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Emma cleared her throat and tried to shake the sleep from her brain as Luke stood across the room, his big body silently threatening her peace. Twin feelings of trepidation and stimulation were infiltrating her bloodstream and landing in a soft pool of heat between her thighs.
He didn't make a move toward her, he just leaned against the door and silently watched her. She sat up straighter in her chair and waited.
Tension grew in the pit of her belly and the seconds ticked by as he continued to watch her in complete silence.
She swallowed deeply and her heart was raging at her to do something, say something, when he pushed off the door with his booted foot and began prowling toward her.
He came to a stop in front of her chair. "You smell good, Emma. You have a bath?"
She licked her lips. "Yes."
"You able to manage that all by yourself?"
"I'm not totally helpless, Luke."
"I know that. I'm just wondering if you had help hauling the water, that's all."
"Who would have helped me?"
"I don't know, that's why I'm asking. There's over a hundred men working on my ranch. I'm asking if one of them was here, that's all."
"No. Nobody came into the house today. Not even Maria. I managed on my own."
"That wasn't so hard to answer, now was it?"
"No. I'm sorry, I thought you were being sarcastic."
"Not sarcastic. Jealous."
"Jealous?"
"I don't care for the thought of another man being alone with you, Emma."
Pleasure, swift and intense, ran down Emma's spine and curled under her heart. But she didn't have long to enjoy the sensation, because he was leaning over her, encircling her in the cage of his arms as he placed his hands on her chair.
"While you're here, you're mine."
Emma was too shocked to respond and remained quiet.
"You understand what I'm telling you?"
"Yes."
His hand reached out and he ran the tip of his finger across her cheek, down her neck and landed in an unequivocal statement on her right breast.
He spread his hand out and cupped her softness.
Emma's heart jumped under his palm and arousal coiled deep within her entire body. He came down on his haunches in front of her, and pulled her bottom to the edge of the seat. He fisted the hem of her nightgown in his hand and pushed it all the way up to the tops of her thighs and then his hands moved to her knees and he spread her legs wide and he came between them.
He wrapped one brawny arm around her waist as his other hand landed back on the breast he had momentarily abandoned.
He bumped her face with his chin, and when she lifted it, his mouth sank down on hers in an open kiss filled with burning greed.
He squeezed her breast and then began tweaking her nipple between his fingers and thumb as his tongue began to swirl inside her mouth, learning her lips and tongue all over again in an assault of her senses that destroyed her ability to think and left her a willing puppet in his arms.
If what he'd made her feel in the barn the other day had been desire, then this was far past that as she lost all conscious thought process and turned into a being who only felt.
She heard the moan and realized with no small amount of shock that it came from her own throat.
As if he was waiting for some kind of signal, he stood to his feet and swung her up in his arms. The movement jolted his mouth from hers, and he moved his mouth to her ear and caressed her there with one heated word that didn't in any way sound like he meant it. "Goodnight."
He dropped her from his arms beside her bed and let her body slide down his until her bare feet found traction against the cold wooden floor.
He lifted her chin and caressed her with a molten look as his hands slid to her shoulders and cupped her there. "Goodnight." He said for a second time and the word was ripped from him, as if he were in pain even thinking about letting her go.
"Goodnight," her voice was soft, barely a whisper as a sensual light passed between their eyes.
His gaze was almost tender, yet it held a heat and magnetism that enthralled her and she barely noticed when his palms left her shoulders and travelled down to her hands. He picked them up and pulled them up his chest and over his shoulders where he wrapped them around his neck.
She felt another hot shiver of response as she touched the tendons in his neck and felt his tactile strength under her fingers. She watched him silently in longing, dying inside for another one of his deep, intimate kisses.
Her eyes dropped unconsciously to his lips.
"Goodnight," he said again as his eyes followed hers and dropped to her lips.
She had to fight her body from swaying into his, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't stop the slight tilt of her pelvis toward his. His nostrils flared and his hands sank into her hips. She licked her suddenly dry lips and tried to answer back. "Goodnight."
Her body took on a delicate trembling as she ached for his touch. What he made her feel was disturbing, but she was powerless to resist the temptation his body offered. As she lifted her eyes back to his, the gentleness she had seen was barely visible and the smoldering flame that grew there made her breath hitch.
The air around them seemed to be filled with the kind of bold, striking electricity found in a wild summer thunderstorm.
The tight grip of his fingers jerked her into him, until her body was aligned with his. She inhaled a sharp breath, and that quickly, his mouth was on hers again.
It wasn't a gentle kiss either, and it still didn't scare her. The emotions running around her brain were too raw, too needy for her to be frightened. She felt like she was about to fall off a precipice, and although she was powerless to resist it, she wasn't worried because he was there to catch her.
He kissed her with hard passion and she knew she was totally under his control. She relinquished it to him readily, as she opened her lips more fully and let him taste her as he wanted.
His hand reached down and grabbed the hem of her nightgown again, and pulled it up until it was bunched at the waist and he was able to tangle her legs with his.
She didn't know which was more intoxicating, his scent, his taste, or his touch. It all blended together and with a heady delight she gave in to the irresistible attraction that flared hotly between them.
She inhaled and exhaled sharply as she tried to take in oxygen between his kisses, and he slid his lips to her cheek, pushed her hair away from her ear and bit into her lobe while she dragged in air.
His hands moved around and gripped her buttocks covered in only the soft cotton of her pantalets and sensual delight pierced her all over again. He leaned into her ear again and his whispered words were sultry, hot and deep as they vibrated through her. "I love goodnight kisses." His hands kneaded her flesh.
"Yes," she puffed out in agreement and shifted her mouth, seeking his again.
Ravenous hunger filled her as he shifted their weight and their legs tangled together more intimately, his hard, masculine thigh shoving between her legs. The feeling was intoxicating, his body aligned and pressed fully against hers while his tongue continued to make a bold foray into the interior of her mouth.
Her stomach clenched in need, and she felt her body go slack and pliant in his arms.
His brawny arm wrapped around her and he lifted her off her feet as if she were as light as a feather, and took her weight against his body as he continued to shower her with hot, wet kisses.
His fingers explored the hollows of her waist, and he kept one arm clamped around her midriff as his hand slid over her bottom and clenched around her flesh.
She gasped into his open mouth, and she felt a hot, shocking wetness come between her thighs. She trembled against him and he mistook it for a pain coming from her injured limb. "Does your leg hurt?"
"Some," she answered truthfully, but truly, she hadn't noticed it
until he mentioned it. He turned around with her dangling in his arms and sank down onto the bed's surface. He pulled her between his spread thighs and put her hands on his shoulders and lifted her right knee until it rested lightly on the bed. She balanced delicately on her left leg, and put a lot of her weight on his shoulders.
She felt no pain.
"Is that better?" his words were gentle, his touch more so as he ran his hands up and down the curves of her body.
"Yes." Emma struggled to think straight as his mouth found hers again and he began kissing her, holding her in such a way that made her know for sure that he wasn't going to stop.
She wasn't scared. Far from it. She was ready for this, for him, for whatever this lovemaking was all about.
She never wanted to have to live her life without him, but if she did, then at least she'd have this to remember him by.
His hands lifted to the row of buttons on her nightgown and his fingers began unbuttoning them, one by one.
When he came to the bottom he parted the sides and pushed it off her shoulders, and let it drop to the floor.
Chapter Eleven
She stood before him in nothing but her pantalets. She crossed her arms over her chest, and desperately wished for the safety of the covers.
He lifted her hair off her shoulders and brushed it behind her shoulders as he stared at her arms protecting her breasts. "I don't want you to worry, Emma. I won't let anything happen to you. I won't get you pregnant."
When he said that stark word, Emma jerked and pulled back from his arms, what they were about to do suddenly dawning on her. The realization that this might lead to a baby foolishly hadn't occurred to her.
But not only was Luke thinking of what the consequences might be, he was promising her that they wouldn't happen to her. He thought she knew all about these things, all about the process of lovemaking and having babies, but she didn't.
But she didn't want him to find out. She knew, deep in her soul, that if he knew she had never been married, and was in fact, still a virgin, that this wouldn't be happening. She wanted it to happen with all her heart, but she certainly didn't want to have a baby. At least, not when she was unwed.
