Loving Linsey (33 page)

It still infuriated her the way he and Addie had conspired against her, but he'd warned her of the consequences of her meddling. By pushing Daniel and Addie together, she'd nearly cost Addie the love of her life and saddled Daniel with a wife he never wanted. For that, she owed him an apology.

Again.

It seemed she was always apologizing to Daniel.

“I found my sister with Oren Potter tonight,”
she finally said, flinging another stone.

Daniel followed with an impressive triple skip of his own. “She loves him.”

“She told me.” Linsey looked over at him. He wasn't looking at her but at the shimmer of moonlight bridging across the water. “You've known all along, haven't you?”

“Pretty much.”

“And you never said anything.”

“It wasn't my place to say.”

“I feel like a fool,” she said. “Here I was, thinking she needed me to help her find someone who could make her happy. Turns out she didn't need me at all. She did it on her own.”

“You might try taking a lesson from the teacher. Be the one in charge of your own fate, instead of letting it be in charge of you.”

Linsey stared at the rippled glow across the creek's surface while emotions circled inside her like a tide pool. Fate. What a fickle creature it was. Giving. Taking. Teasing. Forbidding. So profoundly kind . . . Her gaze strayed to Daniel . . . So unbearably cruel.

She committed to memory every detail of the exasperating, arrogant, loveable man who had stolen her heart. The brooding tilt of his eyes. The proud angle of his nose. The stubborn slope of his jaw and the sensuous turn of his mouth.

He turned, and caught her watching him. The moment froze. Emotion swirled between them, captured like stardust on a moonbeam. Past and present merged into one, filling Linsey with a yearning so keen it nearly brought her to her knees.

Maybe he was right. She was so tired of dying. Tonight, she wanted to live. With Addie no longer between them, why squander another moment? She had so little time left.

She took one step forward, then another, and yet another until she stood before Daniel. With a boldness that surprised even her, Linsey reached for the narrow black tie he wore and worked it loose from its knot.

His hands gripped her wrists in a firm but tender hold. His lashes fell, coal fringes against tanned skin. “What are you doing, Linsey?”

“Taking charge of my own fate. I need you, Daniel. I have for months. And I think you've been needing me, too.”

He sucked in a swift breath. Desire equal to her own glittered in his eyes. “There's no going back after tonight.”

“No, there isn't. There's just now. Sometimes that's all we've got.” She slipped the tie from his neck and let it drop to the ground. “Will you share it with me?”

She felt his hesitation, his control. It tightened his body, battered at his control.

Finally his hands, Daniel's beautiful hands, smoothed their way up her arms to her shoulders, leaving goose bumps in their wake. His fingers curled into the ruffle of her sleeve.

And she knew beyond a doubt that the weeks of fighting this unruly attraction had finally reached an end.

With a tug to her sleeves, he slipped the gown off her shoulders. It shimmied down her body to pool at her feet like a satin cloud.

He drew back and his heavy, smoldering gaze raked her body.

One by one, he released the hooks of her stays. Her breathing quickened; her heart began an almost painful thump. Anticipation tightened her breasts as he peeled the corset away, then tossed it aside, leaving her to stand in only her petticoats, chemise, and her Token of Good Fortune. With one fingertip, he drew a line across the swell of her breast. It expanded at his touch, became eager and aching, straining against the flimsy cloth.

The first contact of his mouth at her collarbone made a shiver spiral down Linsey's spine. She closed her eyes, her mouth parted, and her senses filled with the scent of bay rum and cool moon and forbidden wishes. Yes, this was what she craved—for Daniel to awaken every nerve in her body, make her blood hum, and her head spin. Another kiss, moist and tender, to her neck, and another to the pulse beneath her ear, intensified the dizzying sensation.

She unfastened the buttons of his vest, then his shirt, revealing hard male chest inch by tantalizing inch. A tremor rocked through him as she peeled the fabric away. Dusky nipples went pebble hard as the cool night air caressed him. A thick, dark mat of hair on his chest narrowed into a thin line to his waistband, as if pointing the way to pleasure.

Linsey could only stare in awe at the sheer beauty of him.

Rolling his shoulders, Daniel helped her remove his shirt. It fell to the ground and he
stood before her, naked to the waist and glorious, kissed by moonlight and loved by the sweet Texas wind.

She flattened her palms against his supple skin, kissed the scorching flesh at his collarbone. Her hands, curious and bold, roamed down the flat, rippled muscles of his abdomen. They clenched, quivered, filling Linsey with a power that made her smile in wicked delight.

“Witch,” he whispered.

She tossed her head. “Wretch.”

He smiled that dimpled smile that had been melting hearts all over Henderson county for the last decade. Then he covered her mouth in a soul-searing kiss. Linsey's knees went weak. She curled her arms around his neck to drag him closer, even as he swept her against the powerful breadth of his chest.

She felt him guide her to the ground, dimly aware of him spreading his coat beneath her back just before he laid her upon the warm wool and covered her body with his own.

The kiss grew hotter, harder, deeper.

Consumed by the fever of Daniel, Linsey met his open-mouthed assault with a hunger of her own, twining her tongue around his, plunging her fingers through his silky hair, gently scoring his scalp, until nothing mattered but tangled hair—tangled tongues—tangled desires.

Daniel pulled back. Linsey gasped for breath. Their gazes met, and in the dark
depths Linsey recognized his hunger, for she felt it, too.

He tugged at the ribbon of her chemise. She shivered, a hot, delicious shiver of eagerness for him to quit this torment and touch her. When he did, she thought she'd died and been launched to paradise. Dragging the folds of her chemise aside, his mouth pressed moist, scalding kisses to the sensitive flesh of first one breast, then the other. His breath teased her nipple; his tongue flicked over the distended bud. Linsey closed her eyes and bit her bottom lip to keep from crying out. Just when she didn't think she could bear the sweet torture any longer, his mouth closed over her, drawing her breast inside.

“Daniel!”

Oh, God! She'd thought his hands gifted, but that was before she knew what pleasures his mouth could bring. Her hands, clutching the tight muscles of his bare back, began to rub up and down the length of smooth skin, anxious, needing something from him she couldn't name, but knew only he could give. Toned muscle surged beneath her palms, a curious bulge hardened against the inside of her thigh.

She whimpered when he drew back and reached for him, feeling suddenly chilled and empty at his desertion. Then she saw him going for his waistband. Licking her bottom lip, Linsey covered his hands with hers. They were clumsy, inexperienced, shaking as she tugged at the stubborn button,
yet she wanted to see him, to feel him, touch him.

Daniel finally seemed to take pity on her, for he swiftly worked the fasteners open, then slid his trousers down hard, muscled legs. He sprang free of the confines.

She stared at him in shock and wonder.

She'd never seen a naked man, never imagined that one could be so . . . beautiful. Daniel was. His manhood, rising proud and strong from a mat of thick black hair, should have frightened her. It didn't. It only made her curious, more eager to explore him. Daniel groaned and buried his face in her hair when she closed her fingers around his shaft. She caressed his hardness, gloried in the feel of silk-on-steel leaping at her touch.

His hand slid beneath her petticoat to begin a slow journey up her bare thigh, over her bottom to the sensitive crease of her pelvic bone.

Linsey arched at the wild sensation.

Gentle hands. Gifted hands. Sensual touch. He seemed to know just where to stroke to give her the most pleasure. Her hip, her belly, the mound of curls between her thighs.

Feeling herself grow hot and damp, Linsey clutched Daniel's head to her breast. His finger probed at her entrance, searching, teasing, tempting, until her thighs parted and her hips rose of their own accord. His finger slipped inside her and she caught back a whimper, unable to believe the feelings of wonder, of desire that flooded her.

“Daniel!” His name escaped her on a sigh as he plunged his finger inside her and withdrew it, only to taunt her again. And again. Urgency built inside Linsey. She wanted to beg him to go faster and yet savor the slowness at the same time.

When he covered her, sliding between her thighs, pausing with his strong shaft pressed to the entrance of her body, he took her face in his hands.

“I love you,” he said huskily.

She couldn't speak for the emotion clogging her throat.

“I don't want to hurt you.”

“I know.” She didn't want to hurt him, either. But she would.

She pushed the knowledge to the back of her mind as Daniel, his gaze holding hers, pushed inside her. She felt herself stretch, felt her muscles tense. He withdrew. No sooner did she relax, than with one swift, sure stroke, he plunged himself into her.

Linsey gasped. Her nails bit into his buttocks, and tears sprang to her eyes.

He didn't move. She didn't want him to. The last thing she'd expected was for him to hurt her.

“I'm sorry,” he whispered, his voice thick. “I'm sorry.”

He kissed her eyes, her nose, her mouth with such tenderness that she almost wept. Gradually his tender homage eased the pain. She hardly noticed it when he began to move again.

He kept the pace slow, sliding in, out. A wondrous pressure began to build. Linsey
tightened her legs around him, let herself fall into his rhythm, let him take her higher, higher. A delicious dizziness crept at the edges of her vision. Stars began to dance in her head.

He thrust harder into her. She arched against him, panted his name. Oh, God . . .

With a final plunge, Daniel cried out. Linsey released a keening wail as the world exploded into blinding color and feeling. Straining against him, she absorbed every last drop he spent into her.

At last, limbs trembling, heart thundering, Linsey fell back, feeling as if she were melting against the ground. Daniel collapsed atop her, as limp as she.

They lay entwined for what seemed forever, body sated and hearts full, when Daniel finally murmured, “Woman, I think you've drained the life right out of me. I can't move.”

“This has been wonderful, hasn't it? And you know what?” She gave a giddy giggle. “I got to do something I've never done before.”

“That was obvious—but what you lacked in experience, you more than made up for with eagerness.”

“You must think me shameless.”

“I wouldn't have you any other way.”

A slow, satisfied smile spread across Linsey's face. Staring at the endless blanket of stars, the glowing moon, she combed her fingers through his silky hair and asked, “Have you ever come to a point in your life when you think, ‘If it never gets better than this, I'll die happier than I deserve?' That's how I feel when I'm with you. I wish I could take that
feeling and put it in my pocket and carry it with me wherever I go.”

“I'm at that point right now.” She felt him grin.

He shifted, starting to relieve her of his weight, but she wouldn't let him. Sighing her contentment, she pulled him close, wishing it could be closer, wishing she could take him with her when she left this earth.

That wasn't possible, of course. Nor would she really want to deny others his incredible skills—as long as they didn't extend beyond doctor-patient relationships. Even she wasn't generous enough to want him to find another woman too soon after she was gone.

“God, I love your hair,” he muttered against her neck.

Linsey smiled. “I'm wounded, doc. And here I thought you loved me for my wit and charm.”

“I do, I do. And your luscious breasts and your tiny waist and your gorgeous legs . . .”

As his hand trailed up her bare leg, she laughed, just for the sake of laughing, and threw her arms around his neck. “I declare, we've gone completely daft. It's freezing out here . . .”

“Funny, I was thinking how warm it was. If you're cold, though, I know of a very nice way to heat you up.”

“And here we are, on the banks of Horseshoe Creek, where anyone can stumble upon us. What were we thinking?”

“Nothing. Everything.” He brushed a curl off her brow, then let his fingers trail along her cheek. “The last thing I seem capable of
doing around you is thinking. Since the day I've met you, you've turned my world upside down. Blame it on your smile. On the light in your eyes. Hell, blame it on the moon for all I care. I just know I've never felt so damned alive in my life as I feel when I'm with you.”

After a long, drugging kiss, he laid his head upon her breast and sighed, seeming in no hurry to dress despite the damp evening chill.

With Daniel's body a warm and comforting weight upon her, Linsey continued watching the stars, unable to believe how incredibly complete she felt. If this was the way her father made his wives feel, it was no wonder they'd chosen to stay with him. She felt the same way about Daniel: anywhere he went, she would gladly go. Of course, she'd never leave her children behind, the way her parents had done.

Not that children would ever be a part of her future—but for however much time she had left, she wanted to spend it here, with Daniel, in his arms. Loving him. Seeing him smile. Hearing him laugh. Even watching him get riled filled her with a peculiar excitement. Who'd have ever thought that one day, she'd feel so thoroughly and completely loved by the man who'd once hated her with equal passion?