Well, if her anger could return, Annabelle knew she must be feeling substantially better. “Why not?”
“You’re completely ignoring Margaret and Penelope’s advice. And mine. You’re improving daily but that’s not a reason to rush it. You need to be completely strong again before we go back there.”
She chewed her meal, genuinely starving. At this rate, she’d beg for more food. She picked up her coffee cup from the small night stand and sipped the hot liquid. “I don’t mean to ignore advice. But if we stay here for as long as it takes me to become entirely well, that could be a very long time. That could be weeks and there is no way we have enough supplies for several weeks.”
“Then you’ll stay here, and I’ll return the asylum to get more supplies.”
She considered his idea for a few moments. “I don’t feel comfortable with that either.”
“Why not?”
She shook her head and put the coffee cup back on the stand. She gazed down at her plate and realized she’d eaten her meal too fast, and now her stomach rolled with uncertainty. No, she had to keep this food down and build her strength. “I don’t like the idea of you going to that place without me.”
He tried a smile, but it faded. “And I’m not going to let you come with me.”
“Now it’s my turn to ask why not.”
He chewed bacon thoroughly and answered. “Because you and I both know the asylum isn’t safe.”
“Once I have the enza it’s not likely I’ll have it again. I’ll probably be immune.”
“All right, but what I’m worried about is the evil there. There isn’t any way to be certain what the place will be like when we go back there.”
She nodded. “Well, then, you and I should stay together here. Wait it out as long as possible.”
His gaze caught and held hers. “And how long is that?”
“Excellent question. Perhaps we’ll know the right time.”
“If the evil is there, there can be no right time.”
They’d found an impasse. Annabelle and Cade finished their meal in silence, and when she finished, her eyelids drooped. “I can’t believe I’m so tired.”
He took her plate and his into the next room, and when he sat on the bed his gaze held pure concern. “Rest. Sleep as much as you want.”
“I think I will. You exhausted me.”
His frown grew deeper. “I shouldn’t have ..."
She knew what he meant and instantly regretted what she’d said. “No, no.” She reached for his hand and he instantly clasped hers. “That isn’t what I meant, Cade Hale, so you can abandon the guilt right this moment. You were ..." Her cheeks heated. “You were exquisitely gentle. Yes, it took a bit of exertion, but it was the loveliest, most amazing thing I’ve ever experienced. I’ll never forget it.”
His expression eased into a small smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes in sincerity. “Now that I’ve found you, Annabelle Dorrenti, I don’t want to lose you.”
She understood his worry; she felt it in her own gut. “You won’t lose me, and I won’t lose you. We’re together in this.” He leaned in for a kiss so gentle it resembled the brush of butterfly wings. “Captain, that isn’t your best effort.” She smiled as she teased him. “Come here.”
She pulled his head down and drew him into a hot, tongue-thrusting kiss that warmed her body for more lovemaking. Now that her body understood the consequences of kissing and allowing his body to take hers, she couldn’t forget the pleasure he could bring.
When they pulled away, she said, “Soon I want more.”
“More?”
“Lovemaking.” There, she’d said it. “Now that I’ve made it through hell, I think I want a bigger piece of heaven.”
He kissed her hand and released her. “At your command. Now rest.”
She saluted as he went into the living room. “Yes, sir.”
With a smile, she drifted to sleep, fortified by the meal and their kiss. Yet in the back of her mind, she understood they had only begun to make the journey. Enza was out there in the world, and so was the evil in Tranquil View Asylum. There was no way to escape it.
* * *
Four days passed in peace, and it surprised Cade. He’d never felt this much contentment from a situation that wasn’t ideal. He knew, though, it was all Annabelle’s fault.
Cade rose from the couch and stared outside the window into nothingness. He’d discovered one of his greatest fears today. He’d thought maybe it was losing his mind or his commission. As Annabelle slept sitting up on the couch, he found calm in having her near. He tried to recall any other time when he’d felt this comfortable with a person or situation but couldn’t. She grew stronger and stronger and could walk across the room without breathlessness or weakness. He still wouldn’t allow her to do much. No, she’d done enough for a long while. He’d be her support and strength until he could be absolutely certain she’d regained her health to the fullest.
“Are you all right?” Annabelle asked.
Cade startled a little; he’d been in deep thought. “I’m wonderful.”
“You haven’t taken any laudanum?”
“No. Not since we got here. I didn’t want to go through withdrawal again. I couldn’t dull my senses and watch over you.”
“Good. I’m glad you haven’t taken any.” Her gaze was introspective and pinned to the same window he’d just been staring through. “I’m worried.”
“We’re safe here. I’m not going to allow anything to happen to you.”
“I know. I’m worried about everyone at the asylum.”
“They’ll be all right.”
“Just keep saying that and maybe I’ll believe it. I never thought we’d be here this long. I thought we’d find Colleto and return to the asylum in short order.”
He settled next to her and slipped his arm about her shoulders. Every moment he felt as if he needed to pamper her. “So did I.” He looked down at her face, so beautiful to him that he ached with a fierce desire to protect her. “Life doesn’t turn out the way we plan it sometimes.”
She continued to stare out the window. “Is that always a bad thing? You and I didn’t expect to find each other. You hated me. Look how we are now.”
“I didn’t hate you ... not really. I resented what I thought I knew about you. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s all right. It’s resolved now. If it makes you feel any better, I thought you were awful that first day, too.”
He laughed softly. “Yeah. That makes me feel better.”
She turned slightly to gaze up at him. “I’m still trying to get my mind wrapped around what has happened. What we’ve discovered together. The asylum is a huge problem, but I don’t see any way to solve it.”
“The enza being there? Or the haunting?”
“Both. Is it just a haunting, Cade? I thought you said it was evil.”
“Both, I think. But what do I really know?”
Silence surrounded them for a short time before he released her and got up to stoke the fire. “This is a day-by-day thing.”
“You’re perfect for this situation, Cade.”
“How?”
“You have strategized in a war. You know how to be fluid when things change.”
“I’m damned worn out. I didn’t come to the asylum to be fluid or anything else. I wanted to heal my mind, if not my soul.” He sighed, suddenly weary.
“Maybe we should forget about all of this for a while.”
He returned to sit beside her. “How?”
“Tell me about your home. Where you grew up.”
“Mmm. Well, the house is large. My parents bought it from a railroad magnate who built it in 1895. It has twenty-five rooms, six bathrooms, servant quarters in the attic.”
“Do your parents appreciate what they have?”
He didn’t know how to answer that. “Very good question. Now that I think on it, I don’t believe they do.” As he considered the revelation, a few other items came to him. “I’
m not sure I appreciated life in the past the way I do now.”
She snuggled closer, and heat laced its way through his body. When she felt better—hell when she was completely well—he would demonstrate exactly what her nearness did to him.
“I know I didn’t appreciate everything.” She leaned her head on his shoulder. “Life seemed cheap after I left the war.”
“Cheap?” That surprised him. “How? I’d think it would make you believe the opposite.”
Skepticism twisted her pretty mouth. “Generals have been tossing men at the front like fodder. Don’t tell me it isn’t cheap to them.” She sighed. “I understand that war is war and that men will die. Nurses have died. The civilians ... we know men, women, and children have perished. Life didn’t seem precious to me when I left France. It felt cheap.”
He swallowed hard around the huge clog in his throat. His emotions swung like a pendulum from happiness to angry understanding. “Any life tossed on the pyre for the cause.”
He felt her looking at him, but couldn’t meet her eyes.
One small, delicate hand touched his chest and mucked with the buttons on his military jacket. “It may take us a few years to understand everything we’ve seen and done.”
“I agree. None of it can be erased, but maybe we can make a peace with it.”
“Peace would be lovely. But maybe that makes me a coward. I couldn’t be where Velia had perished.”
“If you are a coward, then so I am. Have you found a reaffirmation of life?” he asked.
“Yes and no. The no is that the influenza is hurting people like the war. The yes is that I’ve found you. You are my life.”
Cade’s happiness soared when she hugged him close. Her beauty, her understanding, her very being gave him the utmost hope when there should be little.
She touched his face, and her fingers rasped over his beard growth. “We can find some good in all this.”
Doubt made him grunt. “How?”
“First, we found each other. Second, if we make it through all this, after surviving a war, we can do anything.”
He leaned down to kiss her gently, words backing up in his throat until he thought he’d choke. His emotions raced hot and sure, his love for her building. Love. It should have hit him between the eyes a long time ago, but he couldn’t avoid the truth. Part of him wanted to gush his feelings, but he didn’t know how. He’d have to show her.
Annabelle threw her arms around him. He drew her closer, cherishing every moment they had together, no matter the circumstance. He didn’t get a chance to pull away; she drew his head down for another kiss. At first he thought of drawing back as he had the last four days. He hadn’t kissed her as much as he’d wanted to, and hadn’t made love to her beyond that one time. Her strength and recovery was far more important than his base needs. But oh, God, her mouth felt good on his—hot and soft. He wanted her with deep desire that reached from his cock to his soul.
“Make love to me again, Cade,” she whispered into his mouth.
“Are you sure?”
“Stop asking me that and love me.”
He caressed her face, mesmerized by the sweet affection he saw in her eyes—the acceptance and forgiveness that wrung him out and put him back together again. “Are you well enough?”
“I’m not fragile, Cade. I’ll tell you if you’re too rough.”
He kissed down to the side of her neck and she shivered. “Mmm. I like the sound of that. You being my commanding officer.”
She laughed, an airy sound with so much joy it gave him wings. He could do anything when she laughed with him. “Perhaps I should tell you where to kiss me. How about on the neck again.”
“With pleasure.”
He kissed his way down her neck and found her collarbone too enticing to resist. He licked and smoothed his tongue across her flesh. Her bodice was already loose, and he unbuttoned past her breasts. She’d taken off the brassiere a long time ago. It was hanging off the bedpost in the other room. They’d lost significant propriety since being in this exile, and it suited him fine. As he finished unbuttoning her blouse, he pushed aside the material and drew in a deep breath. His cock went hard as a railroad spike. By God, she was beautiful. Her nipples had tightened into pretty light pink nubs, hard and ready to taste. She sucked in a breath, and when he gazed up at her face, Cade saw how his attention affected her. Her lips parted, and she licked her lower lip.
Annabelle’s eyes were wide with wonder. He groaned and couldn’t resist. He tasted a nipple. She groaned softly and he treated the other nipple to equal attention. Back and forth, he paid loving attention, then sucked, drawing moans from her throat. He bathed each nipple repeatedly, pinching the other as he nibbled and stroked. Arching, she groaned low and whimpered. He broke away long enough to kiss her with full passion, his tongue mating with hers. Cade searched under her skirts. His touch between her legs made her gasp again as he found her wet and hot. She reached between them and fumbled with his clothes. Before long, his shirt was open and she caressed his skin. Before he could slow her frantic need, she undid his pants.
“Whoa, darling. We can slow this down,” he said.
“No. I want more now.”
He chuckled again. “Most women want it slower.”
“I’m aching between the legs. I know what that means.”
He laughed softly. “By God, Annabelle.” He plunged in for another kiss.
* * *
Annabelle had gone to heaven and didn’t wish to return. Cade’s tongue rasped over hers with stroke after sensual stroke. She couldn’t stop searching his strong shoulders and his powerful arms. Knowing how this man could affect her, how much he drove her to say and do things she never thought she would, gave her heart happiness. With Cade, all things became possible. With him by her side she could defeat any monster or evil that might dare come her way.
He picked her up in his arms, and she released a squeak that would rival a schoolgirl’s. She didn’t care. They fell on the bed together.
“Wait,” she said softly, then hastened to explain when she saw the worry in his eyes. “I want to take off some clothes.” Without further argument, he left the bed long enough to remove his clothes. He didn’t seem to care that the bedroom was cold, and she didn’t either.
Watching Captain Cade Hale remove his garments proved to be the most exciting thing she’d witnessed. He drew off one thing, then the other, in hurry, but with movements that emphasized his strength. She stared without remorse at rippling muscles in his arms, chest, and stomach. Long, wonderfully carved legs sprinkled with dark hair made her mouth water. She hadn’t realize until that moment that a fully naked man could make her feel this way. Her gaze pinpointed on the length and thickness of his erect cock. Beautiful. He was beautiful in the most masculine way possible.
He planted his hands on his hips, mischief in his smile. “You’ve seen a naked man before.”
“Not one like you.”
One dark eyebrow speared upward. “Oh?”
“Never like you.” She reached for him.
“Your turn.” His voice vibrated with male need as he helped her remove her garments.
When she stepped out of her clothes, he knelt on the floor and caressed her scarred leg. He kissed the skin, his tenderness bringing tears to her eyes. Tears flooded over, and a small sob escaped her lips. He looked up, eyes filled with concern.
He stood and wrapped her in his arms. “What is it?”
“I never imagined this could happen. That a man would kiss my leg like that. I thought no one would be able to stand looking at it.”
He cupped her face, and kissed her nose with the softest touch. “It’s a part of you, and there isn’t one inch of you I don’t want to look at and kiss.”
He brushed away the tears that trickled down her cheeks, and his gentleness dried them. Slowly, tenderly, he loved her with a completeness that guaranteed the greatest pleasure. Inch by inch he kissed her skin, lingering once more over her nipples a
nd discovering secrets. He learned what made her giggle and what made her writhe with pleasure. She felt lighter than air and healthier than she’d ever been. She gathered the feelings to her and refused to allow them death. Annabelle would keep these memories, locked away in a secret diary within her heart.
When he parted her legs and licked, she gasped and bucked in his hold. It was shocking, exciting, and forbidden. She groaned as he did it again, and she saw his eyes go hot with desire. When had a man’s eyes ever been this dark—as pure as chocolate and as sinful? The heat in his attention didn’t escape her; he’d gone beyond simple tenderness into undeniable male hunger. Cade’s touches added to her own needs, assuring every inch of her sang with delight. She writhed in his hold as he peppered light kisses to the sensitive flesh between her legs. When he licked the bud at the top of her mons, she moaned in pleasure. She couldn’t withstand much more of this. He laughed softly. He tasted her again and again, finally sinking one finger deep inside her aroused center. He pumped his finger in and out like a cock, feathering her clit with his tongue lightly. It didn’t take much. She exploded in ecstasy, crying out, moving against his mouth, greedy for more.
“Please, Cade. Now.”
With one swift movement he slid upwards, found the notch made for him, and slid slowly within. She circled his hips with her legs, and arched into him instinctively as his cock plunged deep. His thickness excited her, her body clenching and releasing around his hot flesh. She widened her thighs, tilted her hips in an instinctive drive to find more pleasure.
“Annabelle,” he said, voice ragged.
She threw her arms around his neck. He eased out of her, then returned. Cade’s rhythm became slow and easy. He pumped and stroked with thrusts that brushed against aroused flesh until excitement burned her from the inside out. She lost herself in pleasure, in taking his body into her. Pleasure rose fast, as his cock spread her wide with each movement of his body over hers. His chest teased her nipples, his strong thighs parted hers wide. She was his saddle and he rode, thrusts coming stronger as her breathy gasps of pleasure became louder. Her body went out of control, writhing against him, desperate to know the end. She buried her face in his neck as he held himself above her.
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