pulsing in her satisfied body, but as reality slowly asserted itself, she remembered.
“Not even with that long-legged blonde from Jackson Hole?” she managed to say at his ear.
He burst out laughing.
It was the last thing she expected.
He lifted his head and looked down at her. He was still inside her. He lifted just a little to let her see how completely they were still joined.
“I wouldn’t know,” he whispered. “Because I never had sex with her. She was just a friend’s date at a cattle show I went to.” He brushed his mouth over hers. “I saw you coming out of the elevator. I had cold feet and I felt trapped. So I did something incredibly stupid.”
“Stupid.” She was only repeating him, because he was moving slowly and her body was catching fire.
“I pretended to be involved. I knew you’d run. I thought it was what I wanted. We’d get divorced and I’d be free. But I’m not free.” He moved again, watching her gasp. “And neither are you. We belong to each other so completely that even when we’re apart, we’re still together. And, too,” he said, “there’s this…”
He moved insistently, so that she began to arch up to him convulsively, her teeth clenched as pleasure bit into her like a vise. She cried out.
“You made me a whole man,” he breathed, kissing her. “And I made you a woman.”
“I was already a woman, I think,” she bit off, laughing through the pleasure.
“You were a virgin,” he said into her mouth. “Sweet and chaste and shy. I loved it. I’ll never forget how it felt, how you looked when you climaxed for the first time.” He groaned as he moved closer. “I want to do it over and over and watch you every time, as long as I live. As long as you live.” He pushed hard into her, his black eyes biting into her light brown ones. “I love you, Bodie. I love you!”
She tried to tell him, too, but the pleasure was so overwhelming that she could only cling to him and weep. It was the most exciting thing she’d ever done, and the sweetest. She went over a cliff and fell into the most explosive pleasure she’d experienced yet. Cane found his own fulfillment, but long after she’d had hers several times.
She wanted to talk to him, but all she could manage was an exhausted, “I love you so much.”
He buried his face in her throat. “I love you, too, baby. I’ll never stop.”
They fell asleep in the dazed aftermath, with food still sitting on plates in the kitchen.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
IT WAS AFTER MIDNIGHT when they woke up, showered and dragged into the kitchen to find food.
“However did you get in here?” Bodie asked, wearing his shirt while he wore his jeans and nothing else. He was so comfortable with her now that he didn’t mind letting her see his injury. It was a testament to his feelings for her.
“I showed them this.” He flashed his wedding band, and grinned. “I told them we’d had a fight but I wanted to make up. They just melted. Nice folks.”
“Very nice,” she agreed. She looked at him with wonder.
“I know,” he murmured deeply, sliding an arm around her waist to draw her to him. “You’re in awe of my bedroom skills.” He bent and kissed her. “Just think, I’ll even improve with practice.”
“We should practice all the time,” she whispered back, hugging him close.
“If we practice too much, the way we have tonight, we’ll have a small companion very soon.”
She blinked. “Companion?”
“What we’re doing is how people make babies, Bodie,” he teased.
She stared at him blankly. Then she remembered. She had no means of birth control and she was fairly certain that he hadn’t used it, either.
“Will it matter?” he asked, and seemed concerned.
She pressed close, shivering at the thought of a baby. Cane’s baby. “Oh, no,” she said fervently. “It won’t matter at all!”
He hugged her close. “A wife and a family. People who know me will faint at how easily I fit into that scenario.”
“I almost did faint. Imagine, having to undress a man!”
He chuckled. “I thought you did very well for a woman embarrassed out of her mind. But it had to start somewhere.”
“Yes.”
He kissed her forehead. “I made you steak and potatoes and even Brussels sprouts.” He looked over the top of her head and grimaced. “I expect it would kill us if we tried to eat it now.”
She laughed. “How about bacon and eggs and biscuits instead?”
“Lovely.”
She kissed him. “Coming right up.”
* * *
THEY ATE AND THEN WENT back to bed, but they were too tired for any more experimentation. In the morning they dressed and drove home to Catelow.
Morie was on the porch waiting when they walked up the steps, holding hands.
“No need to ask how things went,” she teased, grinning at them both.
They grinned back.
“No need at all,” Cane agreed. “I seem to be happily married.” He looked down at a radiant Bodie. “Imagine that.”
“It’s hard, but I’ll give it my best shot,” Morie said. “Come on in. Mavie’s been cooking all morning. She has a surprise for you.”
They walked into the kitchen and there, on the table, was a magnificent wedding cake, complete with a bride and groom on top.
“Mavie! It’s beautiful!” Bodie exclaimed.
“I know you had one at the fellowship hall, but it wasn’t the right kind,” she said, brushing back her hair with a floury hand. “I wanted you to have a proper one, with three layers and a bride and groom on top—not a sheet cake from the bakery.”
“We didn’t plan on a sheet cake,” Morie told them. “But everything went wrong.”
“You can say that again,” Cane replied heavily. “I helped mess it all up.”
Bodie hugged him. “You made it up to me. Stop flogging yourself.”
“I need ashes and sackcloth,” Cane murmured.
“You need a shovel and a toothbrush,” Bodie replied. “I’ve decided where I want to go on our honeymoon if I graduate.”
“You’ll graduate,” Cane assured her.
She sighed. “I hope. Anyway, there’s a special program in Colorado where you help established archaeologists in a dig.”
“I haven’t been on a dig in years,” he said. He shifted restlessly. “I can’t use a shovel anymore.”
“You don’t need to. You can use a trowel. And I happen to know that you’ve been doing some studying.”
Cane laughed. “Brushing up on bones,” he agreed.
“So you can help dig.”
He sighed. “You’re forcing me back into the world. I was doing a pretty good job of hiding from it.”
“Not allowed,” Bodie said, smiling up at him. “Not anymore.”
He bent and kissed her. “Okay, boss.”
She made a face at him.
Mavie picked up the cake and carried it into the dining room. Cane took Bodie’s hand in his and followed after her.
They took pictures with Morie’s digital camera and then they sat down and proceeded to make inroads into the cake along with cups of French vanilla coffee.
“This is wonderful,” Bodie exclaimed. “Absolutely delicious,” she murmured as she put another bite of cake into her mouth.
“No, I’m delicious,” Cane admonished with his fork. “The cake is good.”
She laughed. So did the others.
Mallory and Tank came in a few minutes later, and noted the sudden intimacy of Cane and Bodie.
“Can we assume that you’ve made up?” Mallory asked with pursed lips.
“Yes, you can,” Cane assured him. “We’re going to graduate from college with honors and then we’re having a honeymoon digging up old dead things in holes of dirt.”
Bodie hit him. “We’re going on a very dignified archaeol
ogical expedition,” she corrected. She grinned. “Where we’ll dig up old dead things in dirt holes.”
They laughed. Cane hugged her close.
“Whatever you want, honey,” he said, and his eyes were possessive and dark with love and pride.
“You remember that,” she told him, but she was grinning.
* * *
SHE DID GRADUATE, magna cum laude, and the whole family drove up to Billings for the graduation exercises. Afterward, with Bodie in her cap and gown, clutching her diploma, Cane strolled along with her to speak to her favorite professors and meet some of her classmates. At least one of the women gave him a speaking invitation, but he turned away without even looking at her again. He had eyes only for his wife, he told Bodie, and she was more certain of him now than she’d ever expected to be. He was a man in love.
They went to Colorado for two weeks, digging by day and loving by night. When they got back home, they were stiff and sore, but they told the family that it was the most fun they’d had together so far. Even if it was digging up bones in dirt holes.
* * *
WILL WAS CONVICTED OF identity theft and trafficking in pornography, including exploitation of a minor, along with his friend Larry. He was also indicted for theft by wrongful taking or disposition of property for hiding Bodie’s mother’s will. The two men were sentenced to several years in prison. Bodie had the deed to her family home and property, and she found a nice elderly couple who needed a place to live and let them stay rent-free.
Her mother’s heirloom jewelry turned up on her dresser early one morning. She took it in to the breakfast table and showed it to Cane. “I pawned it,” she stammered. “I meant to go and get it back…”
He pulled her close and kissed her. “One of the cowboys saw you pawn it. Even back then, I knew I couldn’t let you turn loose of something so important. I bought it and swore the pawn shop owner to secrecy. I was waiting for the right time to give it to you. I think this is the right time.”
He said it with a strange, wondrous look in his eyes. As he held hers, his hand went to her flat belly. “Isn’t it time you told me, Bodie?” he said as he kissed her.
She gasped. “I only did the test this morning,” she exclaimed, gaping up at him.
He smiled. “I saw the test in the trash can. I can read colors on a box, too, you know. Come on. Tell me.”
She took a deep breath. Her face was radiant. “We made a baby,” she whispered.
He drew her close, stared down into her wide eyes and bent and kissed her with breathless tenderness. “We made love.” He touched her belly gently. “Real love.”
She shivered and pressed close. “It’s scary, to be so happy.”
He kissed the top of her head. “Yes. But wonderful.”
“Utterly wonderful.” She laughed. “I have to go to the doctor, to make sure. But I just know.”
“Me, too.” He hugged her close. “I’ve been a lot of trouble,” he said against her soft hair. “Was I worth it?”
“Worth every tear,” she assured him. She looked up into his black eyes. “I’m so proud of you. Not one wrecked bar in months!”
He flushed a little. “Yes, well, I don’t want to embarrass you.”
She beamed. “Is that why?”
He shrugged. “That and the fact that I finally have a therapist I can relate to. I guess I’m learning to cope, after all.”
“Coping beautifully,” she whispered.
“Oh, so you like how I cope, do you?” he mused, his eyes twinkling as they met hers.
“You cope in so many…unusual ways,” she said, clearing her throat and flushing a little.
He chuckled. “Blame my wicked youth.”
She leaned into his arms and laid her cheek on his chest. “I didn’t think it would be like that. I mean, I didn’t know it kept getting better.”
“Better and better, every day.” He sighed. His arm contracted. “You’re the best thing that ever happened to me, sweetheart,” he whispered. “And I love you madly.”
“I love you madly.”
He bent and kissed her with exquisite tenderness. “I think…”
“…that damned rooster is going to end up in a stewpot, and I’ll put her in there with him!”
Cane and Bodie looked at each other with shock as a tall, dark man with wavy hair came storming into the house. He was wearing jeans and boots and a suit and a wildly expensive Stetson.
“Oh. Sorry.” He stopped, looking self-conscious, and smiled. “I thought Mal said my sister was in here.”
“She is,” Morie said, coming out of the kitchen with a cup of coffee. “Cort! I didn’t think you were coming until Thursday.”
She hugged her brother.
“I wasn’t, but the damned chicken spurred me and I left town so I wouldn’t get arrested for assault.”
“Oh, Cort.” Morie laughed. “Is that rooster still after you?”
“You can laugh,” he muttered. “The damned thing chased me into my own damned house! On my property!”
“Can’t you just catch it and eat it?” Cane chuckled.
“Chance would be a fine thing,” Cort grumbled. “I had every ranch hand on the place chasing the stupid rooster. Jack fell into the water trough. Bill got kicked by a bull when he ran through the corral without looking. Andy got the worst of it. He jumped at the rooster and landed in a big pile of…well, it was bad.”
Morie died laughing. “Poor Andy!”
“So I came up here early,” Cort said, then grimaced. “I hope you don’t mind if I stay for a while. I’m not going home until I get over it.”
“Maybe a big chicken hawk will come by and save you,” Bodie suggested.
“No such luck.”
“Can’t you just sue the owner?” Cane asked.
“The owner is a little cowgirl with only her great-aunt for company, on a miserable farm that’s going bankrupt,” Cort confessed. “You can’t get blood out of a turnip.” He sighed. “Even so, the neighborhood loves her. I’d never hear the end of it. Dad would lose business.”
“Dad said you should just shoot the rooster,” Morie reminded him.
“I tried!” Cort exclaimed. “I fired at point-blank range five times and missed every damned time! When the pistol was empty, the damned rooster charged me. I swear to God he was laughing when I finally got into the house. I didn’t even have a stick to fight him off with!”
Bodie and Cane burst out laughing.
“You’ll be safe here,” Morie assured him. “I only have hens. Well, I do have a rooster, but his wings are clipped and he’s got no spurs since last week. Honest. All he can do is threaten you. Think of him as a toothless lion.”
“Well, that’s a relief. I may never leave,” he added.
“You’re welcome to stay,” Morie replied. “How about some cake?”
“How about some coffee to go with it?” he pleaded. “I’ve had a long week.”
“My pleasure!”
* * *
CANE AND BODIE SAT ON THE front porch in the swing later that evening, holding hands and watching the fireflies dart back and forth in the yard. All the flowers were blooming. The smell of them was subtle and sweet in the warm night air.
“Did you ever think you’d marry me, way back when we first met?” Bodie asked with a smile.
“Actually, I thought about it a lot,” he confessed surprisingly. “But I wasn’t coping with the war wound, or the drinking, and you were so young.” He looked down at her. “I didn’t realize at the time that you were an old soul in a young body.” He bent and kissed her. “In hindsight, maybe I’m too young for you,” he teased.
She kissed him back and sighed. “I never expected to be so happy.”
“Honestly, honey, neither did I.” He drew her close. “You and a baby to look forward to. And all the sweet times ahead.”
She smiled and pressed close. “Yes. All the sweet times ahead.”
In the distance, there was the sound of cars going al
ong on the highway past the last fences. But all Bodie heard was the sound of Cane’s heart, beating sure and strong at her ear. She closed her eyes and smiled, safe in the arms of her fierce Wyoming cowboy, tame at last.
* * * * *
If you love Diana Palmer, don’t miss MIDNIGHT RIDER, a captivating historical romance set in turn-of-the-century Texas. Turn the page for a preview…coming soon from Harlequin HQN!
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CHAPTER ONE
Southwestern Texas, 1900
IN ALL THE WORLD there was nothing Bernadette Barron loved more than her garden, despite the asthma that sometimes sent her running from it in the spring months. There were plenty of flowers in southwestern Texas, and many occasions to fill her father’s elaborate Victorian home with them. Colston Barron owned at least half of Valladolid County, which was midway between the prosperous city of San Antonio and the smaller city of Del Rio on the Mexican border.
He had done extremely well for an Irish immigrant who got his start working on building the railroads. Now, thirty-three years after his arrival in the United States, he owned two. He had money to burn, but little family to spend it on.
Despite his wealth, there was one thing still lacking in his life—acceptance and respect from elite society. His rude Irish brogue and lack of conventional manners isolated him from the prominent families of the day, a situation he was determined to change. And Bernadette was going to be the means of it.
His beloved wife, Eloise, had died of an infection just after giving birth to Bernadette. His eldest daughter had died in childbirth. His only son, married with a small child, lived back East, worked as a fisherman and kept contact with his father to a minimum. Albert was in disgrace because he’d married for love, refusing the social match his father had planned for him. Only Bernadette was left at home now. Her brother could barely support his own small family, so running to him was not an option unless she was able to work, which was impossible because her health was too precarious to allow her to hold down a job, such as teaching. Meanwhile, she had to cope with her father’s fanatical social aspirations.