Dorothy Garlock - [Wabash River] (32 page)

“Now? Sweet . . . now?”

“Yes, yes.” She opened her thighs and pulled him to her. Her arms wound tightly around his neck and she pressed herself against him. She was caught up in overpowering desire and the need for physical release. He lifted himself above her, sought entrance and paused.

“Will I hurt you?” His chest heaved as he attempted to control his breathing.

“Don’t stop!” she pleaded. Her hands feverishly clung to him, holding him tightly while she kissed his mouth again and again.

Her emotional plea echoed in the far depths of his heart, bringing a mistiness to his eyes and a tightness to his throat. Her sweet response brought his innermost thoughts leaping to his lips.

“I love you. You fill my . . . heart, my thoughts, you make my life complete.” With muttered, incoherent endearments he moved into her, reverently guiding her to accept the root of his being. With a moan and a hungry, eager thrust, he found himself enclosed, embedded in that sweet softness, that warm and hallowed place. Amy felt a slight pain that passed quickly, lost in the pleasure when she was stabbed again and again with that blade of fire. The magic circle of pleasure widened. She desperately wanted what they were reaching for, dreaded missing it, and quivered with expectation beneath the pressure of his body.

She thrust her body upward and found her hands clasped tightly to his buttocks. He was huge and deep inside her. Waves of frenzied pleasure ripped through her. The whole world was the man joined to her. His mouth was her mouth, his body and hers were one. This joining would forever be imprinted in her memory. She was a part of her beloved at last. He was at home in her body, moving gently, the tip of his arching hardness caressing her womb. She arched her hips hungrily and he wildly accepted what she offered. Her heart vibrated with all the love that was stored there for him.

Amy had not dreamed that being with Rain like this would carry her to such sensual heights. Their passion swelled, rocked them, enclosed them in a world where nothing existed but the two of them. She clung to him, aware only of the thrusting, pulsing rhythm that increased and brought with it spasms of pleasure that coursed like a gorgeous dance through her body. She felt his strong body halt, quiver, tighten. She felt the flood of his release and heard him moan her name over and over.

She wasn’t really aware when it ended. The sweet, familiar smell of his breath and the light touch of his lips at the corner of her mouth awakened her. She tightened her arms and legs around him, holding him inside her, and hungrily turned her mouth to his. Her hands moved up into his hair and down the strong line of his back and shoulders, then up to clasp around his neck.

“It’s even better than I dreamed it would be,” he murmured when his lips finally left hers.

She laughed softly against his mouth, caught his lip between her teeth and nibbled gently.

“Rain. Darling Rain. Do you know how long I’ve loved you? How long I’ve waited for you to be just where you are? I’m so glad we’ve done this wonderful thing together. I’m filled with you—” Her breath caught in a sob and she couldn’t say anything more. Emotion made her eyes fill with tears and her voice break.

“I’m glad we didn’t wait. You’re all woman, little Amy, even if you do wear britches,” he teased. His lips rubbed hers in sensuous assault. He advanced his pelvis upward. To her delight she felt the full length of him, hard, pulsing, caressing.

“Rain . . . am I a slut for liking this?” She locked her hands in the small of his back and strained up against him.

“Oh, God, no! Where did you get that idea?”

“Most women don’t like this. Libby does, though. She said that when she’s with Farr he shuts out the world. I didn’t understand what she meant then, but I do now.”

“I want you to feel empty if I’m not there.” His voice was a ragged whisper.

His heart thundered against hers, making wordless declarations of need and longing. This joining was wholly unlike before. Her hands moved lovingly over him, searching, caressing. She learned the mysteries about which she had only vaguely heard. In her newfound freedom to love and discover, her hand burrowed between them to the place where they were joined. She laughed with delight to discover thick, coarse hair cushioning her.

“We fit so well together!” she exclaimed, and rubbed her toes against his ankles.

“I told you I was glad you were tall.”

“I used to hate being taller than the other girls. Now I’m glad.”

He turned on his side, taking her with him, her soft belly tight against his hard one. They kissed for a long time, his tongue inside her mouth, moving gently while his fingers teased the nipple on her breast to hardness. He moved down and she pillowed his head on her breast. When he turned his mouth to her nipple, the pleasure was so acute that she tightened her arms about him and murmured unintelligibly in his ear. He laughed, a loving, knowing laugh. His lips tugged once again at her breast before he moved up so his lips could reach hers and he could implant himself more deeply in the cavern between her thighs.

“I wish I could see you,” he murmured. “I wish I could see your breasts, your smooth belly. I want to see you naked with just your hair covering you.”

“Rain, I want . . .” She arched against him when he flexed his hips.

“Tell me. Oh! Oh . . . be still, sweetheart!” he breathed in gasps when she moved urgently. “Yes, yes.”

With a long breath he thrust fully into her. She responded. They both trembled violently and incredibly long waves of pleasure washed over them: raw, unheeding spasms that lasted until the final thrust of his pelvis. She felt the exquisite explosion, the sudden bursting inside her. She heard his cry and their fevered bodies took flight. They floated down from that high forgetfulness, clinging together in a closeness of body and mind, and lay shuddering in each other’s arms.

Amy held him to her breast. He was dearer to her than her very heart. Holding him in her tight embrace, she marveled at how the entire world had changed for her. Then, as if in a dream, he was once again the tall, dark, sad-faced boy of long ago. Once again she heard the words he had said before he went away to discover what kind of man he was. His voice wasn’t so deep then, or so confident.
You’re just a kid,
Amy. You’re not ready for grown-up love.
She had loved him so desperately and wished time would pass swiftly so she would be a grown-up and he would come back to her. Finally he had come. Here in her arms was all she had ever yearned for.

Slowly his breathing steadied and he rolled onto his back. His arms pulled her to him, his hand sought her thigh to bring it up to rest on his. They were quiet for a long while, her head on his shoulder, his hand stroking her arm.

“Thank you for bringing me to this place, Rain. It’s like having a home of our own.”

“I wanted to have you all to myself. It might be the last time for a while.”

“I wish we could find a place like this every night,” she said wistfully.

“We’re going to have to move fast, sleep when we can.”

“I know. I’m being greedy. I love you so much.”

“I love you too.”

“Is it getting easier to say?”

“I’ve never been good with words.”

“It’s all right. I feel loved. Do you? Can you feel how much I love you, Rain?”

“Yes . . .” His arms tightened. He turned his lips to her forehead. “I don’t feel lonely inside anymore.”

“I don’t either, but I didn’t know exactly how to say it.”

“Today on the boat I was wishing I hadn’t brought you along.”

“If you hadn’t we’d have missed this.” She stroked the silky hairs on his chest with her fingertips.

“It won’t be easy getting Eleanor through Perry’s men. He’ll not send another bungler like Bull.”

“I thought of that. I’ll be a help to you, Rain. Uncle Juicy taught me a lot.”

“I’ve been thinking of having you stay here with the Badkers to wait for Farr and Libby.”

Amy was shocked speechless by his calm words. Then one word exploded from her lips. “No!” Her fingers in the hair that lay against his neck knotted. “No!” she said again.

His chest heaved with a sigh. “I knew you’d say that. It would just be for a few weeks. I’ll come back for you.”

Amy felt a knot of heat in her throat and incipient moisture under her lids. Then her pain surged into a mighty indignation.

“How could you even think of leaving me after we’ve been together like this? I’ve been telling you that I’m not helpless, that I can do some . . . things as good as you . . . can. You . . . don’t even listen.” Her voice was shaking so that the words came out with angry sobs.

“You must know that I love you. If anything should happen to you I couldn’t live on. Don’t you see?”

“If you leave me,” she said, muffled against him, “I’ll follow. Do you want that? Here, I
will
die. With you, I’ll have a chance. What would it be like for me? If something happened to you it would be weeks or months before I knew. You could be hurt and needing me and I wouldn’t know. I couldn’t bear that. How can you ask me to do this if you love me?”

“It’s because I love you—”

“I’ll not live on another day or night away from you. I waited and waited and waited,” she sobbed, hiding her face in the curve of his neck.

“Ahh . . . Amy, love.” He turned her face up to him and his lips found her teary eyes. “I want to keep you safe. I may have already planted the seed of our first son.”

“It could be a . . . girl.”

He chuckled softly. “Tall, stubborn, and with golden eyes like her ma.”

“Don’t you dare laugh at me!”

“Amy. Oh, Amy! You’re one of a kind.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means you don’t have to stay here. It means that it makes me more scared than I’ve ever been in my life, but proud too that you want to take your chances with me.”

“Didn’t you think I’d want to be with you?”

“I hoped you’d want to, but—”

“Don’t
but
me, Rain Tallman.” She leaned over him and rested her forearms on his chest and looked down at him. She could only see the outline of his face, but she saw a gleam that could only be moisture in his eyes. “You make me so
damn
mad!”

“I’m going to have to take you in hand. Ladies don’t swear.”

“You told me that once before.”

“And you said, ‘I’m not a lady, I’m just a kid.’”

“You remember that?”

“Of course. I remember a lot of things.”

“Like what?”

“One time you went behind the barn with Mercy, lifted your dress and you didn’t have on any underdrawers. I saw this—” His hands moved down her back and gripped her behind.

“Why you . . . sneaky pissant!”

He laughed against her cheek, rolled her over and pressed her down on the blanket-covered boughs. His kisses became deeper and more urgent, his breath quickened, the part of his body pressed to her soft down hardened.

They loved each other long and sweetly as time marched unmeasured through the night.

Seventeen

“The meat will last several days. There’s bread to go with it.” Vonnie handed the doeskin bag to Amy who tied it to the back of her saddle.

“Thanks, Vonnie. You take care now, and keep an eye on those boys.”

“I will. You be careful too.” Vonnie went to the horse after Gavin had lifted Eleanor to sit in the saddle and held up her hand. “We’ll take care of your things, Eleanor.”

“I want you to take them. I have a feeling I’ll have no need for fancy dresses and lace petticoats.”

“No need?” Vonnie echoed. “Of course you’ll be back—”

“I want you to have them. I can get more if I want them. I have everything I need right here . . . in this bundle.” Eleanor’s eyes went to Gavin who was lashing her bedroll and personal items to the back of the saddle and then to where Amy stood beside Rain, her hand tucked into his.

Loneliness swept over Eleanor like a dark cloud. Amy had shared Rain’s bed last night. What had it been like for her? What was it like for Vonnie who seemed so happy with her family? Eleanor tried to shake the questions from her mind. It was absurd to have such thoughts. Before she had been preoccupied with what material things a man would be able to provide for her, and not what it would be like to be loved by him. But that was before she had met Gavin. He wasn’t like anyone she had ever known, with his great, strong body, his head of shaggy hair and his bold eyes.

Now, for the hundredth time, Eleanor recalled the gentle way Gavin had held her in his arms after he had spanked her. She had felt that he really cared for her. Just thinking about the words he had murmured,
Don’t cry, lassie. The
likes a them will na be touchin’ ye ever again,
sent that extraordinary sensation through her body, as if for an instant she’d held the world in the palm of her hand. She couldn’t remember a time when someone cared if she cried, except for the fact that it would make her eyes puffy and spoil her looks.

Eleanor had not thought of the joy of love; she had only seen the result—her mother’s unreasonable devotion to a man who squandered her inheritance, frequented the gambling halls, and kept a woman for his pleasure.

“But Eleanor, I can send your trunk on with the Quills when they come by.”

“No. Please, Vonnie, I want you to have it. Make shirts for the boys out of the petticoats. Heavens! You should be able to get two shirts from one.”

“Well, I do thank you—”

“I doubt Farr will have an extra team to hitch to the wagon,” Rain was saying. “Use it, Badker, as if it were your own.”

“It’ll be here when ya come this way again. Me ’n the missus thank ya.” He placed a big hand on his wife’s shoulder and smiled down at her affectionately. “She’ll be naggin’ to go to town now so she can ride in style,” he teased.

“Stay close in for a few days,” Rain advised. “I’ll leave a broad trail for a few hours so anyone coming here will know we have left the wagon and gone on. I don’t want to bring trouble down on you.”

“We’ll take care. Ya be watchful, now.”

Tally loaded one of the mules with the supplies Rain set out, threw a blanket over the back of the other and mounted. The mule danced about nervously but gradually settled down when Tally drew the pack mule close beside the one he was riding. Rain watched closely, then nodded to the others to mount up.