The Rancher Takes A Bride (33 page)

Deep, resonant sensations filled him, and he lay back and let her fingertips work their magic, rhythmically stroking him ever closer to the edge. Her lips gently nibbled on his mouth, her tongue teasing a seductive path down to the hardened muscles of his chest. Her mouth lavished his nipple, tenderly caressing the tender orb.

Suddenly, unable to take the ecstasy anymore, he lifted her up and rolled her to her back in a single movement.

She wrapped her legs around him as he placed his manhood at her womanly entrance. With a primal surge, he entered her, needing to feel her flesh surrounding him, burying himself deep within her.

Her soft whimpers of pleasure increased with each long, slow stroke of his body as he slowed his pace, feeling the need to make it last. This moment with this woman had to last a lifetime. In less than two days, she would be gone, a distant memory to keep him warm on cold winter evenings and hot summer days. But his life would never be the same.

Rose had changed him, made him see life from a different angle. Made him realize just how empty his existence had been until she'd stumbled into his world.

And once she was gone, how lonely he would be once again.

His lips covered hers as they shared the breath of life, his nostrils filled with the scent of Rose, the taste of Rose on his lips. And he was consumed with a passion that surpassed anything he'd ever felt before.

He clasped her hands in his, bracing against her, plunging deeper and deeper into her, feeling as if his soul was joining with hers. Her eyelashes fluttered against her cheek. Her body quivered as she shuddered with completion.

"Travis," she whispered in the dark, and his heart swelled inside his chest. God, this woman had a way of making him feel larger than life.

He couldn't hold back any longer. He'd waited as long as he could, but Rose was ready once again. And this time they both rode a star to the moon and slowly fell back to earth clasped in each other's arms.

***

The moon had risen to its full height and was once again descending when Travis awoke with a start. Rose lay curled against him, snug in his arms, her silken skin warm against him.

In the moonlight, he could see her eyelashes curled against her pale skin, the dark shadows underneath her eyes. She looked so innocent, so peaceful and gentle, the will of iron and steel hidden beneath her kind heart. This tiny woman who had tested his strength in so many ways lay curled, sleeping, in his arms.

They had only hours before dawn. Only days before she went away permanently, leaving him alone once more. He'd never known just how isolated he was until she'd come into his life. But now he knew his existence before Rose had been dull and lifeless. Now he wondered what he would do once she was gone.

It wasn't as if he'd fallen in love with her. But he couldn't keep his hands off her. There was this persistent itch that only she seemed to soothe. Her touch brought instant relief to his drought-ridden soul and left him hungering for more.

Maybe it would have been different if both times the sex hadn't been so gratifying as to leave him stunned at the intense satisfaction. But Rose had taken him to heights of pleasure that he'd never before experienced.

He'd resisted succumbing to her magic every step of the way, but somehow he'd been unable to defy the potency of her charms. And deep down, he no longer wanted to.

She intrigued him. She frustrated him and challenged him at the same time. Life would indeed be dull without her. He didn't know why her leaving should matter so much, but it did.

Rose wasn't what he wanted in a wife, so he hadn't fallen in love with her. She wasn't quiet, meek, and trained in all the fine arts a lady should know. She didn't know how to cook, clean, or live the life of a rancher's wife.

She wasn't a lady, but she was so much more.

Rose Severin was an enigma who constantly kept his life in turmoil. She was a good woman, and he'd taken her virginity.

For a moment he stopped, stunned. He had taken her innocence.

Tonight he'd slept with her beneath his mother's roof. A good woman would insist upon marriage.

He didn't want her to leave.

A good woman would insist he must marry her.

Rose was a good woman. Indeed, it was his duty to marry her.

Travis pulled her tighter against him. It would be less than honorable not to offer her marriage, and he was an honorable man. He had to offer her marriage; he had no choice in the matter. It was the solution to his dilemma.

In the morning he would insist they marry. Then she wouldn't be leaving.

Rose stirred sleepily in Travis's arms when the light, feathery kisses he placed on her neck and ear roused her from a deep sleep. For just a moment she wondered where she was. Then memories of the night before came rushing back, and she burrowed deeper under the covers, her mind still in a sensual daze.

She felt his lips graze along her naked shoulder, and all she wanted to do was snuggle closer to him. Her eyelashes fluttered open, and she glanced up at the man whose arms she lay in and met his clear, brown-eyed gaze. God, he was handsome all sleep-tousled, warm, and sensuous.

"Wake up, sleepyhead," he said softly, his breath tickling her ear. "I hate to kick you out, but it won't be pleasant if someone found you in my room."

"Hmm. I know," she said, burrowing a little deeper, not yet ready to slip back to her room. Day after tomorrow, she would depart and leave him behind. Each moment they were together she memorized, to enjoy later when she was alone.

Yet she couldn't stay and face Travis every morning, see him every day, without giving away the knowledge that she loved him. She couldn't stand the thought of being cast aside, once he found his perfect wife. These last few moments were all she had left, and she wanted to enjoy the feel of his arms around her, snuggle just a little longer with him beneath the covers.

"What time is it?" she asked sleepily.

"Time for you to wake up and talk to me before you go back to your room."

The moon shone through the open window, clearly enough so that she could see his eyes in the darkness. He looked so serious that she turned her head to his chest instead and nestled deeper down into the covers.

"Rose, don't go back to sleep."

"I'm not, I'm listening," she said drowsily.

"I've been thinking. Most women would have expected marriage after what we've done," he said, his voice tense.

"Hmm."

"I ... I think we should get married," he said nervously.

Suddenly her body tensed, and she jerked up from his chest. She stared at him. Had her ears been deceiving her?

"Did you just ask me to marry you?" she questioned.

"Yes," he stated.

"But Travis ..."

"Will you marry me, Rose?" he asked, gazing at her.

Rose felt her body start to tremble, and her eyes filled with tears. She threw her arms around him. "Yes! Yes."

Marriage! Travis was asking her to marry him. She laughed giddily, a rush of happiness stunning her. They were going to marry.

"We can tell Mother this weekend and then see about the arrangements. By next weekend, we could be man and wife. There would be no more sneaking around," he said, smiling.

Travis's lips covered hers in a kiss, and Rose thought she'd never been happier. No other time in her life had she experienced so much turmoil and now blissfulness. She felt as though she was still asleep and wanted to pinch herself to make sure this wasn't a dream.

But there was so much to discuss. She put her hands between them and broke off the kiss, her heart pounding, her breath coming in short gasps.

She pulled back away from Travis. "Why are we waiting until the weekend? Why not tell everyone now?"

"We'll go into town on Sunday and have dinner with everyone and announce it at the dinner table. It will be a nice surprise."

She thought for a moment. "Um. That would be fun. Who all will be there?" she asked.

"Mom and Tucker. Maybe my aunt and uncle, but I know Tucker will be there," he said, running his finger down her cheek.

"Do you think we can keep it a secret until Sunday?" Rose asked.

Travis rubbed his hand along her back in a caressing manner. "I know I can, but what about you?"

"It's going to be hard. And your mother will probably be suspicious, especially if we're getting along."

"Then I'll pick a fight," he said teasingly.

"Just try it, mister. I'll come to your room tonight and punish you," she promised.

He kissed her neck, the curve of her shoulder, easing his way beneath the covers. "Sounds like fun. What do you want to fight about?"

She gasped as his lips found her nipple and he nipped the delicate bud with his teeth. She couldn't think. She could barely talk. "Right now I ... just want you to continue what you're doing."

***

Saturday afternoon, the hot summer sun beat down unmercifully on the land and the people. Rose sat inside the parlor trying to read a book and stay cool, her thoughts on Travis and their upcoming wedding. A week from today she would become Mrs. Travis Burnett, and she felt her lips turn up in a secretive smile.

The knowledge was fairly bursting from her, yet so far she had managed to keep the news to herself. Fortunately, with Travis out working the cattle and Eugenia gone to visit a friend, the secret was safe. And soon she would need to leave for town to give her last performance.

They hadn't discussed her acting last night. She'd only assumed he would want her to give up her position with the troupe. Though she had enjoyed being in the play, it suddenly no longer seemed the important, all-consuming way she wanted to live her life.

She gazed about the parlor dreamily. She never would have believed it if anyone had told her that Travis was going to ask her to marry him.

All this time, Travis had accused her of stealing his mother's ring, yet in the end, he had asked her to marry him. Surely he no longer believed she could have taken his mother's jewelry.

But early this morning, they hadn't discussed the ring, but instead lay there enjoying one another. Not really talking, but expressing with their bodies what their hearts had not said.

So if she hadn't taken Eugenia's wedding band, then who had? Or could she have lost the ring? Rose thought about searching the house, but if she found the ring, wouldn't it seem convenient and a little suspicious that she had located the ring after Travis had asked her to marry him?

She felt so anxious, so nervous. The urge to write Travis a note overcame her, and she hurried into the office to search for a blank sheet of paper.

Rose stopped at Travis's desk. She shuffled through some papers, searching for a blank sheet, when suddenly a bundled group of papers came loose in her hands. She glanced at the name on the page and gasped.

Written across the top it said:
A Report on Rose Severin, by Henry Gates, Pinkerton Agent.

For a moment she simply stared at the papers in her hand before she sank down into the chair behind Travis's desk. He'd had her investigated! He'd had someone search into her past and find every dirty little detail he could uncover.

She took a deep breath and flipped the page and began reading about her life. The investigator had really done his work. She read about her mother and father's marriage, her mother's death, and then the life she had lived with her father as a child. How they had traveled from town to town, moving on when the sheriff started pressuring her father to clean up his act.

How three years ago, when she was eighteen, her father had abandoned her and Isaiah for his new wife, leaving her to find some means of support. What the report didn't say was how she had been forced to put together her own con, the séance, and eventually travel to Fort Worth.

But the last paragraph of the three-page report was the one that starded her the most. She gasped as she read the lines.
George Severin died of heart failure three months after his marriage to the new Mrs. Severin.

Her father was dead. Had been dead the last three years, while she traveled the Southwest trying to earn enough money to get to New York. She sat staring out the window of Travis's study, stunned at the news that her father was dead. Knowing she was being illogical, but angry just the same that Travis hadn't told her. Yes, she'd told him her father was dead, but she hadn't known the lie she told was really the truth.

When was Travis going to tell her he had her investigated? Or would he ever have told her?

A lone tear trickled down her face as she thought about her father and how he had always been searching for that one deal that was going to make him a wealthy man.

She glanced down at the three handwritten pages and felt the slow burn of anger infuse her body. So, Travis had not trusted or believed her, but had paid some man to dig into her past and find out everything he could, before he'd asked her to marry him.