A Long Tall Texan Summer: Tom Walker (9 page)

Her eyes seemed to melt into his. "I love you, too, Tom," she whispered.

The heat that look generated made her body swell uncomfortably. Her gaze dropped to his mouth and she ached to feel it on her mouth, on her body.

"Dear God, we've ordered food," he whispered

with wry humor. "I'll choke!"

"So will I," she confessed, taking a slow breath. "But now that we're here..."

"We might as well eat."

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She laughed self-consciously, and so did he. The waiter came seconds later with seafood platters. And they did eat, but lightly. Dessert was bypassed, along with second cups of coffee.

There was a good hotel downtown. Elysia felt uneasy about going there with Tom, but she was as hungry for him as he seemed to be for her.

He paid for the room very nonchalantly for an inexperienced man, and escorted her into the crowded elevator, holding her hand tightly until they reached the right floor.

He opened the door, guided her inside and didn't even turn on the light. His arms enveloped her, like his

mouth. He didn't say a single

word.

The bed was king-size, huge. There was only a little light filtering in through the window from the city

streetlights and scattered neon signs. She couldn't see him very well. It was like their first time. Except that now they knew each other and it would be an act of love.

When she felt his nudity against her own, she moaned softly with unexpected pleasure. She hadn't remembered that exquisite sensation

until she felt it again. Her arms reached up around his neck, her hands buried themselves

in his thick black hair as his mouth gently teased her neck and then her breasts.

He must have been reading more than a few books, she thought as she began to gasp and move helplessly under the expert caresses of his hard mouth.

"Here?" he whispered roughly. "And here?"

"Y...yes!" she cried out, arching.

"Dear God, this is sweet," he murmured as his mouth moved against hers again. "So sweet!"

Her legs parted for him. She buried her face in his hot throat and held on, shivering a little as he touched

her and then moved down.

But it wasn't like the first time.

He paused to kiss her, until her tense body relaxed, opened itself to the most intimate caresses.

She

sighed under the teasing of his mouth and lifted her body to meet the slow descent of his hips.

It was a little painful, because it had been so long. But after a few seconds, her body accommodated him

easily. He slid into her and lay there, unmoving, his kiss soft on her closed eyelids, her cheeks. His hands

lifted her and he pushed, tenderly. She shivered. He did it again, listening to her breathing as it changed.

He moved with slow sensuality from side to side, and then again in the tender rhythm. She cried out and

clutched him.

"We're like children learning to dance," he breathed into her mouth, and she could feel the smile on it.

"I

want it to last forever. I don't want to climax. I don't want you to. I want to move against you and inside you this way until we grow old."

"I can't...live..." she said, choking.

He moved again, hearing her soft cry of pleasure. "Yes, you can, sweetheart," he breathed. He rolled
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over onto his back and moved her on his body, laughing with wicked pleasure at the sounds she was making. His hands bit into her hips, demanding now, pulling and pushing and maneuvering until she lost

her head and bit his shoulder in anguish.

"Do it," she sobbed against his collarbone. "Oh, please, please, do it...now!"

"I forgot that part," he whispered at her ear as he moved her onto her side and eased one slender leg over his hip to ease his passage. "Your body is capable of more than one fulfillment.

Here...let me..."

He moved sharply and she cried out and convulsed. He felt her body contract and then expand as she shook and sobbed her ecstasy against his damp chest. When she relaxed, he kissed her eyes and soothed her. But he was still capable and showed no signs of tiring.

"Didn't...you?" she whispered shyly.

His lean hand smoothed over her disheveled hair. "Not yet," he whispered back, smiling. "I'm enjoying you far too much to let it end for me just yet." He hesitated. "I'm not hurting you?"

"No!"

"Not even when I do this?" he breathed, and pushed down hungrily.

She groaned, her legs wrapping around him hungrily. "No!" she gasped.

He laughed wickedly as he turned her a little

roughly under him and began to kiss her all over again. "If only I could stop time,” he whispered into her open mouth. And then he felt the heat rising in him, too, and it was impossible

to say anything else.

"Elysia."

She heard the deep voice and opened her eyes. The light beside the bed was on. But it wasn't her bed.

And there was a masculine face that needed a shave looming just above her own.

Her eyes opened wider. "Tom?"

He nodded. He touched her swollen lips tenderly.

"It's two in the morning. Wake up."

She searched his eyes. There was no reticence

there now, no shame or guilt. But there was love, and

deep pride.

She smiled.

He smiled back. He bent and touched his mouth lightly to hers. "Come on," he whispered.

"Get up

now."

He pulled the covers off slowly and looked at her while she looked at him. Her face colored a little, but

she didn't avert her eyes until they were full of him. She looked up into his eyes.

"I've never seen a man without his clothes. Not even you, before."

"I've never seen a woman," he whispered. "You look as sweet as you feel."

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She smiled. "So do you."

He cocked a wicked eyebrow. "I feel sweet?"

She colored again. "You tortured me," she whispered.

"I know." He bent and touched his lips tenderly to the tip of her firm breast. "I tortured myself, too. I never dreamed it would feel like that. The first time was good, but this was...indescribable," he said finally.

"You cried out," she whispered, searching his eyes. "Your whole body convulsed for so long that it frightened me."

"You aren't the only one it frightened," he managed to say huskily. "No book I ever read prepared me for what I felt."

"Yes, I understand what you mean." She touched his chest, letting her fingers curl into the thick, black hair on it. "You aren't ashamed?" she asked, because she had to know.

He shook his head. His eyes narrowed. "Unless you were taking something, we made a baby," he whispered.

She let out her breath very slowly. "I never thought of taking anything," she confessed. "I...would like another child, with you."

His face fascinated her. It was like the sun coming out. He gathered her against him in a rough, affectionate hug and growled into her throat. "Oh, God, how I love you!" he said roughly. "Love you, with all that I am, all I know, all I feel. I'll never stop, not as long as I live."

"Neither will I," she moaned, holding him close. "Oh, Tom, we're not married and I'm going to be pregnant again...!"

"I've got a license in my pocket," he murmured

huskily. "That's why you have to wake up and get

dressed."

She was confused. "What? But how, when...?"

"I applied for it two weeks ago, and told them to get your blood test from your doctor."

"He said I had to have a blood test because someone who'd been in my shop had meningitis, the

wicked devil!" she gasped.

"Dr. Morris is a good man," he murmured. "So when I mentioned this license to him, he was glad to help

me out."

"I'll have him shot," she muttered.

He chuckled. "No, you won't, because we can be married in a couple of hours." He glanced at the clock. "We'll have to put on some clothes, though, or people will stare. Especially at you," he added

when he drew back. "God, what a body!"

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She chuckled, all her shyness gone. She got to her feet and stared down at him. "I could say the same,"

she mused.

He got up, too, and hugged her close with a sigh. "I suppose we should call Luke and tell him where we are."

"You can tell him where we are," she agreed. "But not exactly."

"Coward."

She grinned at him. "Where do we find a minister?"

"I'm glad you asked that," he said. "Because I just happen to have an appointment with one at five

a.m.!"

"That's three hours away," she reminded him, glancing at the clock. "Not two!"

He glanced down at her body and then at his own, and he smiled wickedly. "Well, I can think of a few ways to pass the time," he murmured,

and he reached for her. "After all, practice makes perfect..."

She never asked how he'd managed to talk a minister into getting up at five in the morning to marry

them. It was enough that he had. She spoke her vows in the same black cocktail dress she'd worn to dinner, flushed from the bath they'd shared as well as the excitement of becoming a much-loved and wanted wife.

He kissed her at the altar, and the look in his eyes made her heart run wild. It was like no other look he'd ever given her. He whispered

her married name and kissed her with a tenderness that made her knees weak. She'd never dreamed of such happiness.

They called Luke to tell him where they were, and then they spoke to an excited Crissy to tell her their news.

"We'll be home in two days," Elysia promised

Luke, blushing even over the phone at his low laughter.

"And you can stop that," she muttered.

He cleared his throat. "Sorry. Anyway, I'll take great care of my little buddy Crissy here, and we'll see you two when you get back."

Tom spoke to both of the people at the other end, too, and his heart swelled when Crissy called him

"Daddy." He thought he'd never felt so happy in his life. And when he looked at his new wife, he was certain of it.

They spent two days and nights in a romantic

haze, barely taking time to eat. They talked and talked

and made love and talked some more. By the time they left Houston, they were closer than ever.

When they got back to Jacobsville, two days later, it was to find themselves guests of honor at a surprise

evening wedding reception hosted by Dr. Drew Morris and Luke. Half the people in town were there to wish them well, along with Crissy in a delightful little party dress with lace trim. And the crowning surprise

was Tom's sister, Kate, along with her husband, Jacob Cade, and their young son, Hunter.

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Tom embraced his sister warmly and shook hands with Jacob before he bent to lift Hunter in his arms.

"You look just like your dad, young man," he told the boy, "except for those green eyes."

"I have eyes like my mom," Hunter assured

him with a somber gaze. "Yours are green, too, Uncle Tom."

"So they are." He put Hunter down, and watched the child scowl in a perfect imitation of his father when

Crissy ran up to join them.

"Gee, you look like me, too," Crissy told Hunter. "Of course, you're a boy."

"Of course I'm a boy," Hunter said belligerently.

He made a subtle face at the newcomer.

"I can hunt

and fish just like my dad."

"So can I," Crissy said with equal belligerence.

"I caught a four-pound bass, didn't I, Daddy?" she asked Tom.

His heart leaped as he looked down at her. “Yes, you did, sweetheart.” he agreed.

Kate was looking at her brother with open curiosity.

"Why don't you show your fishing rod to Hunter, sweetheart?" Elysia suggested.

Crissy agreed eagerly, and motioned to Hunter to follow her. When they were out of earshot, Kate glanced from Elysia's flushed face to Tom's bland one.

"She's the image of you," Kate said bluntly.

"She was a reporter for years in Chicago,” Jacob told Elysia with an amused smile. "I can never keep secrets from her. You might as well just tell her what she wants to know. It's easier."

Elysia grinned. "Well, she's Tom's daughter,"

she confessed shyly. "He never knew," she added, so that nobody would blame her handsome husband. She clung to his hand.

"He never even suspected," Tom added dryly with a sheepish look at his sister.

Kate smiled at him with pure love. "It looks as though everything has worked out very well, despite the obstacles."

"Indeed it has," Tom said, pulling his new wife close. "Better than I ever dreamed it would."

Elysia pressed against him with a sigh. "Oh, yes," she said.

Jacob put an arm around his own wife and grinned down at her. "Now are you going to stop worrying?"

he asked. "If you can't tell a happy couple when you see one, I'm going to get Hank to give you one of his herbal potions

to improve your little brain."

"Hank's his dad," Kate explained to Elysia.

"He's always poking around in my greenhouse

with this

herbal medicine book he bought, making up potions for everything from poison ivy to sore feet." She cleared her throat. "And other things."

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Jacob chuckled wickedly. "Go ahead, make fun of him, but this last one worked, didn't it?" he asked, and glanced down at her stomach

with a mixture of pride and delight.

Kate flushed and hit him. "Jacob!"

"If you like, we'll get him to fix one up for you," Jacob added, tongue-in-cheek. "This one was for a girl,

but since you already have one of those..."

"I think we can manage, Jacob, but thanks just the same," Tom chuckled.