Duncan's Bride Read online

  He thought he had to be completely empty, yet he couldn’t stop. He didn’t know if he’d ever be able to stop. The peaks were no longer shattering, but were slow, strong swells that seemed to last forever.

  Madelyn clung to him, not thinking, never wanting to think. This was the magic she had wanted, the burning sensuality she had sensed in him. No part of her body was untouched, unloved. Exhaustion crept in and entwined with pleasure, and at some point they went to sleep.

  The sun was low when they woke, and the air was getting cooler. Reese pulled her into the heat of his body and smoothed her hair back from her face. “Are you all right?” he murmured, concerned when he remembered the violent intensity of their lovemaking.

  She nuzzled her face against his throat, lifting one slender arm to curl it around his neck. “Umm,” she said and closed her eyes again. She didn’t feel like moving.

  He sleeked his hand over her hip and up her side, then cupped her breast. “Wake up, honey.”

  “I am awake.” The words were slow and muffled against his throat.

  “It’s almost sunset. We need to go.”

  “We can sleep here.” She moved as if trying to sink into his skin, and her own hand strayed downward. He closed his eyes as her fingers closed gently around him. Her lips opened against his throat, then slid upward to his jaw. “Make love to me again, Reese. Please.”

  “Don’t worry about that,” he said beneath his breath. There was no way he could restrain himself now that he’d tasted her passion, no way she would let him, now that she knew. With a mixture of anger and despair he knew he’d never be able to keep his hands off her now. But the temperature was getting cooler by the second as the sun began dipping below the horizon; even though he was tempted to lie there with her, he didn’t want her to get chilled.

  He sat up and drew her with him. “Home,” he said, his voice roughening. “My knees have had about all they can take. I want to be in bed the next time.”

  Her eyes were slumberous, her lips swollen from his kisses. “As long as it’s soon,” she whispered, and thought she would cry, she loved him so much.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  HER SPIRIT WAS willing but her body went to sleep. She slept in his arms that night, her head on his shoulder and one leg thrown over his hip. Reese let her sleep, feeling the contentment of his own body as well as a certain wryness. If Madelyn had been seductive before, she was doubly so now. It was as if she had been holding back, too. That night, she hadn’t walked past him without reaching out to touch him somewhere: a lingering hand sliding along his ribs, a gentle touch on his hand or arm, or a light ruffling of his hair, a tickle of his ear, a quick kiss on his chin, an appreciative pat on his butt, even a bold caress of his crotch. After denying himself for so long, he couldn’t keep his hands off her, either. By the time he’d showered, eaten dinner and rested for an hour, the accumulated effect of all those caresses, both given and received, had had him hard and aching again. She had gone sweetly into his arms in bed, he’d made love to her, this time with lingering gentleness, and then she had gone to sleep before he’d withdrawn from her.

  He’d stayed inside her for a long time, dozing himself and luxuriating in the intimacy. When he tried to move she muttered a protest and turned with him, burrowing against him and retaining the connection. So he hooked his arm around her bottom and kept her locked to him all night, and he slept better than he had since the day he’d met her.

  He was on his back and she was sprawled on top of him when the alarm went off the next morning. He stretched to shut it off while she wiggled sleepily on his chest like a cat. He rubbed his hand down her back. “Time to get up.”

  His early-morning voice was dark and rough. Madelyn settled her head in the hollow of his shoulder again. “Did you know,” she said sleepily, “that more words in the English language start with S than with any other letter?”

  “Ah, God, not now,” he groaned. “Not before coffee.”

  “Chicken.”

  “I don’t want to talk about any damn chickens, either.” He struggled to wake up. “Canada is over two hundred thousand square miles larger than the United States.”

  “A pound of feathers weighs more than a pound of gold because of the different weighing systems used.”

  “Catgut comes from sheep guts, not cat guts.”

  She jerked upright, frowning at him, and he used the opportunity to turn on the lamp. “No gross stuff,” she ordered, then settled back down on his chest. “A blue whale’s heart beats just nine times a minute.”

  “Robert E. Lee’s family home is now Arlington National Cemetery.”

  “Mona Lisa doesn’t have any eyebrows, and the real name of the painting is La Gioconda.”

  “Quicksand is more buoyant that water. Contrary to Hollywood, you’d really have to work at it to go completely under in quicksand.”

  She yawned and was silent, listening to his heartbeat, a strong, steady drumming in her ear. As she listened it began beating faster, and she raised her head to look at him. His eyes were narrowed and intent. He locked his arms around her and rolled until she was beneath him, his legs between hers and spreading them wide. Madelyn clung to him and gave herself up to the now-familiar rise of ecstasy as he began making love to her.

  “WHAT ARE YOU doing today?” she asked over breakfast.

  “Moving a portion of the herd to another section so they won’t overgraze.”

  “I’m going with you.”

  He automatically started to refuse, and she gave him a hard look. “Don’t say no,” she warned. “I’ve already got steaks marinating in the refrigerator, and the baked potatoes are almost done, so they’ll finish baking while the steaks are grilling. There’s no reason for me to sit here every day when I can be with you.”

  “What I wonder,” he muttered, “is if I’ll get any work done at all. All right, I’ll saddle a horse for you. But I’m warning you, Maddie, if you can’t ride well enough to keep up, you won’t go out with me again.”

  She showed up at the barn half an hour later wearing jeans, boots and one of his denim workshirts with the sleeves rolled up and the tails tied in a knot at her waist. Her hair was French-braided in one long braid down the center of her back, she wore a new pair of wrist-length gloves, and she looked as chic as if she were modeling clothes rather than heading out for a day of herding cattle. She carried a western straw hat and settled it on her head before she approached the horse Reese had saddled for her.

  He watched as she gave the animal time to get acquainted with her, letting it snuffle at her arms, scratching it behind its ears. She wasn’t afraid of horses, at least. April had never been around them, and as a result had been jumpy in their vicinity, which in turn made the horses skittish. Madelyn petted the horse and crooned to it, then untied the reins, put her boot in the stirrup and competently swung into the saddle. Reese eyed the stirrups and decided he had judged the length correctly, then mounted his own horse.

  He watched her carefully as they cantered across a field. She had a good seat and nice steady hands, though she lacked the easy posture he possessed, but he’d been riding since he was a toddler. The smile she gave him was so full of pleasure he felt guilty at not taking her with him before.

  He set an easy pace, not wanting to push her too hard. When they reached the herd he explained how he worked. The herd was already divided into three smaller groups grazing different sections; the entire herd was too big for him to move by himself. He spent a lot of time moving them to fresh grazing and making certain they didn’t destroy the plant cycle by overgrazing. He pointed out the bunch they would be moving and gave her a coiled section of rope. “Just wave it alongside the horse’s shoulder in a shooing motion, and let the horse do the work if a cow decides to go in a different direction. All you have to do is sit deep in the saddle and hang on.”

  Sitting deep in the saddle was no problem; the big western rig felt like a cradle after the small eastern saddle she was familiar with. She took