The Texan's Diamond Bride

by Teresa Hill

  He still felt fuzzy-headed from wanting her so badly, but he thought she’d made sense in all her arguments.

  He just had one reservation. “It’s not just stubbornness on my part to want to keep you out of that mine. I worry about you, Red. I can’t stand the idea of you getting hurt down there or God forbid, trapped in there. I’d never forgive myself.”

  “We’ll do it together. We’ll be careful. I promise. I know how to do this, Travis, and I’ll have you with me. I couldn’t let anything happen to you, either.” She grinned. “So, we’ve agreed?”

  He nodded. “Yes. Now take your clothes off, Red.”

  “Here?” she whispered tentatively.

  He was halfway out of his shirt and kicking off his boots at the same time. When he actually got the shirt over his head and tossed it aside, boots off, he looked over at her, standing hesitantly by the sofa.

  “Yes, here,” he grinned. “Is that a problem for you?”

  The fire was going, and they hadn’t turned on the lights as darkness had fallen outside, so the room wasn’t brightly lit by any means. And there was a nice, soft rug in front of the fire.

  She looked incredible by firelight.

  He already knew that from their time in the cabin.

  “Anybody could just walk right in here,” she protested.

  “Has anybody done that in the evenings since you’ve been here?”

  “No,” she admitted. “But—”

  “Are you nervous, Red?”

  “A little.”

  “Shy?” he tried, wondering if she could possibly be that. He’d had her nearly naked on the ground the first night they’d met, after all.

  And what a night that had been.

  He’d made her crazy. He’d made sure of it. Absolutely crazy, more than once, enjoying the way she responded so openly, with such honesty and abandon. Wanting her so crazy for him that the minute they got anywhere with a condom, he could be inside of her, no questions asked, no hesitation, no nothing.

  And it hadn’t quite happened like that, but he’d been carrying a condom in his pocket ever since they got to the cabin, like some damned teenager thinking he might get lucky any minute. Someone had been using the cabin as a love nest. He’d found the condom stash there.

  “I’m not…” she began. “Just…I didn’t think….”

  He took her by the hand, led her to stand in front of him as he sat and told her, “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of everything.”

  He started at the bottom button of her blouse, pulling it open, putting his mouth to that spot on her belly near her belly button, his arms wrapping around her, hands cupping her bottom, pulling her to him.

  She whimpered, grabbed his shoulders, had her hands in his hair.

  “There you go,” he muttered against her soft, trembling skin. “It’s gonna be just fine. Did you like what I did to you that first night at the mine, Red?”

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  “So we both know that I already know what you like, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “You’ll like this even better. Trust me.”

  She did. She trusted him.

  And then his tongue slid around the opening of her belly button and then ever so softly inside.

  Her muscles went slack, legs just gone, and it was only his arms holding her tight and the way she draped herself over him that held her up.

  That wicked tongue of his…

  It felt for all the world like he was inside her, really inside her. Heat blossomed in her pelvis, blood thrumming through her veins, until he dragged her back onto the sofa with him, facing him, straddling him, laughing.

  He held her with one hand, undid buttons up her blouse with the other, that wicked mouth following, like he might lick every inch of her with a hot, sensual slowness and make her insane.

  He got to her bra, which happened to close in front and flipped it open, nosed the cups aside again, there was that mouth, those little licks of wet heat, under her breast, around it, that ultrasensitive outer curve and then finally he took her nipple in his mouth and sucked hard.

  She arched against him, felt him, hard and ready, against her through their clothes. She didn’t care anymore that they were in his living room, that anyone could walk in or that it wasn’t quite dark in the room.

  He went from one breast to the other, and one hand went to the snap of her jeans, the zipper, and then to his own. A moment later, he palmed her hips and stood up, taking her with him. Then he put her on her feet, just long enough for him to strip her of her jeans and panties, then strip off his own, as well.

  She didn’t think she’d ever felt so naked in her entire life as she did when he sat back down and just gazed at her standing there in front of him, a look in his eyes that dared her to object or to try to cover herself. Her breasts ached with fullness. Her nipples were so tight, and she was absolutely throbbing with desire.

  “Red, you’re beautiful,” he said in that slow, sexy, cowboy drawl of his.

  Then he reached out and teased at the patch of red curls between her legs.

  “Travis, you can’t do that,” she objected.

  “Do what?” he said, watching as she reacted to his touch.

  “Leave me standing here like this.”

  “But I can see you like this, all of you, and I already told you, you’re so beautiful. I love looking at you like this,” he said, as his wicked fingers slipped inside those curls.

  She grabbed on to his shoulders in an effort to stay upright.

  This could not go on. She wouldn’t be able to stand it.

  Sensation shot through her, wave after wave of it, the touch simply too much to bear. Not that it stopped him. He kept right on going, with her begging him, telling him he just had to stop.

  But he didn’t.

  He kept going until she groaned, then gasped, nearly screamed.

  “Now that might actually make someone come inside, if anyone was close enough to hear.”

  He was laughing as he pulled her onto his lap and wrapped her up in the afghan from the back of the sofa.

  She would have yelled at him, but she still couldn’t talk, still had waves of pure pleasure shooting through her body. She let her head fall to his shoulder, and with her legs splayed wide this way, she could feel him, throbbing hard against the slick opening of her body, and she rocked against him ever so slightly, because she just couldn’t help herself.

  Oh, it felt so good.

  He felt so good.

  “If someone comes in here, I’m going to kill you,” she told him.

  “You’re covered up, and even if they do come inside, they won’t stay long.”

  “Travis!”

  He laughed again. “If they were close enough to hear you, they’d have been here by now to make sure everything was okay. So you’re safe, Red. And you’re not going anywhere.”

  She arched against him and rocked, using him to please herself now and hoping that would make him a fraction as crazy as he’d made her.

  He groaned, a sound she took as encouragement, and then he had his hands palming her hips, finding a rhythm he liked.

  She nipped on his ear, teased at it a bit, remembering what he’d done to her belly button, then rubbed against him some more, whispering, “Feel what you did to me. It felt so good. You feel so good.”

  He growled deep in his throat and pushed her away. She sat back on his lap, puzzled until she realized he had a condom and was putting it on, then pulling her back to him.

  She started out high on her legs, fitting her body to his and then let him slowly ease her down around him, letting him slowly open up her body and fill it with him. He was big and hot and throbbing, and she felt her body grip him, squeeze him tight, as if she’d never let him go.

  It was too much, too sweet, too hot, too much to control, so she just hung on to him and let him do it, let him set the rhythm with his hands on her bottom, that sexy voice of his urging her on, take him, take more, take h
im deeper.

  She whimpered, protested, buried her face in his hair, and he finally flipped her over onto her back on the sofa and came down hard on top of her, rocking into her in a maddening rhythm, so steady, only so deep, only so hard.

  He was trying to kill her, she decided.

  Kill her with pleasure.

  “What?” she cried. “You want me to beg you to finish it? Is that it?”

  “Yes,” he said, wicked man. “I think I would like that.”

  But he didn’t make her, he laughed deep in his throat and finally let go of all efforts to control this thing between them or to prolong it.

  And then it didn’t take anything at all.

  She’d been hanging on that edge for what seemed like forever, and he finally pushed her over it. She buried her face in his shoulder, to muffle the sounds she made and felt him surging into her, her body milking every bit of pleasure out of his.

  It was amazing. It was beautiful, and it was so much more than she’d ever felt before.

  He was a magic man, she decided.

  Beautiful, sexy, strong, with a control streak a mile long, but she didn’t care. She just gave herself over to the sheer pleasure of finally having him in every way that mattered.

  Paige knew that at some point, he rolled heavily off of her, wrapped her in that afghan and carried her to his bed, sliding her between the cool, soft sheets and then covering her up.

  She grumbled about the cold.

  He laughed. “Give me a minute, Red. I’ll be happy to warm you up all over again.”

  “No,” she said. “I need a week, maybe two, to recover from that.”

  She wasn’t sure she could move her own legs or her arms, her whole body was so heavy and so relaxed, it was limp with pleasure.

  “A week?”

  He was back, standing naked by the bed, condoms in hand.

  She looked at him, giving him a slow once-over as he’d given her, except here in his room it was darker.

  Still, she could see enough to appreciate the sight.

  He pulled back the covers and got in, put on another condom and rolled onto her.

  “Travis,” she protested, wanting him all over again, just too sated to do anything about it.

  “We’ll go easy this time, Red. If anything can ever be easy with us,” he whispered as he slipped inside her still-aroused body.

  Just like that.

  Easy as could be.

  A million sensations came thundering back, making her whimper and open herself up to him even more.

  It was pointless to protest.

  She’d give him anything he wanted right now, she realized.

  Anything.

  Paige woke up to find him looking at her again.

  She was in his bed, and it was morning, or nearly morning, judging by the faint light coming in the window.

  He was lying stretched out beside her, propped up on his side. He’d pulled the sheet down to the top of her thighs and was stroking her slowly. His hand skimmed just above the surface of her skin, a touch more implied than anything else, and it was as if her body was rising up to meet his hand, begging him in its own way to touch her.

  “You are a wicked man,” she said, her hand on his cheek, wanting him to kiss her. “And you need to shave. Your skin is rough.”

  “All the better to rough you up, my dear.”

  She laughed as he did just that, rubbing his chin against her belly, her breasts, her cheek, taking her back, just like that, to that heated pool of desire between them.

  How did he do that?

  It was like it was always there, simmering, just ready to boil over.

  He kissed her once, then again, then studied her face, touching her cheek, tracing a path around her mouth. “I’m afraid I roughed you up a little bit last night, honey. Your skin is reddish. Is it sore?”

  “A little,” she admitted.

  “What me to shave?”

  She shook her head, pulling his mouth down to hers. “I don’t want to wait.”

  “You’re gonna be sore in other places, if we’re not careful,” he said.

  “Maybe, but I don’t care.”

  The next time she rolled over, she must have been dreaming. Because something that looked for all the world like morning sunlight was shining in through the bedroom window.

  Paige blinked once, then again.

  It had been days since she’d seen anything resembling sunlight.

  It was like waking up to a completely different world.

  So was finding herself naked in Travis Foley’s bed.

  Paige took a breath, pulling the air in as deep as she could and very, very slowly letting it out.

  She’d become his lover, and she wasn’t sorry.

  She was glad, very, very satisfied and a little bit sore.

  The man was insatiable. Wonderfully so. She’d never had a lover so sure of what he wanted and the fact that he was going to get it. It was maddening, and, though she hated admitting it even to herself, really turned on. As if he planned to turn her into his personal love slave, and she’d do it, because he made her feel so good.

  She was contemplating actually getting up, maybe soaking in that fancy horse trough of his to get some of the soreness out, when he walked in, dressed this time.

  Paige glanced at the clock. It was after nine. He was never home at this hour.

  “Back for more?” she asked, thinking this whole love slave thing had gone to his head, too.

  He grinned, shook his head and held out the phone she hadn’t noticed him carrying to her. “It’s your brother.”

  She gaped at him as he clamped a hand over the earpiece. “No!”

  “Afraid so, Red. Sounds like he keeps close tabs on you, didn’t like it when he hadn’t heard back from you first thing this morning.”

  Horrified, she looked at the phone like it might jump up and bite her. “You didn’t…He doesn’t…”

  “No. Of course not. And he can’t see through the phone, so he has no way of knowing you’re naked in my bed, so try not to look so worried. Or sound so worried. He sounds like he already believes I’d throw you to the wolves if I had the chance.”

  She took a breath, sat up to lean back against the leather headboard and lost track of the sheet in the progress, having to scramble to cover her breasts once more.

  “This is impossible!” she complained.

  And then he shoved the phone at her, and she had no choice but to say, “Hello? Blake?”

  “What has that man done to you?” her brother practically roared.

  Paige fought down a near-hysterical chuckle and motioned for Travis to come back into the room, when he started leaving. She didn’t have anything to hide anymore, except bare breasts, at least for the length of this phone call, if she could manage it.

  “Travis Foley hasn’t done anything,” she said, a bold-faced lie, cheeks flaming. “Blake, I’m fine. I promise you. There is absolutely nothing wrong with me.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Of course I’m sure. It even stopped raining this morning. Finally!”

  “What about the mine? Did you talk him into letting you back into the mine yet?”

  “Actually,” she said, looking at Travis, wanting to know it was okay with him, “we’ve come to an agreement.”

  Travis nodded. They were still in agreement.

  “Really?” Blake sounded astonished. “How did you do that?”

  She kept looking at Travis. “He said I was a brilliant negotiator and that every argument I made, made perfect sense.”

  Laughter rumbled out of Travis, and he reached out and ticked the side of her breast.

  She nearly slapped him away.

  Blake fell into a thoroughly insulting silence.

  “It’s true,” she told her brother.

  “What did you have to give him?”

  “I didn’t give him anything.” Okay, that was another bold-faced lie, but she thought she made the claim rather well. �
�What he really wants is for the McCords to leave him alone. I told him if I had a week or so to look for the diamond, and I couldn’t find it, that’s it. We’re done. We won’t bother him again. You have to promise me that, Blake. If I can’t find it, we drop this.”

  “I don’t get it. What’s in it for him?”

  “He genuinely loves it here,” Paige said. “He likes the peace, the quiet, the privacy. I think you’d have to be a rancher to understand, but that means a lot to him. He hates having fortune hunters invading his space. Now, do we have a deal?”

  Paige held the phone out between her and Travis. Her brother’s voice came through loud and clear. “Yeah. You tell me the diamond’s not there, we’re done with the mine.”

  “With any of the old mines. With searching this ranch.”

  “Okay. Deal.”

  “Good. I’ll call you as soon as the water goes down and we can get inside the mine.”

  “You be careful. If that man hurts you—”

  She clicked the phone off and handed it back to Travis.

  He gave her a long, studying look. “You think I don’t trust you, Red? That I needed to hear him say it?”

  “I wanted you to hear him say it. I wanted you to know you’re doing the right thing by trusting me. I don’t want you to have any doubts about that.”

  She watched him mull that over.

  Maybe he had doubts and was fighting them.

  Maybe he didn’t.

  She couldn’t be sure, despite the thoroughly satisfying night she’d spent in his arms.

  Chapter Eleven

  Travis had been kept home by a conference call with his bankers, but he’d left her a present in the library before he headed out to work on his ranch.

  Paige couldn’t imagine what that might be.

  She got up, wondering if Marta was already there. Normally at this time, she would be. Had Travis told her not to go to work in his room? Or maybe she’d gone into Paige’s room and found a bed that hadn’t been slept in.

  Oh, well. Too late to worry about that now.

  She put on the robe Travis left for her at the foot of the bed and padded across the hall through the family room and to the wing that held the other bedrooms. In her own room, she showered and dressed quickly, then headed for the library.