The Girl in the Window (19 page)

Lightning flashed in the distance. She counted out the time as she hurried down the hall. The worst of the storm was still at least seven miles away.

It was hard to push Wolf back into the house, but Beth didn’t want him out in that weather, certainly not with the cast still on his leg. He yipped wildly in protest behind her as she ran across the yards.

The first blast of rain soaked her to the skin instantly. It was shockingly cold, plastering her t-shirt against her skin uncomfortably.

She glanced at the house, saw the lights glow warmly in the windows.

It was likely Josh had sent the boys home, seeing the storm blow up. There wasn’t much they could do with it gusting like it was and it was dangerous to be out with the lightning.

Beth looked at the horse in the paddock. He seemed to huddle more into himself with each crack of thunder, each flash of lightning, each shower of rain.

She unlatched the gate, stepped through and fastened it again.

Putting her hands on her hips, she looked at him.

“Stupid, stupid horse,” she said.

Fair looked at her, his ears flicking, shuddering with each roll of thunder. Misery was echoed in every line of his body.

He wasn’t the only one.

She’d hated thunderstorms ever since she’d had a dream of being struck by lightning as a child.

Every hair on her body seemed to rise with the sense of the electricity in the air.

The horse looked back at her as she walked toward him.

Beth grabbed his bridle in both her hands and looked him in the eye.

“You’re going inside. No more nonsense.”

It was as if he sensed her determination and resigned himself to the inevitable. He followed her almost meekly as she wrenched the stable door open with one hand, her other on his bridle, and led him inside.

To her surprise the lights were on in there as well.

It didn’t last long.

Lightning flashed and thunder cracked nearly simultaneously, making her jump and dousing the lights at the same time.

*****

The sound of the barn door sliding open caught Josh by surprise.

He was completely stunned when Beth appeared in the opening, drenched to the skin, leading Fair by the halter.

He’d been thinking of the horse, trying to think of a way to entice the stupid animal inside and then the door had opened, sliding and rattling on its track, and he’d turned to find Beth and the horse framed within it.

There had been that one brief moment before darkness descended. A glimpse only. It had been enough for him to see everything. The wet fabric clung to every inch of her.

Instinctively, Josh reached for the gas lantern, lit it carefully so as not to knock it over or off the hook, fire being the biggest fear in a stable or barn, but his mind was on the image of the thin tight material of Beth’s tee shirt.

His body reacted instantly to it.

Light flared and Fair tossed his head at the surprise of it, nearly pulling Beth off her feet.

Josh jumped to help, the two of them petting and soothing the horse as Fair trembled, talking to him, easing him into an empty stall where Josh could throw a blanket over him.

Thunder rolled. Above them the heavens let loose, rain hammering the metal roof. Lightning flashed as Josh turned.

His breath caught.

For a moment, he could only stare at her.

Every inch of him froze, almost. Heat flooded him.

Drenched as she was, with her hair clinging to her face and her tee shirt plastered to her body, it was very clear in the sudden burst of cold air that she hadn’t taken time to dress completely when she’d gone to rescue Fair. She’d just pulled the tee shirt over bare skin. She’d probably thought he was in the house.

She was so beautiful.

But then, he’d always thought so.

He looked at her, want and need flashing through him, the long weeks of waiting shredding his patience.
After so long…

It was there in her eyes, the answer to the question he’d asked for so long.

Between one moment and the next, between one flare of lightning, a burst of wind making the lamp flicker to the rumble of thunder, she was in his arms and his mouth was on hers.

There was no one to interrupt, no inadvertent chaperones perched on ladders or hung around waiting for instructions.

Long suppressed desire flared.

Josh had begun to believe it would never happen and he found he couldn’t quite believe it
was
happening as lightning flashed and thunder boomed around them.

The taste of her filled him. She smelled of spices and cooking and his stomach rumbled, but a different need had become paramount.

Between one moment and the next it seemed as if her body melted against his, became softer, more pliable. Between blasts of wind there was silence save for the crackling of the lantern. The soft sound in her throat was a match to set him ablaze. It seemed as if every inch of his skin was suddenly, intensely, aware of her against him.

He cupped her cheek and looked into her eyes, soft and shadowed in the uncertain, flickering light, wanting to be sure. Wanting her to be sure.

No second thoughts, no running away.

The thought terrified him. He’d been waiting so long.

He’d dated before, had thought he’d been in love, but not like this, not like this incredibly fragile, lovely woman in his arms.

Then her eyes lifted to meet his gaze.

Beth looked up into Josh’s strong face, into his warm eyes, at the question in them.

His arms were as tight around her as hers were around him. He felt wonderful. Excitement, joy, rushed through her.

This was right, this was the time.

“Hello,” she said, passion, need, and tenderness mixing inside her sweetly.

All her fears were gone.

Josh looked down at her, at her soft smile and his breath caught. He nodded, but at what he couldn’t exactly say.

“Hello,” he said, and smiled in return.

Whatever was going to happen between them was going to happen here, and it was going to happen now.

He lowered his mouth to hers as he slid his hands down her back and over her shorts to cover her rounded bottom, to pull her hips against his.

She looked almost shy even as her arms slid around him. Her thumbs slipped into his belt loops and she pulled his hips tightly against hers, deliberately. It was there in her eyes, the knowledge of what was coming. The desire.

“Josh,” she said, softly, just before his mouth touched hers.

A thrill went through her as his lips found hers at first softly, and then with more purpose. At the touch of his tongue, she let her lips part and she sank into the kiss as if she were drowning in it. She let go and simply experienced him, the feel of Josh. His strong body was beneath her hands, his mouth firm as he explored her.

He tasted wonderful, his mouth fresh and clean, and he felt wonderful, his hand warm as it slid beneath her wet tee shirt to her rain-cooled skin.

Just as deliberately, she tugged his shirt free so she could feel his skin beneath her hands, too.

Instinct took over.

Josh stripped her tee shirt over her head and nearly moaned at the sight of her, full, ripe, and rounded. Bare. So beautiful.

His breath caught.

In one movement his own t-shirt was gone, ripped over his head and tossed away in his need to feel her skin against his.

After waiting so long the touch of her skin was like a brand cooled by the rain, and then warming.

Lightning flashed and thunder boomed. The rain came down in sheets as he slid his hands up her body, his thumbs finding the bottoms of the rounded curves of her breasts.

Excitement shot through him as he lifted his head to look in her eyes, to find her expression soft, wondering.

Her breath caught as her eyes held his. Her lips trembled.

Josh looked down into her sweet, lovely face and found that the words he wanted to say weren’t hard to say after all.

“I love you,” he said, sliding his hands inside her shorts to cup her bare bottom and pull her against him. “I’ve loved you almost from the first moment I saw you, I think.”

The girl in the window, walking through the soft morning light.

Her smile went from radiant to incandescent as she looked up at him.

“I love you, too,” she said, on a gust of breath. “I’m sorry it took me so long.”

With a bark of laughter, he shook his head. “Nothing to be sorry about.”

“I was afraid,” she said.

The thought pierced him to the core.

Josh looked down at her, freed a hand to stroke her cheek. Her skin was like silk beneath his fingers.

“Afraid of what?”

Beth shook her head. “Nothing now.”

Suddenly he understood. She’d been abandoned as a child, taken away. He knew that wasn’t all of her story, but it was some of it.

“You can’t lose me,” he said, softly, tipping her chin up with his fingers. “I won’t go away. You’re stuck with me now.”

His lips found hers, softly.

“I’m in it for the long haul, Beth,” he reassured her, looking down into her eyes. “I’m not leaving. I’m staying right here.”

She looked at him. “Why did it take me so long?”

Josh laughed and pulled her tight against him. “I don’t know.”

His mouth found hers again as he found the button of her shorts, then the zipper and they dropped away.

Scooping her up in his arms, he carried her to the pile of fresh hay Will had forked down only that morning and laid her down in it. The scent of timothy grass and hay filled the air.

It took only a moment for Josh to shuck out of his jeans and join her.

Lightning flashed and thunder rolled as he made slow, sweet love to her, his hands sliding over her damp skin, finding the curves and plains of her, seeking out the places that made her sigh, others that made her gasp and then cry out.

She touched him with something like wonder. Her eyes were on his face as her fingers drifted over it lightly, before they skimmed over his shoulders, his chest, as she explored him in return.

The joy of it nearly shattered him even as need surged through him.

He lifted her on top of him, looked up into her face as he found her heat, her warmth, and claimed it for his own. Slowly, smoothly, in one sweet slide, he filled her as her head fell back with pleasure. She gasped as his hips thrust, driving him deeper inside her. Her body tightened around him and pleasure surged through him in waves.

Those waves strengthened, swelled.

Her breath caught and released, her body arched as he brushed his hands over her and she cried out his name as his hands settled on her hips to them against him. He held them tightly as pleasure exploded through him. It rushed into her as she shuddered, her eyelids fluttering.

As she collapsed over him, he caught her, held her as he stroked her hair.

Pressing his lips to her forehead, he whispered softly, “I love you.”

He felt her lips curve against his skin.

“I love you, too, Josh.”

Beth thought she would always love the smell of hay, that it would always bring this sense of contentment with it, and the memory of this moment, this time. She’d never been happier.

He shifted, to cradle her in the curve of his arm, her head on his shoulder, and wrapped his legs around hers to keep her close.

Above and around them the storm raged. Within the stable there was the scent of the grass and horses, the soft hiss of the gas lantern, and Joshua, his lean body warm against hers.

Beth sighed as contentment and a different kind of peace wrapped around her.