The Touch of Fire Read online

  She was too limp, too exhausted to move. Her eyelashes lay heavily on her cheeks, and she couldn’t lift them. Her heartbeat slowed and her thought processes resumed, but they were oddly chaotic.

  She didn’t know what to think. What he had just done to her, given to her, had been outside her realm of imagination. She had known the basic facts of sex, of penetration and his release of semen, but she hadn’t realized any of.. . this existed, or was even possible. The things he had done, the way she had felt.... Had that been the way he had felt, when he had been thrusting inside her and had suddenly stiffened and given that deep, gutteral cry? He had lain atop her afterward as if he had been utterly exhausted, as if he had no energy to move.

  He lay down beside her and took her in his arms, then pulled the blanket over them. Her head was nestled on his shoulder, their naked bodies pressed intimately together. His muscled thigh pushed between hers and she sighed as the movement forced her quivering muscles to relax from their vain effort to hold herself from him.

  His mouth brushed her temple, and his big hand stroked her back and buttocks. “Go to sleep, darlin’,” he murmured, and she did.

  CHAPTER

  9

  He rolled out of the blankets and Annie lifted her heavy eyelids, desperately needing a few more hours of sleep for, after all, she had been awake most of the night. “Is it morning?” she asked, hoping that it wasn’t. Without his warmth beside her, the cold crept through the blanket and made her shiver.

  “Yeah.”

  She wondered how he could tell, when it was as dark as night inside the cabin with the door closed and the window coverings down. She could barely make out the outline of his form in the dull glow of the coals in the fireplace. For a moment she wondered why the coals hadn’t been banked, then memory crashed through her and she not only remembered why the fire had been rebuilt during the night, she remembered why she hadn’t been able to get much sleep. Rafe’s tall body was totally naked, as was hers. She huddled under the blanket, feeling the stiffness in her thighs and the tenderness between her legs. She remembered everything he had done to her, and the blinding upheaval of her senses, and she wished she could remain hidden beneath the blanket for the rest of her life. How could she possibly carry on as normal, when every time she looked at him she would remember the shattering intimacy of the night? He had seen her naked and exposed his own body to her; he had penetrated her, suckled at her breast and—dear God—he had put his mouth on her in the most shocking way possible. She didn’t think she could face him at all.

  He added wood to the fire, and as the flames leaped up she was able to see him more clearly. She hurriedly closed her eyes, but not before the image of his naked, muscular frame was imprinted on her consciousness.

  “C’mon, honey, get up.”

  “In a minute. It’s too cold right now.”

  She heard the rustle of his clothing as he dressed, then silence for a moment. Her skin prickled with unease, and she quickly opened her eyes.

  She didn’t know what she had expected to see, but it certainly wasn’t Rafe holding her shift close to the fire, warming it. He turned both sides to the growing flames, chasing the chill from the fabric, then crushed it in his hands to hold the heat as he thrust it under the blanket. The toasty warm cloth felt heavenly against her skin. She stared at him, a little stunned, a little breathless, as he picked up her drawers to perform the courtesy again.

  She struggled into her shift with the blanket still shielding her, but her mind was no longer on the embarrassment of facing him, or even being nude in front of him. He slid the warm drawers under the blanket and immediately turned to her blouse, his expression absorbed as he held it out to the flames. Her heart surged painfully, and she almost burst into tears as she pulled on her undergarment. She had known terror at his hands, but he had also shown a rough sort of concern for her well-being. He had possessed her, hurt her, then cared for her afterward and taken her into the dark whirlpool of passion Despite everything she had been half in love with him but no longer. The unselfconscious care he took in warming her clothes for her took her unawares, and forever changed something fundamental in her. She felt the inner shifting and settling, and stared at him with dazed, stricken eyes, fully recognizing the moment for what it was. She loved him, irrevocably, and in doing so had undergone a sea change that had in a few seconds completely altered her life.

  “Here you go.” He brought the warmed blouse to her and she sat up, slipping her arms into the sleeves as he held it for her. He rubbed her arms and shoulders, then brushed her tangled hair out of her face. “I’m going to get a bucket of fresh water while you finish dressing.”

  He put on his coat and picked up the bucket. A frigid blast of air rushed in when he opened the door and Annie hugged the blanket around her, shivering. She couldn’t believe how cold it was. If Rafe hadn’t caught her last night, she would already be dead. The thought of it made her shiver even more.

  She donned the rest of her clothes and was painstakingly working the tangles out of her hair when Rafe reentered with another freezing rush of air. “Is it snowing?” she asked. She hadn’t looked out either time he had opened the door, preferring to hide her face from the cold.

  “Not yet, but it’s as cold as a witch’s tit.” He squatted down and began making a pot of coffee.

  She wondered how he could be so matter of fact after the night they had just spent, then a pang hit her as she realized he had made love to other women and none of that was new to him. She made herself face the fact that making love with her didn’t necessarily mean he returned her feelings.

  Suddenly he turned and hauled her into his arms, opening his coat and wrapping her inside the warmth with him. “Don’t ever try to run from me again,” be said fiercely, his raspy voice low.

  She put her arms around his waist, taking care not to put pressure on his wounds. “No,” she said in agreement, the words muffled against his chest.

  He brushed his mouth over her hair. The thought that she might have been caught out in that bitter cold, without even a coat, made him want to simultaneously spank her and crush her against him. God, he’d come so close to losing her.

  Her hands were gently wandering over his back, leaving a trail of glowing heat behind. His manhood stirred, and with faint disbelief he wondered if her effect on him would ever lessen or if her touch would always induce an immediate sexual reaction.

  He cuddled her closer. “Are you all right?”

  She knew what he was asking and her face heated. “I’m fine,” she said gruffly.

  He tilted her head back, his pale gray eyes sternly searching the dark liquid depths of hers. “You’re not sore?”

  Her blush deepened. “A little. Not as much as I’d expected.” Of course, his treatment with the slipperyelm salve had done a lot to lessen her discomfort. The memory of how he had administered it to her made her squirm.

  His thoughts were running with hers. “I should have seen to you before you got dressed.” His voice deepened. “Do you need more salve?”

  “No!”

  “I think you do. Let me see.”

  “Rafe!” she wailed, her face so hot she thought it would catch fire.

  A slow smile curved his mouth and wrinkled his eyes at her reaction to his teasing. “I’m going to look at you a lot, honey. If I hadn’t been worried that you’d be too sore, I’d have been on top of you before you were good awake this morning.”

  Her heart thumped in her chest and she stared up at him with wide eyes. Did she want him to do it again? Those things he had done to her afterward had been so marvelous she didn’t know if she could survive another onslaught, but she was wary of the actual sex act What if the next time was just as painful?

  He frowned at her expression. “You did know,” he said deliberately, “that last night wouldn’t be the only time.” His tone of voice made it a statement rather than a question.

  She bit her lip. “Yes, I knew.” The hard fact was that, if he wan