by Diana Palmer
“Since I beat up Buddy Haskell, they’re going great,” Guy said simply.
“You what?”
“He made a remark about smelly ranchers who walk around all day in cow…well, in manure.” Guy corrected himself, grinning. “He said you smelled like that, so I pasted him one. The teacher was too busy talking to the other teachers to even notice.” He chuckled. “He told her he walked into a door.”
Emmett looked skyward. “Now, listen, here…”
“Homework to do,” Guy said quickly. “Have to get on it, right now. I’m helping Polk with fractions.” He frowned. “Isn’t it amazing that he can do multiplication in his head but he can’t add a fourth and a half?”
“He’ll be a rocket scientist one day,” Emmett replied.
“God help us if he can’t do fractions by then,” Guy mused. He left his father sitting there and went to get his books.
Emmett felt a glimmer of hope that Guy would change his attitude. If Guy came around, it would be clear sailing for sure. Except that Adell was pregnant, and he should have told the boy. Well, there was no need, and plenty of time for him to find it out. Plenty of time, now.
Chapter 9
The wedding was held at the local Methodist church. Ted Regan came down for it, and so did Tansy, Logan and Kit Deverell. Amy was flower girl and Polk carried the rings on a pillow. Guy sat stiffly on the pew reserved for family, having declined belligerently any sort of participation in the wedding.
Despite the talk he’d had with his father, he’d still hoped that his mother might come along at the last minute and stop the service, say that she was wrong, that she loved his father and wanted to marry him again. But it didn’t happen. Nobody wanted him, he thought suddenly. His mother had run away and never even phoned or written, and now his dad wanted somebody’s company besides his. He glanced at his brother and sister, so radiant at the thought of their new stepmother. He’d have to make the most of it. He was sorry that he’d made things so hard for Melody. He hoped that his dad was right, and she didn’t have a vengeful nature.
As he watched, Emmett spoke the words, put the ring on Melody’s finger and lifted her short veil. He looked at her for a long, long time before he finally bent and kissed her. It was the gentlest kiss she’d ever had from him, one of respect and affection and delight. She gave it back in the same way, brimming with joy.
After the service, Ted Regan stopped long enough to congratulate them. Having heard him called “old man Regan,” Melody’s first glimpse of him was a surprise. He wasn’t old, but he did have prematurely silver hair, a great shock of it, combed to one side. He had pale blue eyes and a long, lean, very tanned face. He reminded her of the actor, Randolph Scott, an impression that was emphasized when he spoke in a slow Texas drawl.
“Can’t say I’ve ever wanted to marry anybody,” Ted mused, “but I guess it’s all right for some people. Best of luck. Don’t even think about going back to San Antonio,” he added as he shook Emmett’s hand and his blue eyes glittered like cold steel. “I’ll hunt you down and drag you back here at the end of a rope if you even try. You’ve accomplished more in a month than any other foreman I’ve hired accomplished in a year. I’ll even give you a half interest in the place if that’s what it takes to keep you.”
Emmett felt a foot taller. Marrying Melody was delight enough, but praise from tight-lipped Ted Regan was something of a rarity and accepted with pride.
“Thanks,” Emmett told the other man, who was as tall and fit as he was himself, despite the fact that Ted was almost forty years old. “I like my job a lot. I can’t think of anything that would make me quit at the moment.” He frowned. “Maybe if a cow fell in the well…”
“I don’t think you could stuff a calf down that well-head,” Ted reminded him. “Unless it was cooked and ground up.”
“Point taken. I’ll stay for a spell.”
“Good.” He clamped his white Stetson back on his head and tilted it at a rakish angle. “I’m off to Colorado for the national cattlemen’s meeting. More damned politics than horses in the industry these days.” He walked off, shaking his head.
“He’s never married? Really?” Melody asked her new husband as she watched the tall man walk away.
“They say there isn’t a woman in south Texas brave enough,” Emmett said under his breath. “He’s very pleasant in company, but he can scorch leather when he’s upset. We’ve got two old cowboys who hide in the barn every time he stops by to check the books!”
“You don’t,” she implored.
He chuckled, drawing her against his side as they moved lazily toward the car where the kids were waiting. “Oh, Ted and I get along pretty well. Peas in a pod, you know.” He glanced at her mischievously. “Or didn’t you know that I can scorch leather, too, on occasion?”
She leaned closer. “I’ll settle for having you scorch me tonight,” she whispered.
He drew in a breath. “Lady, that kind of talk will get you ravished on the hood of the car,” he said with an uncomfortable look. “Shame on you, saying such things to a man, and near a church, too!”
“No better place for it,” she said gently. “We’re married. With my body, I thee worship…?” She wiggled her hand with the plain gold band she’d asked for on her third finger under his nose.
“Shameless,” he repeated.
“Yes. And tonight you’ll be on your knees giving thanks that I am,” she said smugly.
He glanced at her. “You’ll be the one on your knees, begging for mercy.”
She grinned at him. “Promise?” She wiggled her eyebrows.
He laughed out loud and hugged her. Probably she was bluffing, but he didn’t mind at all. He’d never been so happy in all his life. Except for Guy’s attitude, he amended, watching the boy’s faintly reticent stare as they approached him.
Guy’s face set in familiar lines, unsmiling and resentful, and Emmett lost his temper at that look, not realizing that Guy was nervous and intimidated because he wanted to congratulate them but was uncertain of the reaction he was going to get from Melody.
Emmett wasn’t about to let the boy put a damper on Melody’s wedding day. Best way to avoid trouble was with a good strong offensive, he thought. “Put a sock in it,” he told Guy when he opened his mouth to speak. “Or you can go and pay a visit to that military school we’ve talked about.”
Melody was shocked at the threat and the expression it produced on Guy’s face.
She started to protest, but Emmett stopped her.
“I’ve given you more rope than you’ve earned,” he told Guy coldly. “I won’t plead with you anymore. Melody is my wife. If you can’t accept that, a good private school is the best answer. I enjoyed it. You might, too.”
Guy’s pallor was obvious. He swallowed. “I don’t want to go away to school,” he said heavily.
“That’s your only other option,” Emmett said.
Guy’s head lifted with what pride he could manage. “I’m ready to go home when you are.” He glanced at Melody and away. “Congratulations,” he said in a ghostly tone, and turned to get into the backseat with an excited Amy and Polk.
Melody’s heart ached for his wounded pride. “Oh, Emmett…!” she moaned.
He averted his gaze from her pleading eyes. “Some boys take a firm hand,” he said curtly. “I’ve been too lenient with all three of them, and they’ve gone wild. It’s never pleasant to get the upper hand back once you’ve lost it.” He looked at her. “I won’t hurt the boy. I won’t send him away unless I have to. But you must see that allowing him to persecute you and dictate to me is impossible. He’s only eleven years old.”
“I know. But…”
He bent and kissed her gently. “It will take time. We both knew that from the beginning. Stop trying to gulp down the future. We haven’t begun.”
“All right. I’ll try.”
She wasn’t going to give up, though. She’d wait until he was less tense and then approach him about Guy. She really coul
dn’t let him send the boy away before she’d even tried to make friends with him. It was Guy’s home as well as Emmett’s and hers. The look on the boy’s face haunted her.
They took the kids home and a beaming Mrs. Jenson congratulated them while Melody changed into a simple gray dress for travel. They were going to have a three-day honeymoon down in Cancún. The kids were bitterly disappointed that they couldn’t go, but Melody promised Amy and Polk that they’d go as a family very soon. Amy had remarked that she guessed newly married people did need a little time alone. A remark that sent Emmett into gales of laughter.
Guy didn’t speak to his father. Melody stopped just in front of him as Emmett was saying goodbye to the other kids.
“He won’t do it” was all she said. She smiled. “It will be all right, you know.”
Guy was shocked. He couldn’t even speak. He hadn’t expected her to say anything to him after the way he’d treated her. Now he needed to talk, and he couldn’t.
It was too late, anyway. She was gone, with his father.
“They look nice together, don’t you think?” Amy asked with a sigh. She glared at Guy. “You’re going to get it when Emmett gets back. You were awful at their wedding.”
“I’m not going to get it, but you are if you don’t watch your mouth,” Guy said, daring her.
“Will you two stop fighting? Look, Alistair likes to play with a string!” Polk called, dangling a string while the cat played with it.
The big tabby was staying at the ranch, and Mrs. Jenson had ironclad orders not to let him out. Guy went to stand by Polk and Amy while he watched the cat. He hoped Alistair had a forgiving nature, as well as Melody, or things could get real hectic here.
Cancún was a vision. The colors of the sea and the blistering white of the beach, the modern Mexican architecture with exaggerated Mayan motifs made a potpourri of images that Melody found fascinating. She’d been to Mexico before, but never to this particular part of it. Despite the crowd of tourists, she drank in the atmosphere with delight.
Emmett looked good in white swimming trunks. She admired his long, tanned legs with covetous eyes, not to mention his broad, hair-matted chest and arms and flat stomach. He was delicious, and a lot of other women seemed to think so, because they kept walking by with their flabby, white-skinned husbands, staring unashamedly at him.
“One more time, lady, and I’m going to leap up and crown you with my tanning lotion,” Melody muttered under her breath.
“What was that?” Emmett asked without opening his eyes.
“That skinny brunette. She keeps walking by, leering at you.”
“My, my, are you jealous?” he teased.
She stared at him without blinking. “Why don’t you go back to the room with me and find out?”
His heart began to beat wildly. “We’ve only been here an hour or so. I thought you might be too tired,” he said gently.
She shook her head very slowly. Her long hair was loosened, blowing softly in the ocean breeze. She searched his green eyes. “I want you,” she whispered.
His body reacted sharply and he laughed with self-conscious delight. “Damn it, woman…!”
“Recite multiplication tables,” she whispered with a gleeful smile.
He glared at her. “You’d better have packed something that prevents multiplication, because I forgot to.”
“I did.” She’d decided on the pill, despite his objections, because she felt it was the safest way to prevent a child until they were ready. She stood up, holding out her hand. “I’ve waited twenty years,” she murmured dryly. “I do hope you’re going to be worth it.”
He got to his feet, his pale eyes shimmering with a kind of knowledge that made her blush. “Honey, I can guarantee it.”
He took her hand and they went back to the room in a tense, delicious silence.
She went straight into his arms the minute the door closed, determined not to admit that she was nervous of him this way. It was broad daylight, but waiting until tonight would have inhibited both of them. Besides, she thought as she lifted her face to look at him, she loved him. It would be all right, as long as he didn’t compare her with any of his past lovers. She hoped that she was going to be enough for him, because despite her bravado, she felt vaguely inadequate.
But that fear was quickly forgotten when he bent to kiss her, and the heat of his body and the skill of his mouth and hands turned her nervous response into sensual fever.
He eased her onto the bed and very efficiently moved everything out of his way, so that her nude body was cradled to his in the slow preliminary to their first loving.
“Shh,” he whispered when she began to writhe and pull at him. “Not so fast, little one. Don’t gulp it. Sip it. Slow down.”
“It aches,” she whispered unsteadily as his mouth teased and tormented hers. “I ache all over.”
“So do I,” he said on soft, unsteady laughter. “But we’re building to one hell of an explosion, and it’s too soon for you, despite what you think. No, don’t touch me like that, not yet,” he said softly, stilling her hand. “This is all for you. My turn will come later, when I’ve satisfied you to the tips of your pretty pink toes. Kiss me, sweetheart.”
He coaxed her mouth back up to his and his hands moved again, tasting her body as his mouth tasted her lips, and then settled hungrily on her breasts and her soft, flat stomach, experiencing, exploring her, making her crazy for his possession.
“I can’t…bear it…!” she whimpered finally, anguish in her wide, haunted eyes. “Oh, please…!”
“All right,” he whispered tenderly, moving over her. “Gently, little one,” he breathed. “Gently, gently.”
He held her firmly, his face above hers, his muscular body cording as he positioned her and began to move down. He was afraid of hurting her, even as it excited him beyond bearing to be her first lover. But she didn’t flinch, didn’t fight. She lay there, shivering, her eyes open and fixed with pain and wonder on his taut face as he invaded the sweet, warm softness of her innocence and was slowly, painstakingly engulfed by it.
She flinched and he grimaced, stilling until she relaxed again. He could barely breathe. “Is it bad?” he managed to ask.
“It was. It’s not now.” She closed her eyes and willed her body to accept him. And it did, abruptly, and generously. She let out a long sigh of relief.
He moved as close as he could then, fighting a hellish surge of tense pleasure that begged for relief.
“It doesn’t hurt anymore,” she whispered shyly. Imagine, talking to a man while you were doing this!
“That’s what you think,” he groaned.
“Oh, Emmett,” she breathed. She lifted to him, watching him shiver. She liked his reaction. She felt suddenly confident, all woman. She lifted again. He protested, but he didn’t try to stop her. His face clenched and he breathed roughly. She loved him. It was going to be so beautiful.
“Witch!” he groaned.
“Do you like it?” she teased, moving sensually.
“I’ll show you how much I like it,” he breathed with a smiling threat. He whipped over onto his side, taking her with him. His strong, lean hands caught her hips and he laughed with something savage, untamed, in his pale eyes as he slid one long leg between both of hers and began to rock her in that deep intimacy.
She gasped as pleasure began to sting her body with bursts of throbbing heat.
“Did you think you could match me so quickly?” he whispered with passionate tenderness as he teased her mouth with his. And all the while, his hands pulled and pushed and teased while he invaded her trembling innocence. He watched her face the whole time, enjoying the stunned wonder of her dark eyes. “How does this feel?” he whispered.
She cried out at the shock of pleasure that came with the movement. Her hands caught at his powerful arms, but the great waves of sensation kept coming, faster and faster, his whole body an instrument of pleasure as he held her and quickly deepened his possession, laughing li
ke a devil as he drove her down into the fires of fulfillment and watched her body splinter into ecstasy against the hard whip of his passion.
Only when she began to cry out in a hoarse, sobbing oblivion did he allow himself the delight of joining her in that lofty plane of mindless joy.
The explosions of pleasure surged through him like tidal waves, lifting, slamming into him, burning him in feverish delight. He called her name, again and again, clutching her to him as he gave in to satiation.
It wasn’t like other times, other women. He shivered, but he couldn’t stop. His lean hands pulled her into him, over him, and he moved helplessly under her soft, warm body, coaxing her mouth down to cover his as he began the rhythm all over again.
She hadn’t imagined what it would be like. He was inexhaustible, incoherent in his passion, but the skill and mastery were beyond her dreams. He raised her to levels she couldn’t have pictured, gave her endless ecstasy, made her alternately wanton and exhausted as the day turned finally to night.
When she was too tired to turn her head to kiss him, she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
A sweet smell and the feel of light disturbed her. Light shone into her eyes. She put up a hand and felt the warmth of sunlight filtering in through the venetian blinds.
She opened her eyes. Emmett was holding a warm pastry under her nose, letting her smell it.
“Hungry?” he asked softly, smiling at her.
He was fully dressed and she was wearing a sheer blue nightgown. She didn’t remember putting it on, but she must have. She smiled back at him. “Starved. Oh!”
She moved and grimaced. He chuckled wickedly, because he knew why she’d grimaced.
“Are you sore?” he asked with mock sympathy.
“Yes, I’m sore,” she murmured, blushing. “I hope your back is broken…”
He kissed her gently, stemming the words. “You’re the best lover I’ve ever had,” he whispered.
“But I couldn’t be,” she protested. “I didn’t know anything.”
“Yes, you did,” he replied, kissing her eyelids shut. “You knew how to love me, and you did. It was the most beautiful, the most exquisitely fulfilling night of my life. Even Mars won’t be far enough for you to run to get away from me now. I’ve just been farther out than that in your arms.”