Carol Finch

by The Ranger's Woman

He had taken two steps toward the door when she said, “It really would be easy to hate you, Quinn Callahan.”

  “I thought you said you loved me. This just proves that you don’t know what you want and that we’re better off without each other. Neither of us seems to be able to think rationally when we’re together—”

  When she broke down in tears completely and crumpled onto the edge of the bed he knew he should keep walking. But he was rushing to her side to enfold her in his arms before he even realized it. Then she flung her arms around his neck and kissed him blind, deaf and stupid.

  The taste of Piper had been his first downfall and he was pretty sure it was going to be the last. His intimate knowledge of her luscious body and the forbidden emotion she summoned from him was his ultimate defeat. He wanted her so badly that he ached up to his eyelids.

  If nothing else, he was going to lose himself in this impossible female and get her out of his system once and for all. Then he was going to say goodbye and tell her how he really felt about her—without voicing the words that he had never spoken to another woman.

  And then he was going to do Piper the greatest favor a man could do for a woman who was too damn good for him.

  “Make love with me one last time,” Piper whispered brokenly as she fumbled with the buttons of his shirt. “I want to touch you, every solid, muscular inch of you. I want to feel you deep inside me—”

  His mouth came down on hers with wild urgency. Her words and the images they evoked left him hard and needy in the space of a heartbeat. Quinn devoured her like a man who had been starved for days on end. All the while he battled the conflicting feelings of wanting her and wanting what was best for her.

  The need to have her naked and yielding in his arms one last time won out over common sense. Plus, he wanted to know if the hazy memories of their wedding night were as fantastic as he thought they were. But he was very much afraid that the truth was going to come as a blessing as well as a curse. For then he would know for certain that she had touched him in every way possible and that leaving her behind was going to hurt every bit as much as he predicted it would.

  Quinn was sure that when he took possession of her luscious body that she was going to take what was left of his shriveled soul in exchange. Then there would be nothing of him but an empty shell when he walked out of her life.

  Quinn closed his eyes against the conflicting thoughts that chased each other around his head. He didn’t want to think; he wanted to savor the feel of Piper’s silky body beneath his fingertips. He wanted to hear those raspy whispers of love tumbling from her lips. And then he wanted to sink into the flames of her desire and burn alive this one last time—for all times.

  “I need you,” he murmured huskily as he caressed the curve of her neck and breathed in her alluring scent.

  “That’s all I will ever ask of you,” she whispered back.

  Piper wasn’t sure how and when they had come to be naked on her bed. Didn’t really care, either. But the one thing she did care passionately about was offering Quinn all the mind-bending pleasure he had introduced her to the previous night. She shifted away from his distracting kisses and caresses to focus her attention on pleasing him as much as he had satisfied her on their wedding night.

  Her hands swept over the muscled wall of his chest and her lips skimmed his bronzed flesh. She heard him hiss out his breath when she flicked at his male nipples with her tongue and teeth. When her hand glided down his washboard belly she heard his rumbling groan. It inspired her to draw more sounds of pleasure from him.

  He could flash that carefully neutral stare at her time and again, but tonight she would delve beneath that wall of self-discipline and seduce this man who had stolen her heart without even trying.

  To that dedicated purpose Piper trailed a row of steamy kisses across his ribs and belly. Her caresses skimmed over his hair-roughed thighs and calves, marveling at the sinewy muscles and tendons beneath her fingertips. When her hand cupped his rigid length and she felt him flinch, battling for self-control, she smiled wickedly.

  She had discovered that she held the same kind of sensual power over him that he held over her, and she was going to make use of that knowledge. She was going to brand the memory of their lovemaking on his mind. If she could be nothing more than an erotic memory, at least that was something. It was better than being another of the forgettable women who had come and gone from his life.

  Just let him try to block out the feel of her hands and lips making a provocative feast of him. Let him try to forget his own helpless response and how she had made him ache, as she ached with the maddening want of him.

  “Piper, stop!” He gasped as she stroked his erect flesh from base to tip. “You’re driving me—”

  “Crazy. I know,” she murmured. “But I’m determined to make you love every moment of crazy before you go away.”

  She took him into her mouth and suckled him while her hands skimmed his inner thighs. She heard him groan in tormented pleasure. Felt his big body tremble in helpless response. She flicked playfully at him with her tongue, traced him with her fingertips. She smiled in satisfaction when another rumbling moan slipped past his clenched teeth.

  “Damn it, woman,” he rasped. “You are playing absolute hell with my self-control!”

  “Damn you for making me love you so much,” she whispered against his softest flesh. “Why couldn’t you have been like every other man that I turned away without the slightest regret? Why did you have to leave your mark on my heart and soul? I can never be free when your memory holds me captive.”

  She lifted her head and stared at him while she caressed him intimately. “Turnabout is fair play, Quinn. All I’m asking is for you to remember me, to remember this night.”

  As if he could ever forget the tantalizing feel of her warm lips skimming his throbbing length, the feel of her fingertips stroking him, teasing him, driving him insane with hungry need. And worse, he let her touch him in ways he had never allowed another woman to know him. He would never forget that she alone made him break every rule about becoming hopelessly attached to anyone who had the power to hurt him.

  She was his weakness. She tangled up his thoughts, destroyed his willpower and left him burning with barely controllable desire. She reduced him to a quivering mass of sensations and emotions and she left him sinking into erotic oblivion.

  And when he didn’t think he could endure another instant of her evocative kisses and caresses she brought her lips back to his, letting him taste the desire she had called from him. Desperate, frantic, struggling to draw breath, Quinn clamped hold of her hips and settled her exactly upon him.

  A sigh escaped his lips as he sank into her velvety warmth. He glanced up to see the smile of feminine satisfaction on her enchanting face. She knew she had the ability to make him a slave to her passion. She knew that whatever she asked of him he would give. If she wanted a handful of stars then he would find a way to pluck them from the sky. He would do anything for her if she would appease this wild ache that thrummed through him and left him burning like wildfire.

  When she arched against him, driving him deeper, a holocaust of sensations blazed through him. He clenched his teeth against the onslaught of inexpressible pleasure. His body lifted off the bed, seeking ultimate depths of intimacy with her, craving her like a mindless addiction.

  And when she rode him, setting a frantic pace that took him so close to the edge of restraint that his entire body shook, Quinn hooked his hand around her neck and brought her head down to his. He kissed her for all he was worth, conveying all the need and affection that bubbled inside him.

  He felt her body respond to his urgent thrusts, felt her contracting around him, burning him up in all-consuming passion. He crushed her tightly to him and held on for dear life as shudder after shudder wracked his body. He felt his strength and energy draining away, felt himself drifting on some far-flung plateau in a world rife with so many indefinable sensations that they overwhelmed him.
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  And then he heard the same sizzling sounds of lightning and crackles of thunder that had followed him to the fort. Rain pounded against the windowpane, consuming the world as he had been consumed by Piper’s passion. It was a long moment before Quinn’s heart rate returned to normal and he found the strength to shift away from her.

  “Stay the night,” she whispered as she snuggled up beside him.

  He chuckled softly. “I’m not sure I could get up, even if someone held a gun to my head.” He draped his arm around her waist, holding her chest to chest and heart to heart. He smiled drowsily as he inhaled the sweet scent that was unique to her alone. Then he pressed a kiss to her lush lips. “Good night, Piper.”

  She didn’t respond for a moment, but he heard her whisper, “Goodbye, Quinn. I will love you…for always.” And then he fell asleep.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Piper was jolted awake when she heard the door to her room creak open. She was surprised to discover that Quinn was still nestled beside her. She had expected him to be long gone by dawn.

  Bleary-eyed, she glanced toward the door, and then yelped in embarrassment when she saw her father looming in the doorway. He staggered back as if he had been shot, then a look of stunned outrage claimed his face.

  “Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my daughter’s bed?” Roarke roared at Quinn.

  This was not the way Piper had envisioned the encounter with her father. Her face went up in flames as she clutched the sheet to her bare breasts and glanced wildly at Quinn who met Roarke’s mutinous glower with that trademark stare that suggested nothing got to him.

  Piper would have given anything if she could match that poker-face expression he had perfected into an art form.

  “Roarke Sullivan, I presume,” Quinn said, as calmly as you please.

  “Yes, and I repeat, who the hell are you?” Roarke growled furiously.

  “I’m Piper’s husband.”

  Piper watched her father’s jaw scrape his overinflated chest, saw his eyes pop as he staggered back another step to brace his arm against the doorjamb for support.

  “Her what?” he howled in disbelief.

  “My husband,” Piper repeated. “Would you please step outside so we can dress?”

  “No, I will not,” Roarke snapped, then filleted Quinn with a glower. “You have miscalculated if you think you can attach yourself to my daughter and profit from it, you scoundrel. I will cut her off as surely as I disowned Penelope for marrying beneath her station!”

  “Your money is the very last thing that interests me about Piper. I have twelve years of salary as a Texas Ranger stockpiled in a bank in Austin. Not to mention several thousand from bounties I’ve collected.”

  His gaze narrowed threateningly and his bronzed face took on a formidable expression. “Now you heard my wife’s request. Leave the room so we can get dressed. Do not make me get up and forcefully remove you.”

  Roarke made a big production of slamming the door on his way out. Dust dribbled from the woodwork and a muffled curse resounded around the hallway.

  “I’m sorry,” Piper murmured as she scrambled from bed to gather her clothes. “I didn’t want you to have to face Papa’s wrath.”

  “Wouldn’t have missed it,” Quinn said as he pulled on his breeches. “That’s why I’m still here.”

  Not because he was so attached to her that he couldn’t bear to leave her behind, Piper mused as she wormed into a clean gown. Quinn had hung around for the inevitable fireworks, no doubt. She had told him she would deal with her father, but he obviously didn’t think she could handle the task.

  She started when she felt his hands working the buttons on the back of her gown. Her feelings of rejection and frustration multiplied when she realized this was the first and last time Quinn would be around to assist her in dressing. There would be no more of his considerate help, none of the everyday gestures and companionship that married couples probably took for granted.

  “I said I will handle my father and I will. I’ll divert his attention and you can climb out the window and be on your way. No sense hanging around for another round of the Sullivan family feud.”

  Quinn chuckled in amusement as he fastened the last button. “For a woman who insists that she’s in love with me—the first woman to make any such claim, by the way—you sure are in an all-fired rush to get rid of me.”

  “I would like to keep you,” she replied as she pivoted to face him. “But I know that’s the last thing you want.”

  Before Piper could reach the door, Quinn surged past her. She watched her father rake Quinn up and down in blatant disapproval of his style of dress.

  “What are you? A half-breed?” Roarke muttered disrespectfully.

  “It wouldn’t matter if he were,” Piper interjected as she stepped in front of Quinn to face her father toe to toe. “Quinn Callahan is the Texas Ranger who saved my life several times over. And most importantly, he is the man I love. You can disinherit me if you wish, but I intend to stay married to him. I’m not going back to Galveston with you.”

  “Neither am I.”

  Piper glanced sideways to see Penelope striding toward them. “Good morning, Papa.” She breezed past him to pump Quinn’s hand. “I’m your sister-in-law and I want to thank you for saving Pi yesterday.” Spinning about, she smiled brightly at Roarke. “I have another surprise for you, Papa.”

  “I’ve had enough surprises for one day, thank you,” he scowled, still glaring resentfully at Quinn. “I am your father and if I say you are coming back to Galveston, married or not, then you are. You belong in a place where the name Sullivan means something. I’m not sure anything means something out here in the middle of nowhere!”

  “Long tiring trips aren’t recommended for me right now. Your grandchild is due this winter. Furthermore, I am still very much in love with Matthew. I’m not leaving him. Ever.”

  “My grand—” Roarke’s voice fizzled out as he stumbled back another step. When he recovered his power of speech he said, “That settles it. You and Piper are definitely coming home. I will not have my heir raised on this godforsaken frontier that is better suited for side-winders and bandits.”

  He focused his stern expression on Piper. “As for you, young lady. Being married to a Texas Ranger is no better than being married to an army captain. Both of you were groomed to wed aristocrats and live in proper society. You have no business in this lawless country. Yesterday’s calamity testifies to that!”

  “Piper isn’t going anywhere that she doesn’t want to go,” Quinn said ominously. “I’m here to see that she gets what she wants.”

  Roarke’s gaze narrowed to match Quinn’s foreboding stare. “And I’m here to see that she gets what she deserves and you are not it!”

  “Regardless, you’ll have to go through me to get to her,” he insisted.

  “This is none of your concern, Callahan,” Roarke snapped. “I don’t know what spell you cast over my daughter, but I intend to see that she is thinking with a clear head by the time she gets home.”

  Quinn took an intimidating step toward Roarke, looming dangerously over him as only Quinn could. Piper was pleased to note that Roarke shifted uneasily when Quinn bore down on him like the flapping angel of doom.

  For once Roarke had met his match and he seemed to recognize that fact.

  “You must not have heard me, Roarke,” Quinn said in a voice that rumbled like thunder. “She wants to stay here. She wants the freedom to make her own choices instead of having you lord over her like you have for years.”

  Piper eased in front of Quinn again to confront Roarke. “I do not mean to sound ungrateful, Papa, because I am aware of all you have tried to do for me for years. But I’m old enough to make up my own mind about my future and to face the consequences of my decisions.”

  She inhaled a deep breath and plunged on. “I want a marriage to Quinn. He has earned my admiration, respect and affection. I never had the slightest interest in John Foster. He i
s nothing more than a puppet dancing on his father’s string. But Quinn is his own man. He meets the world on his terms. That is a trait that I aspire to possess myself.”

  Penny stepped up beside Piper and tilted her chin to the same defiant angle. “Since I’m not leaving Matthew, either, you might as well save your breath, Papa. This is one argument you can’t possibly win and you need to realize that. Now.”

  When Matthew Duncan strode forward to stand at attention beside Quinn, Roarke stared over his daughters’ blond heads at his sons-in-law. “I will pay you both very handsomely to walk away right now,” he bargained. “Name your price. I’ll see to it that you have more money than you can spend in a lifetime. I’ll even buy your tickets west, all the way to the Pacific. I hear the climate in California is very nearly perfect.”

  Quinn smirked. “Can’t say that I have a hankering to step beyond the Texas border. The weather here suits me just fine and I like having my wife an arm’s reach away.”

  “Same goes for me,” Matt chimed in. “All I ever wanted was Penny. Nothing is more important to me than she is.”

  “I’ll loan you a horse if you want to ride north to catch the stage running from Van Horn to Austin,” Quinn offered generously. “Wouldn’t want you to have to hang around this godforsaken wilderness longer than necessary.”

  Roarke’s rigid shoulders sagged as he glanced from one determined face to another. “You would deprive an old man of seeing his beloved daughters? Deprive him of watching his grandchild grow up?”

  “You aren’t that old,” Quinn said frankly. “Besides, it won’t be too long before the railroad reaches this part of the country. You can visit anytime you wish.”

  Roarke scowled. “You drive a hard bargain, Callahan. The least you could do is compromise a bit.”

  “He never compromises,” Piper said, grinning impishly. “According to Quinn, if you start compromising then that’s all you get done.” She eased back a step to curl her hand around Quinn’s elbow. “We are staying here. All of us. This is not negotiable.” She stared ruefully at Roarke. “I’m sorry, but Penny and I are never going to be like Mamma. That’s not who we are.”