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She rocked against him, searching for her own orgasm, and it was right in front of her, easily attainable, and she let the delirium wash over her as she felt the pleasure rush between them.
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His breath came harder and his fingers sank more roughly into her skin and it was like sweet nirvana to Hannah. She felt a forceful, blinding wave of heat and then ecstasy engulfed her, stronger and harder than anything he’d ever made her feel before.
As she rode the wave of pleasure, stars exploding in her head, she felt him surge up inside of her and capture her within his grasp even tighter, and she knew that he was coming with her.
She milked the feeling, loving every last shiver that flowed between them. When it was over, she sank all the way down and wrapped her arms around his neck. His hands slid down her spine and landed on her buttocks, and they stayed that way until their breathing came back to normal.
She was almost asleep in his arms when she heard his voice whisper gently in her ear, “You’re my world.”
Part Two
Chapter Sixteen
The University of Texas at Arlington
“Have you told your brother yet?” The impatience Hannah heard in Josh’s voice rattled her nerves.
“No, not yet,” She answered softly as she curved her back into his chest, shifting her backside subtly, shamefully trying to take his attention off its one track course.
Josh couldn’t be swayed so easily. “He’s got to know, Hannah. It’s been years. We’ve had this conversation too many times to count and I want the truth. Are you ashamed of me?”
Hannah turned abruptly in the bed to face him, her eyes catching sight of his badge, pistol and shoulder holster on the bedside table. “No! Not at all.”
“Well, what is it, baby? Every time we get the chance, we spend it here, holed up in your dorm room. Trust me, I’ve got no complaints about that, but why the hell won’t you tell him? Do you really think he’s going to hate me so much? For something my father did that was beyond my control? Your brother’s a smart guy, Hannah. He’s fair. He’ll be okay with this—”
Hannah wasn’t so sure about that. Yeah, her brother was smart, but his pain still went deep. She was happy Josh seemed to have faith in her brother’s integrity, but Hannah didn’t know if she was ready to give Zach that much credit just yet. She loved her brother, but she saw the kind of looks he gave Katie whenever the other girl was around.
Katie was ahead of her at UTA, and Katie had been with Hannah several times when Zach had shown up unexpectedly to visit. There was something about the way her brother’s eyes zeroed in on Katie, something in his expression that told Hannah that Zach wasn’t ready to get past what Chris Turner had done to him. Hannah admitted to herself that she wasn’t ready for Zach to know that she was in love with Chris Turner’s son. She didn’t want to cause her brother any more pain. It was too soon. She needed to let more time pass. She fully intended to tell him someday. If things turned out the way she hoped and dreamed they would, her brother would have to know. But not yet. She just needed Josh to have more patience. “I just don’t want to hurt him anymore than he’s been hurt. He’s so alone. He’s moody and he broods over things.”
“You’re an adult, Hannah. You’ve got the right to decide what’s right and wrong for yourself. You don’t need to be scared of him. I can be there when you tell him—”
“No. Please, Josh. Not yet. I promise I’ll do it soon. This isn’t about being scared. Let him have some more time to heal. He needs that. He has the business to worry about. I don’t want to give him any reason to think he needs to worry about me.” She smoothed her hand back and forth over his chest while he listened to her. “He worries about all kinds of crazy stuff when it comes to me. He worries over the land and the money. You know Cindy married him for what she could get from him.” She felt Josh flinch when she said that and realized it was the wrong thing to say.
Josh tipped up her chin and spoke sincerely, “I don’t want the damn money. We’ve already discussed it enough times. It’s going in a trust for our kids. So is the land. Just tell your brother that.” His eyes tangled with hers as she bit her lip. “If it was up to me you’d come to me with nothing, just the clothes on your back. I don’t ever want you or anybody else to look at me with suspicion and think there’s anything other than your pure sweetness that keeps me coming back for more.” His lips tipped down to her forehead and she felt him place a soft, gentle kiss on her brow.
She lay in the circle of his arms and felt the sweet sincerity coming from his voice and the gentleness of his touch. She knew it was only about her. She felt it every time they were together, and every moment they were apart.
Hannah closed her eyes and let his touch comfort her. She hated secrets. Zachary didn’t know she was involved with Josh. Josh didn’t know Zachary was antagonistic toward Katie.
She took a fortifying breath. She wanted to keep it that way.
****
Some time later, Josh stood at the back of the huge auditorium and watched Hannah accept her college diploma. Fierce pride at her accomplishment slid through his veins. He’d told her she had to get her bachelor’s degree before they got married, and by God, she’d done it. And done it in three years. Personally, it didn’t matter to him if she got her degree at all, he was going to support them anyway. But for her, for her sense of accomplishment, for her security, he wanted her to have it. He didn’t plan on anything going wrong, he damn sure didn’t plan on getting killed in the line of duty, but he wasn’t going to take any chances with her future. He could barely remember a time when he hadn’t wanted her. From the moment his lips had touched hers the first time, she had been the driving force for him to succeed in life. Before that, he had just wanted to expel his father from his life, even if that meant having to leave Redwood Falls forever.
He had thought at the time it had taken all his control to keep everything in check with her before she turned seventeen. But that had turned out to be minor when faced with a Hannah who wanted to marry him when she graduated from high school at the tender age of eighteen. She’d wanted to go to a community college closer to home and take online classes to get her degree. It had sounded like heaven to him, but that hadn’t been what he wanted for her. She needed a degree from a four-year college, and he knew, deep in her heart, that she wanted one too. Trying to do the right thing, taking the chance she might find someone else while she’d been at college had almost killed him.
Her college degree was an insurance policy, in case anything ever happened to him. She would probably never really need it, but she deserved to have it. He knew it had always been her plan and he hadn’t wanted to stand in her way.
God, he loved her so much.
Every roadblock he’d put up in their relationship since she was fifteen years old, she’d pushed through. He’d told her she wasn’t old enough. She waited, and grew up. Check. He had demanded she stay in college and get her degree. Done. She had her diploma in hand.
As she walked across the stage, he knew she couldn’t see him among the sea of faces. But it didn’t stop her. She turned to the crowd, where he supposed she guessed he was, and threw out the most audacious face she could. It was meant to say, Okay. Are you happy now?
He smiled, ear to ear. Yeah, he was happy now. Now he could have what he’d always wanted. Hannah. Only Hannah. He wished like hell she didn’t come with all that damn money and land, but he’d take her anyway he could get her. He wasn’t like the man who had fathered him, he wasn’t out for what he could get. Josh had pride, he had integrity, and the only thing in the world, the only thing in the world he wanted was Hannah.
And Jesus, he wanted her. He wanted her with a passion that went bone deep. He needed her like he needed water to drink, like he needed air to breathe. They only needed each other. And just as soon as he could, he was going to put a ring on her finger.
****
Hannah looked away from her group of friends and saw Josh heading toward her. Her parents had taken them out to eat before the ceremony, because they’d had to get back to the ranch directly after. Now, faced with Josh and the predatory expression on his face, the bottom fell from Hannah’s stomach. Wo
uld the feeling ever go away? Was it only because she so rarely got to see him? She only half listened as Charles, the brainiac of their circle, again tried to get her to agree to go celebrate with them. No way. Josh was here. Did these people not get it? Josh was here. That’s all she cared about. There was no way in a hundred million years that she would choose to be anywhere else when she could be with Josh.
If that made her sad, or silly, or demented, she couldn’t care less.
She looked at Charles and politely began to decline as she kept Josh in her peripheral vision.
Josh heard a male voice speaking to Hannah and saying come with me and instant antagonism fuelled his blood. He prowled around behind her and laid his hands on her shoulders and tried to quell the urgent need to ram his fist in the pretty boy’s face. He could feel the anger as he came to his full height in a territorial stance, straightened his shoulders, and tried to temper the menacing scowl he knew was on his face. His mood had turned mercurial and he hoped like hell nobody said anything to goad him further.
Hannah lifted her chin and turned to give him a soft smile over her shoulder and immediately he felt a lessening of his compelling need to kill somebody. Her soft body relaxed against his and her sweet scent lifted to his nostrils. He breathed in deep as his life balanced out again.
He listened as Hannah spoke to her friends while leaning into him. “No thanks, ya’ll have fun, but Josh and I have to get home.”
All it had taken was for Hannah to get away from Redwood Falls, from all the gossip and jealousy in town, for her to have friends coming out of the woodwork.
One of the girls in the group looked at Josh. He couldn’t remember her name, but he had met all of Hannah’s college friends several times. “Hi, Josh.”
“Hey.” His voice was curt. He looked around at the happy graduates and knew something was in order. “Congratulations.”
A chorus of thanks hit him, and his job being done here, he lightly began putting pressure on Hannah’s shoulders to leave.
