by Jillian Hart
His lips grazed hers. Moonlight touched his face and showed his heart, this shining hero who filled all her dreams. He was everything she wanted, all she could ever need. His hard shaft pressed against her inner thigh, and Anna melted beneath him. How wonderful he felt. Wanting him, she tilted her hips and he filled her, delicious and slow. She moaned at the feeling, at the stretching full sensation, at the thrill of being joined to him.
As if he felt it, too, his eyes met hers. Held. The entire world silenced, even the breezes off the water. He moved inside her once, withdrawing just enough to fill her again.
She closed her eyes and gave herself up to him, to the pleasure, sharp and sweet. She arched up to meet him. He withdrew, only to thrust again. Over and over, he built a sharp, breathless rhythm.
Then it happened. Red-hot sensation spiraled through her. Spikes of unbearable pleasure radiated tight and hard through her stomach. Growing brighter, bigger, until it burst, tearing her into a thousand pieces, putting her back together again. Breathless, she could only cling to him as Cooper’s body stiffened. He surged inside her, harder, deeper, sparking more rippling waves of pleasure. He groaned low in his throat. She felt the hot spill of wetness pulsing deep inside her.
She loved him. She would always love him.
“Look at me.” His simple request.
It was all she could do to lift her gaze. Love shimmered in his eyes like the brightest star, guiding her to him, leading her home.
She’d stopped believing in fairy tales long ago, of honorable knights who rescued distressed damsels, who saved the knights in return.
But in this wonderful man, her husband, she’d found her happily-ever-after.
Chapter Nineteen
The first light of dawn woke him. Cooper found himself spooned around Anna’s sleeping body, one hand cupping her breast, her firm fanny against his groin. Her gold curls tumbled everywhere, tousled from their passion, as luxurious as fine silk. Desire stirred, yet after a night of lovemaking, Anna deserved a little sleep. He slipped from the bed, careful not to wake her.
She stirred as he was tugging on a shirt. She stretched like a cat, a contented smile touching her lips. “Good morning.”
“It’s nice being alone, isn’t it?” He sat down on the bed beside her. She looked warm and luxurious. He could spend all day with her here, loving her as thoroughly as he’d loved her last night.
“It won’t last for long. I wonder how long Laura can hold off bringing the girls home.” Anna sat up, the sheet draping her breasts, leaving her creamy shoulders bare.
His groin kicked. “As long as we don’t leave this room, then everyone will leave us alone.”
“Good thinking.” Anna caught his hand, began unbuttoning his shirt. “Maybe breakfast can wait.”
A door rattled open, jarring the peace in the hotel’s dining room. Three little girls dashed across the floor, feet pounding. “Mama! Papa!”
“Girls.” Anna watched Cooper hold open his arms to hug both his daughters to him.
Mandy flew into her lap and she cuddled the child. She looked tired. “How I missed you, pumpkin. Did you have fun with Aunt Laura?”
“Uncle Larry done popped us some popcorn.” Mandy grinned. “It tasted good, but not as good without my mama.”
“Nothing was as fun without you.” Anna looked over Mandy’s blond curls. Cooper’s eyes laughed at her. “Did you girls get breakfast?”
“Nope.” Katie beamed. “Laura done starved us.”
“Made us sleep on the porch.”
“Us an’ Larry’s dog,” Mandy added.
Laura’s laughter chimed like bells. “You girls are going to get me into trouble. I treated them terribly.”
“It shows.” Anna stood, adjusting Mandy’s weight on her hip. “Well, it’s Sunday morning. I was thinking of taking the family to church. What time is the service?”
Laura’s amazement slid from her face. “Nine o’clock.”
“Then we’re just in time.”
“I’ll go warn Larry.” Laughing, Laura knelt down to give each girl a hug. “Try to behave, Katie.”
“Just because I was thrown out for bringing a lizard with me last time. He was my pet.”
Anna laid her hand on Katie’s shoulder. “Is there any small animal in your pockets we should know about?”
“Not today.” Katie winked.
“That’s a first,” Cooper planted both fists on his hips. “You’ve been a good influence on her already.”
She laughed, knowing he was teasing. He loved his daughter just the way she was. Just as she loved him. Just looking at him made her breath catch, made her heart stop beating. His black hair tumbled across his forehead. The white shirt he wore stretched across his muscled arms when he opened the door.
Keeping three little girls headed in the right direction was no easy feat Katie stopped to look at a pony poking its nose out of the livery stable, a For Sale sign hanging from its stall. Maisie cried because her veil fell off and they had to backtrack to find it. Mandy decided she wanted a baby bird, taking a dust bath with its family in an alley.
“This is like herding wild cattle,” Cooper commented as Anna consoled Mandy. “One’s always going astray. Katie, come back here.”
“I wanna check out this pony. Maisie and Mandy gotta have one.” Katie frowned, both hands on her hips. “We haven’t gone to church in a long time.”
“We’re going to try to be civilized. Maybe learning hymns will have a calming influence on you,” he teased.
Katie kept looking back wistfully at the livery. “Papa, you ain’t walking beside Anna.”
“That’s because I’m walking with you.”
“You’re supposed to be with her, like you’re in love.”
“Yeah, in love,” Maisie added. “Anna’s our mama now. You gotta walk with her.”
“An’ hold hands like Uncle Larry and Aunt Laura,” Mandy added. “But they kiss lots, too.”
“A lot,” Maisie rolled her eyes. “You gonna kiss Anna that much?”
“It’s torture for a man to kiss his own wife.” Cooper’s eyes twinkled at her as he reached out and took her hand. As their fingers touched, fire rippled across his skin. “But I’m tough. I can handle a little torture.”
“You have a rough road ahead of you, Sheriff,” Anna teased. “Because I’m going to demand a lot of kisses.”
The girls laughed together. Cooper’s fingers tightened around hers in a gentle squeeze that let her know that he felt it, too. The happiness, the laughter.
Maybe even the love.
“I think church was a success,” Anna decided as they headed back toward the hotel. “Katie only caused an interruption once.”
“I swear I didn’t remember that there was a snake asleep in my pocket.” Katie looked innocent. “I put him there so I could take him to Laura’s. But I forgot he was there until he crawled out onto Mrs. Briggs.”
“Thank goodness she doesn’t mind snakes.” Cooper ruffled Katie’s head affectionately.
Anna saw the livery stable ahead of them. “How much do you think that pony costs?”
The pretty chestnut stretched her nose over the stall as far as she could.
Cooper coughed. “Too much.”
Anna wasn’t fooled by his no-nonsense tone. “Now, you’re a well-paid sheriff of this town, Cooper. And I have my tip money from working for Janet.”
“I got gold nuggets from hunting gold.” Katie pulled a few golden-brown pebbles from her pocket. “I got thirty bucks.”
“No pony. The girls are too young.” But Cooper was softening a little. Maybe it was the way Anna smiled at him, patiently, beautifully, with those lips that had kissed so much of his body last night.
“I think Mandy and Maisie are old enough to learn to ride.” She tilted her head, scattering dozens of blond curls over shoulders so slim and fine. “It can’t hurt just to look at the pony.”
“Katie’s already nearly killed herself on Bob. I suggest a ba
n on ponies. Until you girls are at least sixteen years old.”
Anna laughed. “You’re outvoted.”
“Yeah, Papa.” Katie took Anna’s hand. “There’s four of us and just one of you.”
“Unless Anna gets us a boy baby,” Maisie added.
He watched his new wife blush. Apparently someone was going to have to tell Maisie they couldn’t go pick out a baby the way they could a pony.
Anna led the way down the aisle.
Eric McGraw stepped out of a stall, pitchfork in hand. “Howdy, Mrs. Braddock. What can I do for you and your family, too? Hello, Coop.”
It was the first time he’d heard his last name associated with Anna. A strange sensation curled around his heart. “Tell us about that pony out back.”
“Well, she’s a sweet thing.” Eric led the way down the aisle to the back of the stable where the stalls faced the alley. The chestnut pony nickered when she saw them approach. Apparently she knew the value of belonging to little girls.
“A fellow passing through with his family left her in trade. They needed repairs on their wagon. Going north to homestead. Their girl had outgrown the pony, but she sure was attached to it. My guess is that she’s been treated gentle. Look, she’s good with the girls.”
Katie held her hand out flat for the pony to scent her. She eagerly bumped her nose against Katie’s fingers, begging for a pat. “She’s awful gentle, Papa. Not cantankerous like Bob.”
Maisie and Mandy clattered close, eager to pet the pony.
“I can be grateful about that.” Cooper fished out his billfold. “How’s her health?”
“Just fine.” Eric gave a grin, already knowing he’d made a sale. “I also have a new appaloosa mare. Cute as could be. Would be real nice for the missus.”
Anna’s head swung up. “I have a weakness for appaloosas.”
It was true. He was outnumbered. So he opened his wallet and started counting out bills.
“Go, Daisy!” Maisie ordered, holding the reins in her hands. She and Mandy were both appropriately dressed in their cowboy hats, holsters and chaps. Mandy, clinging on the pony’s back behind her, paled with fear.
Daisy looked at Anna with beseeching eyes. “It’s okay, girl.” Anna took hold of the bit. “We’re going to walk nice and slow around the yard—”
“Very slow,” Cooper added, standing protectively beside the girls, ready to catch them if they fell.
“Oh, Papa.” Katie turned from unbridling Bob. She had just returned from an adventure with Davy. “That pony ain’t gonna buck them off.”
Anna gave the gentle Daisy a little tug on her bit. She started walking slow and gentle. When Maisie shrieked, “Giddy-up” and kicked the mare’s side, Daisy didn’t even blink.
“Bob!” Katie ran across the yard after her badly behaved pony, who had climbed the back steps and stuck her head through the door. “She did that at Davy’s house and Mrs. Muldune screamed and grabbed the broom. She thought it was a charging elk.”
“Maybe she smells the cake I brought home from the hotel ” Anna fiashed a smile at Cooper. His gaze met hers, confident and brash. Twilight deepened; it was almost night. Almost time to go to bed together. As man and wife.
She shivered, aching for more of his touches, for the feel of his weight holding her down on the mattress, for the pulsing excitement of him moving inside her.
“Mama, we don’t wanna stop,” Mandy informed her.
She hadn’t realized she’d stopped walking. Cooper’s fingers curled around her elbow. Heat snapped up her arm, bolted through every part of her body. His smile drew her gaze to his mouth and she knew the pleasure waiting there.
“It’s bedtime, girls.” Cooper lifted Mandy to the ground.
“Papa, outlaws ride their ponies at night.”
“Well, I’m the law and I’m bringing you little outlaws in.” He set Maisie to the ground next. “You girls run upstairs and get ready for bed. I’ll see to the pony.”
Anna ached to call him back to her arms. But there were little girls to tend to, hair that needed to be brushed and nighties put on and stories told in the cozy upstairs room. Mandy and Maisie shared a bed for the night. Tomorrow there would be changes. Katie would have her own room down the hall.
“Read to us, Anna.” Katie held out her latest dime novel and Mandy and Maisie clapped in agreement.
As she read, the littlest girls slowly drifted off to sleep. When she reached the end of a chapter, Katie took the book from her. “I can do it myself now.”
“I’ll turn the wick low.” She twisted the wick just enough for Katie to read by. “Don’t forget to put out the light before you fall asleep.”
Katie caught her hand. “Anna?”
“Yes.” She felt the need in that touch, a need Katie would never admit to.
“I know you love us, not like my first mama. Cuz you smile all the time.”
Anna dared to brush a kiss on Katie’s brow. “You enjoy your story.”
“I will.”
She paused at the door just long enough to see Katie dig into her book, face hidden by the pages, already lost in the wild adventure story.
Anna shut the door. Felt a hand curl around her shoulder. Heat telegraphed through every inch of her. “Our girls are tucked in for the night.”
“Would you like me to tuck you in, Anna?”
So seductive that voice. She burned just thinking of the bed in the room down the hall, the bed they would share. “Come tuck me in,” she invited.
He led her into the room brushed by moonlight and loved her until the moon passed through the room and left them in darkness.
Cooper walked to work whistling. He hadn’t whistled in a long while. Maybe it was because he was content. Katie was working on a quilt with Anna. Maisie was now outgoing and happy with Mandy imitating her every move.
And he had Anna.
The federal marshals were waiting at the jailhouse.
“You’re back.” He offered them coffee at the stove. They declined, all business.
“There’s no sign our fugitive has traveled north of here. We’d like to do another sweep of the area. We’d appreciate your help.”
“Whatever you need, you’ve got.” Cooper grabbed the sugar jar. “I’ve worked too hard to keep criminals away from this town. I don’t want more to start moving in.”
“Round up your best trackers,” the marshal ordered. “We’ve got us a mountain to search.”
Cooper ached from fatigue and hunger as he rode his stallion through the dark toward the stable at the back of the house. Alone in the night, he listened to the creak of boughs rubbing together in the wind, heard the screech of a hunting owl, a distant call of coyotes, saw the stealthy shadows of grazing deer.
He’d had a tough day combing the mountainside with the marshals. They’d found two-week-old tracks that led nowhere, nothing more, nothing fresh. Cooper hoped the fugitive lawman had headed north, away from his town. He wanted the citizens he protected safe.
He dismounted and tended his horse. The new appaloosa nickered, begging for extra grain. Daisy the pony looked up and down the aisle, perhaps hoping her little girls had come to see her, too. Bob showed her teeth; she didn’t like sharing her stable with the new horses.
Limping from being in the saddle too long, he headed toward the house. He saw the lit kitchen window. A woman’s silhouette moved across the closed curtains. A woman’s naked silhouette. Cooper dropped his cigarette. Mesmerized, he was unable to look away.
She stood between the light and the window, and he could see her movements clearly. He could also see the silhouetted curve of her breasts, the nip of her slender waist and the appealing slope of her hips and thighs. Then she knelt, and he could no longer see her.
But how he ached for her. It beat in his blood, a risky flood of desire and emotion that left him weak, on the edge of control. He retrieved the fallen cigarette and strode toward the house.
He climbed up the steps and onto the small porch. No
curtain covered the panes of glass in the door. He could see her clearly. The sheen of lamplight burnished her hair a vivid, liquid gold and brushed inviting glimmers across her silken, creamy skin. His fingers ached for her. Already he knew her by feel, by memory.
Air lodged in his throat when she lifted her arm, a washcloth held in her free hand. He watched breathless as she soaped the curve of her graceful neck, then caressed the sudsy cloth across her slender shoulder and along the full curve of her breast. How he wanted to be that cloth, touching her so intimately.
He turned the knob and opened the door. He was breathing fast. He was already hard, already wanting her.
“Cooper.” She smiled at him, rinsing off in the steaming water.
The scent of roses tickled his nose. Made desire thrum in his veins. He shouldn’t want her so much. He shouldn’t let her dominate his thoughts, his days, have such a swift affect on his body.
But it was too late. He tried to fight it, he really did. He wanted to hold back his heart, he wanted to keep distance between them. A safe barrier to hide behind, to make himself less vulnerable to her and to the power of her love.
Anna stood. Water sluiced down her silken skin, winking like diamonds in the lamplight. Caressing the fullness of her breasts and the curve of her hips, knowing the sweetness of her inner thighs that he wanted to taste.
It was too late. He’d fallen in love with her. He trusted her with his children, his love and his future. And why shouldn’t he? She’d proven herself honorable, shown her love again and again. She was more than his wife, she was his love, all of his heart.
Cooper crossed the room and took Anna in his arms. Her mouth met his, her fingers tugged at his buttons. It was so late, all the girls were upstairs asleep and they were alone in the lamplight, alone with their love.
Dalton Jennings watched the sun rise over the town of Flint Creek. Clean streets, clean shops, it looked like a real friendly place. Too bad the marshals on his tail had nearly found him yesterday. And it was all thanks to that sheriff. He was a good tracker. If it hadn’t been for the creek, they might have found his hideout, an old prospector’s shanty he’d stumbled across one night.