by Diana Palmer
She sighed and snuggled closer to him. “Now I know what they meant, when they said it was like eating potato chips.” She laughed delightedly. “Oh, Emmett, I like it!”
“I’m glad. So do I.” He lifted his head and cocked a rueful eyebrow. “I suppose for a few days now we’ll be good friends and companions.”
She peered at him through her long lashes. “In health class, nobody ever said you got sore.”
“That was my fault,” he said, and looked guilty. “I should have stopped after the first time. I’m sorry. It had been a long time and you went to my head. But I should have had more control.”
“I wasn’t complaining,” she said sincerely. “I loved it. I’d do it all over again if I could.”
“So would I. That’s the hell of it.” He brushed his mouth gently against hers. “Was it worth the wait?” he asked seriously, searching her soft, dark eyes.
“Yes,” she whispered. “It was worth waiting all my life for.”
“For me, too,” he replied tersely. “My God, I never dreamed it would feel like that with you.” He touched her face gently. “Mrs. Deverell,” he said as he kissed her forehead with aching tenderness. “Mrs. Melody Deverell.”
She looped her arms around his neck and nuzzled her face into his warm throat. “I’m still sleepy.”
Her vulnerability made him strong, made him ache with tenderness. He bent and lifted her, carrying her to the armchair. He sat down with her in his lap and put down the pastry. Then he lifted a cup of hot coffee to her lips.
She sipped it, staring at him curiously.
“What do you want to do today?” he asked quietly.
“Stay with you.”
He smiled. “What else?”
“Nothing,” she said. “Only that.” She reached up and put her lips gently to his. “I love you so much. More than anything or anyone in all the world.” She kissed him again and felt him tremble.
He put the coffee cup down and turned her against his broad, bare chest. He held her gently, undemanding, for a long time, staring across her bright head to the window. “Go to sleep,” he breathed at her temple. “I’ll hold you while you sleep.”
She smiled drowsily and curled closer to him, resting her cheek on his shoulder.
She slept and he watched her, fascinated by the color in her face, the soft sigh of her breath against his throat, the trusting, tender posture of her body in his arms. He thought that he’d never been so happy in all his life.
But with that feeling came a quiet regret that their first intimacy had been so turbulent. She’d given in to him, loved him, responded completely to his fierce ardor. He should have given her tenderness instead of raw passion. It was just that it had been so long and he’d wanted her so desperately. He couldn’t hold back.
Now, looking down at her sleeping face, he felt an aching need to cradle her against him in bed and show her the most exquisite kind of tenderness.
Next time, he promised himself. The thing was, she wouldn’t be capable of intimacy for several days; probably not until they went home again. He grimaced. Well. Better late than never. After a minute, he closed his eyes and fell asleep himself, wrapped in her warmth and love.
When Melody and Emmett drove up at the front door of the ranch house, Guy was peering out the window. He’d worried himself sick about how he was going to keep Emmett from shipping him off to a military school. He didn’t know how he was going to cope with so many changes at once. He was no longer part of his own family. Now he was going to be an outsider in Emmett and Melody’s, an unwanted burden. Amy and Polk were ecstatic. They would accept Melody and love her and be loved by her. He wasn’t sure that he could fit in. She might still be pretending to care about him, until she was settled with his father. Some of his friends at school had stepparents. He’d heard some terrible stories about that. Oh, why, why, did people have to get divorced? he agonized.
Melody had hugged Amy and Polk and greeted Mrs. Jenson. She came into the house, looking for Guy. He glanced at her warily.
“How are you?” she asked.
He shrugged, painfully shy. She looked radiant. It was a contrast of some magnitude to the way he looked, and felt.
“Guy. You might at least say hello,” Emmett said, interfering all too quickly, his green eyes flashing.
“Hello,” Guy replied, dropping his eyes.
Melody put her fingers against Emmett’s hard mouth. “Let’s get our clothes changed. I want to pass out the presents,” she said, before Emmett could do any more damage to her fragile relationship with Guy. “I brought stuff for all of you,” she told the children. “Even Mrs. Jenson.”
“Why, how sweet of you, Mrs. Deverell!” the older woman exclaimed. She hadn’t anticipated liking Emmett’s young wife. But the woman was not what she expected. She beamed. “I’ll just fix some coffee and cake.”
She went off toward the kitchen with an excited Amy and Polk, while Guy sat down on the sofa, idly stroking Alistair. The cat seemed to like him. It was forever following him around and purring. He was glad something liked him. Even Amy and Polk had been resentful and unkind since the wedding. He felt alone in the world except for this cat he’d been so cruel to in the beginning.
“I’m glad you like me, Alistair,” he told the tabby.
Alistair looked up with half-closed green eyes and purred even louder.
“You can’t be cruel to him,” Melody told Emmett gently when they were cloistered in the master bedroom. “He’ll try. I know he will, and so will I. You can’t expect him to be instantly happy, Emmett. It’s hard for him. Really hard.”
He sighed heavily, drawing her gently to him. “I’m impatient. Too impatient sometimes.” He searched her soft eyes and something alien flared in his as he touched her face. “I can’t bear the thought of letting anything or anyone hurt you,” he said hesitantly. He drew her close, feeling her soft response to the words as he bent to kiss her. “I can’t bear to let you out of my sight…”
She kissed him back, hungry for him because even though they’d been passionate lovers that one time, they hadn’t been able to make love again because it had taken such a long time for her to recover from his ardor that first day.
His tall, powerful body began to vibrate, to harden. “I want you,” he choked, and his mouth became insistent.
“Tonight,” she promised, smiling at him. “Oh, Emmett, tonight…!”
When they rejoined the family, several hectic minutes later, Melody was flushed and shy and Emmett was grinding his teeth. But he looked at her with wonder and delight. It got better and better, he thought. The walls were thick, but she was still a little shy. He’d have to have a radio on or something tonight. Tonight. His body began to throb and he went off into the kitchen to see about coffee.
Melody passed out presents: a set of Mexican coins and a cup and string-tied ball toy for Amy; a book on the Mayans and a few replicated artifacts for Polk, who seemed bent on being an archaeologist. And for Guy, a serape and a pocketknife with a hand-carved handle.
Guy was speechless. He’d wanted a pocketknife of his own for ages, because he loved to whittle things out of wood. He was forever borrowing his father’s. Melody had noticed. Imagine that, he thought regretfully. He’d been terrible to her, but she’d gone to a lot of trouble to buy something he really wanted.
He looked up at her, shyly.
“Do you like it?” she asked, frowning. “I wasn’t sure…”
“It’s great!” he said slowly. “Thanks.”
“Don’t abuse the privilege,” Emmett told him firmly. “You can’t use it to carve your initials in the walls or make devices of torture to use on unsuspecting tourists.”
Guy grinned. “Sure, Dad.”
It was the first time he’d seen the boy smile in weeks. He glanced at Melody and nodded. She’d known, and he hadn’t, the way to his son’s heart. He had a lot to learn about his own children and his new wife.
Amy tugged at his sleeve. “Emmett, it
was very nice of you to think of us on your honeymoon,” she said, smiling radiantly at him.
“It sure was!” Polk enthused. “Look at this atl-atl,” he said, displaying the use of the Aztec throwing stick that looked something like an arrow on a slab of bamboo. “Ancient Aztecs used to hunt with these, did you know?”
“I know about dinosaurs and Pleistocene animals,” Emmett corrected him. “My minor was paleontology, not archaeology.”
“Archaeology is a branch of anthropology,” Polk said authoritatively. “I’m going to study it when I get out of high school. Just think, Dad, maybe I’ll be the one to find the first Homo erectus remains in the United States!”
Emmett frowned. “There’s no proof that Homo erectus ever set foot here.”
“Yet,” Polk said. And grinned.
Amy tugged on Emmett’s sleeve again. “Emmett?”
“Hmm?” he murmured, still distracted by Polk’s question.
“Are you and Melody going to have any babies?”
Emmett stared at her. “What?”
“Babies. You know. People have sex and they get babies.” She grinned. “I learned about that on television. There was this movie and it showed what people do in bed together.” She frowned. “Do you and Melody have sex?”
Melody went scarlet and Emmett actually blushed.
“Shut up, Amy!” Guy muttered. “Honest to God, are you ever going to grow up? Come on, let’s go outside and play with Polk’s atl-atl.”
“It’s mine! I didn’t say you could play with it!” Polk raged, his glasses sparkling.
“I’ll let you see my knife,” Guy offered.
The smaller boy hesitated. “Well…”
Guy put an arm around Polk and led him toward the door. “Just think, Polk, I can whittle arrows for that atl-atl. If we set up a fort just down past the barn, we can lie in wait for that nasty-tempered old bull…”
“You shoot one arrow at that bull and I’ll stop your allowance forever!” Emmett called after them.
“Aw, Dad!” Guy groaned.
“I mean it!”
Amy went with the boys, glowering at her father. “Emmett, you’re not the same man since we moved down here. You never let us have fun anymore.”
“Considering what you people call fun, it’s a miracle I haven’t had to bail all three of you out of jail!”
Amy just shook her head and went out behind the boys.
“See?” Melody told him. “Guy will come around. It will take time, that’s all. He’s already loosening up, didn’t you notice?”
He had. Guy was much more like his old self, like the boy he’d been before Emmett ever saw Melody in Logan’s office. He drew her close and kissed her softly. “All right. I give in.” He eased her across his lap on the sofa and kissed her more thoroughly, feeling the warmth and tenderness of it right through his body.
“I love you,” she whispered, smiling against his mouth.
“Kiss me…!”
He gathered her up and devoured her until they were both trembling. His mouth slid down to her throat and he held her, shivering. He was afraid. He’d never been so afraid. She possessed him, delighted him, made him whole. He’d lost his father, whom he idolized. His mother had killed herself. Adell had left him. If he lost Melody…!
“Emmett!” she protested gently, because his arms were bruising her.
He lifted his dark head and looked at her. The expression on his face, in his eyes, touched her deeply.
She reached up to press soft, tender kisses against his fearful eyes, his cheeks, his nose, his mouth until she felt him begin to relax. Then she drew back and searched his eyes.
“Emmett, I will never leave you,” she whispered, and put her fingers over his mouth when he tried to speak. “Never,” she repeated, understanding what was bothering him. She put her mouth against his and held on, feeling him shiver as he gathered her against him and kissed her with quiet desperation.
She knew then that he felt something powerful for her, even if he’d never said so. She smoothed his hair and lay quietly in his arms until the brunt of his passion was spent. Then she curled against him, trustingly, and sighed.
He stared over her head toward the door, a little less horrified than he’d been. How shocking, he thought, to discover so late in life that he’d never known what love was. At least, not until now.
Chapter 10
Emmett wanted to tell Melody what he felt. He wanted to shout it to the world. But he couldn’t manage it. He felt choked up with the knowledge. He looked down at her and his heart seemed to swell to the point of bursting.
“You delight me,” he whispered huskily. His hand touched her hair, her cheek. “Oh, God, I’d do anything for you…!”
She drew his mouth down to hers again and kissed him tenderly.
“Coffee’s on,” Mrs. Jenson said with a wicked smile as she came into the room with a tray. “I suppose you newlyweds would rather live on kisses than cake, but here it is, anyway. If you need anything else, just call.”
“Thanks, Mrs. Jenson,” Emmett murmured.
Melody shyly climbed off Emmett’s lap to sit beside him on the sofa. “Yes, indeed, it looks delicious!” she said enthusiastically.
“Could you peek out the window occasionally?” Emmett called to Mrs. Jenson. “Just to make sure the kids aren’t making shish kebab of any of old man Regan’s cattle?”
“Why do you think the curtains aren’t drawn?” she asked, tongue-in-cheek. “All the same, they’re a nice bunch of kids. They went down to Mark Gary’s cabin yesterday with a straggly bunch of old silk flowers they found. His dog got run over in the road and they felt sorry for him. Guy even offered to give him Barney because he was so upset.”
Emmett was touched. He didn’t seem to know his own kids at all. “That was nice of them.”
“Yes, it was. They’ve got a lot of heart.” She twisted her apron. “Of course, there was this one little incident while you were away.”
“Little?” he asked hesitantly.
She shifted. “Well, you know how they feel about that inspector who comes out here—the one who yelled at Barney and made Amy cry? The one everybody in the county hates?”
Emmett’s face hardened. “I had words with him about upsetting Amy.”
“You weren’t here,” she pointed out. “He made a remark that Guy didn’t like about that big Appaloosa stallion of yours that Guy adores. Then he made a couple of remarks about you.”
“What did they do?” Emmett asked with resignation.
“Nothing really vicious…”
“What did they do?” he repeated.
She grimaced. “They put a potato in his tailpipe.”
“Did he take it out?”
She cleared her throat. “He was too busy at the time.”
“Doing what?”
“Trying to get the snake out of his front seat.”
Emmett buried his face in his hands. “Oh, my God!” he wailed. “He’ll shut us down for sure!”
“I don’t think so.”
There was hope? He lifted his head. “Why?”
“Well, the kids had some food coloring they got out of the cabinet. They sort of colored the snake up before they put it in the cab. I don’t like snakes, you know, but it was real pretty. Sort of blue and pink and yellow and green, with polka dots.” She shrugged. “It seems that the gentleman went back to his office and told them he’d been shut up in his car with a blue and pink and yellow and green polka-dotted snake by three midget commandos.” She wiped her hands on her apron. “I hear he’s having therapy. There’s this new inspector. He’s real nice, and he likes snakes. We, uh, didn’t let him see Guy’s, of course. The food coloring will wear off, eventually.”
Emmett hadn’t stopped laughing when she got back to the kitchen.
Melody could hardly contain herself. She hoped that the kids never got it in for her!
Guy was nervous around his father. He hadn’t forgotten the threat about milita
ry school, and there was the incident with the snake. He was sure Mrs. Jenson had mentioned it.
Because he was uncertain of his position now that Melody was in residence, he tried to keep out of everyone’s way.
That night, an impatient Emmett hustled the kids to bed and turned off the television long before the news was due to come on.
He held out his hand, his eyes quiet and tender as they met Melody’s.
“You look impatient, Mr. Deverell,” she said demurely as he tugged her along the hall toward their bedroom.
“Impatient, desperate and a few other things. How I wish these walls were soundproof,” he muttered under his breath. He closed the door and locked it before he turned on the radio by the bed to a country-western station. He looked down at Melody, who was blushing. He drew her against him and bent to brush his mouth sensuously over her own. “We’re starving for each other,” he whispered. “I don’t want eavesdroppers, and we both get pretty vocal when we let go in bed.”
“Yes.” She shivered as his hands smoothed down her body. “It’s been so long—!” Her voice broke.
“Eons.” He lifted her onto the bed and followed her down.
Tenderness still wasn’t possible, he thought as the room began to spin around them. Not yet…!
Later, when the anguish of wanting each other was spent, he aroused her again, but tenderly this time. He moved against her in a soft, sweet rhythm that was unlike anything they’d ever done together. All the while, he looked into her eyes and smoothed away her damp hair, kissed her forehead, her nose, her cheeks, her eyes. Until speech was no longer possible, he whispered broken endearments and praise.
When the spiral caught them, her body convulsed violently, despite the slow, gentle rhythm, and she began to sob under the warm crush of his mouth. The rainbow of sensation made her cry out and he was vaguely aware of the radio drowning out the sound as his muscles corded and his hips arched violently, convulsively, against her.