Sweetwater Seduction (32 page)

“Oh, God, Eden, you're going to kill me!”

She immediately withdrew her hand. “Did I do something wrong? Am I hurting you?”

Kerrigan laughed and shook his head, then took her hand and put it back on what had become a very hard part of his body. “You're doing everything just right. But now I'm going to have to help you catch back up with me again.”

Eden wasn't sure what he was talking about until his mouth closed over her breast and his tongue laved, while his teeth nipped, causing her belly to react as though a drawstring had pulled up tight. Without her quite realizing how it happened, her hands were threaded in his hair and she was holding him there, wanting him to make her feel the feelings again.

Kerrigan was happy to oblige her. He suckled at her breast, bit her nipple just to the edge of pain and then licked to soothe what he had hurt. Meanwhile, his fingers caressed her belly and thighs, feeling the soft curves, the concave belly, the bones in her hips. His hand curved around to grasp her buttock and pull her closer to him so they were belly to belly.

There had been something different about making love to Eden, and now he realized what it was. Because she was so tall, they fit together perfectly. He was able to love her without having to contort himself to match a shorter body. Kerrigan grinned with the thought of how much more enjoyable it was going to be to kiss Eden when he was deep inside her.

His hand slipped around to Eden's belly again and down into the nest of curls that protected her femininity. He heard a groan from her and couldn't tell whether it was a sound of protest or approval.

“Eden?”

“Don't stop,” she gasped.

He took her at her word. He covered her mouth with his as he once again broached her with his fingers. He mimed with his tongue the dance of love he wanted her to join. His thumb found the source of her delight and she began tensing with excitement. He felt himself swelling as she groaned, a harsh, guttural sound deep in her

Kerrigan raised himself over her then, and, poised at the entrance to her womb, he asked one last time, “Are you sure, Eden?”

“Yesssss.”

Eden was overwhelmed by sensations as Kerrigan pushed a little way inside her, then withdrew slightly and pushed a little farther inside, until at last he had fully sheathed himself. There had been pain, but it had been a small price to pay for the pleasure of having him inside her. “I feel so full,” she marveled.

Kerrigan smiled down at her. “You sound surprised.”

Eden smiled back. “I suppose I am. Now what?”

“We make love,” Kerrigan said.

No longer afraid of the unknown, Eden felt freer to touch Kerrigan. And she did, finding the places where he was sensitive and making him moan with pleasure as he had done with her. She touched his nipple with her teeth and when he hissed in a breath of air, she asked, “Not good?”

“Very good. Don't stop.”

She bit his shoulder, then soothed it with her tongue. Found that it tickled him if she put her tongue in his ear. Kissed his neck and watched him writhe with pleasure. And smoothed her fingertips over his lean flanks, admiring the hardness of muscle under the soft skin.

Then he began to move inside her.

Eden curled her legs up around Kerrigan's buttocks to hold him inside, tipping her pelvis up to meet his thrusts. Her whole body arched into him as she felt her body tensing. She felt out of control, her emotions and her body taking off on a journey of their own.

Suddenly she was frightened again. “Kerrigan?”

He knew what was happening to her, should have known how it would frighten her. “Come with me, Eden. I'll take care of you. Trust me. It's all right.”

She was strung tight as a bowstring, her body arched toward him, reaching for the unknown, surging toward the pinnacle of pleasure.

“Kerrigan,” she cried again.

“Come on, Eden. Come with me.”

Eden gave herself into Kerrigan's keeping. She let the feelings come, let them overwhelm her, shuddering again and again as her body arched and bowed in the throes of ecstasy.

Kerrigan growled low in his throat as he spilled his seed into her, the act of love taking him along with Eden into a paradise of their own making.

Eden panted hard, trying to find breath now that she was back on earth again. Her body trembled with aftershocks that reminded her of the ecstasy she had just experienced. She put her arms around Kerrigan and pulled him close.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

Kerrigan felt his eyes burn with emotion, but managed a weak laugh. “I assure you it was my pleasure.”

He slid to her side and wrapped his arms around her and held her close as they both drifted into sleep.

When Eden awoke, she opened her eyes to the sight of Kerrigan's tousled hair. She sat up abruptly. It had really happened. It hadn't been a dream. She brushed a lock of hair back from Kerrigan's forehead.

He grunted and rolled over.

Eden smiled. She looked out the window and realized with a start that she had missed church entirely. She looked at the clock by her bed and saw that if she didn't get up immediately, she would be late for the Sweetwater Ladies Social Club meeting.

She debated whether to wake up Kerrigan. Maybe he would want to make love to her again. But she still felt a little shy about what had happened between them. And to be honest, it would be easier to face him, at least after this first time, when they were both dressed. Besides, even if she wanted to, she couldn't stay in bed. Considering how the fire at Big Ben Davis's house had roused feelings, she couldn't take the chance of missing the meeting.

While Eden dressed she kept her mind blank, afraid to think too much about what had happened between her and Kerrigan. She wasn't sure if making love to him had really changed anything. As far as she knew, he still had no plans to settle down, no intention of taking off his gun. The more she thought about it, the more upset she got. There was no sense worrying about it now. There would be plenty of time to argue with Kerrigan about . . . everything . . . when she got back.

At last, Eden yanked on her stockings and shoes, slapped her hat on her head, jabbed a pin in to hold it tight, jerkily fluffed the squashed pouf of her skirt in back, and marched out the door ready to fight bear.

Unfortunately, the only bear she was interested in fighting was hibernating back in her den.

“This nonsense has got to cease!” Regina announced to the members of the Sweetwater Ladies Social Club. “If we had any hope of succeeding, I wouldn't be speaking. But I don't see that most of our husbands have budged even an inch on their stand against the nesters. And from what Persia tells me, aside from a very few exceptions”—Regina singled out Claire Falkner and Amity Carson, whose husbands had retired from the fray and rejoined their wives in the bedroom—“they haven't moved an inch in any direction either. Not only that, but it seems our boycott isn't doing much to delay the onset of violence.”

Miss Devlin could see the ladies, once again divided along rancher and nester lines, were moved by Regina's speech. “I can understand your frustration, but you simply can't give up now,” Miss Devlin said, mentally apologizing for her own defection from the ranks, and more aware now than ever before of just how much they were all giving up.

“Give me one good reason why not?” Regina demanded.

“If you and Persia will step into the preacher's study with me for a moment, I will,” Miss Devlin replied.

“If what you have to say is so important, I don't know why you can't speak in front of everyone,” Regina said.

“Believe me,” Miss Devlin said with conviction, “you don't want everyone to hear what I have to say.”

“Why not?”

Miss Devlin glared. “Don't push me, or I might be tempted to make you sorry you did.”

Surprised by the threat in both Miss Devlin's voice and her words, Regina nodded her head and followed the schoolteacher.

Persia knew what Miss Devlin wanted to discuss, but even she was surprised to see not only Bliss, but Hadley as well, sitting in the preacher's study when they entered the room.

“What is the meaning of this, Hadley?” Regina said, confronting her son.

“If you'll sit down, Mother, I'll explain.”

Regina's mood was testy, but nevertheless, Miss Devlin took her by the arm and ushered her over to join Persia on a nearby parson's bench. “I think this is news you'll take better sitting down.”

“You're not going to tell me you want to marry that girl,” Regina said scornfully to her son.

“No, Mother. I'm already married to her.”

“We'll have the marriage annulled,” Regina exclaimed, shooting to her feet. “We'll—”

“It's too late for that,” Hadley said with remarkable calm. “Bliss is expecting a child. Your first grandchild.”

For the first time in living memory, Regina was speechless.

Not one to let a golden opportunity pass by, Miss Devlin said in the silence, “So you see, it's more important than ever that we keep trying to do whatever we can to urge both sides to start talking to one another, to try and solve their differences peaceably, rather than by fighting.”

“A baby,” Regina said, her face softening. She gave Bliss a squinty-eyed look. “How long have you two been married?”

She was asking whether the baby had come before or after the nuptials, and a condemn Bliss hung ready on her lips.

Hadley was having no part of that. “It doesn't matter, Mother. What matters is that I love Bliss, and she loves me. We want to stay here in Sweetwater and raise our child—if we can. If we can't—we'll have to go somewhere else.”

“Take my grandbaby away? You most certainly will not!” Regina said. “But Oak will be furious—”

“Ben won't be too pleased when he finds out, either,” Persia interrupted.

“This isn't about Oak and Ben, it's about Hadley and Bliss,” Miss Devlin said. “They're entitled to live their lives in this valley, and that will never happen unless their fathers make peace with each other. If a range war breaks out in Sweetwater, you can both say good-bye to any chance you have of watching your grandchild grow up. That's why, unless you have a better plan to offer, I say you have to stick with mine—at least a little longer.”

The two soon-to-be grandmothers stared at one another in bemused silence. They were now related by their children's marriage, and soon would be related by their grandchild's blood. The foolish plan they had begun seemed too little to do to prevent a war. But since it was all they had, it would be worse than foolish to give it up.

Regina met Miss Devlin's implacable gaze. “I can see what you mean. We have to be more firm than ever before. I'm not going to be quite so subtle in my hints to Oak that he should begin negotiations with the nesters. And I'm going to do my best to find out who started that fire—and give him a good piece of my mind.”

She turned to include Persia and added, “But I think perhaps we ought to keep this marriage, and the baby, to ourselves for a little while. I don't think it would be a good thing for Ben or Oak to be told. At least not until things get a little more settled.”

Regina turned back to the couple. “As for you, young man . . .”

Both Bliss and Hadley stiffened, waiting for the ax to fall. Instead they heard Regina say in a voice as sweet as buttermilk pie, “Why don't you introduce me to your new bride?”

Bliss blushed as prettily as a newlywed when Regina hugged her and welcomed her to the family. “You realize, of course,” Regina said, “that now that you're one of us married ladies, Bliss, we'll be recruiting you to join us by denying Hadley his marital rights until we achieve peace in the valley.”

“Now, wait just a minute, Mother,” Hadley protested. “What's this all about?”

“For your information, Hadley, all the wives of Sweetwater—rancher and nester alike—have banded together to deny their husbands conjugal rights until this awful wrangling between rancher and nester is settled once and for all,” his mother explained.

“Whaes that have to do with me and Bliss?” Hadley demanded.

“Hadley,” Bliss said, putting a restraining hand on his shoulder. “It would hardly be fair if I . . . if we . . . I mean, I think your mother's right.”