One Bright Morning (32 page)

“
Thank you very much,” she
breathed.

Jubal felt his insides suddenly go all soft
at Maggie’s gratitude. Then he caught the warm glow in her eyes,
and the unruly male part of him went all hard. He hoped he’d be
able to get through this evening without doing something rash. He
hadn’t had a woman for a really long time. For not quite that long
a time, he had considered the possibility of relieving his
instincts on a prostitute with something close to revulsion. It was
becoming almost painfully obvious to Jubal that he wanted Maggie
Bright.

He studied her face in the soft light of the
candle as it flickered in its little round globe on the table. The
red accents in the room created a pink glow that did wonderful
things to Maggie’s vivid features. Her cheeks weren’t so thin as
when he’d first met her, Jubal noted, and she didn’t have those
circles under her eyes. He felt good about that.

“
You look really pretty
tonight, Mrs. Bright,” he said tenderly.

Maggie looked at him quickly. He had already
told her that once, up in her room, but the way he said it now was
different somehow. The words were gentler, softer. They caressed
her and sent a little river of warm feelings flowing through her
insides. His eyes looked deep and mysterious to her.

“
Thank you,” she
whispered.

She didn’t look down as she usually did when
she felt shy around him. Instead, she stared into his beautiful
green eyes and, for the first time since Annie’s birth, wished her
baby elsewhere. She wanted to be alone with Jubal Green, and that
surprised the socks off of her.

He’s nothing like
Kenny
, she thought.

Kenny had been sweet and soft and maybe even
a little bit dumb. There didn’t seem to be a sweet, soft, dumb bone
in Jubal’s body. He was hard and sharp and cranky. And he’d already
made her feel things that she’d never even imagined she could feel.
As she peered into his eyes, she wondered what else he could make
her feel, and her cheeks went hot. She knew she was blushing, but
she still couldn’t drop her eyes.

Jubal saw the slow blush creep into Maggie’s
cheeks, and he felt his erection give a tremendous jerk.

Oh, Lord
, he thought. His resolve not to do anything rash began to
wobble.

The waiter brought the wine and took their
orders. Maggie became adorably confused when asked what she wanted
to eat. She finally begged Jubal to order for her, so he did. Annie
was being a very good girl. She was usually a very good girl, Jubal
realized. Maggie was a very good mother.

As the evening advanced, a spell begin to
weave its web around Jubal, and he didn’t even notice until it was
too late. The magic started with his undisciplined sex, which
didn’t surprise him much. But it grew and spread from there,
upward, until it had spun little tendrils that were sneaking into
his very soul, and they disturbed him more than he could ever
remember being disturbed before.

Maggie forgot to be nervous after a little
while, and her candid, unspoiled charm sent those whispery little
magic tendrils creeping closer and closer to Jubal’s heart until he
couldn’t have stopped them if he’d tried. Then, before he even knew
what was happening to him, he was caught. He realized that for him
to get free again would require more effort than it was in him to
give. Not only that, but he didn’t even want to. He shook his head
in amazement. He’d not only gone soft; he’d gone completely daft.
He loved her.

Jubal was never quite certain whether he
groaned out loud or not when the truth hit him, because Maggie was
paying attention to Annie at that particular moment.

Annie was yawning when their enchanted meal
ended. Jubal carried her up the stairs to Maggie’s room. Maggie
held his arm tightly. She felt secure when she was holding onto
him.

“
Thank you so much, Mr.
Green. I think that was the nicest evening I’ve ever had in my
life,” she admitted in a whisper-soft voice as she unlocked the
door.

“
I’m glad.”

Maggie turned to take Annie from him, but
Jubal walked the now-sleeping baby into the room. There was only
the one bed in the room, so he laid the little girl down there.

“
I think I’ll just take her
shoes and dress off. She can sleep in her chemise,” Maggie decided
as she looked tenderly at her baby.

Jubal watched Maggie with hungry eyes. He
keep glancing at the door that separated his room from hers and
wished he had a glib tongue and a way with women. He was just about
dying to feel Maggie in his arms, but he wasn’t about to grab her
and scare her to death. She didn’t deserve that. She was poor as a
church mouse and unsophisticated as her own baby daughter, but she
was the greatest lady Jubal had ever met and he wasn’t about to
ravish her.

She must miss that part of
her life
, he thought, in spite of his noble
resolve.
Hell, she’s young and
healthy
.

Still, he held back. After all, Maggie was a
marrying kind of woman and, until this second, marriage had never
even occurred to him. He was watching very carefully when Maggie
finished getting Annie tucked into the big bed. She folded her
daughter’s little dress up into a tidy square and laid it on top of
the shabby carpet bag that held their clothes. She put Annie’s tiny
shoes there, too. Jubal noted they were scuffed and old-looking.
They looked suspiciously as though maybe Mrs. Phillips had given
Maggie a pair of the twins’ cast-offs. His heart made a little
lurch and he wished he had thought to pick up some kids’ clothes in
Garza’s today.

When Maggie was through with seeing to her
baby, she stood and looked up at Jubal with eyes that nearly glowed
with happiness. She held her hands clutched together in front of
her and appeared endearingly shy. Jubal knew she was going to thank
him again, and he wished she wouldn’t.

Hell
, he thought,
I should thank
her
. He couldn’t remember an evening giving
him so much pleasure before.

“
Mr. Green, I—”

Jubal interrupted her.

“
Don’t thank me, Mrs.
Bright. I enjoyed it. I’m glad you had a good time.”

Maggie’s soft smile almost sent Jubal over
the edge.

“
Oh, I had a wonderful time,
Mr. Green,” she whispered.

Then she reached up, put her hands on
Jubal’s shoulders and gave him a very quick, light kiss on the
lips. She blushed furiously after that.

It took all the restraint at Jubal’s command
to say, “Thank you, Mrs. Bright,” with barely a tremor in his voice
and to turn to the door separating their rooms, unlock it, and walk
inside.

Maggie watched him enter his room and shut
the door, and was assailed by a huge throb of regret. She wanted to
run after him, to beg him to please not go yet, to please kiss her
again like he had on the banks of Turkey Creek. Maggie had never
been kissed like that before. She put her fingers to her mouth and
remembered the feel of him, hot and hard and insistent.

She sighed deeply.

“
I must really miss Kenny,”
she mused. Then she gave herself a mental shake and told herself to
quit lying. “It’s not so much that I miss Kenny. It’s that I want
Jubal Green.”

It surprised her when she finally admitted
the truth to herself. She hadn’t even enjoyed that part of her
marriage very much. Kenny was a sweetheart, and he loved her to
distraction, but he had been a rather clumsy lover.

“
Lover,” Maggie murmured to
herself as she slowly shed her best dress. The word held such a
world of mixed connotations to her.

She wondered if she were a wicked, fallen
woman to want a man who wasn’t her husband. She sighed. “I guess I
am,” she whispered. “Wicked, fallen, and disloyal. Poor Kenny.”

As she brushed out her hair sadly, she
wished she had a stronger character. “My aunt was absolutely right
about me,” she murmured unhappily.

She stripped to her chemise. It was her
prettiest one, and she had worn it in honor of the evening. It was
made of simple muslin, but she had embroidered the yolk herself,
with delicate pink flowers. She smoothed the fabric over her body,
closed her eyes, and thought with longing about how Jubal’s hands
would feel doing that. After she put on her one and only bed
wrapper, she stepped hesitantly to the door. She stood there for
what seemed like hours, her heart slamming against her ribs.

Maybe he wouldn’t mind just
talking to me for a little while
, she
thought.

Maggie could barely hear her own timid tap
at his door. As soon as she tapped, she prayed that Jubal wouldn’t
hear it at all.

Jubal had already shed his shirt and shoes.
He still wore his trousers, and had been poised on the other side
of the door with his hand raised, trying to work up enough courage
to knock. As soon as he heard Maggie’s timid rap, he opened the
door. When he saw her standing there, clutching the neck of her
wrapper, her honey hair tumbling around her shoulders, and her big
blue eyes looking up at him, frightened and uncertain, he drew in a
huge breath and knew that he’d just been sucker-punched.

“
Mr. Green, I—”

Maggie hadn’t been sure what she was going
to say, and she didn’t get the chance to find out.

Jubal muttered, “Ah, hell, Maggie,” pulled
her into his arms, and covered her mouth with his before she could
utter another word.

Maggie only had time to gasp in pleasure
before her arms wrapped around Jubal’s shoulders and she found
herself kissing him back.

Kenny hadn’t been much of a kisser Maggie
realized, as Jubal taught her things to do with her mouth and did
things with his that she’d never experienced. As he had done by the
river, he tasted her lips with his tongue, and this time Maggie
didn’t even hesitate to open her mouth. She wanted to feel what
he’d done before. Jubal obliged her.

He was almost wild. He’d never felt himself
to be so near to losing control; he’d wanted to do this for so
damned long.

His breath was ragged when he said, “Oh,
God, Maggie, I want you so bad.”

Maggie couldn’t believe it was her own voice
that answered him. “I want you, too, Jubal,” came out of her throat
husky and strained.

She knew ladies didn’t say things like that.
She would have been terribly embarrassed if she had the time to
think about it. But she didn’t.

Jubal didn’t seem to mind, though. With a
low growl, he picked her right up off the floor and marched her
over to his bed. He laid her down almost reverently and joined her
there immediately. Then he took her face in his two hands and
kissed her deeply, sweetly, drinking her as he had earlier drunk
the restaurant’s fine wine. She tasted better.

Gently, gently, he untied the neck of her
wrapper and eased it back from her shoulders.

“
Lord God, Maggie, I’ve
dreamed of this,” he whispered. “You’ve felt my body. I’ve been
thinking about yours for months now. Let me feel you like you felt
me. Please?” His voice was ragged and pleading.

“
Oh, yes, please,” she
whispered. “Please feel me, Jubal. Please.”

Jubal groaned and slid the wrapper off of
her body and threw it toward the foot of the bed. It slithered off
and landed on the floor, but neither he nor Maggie noticed. Her
skin felt like the finest silk under his callused palms.

At the first touch of his hands on her bare
skin, Maggie went all over goose bumps. When he cupped her breast
and stroked his hard thumb across her puckered nipple, she pressed
into his palm with a whimper of desire.

“
Oh, God, Maggie,” he
groaned.

Her breasts weren’t big, but they were a
perfect handful, and her nipples were hard as ripe cherries. He was
sure he was going to die if he couldn’t taste them soon.

“
Please, Maggie, please let
me take this off you.” Jubal lifted the hem of her chemise to show
her what he meant.

Kenny had never asked her to remove
everything. Maggie was sure this was improper, but she didn’t care
about propriety right now. What Jubal was suggesting sounded
incredibly good to her. She had a vision of her tender, sensitive
breasts pressed against his broad, hairy chest, and she immediately
agreed.

“
Oh, yes,” she whispered.
“Please.”

Jubal slid Maggie’s chemise up her legs and
over her head, using the experience to maximum effect. His warm
hands and lips caressed their way up her silky thighs and across
her smooth abdomen and up over the twin globes of her breasts,
following the fabric they pushed up and loving her every inch of
the way. By the time he pulled the gown over her head, Maggie was
completely at his mercy.

“
Oh, Lord,” she sighed. “I
never felt like this before.”

Her words were music to Jubal’s ears. He was
really tired of hearing her constantly refer to her dead husband.
He wanted her to think only of him right now. He kissed her again,
hard, while he quickly unbuttoned his trousers and shed them. Then
he began to trail kisses down her slender, satin throat.

When his tongue flicked her rock-hard
nipple, Maggie thought she was going to die. When his hand slid
down to the silky triangle between her thighs, she wasn’t sure what
she was supposed to do, because Kenny had never done that, either,
but her body responded for her so it didn’t matter. She nearly
screamed with pleasure when Jubal’s skillful fingers slid into her
slippery sheath and found the center of her building need.

“
Oh, my Lord,” she whispered
in ecstatic agony.