by Susan Fox
Kane suddenly took the step that separated them and caught her up, crushing her against himself as he buried his face in her hair. Her feet no longer on the floor, Rio wrapped her arms around his neck and dropped the documents as she held on to him and cried.
Moments later, he was kissing her, hard, desperate, hungry kisses that made her wild with passion. Neither of them knew it when Ty took Tracy’s arm and quietly escorted her from the room.
“Never leave me, never leave me,” Kane chanted gruffly when they paused to catch their breaths. “Oh, baby, anything you ever want, anything you ever want me to do, it’s yours. As long as there’s breath in my body, I’ll get it for you, I’ll do it for you, only don’t leave me again.”
Rio flexed the fingers she’d combed into his thick black hair, ignoring the slight sting as she angled his head so she could kiss him again. The edge of pain in his low voice compelled her to reassure him, but she was too overwhelmed to speak. She couldn’t get enough of the feel and taste and male strength of him. She’d been starving…
The warm breeze blew lightly at the Painted Fence, riffling their shirts and toying with Rio’s hip-length hair until it danced in the air around her like a sable aura.
Kane watched as she bent down and tenderly placed half of the red sweetheart roses in the bronze vase on her mother’s grave. She straightened, then walked around the headstone to the vase on his father’s grave and placed the rest of the small, perfect roses there.
When she finished, she straightened again, then glanced his way and smiled a soft, sad smile. He held out his hand, and she walked toward him, bypassing his hand to instead step into his arms to hug him and press her cheek against his chest.
“I love you more than my life, Rio Langtry,” he whispered as he tightened his arms around her. His voice was rough with the emotion that still surprised him with its fervency.
“I love you more than mine,” she whispered back as she rubbed her cheek against the soft cotton of his shirtfront and snuggled closer.
“Are you feeling all right?” he asked gently, then drew back and slid a finger under her chin to coax her to look at him. Rio complied and smiled up at him, the light sheen of sentimental tears clearing slowly from her beautiful blue eyes.
“Never better. Pregnancy must agree with me. So far, at least,” she added, then reached behind her for his hand and brought it around to press it against the slight swell of her belly.
Kane’s face went stern. “I still think you ought to stay off horses and stop working with the men.”
“I will soon,” she told him, then pulled his hand from between them so she could hug him tighter.
She heard the frown in his voice when he grumbled, “That’s what you said a week ago. How, soon is soon?”
“Soon,” she said as if soon was a definite date on the calendar.
As much as she’d loved Kane, as long as she’d loved him, she’d never suspected how wonderful it would be to be loved by him and to love him openly, fully, with all her heart. In the year since their wedding, love had been a revelation for them both. Kane’s love and devotion had steadied her, given her confidence and soothed old wounds. Her love for him had gentled him and made him tenderhearted, though he was just as stern and fierce a man as he’d ever been.
“Don’t wait too long,” he said gruffly. “My nerves are raggedy enough.”
Rio laughed and drew back. “You haven’t had a nervous minute in your life.”
“Not until lately,” he groused, but she could see the faint twitch that told her he was trying not to smile.
“I love you, Rio. Somehow I can never say it to you often enough.” He brought a hand up to her cheek.
Rio smiled, then pulled her arms from around his lean middle and went up on tiptoe to wrap her arms around his neck.
“Go ahead and say it as often as you like. I’m never going to get tired of hearing it.” She pulled his head down to hers and kissed him, deeply, passionately.
Kane suddenly loosened his hold to bend and catch her behind the knees to lift her in his arms. He ended the kiss and pressed his forehead against hers. A rare, boyish smile came over his lips.
“When I was getting the roses for them, I got a couple of armloads for you, Mrs. Langtry. The problem is, every one of them is up in our room. Now the whole bedroom smells like that bath oil you use sometimes when you think you’ve got to do something extra to get my attention.” He paused to place a brief, tender kiss on her lips. “I don’t think I can wait till tonight to…show ‘em to you.”
Rio smiled. “I don’t think I can wait until tonight to…see them,” she said softly, then held on tight as Kane turned and strode toward the pickup that was parked just outside the gate.
eISBN 978-14592-7008-4
WILD AT HEART
First North American Publication 1997.
Copyright © 1997 by Susan Fox.
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any Information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
All characters In this book have no existence outside the Imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly Inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and TM are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered In the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.
Printed in U.S.A.