Lawless (13 page)

The provocative tone of her voice was hard won after her disastrous first marriage, and he still hesitated to push her, always letting her set the pace.

She spread her legs and ran her fingers down his back as he shifted into place, her eyes drifting shut in a languid slow movement as his tip nudged her opening, widened it, and he entered her in a slick glide. “Yes, just like that.”

John seated himself fully, the tight heat around him perfect, tantalizing. He began to take her the way he knew she liked it, with long gentle thrusts, whispering in her ear how much he loved her, how good it felt, how perfect they were together. All of it was true, every word.

They moved, her hips undulating in just the right rhythm, the erotic friction tingling along every nerve ending, each breathless exhale escalating the pleasure. He made sure she came first, reaching between them to put pressure on her clitoris, enough so as he pushed in she trembled, wetness coating his fingers. As always she climaxed with little www.samhainpublishing.com 91

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more than a small cry, her face pressed against his throat. His body responded to the tightening of her inner muscles and he jerked, spilling sperm in a forceful rush that made him give a low groan.

Afterwards was almost as good as during, he thought with a satisfied smile on his face, relishing the feel of her in his arms as he rolled to his side and spooned their bodies together. He liked her best this way, her hair a tangled soft mass, her thighs streaked with his discharge. They lay quietly, their breathing slowing, until Alice said, “I saw Laurel Daniels in town today. There’s gossip, of course, there always is here, but I think it must be true she wasn’t hurt or used in any way. She looked fine, maybe even better than fine, and I have a hard time believing anything bad happened recently to someone who seemed so…serene.”

He’d heard the story directly from Matthew Daniels, and though it seemed a bit improbable that one man could ride up on a bunch of escaping outlaws and manage to rescue her, he hadn’t been there and didn’t want to voice any doubts. “I’m just glad she’s unharmed. She’s a nice young woman.”

“She’s a very pretty young woman,” his wife pointed out with a hint of amusement in her voice. “Don’t pretend you haven’t noticed, John Evans.”

Laurel was more than just pretty, but he wasn’t going to bring that point up. “I’ve got eyes,” he agreed, kissing Alice’s neck. “But I’m a happily married man. You made me especially happy just a few minutes ago.”

“They say the man who intervened is at the ranch now and staying on. Weston Harper is fit to be tied, because he thinks Laurel is sweet on this cowboy.”

“Is that so? Seems to me Wes hasn’t got room to say a blamed word. He didn’t lift a finger to help find her and I know Will was pretty disgusted over it. If someone else is her hero, well, that’s his own fault.”

Well, maybe hero was a questionable word, though John hadn’t met the Daniels’

guest. All he knew was when they’d tracked down the River Bend Outfit there’d only been six of them. The passengers on the train said there were seven bandits. Two got away in the melee, four were dead, and that one crucial man hadn’t been there at all.

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There wasn’t a lot of deduction involved to suspect maybe the stranger known as Cal Smith that Matthew had taken on as a hand might be related to all of those things, but Daniels had almost dared John to say anything, and he hadn’t. More than one good cowboy had fallen into the wrong company, and more than one bad one had turned over a new leaf.

However, he noticed Smith—yeah, that name was real likely—hadn’t come to town once in the time he’d been at the Snowy Peaks ranch, and no one said much about him.

The truth was, he was curious. But he was also a man who minded his own business as long as no one was breaking the law. Whoever had fed him the location of where to find the gang had done him an immense favor and certainly the cowboy now working for Matthew had saved Laurel from pure hell.

He could look the other way. As long the stranger behaved himself, there was no reason to stir up trouble.

***

Laurel waited as patiently as possible, listening for the long, slow footfalls punctuated by the gentle jingle of spurs. Cal had been given a room near the end of the hall, even though he’d suggested he just bunk with the rest of the hands. Her mother had prevailed in her usual way, though, and he’d finally agreed.

Three doors down from her bedroom and she was as acutely aware of his presence as if they were in the same room each night.

In fact, she wished they
were
in the same room. It had been a week and he hadn’t as much as kissed her once. True, there hadn’t been much opportunity given the lack of privacy, but he hadn’t tried either. The least he could do was give her a goodnight kiss, she decided as she sat there.

Everyone else was in bed, hopefully sound asleep. Cal and Will had stayed out on the porch late, long after her parents retired, and even her brother had come in some time ago. When she finally did hear the betraying musical sound of Cal’s approach, her heart began to beat a little faster.

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He stopped cold when he opened the door and saw her sitting on his bed clad only in her nightgown, his expression enigmatic. “Laurel, what are you doing?”

“I’d think that’s obvious. Waiting for you. Close the door.” She spoke in the same low tone, not quite a whisper but almost.

“Are you crazy? Your father would lose his mind if he caught you in here.”

“Close the door and no one will hear us. I just want to talk to you for a moment.”

“Yeah, I bet he’d have no problem believing we’re just talking.” Despite those sardonic words, he did quietly shut the door. Hatless, his dark blond hair just slightly unruly, he looked so very handsome in a heart-stopping way. The meager light from the one lamp she’d lit played over the sculpted planes and hollows of his face, and his shoulders were impressively wide under his flannel shirt. Just his masculine presence in the room seemed to fill it with an aura that was his alone.

She really wanted more than a kiss if she was honest with herself, feeling the warmth between her legs and the slight tingling of her nipples. “I’ve missed you.”

His brows lifted a fraction. “You’ve seen me every day.”

“Not enough of you.” Good God, she sounded like a harlot, she realized as she caught the innuendo of her words and flushed. The double meaning wasn’t intended, but then again, it was all too true.

Cal didn’t miss it either, a slow smile crossing his face. “Is that so, Miss Daniels?”

She nodded, mesmerized as always by the captivating power of his smile. It was rare, but it was powerful.

“What did you want to discuss so badly you’d risk my neck—because your father would gladly snap it in half if he caught us—by sneaking in here like this?”

“Us, I suppose.”

“What about ‘us’ specifically?” He hadn’t moved but stood just inside the doorway in his usual deceptively relaxed pose.

Cal was many things, but relaxed was rarely one of them.

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And he wanted her just as badly as she wanted him. Laurel realized it in a rush of excitement at the intense look in his silver eyes, a smoldering smile lingering on his beautiful mouth.

She didn’t feel like a harlot any longer. She felt like a woman with the man she loved, moreover, the man she was meant to be with for the rest of her life. “I was thinking…” she managed to mumble and then trailed off, not sure if she should mention marriage again. However, he
had
stayed on at the ranch so far, and was now looking at her like a hungry wolf at a bone.

“Always a dangerous thing when a woman attempts that,” Cal said dryly. “I might have to put a stop to it at once. I wonder what would work. Any ideas?”

He moved with the powerful grace of predatory animal toward the bed. His gun belt was deposited on the floor with small thud and his eyes glittered with purpose. Laurel didn’t resist when he caught her shoulders and eased her down so she lay supine. Long fingers brushed her cheek in a perfunctory caress, and then his mouth came down on hers, hot and hard. His tongue took her mouth, claimed it, and his hands moved in urgent exploration over breasts, hips and thighs.

It was definitely not a chaste goodnight kiss, which was just fine with her. Laurel kissed him back with equal wild fervor, knowing he was right, it was reckless for her to be there, but not caring at all.

She gasped as he abruptly pulled her nightgown above her waist and his fingers slid between her legs in an intimate test. “That was fast,” he murmured against her lips in a husky whisper.

The fact she was wet and ready should have embarrassed her, but it didn’t. Instead she reveled in the realization he could arouse her so easily. “I’ve been thinking about you,” she murmured. “And while we’re on the subject, what’s this?” She reached between them and pressed her palm to the bulge in his pants.

“You’re nearby,” he explained simply. “It happens all the time.”

“We seem to have a mutual problem then.”

“I’ll take care of it.”

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Cal shifted his weight on top of her, his fingers slid out and went to his pants. The hot hardness of his cock sprang free and she felt the press of his knees as he insistently parted her legs and positioned himself to enter her. The first thrust impaled her fully and made an inarticulate sound escape her throat as she arched into it and spread her legs even wider.

“Shhh, sweetheart.” He breathed in her ear, the ragged sound evidence of his enjoyment and need. “An interruption right now would be mighty inconvenient.”

There wasn’t much question she agreed, clinging to him, following the motion of his hips by lifting to accept the slide of his hard shaft, eager, panting with the pleasure, awash in sensation. Cal knew just where to touch her, how to stroke that crucial sensitive spot between her legs as she got close, the fierceness of her reaction to the touch of his fingers almost too powerful so she muffled her cry of release against his muscled shoulder, trembling beneath him. He stopped moving as her vaginal muscles clenched his cock, and she felt his answering shudder and the liquid heat as he released his seed.

Breathless and almost weak, Laurel realized that while she still wore her nightdress, Cal was fully dressed right down to his boots and spurs. She gave a weak laugh. “I was just hoping for a goodnight kiss.”

“I haven’t touched you in seven days. I missed you, Laurel.”

“I know.” Her hushed agreement was punctuated by the knowledge that Cal didn’t have an optimistic view of the world, but they were in accord on the matter of mutual desire. He disliked needing anyone, but the admission he knew he did was another small triumph. Hopefully she was gaining ground in small ways, little by little, like chipping away at a rock, she thought ruefully. Hard definitely described Cal, but then again a lot of other words did also, among them honorable. In his own way, of course—because she had a feeling he
always
went his own way, but as long as he took her with him, she was fine with that.

He lifted away, his cock slipping out of her, leaving a small sense of loss. He shook his head over his untucked shirt and open jeans. “That didn’t involve finesse and I sure didn’t treat you like a lady.”

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“You treated me like a woman,” Laurel countered. She could still feel a throbbing between her legs, her sex warm and soft with semen and the fluids of her own desire, her thighs wet. She was too languid and content to bother to adjust her gown. “I don’t see a problem with that. You might have noticed me not objecting one bit.”

“Your father would.” Cal sat up on the edge of her bed and sighed, still keeping his voice muted. “He has a right to. He has a right to something else too. If I ask him for the privilege of marrying you, he needs to know who I am, Laurel. I’m not a saint, but I hate lying. This is more difficult than I imagined. I like your family, and they’ve accepted me as the person I told them I was. Even if I was Cal Smith, drifter and no account cowboy, he wouldn’t want you to marry me with nothing to offer you, so he’s making a big effort to give me respectability for your sake. Deceiving him any further goes against the grain.”

That statement made her tense, drawing her out of lethargic post-coital repose. She rose up a little and stared at him, registering that implacable look on his face with an inner chill. “Cal, please…don’t. He might not want you here if he knew.”

“Who the hell could blame him?”

“Well, I would, for one.” Laurel groped for the right words, despite what just happened between them. Her worst fear suddenly loomed. “I love you. I’ve said it before and it’s true, whether you’re Cal Riker or Cal Smith. If you tell my father your true identity and he asks you to leave, I’ll go with you, but I’d rather stay here.”

“You aren’t going on the trail with me, Laurel. For God’s sakes, girl, I’m
wanted
.”

He gave an exasperated exhale and a muscle tightened in his cheek.

“Yes,” she agreed, a small sob lodged somewhere in her throat. “You are. Here.”

“I love you too much to risk ruining your life.”

Shock held her immobile for a moment. Dear God, he’d finally
said
it.

The context of the conversation wasn’t what she pictured when he acknowledged his feelings, but she still had a weapon and wasn’t afraid to use it now that Cal had actually said the words. Maybe she would have used it anyway, but it seemed like a good time to bring the subject up. “Let’s compromise.”

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“We both know I should ride on. I don’t quite see how we can negotiate the issue.”

“What if I’m pregnant?”

Cal went still, every muscle locked in place, not even certain if he’d stopped breathing. After a moment, he said in an unrecognizable voice, “Are you?”