by Lynda Chance
The puzzle of how he would stop it from happening was something that would have to go unanswered for now, but maybe, somehow in the act, she would figure it out and the truth would come to her.
She was also worried that he would be able to tell somehow that she was a virgin, and she didn't want him to know. He seemed to have all the answers when she had none, and the only thing she could think to do to keep this happening between them was to agree with him.
"All right," she said softly, "Thank you."
She didn't want him to keep talking, so she put her lips back on his and softly kissed him as she leaned into his body as he had taught her how to do.
She wasn't to get her wish because after a few small kisses, his mouth left hers and landed on her shoulder as he gripped her hips in a vise that was almost painful. "Emma," he whispered, "You're so beautiful."
Emma's head began to swim and fireworks were already exploding in her veins just from his kisses. She didn't know how she'd be able to stand it when he took off his own clothes and held her naked body to him.
"I want you to promise me something." His voice held a ruthless intensity, a demand that she listen and agree with him and she opened her eyes to look at his.
"Yes, anything." Emma only wanted him to continue what he was doing.
"Promise that you'll only think of me. Don't think of him when I'm inside of you."
Emma closed her eyes as a momentary shaft of pain went through her. If she hadn't lied, he wouldn't be worried. But if she hadn't lied, the chances of this happening were almost nothing. "I promise, Luke. It's just you."
She stopped thinking altogether when he took her hands in his and firmly pulled them apart until he could see her naked chest. He watched her silently for a moment, the only noise in the room the deep breaths that were pulled into their lungs as they watched each other and arousal flared between them.
He stood up and pulled the quilt to the foot of the bed and then lifted her and set her in the center. He turned to the bedside table and lit the kerosene lamp until the room was bathed in the brightest glow possible.
Emma had already taken cover under the quilt and pulled it up to her chin and held it in front of her as she watched him. "Why do we need the lamp?"
"I want to see you," he answered as his fingers went to the buttons of his shirt and he began undoing them as quickly as he could. When he got to the bottom button, he shrugged it off his shoulders and let it fall to the floor. His eyes never left hers the entire time.
He sat on the edge of the bed and pulled off his boots and then quickly stood and unbuckled the low-riding gunbelt. He pulled if from around his waist and put the gun and belt on the bedside table.
With his back still to her, his hands went to his waist and Emma realized with shock that he was about to open his buttons and take off his jeans. She tried to turn her head, she tried to close her eyes but she couldn't and her gaze stayed on him as he bent down low and slid out of the jeans, one leg at a time.
She'd never considered what a naked man looked like until she met Luke, and now the sight of his nude backside was more than anything she'd ever hoped for. He was muscular and strong, his buttocks the male equivalent of hers, but different in an altogether pleasing and masculine way. Her heartbeat accelerated as he turned and without a pause, pulled back the covers and climbed in next to her.
He'd done it so quickly his front side had been a blur, and she only just had a vague look at muscles and hair and an appendage that would have been threatening had she seen it for more than one second.
But just the memory of that one second was sending trepidation down her spine.
Emma was lying on her back and when he pulled down the quilt, her hands went to her breasts again.
Luke stretched out next to her on his side and propped himself up on one elbow, and watched her with heat in his eyes. He reached out his free hand and ran it gently back and forth across the hands that covered her chest. "Let me see, baby."
Hot, molten lava ran down Emma's body from her breasts to the feminine heat between her thighs, but she didn't move.
Hot brown eyes held hers. "I can seduce you into moving those hands in about ten seconds." His tongue dipped out and he licked his lips as his eyes fell to her breasts again. "But I don't want to do that. I want you to give in to me. I want you to move them willingly of your own accord."
Emma shuddered and then took a deep breath. "Is it all about what you want, Luke?" she asked softly as her eyes held his.
He began shaking his head back and forth, ever so slowly. "No, it's not. It's about what you want, too. What do you want, Emma?" His finger moved from the hands that covered her breasts down to the top of her pantalets and pushed his finger into the silken slit of her navel.
Emma gasped at the sensation and Luke leaned in and kissed her lips once, and then twice. "What do you want, Emma?" He asked again as his finger circled around her navel, dipped in, and then continued to repeat the entire process.
"I don't know," she said against his lips.
"Sure you do, baby. You want me to sink into you so deeply you won't know where you end and I begin." His mouth opened over hers and his tongue began thrusting into her mouth, in and out, and then in and out again, in a rhythm of strokes unlike any he had shown her before.
She began panting against him immediately.
Luke reached down and untied the tapes on her undergarment and pushed it down her legs. She didn't fight him at all, only lifted her hips to aid him in the process.
Luke felt like his heart was going to explode. She was so soft and silky next to him, and he ached to be inside her. He ran his hand up and down the side of her body, over her hip to her thigh and then back again until his hand was resting on the indent at her waist.
Emma slowly moved her hands away from her chest and slid them over his biceps and back again to his neck.
He left the curve of her waist and he wrapped his arm around her, and felt it the minute she let go with her hands and moved them up over his shoulders in a hot clench of sexual surrender.
They clung together, and he pulled her torso into his. Their hips aligned perfectly and Luke had a moment where he thought he'd gone too far too quickly when he stripped the last bit of clothing from her body. Without even the soft cotton of her undergarments between them, he knew he wouldn't be able to last very long without being inside of her completely.
The thought of being joined to her sent an incendiary rush of heat down his spine and he kissed her roughly, almost violently, but she didn't seem to mind as she opened her mouth to give him complete access. She began rocking her hips softly against him, and he groaned in a fit of feral heat and dropped down until his mouth was on her breast.
He found her nipple with his teeth and tongue and began grazing it as he held her breast up to his mouth with one hand and gripped its twin and rubbed that small, pink nipple with his thumb.
"Luke." Her voice was raspy and her head turned back and forth on the pillow in agitation.
At the sound of her voice calling his name, he gripped her more tightly and felt a rush to his shaft that hardened him completely. He continued to roll her nipple under his thumb and his lips tugged on the other.
"Luke," she puffed out again and he moved over her and up her body until his lips were aligned with hers again.
"What?" he growled as he pushed her legs open with his knee and settled himself between them.
His hands wrapped around her face and he kissed her with everything he had to give. She kissed him back for long moments and then turned her face away to drag in a large quantity of oxygen. "What?" he asked her again.
"I don't--I don't know." She turned back to him and he began kissing her again and he slid his hand down to the sweet spot between her thighs.
He touched her silken pearl until she began mewling against him, and he moved his finger down to her feminine core. She was hot and wet and he only penetrated her a fraction of an inch before he pulled back and wra
pped his hand around her face again. "You ready?" he asked on a guttural groan.
"Yes." She answered him on a breath and Luke couldn't wait any longer. He'd wanted to sink into her the moment he'd first seen her, and he'd wanted it every second since. He knew he'd want it with his dying breath.
He lifted himself over her and positioned himself at her entrance. The broad head of his penis was poised to impale her and he lifted her face with a strong hand. "Open your eyes, Emma."
Emma's heart was beating so fast that at any other time she would have thought she would die from it, but all she could think about was Luke and how she was feeling. She opened her eyes and found his glittering down at her.
"You'll never have a man who wants you more than I do," he groaned as he held her eyes and pushed into her with one hard thrust of his hips.
Emma felt a moment of pure bliss as he stretched her body and then the pleasure was wiped away as he tore through her flesh and impaled her completely.
Luke felt the obstruction at the same time she flinched and turned her face from his and he knew in that moment that she'd lied to him again.
He was too far gone for his brain to function but he knew a moment of elation before anger mixed in and then it was all pushed to the back of his brain as his muscles corded and his hunger for her took over.
He allowed her the count of about three seconds to adjust and then he wrapped his hands around her face again. He took a stroke and saw her flinch once more. "Ahh, Emma, you've been a bad girl again."
Emma's eyes flew open and she stared up at him, while they glistened with tears. "You know?" she whispered as he took another stroke and she closed her eyes again as a single tear slid down her cheek.
"I know," he tried to control his raging desire, and he knew that his anger would come back full steam later, but right now, all he felt was relief, loud and deafening as it crashed around his ears. She was his. Not just his for this moment in time, but his forever.
She'd messed up when she'd lied to him, and soon she'd know it. He wiped the tear away with his thumb.
He kissed her again, this time more slowly as he took slow, steady strokes into her comforting body. His control deserted him, and he knew he was close. He knew now that she wouldn't understand what he was about to say, but he felt only relief that he had all the time in the world to teach her.
"Baby, you know those kisses you owed me?" he didn't wait for an answer and he didn't expect one. "Well, I'm going to owe you now."
He stiffened against her, took three more thrusts and then pulled himself from her body, and spilled his seed onto the silky flesh of her stomach.
He landed against her and held her to him for as long as he dared. He knew he was crushing her, and lifted his weight onto an elbow.
Emma felt the warm liquid on her stomach and the stillness of his body and thought that it was probably over. She opened her eyes to find him watching her, once again. His eyes were dark and impenetrable. She knew he must be angry, but he wasn't saying anything and her emotions were too embroiled inside her own head to wonder much about what was going on in his.
He'd tell her soon enough, anyway.
He got to the heart of it fast enough.
"Is your last name really Martin?"
"Yes."
"Only it's Miss Martin." His words were a statement, not a question.
"Yes."
"You've sealed your fate now, Miss Martin," he said in a deep, controlled voice.
"What--what do you mean?"
"Now you're mine."
He rolled with her until she was spooned against him and tucked under his arm.
Emma's eyes remained open as she looked across the room and tried to decipher his meaning without asking. He'd made that bald statement with an intent and purpose in his voice.
Finally curiosity won out and she tried to twist to see him but he clamped that brawny arm around her mid-section and held her in place. "Be still or you're going to set me off again."
Set him off again? Emma gulped and tried to be still and quiet but it was impossible. She wanted to know, she needed to know what he'd meant or she wouldn't get a bit of sleep. "Luke--"
He must have read her mind because his voice was firm and offered no room for dispute or negotiation. "We're going to town in the morning and getting married."
"Married?"
"What the hell did you expect would happen, Emma?" His voice contained an edge of anger and she shifted restlessly in response to it.
His hand clamped down firmly on her hip and she felt the full effect of the warning he had given her begin to harden against her backside. "Be still." Even as he said it, he pushed against her. "Unless you're not sore. Are you sore?" The hand on her hip began to slide over her skin in a beguiling movement.
Emma did feel a mild discomfort in the location he was undoubtedly referring to. But she didn't think it was too sore for what he had in mind, but the sharp pain of her denouement was still too fresh in her mind to want to try it again. She'd need some time before she got her nerve up. "I am a little sore."
"Then try to be still and go to sleep."
His tone was harsh and she tried to explain. "I didn't think you would know."
"Know you were a virgin?"
"Yes."
"You meant to keep me in the dark?"
"I suppose so."
"You were going to pretend you had experience and then what--just go on about your merry way?"
"I didn't think about it like that."
"What the hell were you thinking? What were you planning on telling your husband when you did get married? Or was that your plan all along? To get me to marry you?" Anger became the only emotion she could hear in his voice and his disappointment upset her.
"No! I didn't have a plan, Luke. I've never thought marriage was even an option for me, and you'd already spelled out all your reasons why I wouldn't be suitable. I took that to heart."
"Why wouldn't marriage be an option for you?"
"The same reason you said I wasn't suitable wife material."
"I never said that."
"You did. You said I couldn't live on a ranch, that I didn't have the stamina or strength for what it would take."
He pushed her down onto her back and loomed over her where he could see her face in the darkened interior of the bedroom. "Well, you've taken that choice away from me." Anger bled from his voice.
"Why? I don't understand the difference. The only reason I've been pretending to be married is so I can have more freedom than a single woman has. You were all for seducing me when you were under that impression. Well, now the deed is done. It's not a crime to--what we did isn't unlawful.
"It's immoral, Emma. It's against my code of honor to seduce virgins. I can't send you off into the great big cold world after having relieved you of your innocence and expect you to be able to find a husband to take care of you. It would be a huge disadvantage for you. I can't accept that."
"I'm never going to get married, Luke. No man will want me with this lame leg--"
"That's bullshit, Emma! You're sweet and--"
His words were full of impatience and anger but she wasn't scared and cut him off anyway. "You didn't want me because of it! Why would another man?"
He let out a deep growl of impatience and rose over her, his hands on either side of her head. "I've always wanted you. Besides, I'm talking about the kind of men that live in a city--the cities are filled with thousands of goddamned dandies that would give their last cent to have you in their beds."
Emma lay perfectly still under him and was fascinated by the anger pulling at his cheekbones, making his skin taut across his face, and made his eyebrows angry spikes of promised retribution. She was fascinated that he seemed to think it was perfectly reasonable that a different kind of man would want her as his wife.
They studied each other in prolonged silence, the breaths they were taking coming fast and hard.
Finally, with a groan of need and impatience,
Luke's mouth fell to hers and he kissed her with raw passion. Emma felt the need take over and harden his body as he pushed his way between her legs and hung over her again.
He raised his head and watched her with desire in his eyes. "It doesn't matter anymore. It's all a moot point because nobody will ever have you but me. No man in a damned city, no damned cowboy on a ranch, no other person on the planet earth." Anger and lust combined to make him a fearsome sight as he hung over her.
"You can't marry me when all you feel is anger toward me." She tried to reason with him.
"Oh, I can, Emma," he softly threatened. "I've told you before, I can do any damn thing I want. You've made your bed and now you have to lie in it." His knee pushed her legs wider, and his manhood nudged threateningly at the entrance to her body. His hand slipped down and with his thumb and finger, he began tweaking her nipple until her eyes closed and her body softened under his. He nudged her again with the head of his erection. "Are you too sore?" His voice was harsh and ragged; Emma was sure he wouldn't stop no matter what her answer was.
She had no intention of trying to get him to stop.
By this time, any soreness Emma had felt was mitigated by the wild sense of need boiling in her blood. "I don't think so."
Luke wrapped his fingers around her wrists and lifted them over her head. He transferred both wrists to one lean hand and moved his other down to lift her face to meet his eyes.
He began a slow, inexorable penetration as he held her gaze with his. The impact was as raw as lightning in the dark of the night. His hips pushed slowly but with firm purpose and Emma felt herself stretched beyond comfort. But there was no pain. He pushed until he was in her to the hilt, and his nostrils flared as he sucked oxygen in through his nose.
It was a raw act of masculine possession, and Emma realized that he was deep inside her again and it hadn't caused her anymore pain. "It didn't hurt."
He took a smooth stroke and when he came back in he stilled again and their heartbeats pulsed in a fierce tandem between them. "No, it won't hurt again."
"Are you sure?" Her voice was hesitant, full of apprehension.
"Yeah, I'm sure." His words were full of a wealth of knowledge.