by Carol Finch
When Maddie didn’t fling her arms around his neck and kiss him breathless, Jonah angled his head to the side and said, “Something wrong, princess?”
“Yes, I’m waiting.”
He frowned, confused. “Waiting for what?”
“You said you were going to prove that you’ll never leave me again.” She tilted her chin challengingly. “So prove it, Mr. Ranger.”
“I’m not a Ranger anymore. I resigned. Boone is my replacement…. Will you marry me?”
“Yes,” she said without hesitation.
Still she made no move toward him. Jonah blew out an exasperated breath. “Now what?”
Maddie sent him a withering glance. “When you left here two days ago you accused me of seducing you twice, and insulted me by saying that I was too forward.”
Jonah grinned. “Now I get it.”
“Not from me, you won’t,” she sassed him. “Am I going to have to hit you over the head before it finally soaks in that I’m not going to throw myself shamelessly at you ever again?”
“Never?”
“Absolutely not,” she confirmed.
Chuckling, Jonah scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the four-poster bed. “You want me to seduce you, I take it.”
“That’s exactly what I want.”
Jonah grinned rakishly as he tugged off her boots, then removed her shirt—carefully, so as not to aggravate her mending shoulder. When he had her out of her riding breeches, lying naked on that fancy bed that was fit for a princess, he feasted his appreciative gaze on her. She was so beautiful to him that she nearly took his breath away. He still couldn’t believe that she had chosen him when she could have any man she wanted.
“I do love a woman who knows exactly what she wants and isn’t afraid to say so. No shrinking violet for me. I need a woman who gives as good as she gets.”
His smile softened as he eased down beside her to trail his forefinger over the peak of her breast. When she moaned softly he bent to flick his tongue against her satiny flesh and felt her shiver in response. “How am I doing so far?”
“Not bad,” Maddie said breathlessly. She then reached up to pull his head toward hers—and stopped just shy of touching him.
Jonah smiled in playful amusement. This stubborn beauty was going to make him pay for his outrageous remark, but he had no qualms about seducing her into grabbing hold of him as if she never meant to let go.
He kissed her, gently at first, then intensely, savoring the addicting taste of her. When she responded he felt the fire of desire coiling inside him, and wondered if she was going to outlast him. As for Jonah, he was about finished with stubborn challenges and making points. He wanted her so badly that he was going to have to resort to begging pretty quickly.
“I love you, Maddie,” he whispered as his hand glided down her hip. “With all my heart and all my soul. I can’t imagine loving anyone or anything as desperately and completely as I love you.”
He must have said or done something right because she came alive in his arms and hugged the stuffing out of him.
“This is never going to work,” Maddie said with a ragged breath. “No matter how hard I try, I can’t keep my hands off you. I obviously have no willpower where you’re concerned.”
Jonah raised his head and grinned into her bewitching face. “Neither do I, princess. Maybe we should make a pact that it’s okay to seduce each other anytime we feel like it.”
Maddie smiled impishly at him. “That might be best.” She kissed the breath clean out of him and said, “I love you so much, Jonah. Come here before I go crazy!”
He came to her, eagerly, and he thanked all the powers that be that Maddie had barged into his life. He was glad he had never been able to say no to her, had never been able to let her go. He had been a man without a home, a man who had forgotten how to hope and how to dream. But Maddie had transformed him, challenged him and given his life pleasure and new purpose. She had dared to love him and he was going to guard the precious gift she had given him.
“You are my heart, princess,” he told her softly and sincerely.
“And you are mine, Jonah,” she whispered back to him.
It took Jonah most of the night to communicate the all-encompassing love that had burned Maddie’s name and her memory on his soul. But that was all right with him, because he wasn’t leaving this canyon or this woman again.
And you could write that down in stone because he meant it with every beat of his heart and felt it all the way to the bottom of his soul. On that thought Jonah closed his eyes and cradled Maddie possessively in his arms.
He was definitely here to stay.
ISBN: 978-1-4592-4010-0
TEXAS BRIDE
Copyright © 2004 by Connie Feddersen
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*Bachelors of Hoot’s Roost