Carol Finch (15 page)

Rafe swore under his breath as he watched Karissa weave around the wagons and carriages that filled the street. Damn it, that woman was too proud and independent to accept assistance. He didn’t fault her for that, knowing she had grown up the hard way, but it still frustrated him no end to see her gallivanting about without a chaperone.

Grumbling, Rafe headed toward the deputy marshal’s tent to sort through the complaints then halted abruptly. Struck by sudden impulse, he reversed direction and jogged across the street to tend to his errand.

Karissa was exceptionally cautious during her jaunt back to the homestead. She kept expecting Arliss or one of his ruffians to leap from the shadows of the trees and pounce on her for pure spite. Thankfully, however, she arrived home in one piece. To her dismay, Clint was trying to hitch up the mule to the plow, preparing to break ground.

“I’ll take care of that,” Karissa insisted as she slid off her horse. “You go sit down and stay off your leg.”

“No,” Clint muttered. “You’ve been carrying the lion’s share of responsibility and I want to do my part.”

When Amanda exited the tent, Karissa hitched her thumb toward Clint. “Will you please talk some sense into your husband?”

“I tried,” Amanda grumbled. “You can see how successful I was.” She dug into the pocket of her dress then opened her palm. “I did, however, sell a keg of water to travelers. They were very grateful for the spring water.”

Income. Good. They could use every penny they
could get. Karissa smiled approvingly at Amanda before turning her disgruntled frown on Clint. “Working the ground will get done twice as fast if I do it,” she insisted. “You can put your strength to use by going down to the creek to fell trees. We can use the lumber to construct the cabin.”

“Fine,” Clint scowled. “I’ll take the ax and you take the mule and plow. But I swear, Kari, this is damn hard on my male pride. I was hoping to take care of
you
for a change.”

Karissa smiled fondly at her sulking brother as he hobbled over to retrieve the ax. Together Amanda and Clint walked toward the creek, leaving Karissa to follow the mule around in circles, stumbling over the upturned earth.

Despite the long hours and exhausting labor, Karissa savored the smell of freshly turned earth beneath her feet. To her, it was the scent and symbol of success. This was Baxter land and she had the deed to prove it. They owned something of value for the first time in their lives. They had a place to put down roots and to call home.

Although she wouldn’t intrude in Clint and Amanda’s lives indefinitely, she would have a place to return to, a place that would always feel like home to her. That was something, she consoled herself as she wiped the beads of perspiration from her brow and urged the mule to quicken its pace.

Rafe managed to dodge Vanessa after he returned to the fort to catch up on his duties. She still hadn’t caught the stagecoach and she kept insisting that he would come to his senses when the activity in the new territory died down. Rafe held the hope that Vanessa would give
up and go home, once she accepted the fact that he wasn’t interested in marriage.

It had been three days since he had watched Karissa square off against Arliss in Reno City, and, as a precaution, Rafe had sent Micah to the homestead to check up on the struggling family. Rafe had snorted in disbelief when Micah informed him that Karissa was plowing the field like a farmhand while Clint and Amanda were hitching logs behind the mare and dragging them to the construction site for their cabin.

Was there nothing that woman refused to do? Rafe wondered as he finished double-checking the duty roster for the following day. After impulsively asking Micah to cover for him, he swung by his room for a moment then hurried to the stables to saddle Sergeant. He cantered through the gate and headed southeast at a fast clip. He needed to see for himself that Karissa hadn’t worked herself into an early grave by assuming farm duties and only God knows what else.

When he arrived at the Baxter homestead, he noticed two silhouettes moving about in the lighted tent. He dismounted and tied his horse to the corral then went in search of Karissa. When he noticed the glow of a campfire near the creek, he headed in that direction. He found an unoccupied camp and a pallet stretched out on the ground, and he swore foully.

Damn that woman! She was forsaking her own protection and comfort by giving Clint and Amanda privacy. If it had occurred to him that she might set up her own camp, out of earshot of the homestead, he would have dragged a canvas tent from the supply hut at the fort and insisted she use it.

Rafe pricked his ears when he heard singing in the distance. Primed to scold Karissa for braving the wilds
by herself, he went in search of the source of that voice. He stopped in his tracks when he realized Karissa was bathing in midstream.

A smile pursed his lips as he tiptoed toward the clothes that were draped over the underbrush. He snatched up the clothes, unwrapped the package he had brought with him and left the new garment in plain sight.

When he caught a glimpse of feminine flesh glistening with water droplets, his knees threatened to fold up beneath him. This woman, who’d had the starring role in his fantasies for weeks, was bare naked in the stream. Rafe couldn’t help himself. He looked his fill while she paddled around, singing some ditty that she had obviously heard while sweeping floors in some nameless saloon in some nameless cow town.

Rafe sighed in appreciation when the full moon glinted over her skin and he caught a peek of her rounded bottom before she dived beneath the water. When she resurfaced his absolute attention focused on her full breasts. Rafe swallowed with a strangled gulp.

Ah, what he wouldn’t give to join her in the stream and map the lush curves and silky textures of her body until he knew her by touch, by memory.

Before he succumbed to the secret fantasy, he turned away and forced himself to walk back to her camp, but the enchanting sight of Karissa frolicking like a siren in the stream still danced in his head. It was impossible to divert his attention to something else.

Rafe sank down cross-legged beside the campfire and waited for Karissa to appear. But she didn’t. Instead he heard a shriek in the distance. Rafe was on his feet in a flash, imagining all sorts of disaster that might have befallen her while she was undressed and unarmed.

Pistol drawn, Rafe plowed through the underbrush to see Karissa clutching the sunflower-yellow gown he had purchased for her against her bare body.

Wide-eyed, Karissa gaped at him as she held the dress modestly to her chest. “How?” she croaked out.

Rafe reholstered his weapon and smiled. “I noticed that you exited the boutique so I inquired inside and Gertie pointed out the gown you favored.”

“And you bought it for me? Why?” she asked, incredulous. “No one has ever given me a gift before, and certainly not one so expensive. Why did you do that?”

It damned near broke his heart to learn that no one had given this remarkable woman much of anything. Furthermore, the gown wasn’t all that expensive, but Karissa was staring down at it as if were spun gold.

“Put it on,” he insisted.

Karissa shook her damp head. “Give me my own clothes. I’m taking this back to Gertie’s Boutique, first chance I get.”

“It’s a gift, Rissa, I want you to keep it,” he insisted.

“I cannot accept a gift from you,” she grumbled.

“Why not?”

“You know perfectly well why not.”

“I do?” he said stupidly.

“Of course, you do. You’re getting married, if you aren’t already.”

“No, I’m not,” he informed her. “Didn’t Micah tell you?”

“No, and I didn’t ask. Why aren’t you?” she questioned.

“Well,” he said, “I can’t very well marry one woman when I can’t keep my hands off another, now can I?”

Karissa was so astonished that her arms sagged before she remembered she was naked. Quickly she pulled the
gown under her chin to cover herself. Was he saying that he had canceled his wedding because of
her?
Surely not. That was wishful thinking on her part.

When Rafe moved deliberately toward her, Karissa all but stopped breathing. His silver-gray eyes burned like brands on her exposed flesh. For the life of her, she couldn’t think of one thing to say when he reached out to trail a lean finger over her bare shoulder.

“I’ve changed my mind,” he said with a devilish grin. “I want the dress back. Now. Give it to me, Rissa.”

Flustered, she clutched the gown closer. “You know perfectly well that I can’t give it back
now.
I don’t have any clothes on.”

His index finger skimmed her neck then traced the curve of her lips. “I know,” he whispered huskily. “That’s why I want the dress back. I want to know if the reality of seeing you naked is as erotic as my dreams.”

When his dark head angled toward hers and his lips claimed her mouth, she felt living fire coil deep inside her. And when his arm slid around her waist, drifting over her bare flesh her pulse thundered like a racehorse.

There was no fighting the obsessive desire that one kiss and one touch aroused inside her. She had never wanted a man the way she wanted Rafe. She had never allowed any man to wield power or control over her, but the way he made her feel when she was in his arms demanded willing surrender.

Karissa glided her arms around his neck and gave herself up to the scalding heat of his kiss, the tantalizing feel of his prowling hands moving, unhindered, over her flesh. When he pulled her full length against him she became aware of his rigid arousal.

“I want you, Rissa,” he murmured against her lips. “This time I want all you have to give. If that’s not what you want, then say so now, because in another minute I won’t be able to find the noble restraint to turn and walk away.”

He pressed another searing kiss to her lips then said, “And knowing how wary and suspicious you are, don’t you dare think I gave you that dress in exchange for favors. That has nothing to do with this.”

He looked so determined to be believed that she smiled up at him. “And so, if I said I want you to let me go and return to my camp, you would go? Just like that?”

Rafe gritted his teeth, eased his fierce grip on her and nodded. “If that’s what you want.”

No one had cared much about what she wanted. Until Rafe. If she hadn’t fallen in love with him already, she
would have
the moment he stepped away and allowed her to cling modestly to the frilly dress. He was offering her a choice and accepting her decision. My, wasn’t that something?

Without a word he turned and strode away. Hurriedly Karissa pulled the dress over her head and smoothed it into place. Although it was too dark to see how she looked in the gown, it made her feel wondrous. Not as wondrous as Rafe’s kisses made her feel, but nothing, she had discovered, remotely compared to that.

Karissa stared toward the glowing light of her campfire and made her decision. She knew she wasn’t a woman of quality and she would never be considered good enough to be Rafe’s wife. Not that he had asked. But she wanted him. She wanted to experience the close
ness that Clint and Amanda shared and she was tired of being alone…and tired of pretending she didn’t care.

Resolved, but a mite nervous, Karissa trekked through the trees and underbrush to return to camp—and to the man who awaited her arrival.

R
afe glanced up from where he sat on Karissa’s pallet when she halted a few feet away from him. He feasted his eyes on the vision of lively beauty before him and felt hot chills slide down his spine. Lord, sometimes when he looked at her it took his breath away.

This was definitely one of those times.

Smiling saucily, she spun in a circle. “So what do you think, General? Do I look presentable?”

Rafe smiled appreciatively as his gaze swept from the top of her curly red head to her bare feet. God, she was something. She had always reminded him of a pixie or leprechaun with that pint-sized body of hers, that magical spirit that just wouldn’t quit. But the dress emphasized her beauty and accentuated her curves. She was like the personification of radiance and he would gladly give his rank, pay and commission if he could sink into her dazzling heat.

“You look more than presentable, Rissa,” he wheezed. “You look positively enchanting.”

When she smiled in response to his compliment, Rafe was prepared to swear that the sun had suddenly burst into the night sky, bathing him in its warmth. He had
been clutching at self-restraint for the past half hour, but it evaporated when she smiled and those mesmerizing green eyes twinkled.

There was no doubt about it. Karissa had captivated him and he wanted her so desperately that he was very nearly shaking with it.

“As good as you look, Rissa,” he murmured as he met her gaze directly, “you look even better wearing nothing at all.”

To his surprise she came toward him then knelt on the pallet. She looped her arms over his shoulders and brought her lips a hairbreadth from his. “Now you can have the dress back,” she whispered, her eyes dancing with challenge, “providing I can have your uniform. I don’t want either of us to be wearing anything at all.”

Desire slammed into him like a doubled fist. He wanted to rip the gown off her body and make a feast of her, but it was the finest thing she owned and he wasn’t about to damage it. As he closed the scant distance between them to claim her lips, he hooked his forefinger inside the bodice of the dress and drew it down.

He felt her tremble and heard her sigh as he dipped his head to flick at her nipple with the tip of his tongue. Carefully but swiftly he divested her of the dress and chuckled in amusement when she practically ripped the shoulder seam from his jacket in an attempt to get him out of it.

“Easy, wildcat,” he teased as he leaned away to shed his jacket and shirt. “I’ll have a difficult time explaining why my uniform is torn to shreds when I return to the fort.”

Her eyes focused on his chest as he turned back to her. The instant her hand made disturbing contact with
his bare flesh, throbbing heat coiled inside him. She was tormenting him to the extreme with her tantalizing explorations, bringing him another step closer to the crumbling edge of control.

Rafe knew, right there and then, that he would never last if he allowed her to touch him freely. It had been too long since he had been with a woman, and the want of this particular woman had been driving him just short of crazy for weeks. He wanted to fulfill every erotic fantasy that had been interrupting his sleep.

He drew her down to the pallet and kissed her hungrily. All the while, his hands roamed and kneaded her silky flesh. Her muffled moan fascinated him, caused his male body to clench in answering response. He longed to draw more sounds of pleasure from her, longed to arouse her to the limits of
her
sanity because he’d already lost
his.
Being with her like this was enough drive him right out of his mind.

“Rafe? Oh, my—”

Her voice trailed off when he brushed his thumb over the rigid peak of her nipple. Splinters of fire pricked her skin. Karissa struggled to draw breath as he focused intently on her and caressed her until she was trembling with sensual anticipation. His wandering hand drifted over her belly and glided over the sensitive flesh of her inner thigh. Need quivered inside her, fanning out in all directions at once.

When her lashes fluttered down and she moaned softly, Rafe whispered, “Look at me, Rissa, I want you to watch me touch you. I need to know that my every touch pleasures you. I want to learn all the ways you like to be touched.”

Her long, curly lashes swept up and she looked him straight in the eye as he leaned down to take her lips in
an all-consuming kiss. He cupped her intimately, stroked her gently. He marveled at the way she arched toward him, and he was amazed at the starburst of pleasure he derived from bringing her luscious body to life in his hands. When he dipped his finger inside her to touch the moist heat of her desire he felt her tremble helplessly, heard her gasp when pleasure radiated through her body and echoed into his.

Rafe knew that caressing her intimately wasn’t going to be enough to satisfy him. He needed to taste her completely—though he had never before felt the desire to become so intimate with a woman. Being with Rissa wasn’t about scratching an itch or satisfying an urge. This was so much more, something that involved intense emotions as well as breathtaking sensations.

He nudged her thighs apart with his elbow and shifted to trace the velvety folds of her femininity with the tip of his tongue. When she gasped and moved instinctively toward him, so wildly responsive to his touch, he deepened the intimate kiss and felt her burn for him. With tongue and fingertip he brought her to the pinnacle of pleasure and felt her shimmering around him like liquid fire. When she came undone beneath his hands and lips, Rafe shifted above her.

She clawed impatiently at him, but damn it, he had been so caught up in pleasuring her that he hadn’t removed his breeches. He wanted to be inside her the moment she wanted him most—wanted to be flesh to heated flesh with her, seared by the flames of mutual desire.

One hand braced on the pallet, the other hand fumbling with the placket of his breeches, Rafe lowered his head and kissed her fervently. When he had finally freed his throbbing manhood and settled himself exactly
above her, he plunged urgently inside her…and encountered a barrier that he hadn’t expected.

His eyes snapped open and he stared into Karissa’s flushed face. He opened his mouth to say something—he didn’t know what. He was so stunned by the discovery of her innocence that he was struck speechless.

“I swear, Rafe,” she rasped as she hooked one leg around his hips, “if you go all gentlemanly on me now I’m going to strangle you. I didn’t wait this long to discover what passion was all about, just to stop when we’ve only started.” She peered up at him with such innocent curiosity that he almost laughed. “We
have
only started, haven’t we?”

“Oh yes,” he said, grinning—like an idiot, no doubt. “We’re just getting to the really good part.”

“It gets better?” she asked as she shifted beneath him, trying to adjust to the unfamiliar pressure of masculine invasion. “I can’t imagine how that’s possi—”

He moved against her then withdrew slightly, and Karissa felt the crescendo of incredible sensations build all over again. It astonished her that she could feel as if she were flying while Rafe clutched her so tightly to him, while he was buried so deeply inside her and pressing her to the pallet.

The ultimate paradox, she thought fleetingly. Passion so overwhelming and wondrously satisfying that even while she felt as if she were dying, she welcomed it, reveled in it, savored it.

As pleasure burgeoned, expanded and then exploded inside her, Karissa clung to him in spellbound amazement. The fevered ecstasy that had assailed her earlier came rushing back like a tidal wave. The blind rush of inexpressible bliss consumed her as the penetrating
thrust of his passionate need sent her into complete abandon.

She thought she might have cried out his name when he shuddered above her and phenomenal sensations dragged her into their swirling depths. But she wasn’t sure if that strangled sound had come from her or him. She was so oblivious to everything except the incredible sensations riveting her that nothing else registered in her dazed brain.

Gasping for breath, she held him possessively to her as aftershocks of sublime passion rippled through her body to his, and back again. Her hands glided over his broad shoulders, down the corded tendons of his back, to the muscle curve of his buttocks. She kissed the ridge of his cheek, his jaw, and his collarbone and felt contentment settle over her like a feather quilt.

Karissa smiled to herself as she melted against him and absently lifted her hands to stroke the expanse of his massive shoulders. This man might well be a decorated and competent military officer, but he had proved himself to be an amazingly gentle and attentive lover. He had given of himself to arouse and satisfy her beyond her wildest expectations.

Suffused with such feelings of lethargy, Karissa wondered if she would ever gather the energy to move again. Wondered if she would ever
want
to move again. She could lie here, happily, for the next few days in this boneless trance and never once complain.

“Come on,” Rafe murmured as he rolled away. “Come with me, Rissa.”

“I’m not sure I can get up,” she confessed. “I—”

Her voice evaporated when Rafe pulled her to her feet. She blushed in embarrassment when she found herself standing naked before him. Her blush got progres
sively worse when Rafe made a blatant study of her feminine body.

“Nudity becomes you,” he teased rakishly. “You wear it well.”

She was so flustered that she didn’t object when he grasped her hand and led her through the maze of trees to reach the trickling spring that cascaded over the stair steps of rocks to form a clear pool that glistened like silver in the moonlight.

When Rafe shed his breeches, picked her up and walked into the water, she clung to his neck. “What are we doing?” she asked.

“Bathing,” he said as his hands moved gently over her chilled flesh. “I bungled your first experience with passion rather badly. I assumed…well, never mind what I assumed. The point is we have no choice but to do it again.”

Karissa leaned away to stare into his shadowed face, noting his roguish grin. She adored this playful side of his personality—a side that had been ruthlessly overridden by the regimented discipline of military life.

“I think I’m being had, General,” she declared. “And just so you know, I thought the first time was rather grand.”

“You
are
being had,” he assured her, “and thank you, but this time is definitely going to be better.”

“You mean this time I get to put my hands all over you?” she asked brazenly, then grinned when he choked on his breath. “It seems only fair, you know.”

“Being the independent-minded woman you are, why am I not surprised that you demand equal time?”

“Beats me. You, of all people, know what I’m like. I’ve never deceived you. Well, except for that time when I tried to barter my body for my freedom.” She gazed
at him mischievously. “But I mistakenly presumed you were planning to take what you wanted from me for free and I damn well intended to get something out of it myself. Had I known what I have been missing, I definitely would have been more insistent that first night.”

Rafe laughed aloud then pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Will you stop yammering, Rissa. I have other things in mind to do with you at the moment and conversation isn’t on the list—”

His voice fizzled out when she dipped her hand below his waist and folded her fingers around his shaft. Despite the cool water, despite the fact that it had only been a few moments since he had been thoroughly sated, he felt himself swell in her hand.

The look of curious astonishment on her face was so endearing that he dropped a kiss to her parted lips. “You’ve had that effect on me since the first night we met.”

“I have?” She stroked his rigid length and grinned impishly. “I think I have just gained new appreciation for military officers who stand at attention.” Her voice dropped to a seductive purr. “And it is attention you shall have, General. In fact, I insist upon it.”

Rafe’s knees buckled as her hand glided over him. Lightning flickered through his body as she cupped him gently, inquisitively. Tormented pleasure sizzled through his nerve endings as she explored him with her fingertips, then traced her index finger around the tip of his throbbing manhood.

Fierce need left him staggering to maintain his balance. A tortured moan rumbled in his chest as she measured him from base to tip—repeatedly, more boldly with each gliding motion of her hand.

He’d had every intention of leading Karissa back to
the campsite, worshiping her luscious body with kisses and caresses and taking her gently this time. But desire clawed at him like sharp talons as she skimmed her lips over his mouth in petal-soft kisses and drew lazy circles on his aroused flesh. His blood ran so hot and heavy that he could feel his heart thudding against his ribs and his lungs shuddered in a frantic attempt to draw in much-needed air.

Her erotically tender assault had emptied his mind of all thought and filled him with incredible delight. Feeling was the only reality Rafe understood. There was only the stroke of her hand, the sweet pressure of her dewy lips upon his. He was living only through her touch, aware of nothing but the pulsating sensations that knotted in every fiber of his being. He was burning on a scalding-hot blaze that scorched all the way to his soul.

Rafe knew he would never make it to dry land before the compelling urgency to be inside her again consumed him. He was nine-tenths of the way there already. “I need you now. I can’t wait,” he growled as he hooked her legs around his hips and moved impatiently toward her.

“Who asked you to?” she whispered as she felt the hard, satin length of him filling her with pulsing heat.

Feminine satisfaction flooded over Karissa when she heard his panted breaths and rumbling groans. She felt his heart hammering against her breasts like a wild bird battling captivity. Now he understood how she had felt that first time when he’d sent her spiraling in reckless abandon. If she had ignited those same intense sensations in him that he had aroused in her then she would be content. Karissa needed to know that she held the power to devastate him the same way he had devastated her.