His gaze raked over her. Unlike yesterday, she wore feminine clothing, and her shawl did not cover her entirely. He could see her ripe, curving breasts where her dress dipped low in front, causing a slow burning ache in his loins.
His gaze moved slowly upward. The early morning light bathed her face in a soft reflective glow, limning her throat and slender neck. Her long and lustrous auburn hair was fluttering gently in the breeze; her lips were slightly parted as their eyes locked and momentarily held.
He wanted to draw her into his arms and kiss her, and tell her how he felt about her. He had waited a lifetime for a woman to speak to his heart in the way that she did. But now?
He had to refuse himself this woman who had left his arms only to go to his brother's. What had she told his brother about Shane? That she had made a fool of him? Had they laughed about it together? Was he something to laugh at, since he had not had a white man's education or upbringing?
Shane placed his fingers to Melanie's shoulders and pushed her aside, then went and pulled his shirt over his head. Bending to one knee, he picked up his deck of cards and blanket and began moving away from Melanie. He had carefully hidden his white stallion within a thick stand of trees. He could not get to it quickly enough, for another moment with her and he would have not been able to resist her.
It was best that he leave. He now knew that he should have gone sooner. Seeing Melanie again was pure torture.
But he could not shake the memory of her in Josh's arms. If she loved Josh, why had she kissed Shane so intimately? Why?
Melanie was numb as she watched Shane walk away. She had seen too much in his eyes not to know that he had special feelings for her. When he was gazing raptly down at her, it was as though they were melting together, two people becoming one in both heart and soul.
But then he had turned away from her.
She had to know the reason he was compelled to turn his back on her and what they had found together!
"Shane!" Melanie cried, breaking into a run toward him. "You can't leave like this. You've got to tell me what's wrong." A loud, torturous sob tore from the depths of her being. "Shane, I couldn't bear it if you left. I don't know how it could happen so quickly, but I know that I love you! Do you hear me? I love you! Please don't leave me!"
Her words of love hit Shane with the impact of a fall off a horse at full gallop. His heart thundering wildly, he stopped and turned to Melanie just as she caught up with him. Bewildered, he looked down at her as she lunged into his arms and clung to him, her tears wetting his buckskin shirt.
"Shane, oh, Shane," Melanie sobbed. "Don't you see? It's as though we have known each other forever. Don't you feel it? It's such a wonderful, warm feeling that comes over me when I am near you. Tell me that you feel the same. Tell me you aren't going to turn your back on what we have found together."
Shane recalled how Melanie had embraced Josh. It had not been with the same enthusiasm as she was now holding onto him. If he recalled correctly, she had not even instigated the embrace and had stayed within Josh's arms for only a brief moment. With Shane it was different. She embraced him with the fierceness of someone in love! She did not love Josh. She loved Shane!
Shane dropped his blanket and cards. Twining his fingers through Melanie's hair he held her face back from his chest and gazed in rapture down at her. Melanie blinked back her tears and returned his gaze openly, fearlessly, lovingly.
Slowly, Shane drew her lips to his mouth, then kissed her with fire.
Melanie was catapulted into a world of spinning sensations that flooded her whole body. She was not even aware of being lowered to the ground; that Shane was still kissing her and holding her was all that mattered. Nothing could be sweeter or more beautiful. He was the world . . . the universe. . . . He was her every breath!
Shane held Melanie up with one arm while smoothing his blanket along the ground beneath her with his free hand. Then he lay her on the blanket and rose above her, his lips now sending feathery kisses along her face and then the hollow of her throat.
Watching Shane, loving him so deeply, Melanie caught her breath when he leaned partially away from her and untied her shawl and laid it aside, then reached behind her and began unsnapping her dress. Her pulse raced, realizing his intent. His burning need was in his eyes. His desire matched her own.
But hers was a desire never tested before. He was the first for her. Yet she knew that he had surely had many women. Would her inexperience disappoint him? Should she stop what she had begun here?
But she could not stop wanting him to make love to her anymore than she could exist without breathing. She wanted him. With all of her heart she wanted him, and not later.
Now.
Everything within her cried out to experience the ultimate feelings with him now.
Though her breasts were bare, Melanie was no longer aware of the damp chill of the morning air. A surge of tingling heat flowed through her breast as Shane's mouth found her nipple and drew it taut between his sucking lips. Melanie closed her eyes and heard someone making a whimpering sound, then realized that it was herself. Desire raged and washed over her as one of Shane's hands kneaded her breast while the other managed to get her dress and petticoat away from her.
Then Shane was suddenly everywhere at once. His lips and hands were caressing all of her secret places. She was becoming delirious with sensations, her entire body heating up, all of her senses yearning for the promise he was offering her.
Hardly able to stand much more, finding herself ready to reach a peak that was unfamiliar to her, frightening her, Melanie gently touched Shane's smooth cheek. ''Shane, my love," she whispered. "What are you doing to me? Oh, what are you doing to me?"
Shane framed her face between his hands and drew her lips to his mouth. He brushed her lips with soft kisses while he spoke softly and reassuringly to her.
"What am I doing?" he whispered huskily. "You told me that you loved me. I am showing you that I love you. I will ask for nothing myself this time, my love. Let me just give you pleasure. I shall wait. I was taught early in life the art of restraint."
"This is all so new to me," Melanie said, emitting a sigh when he placed a hand at the juncture of her thighs and began softly caressing her again. "Please don't think that I have done this before with other men. I am not a whore, Shane. I have only done this with you because it is you. Please believe me, Shane."
Shane slipped a finger up inside her tight sheath and felt her womanhood still intact. He smiled and eased his finger back from inside her and began caressing her again. She spoke the truth. No man had entered her. No man but he ever would!
Shane continued to move his fingers along her swollen mound, feeling it becoming tighter beneath his touch. He looked up at her. He could tell by the haze in her eyes that she was nearing that point of no return. He was glad to be the first to introduce her into the pleasures of a woman. He remembered the time he had been shown what it felt like to be a man. It had been with an older woman. She had known just the right moves to make with a boy of thirteen winters. When his insides had exploded with the first wondrous feelings of a young man, it had been as if every star had fallen from the heavens!
He wanted it to be the same for Melanie.
"Think of nothing but how you are feeling at this moment," Shane said, making his way down her body with his lips. "Enjoy this first time, Melanie. Remember that it is only the beginning. From now on I will be there for you to show you every way to make love. But for now, there is only one way."
Melanie's ragged breathing became slower as she felt Shane's lips and tongue travel lower than her belly. She gasped in shocked pleasure as he found her throbbing center and paid homage to it. She closed her eyes again and held her head back, going over the edge into ecstasy as a strange spinning sensation rose up and flooded her whole body. . . .
Chapter Seven
When Shane leaned over Melanie and drew her up into his arms and held her close, she clung desperately to the ma
gic of the moment, not wanting to let shame spoil what she had just discovered with the man she could not help but adore.
When Shane wove his fingers through her hair and drew it back from her brow, gently kissing her, she twined her arms around his neck and returned the kiss with a fierce passion. Then a sensual shiver raced up and down her spine as his hands moved downward and he again began smoothing his fingers across her flesh, stopping to softly knead her breasts.
The bellowing of cattle in the distance made Melanie's eyes fly open and her heart skip a beat.
For a while she had let herself forget everything but Shane and the ecstasy of being with him.
But the cattle were a crude reminder of the real world and the chore that lay ahead of herthat of introducing a long-lost son to a dying father.
And how could she have forgotten Terrance? If he got to Josh first, it would not only be awkward for Shane, but perhaps deadly for Jared! If the telling weren't handled right, he could die from the shock.
Easing from Shane's arms, Melanie blushed as she realized her nudity for the first time since Shane had sent her mind out of the real world, into another realm. She reached for her dress and petticoat and held them against her body.
"What I have done is shameful," she said in a rush of words. "What must you think of me?"
"I think that you have proven to me that you are a woman," he said, picking up his blanket. He folded it and placed it and his deck of cards in one of his buckskin bags on his horse.
He went to Melanie and took her clothes from her arms. His gaze went slowly over her, setting his insides on fire with need, yet he looked away from her and slipped her petticoat over her head, and then her dress. "I wandered from my campsite last night," he said, turning her around so that her back was to him.
"I had the strong desire to get at least a glimpse of my father," he said, fastening her dress. "As I was on my way to his house, I saw you arrive there. I witnessed an embrace shared by you and my brother."
Melanie gasped and spun around to face him. "You were there?" she said, searching his face with her eyes. "You saw Josh embrace me?"
"Yes," he said thickly. "This I witnessed. Nothing else. I left. At that time I did not understand the embrace. But now I do."
Melanie combed her fingers through her hair, straightening it around her shoulders. "What do you mean?" she asked. "You understand now, but you didn't then?"
"I was so hurt and angry over seeing you in my brother's arms that I did not stop to look for the meaning behind the embrace," Shane said, smiling down at her. He ran the palm of his hand along the slender column of her neck. "Today, when you embraced me, I knew the difference. You embrace me with enthusiasm. You embraced my brother with no feelings. I was wrong to become disillusioned so quickly with you. I am sorry, Melanie. I almost left because of this."
He placed his hands to her waist and drew her against him, his eyes filled with warmth as he gazed down at her. "You are my woman," he said huskily. "You have proven that to me today. Nothing will cause me to leave you. Ever. We have much to share. Forever."
Melanie's insides were aglow with ecstasy. His words were so sweet, they caused tears to flood her eyes. But this was not the time for tears. She knew that too much time had been wasted. A man lay dying. Each heartbeat now brought him closer to death. Melanie felt selfish for having taken up even these last wonderful moments with Shane when
they should have belonged to his father.
"Shane, we do have forever," she murmured, placing a hand to his cheek. "But your father doesn't. Shane, how can I tell you?"
"Tell me what?" Shane asked, his eyes wavering.
"Before you go and see your father today, you must be told his condition," Melanie said, clearing her throat nervously. "Shane, I didn't tell you sooner because you weren't ready to see your father yet. But now that you are, you must know that he is a dying man. He doesn't have much longer."
She felt Shane tense within her arms. She hugged him tightly. "Shane, oh, Shane," she murmured. "He is not at all the man you remember. He has wasted away almost to nothing. He has consumption, Shane, a terrible disease of the lungs."
While clinging to Shane, her cheek pressed against his chest, Melanie could hear the rapid beat of his heart. "I'm sorry, Shane," she said softly. "But I had to tell you. If you had gone into your father's bedroom and had seen him without first being warned, it would not have been good for him. Your reaction could have killed him."
"It is hard for me to recall much of my childhood," Shane said. "But I do remember my father well. He was my idol. He was a strapping sort of man. He towered over me as tall as a tree. I enjoyed walking around and chasing his shadow. When I caught up with it, I would pretend it was me, a grown man already."
He eased away from Melanie. Downcast, he went to his horse and took the reins, stepped a foot into the stirrup, and swung himself into his saddle. He looked down at Melanie. "Now I am that grown man," he said dryly. "With a grown man's duty to perform." He gestured toward her horse with a hand. "Come along. We shall go and see my father together.''
Almost choked with emotion, Melanie looked up at Shane for a moment longer. It was quite obvious that he was hurting inside, yet on the outside he was a picture of courage. He had twenty-five years to catch up with, and he now knew that there was little time allowed for it.
So much in life wasn't fair!
Picking up her shawl, Melanie placed it around her shoulders and tied the ends together to secure it. Feeling anything but ladylike and unable to keep her dress from hiking up above her knees as she placed her foot into the stirrup, she hurried into the saddle.
Draping the reins around her hands, she sent her horse into a soft lope and followed Shane down the gentle slope, then across the pasture. They were leaving the palisades of pine trees behind them. Clouds of split-tail swallows were flying all around above them.
Melanie was hardly able to keep her eyes dry as she looked at Shane when her horse caught up with his beautiful white stallion. "You are going to make your father's last days so filled with happiness," she reassured him. "Shane, since I met your father he has talked of nothing but you and your
mother. That you are alive is a miracle, Shane. It's as though your father willed it, and that alone has made it so."
"You will be at my side when I see my father?" Shane asked, glancing over at Melanie.
His heart warmed within his chest. The sun that was now brightening the land with its radiance was full on Melanie's face, making her flesh take on the look of rich, warm satin. Her auburn hair was even more red in the sunlight and bounced lustrously on her shoulders as she rode alongside him. Her brown eyes were luminous. Her parted lips were vivacious. She was nothing less than beautiful. But not only was she beautiful, she was a woman filled with compassion.
"If that's what you want," Melanie said, looking away quickly when the Brennan mansion came into view at the end of the lane. "I want to do whatever I can to make it easy not only for you, but also for your father. He's a wonderful man, Shane." She glanced at him. "Your brother will be shocked. Let me warn you that he will not be all that happy to see you. You see, he's . . . he's . . ."
She turned her eyes away. How could she tell Shane that his brother was a most unpleasant, greedy man? How could she tell Shane that Josh would not want to accept his brother's return because it would mean losing half his inheritance? Just as Terrance had been forced to accept sharing equally with his sister, Melanie, so would Josh be forced to share with a brother.
But Melanie knew the difference. Josh was going to be sharing with a man he had thought was dead.
"What were you going to say?" Shane asked, forking an eyebrow. "Josh is what?"
"Well, I guess you could say that he is not a very pleasant man," Melanie blurted, giving Shane a quick glance. "Shane, you and Josh may resemble one another in appearances, but that is as far as it goes. He's selfish and thinks of only one personJosh Brennan. Don't be surprised by his attitude when he
sees you. Just remember your father. He is all that matters."
Shane's eyes wavered as he stared at the house that stood directly ahead, and he cast thoughts of a jealous brother aside. He was used to jealousies and the harm they brought to one's soul. Instead, he was in awe again of the house in which his father made residence. Could it be true? Had Shane been born into a family of such wealth? Had he truly been denied all of this because of the man whose peculiar eyes would forever haunt him?
He could not help but wonder how different his childhood might have been had he not witnessed a massacre at age four.
Would he have had an education?
Would he have been rich in his own right by now?
Guilt splashed through him when he suddenly thought of Chief Standing Tall, who had guided him since boyhood, and how kind he had been to Shane all through the years. Shane could not make less of this relationship in his mind than it was. If not for Chief Standing Tall, he would probably be dead.
Melanie saw that Shane was filled with reserva-
tions about the coming moments that would change his life forever. Shane was kind, gentle, and compassionate. Being all of these things, would he be able to stand up to his conniving brother, to accept the share of the Brennan inheritance that would be rightfully his?
Or would he be afraid to stand up for himself in a world of white men, a world that might condemn him as an Indian because he was raised by them?
Sighing heavily, taking a deep, shaky breath, Melanie saw much responsibility in introducing Shane into the world of the white man. Without her, he would be alone. She had to see that he would have his rightful share in life. He had suffered a lifetime already of injustice because of the senseless massacre by men who had given no value to life, only to that which could be carried away from their victims to sell for profit. It was time for all of this to be made up to Shane. She would see that it was!
They rode on toward the house. Everything was quiet. Melanie eased from her saddle to the ground. Shane seemed unsure of himself as he gazed up at the house, looking from window to window.
When Passion Calls Page 7