Eliza had paused in the midst of laying out the food, her whole nervous system keyed up by the stimulus of Cord’s presence. Somehow, she had to find the words to let him know she still loved and trusted him and that nothing he could ever do would destroy that. She allowed her gaze to wander down to the stream in search of Cord; otherwise, she would never have seen the bull when it emerged from the thicket.
She was numb with fear, but she jumped to her feet the instant the animal begin to paw the earth. “Cord!” she screamed with all her might, and without a thought for danger, started down the hill at such a rapid pace only sheer good luck kept her from falling. She hadn’t taken into account the steepness of the descent, and she was soon traveling faster than her feet could run. A sense of panic seized her. She took a few bouncing strides in a desperate attempt to keep her feet under her, then with a shriek, she lost her balance and dove into the water, colliding with Cord and knocking him into the middle of the stream and out of the path of the charging bull.
Cord had raised his head out of the water just in time to see the bull charge, and as he dived into the water, Eliza hit him broadside and the bull’s attack was met by a discouraging gush of water full in the face. The heavily muscled beast bellowed in fury at his quarry, now out of reach in the deep water, pawed the creek edge angrily, and then turned and trotted off.
The swirling waters soaked through Eliza’s clothes before she could regain her feet, and their enormous weight immediately pulled her under. Cord plunged through the water to her side and hauled her up. She was gasping for air and from the shock of the cold water that was rapidly drawing the heat from her body. Eliza wiped the streaming water from her eyes in time to see the bull lumbering over the rise, and her body slumped in relief.
“What on earth made you pitch headlong down the hill like that?” demanded Cord, relief that she was safe easing the tension in his body.
I saw the bull,” Eliza gasped, still breathless. “You had your head in the water.”
“So you came skittering down the slope intending to save me from the indignity of being soundly butted from behind.”
“Yes, I mean no Eliza stammered. “I was afraid he would gore you. You could have, been killed.”
“Did it ever enter your mind, my fair savior, that you could be lying dead on the bank this very minute?”
“He didn’t see me.”
“Or did you think that by throwing yourself into the water with a horrific splash, you could scare him into running away with his tail between his legs?”
“I don’t suppose I thought about it at all,” Eliza admitted, “but he did run away.”
“Look at yourself. You’re sopping wet.” Eliza looked down and was horrified to see her dress clinging to her body like a second skin.
“Let’s get out of this water before you catch your death of cold.”
“I can’t move,” Eliza exclaimed in surprise. “I feel like I’m anchored to the bottom.”
“I’ll carry you” Cord offered, and swept her up in his powerful arms. Eliza had never been picked up by a man, but she found she liked it very much and snuggled down quite happily even though her teeth chattered uncontrollably.
“You’re dripping wet too,” she said.
“I’m used to being wet, cold, or covered with snow.”
“We didn’t have mountain streams in Kansas, because we didn’t have any mountains, but I’ve been wet and cold many times before,” Eliza said a trifle defiantly.
“Are you trying to say you don’t need me to take care of you?”
“Well, not exactly.”
“How about this? After risking your neck to chase the bull away, I could have the decency to be the tiniest bit grateful.”
“Well, you could,” Eliza said with a tiny smile. “I could have just stayed by the buckboard.” Suddenly she chuckled, tried to hide it, and then burst out in a laugh.
“What’s so funny?”
“You should have seen yourself.”
“I couldn’t now, could I, not with my head in the water.”
“Your rear end was stuck up in the air like you were digging your way into a prairie-dog hole head first.”
“You didn’t look so clever yourself,” replied Cord, “hurtling down the hillside like a clump of tumbleweed in a high wind.”
“I was just trying to get to you in a hurry. I screamed at you, but you didn’t hear me.”
A hiccup of laughter shook Cord.
“You ungrateful man. If I had a mirror I’d let you see yourself.”
“No, you wouldn’t. You’d be afraid I’d show you what you look like with your hair in your face and your bonnet floating away.”
Eliza looked around to see the straw-and-flower confection rapidly disappearing downstream. “My hat!” she cried. “I’ve got to get it back.”
“You couldn’t possibly wear it after that soaking. Can you imagine what Mrs. Burton would say if she were to see you now, especially with that soggy flowered thing drooping over your face?” Cord stood Eliza on her feet, and she clasped her hands to her sides in an effort to control the shivers that shook her from end to end.
“No more than she’d say about you,” Eliza said with an unexpected shudder of desire. The swell of Cord’s manhood, always disconcerting, was positively riveting in its prominence.
“Then it’s a good thing she’s not here. I’ve never had to revive a fainting female and I don’t want to have to learn on her.”
Eliza sank down on a rock.
“Now don’t go getting settled. I don’t suppose you thought to bring a change of clothes.”
“Of course not. How was I to know I would end up soaking wet? I’ll probably get pneumonia now.”
“Seems I’m always rescuing you from some fix or other.”
“You ungrateful man. I’m determined that for once you shall be indebted to me.”
“Okay then, you figure out how we’re going to dry off.”
Eliza looked nonplussed. “We can sit here until the sun dries us out. It’s really quite warm.”
“It’ll be dark before then, and the nights are usually very cool. You’ve got to take off those clothes. They’ll dry a lot faster if you spread them in the sun.”
“You can’t be serious,” Eliza exclaimed. “What if somebody comes along?”
“Except for the Haughtons, this is all my land, and the boys are several miles to the east. Besides, it’s impossible for anyone to see us through all that cane.”
“I just couldn’t.”
Cord took his rope, tied one end to the buckboard, and looped it around two trees. Then he took several more blankets out of the wagon and hung them over the rope, effectively screening them on all except the creek side.
“How many blankets do you have?”
“Enough.” Cord’s smile made her feel weak. “Come sit here.”
Eliza left her seat on the rock and settled down on the blankets. “Are you sure no one can see us? I’d never be able to explain how I came to be sitting here with both of us dripping wet.”
“I’m sure. What I need now is a bootjack” he said as he dropped down beside her and began to wrestle with his boot.
“Here, let me help.” Eliza hugged the boot to her chest while Cord struggled to extract a foot wedged tightly inside by socks swollen with water. By the time the second boot was off, Eliza felt her brains were rattling around loose in her head.
“That’s the last time I ever offer to take off a boot.” She laughed as he pealed off his socks and spread them over the rock to dry.
“They’ll have to be oiled tonight, or the leather will crack,” explained Cord as he unbuttoned his shirt and spread it on the ground. Eliza wasn’t paying much attention to his words. Cord didn’t wear anything under his shirt, and his bare chest with its masses of short, curly dark hair and well-muscled shoulders filled her gaze.
“Same with harnesses. And if they break, nine times out of ten the horse will run away with you.”
>
Eliza felt horses were already running away with her. Cord was making unmistakable preparations to remove his pants.
“Don’t!” she managed to say in a hoarse whisper. By sheer force of will, she dragged her eyes from him, but her nerves were subjected to a second deadly battering when he settled back down beside her.
“You’re cold,” he said softly, his lips near her ear. “You really should get out of those clothes.”
“No,” she answered breathlessly.
“Then at least take off your outer garments. That way your dress can dry and you can preserve your modesty.” Eliza was unable to move, but Cord’s nimble fingers, dancing like hot coals across her body, rapidly undid the buttons of her jacket and shirt. She felt helpless to resist as he took both those garments from her body; her soaked skirt seemed to disappear of its own accord. Cord stood up to spread her clothes out in the sun and Eliza closed her eyes. It was one thing to stare at him in fascination while she was safely dressed, but it was quite another to do so when her own body was perilously close to being stripped of its protective covering.
“You’re still wearing your shoes.”
Eliza nodded miserably.
“Hand over your foot.”
Steeling herself, Eliza offered him her right foot. Her body went rigid as his fingers traveled up her leg, past her knee, to the roll in the top of her stockings halfway up her thigh. Her whole body seemed to consist of that one leg; every nerve was concentrated there.
“Now the other.” Cord’s removal of the second stocking merely substituted one limb for the other. When he had finally finished, Eliza felt limp, wrung out, too weak to even attempt to follow him with her eyes. Her whole being was on fire, her mind inflamed. Her nerves actually hurt with the intensity of their feeling.
“That’s much better” Cord said, settling down beside her again. “It ought not take your things more than an hour to dry.”
“An hour? What are we going to do for an hour?” Even if she could not have read the answer in Cord’s eyes, her own body was screaming at her mind, forcing her to acknowledge that only the soggy petticoat remained as a bar to what filled her consciousness to the exclusion of everything else.
“You could sit close to me so I could keep you warm.”
Eliza didn’t tell him her blood was already boiling.
Cord moved closer and gathered her in his embrace. He kissed her tenderly, then with fierce, possessive energy, and all the tension between them dissolved. Eliza melted into his arms, not questioning why she was there, only glad that she was. She returned his kisses eagerly, her whole being longing to be as one with him. Any lingering doubt was gone. She knew then that whatever the future held for her, she must give all she had and was into his safekeeping. That was the way she wanted it! That was the way it had to be.
“You are so beautiful I can hardly stand it,” Cord murmured, burying his face in her fragrant hair. “After the other Sunday, I was afraid you might never want to see me again.”
“Nothing could make me not want to see you again,” she said solemnly.
“I’ve been going around all week wondering what to say and afraid of what would happen when I saw you again.”
“It’s all right,” she whispered, looking into his passion-shrouded eyes. “I won’t be afraid this time.” For an instant Cord was motionless, his gaze plumbing hers to make sure he had heard her correctly, then he clasped her in an embrace that threatened to crush the life out of her body and covered her lips and eyes with an abundance of hot kisses.
Cord didn’t need a second invitation. Before she had recovered her breath, his hands had unbuttoned her shift and his hungry lips captured her breasts as his hands roamed over her soft skin, seeking out sensitive points and driving them into a frenzy of pleasure. Spasms of aching need radiated to every part of her body, awakening a chorus of desire that overwhelmed her by its full-throated cry.
It was all going too fast, but neither of them could stop it. It was as if their bodies had been held in some kind of suspended state for the last several days, waiting to finish what they had already begun. There was no surprise, no resistance or feeling of embarrassment when he lifted the shift over her head and she lay naked before him; there was only the sense of final resolution. Cord’s whole being was held motionless as he gazed in wonder on her unblemished loveliness.
“Is something wrong with me?” Eliza asked, confused by his sudden immobility.
“No,” Cord answered, his breath escaping in a long sigh. “Everything about you is absolutely perfect.” His fingers reached out to caress her skin, his hands to cup her breasts, his arms to draw her near. Slowly and deliberately his hands moved across her belly, down her side, and over her thigh. He felt her tense under his caress, her breath coming in short gasps, but she did not withdraw from him. Even more slowly his hand moved between her thighs and over her quivering mound. Eliza’s breathing stopped completely, only to begin again twice as fast when his fingers started to seek her out.
His hot lips sank to her aching breasts and he tortured first one and then the other with his restless tongue. All the while the probing, caressing, massaging fingers were doing the unthinkable, and a new kind of aching need began to well up from between her thighs. Eliza was caught between the desire to hold them at bay and the need to invite them to do more. In that instant Cord’s fingers entered her and her body arched rigidly, her eyes open wide. She trembled violently until she felt exhausted, drained of all power to resist. Slowly she relaxed, helpless against him, helpless against herself, her open thighs inviting him to do as he would.
Cord shed his pants, but even the surprise of finding herself in the arms of a naked man had no power to restrain Eliza now. It was as though every question, every doubt, every longing had been answered, and nothing could keep her from reaching her goal. Here, in the person of one man, was all she wanted, and she rushed toward her fate with the inevitability of a river to the sea. She was not dismayed to find him suddenly above her, his body between her thighs and something firm and hot pressing into her innermost self. As wave after wave of delicious desire coursed through her, she invited him to become one with her, to enter into a union of body and spirit.
Eliza flinched at the sharp, unexpected pain of Cord’s entry and her body tensed involuntarily, but her runaway need compelled her to draw him deeper inside her. His mumbled apology went unheeded as she wrapped her arms around his neck and drew his lips down to her. The passionate kisses became an exchange of volcanic lava as Cord penetrated deep with her. Eliza sucked in her breath, and let it out in an outpouring of longing. She clung to him, his lips, his body, trying to merge herself with him. The accelerating of Cord’s movement within her served only to make her efforts more determined. Waves of desire flooding over her with increasing speed and power separated her from her earthly surroundings and she felt as though the two of them existed separately from anything else in creation.
Deliberately Cord brought her to a pitch where all her senses were simultaneously screaming for release. Even then he did not heed her pleas, but drove her on to such exquisite agony she thought she would not be able to stand it. She clung to him, inviting, demanding, longing; she pounded on his back, drawing him into her, determined to make him satisfy her tormented body. At last, his own raging senses driving him toward the limits of his control, he could withhold himself no longer, and he plunged deep within her. With a moan of sheer ecstacy she rose to meet him and in a mounting frenzy they achieved release from a passion that had reached to the very core of their beings.
Chapter 15
For a long while they lay in each other’s arms without speaking. Eliza was certain there were no words that could express the feeling of awe and wonder that filled her heart. Never in her wildest dreams had she thought she would find someone as wonderful as Cord. It seemed impossible he was next to her, his warmth spreading over her like an enveloping blanket. The heady wine of love filled her cup to overflowing, and it was a
ll the more sweet for having been despaired of so long.
Cord stirred. Powerful muscles rippled along his limbs as he raised himself to his elbow. His eyes gazed at Eliza and a slow smile of contentment spread across his face.
“Did I please you?” she asked.
“I would have to be the most ungrateful man ever created not to be pleased.” He drew her to him and planted kisses on her eyelids.
Eliza’s heart overflowed with happiness, and she eagerly returned his embrace. It felt so natural to be next to him, his arms holding her tight, his naked body teasing her senses, she could not imagine why she had ever been afraid.
“You’re offering me so much, and I have so little to give in return,” Eliza said, but Cord put his fingers to her lips.
“All I want is you just the way you are. That’s more than I ever hoped to find.”
Tor years I worried I would never find anyone who could make me feel as safe and wanted as you do. I still wake up some mornings and can’t believe you’re real.”
“I’m very real, and I’ll never stop wanting and needing you. I love you, and I’ll never stop as long as I draw breath.”
Eliza’s throat constricted, damming up her words of love, but her tear-filled eyes were all the invitation Cord needed to smother her in his embrace. She welcomed the renewal of his passion and urged him to take her body into blessed captivity.
His big hands cupped her breasts and agile thumbs stroked her throbbing nipples. Abruptly Cord’s lips took over the teasing of one breast, and Eliza’s body arched as a free hand found its way between her thighs, massaging, probing, titillating until she felt fire beginning to spread through her body, engulfing her mind and senses in a haze of desire. Her hands reached out, encountered his chest, and slowly wandered down his body, over the rippling muscles of the flat abdomen pulled suddenly taut, until they reached the undeniable proof of Cord’s desire for her.
Dimly, for the fire kindled by Cord’s lips and hands was gradually dazzling her, she wondered that anything could be so soft and hard at the same time. She wondered how anything so enormous could fit inside her, but realized she was pulling him toward her, that she wanted him to become part of her.
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