Darling Annie

by Raine Cantrell

  “Please, Kell, take me home.”

  He closed the distance between them, his hands fitted to her slender waist, and he started to lift her, only to place his lips and tongue on the tender flesh revealed by the tear at her neckline. She trembled, whether from fear or desire he didn’t know, didn’t care. “Run, Annie,” he whispered once more, as the sudden snorting and stampings of the restless horses brought his head up.

  Annie touched his cheek. “I can’t run anymore, Kell. I don’t think I want to.”

  “Then I’m taking you”—his breathing was suddenly labored as he fought a battle he was already losing—“home.”

  Chapter 17

  On the silent ride home, cradled in Kell’s arms, surrounded by his warmth, Annie tried to untangle the emotions the last hour had raised. She didn’t want the time to think, she didn’t want the desire to cool, but Kell made no move to kiss her into a swirl of heated passion that allowed no room for thought, only feelings.

  It was only as they rounded the corner of the boardinghouse that he spoke. “Did any of them hurt you?”

  He drew rein and slid from the horse before she managed to answer him. “No. Not the way you mean.”

  Kell lifted her down, deliberately letting her slide tight to his body, letting her feel how aroused he was.

  “I can’t promise I won’t. I want you. Too much to have much control left.”

  Annie tried, truly tried to think of all the good advice the doves had given her about seducing a man. Kell trailed kisses down her cheek, nuzzling the underside of her jaw. Blood seemed to rush, heated and thick, to where his lips lightly pressed. Honesty was all Annie could muster.

  “Kell, I’ve never been with a man.”

  She watched his head rise, slowly, as if he were unsure of what she had said. Annie wished the dark away, needing to see his face, wanting to know what his eyes would reveal.

  His hand cupped her cheek, tilting her face up. “I’ve always liked anticipating my pleasures, Annie.” His forehead dropped forward to touch hers. “Didn’t anyone,” he said, his voice lowered to a sensual softness, “ever explain to you that the primitive male enjoys being the first?”

  “First?”

  “First, Annie.”

  Scattered thoughts rushed together. “Are you a primitive male?”

  “I’m getting there, darlin’.” Kell moved quickly and scooped her up in his arms. “Maybe I’ve always been one. Then again,” he noted, heading for the back door, “maybe it’s you who has me feeling this way.”

  Inside the kitchen, Kell set her down and started for the lamp that Fawn had left lit. He glanced at Annie, the nervous way she smoothed out the wrinkles in the cloth, the jerky moves setting the tin she had carried first one way, then another.

  “We should talk, Kell.”

  “Not now, darlin’.”

  Her hands stilled and his gaze rose to the rapid rise and fall of her breasts to the flush that colored her cheeks. It would be easy to seduce her, he could almost feel her need to have that from him, but not this time. Annie had to come to him on her own. He wanted no recriminations later. And from the hints that Pockets let fall, he gathered Ruby and the other doves had given Annie one hell of an education. He had promised her lessons. Maybe she’d be teaching him a few.

  The thought brought a wicked grin to his lips and Annie saw it. “Stop laughing at me.”

  “I’m not laughing at you, Annie. When a man wants a woman as much as I do you, it’s real hard—” Kell felt as if her gaze would bum through the tight fit of his pants. She looked up and he smiled. “Yeah, you see how it is. Damn hard to think about talking bringing any enjoyment.”

  “I’m not naive,” Annie managed, feeling that was exactly what he thought her.

  “Oh, I know that, Annie. You’re a regular hellraiser, full of unbridled lust just waiting for the right man to set it free.” Kell rounded the table to where she stood.

  “No.” She shook her head and repeated the denial. Two steps back, then two more closer to the doorway. Annie, Annie, what has he done to you? Now you’re lying to yourself. Just once taste what it’s like to be wild and free. Just once know the promise of passion. Annie stopped at the doorway. “All right, Kell. I am everything you said.”

  “What, Annie? Say the words for me. Say ‘I’m a lustful hellraiser.’ Say ‘I’m a woman who knows what she wants.’ Say it for me,” he demanded softly, walking toward her. “But mean it, Annie. Mean every word.”

  She searched his sage-green eyes, bright with flecks of hidden sunlight, and knew he would give no quarter. The teasing was over. Kell was a man, not a boy. He wanted a woman who knew what she wanted too. Wanted and was willing to take as well as give.

  But the ingrained moral lessons of a lifetime were not so easy to dismiss. The words stuck in her throat, leaving her mouth parched, and with a cry, Annie spun around and rushed through the door, running for all she was worth.

  He had pushed. Too hard. One clenched fish rested against the doorframe and he fought himself not to go after her.

  Annie needed no light to guide her escape to her room, and once there, she wanted the darkness to shield her. In seconds she had stripped off the damaged shirtwaist, her hand shaking as she poured water into the bowl. The tepid water cooled her heated skin, but nothing would cool the thoughts and senses filled with Kell.

  Behind her, the door opened. “Light the lamp, Annie. I want to see you.” Kell stepped inside the room and closed the door behind him.

  “I didn’t hear you come up the stairs,” she whispered breathlessly.

  “I didn’t want you to.” He could almost taste the tension that surrounded them. “Light the lamp, Annie.”

  And she made him wait before the strike and flare of the match touching the lamp’s wick pooled a golden light to reveal her. Kell’s breath locked somewhere deep inside him. Her tangled hip-length hair tantalized his gaze with the wanton tumble that spilled like a fall of fire over the pristine white chemise. Annie’s hand shook replacing the glass, then she looked up at him, her eyes dark blue, wide and beckoning him to discover virginal secrets. Damp patches made the thin cloth cling to the pale skin, tiny droplets of water sliding down her throat and he ached to lick every bit of moisture from her skin.

  “I thought you left.”

  “I was going.”

  “And?” she prompted, unable to tear her gaze from his.

  A rueful grin teased his mouth. “Much as I wanted to go, there’s something here I wanted more.”

  With unaccustomed directness, Annie asked, “Me?”

  “You. That’s as honest as it gets.”

  She didn’t doubt him. Not this time. Not with a blaze of hunger lighting his eyes. She straightened, and with a brazen move so unlike her, slowly raised her hands to lift the mass of her hair back and away from her face. Her gaze never left his, despite the chill of cool air touching the bare flesh revealed by the scooped neckline of her chemise. She had to fight to draw breath, her body suddenly some unknown thing, blood spinning with a quickening force that left her burning.

  “Christ, Annie. I was wrong. So damned wrong. It’s not words I need from you. Show me, Annie. Come here and show me what you want.”

  Impossible! was her instant thought. Then, her own words came back to her. “ I can’t run anymore. I don’t want to.” Another moment’s hesitation was all she allowed herself. Kell had been honest. She couldn’t give him less.

  Even as she took the first steps around her bed, she knew he wasn’t going to make this easy for her. He wouldn’t coax. Kell wouldn’t seduce. He wouldn’t even meet her halfway. He waited, tense and powerful, not moving at all.

  Did she want him so badly she was willing to forget every moral tenet she had lived by and believed in?

  Countering that was the fever that burned inside her and she knew Kell could ease the ache that left her tossing night after night. A few steps more. So simple to do. Bu
t it meant crossing from the safe world she knew into one that would leave her defenseless.

  “Did I ever tell you that you walk like a woman?” At her frown he added, “All woman, Annie. Watching you arouses me like hell’s on fire.” His smile was pure male satisfaction when her lips curved. Kell held out his hand, making no attempt to hide the slight tremor from her. “That’s a small bit of what you do to me. If I told you the rest, you’d run.”

  Annie stood before him, lifting her head, her gaze direct on his. “No more running, Kell.” His words had given her confidence, exposing his vulnerability to her washed a measure of her fear away. But it was his eyes, filled with a hot, bright desire for her, that made Annie revel in being the woman who aroused him.

  She reached for his hand, drawing it up to her lips and slowly turned his hand until her mouth caressed his palm. She closed her eyes when he cupped her cheek, his long fingers sliding beneath her hair, curving gently around her neck to pull her closer to him.

  Kell’s gaze narrowed with a vicious fury when he spied the vivid bruise on her arm. “I should have killed him for touching you,” he whispered, his mouth searing a kiss on the marred flesh. Her hand glided into the thickness of his hair, pressing him nearer, heated scents rising from where their bodies touched. Kell battled his need to bury himself deep, hard and fast. He discovered new pleasure in watching Annie awaken to her own sensuality.

  She swayed against him, the brush of body to body sending a tremble deep inside her. “See,” she murmured, scattering kisses against his hair, “I’m shaking too.”

  Kell caught her hair, drawing her head to the side, leaving her slender neck exposed to his lips. With exquisite care he bit her, feeling how deep the tremble went against his mouth. “No promises of forever, Annie. But the shaking goes deeper, that I can promise you. That, and,” he whispered, kissing the sweet satin skin bared by the thin strap of her chemise, “I promise you won’t be shaking when I’m finished with you.”

  Held against his powerful body, Annie felt another of the primitive caresses shiver through her. No promises of forever. The words replayed over and over while she tried to stop them.

  As if Kell sensed what happened, he spun her around, pinning her against the door, crowding her there with his body. He took her mouth, leaving her no choice, no way to fight his skill. Suddenly she was clinging to him. Her fingers moved convulsively, digging into his biceps as she braced herself against his power.

  Annie felt as if the door, the floor, the world had simply dissolved around her and all she had was Kell. She couldn’t let go, on some instinctive level she knew if she did, she wouldn’t get him back.

  Kell knew he could release her from his fierce grip now and let her slide down his body like hot, sleek satin. He knew, but he didn’t let her go. Only the kiss changed, his lips rocking softly, slowly, filling the heat of her mouth with his taste, even as he consumed hers. Her hands eased their harsh, biting grip and caressed him with the same rhythms as the kiss they shared, stroking up to cling to his shoulders, finally sliding up to hold his head. The tremors increased, and he returned caress for caress, the tips of his fingers delicately tracing the dainty shape of her ear. With near exquisite restraint his teeth sank into her bottom lip.

  Annie drew back and opened her eyes to find Kell’s filled with a heat that nearly took her breath away.

  “No promises, no lies,” she whispered, her voice husky, visibly shaken.

  Kell slowly let her slide back down his body, making no effort to hide the thrusting evidence of his arousal. He hid nothing from her, shuddering openly with pleasure when her hips moved over his as her feet touched the floor.

  With a muffled cry Annie lifted her mouth to his, hungry to lose herself, to hold him and stop caring about tomorrows. She understood want, or thought she had. Now every claiming sweep of his tongue taught her another depth to wanting. And needing. She had never been so needy. His body against hers, hard and tight with restraint. The sleek thickness of his sun-streaked hair sliding through her fingers. The strength and power of his arms wrapping around her. And her need was to give.

  To Kell. Who took everything he wanted from the sweet, sugared mouth that had been slowly driving him crazy. But it wasn’t enough. Somewhere deep in his mind, he knew it would never be enough.

  But he took her mouth again, then again, until all she could whisper was his name between kisses, his name a ragged litany as she clung tight to him, forgetting everything but him and a desire that burned hot and bright, only to flame higher.

  She had more to give him than any other woman, any other kiss shared. Generous and loving, Annie’s pleasure was his, new, increased with every heartbeat until it expanded into a timelessness he couldn’t begin to question. He could only delve deeply and take more.

  Annie was learning to take, too. Kell’s male scent was inside her with every breath she drew. She knew he was filling her world in some elemental way, and she was reassured and frightened by its power at the same time. No logic. No sense. Kell was there, drawing her into a place where nothing lived but heat and hunger until she wanted to curl inside him and fill her senses with him. Only him.

  And passion’s lure that drew her deeper and deeper with every savoring caress of his mouth against hers, every slow, sweeping thrust of his tongue.

  Finally Kell lifted his head, his hands framing Annie’s face. He looked from her dark, wide, midnight-blue eyes to her mouth, reddened and swollen from his kisses. Generous. And so giving. Kell found himself wondering how he had ever thought he knew all there was to know about men and women and passion. Annie had needed lessons to learn how to kiss. Annie just proved an apt pupil, and surprised him with a few new lessons. He thought what other discoveries awaited them.

  The narrowed blaze of Kell’s eyes as he stared at her mouth made shimmers of sensation ripple down Annie’s back until she pressed her legs together to keep from falling.

  “Kell?” she whispered. “What’s wrong? Don’t you want to kiss me again?”

  “Want to?” Kell couldn’t control the husky groan that escaped him. He was fighting for control, for every bit of the discipline over mind and body that he had taken for granted. “Do you want me to kiss you again?”

  “Do I…” she began, shivering and then laughing softly, almost wildly. How could she make Kell understand the feelings that were coursing through her, too new, too fierce, so that she had no names for them. This wasn’t the soft, sweet sensual pull of the other times he had kissed her. There was a raw power, a force she could feel coming from him, tightening her own body.

  She raised herself on tiptoe, brushing her mouth against his, over and over. “I want what you want. Everything there is for a man and a woman to share.”

  With a rough sound, Kell bent and took Annie’s mouth, giving her his in turn. The first tentative touch of her tongue against his made his arms tighten, lifting her up against him in a searing caress. His hips moved slowly, once, twice, and he had to set her down to fight his own wild response. Kell tried to break their kiss, but the intense pleasure of sliding his tongue into Annie’s sweet mouth was too much to give up.

  A soft, hungry moan escaped Annie. She didn’t want the kiss to end. She needed more of his taste, more of his male passion. She sought to capture him and from the deep recess of her mind Ruby’s voice, sultry and laughing, came to her rescue. Very gently, her teeth closed over his tongue, a demand that he stay within her. Annie would have smiled when she felt the shudder that ripped through Kell at her caress, but his hands shifted on her body, stroking the sides of her beasts, sending a burst of pleasure through her. She had to release him, another cry leaving her filled with shock and passion that left her trembling.

  The strength of her response was almost violent and she clung to his arms, crying raggedly, “I can’t stand, Kell.”

  “Don’t try. I’ll hold you.” Dark, rough and deep with the barely leashed passion he fought to rein, Kell caught her agains
t him. Hard and hungry, his lips claimed hers again, his body moving to the same rhythms of penetration and retreat as he stroked the sultry heat of her mouth. His hands cupped the full lushness of her breasts, long fingers caressing and teasing her nipples until the thin cloth of the chemise couldn’t hide the velvet hardness peaking for his touch. With one arm around her waist, Kell held her and used the thumb of his other hand to stroke down the length of her slender spine. Need clawed him and he tried to slow down his own wild response to her.

  There was a warning whisper reminding him of her innocence, but Annie melted into him like a hot river of honey, and his own body tightened with sheer pleasure. Kell tore through the tapes holding her skirt and petticoats, pushing the cloth down.

  “Hold me, Annie,” he ordered, his voice rough. His hand stroked her from hips to shoulders and back again, pressing her against him as if he could absorb her into himself. Her shy but instinctive move, supple, feminine, and so damn hot, dragged another groan from him. He held her close, moving against her before he found the control he needed to sweep her up into his arms and carry her over to the bed.

  “The light?”

  “Leave it. I want to see you, Annie. I want to watch you change into my woman.”

  Her head nestled his shoulder and she held him tight, her mouth his in a meld of hunger that tore through him as he lowered her to the soft waiting feather tick.

  Annie knew the sweetly coaxing lover was gone, but she had no desire to call him back. She loved Kell. Loved the wildness and hunger she called from him and unleashed within herself. This was passion, this fire that burned hotter and hotter with every touch, every kiss until she thought she would die from it. She was filled with a fevered ache that made her vulnerable, yet flushed with the first taste of a woman’s power. It was her touch that made Kell groan, her kisses that sent his hungry tongue plunging deeper and deeper so she longed for another, more intimate joining to come.

  And she wanted to taste him, wanted to know if the tiny, exquisite love bites that made her melt and shiver would do the same to Kell.