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“Cooper, don’t.” Rusty reached for him and drew him close.
“She went out and had our baby destroyed. After I’d seen babies torn apart, probably had killed some myself, she—?
?
“Shh, shh. Don’t.”
Rusty cradled his head against her breasts and crooned to him as she smoothed his hair. Tears blurred her vision. She felt his suffering, and wished she could take it all on herself. She kissed the crown of his head. “I’m sorry, my darling. So very sorry.”
“I left Melody. I moved to the mountains, bought my livestock, built my house.”
And a wall around your heart, Rusty thought sadly. No wonder he’d spurned society. He’d been betrayed twice— once by his country, which didn’t want to be reminded of its mistake, and then by the woman he had loved and trusted.
“You didn’t take a chance on any woman getting pregnant by you again.”
He worked his head free and looked into her eyes. “That’s right. Not until now.” He placed his hands on either side of her face. “Until you. And I couldn’t stop myself from filling you.” He kissed her hard. “I wanted it to last forever.”
Smiling, she turned her head and bit the meaty part of his hand just below his thumb. “I thought it was going to.”
He smiled, too, looking boyishly pleased with himself. “Really?”
Rusty laughed. “Really.”
He slid his hand between her thighs and worked his fingers through the nest of russet curls before intimately palming her sex. “I left a special mark on you this time. You’re carrying part of me inside you.” He raised his head off the pillow and brushed his mouth across her kiss-swollen lips.
“That’s what I wanted. I wouldn’t have let you leave me this time.”
“Oh, no?” There was an arrogant, teasing glint in his eyes. “What would you have done?”
“I would have given you one hell of a fight. That’s how much I wanted you. All of you.”
He pulled her lower lip between his teeth and worried it deliciously with his tongue. “One of the things I like most about you...” His mouth went for her neck.
“Yes?”
“Is that you always look like you’ve just been royally...” He finished his sentence with a gutter word that only he could make sound sexy.
“Cooper!” Pretending to be offended, Rusty sat back on her heels and placed her hands on her hips.
He laughed. The wonderful, rare sound of his laughter was so encouraging that she assumed an even prissier expression. He only laughed harder. His laughter was real, not tainted by cynicism. She wanted to draw it around her like a blanket. She wanted to bask in it as one would the first hot day of summer. She’d made Cooper Landry laugh. That was no small feat, particularly in the past few years. Probably few could lay claim to having made this man laugh.
His mouth was still split into a wide grin beneath his mustache. He mimicked her in an old maid’s whine. “Coo-per!” Piqued by his imitation of her, she smacked his bare thigh. “Hey, it’s not my fault that you’ve got bedroom hair and smoky brown eyes.” He reached out and ran his thumb along her lower lip. “I can’t help it if your mouth always looks recently kissed and begging for more; if your breasts are always aquiver.”
“‘Aquiver’?” she asked breathlessly as he cupped one.
“Hmm. Is it my fault that your nipples are always primed and ready?”
“In fact it is.”
That, he liked. Smiling, he plucked at the dusky pearl, rolling it gently between his fingers.
“But primed and ready for what, Cooper?”
He leaned forward and, using his lips and tongue, demonstrated.
Rusty felt the familiar sensations unwinding in her midsection like a spool of silk ribbon. Sighing, she clasped his head and pushed it away from her. He looked at her in bewilderment, but didn’t resist as she pressed him back against the pillows. “What are we doing?” he asked.
“I’m going to make love to you for a change.”
