Frontier Wife
Page 22
“When the shock wore off I wanted our child. Remember how angry you got when I gave up riding?”
He nodded.
“I went for long walks, rested in the afternoons and ate more. Mrs. Rogers must have thought me quite mad. I hoped she’d put it down to English eccentricity and the trauma of poor Melanie. Do you love me at all, Adam?”
He sighed. “Yes, from the first time I saw you. In the beginning I thought it must have been lust. Love is not an emotion I'm familiar with. I loved my mother, but she died when I was seven. I remember her being warm and soft, but after she died I didn't love anymore. My father drilled into me about love being a wasted emotion.”
Her pulse escalated at his confession.
Adam brushed the damp hair off her forehead with trembling fingers. “I kept telling myself I only felt lust for you. By the time I realized it was more it was too late. I know you were upset about what I said to Rodney, but he’s always been a loud aggressive drunk. I tried to pander to his crude way of thinking, so he wouldn’t create a scene and upset you.”
“I love you too, Adam.” She heard the breath catch in his throat, and his arms tightened around her. “I didn't tell you about the baby because I hoped you might return my love, not just tolerate me as the mother of your child. It wasn’t so much the fact that you spoke to your drunken friend about our wedding night. It seemed to confirm...” She gave a rueful, self-deprecating laugh. “You didn’t mean the endearments you used, only said them to get what you wanted.”
“We’re damn fools the both of us.” He kissed her, and his lips felt warm against hers. She did not pull away from him, just turned her head to rest her cheek against his bare, hair-roughened chest.
She shivered even though the room had started to warm up. The fire burned, casting bright flickering shadows on the walls.
“Lie here under the blankets with me, Adam.”
His jaw worked. “I…I can't.”
Her woman's instinct told her he would not come to her again unless he knew for certain she wanted him to. “Please, Adam, you're shivering too.”
He muttered something under his breath before slipping under the bedclothes to lie beside her. He trembled, whether from cold or emotion she could not be sure. The remembered heat of his body infused her with warmth. He folded one arm under his head as he lay on his back.
She took his other hand, placed it palm down against her body and moved it across her slightly swollen stomach.
“Oh, God, you don't know what you're doing to me.”
Having shared her bed with him, tasted his fiery passion, she knew what was happening to him even before she felt the thrust of his hardening manhood.
She rose up, buried her hands in the hair at the nape of his neck and kissed him on the lips. His mouth quickly took over from hers as he started kissing her with a desperate passion. His tongue probed her mouth, deeper and deeper, tasting the sweet nectar inside, but still wanting more.
Heated excitement rushed through her body as he shifted his mouth so he could suckle her nipples until the buds hardened into throbbing peaks. His fingers fanned out across her stomach.
“My darling,” he groaned. When his body covered hers, he supported most of his weight on his elbow. His final passionate possession thrilled her, just like it did when they first consummated their marriage.
They lay together for a time, enjoying the heat of each others’ bodies.
“What did you have in the carpet bag that was so important?” Adam whispered into her ear.
“Your son's layette.”
“Pardon?”
“The clothes I sewed and knitted. A baby must have lacy nightgowns and linen for a time, even if he is Adam Munro's son.”
“It might be a girl, a beautiful, willful blonde like her mother.”
“No, it's a boy, I feel it. You wanted a son so desperately you never entertained the slightest doubt before.”
“I've learned a lot of hard lessons today. As long as both you and the child are fit and healthy, I'll ask no more. I’ve been making enquiries about a pup for Jamie, too.” His soft, intimate laugh caressed her body like liquid velvet. “Touser had several lady friends. There are quite a few of his progeny around, must have been a busy boy.”
“Jamie would love that. He hasn’t spoken about the dog much, but he remembers him in his prayers every night.”
“I’m hungry. Would you like something to eat now, my darling?” He ran his knuckles across her cheeks, his touch as light as thistledown.
“There's flour, salt and a few other bits and pieces so we could make a damper. I stocked the hut up quite well.”
“I know, young Jamie told me. I envied him because you never invited me, but after my behavior I couldn’t blame you. We'll have to stay overnight here. I don’t want to risk crossing the river in the dark. Mrs. Rogers will take good care of Jamie. She's lived here long enough to know the dangers.”
He slid out of the bed, and stood straight and tall, not one bit concerned about his nakedness. In the semi-darkness of the hut Tommy saw the outline of his powerful body. Such potent maleness, such rugged beauty, she would never tire of gazing at her frontier man.
He folded the blanket in two, wrapping it like a sarong about his waist and padded over to the fire. Tommy lay watching him, supremely happy now. Adam's child would be a boy. She ran a gentle hand across her stomach. Some instinct deep within, as old perhaps as time itself, assured her this was so.
A word about the author...
Margaret Tanner is an award-winning multi-published Australian author. She loves delving into the pages of history as she carries out research for her historical romance novels and prides herself on being historically correct. No book is too old or tattered for her to trawl through, no museum too dusty. Many of her novels have been inspired by true events, this one being written around the hardships and triumphs of her pioneering ancestors in frontier Australia. She once spent a couple of hours in an old gaol cell so she could feel the chilling cold and fear.
Her favorite historical period is the First World War, and she has visited the battlefields of Gallipoli, France and Belgium, a truly poignant experience.
Margaret is a member of the Romance Writers of Australia, the Melbourne Romance Writers Group (MRWG) and EPIC. She won the 2007 Author of the Year at AussieAuthors.com.
Margaret is married and has three grown-up sons, and a gorgeous little granddaughter.
Outside of her family and friends, writing is her passion.
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