Unlikely Lover (20 page)
Authors: Diana Palmer
“Mari,” he groaned. His body surged against hers, his arms became painfully strong, his hands biting into her hips, his mouth trembling as his body trembled. He was part of her. She was part of him. Locking together, loving, linking…
“Mari!”
She went with him on a journey as exquisitely sweet as it was incredibly intimate, yielding to his strength, letting him guide her, letting him teach her. She used muscles she hadn’t realized she possessed, she whispered things to him that would shock her later. She wound herself around him and lost all her inhibitions in a wild, fierce joining that ripped the veil of mystery from the sweetest expression of shared love. Even the first time it was still a kind of pleasure that she hadn’t known existed.
She stretched lazily, contentedly, and snuggled close to him under the lightweight sheet, nuzzling against his matted chest with a face radiant with fulfillment.
“I love you,” he said softly as if the words still awed him. He smoothed her hair tenderly. “I always will.”
“I love you just as much.” She smoothed her hand over his chest. “Cousin Bud wasn’t at the wedding.” She frowned. Her mind had been curiously absent for a week. She lifted up. “Ward, Bud hasn’t been at the house!”
“Not for a week,” he agreed complacently, grinning. “Not since that day I took you to see Ty and Erin.”
“But this is horrible! I didn’t notice!”
“That’s all right, sweetheart, I don’t mind,” he said, drawing her back down.
“Where is he?”
“Oh, I sent him on a little trip,” he murmured at her temple. “I told him that bull he wanted was out to stud at a cattle ranch in Montana, and he went up there looking.”
“Looking?” she frowned.
“Well, honey, I didn’t exactly tell him which ranch it was on. Just the state. There are a lot of ranches in Montana.”
“You devil!” she accused, digging him in the ribs.
He pulled her over him, smiling from ear to ear. “All’s fair, don’t they say? Cousin Bud always did cramp my style.” He coaxed her mouth down to his and kissed it softly. “I didn’t want him on my case until I had you safely married to me.”
“You couldn’t have been jealous?”
“I’ve always been jealous,” he confessed, tugging a strand of her hair playfully. “You were mine. I didn’t want him trying to cut me out. Don’t worry, he’ll figure it out eventually.”
“I shouldn’t ask,” she mumbled. “Figure what out?”
“That the bull is still on my ranch, just where I had him all along.”
“What are you going to tell Cousin Bud?”
“That I misplaced him,” he said easily. “Don’t worry, he’ll believe me. After all, he didn’t think I was serious about you, either, and look how I fooled him!”
She would have said something else, but he was already rolling her over on the big bed and kissing the breath out of her. So she just closed her eyes and kissed him back. Outside it was raining softly, and Mari thought she’d never heard a sweeter sound.
ISBN-13: 9781460335994
Unlikely Lover
Copyright © 1986 by Diana Palmer
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