by Sara Orwig
“We’re half a mile from everyone,” she said finally, yanking her wrist.
He held her, turning to face her with only inches separating them. The fiery look in his dark eyes made her draw her breath and bite back protests. She was too aware of his bare chest; sweat left a sheen on his dark skin that only heightened his appeal.
“You don’t belong out here. It’s only a matter of time until you have to tell him no and then the trouble will start.”
“We’ll survive,” she said, determination stirring her anger. She lifted her chin, staring into his angry brown eyes. His hands held her shoulders, and he drew her closer to him. Her heart pounded violently, the drumming loud in her ears.
“You can’t survive against him.”
“This isn’t your problem, and you’re no part of my decision. You’ll ride out of here anytime, and we’ll never see you again, so what you think doesn’t matter,” she said, words spilling out, her temper soaring that he would be so cavalier when he would leave them soon.
And all the time she argued with him, everything in her cried out for him. Why wasn’t he the man who wanted her so desperately, the man who would go to such lengths to get her?
She gazed up into Dan’s dark eyes. She could discuss her fears and joys with him. His kisses drove her wild. He was brave, so good to Josh and Lissa, good to Pa, intelligent. But he was also solitary, tough, keeping barriers around his heart after the loss of his wife and child. Rachel felt he always held back from her. Even though they had lived closely with him on the trail for days, in so many ways he was a stranger to her.
“You ought to be in town where men can court you and Abby, where Josh and Lissa can grow up safe.”
“Is that what you want?” she asked in the barest voice. “You want men to court me?”
Dan gazed down at her, anger burning in him. His own intentions toward her held no honor, but he wanted her with a consuming need he had never felt before. Her kisses burned through him like fire. And she trembled to his touch, responding with passion every time he stroked or kissed her.
As they stared at each other, Dan felt the clash and beneath it he felt the fire. He was as big a bastard as McKissick, because after he made love to her, he would arrest her father. And yet, how he ached for her!
“Lord help us both, I want you, Rachel,” he said, stepping closer. His arms slid around her waist. Her hands came up against his chest as she looked up at him.
“Dan,” she whispered softly, her lashes coming down as she raised her mouth to his and slid her arms around his neck.
Dan’s heart pounded with a starving need. He tightened his arms around her slender waist and bent his head, his mouth covering hers as his tongue thrust into her mouth, touching her tongue, her teeth, sliding over them as if he intended to devour her. Her warmth seemed to fill the emptiness of his heart, to envelope him and dull the hard edges in his life.
Her tongue played against his and the guard he tried to keep shattered. He felt a yearning for her that went to his soul. His arms tightened, crushing her softness against his hard length while he groaned deep in his throat.
All resistance went out of her as she molded against him. He shook with need, knowing he was already over a brink and there was no turning back. She was an intelligent woman; she had made her choice and knew what she was doing when she slid her arms around his neck. He wanted her with a desperation that made him shake. Reason and arguments were gone.
Fighting the urge to rip clothes away, he forced himself to slow, to take time because this was the only time he would have with her. With deliberation he tugged her shirt out of the cotton trousers, his hand sliding beneath the shift to the softness of her breast, feeling its tip swell against his palm. Impatient, wanting more, he yanked the shirt over her head. Unable to hold back, he ripped the shift away.
Her green eyes held emerald fires that made his manhood throb with desire. This woman had been a challenge to him since the first night on the trail. His eyes narrowed, and he framed her face with his hands, his big palms pressing roughly, holding her so she had to continue looking at him.
He pressed his mouth on hers, his tongue thrusting deep, a heady invasion and union. She returned his kiss, her tongue going into his mouth.
He raised his head, looking at her, seeing her swollen lips, brushing them so lightly with his, while his hands cupped each breast. “Perfection,” he whispered, the soft weight sending a shudder through him. His shaft felt hard as granite, a throbbing fullness that needed her soft yielding. He bent his head to take a nipple in his mouth, his tongue curling over it. She moaned as her fingers wound in his hair, and her cry stirred him.
He straightened up, reaching out for her thick braid. “I like your hair loose. I want you naked, your hair spilling over your shoulders,” he said in a husky voice. He ached and his trousers were a constraint that his member pushed against. He was beyond ready for her, trying to hold back. She deserved slow, consummate loving and he fought to maintain control over his responses.
He tugged the leather strap off the braid, his fingers working a plait free as she stepped back from him.
Rachel drew a ragged breath while his gaze held her. No man had ever looked at her with the hungry desire that burned in Dan’s dark eyes. And with something more, an expression that held a warmth that made her tremble.
His shaking hands moving over her braid, working at it, sent tiny erotic sensations coursing in her scalp. Was she sensitive to the slightest thing he did? She didn’t want to be. She didn’t want to love this hard man so completely. And when he possessed her, she would never be satisfied with another man. That realization shook her and logic urged her to say no to him, to stop him now before her heart was bound to him for life.
Yet empty years stretched ahead of her just as empty years during the war were behind her. Right now, this once, she could know rapture. And she knew instinctively she would experience it with Dan. He already had taken her love and she felt a bond with him that time and distance would never destroy.
Take his loving this once. Know what it is like to be seduced by the man she loved, even if he didn’t love her in return. Everything in her clamored for his touch, his kisses.
She stood on tiptoe, leaning forward to take his lower lip in her mouth and touch it lightly with her tongue. She felt him shudder, his fingers biting into her shoulders. Holding her waist, he moved her back, picking up her braid again and pulling the strands free. Her hair fell across her shoulders as he leaned down to yank off his boots and toss them away.
“Give me your foot,” he commanded roughly while he hunkered down beside her. Rachel looked into his eyes, wishing it were not so easy for him. He was bound to know that she longed for him desperately. She extended her foot and he watched her as he removed first one boot and then another. His hand slid over her rounded calf.
“Ah, Rachel,” he said in a husky rasp, “you’re so much woman, more than I deserve.” He stood up, his fingers drifting across her breasts and she inhaled, the touch causing heat to shoot through her and erasing any answer to what he had said.
He stepped closer, his arm sliding around her as he bent to kiss her breasts, his tongue drawing circles that made her feel faint with pleasure. Gasping, she wound her hands in his hair, her fingers trailing across his muscled shoulder.
Dimly she felt his fingers at her waist as he kissed her and then he shoved down the trousers, the air cool on her heated skin. She gasped as he slid his hands over her hips and held her, his tongue trailing down over her, touching her intimately.
She cried out, tilting her head back, feeling as if she couldn’t stand while his tongue flicked over her, his breath hot on her, kissing her, shifting her legs apart as his fingers touched her soft flesh. When he pulled her down, lowering her to the grass, she looked up at him.
He was handsome, savage-appearing in his need that blazed in the dark depths of his brown eyes. He leaned down to kiss her, his hot breath playing over her thigh, his tongu
e touching her burning skin.
“Rachel,” he said hoarsely.
Dan watched her, his blood fire in his veins as she gasped and clung to him, her body bared to him. Sweat beaded his shoulders and forehead as he fought to still hold back, to take her to a brink of readiness, wanting to give to her and give until she was mindless with need.
Her hair was spread on the green grass, her white teeth biting her lower lip and he knew he would carry this moment with him all the rest of his life.
As his hand moved between her legs, she arched wildly, her fingers digging into his shoulders. Before she reached a brink, he shifted away.
Her eyes were emerald heat, her need as bare as her body. She grasped his hips. “Dan—”
“Soon, love. When I have you ready,” he said in a husky voice as he stood up.
He shed the pants and stood naked, throbbing, his shaft thick and dark against a body that was virile perfection. She wanted him more than she had ever wanted anything. She came up on her knees, her hands sliding along his strong legs while she kissed him and felt him shake, amazed that her slightest touch could make him tremble.
His fingers knotted in her hair, pulling roughly, yet she barely noticed as she touched his manhood, feeling his hardness, the velvet tip.
He groaned and came down, pushing her to the ground. She watched him while he moved between her thighs.
“Dan, I’ve never—” she whispered, knowing she had to tell him she was a virgin.
“I know you haven’t. I know you’re a virgin.”
The tip of his stiff rod touched her, and his words were lost. He pressed against her without entering her, and the sensation drove her wild with need for him. She arched beneath him, tugging at him, thrusting her hips against him as he entered her slowly.
She gasped while pleasure shot through her like flames. She wanted all of him; she loved him, needed him. This was the man she would love forever. Whatever lay ahead, she had no choice now. Her heart belonged to Dan. She gave him her body; she had already given him her heart. She slid her hands over his heated flesh, relishing the planes and angles, the hard muscles. His shaft penetrated her slowly, a torment that swept her on a whirlwind.
Feeling as if she would explode from need, she was also drenched in sensation. He was huge, filling her, moving with slow deliberation while she bucked beneath him.
Clinging to him, she kissed his shoulder, wanting more. Pain came, but need was greater.
“Put your legs around me,” he whispered, kissing her throat. She turned her head, her tongue thrusting into his mouth.
As he drove into her, her pain was swift and sharp; pleasure accompanied it, and desire was all-consuming. Moving wildly, she matched him, her hips following the ageless dance while she reeled from the sensations he caused. Blinding light seemed to burst behind her closed eyes as she ran her hands across his strong shoulders and reveled in the ecstasy that engulfed her.
“Dan!” she gasped, aware it was Dan loving her, Dan’s hard body that was taking her to such heights. Dan who was all she wanted, who was giving what he promised would be rapture between them. “I love you,” she whispered, clinging to him, knowing she had waited all her life for him and she would love him forever, knowing this moment in time might be for once and for always.
He drove her to a brink that made her wild, her head thrashing as her hands raked his smooth back. She could feel his hard shaft, so big inside her.
Watching her, Dan fought to hold back, to let her get as much pleasure as possible. She was tight, incredibly passionate beneath him. Her hands were all over him. Sweat poured from his body and beaded his forehead. He felt on fire. He wanted their loving to go on forever. She convulsed, gripping him as she cried out wildly.
“Rachel, love!” he growled, deep in his throat. His body shuddered as he shot his wet, hot essence into her. He watched her, perspiration dotting her smooth flesh. With her, he felt he had come home from a cold, dark place, from a winter of loneliness.
They slowed, arms around each other, and gradually she felt as if she were coming up out of a deep oblivion of ecstasy, rising back to reality. And she remembered his words.
I know you are a virgin. How had he known? And how long had he known? Her eyes flew open, and she found he was watching her. He rolled on his side, keeping her with him, bodies united, his legs entangled with hers.
He stroked her cheek, and she felt tears sting her eyes. She loved him desperately. She turned her head to kiss his hand and to hide the tears, trying to gain control of her emotions.
Dan stroked her; he saw the glisten and spill of tears before she turned her head. He felt shaken, because loving her had been jolting. She had been more than he expected, her passion wild, her caresses burning in memory. He stroked her head, soft locks sliding through his fingers. Now he knew she was Mary Benton; and if there had been any tiny last vestige of doubt, it was gone.
Her body was pressed against the length of his, her voluptuous softness like a drug on his senses. He stroked her head, his hand sliding down over her silken back, over the curve of her bare buttocks. He stroked her shoulder, letting her get composed, holding her against his heart. He didn’t want the world to intrude.
He wanted the haven of this moment. Her passion was stunning, the depths of it greater than he had imagined. He had heard her declaration of love, given in a wild moment, a declaration that could be meaningless. Yet knowing Rachel, it wasn’t hollow, but had carried with it all her feeling.
He buried his face in her neck, inhaling the sweet scent of her woman’s body, the faint trace of rosewater mixed with the pungency of love. She was fiery, soft, voluptuous. And he had to admire her courage and care for her family, her intelligence in protecting and getting them all across country. He had never known a woman like her. He felt shaken as if some invisible force had struck him, splitting him open and baring his heart.
He kissed Rachel’s throat, stroking her, feeling her strong, steady pulse. Her hands moved on him lightly, a cautious, seeking touch.
He shifted to look down into wide eyes that held banked fires. Emerald heat seared his senses, reminding him of the moments just past. Looking into her eyes, he was getting hard again, wanting her, knowing he could be more gentle this time because his control would be better.
His fingers held her chin, tilting her mouth up where he could reach her. “You’re a special woman,” he whispered, leaning the inches between them to place his mouth on hers, to taste her kisses, and take his time, his tongue going slowly into her mouth, touching the satiny inside of her lower lip.
She moaned softly, shifting, against him, her body changing, muscles tensing, her arms tightening around him. He placed a hand over her bare breast, the softness causing his body to heat. When he rubbed his palm over her nipple, she responded instantly, the bud growing taut against his flesh.
This time he was deliberate, doing all he could to arouse her, turning her on her stomach while he held her foot and kissed her trim ankle. Trailing kisses over her shapely calf to the area behind her knee, he knew the slightest touch brought an instant reaction. Responses that set him on fire. She gasped, reaching for him and starting to turn, but he pushed her back down.
“Let me love you, Rachel,” he whispered, kissing the back of her thigh.
He drew out their lovemaking, trying to keep her hands away from him, so he could maintain his control, loving her, caressing her, until she was finally spread before him, open, wanting him.
This time he took her slowly, lasting longer, watching her as she moved beneath him. He felt stunned, knowing loving Rachel went beyond physical pleasure, that when he filled her, her undemanding love gave him a warmth as deep as his soul. Finally passion overwhelmed him as he thrust wildly, his shaft going hard and deep into her, watching her as her eyes were closed and her head thrashed, cries of pleasure escaping her.
Later when he held her in his arms, he knew the idyll had to end. And he was going to have to take some kind of action w
ith Eb Kearney.
She sat up, reaching for her shirt. Dan caught her hand. “Let’s go into the stream before we dress.”
She gazed at him solemnly, and he hurt. He wanted her to laugh, to smile, to be giddy and carefree with love. Instead she had to worry about her family and protecting them from McKissick. She had to worry about McKissick wanting her. At the last thought, Dan wanted to swear aloud, scoop her up and take her to San Antonio where she would be safe. And soon she was going to have the worst moments of her life from his own betrayal when he revealed he was a Pinkerton agent. And when he arrested her father.
Dan leaned forward to kiss her lightly. He stood and pulled her up, holding her hand as they entered the stream. It was too shallow to swim, but he sat down to cool off, letting the water wash over his skin. She came down beside him, leaning back on her elbows. Her full breasts bobbed in the water, shiny with wetness, nipples puckered.
“Dammit. I want you again.”
She raised her head to look at him and a gleam of satisfaction lighted her eyes. “Do you now?”
“What do you think?” he drawled, leaning back the same way she had, his elbow on the creek bottom. The water was clear enough and her gaze raked over him. She could see his erection, know the effect she had on him.
She gave him a mocking look, arching her brows. “I didn’t know I could do that. Especially when I thought you were satisfied.”
He leaned forward, his amusement gone. He scooped her up, lifting her over him, wanting her with the same savage urgency he had felt the first time, only this time his control shattered. He needed her now, hot and hard before hell broke loose and she hated him and he lost all he had found with her.