Emmett (9 page)

He bent and nuzzled his mouth over her breast, feeling her instant response, hearing her urgent cry.

It couldn't last. He was too hungry for her, and the risk grew by the minute. Finally he groaned and got to his feet, shivering a little with the effort.

“I'd better go home while I still can,” he mused wryly. “Don't get up. And try not to faint. I'm going to turn on the light.”

She would have protested at the beginning, but it didn't matter now. He knew her almost as well as a lover.

The light came on and she lay there, letting him look at her. The briefs he'd stripped from her were tossed onto the foot of the bed. There was nothing between her and his narrow, hungry green eyes.

“I hope you don't believe in divorce,” he said in a faintly strangled tone. “Because you'd have to change your name and move to the jungle to escape me.”

She stretched deliberately, glorying in the growing tautness of his lean, fit body. She could imagine how it was going to feel grinding into hers, and her lips parted on a rush of breath.

“That goes double for you,” she whispered. “You'll belong to me, too, when we're married.”

“It's more than desire for you, isn't it?” he asked quietly.

“Yes.”

He searched her eyes. “For me, too, Melody,” he replied. “It's more than enough to start with. I'll arrange the ceremony for next Saturday.”

“All right.”

“I'll make sure I've got what we need to keep you from getting pregnant right away,” he added.

“I can see the doctor and get him to put me on the pill,” she began.

He sat down on the bed beside her, his eyes troubled. He drew the cover over her prone body with a rueful, reluctant smile. “Too much temptation can kill even a strong man,” he said dryly. The smile faded. “Listen, I know the pill is pretty foolproof, and everybody says it's safe. But I feel uncomfortable about letting you take chances with your health.”

“If I don't take the pill… Well, I've heard that some men don't like using what they have to use,” she said hesitantly.

He touched her face tenderly. “Well, I'm not
some
men,” he replied honestly, “And I believe pregnancy shouldn't be an accident.”

“I know.” She traced his hand where it lay on the cover beside her head. “The kids will need time, too, to get used to me before we start creating new complications.”

“In the meanwhile, I can take care of it.”

“If you're that worried about the pill, you can come with me and talk to the doctor yourself,” she said. “There are other ways.”

“How do you feel about it?” he asked.

She flushed and averted her eyes.

He turned her face back. “It's too serious an issue to evade because of modesty. How do you feel about it?”

She searched his hard face. “I'm not afraid to take the pill. I don't think it's so risky. And I want to be…very,
very close to you when we love each other,” she said huskily. “As close as we can get when we fit together.”

His face went ruddy. He actually shivered.

“Oh, Emmett, I want you…!” She drew him down and kissed him with helpless urgency, feeling him throw off the covers as he levered himself over her. His knee urged her legs apart and he slid between them, shaking as he pushed down, letting her feel him in total intimacy.

He groaned harshly, his body stilling suddenly as the danger of the situation cut through his desire for her.

Her body was new to pleasure and hungry for it. He understood her headlong rush toward it, but he had to protect her from a danger she still didn't understand.

“Lie still. Lord, baby, please…!”

His hands forced her a few inches away from his tormented body. She moaned, but he persisted. “Melody, it hurts me.” He ground out the words.

She lay still, curious. Her big eyes found the pallor of his face even as she felt him tremble.

“Hurts?” she asked uncertainly.

He dragged her hand up against him. “Here,” he said huskily. “It hurts like hell. You've got to stop moving against me. All right?”

“Yes.” But she didn't move her hand, even when his withdrew. She moved back a little and looked down with open curiosity.

He saw her expression and sighed heavily. “All right. Here.”

He rolled over onto his back and lay there, stoically letting her look and touch and experience him. He shivered a little, but her touch soothed more than it wounded.

She drew away almost at once, embarrassed by her own boldness, and smiled at him.

He threw the coverlet at her. She understood without words, wrapping herself up in it to remove the threat with a wicked smile on her face.

“Witch,” he accused.

“You liked it,” she said right back.

He stretched, winced and put his hands under his head while he studied her. His body began to relax, but slowly.

“When you're through having anatomy lessons, I'll leave,” he said pointedly.

Her eyebrows lifted. “You call this an anatomy lesson?” she asked with mock surprise. “When I'm totally nude and you're lying there with all your clothes on?”

“I'm modest,” he informed her.

She pursed her lips and stared at his jeans. “Take them off. I dare you.”

He laughed with pure delight. “No! Damn it, woman, have you no shame?”

“Shame is for people who don't want to have sex with other people.” She leaned closer, fanning the coverlet between her breasts. “I'm famished!” she whispered with a mock leer.

He chuckled at her uninhibited display. “Come here, you torment.”

He pulled her down and kissed her, but with slow, sweet tenderness, not passion. “I adore you,” he whispered. “And I take it back about the jungle. If you ever want to get away from me, it had better be Mars.”

“I'll keep that in mind.” She kissed him back. “I really don't mind taking the pill.”

He nodded. “It's your body. It has to be your decision.”
He smiled ruefully. “Having just discovered you, I don't want to risk losing you.”

That made her feel warm all over. “You won't,” she said softly. She pushed back his thick, dark hair. “Can I love you?”

He threw his arms out to either side and closed his eyes. “Go ahead.”

She hit him. “You know what I mean.”

He searched her face for a long moment. “You're serious.”

“Yes.” She traced his chin and then his mouth as her eyes levered back up to hold his.

He smoothed his hands over her shoulders, under the coverlet, savoring her magnolia-petal skin. “Love is important to a woman, isn't it?” he asked with faint cynicism.

“It's important to most men, too,” she said softly. Her eyes were warm and steady, without deceit. “I'm going to love you anyway. I just thought it would be polite to ask. But if you're going to be difficult about it, just pretend you don't notice that I'm crazy about you.”

He sighed and smiled. “It would be pretty difficult to miss. Even your breasts blush when I look at you.”

“They do not… Emmett!”

She made a grab for the cover, but it was too late. “See?” he asked, nodding toward the faint ruddy color below her collarbone. But the smile faded almost at once. He touched her reverently. “You are so incredibly lovely,” he whispered, almost choking on the emotion he felt. He closed his eyes and dragged himself off the bed. “I have to go. Now. Immediately. Without delay.”

She had to fight back a smile at his desperate look. She pulled the cover back around her and got up, looking so smug that he glowered at her.

“Proud of yourself?” he muttered, blatantly aroused and with no way to hide it from the new wisdom in her twinkling brown eyes.

She glanced down and back up. “Yep,” she said, grinning.

He laughed defeatedly, shaking his head. “I'm out of here.”

“Until Saturday,” she reminded him pertly as she walked with him to the door. “After that, you're mine!”

“And you're mine,” he returned. He caught the door-knob and glanced down at her with quiet introspection, taking in her flushed face, her swollen mouth, her joy-filled eyes. His soul seemed to clench at the pleasure it gave him to want her.

She saw that tension and understood it. “I won't ever hurt you,” she said suddenly, dead serious. “But I'll love you until it hurts. If you really don't want that, you'd better say so now. Once I've lived with you, I honestly don't know if I can let go…”

He pressed his fingers against her lips. “You won't have to,” he said quietly. “Love doesn't come with money-back guarantees. It's a risk. We'll take it together.”

“All right.”

He sighed gently, and he smiled at her. “Sleep well.”

“No, I won't,” she said.

“Neither will I.” His eyes darkened. “I do want you so desperately,” he said huskily, emotion throbbing in his voice.

“Then stay with me,” she invited quietly.

“I want to,” he said fervently. “But we'll do things properly. Not for our sakes, but for the children's. A
white wedding may be old-fashioned in this unstructured society, but I want one for us.”

She smiled at him. “So do I. But I'd do anything for you.”

Incredible, the burst of inner light he felt at the words. He smiled, a little dazedly as he let it ripple through him. “Anything?” he murmured.

She studied him. “Well, almost anything. I wouldn't kiss a snake or eat a chocolate-covered ant for you.”

He bent and kissed her quickly. “Okay. No kissing snakes and eating ants. Now good night!”

“Good night.”

He winked at her and went out the door. She locked it behind him. On second thought, she mused privately, if it wasn't a venomous snake, and she could keep her eyes closed while she kissed it…

 

Emmett had just finished arranging the small service when Guy came into his office, his hands in his back pockets, looking repentant but still belligerent.

“Well?” Emmett asked curtly.

Guy's thin shoulders rose and fell. “I'm sorry,” he said stiffly.

“For what?”

“What I said. The way I acted.” Guy stared at the floor. “My mom really won't come back?”

“No.”

He took a slow, audible breath before he glanced at his father. “But she didn't go away because of me?”

“Of course not,” Emmett said. “She loves all you kids. If you want to know, I wouldn't let her near you after she left,” he confessed heavily. “I was wrong, too. Dead wrong. If you want to see her, talk to her, it's all right.”

Guy didn't say anything for a minute. “Melody hates me, doesn't she?”

“No. It isn't in her nature to hate people,” Emmett said quietly. “But you haven't gone out of your way to endear yourself to her, either.”

“Yeah. She won't forget about the cat, I guess.”

“If you meet her halfway, it won't matter at all,” Emmett said. “You have to compromise. I'm a hell of a bad teacher, in that respect, but I'm learning. We'll both have to learn.”

“Okay. I'll try.”

Emmett smiled. “And you might reconsider getting used to the business side of ranch work,” he added.

Guy shrugged. “I guess I could.” He glanced warily at his father. Emmett looked pretty different lately. He looked happy.

“Things going better at school, are they?”

“Since I beat up Buddy Haskell, they're going great,” Guy said simply.

“You what?”

“He made a remark about smelly ranchers who walk around all day in cow…well, in manure.” Guy corrected himself, grinning. “He said you smelled like that, so I pasted him one. The teacher was too busy talking to the other teachers to even notice.” He chuckled. “He told her he walked into a door.”

Emmett looked skyward. “Now, listen, here…”

“Homework to do,” Guy said quickly. “Have to get on it, right now. I'm helping Polk with fractions.” He frowned. “Isn't it amazing that he can do multiplication in his head but he can't add a fourth and a half?”

“He'll be a rocket scientist one day,” Emmett replied.

“God help us if he can't do fractions by then,” Guy
mused. He left his father sitting there and went to get his books.

Emmett felt a glimmer of hope that Guy would change his attitude. If Guy came around, it would be clear sailing for sure. Except that Adell was pregnant, and he should have told the boy. Well, there was no need, and plenty of time for him to find it out. Plenty of time, now.

T
he wedding was held at the local Methodist church. Ted Regan came down for it, and so did Tansy, Logan and Kit Deverell. Amy was flower girl and Polk carried the rings on a pillow. Guy sat stiffly on the pew reserved for family, having declined belligerently any sort of participation in the wedding.

Despite the talk he'd had with his father, he'd still hoped that his mother might come along at the last minute and stop the service, say that she was wrong, that she loved his father and wanted to marry him again. But it didn't happen. Nobody wanted him, he thought suddenly. His mother had run away and never even phoned or written, and now his dad wanted somebody's company besides his. He glanced at his brother and sister, so radiant at the thought of their new stepmother. He'd have to make the most of it. He was sorry that he'd made
things so hard for Melody. He hoped that his dad was right, and she didn't have a vengeful nature.

As he watched, Emmett spoke the words, put the ring on Melody's finger and lifted her short veil. He looked at her for a long, long time before he finally bent and kissed her. It was the gentlest kiss she'd ever had from him, one of respect and affection and delight. She gave it back in the same way, brimming with joy.

After the service, Ted Regan stopped long enough to congratulate them. Having heard him called “old man Regan,” Melody's first glimpse of him was a surprise. He wasn't old, but he did have prematurely silver hair, a great shock of it, combed to one side. He had pale blue eyes and a long, lean, very tanned face. He reminded her of the actor, Randolph Scott, an impression that was emphasized when he spoke in a slow Texas drawl.

“Can't say I've ever wanted to marry anybody,” Ted mused, “but I guess it's all right for some people. Best of luck. Don't even think about going back to San Antonio,” he added as he shook Emmett's hand and his blue eyes glittered like cold steel. “I'll hunt you down and drag you back here at the end of a rope if you even try. You've accomplished more in a month than any other foreman I've hired accomplished in a year. I'll even give you a half interest in the place if that's what it takes to keep you.”

Emmett felt a foot taller. Marrying Melody was delight enough, but praise from tight-lipped Ted Regan was something of a rarity and accepted with pride.

“Thanks,” Emmett told the other man, who was as tall and fit as he was himself, despite the fact that Ted was almost forty years old. “I like my job a lot. I can't think of anything that would make me quit at the moment.” He frowned. “Maybe if a cow fell in the well…”

“I don't think you could stuff a calf down that well-head,” Ted reminded him. “Unless it was cooked and ground up.”

“Point taken. I'll stay for a spell.”

“Good.” He clamped his white Stetson back on his head and tilted it at a rakish angle. “I'm off to Colorado for the national cattlemen's meeting. More damned politics than horses in the industry these days.” He walked off, shaking his head.

“He's never married? Really?” Melody asked her new husband as she watched the tall man walk away.

“They say there isn't a woman in south Texas brave enough,” Emmett said under his breath. “He's very pleasant in company, but he can scorch leather when he's upset. We've got two old cowboys who hide in the barn every time he stops by to check the books!”

“You don't,” she implored.

He chuckled, drawing her against his side as they moved lazily toward the car where the kids were waiting. “Oh, Ted and I get along pretty well. Peas in a pod, you know.” He glanced at her mischievously. “Or didn't you know that I can scorch leather, too, on occasion?”

She leaned closer. “I'll settle for having you scorch me tonight,” she whispered.

He drew in a breath. “Lady, that kind of talk will get you ravished on the hood of the car,” he said with an uncomfortable look. “Shame on you, saying such things to a man, and near a church, too!”

“No better place for it,” she said gently. “We're married. With my body, I thee worship…?” She wiggled her hand with the plain gold band she'd asked for on her third finger under his nose.

“Shameless,” he repeated.

“Yes. And tonight you'll be on your knees giving thanks that I am,” she said smugly.

He glanced at her. “You'll be the one on your knees, begging for mercy.”

She grinned at him. “Promise?” She wiggled her eyebrows.

He laughed out loud and hugged her. Probably she was bluffing, but he didn't mind at all. He'd never been so happy in all his life. Except for Guy's attitude, he amended, watching the boy's faintly reticent stare as they approached him.

Guy's face set in familiar lines, unsmiling and resentful, and Emmett lost his temper at that look, not realizing that Guy was nervous and intimidated because he wanted to congratulate them but was uncertain of the reaction he was going to get from Melody.

Emmett wasn't about to let the boy put a damper on Melody's wedding day. Best way to avoid trouble was with a good strong offensive, he thought. “Put a sock in it,” he told Guy when he opened his mouth to speak. “Or you can go and pay a visit to that military school we've talked about.”

Melody was shocked at the threat and the expression it produced on Guy's face.

She started to protest, but Emmett stopped her.

“I've given you more rope than you've earned,” he told Guy coldly. “I won't plead with you anymore. Melody is my wife. If you can't accept that, a good private school is the best answer. I enjoyed it. You might, too.”

Guy's pallor was obvious. He swallowed. “I don't want to go away to school,” he said heavily.

“That's your only other option,” Emmett said.

Guy's head lifted with what pride he could manage.
“I'm ready to go home when you are.” He glanced at Melody and away. “Congratulations,” he said in a ghostly tone, and turned to get into the backseat with an excited Amy and Polk.

Melody's heart ached for his wounded pride. “Oh, Emmett…!” she moaned.

He averted his gaze from her pleading eyes. “Some boys take a firm hand,” he said curtly. “I've been too lenient with all three of them, and they've gone wild. It's never pleasant to get the upper hand back once you've lost it.” He looked at her. “I won't hurt the boy. I won't send him away unless I have to. But you must see that allowing him to persecute you and dictate to me is impossible. He's only eleven years old.”

“I know. But…”

He bent and kissed her gently. “It will take time. We both knew that from the beginning. Stop trying to gulp down the future. We haven't begun.”

“All right. I'll try.”

She wasn't going to give up, though. She'd wait until he was less tense and then approach him about Guy. She really couldn't let him send the boy away before she'd even tried to make friends with him. It was Guy's home as well as Emmett's and hers. The look on the boy's face haunted her.

They took the kids home and a beaming Mrs. Jenson congratulated them while Melody changed into a simple gray dress for travel. They were going to have a three-day honeymoon down in Cancún. The kids were bitterly disappointed that they couldn't go, but Melody promised Amy and Polk that they'd go as a family very soon. Amy had remarked that she guessed newly married people did need a little time alone. A remark that sent Emmett into gales of laughter.

Guy didn't speak to his father. Melody stopped just in front of him as Emmett was saying goodbye to the other kids.

“He won't do it” was all she said. She smiled. “It will be all right, you know.”

Guy was shocked. He couldn't even speak. He hadn't expected her to say anything to him after the way he'd treated her. Now he needed to talk, and he couldn't.

It was too late, anyway. She was gone, with his father.

“They look nice together, don't you think?” Amy asked with a sigh. She glared at Guy. “You're going to get it when Emmett gets back. You were awful at their wedding.”

“I'm not going to get it, but you are if you don't watch your mouth,” Guy said, daring her.

“Will you two stop fighting? Look, Alistair likes to play with a string!” Polk called, dangling a string while the cat played with it.

The big tabby was staying at the ranch, and Mrs. Jenson had ironclad orders not to let him out. Guy went to stand by Polk and Amy while he watched the cat. He hoped Alistair had a forgiving nature, as well as Melody, or things could get real hectic here.

 

Cancún was a vision. The colors of the sea and the blistering white of the beach, the modern Mexican architecture with exaggerated Mayan motifs made a potpourri of images that Melody found fascinating. She'd been to Mexico before, but never to this particular part of it. Despite the crowd of tourists, she drank in the atmosphere with delight.

Emmett looked good in white swimming trunks. She admired his long, tanned legs with covetous eyes, not to
mention his broad, hair-matted chest and arms and flat stomach. He was delicious, and a lot of other women seemed to think so, because they kept walking by with their flabby, white-skinned husbands, staring unashamedly at him.

“One more time, lady, and I'm going to leap up and crown you with my tanning lotion,” Melody muttered under her breath.

“What was that?” Emmett asked without opening his eyes.

“That skinny brunette. She keeps walking by, leering at you.”

“My, my, are you
jealous?
” he teased.

She stared at him without blinking. “Why don't you go back to the room with me and find out?”

His heart began to beat wildly. “We've only been here an hour or so. I thought you might be too tired,” he said gently.

She shook her head very slowly. Her long hair was loosened, blowing softly in the ocean breeze. She searched his green eyes. “I want you,” she whispered.

His body reacted sharply and he laughed with self-conscious delight. “Damn it, woman…!”

“Recite multiplication tables,” she whispered with a gleeful smile.

He glared at her. “You'd better have packed something that prevents multiplication, because I forgot to.”

“I did.” She'd decided on the pill, despite his objections, because she felt it was the safest way to prevent a child until they were ready. She stood up, holding out her hand. “I've waited twenty years,” she murmured dryly. “I do hope you're going to be worth it.”

He got to his feet, his pale eyes shimmering with a
kind of knowledge that made her blush. “Honey, I can guarantee it.”

He took her hand and they went back to the room in a tense, delicious silence.

 

She went straight into his arms the minute the door closed, determined not to admit that she was nervous of him this way. It was broad daylight, but waiting until tonight would have inhibited both of them. Besides, she thought as she lifted her face to look at him, she loved him. It would be all right, as long as he didn't compare her with any of his past lovers. She hoped that she was going to be enough for him, because despite her bravado, she felt vaguely inadequate.

But that fear was quickly forgotten when he bent to kiss her, and the heat of his body and the skill of his mouth and hands turned her nervous response into sensual fever.

He eased her onto the bed and very efficiently moved everything out of his way, so that her nude body was cradled to his in the slow preliminary to their first loving.

“Shh,” he whispered when she began to writhe and pull at him. “Not so fast, little one. Don't gulp it. Sip it. Slow down.”

“It aches,” she whispered unsteadily as his mouth teased and tormented hers. “I ache all over.”

“So do I,” he said on soft, unsteady laughter. “But we're building to one hell of an explosion, and it's too soon for you, despite what you think. No, don't touch me like that, not yet,” he said softly, stilling her hand. “This is all for you. My turn will come later, when I've satisfied you to the tips of your pretty pink toes. Kiss me, sweetheart.”

He coaxed her mouth back up to his and his hands moved again, tasting her body as his mouth tasted her lips, and then settled hungrily on her breasts and her soft, flat stomach, experiencing, exploring her, making her crazy for his possession.

“I can't…bear it…!” she whimpered finally, anguish in her wide, haunted eyes. “Oh, please…!”

“All right,” he whispered tenderly, moving over her. “Gently, little one,” he breathed. “Gently, gently.”

He held her firmly, his face above hers, his muscular body cording as he positioned her and began to move down. He was afraid of hurting her, even as it excited him beyond bearing to be her first lover. But she didn't flinch, didn't fight. She lay there, shivering, her eyes open and fixed with pain and wonder on his taut face as he invaded the sweet, warm softness of her innocence and was slowly, painstakingly engulfed by it.

She flinched and he grimaced, stilling until she relaxed again. He could barely breathe. “Is it bad?” he managed to ask.

“It was. It's not now.” She closed her eyes and willed her body to accept him. And it did, abruptly, and generously. She let out a long sigh of relief.

He moved as close as he could then, fighting a hellish surge of tense pleasure that begged for relief.

“It doesn't hurt anymore,” she whispered shyly. Imagine, talking to a man while you were doing this!

“That's what you think,” he groaned.

“Oh, Emmett,” she breathed. She lifted to him, watching him shiver. She liked his reaction. She felt suddenly confident, all woman. She lifted again. He protested, but he didn't try to stop her. His face clenched and he breathed roughly. She loved him. It was going to be so beautiful.

“Witch!” he groaned.

“Do you like it?” she teased, moving sensually.