Angel Creek (15 page)

But for now she was sleeping in his arms, and he was exhausted from a physical satisfaction that went bone deep. He held her closer, made utterly content by the feel of her warm, sleek body lying naked against him, and he drifted off to sleep himself.

The sun was going down when Dee woke. For a moment she was totally disoriented, without any sense of what time or what day it was. She never slept during the day, but from the angle of the sun she knew it wasn't dawn. She was too groggy to make sense of it until she woke up enough to realize that she wasn't alone in the bed. That in itself was startling, for she had never before shared her bed with anyone, but then full reality hit her with stunning force. She was in bed with Lucas, and they were both naked because he had made love to her.

She didn't feel ashamed; her nature was too elemental for her not to be aware of the naturalness of the act. But she did feel a strong need to retrench her position, to reestablish herself as an individual after the mindless giving of her body. It was as if he had taken over control of her when he thrust his thick shaft inside her. She had fought against the natural domination of it even as her traitorous flesh had begun shivering with delight around him.

She shifted cautiously, feeling the unaccustomed soreness in her thighs and loins, and the movement
made her aware of the stickiness between her legs. Another wave of reality hit her full in the face. Twice Lucas had emptied his seed deep inside her. He might have made her pregnant.

As women had done for thousands of years, she counted the days until her next monthly flow. It would be over two weeks until she knew, two weeks of fear and worry, because her life would be impossible if she were to have a baby.

Lucas pulled her closer and lazily cupped her breast, his big hand possessive. She hadn't realized he was awake until he did so, and she quickly looked up but immediately lowered her gaze from the hard, gleaming triumph in his eyes.

“What are you thinking?” he asked, his voice a deep, lazy rumble against her hair.

“That we can't do this anymore.” She looked up at him again, her expression a little haunted.

That look on her face stilled his automatic rise of anger. “Why not, sweetheart? You liked it, didn't you?” He stroked her hair back from her face.

“You know I did,” she said steadily. “But now I might have a baby.”

He paused, a slight frown gathering his brows. A baby. In the savage delight of possession he hadn't given a thought to the possible consequences.

“When will you know?”

“About two weeks. A little more.”

He stroked her breast, enthralled by the satiny texture of it. She was his now, damn it, and he wasn't going to give her up. “There are ways to keep you from getting pregnant.”

“I know,” she said tartly. “All I have to do is stay away from you.”

He smiled and kissed her, his mouth rough on hers. “Other than that. I'll get a sponge for you.”

She was instantly curious. “What do you mean? How can a sponge keep me from having a baby?”

“I don't know how it works, I just know it does. It's just a little sponge, and you soak it in vinegar and put it up inside you.”

Her cheeks flamed, and she jerked upright, away from his exploring hands. He laughed and grabbed for her, wrestling her back down on the bed. She wasn't fighting in earnest, only huffy and embarrassed by the notion, and he grinned as he subdued her.

“How did you learn about anything like that?” she snapped, glaring at him. “It's a whore's trick, isn't it?”

“I imagine whores would know about it, but other women use it, too.” He didn't answer her question about how he knew about it. He'd had some wild times in New Orleans and other places, but she didn't need to know about them.

Dee turned her head away from him because she knew full well he had learned about such a thing from other women. Part of her was relieved that there was a solution, but part of her, like a child, wanted to retreat to the way things had been before this afternoon, when she had been unaware of the way her body could respond to his, before she had felt his hard length plunging into her. Things had changed, and she couldn't change them back.

The question, of course, was if she really wanted to change them. She felt as if she had leapt headlong over
a cliff in the dark. It was frightening, taking her to places she hadn't known before. If she truly wished the changes undone she would have to wish Lucas out of her life, wish he had never ridden up to her door, and she couldn't do that. As infuriating as he was, as determined to have his way, he made her feel more than she had ever imagined possible.

She was very much afraid she had fallen in love with him.

O
LIVIA HAD TO FORCE HERSELF TO ATTEND THE DANCE
that night. Lucas was absent, and she knew people were whispering about it, but his absence was the only bit of relief she could find. Because of their strange talk about Dee, Olivia suspected he had gone out to the farm. She mentally crossed her fingers, for if Dee were ever to marry it would have to be to a man like Lucas, someone as strong as she was. Dee would totally cow most men; she could never be happy with someone who didn't match her in strength. Olivia wondered if perhaps she was wishing away her own last chance to be married, but at least she wouldn't be faced with the nerve-racking decision of whether or not to accept Lucas if he proposed. Now it looked as if he wouldn't, and she was glad.

But Lucas wasn't her real concern. All she could think about was what had happened in the woods. She didn't know how she had gotten through the day. Her
nerves felt so frayed she thought she would scream if she had to smile at one more person. She couldn't look her mother in the face. Honora had raised her to be a good, decent woman, yet at the first opportunity she had let a strange man lead her into the woods and take liberties with her. Not just kisses; she had once supposed a kiss to be a daring thing, but now she knew the respectful pecks on the lips she had received before had been as chaste as a brother's. She had not only accepted Luis's tongue into her mouth, she had delighted in it, actually participated. No wonder he had thought he could touch her breasts! He must suppose her to be as immoral as the saloon girls, for she certainly hadn't conducted herself as a lady ought.

She could barely attend to any of the conversation around her, so she became even quieter than usual, her face pale with distress. Everyone was having such a good time that no one noticed, except for Luis, standing on the edge of the crowd, watching her.

It so unnerved her that when Kyle Bellamy approached and asked her to dance Olivia had placed her hand in his before she realized what she was doing.

His hand on her waist drew her closer to him than she wished to be; after this afternoon she was acutely aware of a man's body. She wondered with sudden horror if Luis had bragged to his boss about his success with her. Would that be why Kyle assumed he could hold her so close?

She stiffened in his arms. “Mr. Bellamy, please.”

“I'll please you in any way I can.”

She couldn't decide if the remark was suggestive or
merely flirtatious, and at the moment she didn't care. “You're holding me far too close.”

He immediately loosened his grip and let her move back. “I apologize,” he murmured, but his smile made her suspect he wasn't sorry at all.

Kyle danced well, his movements strong and sure. Under any other circumstances she might have put aside her instinctive uneasiness about him and enjoyed the dance, but tonight it was impossible. She could only pray it would be over soon.

“Would you like to walk outside with me?” he asked. “It's a pleasant night, and the air is stuffy in here. I confess I've been wanting a chance to talk to you, to get to know you better.”

“Thank you for the offer, Mr. Bellamy, but I'm tired from this afternoon and would rather sit in here.”

“Then perhaps I may sit with you?”

She didn't know what to say. She couldn't be rude to the man, but she had no desire at all for his company.

“I plan to go home soon,” she said, desperately improvising.

“Then may I sit with you until then?”

God, he was persistent! What else could she do but say yes?

When they were sitting down he kept brushing his leg against hers, and Olivia twisted a bit to the side to prevent the contact.

“I'd like to call on you tomorrow,” he told her.

Her guilty conscience made her feel certain now that Luis had told him, and he obviously expected to enjoy the same liberties! She could think of only one
excuse, and she hastily used it. “I don't think that would be proper, Mr. Bellamy. I have an—an unspoken agreement with Mr. Cochran. I'm sure you understand.”

“If it's unspoken, then I assume you're still a free woman,” Kyle said boldly. “And I don't see Cochran here tonight.”

“No. He—he had business elsewhere.”

“A man who would desert a lovely woman like you doesn't deserve her.”

Luis watched the byplay from across the room and could easily imagine the conversation he couldn't hear. He didn't like the way Bellamy was leaning so close to Olivia, and from the frozen expression on her face she didn't care for it either but didn't know how to stop him.

Olivia glanced in his direction and froze. She couldn't help looking his way, and every time she did she found him watching her. Her distress grew, because she imagined his black eyes held disdain. After all, what else could he think after the way she had behaved?

What Luis was thinking was that he should have known she would suffer under a massive load of guilt, and he ached to comfort her. Poor darling, she really had no idea about the physical side of life. Olivia had been raised too conventionally and was herself too ladylike by nature for it to be any other way. She didn't even know how to rid herself of Bellamy's unwanted attentions.

Luis looked around, and his gaze settled on two of the Bar B's ranch hands, men he knew to be hottempered. They were almost always contesting each
other in one thing or another, and tonight was no exception. The object of their competition tonight was a pretty little farm girl whose face was flushed with pleasure at so much male attention.

Luis eased his way through the crowd. Both men held drinks in their hands, supposedly punch, but he knew the drink was well laced with whiskey. In the jostling crowd it was easy to reach out and bump one man's arm enough to make him spill the contents of the cup all over the farm girl's best dress.

He quickly moved back out of the way, blending into the crowd and listening to the growing sounds of altercation he left behind him. The man who had spilled his punch was accusing the other of deliberately pushing his arm. The disagreement erupted into a full-scale fistfight before he could make his way back across the room.

Kyle scowled with annoyance when he saw that the combatants were two of his own men. He said something to Olivia and left his seat, swiftly crossing the room. It wouldn't do his standing in the community any good if his men were so rowdy, and Luis knew that Bellamy was very proud of his respectability.

Luis looked at Olivia's pinched expression and silently berated himself. He had almost pushed too hard that afternoon, so now she was remembering her shame rather than the pleasure of his kisses. It would take all of his charm to repair the damage.

He made his way through the crowd toward her. She saw him before he could reach her and immediately spun away, retreating from him.

She was afraid of him! Luis was thunderstruck at the realization. No woman had ever before feared
him, so why did it have to be this particular woman who ran from him, this woman whom he wanted as he had never before wanted anyone?

Her action angered him. He was a man, instinctive and possessive, and he intended to claim Olivia as his without examining the whys and wherefores of it. He increased his pace and caught up with her before she could reach the safety of her mother's side, stopping her by the simple means of putting his boot down on her skirts. She jerked to a halt and threw him a pleading look over her shoulder, but she had the choice of either staying where she was or having her skirt torn off.

“Dance with me,” he said, only for her ears. “Please.”

“No!” She gasped the refusal. She was so distraught that she couldn't be in his arms again without somehow betraying herself.

“Then walk outside with me.”

“No!” This time the refusal was tinged with horror. Another invitation to do something improper! How
could
he ask her to walk with him again, after what had happened that afternoon? But that was probably the reason he asked, she thought bitterly. He expected to find her as easy again.

Luis put his strong hand on her arm and turned her. “Go outside, Olivia. Now.”

She hadn't heard that hard, commanding tone from him before, and it silenced her. Numbly she let him guide her out of the meeting hall where they always held the annual dance, and down the steps.

The cool air washed over her hot face as he led her across the street and into the shadow of a huge tree.
She could still hear the music and the laughter, the cacophony of conversation from a multitude of throats at once, but it was all muted and far away now, overlain by the sounds of the night.

“What do you want?” she whispered almost fearfully. She tried to free her arm, but he tightened his grip.

“I want you to stop looking as if you expect to be stoned to death,” he retorted angrily.

Olivia's spine stiffened at his tone. She wasn't given to temper, but that didn't mean she wouldn't stand up for herself if she felt under unjust attack. “I'll look any way I please,” she retorted, embarrassed that the best she could think of was such a childish reply. She was at a disadvantage, having had little experience with arguing.