Turner's Vision (11 page)

“He’ll be here at noon, so I would like you to take the boys out to get a few supplies just before he arrives. Claudia and I need to discuss the situation with him, and I prefer the boys be occupied with other things at the time.”

“About how long would you like me to keep them out?” Robert asked.

“I’ve a list of things for you to purchase which should take most of tomorrow afternoon.” He handed Henderson a folded sheet of paper and a small packet. “But in case you finish early, I believe there is enough money for three gentlemen to take in some sort of treat.”

The two men laughed. Then Henderson began turning out all the lamps, and Micah returned to the parlor.

Claudia wondered who it was they were meeting in the afternoon.
They
were meeting. She thought about the phrase. Micah really was planning to keep his word and not exclude her from the investigation. A smile crossed her face. She wondered if he was planning to keep his other promise. With renewed spirit, she walked more determinedly to her room.

A lamp was lit for her on the dressing table, casting light on the neatly turned-down bed. For a moment she paused, wondering if that bed would be put to other pursuits tonight besides sleeping. With anxious fingers, she began to undo the buttons of her silk dress, removing the bodice, then the skirt. Walking over to her armoire to hang up the dress, she stopped. Micah’s valise lay on the floor in front of it, blocking the armoire’s door. She lifted it and found it still full of his things.

Had he not had time to put them away? Or was he giving her the choice of where they went? Setting it aside, she opened the armoire and finished hanging up her wedding dress. Then she carried his bag over to her dressing table and set it down on the seat. Again she paused in her movement. There, lying on the table, was the key to her room tied with one of her own green hair ribbons.

“It’s your key, my dear. It’s a gift from me.” Micah’s deep, rich voice spoke from the doorway. “I will never lock you in or out again. I can sleep here tonight or find my own place. The choice is yours, but let me warn you, if I do share your bed, I don’t intend to sleep anywhere else. If you really would like to spend your life alone, then hand me my bag and use that key.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

Claudia stood looking at the giant man leaning against the doorframe, his arms crossed over his chest and one leg crossed in front of the other. The lamplight cast shadows on Micah’s face, not allowing her to see his expression as clearly as she wanted. His tie hung loose while the collar of his shirt was unbuttoned and the sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

This was her husband.

In all actuality, she’d never thought about having one before. Perhaps in her own mind she equated husbands with her beast of a father, a man who couldn’t be trusted under any circumstances to keep his word or protect her from harm, but was in reality the most harmful thing in her young life.

Micah was not Jacob Davis.

So far in her limited experience with the man, her husband had shown himself to be made from a different mold. In three days’ time, he’d rescued her from two dangerous situations, locked her in a room, forced her to marry him, treated her with great respect in front of virtual strangers and family alike, and even made her feel desirable with his kisses.

Still, Micah wasn’t demanding his rights as her husband. Instead, he was leaving the decision in her hands. If she threw him out now, she knew he’d never again ask her to be a wife in every sense of the word, but live with her in name only. Her life would continue as it had and when the investigation was over, he’d leave her and she’d be alone once again.

But should she choose to be that intimate with—that dependent on—a total stranger? Could she really trust him not to hurt her?

Laura had trusted her husband. Now she was happily married, with a baby of her own.

A baby. What would it be like to actually have a baby? She wasn’t much older than her friend. If she so chose, maybe she could have the one thing she’d never hoped to dream of, a family of her own.

Her decision made, Claudia straightened her shoulders and carried Micah’s bag back to the armoire and opened the door. She leaned over and opened the valise, removing what appeared to be a pair of buckskin pants, which were soft and supple under her fingers, and placed them inside. Then, turning back to look at her husband, her gaze locking with his, she unbuttoned the waistband and slid her petticoat off.

Micah stared at his wife, standing before him in a sea of green cotton, dressed only in her shoes, hose, bloomers and nearly transparent shift. His throat went dry and his manhood was harder than he could ever remember. He let out the breath he’d held while he waited on her to make her decision. Shoving himself away from the door frame, he closed the door behind him.

“You’re sure about this?” His voice was thick as he ran his eyes up and down her slender frame.

“I’m sure. Are you?” The words were a challenge, but the catch in her voice belied her confidence.

“My dear, I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life.” He slowly advanced upon her, yet Claudia held her ground. “I just want to make one thing very clear to you.” Stopping inches in front of her, but not touching her, Micah loomed over her, causing her to lean back to look up at him. “If you spend tonight with me, this will be where you spend every night for the rest of your life. Not just here in Washington, but when I leave to go to the mountains of Colorado, you’ll be there beside me also. Do you understand?”

“You promise?” Her answer was a whisper. Reaching up with one hand, she stroked his cheek. Micah grasped her hand, turned it over and brought it to his lips. Gently, he kissed the palm, his eyes never leaving her face. With his other arm he reached around her waist and pulled her up against his chest.

Micah let go of her hand, allowing her to rest both of them on his massive arms, his hands splayed across her back, one caressing the smooth skin of her shoulders above the scoop-necked shift, the other inching down over her derriere. Cupping the firm muscles, he pushed them into his pelvis so that the junction of her thighs cradled the swollen thickness of him.

A surprised murmur escaped her lips at the feel of him pressed so intimately against her most private of areas. Micah stroked her lips with his tongue, asking her to open up for him.

Under his insistence, she parted her lips. The surge of desire that swept through him with the touch of her tongue softly, tentatively stroking his flooded his senses. He fought to control this overwhelming need to claim her as his, to let the animal inside him loose on her innocence.

He eased the kiss back, gentling it. His lips leaving hers, Micah pulled back to see the look of desire on her face. With a deep chuckle at the confused passion he saw in her eyes, he reached under her knees to lift her into his arms. Carrying her over to the bed he placed her in the center. Then he opened the buttons on his shirt and pulled it swiftly off. When he leaned down to kiss her parted lips once more, he let the thick hair on his chest brush across the swell of her breasts. He chuckled again as she sucked in her breath at the contact.

Then he walked back to the dressing table and took the key he’d left in her care, this time locking them in together. To slow his quickly growing need, he sat in the large chair by the armoire, removing his boots. Standing to open the fastenings of his pants, he turned facing the bed. As he removed them, he once again heard the intake of Claudia’s breath.

“I’m not sure this is going to work.” A note of fear laced her voice.

“Claudia, if you want to back out now I’ll stop and leave.” He’d die from the pain, but he wouldn’t force her. But he’d do everything to change her mind he could. Sitting on the bed, he stroked the inside of her upper arm, just brushing her breast. “I thought you were a true adventuress.”

“I am. I just don’t think…”

“That’s right, I don’t want you to think. I don’t want you to think about anything.” He twisted sideways, stretching out beside her, his hands coming up to circle her face. “All I want you to do is feel. This is an adventure in sensations, a trip into the jungle of passion, along the river of desire.” With each word he let his hands stroke her cheek, the length of her neck, the swells of her breasts. “We’ll start out slow, let the fire build. And when you’re sure—really sure, you’ll let me know.” His lips caressed her ear, stroking it with his tongue, breathing lightly across it with each breath.

“Then I’m going to take you to a place you’ve never been before.” Moving lower, he trailed light kisses down her neck, lingering over the pulse point at the hollow of her throat, leaning back to watch her eyes open with the desire filling her. “You will let me know when you’re ready, won’t you?”

“Uh huh.” Claudia was having trouble concentrating on his words. The sensations his hands and lips were creating all over her body numbed her thoughts. All she knew now was she wanted him to continue what he was doing. When his lips came up to capture hers, they drew the very breath from her soul. Her skin felt cool to his touch, while her stomach and femininity were growing warmer with each caress.

This time she opened her lips willingly, wanting his tongue to enter and explore at its will. Tentatively, she stroked it with the tip of her own tongue and delighted in the groan that escaped her husband.

Micah drew her up against him so that Claudia could feel the heat of him, the long powerful length of him, pressed at the junction of her thighs. And heaven help her, she loved every bit of it.

Suddenly his hands were everywhere and before she knew it, he’d opened her shift and skimmed it off of her body, tossing it behind him on the floor. Micah pushed her back ever so slightly, gazing down at the two small mounds of her breasts. Not wanting to see the rejection on his face when he saw how small they were, Claudia closed her eyes and tried to cover them with her hands.

Gently, he swept them away. “Don’t. I want to see just how perfect you are. I want to taste each bright bud, mold each with my hands. I want to enjoy the beauty that is you.”

Mesmerized by the seduction of his words, Claudia lowered her hands and looked up to see his reaction in his eyes. True to his promise, Micah cupped each small, round globe, brushing his thumbs across the nipples, causing them to tighten and tingle. The hot-and-cold sensations returned. She arched her back to allow him more access to the centers of those feelings. Lowering his head, he took one of the taut buds in his mouth, suckling gently on it. Claudia raised her hands to his head. She entwined them in his tawny hair and pulled him closer as wave after wave of heat passed over her. He stroked the bud with his tongue. A low moan escaped her.

As he took the second one in his mouth, Micah roamed his hands up and down her back, cupping her derriere into the length of his manhood. With each passing moment, he could feel his control slipping under the increase in her reactions to him. But he was determined to wait until she was ready to accept him. He pulled away from her long enough to remove the final barrier of her underwear, then rolled her over onto her stomach, pushing her into the feather mattress and commencing to kiss the back of her knees.

“Micah, what are you doing?” Claudia’s breathless question made him smile as he kissed a path up her legs to the base of her spine.

“Why, my dear, I’m taking you on an exotic trip of sensual delight. I don’t want you to miss a single sensation during this adventure.”

Slowly, he licked his way up her spine to her neck. His hands massaged her muscles until she melted into the mattress. Reversing course, he kissed his way down her back. He slipped one hand between her legs to dip into the fiery heat of her desire. He continued to stroke that moist heat as he turned her onto her back, then lowered his head to kiss her navel. Creating a new path up to her breasts, he laved them once again with his tongue.

Claudia sighed her pleasure. The sound pushed his restraint almost to the breaking point. She arched her back and pushed her breasts into his mouth. Her buttocks tightened against his hand. Her hips rocked back and forth to the rhythm of his fingers as they stoked the fire burning deep within her. With each second, her breath quickened, coming in gasps.

“Micah.” She gasped his name, bringing him up to see the passion written on her face.

“What, little one?”

“I…I…” She looked at him through eyes glazed with the intense desire she was experiencing.

“Are you sure?”

Claudia nodded her head, showing him her need.

Micah pushed her back into the bedding, gently parting her legs as he knelt between them. “Look at me, Claudia. I want to watch you as I make you mine.”

Positioning his erection between the moist folds of her desire, he slowly pushed himself into her tight sheath, her liquid heat easing him into her. At the barrier of her virginity, he stopped, giving her a chance to grow accustomed to the feel of him. Claudia wiggled her bottom, trying to get more of him inside her.

“Little one, hold still. I don’t want to hurt you more than necessary.” Beads of sweat crept along his forehead with the exertion of trying to take her carefully.

“I don’t want you to stop.” She bent her knees, thrusting forward.

The shift in her weight threw him off-balance. To keep from collapsing onto her, he braced his hands on either side of her head. He took their weight on his knees, which caused him to thrust his own hips forward and bury himself deep inside her. A shocked breath escaped her, her whiskey eyes widening with the sensation.

“Damn.” Micah held himself still, waiting for her pain to ease. “I’m sorry, little one. I didn’t want it to be like this. It will get better, I promise.”

She moved slightly and a ripple of pleasure moved through him. With a soft moan of pleasure she repeated the movement. She looked up at him, her eyes shining with passion.

“Better?” He continued to hold himself completely still, allowing her to set the pace and adjust herself to the new sensations.

“I think so.” Claudia shifted once again. This time moving back a little which forced him out of her slightly. Then she thrust her hips once more to take him back inside. Another sigh of pure pleasure escaped her, giving him permission to bring her more.