He put her down abruptly and moved away. "Com on, we'l have coffee." He stopped at the door with h hand on the knob. "For now," he added softly. "Bu one day, Marianne, we'l have each other. Because on day neither one of us is going to be able to stop."
She couldn't look at him. She couldn't even manage a defiant stare. It was the truth. She'd been crazy t come here, but there was no one to blame but herself. From that first meeting, Cousin Bud seemed deter mined to drive Ward absolutely crazy. He didn't leave Mari alone with the older man for a second if he could help it. He found excuse after excuse to come into the office when she was typing things for Ward, and if she ever had to find Ward to ask a question, Bud would find them before they said two words to each other. Mari wondered if it might just be mischief on Bud's part, but Ward treated the situation as if he had a rival. That in itself was amazing. Ward seemed posses ive now, frankly covetous whenever Mari was near him. He shared things with her. Things about the ranch, about his plans for it, the hard work that had gone into its succes .
When he came home late in the evening, it was to Mari that he went, seeking her out wherever she might be to ask for coffee or a sandwich or a slice of cake. Lil ian took this new at itude with open delight, glad to have her former position usurped when she saw the way he was looking at her puzzled niece. Bud usual y managed to weasel in, of course, but there eventual y came a night when he had busines out town. Ward came in about eight o'clock, covered in dust and half starved. I sure could use a couple of sandwiches, honey," he told Mari gently, pausing in the living room doorway, Lil ian had gone to bed, and curled up on the sofa in her jeans and a yel ow tank top, Mari was watching the credits roll after an entertainment special.
"Of course," she said eagerly and got up without bothering to look for her shoes.
He was even tal er when she was barefoot, and he seemed amused by her lack of footwear.
"You look like a country girl," he remarked as she pas ed close by him, feeling the warmth of his big body.
"I feel like a country girl," she said with a pert smile. "Come on, big man, I'l feed you." How about some coffee to go with it?" he added as In followed her down the hal into the spacious kitchen.
"Easier done than said," she told him. She flicked the on switch of the smal coffee machine, grinning at him when it started to perk. "I had it fixed and ready to start."
"Reading my mind already?" he teased. He pulled out a chair and sat down, sprawling with a huge stretch before he put his long legs out and rested his booted feet in another chair. "The days are get ing longer, or I'm get ing older," he said with a yawn. "I gues if I keep up this pace, before long you'l be pushing me around in a wheelchair."
"Not you," she said with loving amusement. "You're not the type to give up and get old before your time. You'l stil be chasing women when you're eighty-five." He sobered with amazing rapidity, his green eyes narrowing in his handsome face as he studied her graceful movements around the kitchen. "Suppose I told you that you're the only woman I'l want to chase when I'm eighty-five, Marianne?" he asked gently.
Her heart leaped, but she wasn't giving in to it that easily. He'd already come too close once and hurt her. She'd been deliberately keeping things light since she'd come back to the ranch, and she wasn't going to be trapped now.
She laughed. "Oh, I gues I'd be flat ered."
"Only flat ered?" he mused.
She finished making the sandwiches and put them down on the table. "By that time I expect to be a grandmother many times over," she informed him as she went back to pour the coffee.
"And I think my husband might object."
He didn't like thinking about Marianne with a husband. His face darkened. He turned his at ention to the sandwiches and began to eat.
"I have to go over to Ty Wade's place tomorrow," he murmured. "Want to come and meet Erin and the babies?" She caught her breath. "Me? But won't I be in the way if you're going to talk busines ?"
He shook his head, holding her soft blue eyes^ "You'l never be in my way, sweetheart," he said with something very much like tendernes in his deep voice., "Not ever."
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She smiled at him. The way he was looking at her made her feel trembly al over. He was weaving subtle webs around her, but without the wild pas ion he'd shown her at the beginning of their turbulent relationship. This was new and different. While part of her was i I raid to trust it, another part was hungry for it and for him.
"How about it?" he asked, forcing himself to go slow, not to rush her. He'd already had to face the fact I hat he wasn't going to be able to let her go. Now it was a question of making her see that he didn't have ulterior motives, and she was as hard to trust as he was.
"I'd like to meet Mrs. Wade," she said after a minute. "She sounds like quite a lady."
He laughed under his breath. "If you'd known Ty before she came along, you'd think she was quite a lady," he agreed with a grin. "It took one special woman to calm down that cougar. You'l see what I mean tomorrow."
The next afternoon Mari climbed into the Chrysler beside Ward for the trip over to the Wades' place. Ward was wearing slacks with a striped, open-necked green shirt, and she had on a pret y green pantsuit with a gaily striped sleeveles blouse. He'd grinned when he noticed that their stripes matched. Erin Wade opened the door, a picture in a gaily Mowing lavender caftan. She looked as if she smiled a lot, and she was obviously a beauty when she was made up, with her long black hair and pret y green eyes. But she wasn't wearing makeup. She looked like a country girl, clean and fresh.
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"Hel o!" she said enthusiastical y. "I'm glad you brought her, Ward. Hel o, I'm Erin, and you have to be Marianne. Come in and see my boys!"
"I'm glad to meet you, too." Marianne grinned. "I've heard legends about you already."
"Have you, real y?" Erin laughed. She was beautiful even without makeup, Marianne thought, the kind of beauty that comes from deep within and makes even homely women bright and lovely when it shows. "Wel , Ty and I got off to a bad start, but we've come a long way in very lit le time. I don't think he has many regrets about get ing married. Not even with twin boys."
"I can just see him now, changing a diaper." Ward chuckled.
Erin's green eyes widened. "But you can," she said. "Follow me."
Sure enough, there he was, changing a diaper. It looked so touching, the big, tough rancher Marianne had met before bending over that tiny, smiling, kicking baby on the changing table in a bedroom decorated with teddy bear wal paper and mobiles.
"Oh, hel o, Jes up," he murmured, glancing over his shoulder as he put the last piece of adhesive in place around the baby's fat middle. "Mat hew was wet, I was just changing him," he told Erin. He glanced toward a playpen, where another baby was standing on unsteadyj lit le fat legs with both chubby hands on the rail, biting delightedly on the plastic edging. "Jason's hungry, I think. He's been trying to eat the playpen for the past five minutes."
"He's teething," Erin said, leaning over to pick him up and cuddle him while he cooed and pat ed her shoulder and chanted, "Da, Da, Da, Da."
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Ty grinned mockingly at his frowning wife. "She hates that," he told the guests. "Most babies say Mama first. Both of them cal me instead of her."
"Don't gloat." Erin stuck her tongue out at him. "You just remember who got up with them last night and let you sleep." He winked at her, with torrents of love pouring on her from his light eyes. Marianne glanced up at Ward and found him watching her with the oddest look on his face. His green eyes went slowly down to her flat stomach and back up again, and she blushed because she knew what he was thinking. Exactly what he was thinking. She could read it in the sudden flare of his eyes, in the set of his face. She went hot al over with the unexpected pas ion that boiled up so suddenly and had to turn away to get herself under control again.
"How about some coffee?" Erin asked them, handing Ja
son to his dad. "Ward, if you'l bring the playpen, the boys can come with us." Ward, to his credit, tried to figure out how the device folded up, but he couldn't seem to fathom it. Ty chuckled. "Here, if Marianne wil hold the boys, I'l do it."
"Surely!" She took them, cooing to them both, loving their lit le chubby smiling faces and the way they tried to feel every inch of her face and hair as she carried them into the living room.
"Oh, how sweet," she cooed, kis ing fat cheeks and heads that had just a smat ering of hair. The twins had light eyes like their father, but they were green.
"Thank God they both take after Erin and not me," Ty said with a sigh as he set up the playpen and took the boys from Marianne to put them back in. 53
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"You're not that bad," Ward remarked, cocking his head. "I've seen uglier cactus plants, in fact." Ty glared at him. "If you want that second damned lease, you'd bet er clean up your act, Jes up."
Ward grinned. "Can I help it if you go asking for insults?"
"Watch it," Ty muttered, turning back to help Erin with the coffee service.
The men talked busines , and Marianne and Erin talked babies and clothes and fashion. It was the^most enjoyable afternoon Marianne had spent in a long time and get ing to cuddle the babies was a bonus. She was reluctant to leave.
"Ward, you'l have to bring her back to see me," Erin insisted. "I don't have much company, and I do love to talk clothes."
"I wil ," Ward promised. He shook hands with Ty, and they said their goodbyes. As they drove away, Ty had one lean arm around Erin, looking as if he were part of her.
"That marriage wil outlast this ranch," she murmured, watching the landscape turn gray with a sudden shower. It seemed chil y in the car with that wetnes beating on the hood and windshield. "They seem so happy."
"They are," he agreed. He glanced at her and slowly pulled the truck off onto one of the farm roads, pulling up under a huge live oak tree before cutting the engine. "Would you like to gues why I stopped?" he asked, his voice slow and tender as he looked at her. "Or do you know?"
Chapter Eleven
INo, Marianne thought, she didn't real y have to wonder why he'd parked the car. His face gave her the answer. So did the heavy, quick rise and fal of his chest under the green-striped shirt. He looked so handsome l hat she could hardly take her eyes off him, and the sheer arrogance in his narrowed eyes was intimidating. But she wasn't sure she wanted a sweet interlude with him. Her defenses were weak enough already. Suppose he insisted? Could she resist him if she let herself fal in that heady trap?
"I don't think this is a good idea," she began as he unfastened his seat belt and then hers.
"Don't you?" he asked. "Even after the way you went scarlet when I stared at your waistline in the twins' room? You knew what I was thinking, Marianne," he whispered, reaching for her.
"You knew."
He lifted her across him, finding her mouth even as he eased her down against his arm with her head at the window. Outside rain was streaming down the glas , making a quick tat oo on the hood and the roof, as driving as the pas ion that began to take over Mari's blood.
He bit at her soft lips, tender lit le nips that made her want him. His big hand smoothed over her blouse, under it, finding the softnes of her breast in its silky casing.
"Lie stil ," he whispered when her body jerked under that gentle probing. "It's been a long time since we've enjoyed each other like this. Too long." He kis ed her wide eyes shut and found the catch that bared her to his warm, hard fingers. She couldn't let this happen, she kept tel ing herself. It Was just a game to him, he didn't mean it. Any minute now he was going to let that seat down and turn her in his arms. .
With a wounded cry she pulled out of his arms so suddenly that he was startled into releasing her. She fumbled the door open, deaf to his sharp exclamation, and ran out into the rain. The long gras beat against her slacks as she ran, not real y sure why she was running or where she was trying to go. Seconds later it didn't mat er because he'd caught her and dragged her down onto the ground in the wet gras with him.
"Never run from a hunter," he breathed roughly, turning her under him as he found her mouth with his. The rain beat down on them, drenching them, making their bodies as supple as silkcovered saplings, binding them as if there had been no fabric at al in the way. It was new and exciting to lie like this, to kis like this, feeling the warm, twisting motions of Ward's big body against hers, their clothes wet and their skin sensitive.
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"We might as wel have no clothes on at al ," he breathed into her open, welcoming mouth, his voice husky with pas ion. "I can feel you. Al of you." His hands were sliding down her body now, exploring, experiencing her through the wet thinnes of fabric, and it was like feeling his hands on her skin. She moaned as she slid her own hands against his hard-muscled back, his chest, his hips. She didn't understand what was happening, how this pas ion had crept up on her. But she was lost now, helples . He Could do anything he liked, and she couldn't stop him. She was on fire despite the drenching rain, reaching up I c ward him, sliding her wet body against his in the silence of the meadow with the rain slicking their hair as It slicked their skin.
He eased his full weight onto her, devouring her mouth with his. His hands smoothed under her back, sensuously pres ing her up against him. Her body throbbed, burned, with the expertnes of Ins movements. Yes, he knew what to do and how to do l . He knew. . too much!
"Tel me to stop," he chal enged under his breath, probing her lips with his tongue. "Tel me to let you go. I dare you."
"I can't," she whimpered, and her eyes stung with tears as she clung to his broad, wet shoulders. "I want you. Oh, I want you!" His lips were al over her face. Tender, seeking, gen-»ling, his breath catching in his throat at her devastating submis ion. He was trembling al over with the force of this new sensation. He wanted to protect her. Devour her. Warm her. Hold her until he died, just like this.
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His big hands framed her face as he touched it softly with his lips. "I want to give you a baby," he whispered shakily. "That's what you saw in my face at Wade's, and it made you go red al over. You saw, didn't you?"
' 'Yes," she whispered back, her body trembling.
He searched her wide eyes, his own blazing with hunger. "I could take you, Marianne," he said very quietly. "Right here. Right now. I could have you, and no one would see us or hear us." She swal owed, closing her eyes. Defeated. She knew that. She could feel how capable he was of it, and her body trembled under his fierce arousal. She wanted him, too. She loved him more than her honor.
"Yes," she whispered, so softly that he could barely hear.
He didn't move. He seemed to stop breathing. She opened her eyes and saw his face above her, fil ed with such frank exultation that she blinked incomprehensibly.
"Baby," he breathed softly, bending. He kis ed her with such aching tendernes that her eyes stung, tasting her lips, smoothing his lips over her cheeks, her forehead, her nose, her eyes.
"Baby, sweet, sweet baby. You taste of roses and gardenias, and I could lie here doing this for al my life." That didn't sound like uncontrollable pas ion. It didn't even sound like lust. She reached up and touched his face, his chin. He kis ed the palm of her hand, smiling down at her through wildly exciting shudders. "Do you know how wet you are?" he said with a gentle smile, glancing down at her blouse, which was plastered against breasts that no longer had the shelter of a bra.
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"So are you," she replied unsteadily and managed to smile back. What good was pride now when she'd offered herself to him?
He touched her taut nipples through the cloth. "No more embarras ment?" he asked quietly.
"You know what I look like," she whispered.
"Yes." He opened her blouse, no longer interested in (lie rain that had slowed to a sprinkle, and his eyes feasted on her soft skin before he b
ent and tasted it warmly with his mouth. Mari lifted softly toward his lips, savoring their sweet {ouch, so much a part of him that nothing seemed wrong anymore.
"You're so sweet," he whispered. He drew his cheek across her breasts, his eyes closed, savoring her. "For the rest of my life, I'l never touch another woman like this. I'l never lie with another woman, taste another woman, want another woman."
That was how she felt, too, about other men. She dosed her eyes, smoothing his wet hair as he brushed his mouth over her pulsating, trembling body. She loved him so much. If this was al he could give her, it would be enough. Fidelity would do. She couldn't leave him again.
"I'l never want another man," she replied quietly.
He laid his cool cheek against her and sighed, holding her as she held him, with the wind blowing softly and the rain coming down like droplets of silk over them. Then he moved away, gently rearranging her disheveled clothing. He brushed back her damp hair, kis ed her tenderly one last time and carried her in his arms buck to the car with her face pres ed wetly into his warm I In oat.
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"The car," she faltered. "We'l get the seats wet."
"Hush, baby," he whispered, brushing a kis against her soft mouth as he put her into the pas enger seat and fastened her seat belt. "It doesn't mat er. Nothing mat ers now." He got in beside her, found her warm hand and linked her fingers with his. He managed to start the car and drive it al the way home with one free hand. Lil ian took one look at them, and her eyebrows shot up.
"Not one word," Ward cautioned as he led Marianne inside. "Not one single word."
Lil ian sighed. "Wel , at least now you're get ing wet together," she murmured with a smile as she wandered back toward the kitchen. "I gues that's bet er than mildewing alone." Marianne smiled gently at Ward and went upstairs to change her clothing. He disappeared a few minutes later after an urgent telephone cal and drove off by himself with only a wink and a smile for Mari. She walked around in a daze, dodging Lil ian's hushed questions, waiting for him to come home. But when bedtime came, he stil wasn't back. Mari went up to her room and paced the floor, worrying, wondering what to do. She couldn't leave, not after this afternoon. He wanted her and she wanted him. Maybe he couldn't offer her marriage, but she'd just set le for what he could give her. He had to care a lit le. And she loved him enough for both of them. Why hadn't he gone ahead, she wondered, when he had the chance this afternoon? Why had he stopped? Was he just giving her time to make up her mind, to be sure she could accept him this way? That had to be it. Wel , it was now or never.
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