Against the Storm1 (33 page)

As for Trace, he had been oddly quiet. Now, watching him walk out of the bedroom barefoot in just his jeans, she wondered what he was thinking. His dark hair still glistened from his recent shower. Drops of water beaded on his powerful chest and the six-pack muscles across his flat stomach.

She walked toward him, the peignoir floating around her ankles. The garment was almost virginal, and she felt that way tonight, as if this would be the first time they made love.

Trace reached out and ran a hand through her hair, pushed a curl behind her ear. “You look beautiful, darlin’.”

She glanced away, feeling strangely shy. “Thank you.”

He cupped her cheek, drawing her attention back to his face. “It feels different now, doesn’t it?”

“Yes. Different in a wonderful way.”

“I meant what I said. I love you, Maggie. I think I
was attracted to those redheads over the years because I was searching for you.”

Her eyes filled. “As soon as I moved out, I knew I’d made a mistake. I just didn’t know how to undo it. By then I knew I’d found Mr. Right, but it was too late.”

He kissed her softly. “Will you marry me, Maggie?”

Her throat closed up. She hadn’t expected this, but she knew the answer, had no more doubts about what she wanted. The tears in her eyes spilled onto her cheeks. “I would be honored to marry you.”

Trace kissed her again, tenderly at first, then more deeply. Lifting her in his arms, he carried her into the bedroom, her white satin robe spilling over his arm until he set her on her feet beside the bed. He eased the peignoir off her shoulders, leaving on the gown, then lifted and settled her on the mattress, following her down.

His mouth found hers and he kissed her once more, a slow, languid kiss that seemed to have no end. He smelled of soap and man, and tasted fresh and incredibly sexy. She ran her fingers over the muscles of his chest, thinking she would never get tired of touching him, of having him touch her.

Trace just kept kissing her, as if he had all the time in the world, moving lower, trailing hot, moist kisses over her throat and shoulders, down to her breasts. He kissed each one through the slick white satin, ran his tongue over the hardened crests, leaving them damp and aching when he peeled down the narrow satin straps, bent and took the nipples into his mouth.

Maggie arched beneath him, wanting more, wanting him naked and his hard length inside her. She had never desired a man this way, never trusted a man enough to give him her heart.

But she knew this man she loved, knew him to be honorable, caring and generous. Knew him to be truthful in his feelings. Knew that when he said he loved her, he meant the forever kind of love, the kind she was willing to give in return.

Trace eased her nightgown over her head, then left her long enough to dispense with his jeans. Naked, he settled himself between her legs, his beautiful whiskey-brown eyes on her face. He kissed the inside of her thighs and had her trembling. Her body wept for him and her heart ached with love.

There was something different in his lovemaking tonight, something that made her feel worshipped and adored. Something that told her she had found what she had been searching for so long.

Her body heated, turned hot and liquid. Trace knew exactly how to bring her to the peak and beyond, how to use his hands and mouth, just where to touch her to make her fly apart.

She cried out his name, but he didn’t stop, not until he had carried her to the peak a second time. Then he came up over her, slid himself deeply inside. Slow and easy, propping himself on his elbows, kissing her and kissing her, stirring back to life the fires that he had so recently tamed.

Outside, the rain fell softly, pattering against the windowpanes. A slight breeze slipped through the trees. Inside the bedroom, the heat of their bodies increased with the friction of their movements. Maggie slid her hands into Trace’s silky dark hair, gave herself up to the slow, tantalizing rhythm he set. Deep and penetrating, lazy, sensual strokes that had her moving beneath him, silently begging for more.

His rhythm increased along with his breathing, the
pace spiraling upward, her need building. She was close, so very close.

Then she was there, crying out his name as she soared. Trace followed her to release and Maggie clung to him, feeling the rightness of it. The blazing joy.

They floated down together. Trace kissed her one last time.

“You said yes,” he whispered against the side of her neck. “You can’t change your mind.”

Maggie smiled into the darkness. “I found Mr. Right. I’m not going to change my mind.”

He rolled onto his back, taking her with him. “When, then?”

Maggie softly kissed him. “How about tomorrow?” she said, and heard a rumble of male satisfaction coming from Trace’s hard chest.

T
hey were married two weeks later. Trace didn’t want to wait, and Maggie foolishly agreed to the hastily organized wedding that Annie and Ashley helped her arrange.

Damn, he loved her. And this time, he knew he had a woman who loved him in return. A woman he could count on, one who had stood up to a lunatic, put her own life at risk to save his.

The wedding was held in a chapel behind the Methodist Church, a place just the size to hold their small but valued group of friends.

Ashley was Maggie’s maid of honor, Roxanne a bridesmaid. Trace asked Devlin Raines to stand as his best man, and Jake Cantrell partnered with Roxanne. Jason was there, grinning like a fool at Ashley, who had finally agreed to wear the beautiful, flawless but unpretentious diamond engagement ring he had bought her.

The rest of Trace’s bachelor friends were there. Alex and Ben, and Johnnie Riggs. Once Riggs and Cantrell had met Maggie and seen the two of them together, they
resisted ragging him about marrying a redhead. Trace thought maybe they had fallen a little in love with her themselves.

Dev’s two brothers, Jackson and Gabriel, flew in for the festivities with their wives, Sarah and Mattie. Evan Schofield was there and Mark Sayers.

Amazingly, Maggie’s mom showed up for the wedding. It turned out to be a surprisingly touching reunion between a mother and her daughters.

The reception was held at the Texas Café, which they took over for the evening, and they partied there, dancing to the music of a country band until late into the night.

After the party, a limo took Trace and his bride out to the old family ranch house. He’d prepared it especially for their stay, with rose petals scattered over satin sheets on the old-fashioned four-poster bed, champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries on hand, and enough food laid in for a week.

They hadn’t decided yet where they wanted to go for their real honeymoon. Italy, maybe, or Tahiti, or perhaps Australia. A trip Down Under might be an interesting place to visit, and provide some good photo ops for Maggie, give her what she needed to finish her coffee-table book. It really didn’t matter as long as they were together.

This morning before the sun was up, he had saddled a couple horses, good, solid, easy-to-handle mounts he rode when he came out to the ranch. Maggie was excited. She hadn’t ridden much over the years, she’d said, but she had always enjoyed it.

Most days they weren’t doing much but making love, and whatever else hit their fancy.

“You know, darlin’,” he said as he helped her swing
up in the saddle, waited till she shoved the boots he’d bought her into the stirrups. She looked real good up there, in the white straw cowboy hat that went with the boots, her fiery hair tucked up under the crown. “We haven’t talked much about kids.”

Her head came up. “Kids? What about them?”

Trace swung into his own horse’s saddle, tugged the brim of his hat down over his forehead. Rowdy sniffed the ground at the horses’ feet. “You want some, right?”

Maggie grinned. “Oh, yeah. I want a houseful.”

Trace hadn’t noticed the tension in his shoulders until he heard those words. He relaxed and grinned right back. “Then I guess we’d better get started soon as we get home.”

Maggie laughed and nudged the little sorrel into a trot. “Looks like this ride is going to be shorter than I thought.”

Trace’s grin widened and Rowdy barked. As the morning sun broke over the horizon, he nudged his horse forward and came up beside her. Together they rode into the glorious future that dawned ahead of them.

I hope you enjoyed Trace and Maggie in
Against the Storm,
the fourth book in my Raines of Wind Canyon series. The novels, all tales of contemporary romantic suspense, began with the Raines brothers, Jackson, Gabriel and Devlin, in
Against the Wind, Against the Fire
and
Against the Law
.

In the next book,
Against the Night,
Trace’s friend Johnnie Riggs, who first appeared in
Against the Law,
gets a chance to find love with a sexy little blonde schoolteacher posing as a stripper to find her sister, who has disappeared without a trace. Amy Brewer is willing to do whatever it takes to enlist John Riggs’s aid—even if it means giving in to his determined seduction.

It’s a tale of romance and high adventure that leads to true love. I hope you’ll watch for
Against the Night,
the next book in the series.

Till then, all best wishes and happy reading.

Kat