Rebellious Bride (38 page)

Sam still wasn’t convinced. “Maybe someone should stay with them just in case—”

Evan, realizing his brother’s intentions, interrupted Sam. ‘‘My brother is more than capable of taking care of his wife and son. How about supper at your place, Holly?”

“Great idea, Evan,” Holly agreed with a generous smile and a final wave to Lil. “Come on, Sam.”

“Papa,” Lil called to her father.

Upon hearing the familiar endearment, Sam turned, an unshed tear glistening in his eye.

“I’ll be fine and I’ll expect you at the house as soon as we return.”

Sam hurried over to her, kissed her cheek, and said, “I’ll be there, little girl.”

Jonathan, who was the last to leave, hesitated a moment to speak with Rolfe. “I brought you enough food to last a day; it is in the basket. In the traveling case is a change of clothes for you, my lord. I shall have the house ready for Alexander’s arrival. And of course everything will be prepared to ensure Lady Sherborn’s comfort.”

Lil called out to him as he neared the door. “What would we do without you, dear Jonathan?”

Jonathan’s expression was bland as he cast her a glance and calmly announced, “I have no intention of allowing you to find out. I am here for the duration, madam.”

Lil and Rolfe shook their heads and laughed.

The cabin grew quiet with everyone’s departure. The late afternoon sun faded as the couple enjoyed their new son. Lil and Rolfe laughed and talked and planned for the future. It took some persuasion on Lil’s part to convince Rolfe that a houseful of children was a good idea. His memories of her delivery were still too vivid.

They also spoke of Cedric and Beatrice. Rolfe still found the awful discovery difficult to accept. Lil realized he blamed himself for Bea’s suffering, and no amount of talking would change that. Time would be Rolfe’s healer.

Lil yawned and stretched her arms up as Rolfe prepared Alexander for bed. “Are you going to join us?” she asked, reaching up to her husband to take her freshly changed son in her arms.

“It’s a narrow bed, Lillian,” Rolfe said, though he wanted nothing more than to crawl into it with his wife and son.

She tucked Alexander in one arm and pulled the sheet back. “It is perfect for three. The sagging ropes can attest to that.”

Rolfe smiled, slipped out of his clothes, and climbed into bed beside his wife and son. He wrapped his muscular arm around Lillian and Alexander, drawing them protectively against him.

They snuggled together, and as Rolfe whispered in Lil’s ear, she whispered the same words in his: “I love you.”

Lil anxiously climbed the stairs. The house was dark and as still as the late night. She had been gone but a few hours. Doc had summoned her near the end of Adele Hogan’s labor, aware Lil had only so much time to spare between feedings.

At eight weeks old, Alexander was proving to be a good baby. He usually took his last feeding around eight in the evening and then slept until early morning. She had left him in a contented slumber around eight-thirty, his belly full.

It was now one in the morning, and Lil was eager to see her son again and to slip into bed beside her husband, maybe even wake Rolfe with a gentle nudge here and there.

With her energy running high, she was too excited to sleep. Delivering twin boys to a couple who had waited so long for a child had thrilled her and made her miss her loving own family.

Lil hurried along the corridor, her stocking feet silent on the thick carpet, her boots having been deposited near the front door.

They had moved Alexander’s cradle into their room, where it would remain for many months. The thought that the two people she loved so dearly waited only a few feet away sped her along until finally she reached out for the brass doorknob.

She turned it quietly and eased the door open, not wishing to disturb the sleeping occupants. Once inside, she shut it just as quietly behind her. She furrowed her brow in concern when she spied a lamp burning near the bed.

Her steps were light but quick, so worried was she that Alexander might have taken ill. She was brought up short at the unexpected sight that greeted her.

Rolfe, his large body slumped and his head lolled to the side, sat sleeping in the rocking chair beside the bed. Alexander, his tiny fingers bunched into fists beneath his chin, was tucked protectively in his father’s arms, and he too snoozed contently.

Lil drank in the heartwarming scene. Rolfe was proving to be as excellent a father as he was a husband. Family, she had come to realize, meant much to Rolfe. She recalled the emotional departure of Evan, who had returned to England.

Neither brother had wished to say farewell, Evan having been so taken by his nephew that he had found it difficult to bid him good-bye, though he did so with a gentle hug and a tender kiss to the baby’s small brow. With a promise that Evan would return next summer for an extended visit, farewells were finally made, and Lil had tears in her own eyes when he departed.

She had shed tears again only hours later, though they were tears of joy. Her father and Holly had informed her and Rolfe of their intention to marry. Now their wedding was only two weeks away, and the gossiping tongues of Little were busy buzzing about the event. Much had changed in Little.

Rolfe’s eyes drifted open, and his gaze ran up the length of his wife, standing before him. He eased his cramped neck to straighten his head and smiled at her. “I missed you,” he whispered, not wanting to wake his sleeping son.

“And I missed you,” she said softly and reached down to take Alexander into her arms. He remained sleeping, not at all disturbed by the transfer. Lil placed him in the cradle, tucking a light knitted blanket over him. He didn’t move once, so satisfied was he.

Lil returned to her husband, still seated in the rocker. “Come,” she said, stretching her hand out to him. “Let me tuck
you
into bed.”

No tucks were necessary. They fell on the bed together, eagerly shedding their clothing until they lay naked beside each other.

“Have I told you that you’ve grown more beautiful with the birth of our son?” he asked, his fingers concentrating on her hardened nipples.

“Many times,” she said. “But I never grow tired of hearing it.”

He grinned, a downright sexy grin that made Lil’s stomach flutter. ‘‘Then perhaps I should show instead of tell you how I feel.”

She failed to respond, so quick were his actions. His mouth found her breast and he feasted, transforming the flutters into spasms. His hands worked their magic as well, touching her slowly, erotically, spreading her legs, hinting with whispered passes of his fingers over her of what was to come.

Her trembling hands sought the essence of him, to tease him as he teased her. But he laughed wickedly and shoved her exploring hands beneath her. “Tonight, madam, you are mine.”

His words were meant jokingly, but the heated tone in which they were delivered fired her emotions, and she felt herself melt to his every touch. His lips scorched the same path as his hands. Her flesh was damp from their arduous lovemaking, and his tongue thoroughly enjoyed her highly aroused taste.

Her sensual moans were restrained to catlike purrs, concerned that her usual unrestrained cries of pleasure would surely wake the baby.

“You taste so good, Lillian,” Rolfe said, inching up over her.

She turned her head, her teeth nipping at his forearm. “That’s not fair. I wish to taste you as well.” She registered her complaint in a soft voice, sounding like an irate child deprived too long of her favorite treat.

He lowered himself farther to nest perfectly between her legs, bringing a satisfied sigh to her lips. “We have all night, Lillian, and I promise you that you can taste to your heart’s content.”

She smiled, appeased by his promise. Her hands went up around his neck, and her words rushed out in a warm breath against his ear. “Ride me hard, Lord Sherborn.”

Rolfe gently shook his head. “You will never cease to amaze me, Lillian.”

“Do you wish me to cease?” she asked sweetly.

“Never. I love you exactly as you are.”

Lil tickled his nipple with her tongue and challenged, “Then ride me hard. I wish to feel the strength of you.”

Rolfe obliged, holding nothing back. He wanted to feel her strength as well. He needed to renew himself within her. To build on the love they had already established. To take their emotions to new heights, to new desires.

The bed rocked. Lil’s moans grew. Rolfe urged her even more. Her legs tightened around him. His thrusts were deep and hard, touching the core of her, touching her soul, molding them together as one.

They reached fulfillment together. It sprang from deep within them.

“Rolfe!” Lil’s warm breath rushed out. So intense was the feeling that it frightened her.

“Hold tight, Lillian. Just hold tight, I’m here,” he whispered in her ear, and together they tumbled into the abyss of erotic pleasure.

It took some time for them both to return to normal, their bodies still shuddering from the aftermath, their naked flesh sweet with the scent of satisfied love, their breathing heavy from their arduous journey.

Lil attempted speech first. “The be—be—” She took a forced breath and shook her head. Then, after several failed attempts, she managed to say in a rush, “The best ride I ever had.”

Rolfe laughed, his forehead resting on her shoulder. “For once, Lillian, we are in agreement”

Lil joined him in his laughter.

“We should be professing our undying love for each other, not laughing,” he said. He moved off her, taking her into his arms, then pulled the sheet up and draped it over them.

“No,” Lil argued and cuddled against his warm, damp flesh. “I like this easy laughter between us. We know our love is strong. Feeling it is just as potent as hearing it.”

“I like feeling,” he teased with a gentle squeeze to her breast.

She playfully shooed his hand away. “You have just exhausted yourself. Your parts are inoperable at the moment.”

“My parts are never inoperable, madam,” he said in that aristocratic manner of his.

Lil smiled and raised her brow as she slipped her hand beneath the sheet “I am so glad all your parts work so perfectly.” And to Lil’s surprise,
perfectly
was exactly how his parts were working.

“You are a brazen hussy,” he scolded in a temptingly sexy tone.

Lil’s smile and words dripped with sweetness. “Not yet I’m not.”

Low and sensual was Rolfe’s laugh before he asked, “What are you waiting for?”

Lil shoved the covers off them. Her smile faded as she said, “My lord’s approval.”

Rolfe’s expression grew serious. His hand cupped her face. His heart beat strongly. His lips brushed hers, and he whispered, “You have more than my approval, Lillian. You have my everlasting love.”

~~~~~~~~~

When I first got published many years ago I wrote romances set in the American West. I enjoyed exploring the various times in American history and I loved discovering the strength and courage of the characters that forged a nation.

I’ve pulled those books out of the archives to make them available again. They are now part of my American Collection. The books will introduce you to many intriguing characters while touring the American west. You’ll visit the Barbary Coast and Nob Hill in San Francisco and meet up with the Dragon and the Serpent an unlikely pair to fall in love in my first book
San Francisco Surrender
. You’ll have the best time in the Dakota Territory with a proper Boston woman and an infamous gunslinger in
Tame Your Wild Touch
. And you’ll enjoy seeing what happens when a sheriff’s daughter has no choice but to wed an English duke, another book set in the Dakota Territory in
Rebellious Bride
. You’ll travel back to the inception of Los Angeles when the Spaniards owned the land and find yourself enjoying the antics of a servant girl who bests an arrogant Spaniard at every turn, though not when it comes to love in
Untamed Fire
. And finally the sequel to that book
Renegade Love
where readers can finally find out what happened to Rosa.

Revisiting the American Collection books got me itching to write more books set in the American West so I’m busy doing just that. I’m working on a trilogy about three very different women who wind up in a small western town and forge unlikely friendships as they each fall in love with men not at all suited for them...or so they think.

I hope you enjoy my American Collection as much as I enjoyed writing them.

If you’d like to be notified when an American Collection book becomes available just send an email to
[email protected]
with AC BOOK ALERT in the message box. If you’d like to know when any of my books become available then put BOOK ALERT in the message box.

Happy reading... Donna Fletcher

Single Titles

San Francisco Surrender

Untamed Fire

Rebellious Bride

The Buccaneer

Tame My Wild Touch

Playing Cupid

Whispers on the Wind

Series Books

The Wedding Spell
(Wyrrd witch series)

Magical Moments

Magical Memories

Remember the Magic

The Irish Devil

Irish Hope

Isle of Lies

Love Me Forever

Dark Warrior

Legendary Warrior

The Daring Twin

The Bewitching Twin

Taken By Storm

Highlander’s Bride

Return of the Rogue
(Sinclare brothers’ series)

Under the Highlander’s Spell

The Angel & The Highlander

Highlander’s Forbidden Bride

Bound To A Warrior
(Warrior King series)

Loved By A Warrior

A Warrior’s Promise

Short Stories

based on characters in Donna’s books

One Night of Love & the Hobgoblin – The Irish Devil

Halloween Magic – The Wedding Spell

Christmas Love – Return of the Rogue

Donna Fletcher is a USA Today bestselling romance author. Her books are sold worldwide. She started her career selling short stories and winning reader contests. She soon expanded her writing to her love of romance novels and sold her first book SAN FRANCISCO SURRENDER the year she became president of New Jersey Romance Writers. Donna is also a past President of Novelists, Inc.