The Man from Stone Creek (38 page)

Not that she'd gone unsatisfied, because she hadn't.

Oh, she certainly hadn't.

“I wanted it to happen here,” he said.

He guided her to the bed, laid her down gently on the sheets, cross-wise, with her hips on the edge.

Maddie moaned.

Sam knelt, parted her knees, set her heels on his shoulders. He chuckled when she shivered at the feel of his warm breath on the nest of moist curls between her legs.

He stroked the insides of her thighs, slowly, making the flesh quiver in the wake of his fingertips.

Maddie bit down on her lower lip, raised her hips slightly, instinctively offering herself to him.

He slid his hands under her buttocks, lifted her higher still, a man preparing to feast. When he burrowed through and took her full in his mouth, she cried out.

He withdrew, teased her with his tongue.

She began to writhe, and a fine sheen of perspiration dampened the hair at her temples, the space between her breasts, the smooth skin of her belly.

“Slowly,” he said.

“No,” Maddie pleaded, breathless. “Fast.”

She felt the shake of his head between her legs, and groaned in desperate frustration. He meant to take his time with her, and the thought of that made Maddie beg.

He lapped at her. Kissed the insides of her thighs. Long, light, trailing kisses that made her whimper and plunge her fingers into his hair. He reached up, caressed her breasts, one at a time. Held her apart with the fingers of his other hand.

“Sam!”
she gasped when she could bear the wait no longer.

He fell to her then, took her greedily, voraciously, granting her no quarter.

The release was cataclysmic in scope; Maddie dug her heels into Sam's shoulders and flew, and cried out again and again, until she was hoarse. At last, at last, she fell trembling to the bed, dazed with pleasure, wanting him inside her. Wanting him to put his baby in her.

The craving was fierce, elemental as a wildfire or a torrential rainstorm.

Sam held her apart with his fingers and began kissing her, and the sweet horror of it struck her all at once.

He was going to make her do it again. Climb to those heights, flailing like flotsam atop a boiling geyser. She would burn in the unseen flames and, finally, leave herself completely behind.

“I can't,” she whispered.

“You will,” he replied at his wicked leisure.

And she did.

Again.

And then again.

After that, they made love, and by the end, Maddie was so exhausted, she tumbled into the most profound slumber of her life.

When she awakened, the room was dark, and Sam slept, his head resting on her stomach, his breathing deep and even.

She smiled, twisted a tendril of his hair lightly around her finger.

So this was what it was like, belonging somewhere. Having a real home.

And home wasn't a town, or a house, the way she'd always thought. It was a person.

Home, for Maddie, was the brave, spacious heart of Sam O'Ballivan. A heart big enough to take her in, and Terran, as well. Come the spring, Terran's name would be O'Ballivan, too.

Tears of pure joy filled Maddie's eyes. Then she snuggled in and went back to sleep, where dreams awaited, almost as sweet as reality.