Comanche Haven (The Loflin Legacy: Book 1) (46 page)

Seth lowered her gently to the floor
and stepped back. “Well…”

With her mouth agape in a silent
utterance of astonishment, she gazed at the wealth of flowers that
flanked the walls and stood on every surface that would hold them.
More flowers were placed about the room than she’d ever seen,
except at a wedding in Savannah. Speechless, she turned back to
Seth.

“
I wanted you to have
flowers for our wedding.” His gave his shoulders a slight shrug.
“But since it had to be such a hasty affair, I thought you might
get to enjoy them more right here.” He glanced about the
room.

Roses and early spring daffodils sprang
from every vase and vessel standing on the tables, vanity, and
lining the walls. The sweet, unmistakable smell of roses filled the
room.

“
They’re all for me?” Celia
asked in wonderment. “There are so many. How did you know I love
roses?” She asked him pointedly as she fingered the velvet petals
of the nearest ones swamping a small table.

Seth gave her one of his patented
off-hand shrugs and stuffed his hands in his pockets before rocking
back on booted heels. “I remember things.” He flicked a glance her
way before glancing about the room again.

Celia turned and studied him. They both
knew to what he referred. He’d once brought the young maiden she’d
been a single rose all those years ago. Feeling so very touched by
the gesture, she crossed back to him and stood silently staring
into the face of love. The smile she gave him was as honest an
answer as she could manage. She was standing in front of him, when
his hands came around her waist. He followed and his heat enveloped
her. There was blood drying from a cut on his lip and dirt smudged
along a bruise on his cheekbone. She knew she’d never seen anyone
as handsome as Seth at that moment.

“
I thought you were
responsible for leaving. I had no idea the real truth.”

Celia reached up and laid a finger over
his lips silencing his words. “You didn’t know. I understand now,
that you had no part in what happened.”

“
I can only hope you’ll
forgive me for being so thick-headed.”

“
Seth, there’s nothing to
forgive. You didn’t know the whole truth.” She rested her hand on
his jaw. “He’s gone, gone forever now and all we can do is move
forward.”

“
Celia, all I ask is that
you give me a chance…”

Her heart was in her throat. Hadn’t he
already shown her how much she meant to him? Celia couldn’t help
the mischievous smile that flitted across her lips. “A
chance?”

“
Yes, a chance to prove to
you…how much you mean to me. Will you stay and give me that
chance?”

“
You want me to stay? You
want me to stay and give you a chance?” Slowly she moved away from
his hold. She’d never be able to keep her face blank if she
remained in his arms and she didn’t want him to see the sheer joy
dancing across her face at that moment.

“
I will make a believer out
of you, Little One, I promise. Say you’ll stay.”

“
You actually want me to
stay after all that’s happened? What kind of life would that be for
either of us?”

He stepped toward her and his next
words showed desperation. “Yes, I do. It would be our life
together. Just say you’ll try.”

Turning, she looked into brilliant blue
eyes full of need and Celia understood his desperation. “All right,
I’ll try.” With that said she slipped from his grasp and made her
way across the room to the decanter of whiskey Seth habitually had
on hand. “The agreement states that I…”

He was behind her and wrapping his arm
around her in a stronghold. “Damn the agreement. I had to do
something to keep you from bolting after Brannon confronted you in
the mercantile. It was the only thing I could think of.”

“
You knew about that?” Her
utter astonishment made him laugh. “I see everything, he whispered
near her ear. Turning her so she faced him, Seth searched her eyes.
“Celia, I can’t lose you again, don’t you understand
that?”

She gazed into his eyes and nodded.
“You make it sound as if I mean something to you.” She flicked him
a glance and then studied the buttons on his shirtfront.

Seth sighed deep in his chest and took
her chin in his fingers. “Don’t you understand? Celia, you undo me.
You saved me and I had forgotten how lost I was. I love you,
darlin’.”

Tears pooled in the corners of her eyes
and her mouth trembled once. The moment for the truth had finally
arrived. “I love you, Seth.” She closed her eyes a moment and
opened them again, gazing intently at her husband. “I never
stopped, even though I thought you were the one who returned my
letters.”

“
I should have known my
father was behind your leaving. I simply couldn’t believe my own
flesh and blood would do something like that to his son. I’m sorry
for not searching harder. But with no word from you, I simply
stopped wishing for something I thought could never be. A part of
me died, I guess.”

“
Me too.” Celia burrowed
deep into Seth chest.

“
You have to know that if
I’d had any idea where you were I’d have come to you. You have to
know…” his voice trailed off on an agonized tremor.

Celia reached up and stroked his cheek.
He looked weary and tired and she had yet another moment’s
consignation as she thought of all she’d put him
through.

“
Come here.” Seth’s voice
was husky. Guiding her to the bed, Seth sat and pulled her between
his knees. Running his hands along the outside of her arms, he
managed to incite tiny fingers of warmth. “Do you have any idea how
much I love you?” Scanning her face, his hand came up and fisted in
her hair. Then his mouth was on hers needy and urgent. This man was
hers in every way that was important.

Trailing kisses down the column of her
neck and then her collarbone, Seth undid buttons and pulled at the
velvet of her gown as he searched for her breast. Petticoats went
flying into the air and pantalets fell to the floor in a heap.
Beneath the silk of her chemise, he found the object of his quest.
With his mouth torturing her aril as his hand cupped her other
breast, Seth moaned low. “Mine,” he groaned. He turned her and
worked the laces of her corset loose. Under his deft fingers, soon
the corset went sailing across the room. With the tedious
restriction eliminated, Seth let his hands roam the soft flesh of
her belly.

Exquisite pleasure shot through her. A
primal calling urged her to gather this man in and take what he
offered with abandon. Time seemed to slow to a halt as he continued
to torment her fevered flesh with an urgency that swept her along
in its embrace. Molten hot and yearning, she could feel herself
losing the grip on reality. Nothing mattered but his wonderful
hands. She was wet and slick when his fingers slide into her heat.
Bowing with the sensation, Celia came with a blinding
light.

“
More!” Seth was straddling
her now and watching her with the hot and hungry eyes of a lover in
need.

She worked the buttons of his trousers
open, as he discarded his tattered jacket and shirt. With a final
tug, Seth threw the last of his clothing aside, and using his hands
cupped her breasts, nursing one and then the other to a warm, rosy
glow.

Celia fisted her hands in his hair and
groaned his name. “Seth, oh, Seth.”

“
What do you want, darlin’?
Tell me.”

His husky groan sent warmth down her
spine and spreading through her thighs. Soft tender kisses trailed
along her belly and lower still. His engorged shaft pressed at her
flesh reminding her of all he had to give.

“
Take me, Seth. Take me
now!” Her breath grew labored and her vision blurred with each new
assault.

“
No, not until you tell me
what you want, Little One. Tell me, tell me now.” His words came
out low and tender like the notes of a sonnet not quite
complete.

“
I...I want…” Celia’s
thoughts clouded as she fought the need to think. She would not
abandon her heart this time. She would stand and fight for what was
hers. “I want you, Seth.”

His breath warmed her lips as he
lowered his head.

“
Christ.” Seth levered his
hips and with a swift plunge, he buried himself deep inside
her.

Their bodies meshed for one sweet
instant, while both of them reveling in the sheer bliss of their
coupling.

She moved against him in invitation.
“Take me, Seth. Love me, now.”

Smooth as silk, Seth moved inside her
and soon Celia was matching him, thrust for hungry thrust. She
found a new freedom in Seth’s arms. Wave after wave of desire
pummeled her as Seth drove himself further into her heat. With his
body, Seth was freeing her to be his. Here was her truth. Her bonds
with the old Celia melted away in the arms of her husband and a
wonderfully spiraling rapture took her. She clung to his broad
shoulders as stars danced in front of her heavily lidded eyes. The
last thing Celia remembered was the primal moan Seth offered up to
the heavens as he followed her over the edge.

The aftermath of lovemaking for love’s
sake, held a sense of the fanciful as well as a dousing of reality,
a warmer, richer reality. Clearer somehow than Celia had ever
known, for here in Seth’s arms, Celia was truly home. In all her
days, when this moment was but a distant memory, Celia knew she
would have a memory to cherish. Her heart was here, in this man’s
tender hold and when they arose to face their world, they would
face it as one.

The End

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Comanche Haven! If you’d like to send me any comments or feedback,
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. My latest book is a blend of the western romance with
paranormal elements called The Lady in the Mist, The Western
Werewolf Legend. I’m enjoying the opportunity to change people into
werewolves for a living.