“No.” She cupped his face in her palms as his mouth wandered down her neck, nipped at her throat, kissed her nipples through her dress, before working back up. “I won’t.”
His eyes were dark as they met hers. “I mean it, moonbeam. Because next time I won’t be so nice. Next time, I’ll climb right into the nightmare with you and drag your ass back whether you’re ready to come or not.”
It was a silly, nonsensical thing to say. The fact that her no-nonsense Tucker was saying it was proof as to just how much she’d scared him. Standing on tiptoe, she kissed his beautiful mouth, fitting the edges of hers to the edges of his the way he liked. “I can’t afford to remember right now, but I promise when I do, we’ll talk, all right.”
His expression sobered. Through the door she could hear the murmur of voices. Desi’s tight with resolve, Caine’s hoarse with fear.
“You don’t have to try this.”
“I know.” She could run away. No one would blame her. They’d probably applaud her common sense. She was, after all, just a woman. And as such had her limitations.
“But I think you should.”
Except to Tucker. She blinked and looked up.
As always, he saw her as she was. Nothing more. Nothing less. Flaws and all, but always his equal. She leaned her cheek into his hand, too much between them for pretense.
“I’m not saying it will work,” Tucker added. “I get the feeling there are too many opportunities for things to go wrong for anyone to say that, but I’ve seen you work, Sally Mae, seen you heal people when other doctors would have just walked away.”
He lifted her hands to his mouth and pressed a kiss to the left. “There’s magic here.” Next he pressed a kiss on the right. “And here. And not just the sexual kind.”
“Thee can’t know….” How inadequate she felt to have just suggested this. How humbled she was that he thought she should.
“Yeah, I can.” He brought her palms to his chest. “I know you, Sally Mae. I know how scared you are now, and I know how much you want to help. I know there’s no one else I’d send in that room with as much confidence.”
He reached around his neck and lifted the bullet over his head. The one that he wore as a talisman. The one that reminded him of where he came from and where he wanted to go. The one that gave him the incredible inner strength she so admired.
“I love you, Sally Mae. You’re my wife, the mother of my child.” He dropped the necklace over her head. “But you’re also a damn fine doctor. And win or lose when you come out of that room, there’s no one going to be prouder of you than me.”
Oh God. She clutched the necklace in her hand, feeling the roughness of time etched on its surface, the warmth from his body.
The door opened. Caine stood there, head up, shoulders back, as if through sheer force of will he could control the outcome. She hoped he could.
“We want the procedure.”
She wasn’t surprised. There really hadn’t been any other choice. She nodded and headed into the room. Caine touched her shoulder as she walked by, stopping her. His mouth tightened. His drawl was hoarse and low as he said, “I love her.”
It was a declaration. A plea, maybe even a prayer. She nodded. “I know.”
Caine made to close the door. Beyond it, Tucker watched, arms folded across his massive chest. On the outside, looking in. The bullet weighed around her neck.
She caught the door with her hand. “Wait.”
At the cock of Tucker’s brow she licked her lips. “Come with me.”
“Why?”
He wasn’t supposed to ask why. He was just supposed to say yay or nay. But he had, and she had to answer. It was easier than she expected. “Because I need thee.”
Immediately, he was through the door and at her side.
“I thought you’d never ask.”
18
Four our hours later, he took her to the pond.
They sat on the bank, side by side as the arrival of twilight chased a bit of the day’s heat away. It would have been an idyllic setting with the trees surrounding the water in cool green and the pond reflecting back the ruggedness of the mountain behind. Idyllic except for the fact Tucker had put a good foot of distance between them.
“I’ve got to tell you, moonbeam, I almost lost my stomach in there a few times.” Picking up a rock, he lobbed it into the pond. The ripples spread outward, growing with the passage of time, distorting the reflection of the mount. “It was almost a sure thing when you went in with the forceps.”
But he hadn’t. From the time he’d walked through the door, he’d stood behind her, silently offering strength through the touch of his fingers on her spine. She’d asked God so many times to give her strength, but he’d done her one better. He’d given her a man who knew how to share his. “I’m glad thee didn’t.”
“You and me both.” He laughed and chucked another stone. A tickle of unease crept up her spine. He had yet to look at her. “Caine would never let me live that down.”
“Probably not. But he would have forgiven thee. He’s very happy right now.”
“Because of you.”
She shook her head. “Because the operation worked.”
Tucker shook his head and patted her knee. Patted her knee? “Because of you, he has both his wife and his son.”
“It was sweet of them to remember Jonah that way.”
“Well, they couldn’t likely go around calling the kid Sally. Jonah seemed a decent compromise.”
She smiled, eyed the distance between them again and frowned. “Can I ask thee a question?”
“Shoot.”
She was too tired to prevaricate. “Is this distance between us because of me, too?”
He didn’t immediately scoot over as she’d hoped, didn’t tell her she was imagining things. But he did take a deep breath, and did answer.
“Yes.”
Inside, her heart sank. Outside, she held on to her composure. Barely. “Why?”
He rested both forearms on his knees, letting his hands dangle, looking for all the world like nothing more important was being discussed between them except the weather. “You mentioned once that you worried you wouldn’t have a place here. It occurred to me, watching you work miracles in there, that you’re right.” His right hand clenched to a fist. “You were meant for better things than being buried up here married to me.”
“Bullshit.”
The curse snapped his head up. “I’m tired of men telling me what I need, what I want. Do thee want to know what occurred to me while I was in there working miracles?”
“Not sure I do, judging by the look in your eyes.”
She came up on her knees. “It occurred to me I never would have had the courage to try that if thee weren’t there beside me. It occurred to me that while I’d been praying for years for God to give me strength, he did me one better. He gave me a man who knew how to share his strength with me. It occurred to me that after all these years of trying to find acceptance in all the wrong places, I finally had found it with thee. And I loved it.”
He caught her hands and tumbled her into his lap. “You thought all that while working tongs into a woman’s belly.”
She nodded, the tears she’d been trying to hold back spilling over. “I thought all that. So please, if thee think I’m too unfeminine after watching me operate, just tell me, but don’t lie and make up stories.”
“Unfeminine? Where the hell did you get that idea?”
“I want to be more than a doctor, Tucker. I want to be a wife, a mother. I want to take care of you and our children as much as I take care of others.”
He tipped her chin up and kissed her, soft and sweet the way he did when his heart was exposed. “For a smart woman, you have the strangest notions. Remember me, Sally mine? The man who haunted Lindos simply because you were there? The man who almost jumped over the moon when you said you were pregnant because he finally had an excuse to take what he wanted? The man who wants to teach you to
kick a man’s nuts up into his teeth? The man who wants to see your pretty face first thing every day when he gets up and every night before he goes to sleep?”
She couldn’t help a watery laugh. “I think thee forgot to tell me all that.”
“Well, must be because I was relying too much on your feminine intuition to pass on the news. Or maybe it was because I had some idiotic notion if I didn’t say the words you’d be safer. Or maybe it was myself I was worried about, who knows, but I’m rectifying that right now.”
With his hands on her hips he brought her closer. “Scoot on up here so I can say this right.”
“I need to be on my knees for this to be right?”
His grin was the old Tucker full of confidence and sensuality as he eyed her breasts, which were even with his mouth. “It’ll save time later.”
Her nipples peaked and she shivered. His chuckle sent another shiver straight down her spine. His fingers went to work on the bodice of her dress, the backs rubbing in an erotic prelude. “I love you, Sally Mae McCade. I fell the moment I saw you standing so prissy in that saloon, taking grown men to task with a complete disregard for your personal safety, and I’ve never looked back.”
He loved her. The knowledge skimmed her consciousness the way his fingers skimmed her bodice, lightly, experimentally before settling down through the barriers to find the core beneath. Happiness blossomed outward, blending with passion, burgeoning with joy. It was all she could do to keep her voice even. “Thee fell in love with me because I was prissy?”
He spread her dress wide and went to work on the ties of her nightdress, loosening them only enough so he would cup the material under her breasts, pressing them up and in. “Got to admit what that prissiness said about your wild side really caught my attention.”
She smiled and dragged her nipple across his lips. They immediately closed around it, nipping the way she liked at first, sending those darts of sensation deep before nursing them back into the foreground with a gentle suction.
Threading her fingers through his hair, she held his mouth to her, rocking against him as the rhythm caught. “Oh!”
“I’m not hurting you, am I?”
“No, but it’s so good.” Better than before, sharper.
“Heard tell from Caine pregnancy can make a woman more sensitive. Shall we find out?”
He smiled and curled his tongue around one turgid peak, holding her gaze as he dragged it across. She fell against him, wanting more. He gave it to her, opening his mouth, taking as much of her breast as he could inside, letting her feel the roughness of his tongue, the edge of his teeth, the promise of pleasure.
He leaned back, touching one damp tip with his finger. “I’m thinking he may be right.”
Definitely right. “Yes.”
“Let’s see how much, shall we?”
His fingers slipped between her thighs, rubbing gently as he sucked and nibbled at her breasts. She couldn’t stifle a moan and, as he continued, didn’t bother trying. “That’s it, moonbeam. Feel good for me.”
She wanted it to last, but he knew her too well. Within minutes she came, crying out as her body buckled under the joy.
He held her until the last shudder rippled through her, rolling her nipple across his tongue one last time before tugging her dress and nightdress over her head and laying her naked on the soft moss. Something fluttered to the ground as he tossed his clothes aside. He stood there like a pagan god of old, his eyes hot with desire, his cock heavy with need. For her. She licked her lips and spread her thighs. He laughed and came down beside her.
“We do have a slight problem, you know.”
“We do?”
“Uh-huh.” He traced her lips with the tip of his finger, making them tingle and pout. “I promised Sam I’d beat your butt black-and-blue for that stunt you pulled back there at the ambush.”
“Thee did?”
“Yup. Don’t see as I have any choice as he’s already taken care of disciplining Bella.”
“I heard.” Bella’s moans of pleasure had carried clearly through the hacienda walls.
Tucker smiled. “I think the boy’s gone soft in his old age.”
“Or maybe he just loves his wife.”
“That’s a distinct possibility.”
“As the walls are thin at the hacienda. I think thee know it’s more than a possibility.”
“That’s why I brought you down here and left strict no-trespass orders.” He cut a glance at her from under his hat, a faint smile tugging at his lips. “I don’t want any interference with my discipline.”
She grabbed his hat and tossed it aside. Unfettered, his hair fell around her with the coolness of night. “Good idea.”
His smile was very white in the shadows. “My wild woman.”
She smiled back at him, sliding her hands around his neck, spreading her legs for him as naturally as she took her next breath. “My wild man.”
He settled between, his cock pressing at the entrance of her body. His hands, behind her head, cushioned her skull from the ground. His body above hers sheltered her from the cooling breeze. “All yours, moonbeam.”
“Good.”
“But not tonight, baby.”
“What?”
“Tonight’s not going to be about wild.”
“It’s not?”
“No. It’s going to be about love.” His lips nuzzled her cheek, slid back to her ear as his body joined with hers, that first stretching riding the fine edge between pain and pleasure, causing her to tense. “Shh, relax, just relax. Let me in, Sally Mae, let me love you the way I want. Sweet and gentle. With everything I am.”
He caught the lobe of her ear between her teeth, biting gently.
She cried out, tilting her head facilitating the caress the same way she struggled to facilitate his entry with a lift of her hips. “Yes, please. Love me like that. With nothing between us.”
“Only love.”
She relaxed. His cock slid smoothly along her channel, opening her for his possession. He groaned and shuddered. She sighed and quivered.
“That’s it, just like that. Son of a bitch, you’re so tight. So sweet.”
His hand came under her thigh, lifting her leg until it draped over his shoulder. Turning his head, he kissed the inside of her knee. His fingers retraced a path down the inside of her thigh, finding the plump folds of her labia, slipping between until they settled on the hard nub of her clit. A shudder took her from head to toe as he squeezed just hard enough to bring about another quiver. “I like you like this, all open and accepting. Mine to do with as I will.”
His thumb circled. Her hips bucked. Her pussy spasmed.
“And what’s thy will?” she managed to gasp.
He smiled, those beautiful eyes of his studying every nuance of her reaction. “I already told you. To love you.”
He leaned in, pushing his cock deeper, spreading her farther until every nerve, every tendon was stretched on the rack of anticipation.
“Look at us, Sally Mae.”
“I can’t.”
She couldn’t move for fear of losing the exquisite pleasure.
“Yes, you can.” His thumb circled her clit, stoking her desire, her belief that nothing between them was impossible. “Just lean up.”
The move stretched her farther, tightened her around him until the slightest move created the most delicious friction. “Look how beautiful you are.”
His cock slid out, one perfect inch at a time, teasing her, thrilling her. It wasn’t she who was beautiful, but them. His cock, thick and dark, magnificent, glistening in the faint light, looked huge against the small pink opening to her body. Dark to light. Male to female. Passion to desire.
“Tucker,” she moaned as he began the dance all over again, pressing in, demanding she make room for him, answering the hungry flex of her pussy with more pressure.
“Don’t look away, Sally mine. Watch it happen. See how perfectly we fit.”
She did, absorbing with h
er mind the beauty of them. Together. Perfect. In and out, over and over, he drove the point home, loving her with slow, steady insistence, looking for something, demanding something she’d gladly give if she only understood. The pleasure spiraled as he lifted her leg higher, drove his cock deeper. Her clit ached with unrelenting need. Her pussy spasmed and quivered, every muscle trembling as she watched his cock sink deep, always so deep. She was close, so close.
“Tucker!”
“What, baby?”
His thumb circled, his cock pressed a fraction of an inch further, touching a place she had not known existed, bringing her that much nearer to the maelstrom…
“Tell me.”
Lightning flashed outward from her core, and her body convulsed in an agony of pleasure. Her back arched and emotion welled until she couldn’t hold it back anymore. “Oh, Tucker. I love thee!”
“Thank the Lord!” He dropped to his elbows above her, giving her what she needed in a wild drive for completion that caught on the remnants of her first orgasm and stretched it into a second. As her pussy milked frantically at his cock, he thrust deep one last time, sealing his groin to hers. His cock jerked within the tight confines of her sensitive flesh, sending ripples of joy outward as he filled her with the hot splash of his seed.
She held him tightly, whispering against his cheek, not able to say it enough, get close enough. “I love thee. I love thee. I love thee.”
He held her tightly, his big body shuddering against hers. He turned his head and pressed a kiss so sweet against her lips, she felt the burn of tears. Oh, heavens, how she loved him.
“About damn time you admitted that, woman.”
She blinked, shivering as he flexed within her. “I haven’t said it before?”
“No, you have not.” Another kiss, another flex. “Trust me, I’d have remembered.”
She pushed his hair away from his face, needing to see his expression. He was serious. “It seems I say that to thee all the time in a hundred different ways every day. Thee had to know.”
He flicked her nose with his finger. “A man likes to hear the words.”
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