The Outlaws: Sam (10 page)

She ran from the room as if the devil was
nipping at her heels. Sam watched her a moment, then charged after
her. He caught up with her at the top of the staircase and swung
her around to face him.

"Are you afraid of the truth?"

"What
is
the truth?"

"You want me."

"I don't! You abandoned me."

"You betrayed me."

"I didn't! I was devastated when I learned
what my father had done. What hurt the most was the knowledge that
it gained him nothing. My brother was already dead. Just go away,
Sam. Go away and leave me and Andy alone. I was better off
believing you were dead. I have to marry Taylor Cramer to save the
ranch. I can't pay the taxes without him."

The grinding pain of truth sparked Sam's
anger. He could offer Lacey nothing while Cramer could give her
everything.

"Don't you care that marrying Cramer will
make your son unhappy? A ranch is only property, your son should
come first. My brothers and I lost our farm and had to split up,
but we are still bound by family ties. We genuinely care for one
another. You and Andy are family, marrying Cramer would betray your
son. Cramer cares nothing for Andy's welfare."

"And you do?"

"More so than Cramer."

"Taylor wants to send Andy to the best
schools, give him the education he deserves."

Sam made a disparaging sound in his throat.
"Cramer will send Andy to a school so far away you'll rarely see
him. Is that what you want?"

Lacey blinked away the tears gathering in the
corners of her eyes. "You don't know what I want!"

Sam grabbed her shoulders and pulled her
roughly against him. "You're wrong. I know exactly what you
want."

As if to prove a point, he lowered his head
and seized her lips in a soul-destroying kiss. It wasn't what he'd
intended but he couldn't help himself. His body thrummed with
suppressed passion and his shaft became instantly hard, instantly
aroused. His loins ached with the need to thrust himself into her
soft, melting center, and he groaned into her mouth.

He kissed her until her lips softened and her
body melded into his. Until she went limp in his arms. Then he
scooped her into his arms and carried her into his bedroom.

Lost in a haze of passion, Lacey gazed up at
Sam. Why was this happening? Sam was trying to confuse her. He
didn't want her, he couldn't want her. She'd loved him once, but he
had accused her of betraying him and then pretended to dead. She
couldn't allow herself to love him again. She felt the bed give
beneath her and Sam's hard body pressing her into the mattress, and
fought desperately for sanity.

"Sam! What are you doing? Stop right
now."

"Is that what you really want?"

She found it difficult to breathe, much less
form an answer. "I...yes, of course."

He searched her face, his hot gaze settling
on her kiss-swollen lips. "Liar."

She jerked upward, trying to dislodge him. He
groaned in response. She stopped abruptly when she realized her
movements were arousing him.

"Has Cramer made love to you yet?" Sam
whispered against her mouth.

"That's none of..."

"Of course he has," Sam interrupted. "You've
probably had countless lovers in the past six years. I'm surprised
Andy doesn't have brothers and sisters."

"Bastard," Lacey hissed. "You're the only
lover I've ever had." She didn't add that he was the only lover
she'd ever wanted. No man had ever measured up to Sam.

"Then have me again, Lacey. I'm still your
husband. That's not going to change any time soon."

"You lost that privilege when you let me
believe you were dead," she replied. "Making love will only
complicate matters between us."

He rotated his hips. She felt the solid bulge
of his sex against her thigh and her breath hitched. He was hard
all over. His legs, his chest, his back. Her fingers dug into the
muscles of his arms, tense now with wanting. This felt so right yet
was so very wrong. Sam wanted her for the wrong reasons. And she
didn't want him at all.

"You're wrong, Lacey," Sam said. "You
do
want me. Your body is hot and eager for me."

Lacey gasped. Had he read her mind or had she
spoken aloud?

"I'm going to make love to you."

He kissed her, and she lost the ability to
think. All she could do was feel. Things she hadn't felt in a very
long time. Things only Sam could make her feel. He deepened the
kiss, his tongue a hot spear against the roof of her mouth.
Suddenly his relentless pursuit became too much for her and long
denied passion exploded inside her.

"Oh, God, yes."

She buried her fingers in his hair, shifting
her body to bring him closer. She touched his tongue with hers and
felt a bolt of lightning pierce through her. She arched against
him, her fingers plucking at the buttons of his vest.

Sam reared up and stared down at her, as if
unable to believe her sudden acquiescence. Then he grinned and
lifted himself away from her. Sharing her urgency, he quickly tore
off his clothes. Then he returned to her. Too fast, Lacey thought,
disgruntled. She wanted to look her fill at him. He had changed
over the years. There was nothing boyish about him now. He was all
man, solid, powerful, fully aroused...needy.

"I want you naked," Sam said raggedly.

Lacey was so heated from his kisses she could
only nod. Her fingers fumbled with buttons and ties until he shoved
her hands away and rendered her naked in less time than she could
have done it herself. Then he sat back on his heels as his
glittering gaze mapped a leisurely route over her body.

"My God you're lovely. I never imagined... I
hadn't realized... The years have been generous to you," he said
lamely.

Their gazes locked. Tension sizzled between
them. Lacey closed her eyes, refusing to acknowledge her feelings.
Her eyes flew open when she felt his hands on her breasts. His
expression was taut, dark with long repress4ed emotion. Lacey
wondered if he was remembering how desperately they had once loved
one another. Then the force of his passion hit her like a searing
gale as he lowered his head to her breasts and sucked a turgid
nipple into his mouth. She cried out and surged against him,
driving her body upward against his.

He responded by kissing her eyelids, her
nose, her lips, plunging his tongue so deeply into her mouth that
she succumbed easily to his drugging sensuality. Her hips surged
upward, asking for what she wanted without words. Her breath caught
as his fingers found her, opening her, sliding inside, testing her
readiness.

"You
are
eager, aren't you," he
whispered when his fingers encountered satiny wetness.

She was more than ready for him, though it
rankled to admit it.

His fingers delved deeper. She felt a shudder
go through him when he drew them away drenched with her dew. She
buried her face in the crook of his neck as he worked his fingers
in and out, slowly at first, then with increased vigor. A buzzing
began in her head. Her body felt weightless, her legs trembled. She
hovered so close to the edge she feared she'd burst. Abruptly his
fingers left her; she cried out in dismay. Then she felt his knees
pressing her legs apart and his sex prodding against her slick
opening.

"Put me inside you," he rasped.

Lacey touched him. Tentatively at first, then
more firmly. Her hand glided over him, from the satiny tip to the
hard pouches at its root.

"You're killing me!" Sam cried. Taking
matters into his own hands, he flexed his hips and plunged deeply
into her core. She stiffened against the initial jolt of pain. It
had been so long. Then the storm within her body raged out of
control, quickly banishing the slight discomfort as he began to
move.

She arched upward, back bowed, groaning out
his name as she surged against him urgently, her hips rising to
meet every forceful thrust. Her hands dug into his shoulders as she
lifted her legs, wrapping them tightly around his waist, locking
him against her. The room was silent but for the harsh rasping of
their breath, the thudding of their hearts beating in unison.
Broken sounds of passion mingled with protesting bedsprings beneath
them as their motions became more frenzied, more abandoned. Tension
built tighter and tighter, almost too acute to bear, until Lacey
thought she'd die of it.

The peak came in a rush of throbbing spasms,
unraveling the tangled threads of her composure. Pleasure radiated
outward from inside her, piercing through her to her core as the
walls of her sex clenched his engorged shaft again and again.

Sam gave a hoarse shout, his head thrown
back, his fists tangling in the bed linens. His knuckles turned
white as his own climax slammed through him. His hips pistoned
convulsively, pushing him deeper, heightening her contractions as
their loins met with scalding bursts of liquid heat.

Lacey clamped down hard on her tongue to keep
from screaming. She could feel his hot seed spurting inside her,
triggering another round of spasms.

Then suddenly it was over. Sam collapsed on
top of her. Lacey sank into the mattress, incapable of moving or
speaking. After what seemed like hours but was in reality mere
minutes, Sam moved off her. He was quiet, too quiet. She glanced
over at him. He was lying on his back, one arm bent over his eyes,
his lips turned downward into a scowl.

Suddenly he reared up on his elbow and glared
at her. "What in God's name did you do to me? It wasn't my
intention to feel anything...to feel so strongly... Dammit! Our
relationship has enough problems without creating more."

Lacey's lips thinned. "I did nothing. You've
been working up to this moment since you arrived. I wanted nothing
to do with you, but you persisted. I asked you to leave and you
refused. Whatever happened in this bed is of your own making."

"Rest assured it won't happen again," Sam
groused. "You have a way of making a man forget his own name. I
don't want to pick up where we left off six years ago. You lost the
chance to be my wife when you betrayed me."

"You lost the chance to be a husband to me
when you abandoned me," Lacey shot back. "Let's pretend this never
happened."

"Agreed."

"Does that mean you're going to move back to
the bunkhouse?" Lacey asked hopefully. "Or better yet, leave?"

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Sam
sneered.

"It's the best for all concerned. We can both
get on with our lives."

Sam couldn't believe what had just happened.
Not only had he made love to Lacey but it had been the best sex he
had ever had. Even better than those furtive stolen moments in the
barn where Lacey had lost her virginity to him. How many times had
they made love before today? he wondered, thinking back to those
hectic days when the war raged around them. He could count them on
one hand and have a finger or two left over. Obviously Lacey had
learned a lot over the years.

Dimly he recalled her tightness when he'd
first thrust into her, and he frowned. She told him he had been her
only lover. Could she be telling the truth? If so, that would mean
that Andy... Denial rose inside him. No. Were Andy his son, Lacey
would have told him. She never once said that he was Andy's
father.

As if Sam's thoughts had conjured up his
image, Andy chose that moment to barge into the room.

"I can't find Mama, Papa. She said she'd tuck
me in bed."

Lacey gave a squawk of dismay and dove for
the covers. Sam grasped the sheet and pulled it up to cover
them.

"Is that you, Mama?" Andy asked as he
approached the bed.

Sam made his expression deliberately stern
for Andy's benefit. "You're going to have to learn to knock, Andy.
Married couples like their privacy. Can you remember that?"

Andy nodded, his face solemn. "I'll remember,
Papa. Rusty said you and Mama would sleep in one bed but I didn't
believe him."

Lacey groaned again. "You were discussing me
and Sam with Rusty?"

"Rusty and I talk about everything. But I
didn't ask him anything about you and Sam. I just listened when
Rusty and the hands were talking. I don't think they knew I was
there."

"What did they say?" Lacey asked in a hushed
voice.

Andy cocked his head, as if trying to recall
the conversation. "The hands thought it mighty strange that Papa
didn't say anything about being married to you when he first showed
up at the ranch."

"Is that all?" Sam coaxed gently.

"Rusty said it was none of their business.
Then Lefty said that Rita told him you and Mama kept separate
rooms. Rusty told them they shouldn't spec-u-late, that you and
Mama might have separate rooms but he'd bet his right arm that you
used only one bed."

Sam cleared his throat. "As you can see,
Rusty was right. But our sleeping arrangement is not a subject for
discussion. Run along now, son. Your mama will come to tuck you in
bed in a few minutes."

Andy scampered off. Sam glanced at Lacey and
saw that her face had lost all semblance of color.

"Damn you, Sam Gentry," she hissed. "I've
lost the respect of my foreman and hands, and my own son is asking
questions about our relationship."

"We're legally married, Lacey. There's
nothing to be embarrassed about."

He rose, walked over to the wash basin and
filled it with water from the pitcher. Lacey didn't wait around to
watch him wash. With a cry of dismay, she leaped from bed, threw on
her shift and stalked from the room.

Sam tried his best to ignore Lacey during the
following days. He deliberately left the house early each morning
and devoted his full attention to the ranch. Learning about
ranching was no easy task, but he was beginning to feel right at
home. He usually ate lunch with the hands, and sometimes he joined
them for supper. Eating with friendly faces sure beat those sour
looks Lacey threw him across the table. If he had any doubt that
Lacey's punishment was working, he had only to look at her to
realize how effective it was.