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Kell nodded.
Rachel got to her feet. In three days it would be over, one way or the other, but for her it would end in the morning. In the meantime she had to make sleeping arrangements for the Sullivans, and she was almost grateful to have something that would occupy her time, if not her mind.
She apologized to Jane for the lack of an extra bed, but it didn’t seem to bother Jane at all. “Don’t worry about us,” Jane soothed. “I’ve slept with Grant in tents, caves and sheds, so a nice living room floor isn’t any hardship to us.”
With Jane’s help Rachel gathered quilts and extra pillows for a pallet, taking them from the top of her closet and stacking them on Jane’s arms. Jane eyed her shrewdly. “You’re in love with Kell, aren’t you?”
“Yes.” Rachel said the one word steadily, not even thinking of denying it. It was a fact, as much a part of her as her gray eyes.
“He’s a hard, unusual man, but top-quality steel has to be hard to be top quality. It won’t be easy. I know. Look at the man I chose.”
They looked at each other, two women with a world of knowledge in their eyes. For good or ill, the men they loved were different from other men, and they would never have the security most women could expect.
“When he leaves tomorrow, it’s over,” Rachel said, her throat tight. “He won’t be back.”
“He wants it to be over,” Jane clarified, her brown eyes unusually somber. “But don’t say that he won’t be back. Grant didn’t want to marry me. He said it wouldn’t work, that our lives were too different and I’d never fit into his world. Sound familiar?”
“Oh, yes.” Her eyes and voice were bleak.
“I had to let him go, but in the end he came after me.”
“Grant was already retired. Kell won’t retire, and the job is the problem.”
“It’s a big problem, but not insurmountable. Loving someone is hard for men like Grant and Kell to accept. They’ve always been alone.”
Yes, Kell had always been alone, and he was determined to keep it that way. Knowing and understanding his reasons didn’t make living with them any easier. She left Jane and Grant to bed down in the living room, and Kell followed her into the bedroom, closing the door behind him. She stood in the middle of the room with her hands tightly clenched, her eyes shadowed as she watched him.
“We should have left tonight,” he said quietly. “But I wanted one more night with you.”
She wouldn’t let herself cry, not tonight. No matter what happened she would wait until tomorrow, until he was gone. He turned out the light and came to her in the darkened room, his rough hands closing on her shoulders and pulling her against him. His mouth was hard, hungry, almost hurting her as he kissed her with savage need. His tongue probed at hers, demanding a response that was slow in coming, because the pain was so great inside her. He kept on kissing her, sliding his hands over her back and hips, cradling her against the warmth of his body, until finally she began to relax and yield to him.
“Rachel,” he whispered, unbuttoning her shirt to find her naked breasts and cup them in his warm palms. Slowly he circled her nipples with his thumbs and enticed them to hardness; the warmth, the tightening sense of excitement and anticipation began to intensify inside her. Her body knew him and responded, growing heavy and moist, readying her for him because she knew he wouldn’t leave her unsatisfied. He slid the shirt off her shoulders, pinning her arms to her sides with the fabric while he lifted her, arching her over his arm and thrusting her breasts up to him. Deliberately he put his mouth over her nipple and sucked at her, the strong motion drawing hot tingles from her sensitive flesh. She made a faint, gasping sound of pleasure as the sensations swept from her breasts into her lower abdomen, where desire was pulling at her.
Her head swam, and she had the sudden sensation of falling, which made her clutch at his waist. It wasn’t until she felt the coolness of the bed beneath her that she realized he had been lowering her to its surface. Her shirt was caught beneath her, with the sleeves trapped and twisted midway between her elbows and wrists, effectively pinning her arms while her upper tors
o lay bare for his marauding lips and tongue to savor. He looked down at her with a tortured, hungry expression in his eyes, then bent and buried his face between her breasts, his hands squeezing them together around his face as if he wanted to lose himself in the scent and feel of her satiny flesh.
She moaned as her body throbbed in need, and tried futilely to wrest her arms free. “Kell.” Her voice was high, strained. “Let me get my arms out.”
He lifted his head and appraised the situation. “Not yet,” he murmured. “Just lie there and let me love you until you’re ready for me.”
She made a rough sound of frustration, trying to roll to one side so she could free herself, but Kell subdued her, his hard hands holding her flat on her back. “I am ready,” she insisted before his mouth came down on hers and stifled any further protests.
When he raised his head again it was with hot satisfaction stamped on his taut features. “Not like you will be.” Then he bent to her breasts again, not stopping until they were wet and gleaming from his mouth and her nipples were red and achingly tight. Gently he bit the undercurve of her breast, using his teeth just enough to let her feel them but not enough to bring pain.
“Let’s get you out of these.” The strain was evident in his voice, too, as he tugged at the fastening of her shorts. It came free, and the zipper rasped quietly as he slid it down. His hand went inside the opened shorts, burrowing under her panties to find the warm, moist, aching flesh he sought. “Ah,” he said in quiet satisfaction as his fingers explored her and found her ready, indeed. “You liked that, didn’t you?”
“Yes.” All she could do was whimper the word.
“You’ll like it better when I’m inside you,” he promised huskily, and slid her panties and shorts down her hips and thighs, but not off. He left them just above her knees, and her legs were trapped as effectively as her arms. Slowly he ran his hand over her, from her breasts down over her flat belly, to linger at her naked loins.
She writhed under his probing fingers, her heart thundering in her chest and interfering with the rhythm of her breathing. “Don’t you even think it,” she cried, her hands clutching at the sheet beneath her. He was looking at her in a way that told her he liked holding her helpless while he teased her and enjoyed her body. He was more than a little uncivilized, his instincts swift and primeval.
He gave a low, rough laugh. “All right, love. You don’t have to wait any longer. I’ll give you what you want.” Swiftly he stripped her, even of the shirt that bound her arms, and took off his own clothes, then settled his weight onto her. Rachel accepted him with a sigh of painful relief, her arms wrapping around him as he spread her legs and entered her. She reached her peak quickly, convulsing in his arms, and slowly he built her to pleasure again. He couldn’t get enough of her that night, returning to her over and over, as if time slowed when they were locked together in love.
It was shortly before dawn when she woke up for the last time, lying on her side with her back to him, snuggled into the warm curve of his chest and thighs, just as they had slept every night since he’d regained consciousness. This was the last time he would hold her like this, and she lay very still, not wanting to wake him.
But he was already awake. His hand moved slowly over her breasts, then down to her thighs. He raised her leg, draping it over his thigh, and slid into her from behind. His hand flattened against her stomach to brace her as he began moving in and out of her. “One last time,” he murmured into her hair. Dear God, it was the last time, and he didn’t think he could stand it. If he had ever been happy in his life it had been during these too short days with Rachel. This would be the last time her soft body would sheathe his hardness, the last time her breasts would fill his hands, the last time he would ever see the misty look of passion in her lake-gray eyes. She trembled beneath his hands, biting her lips to keep from crying out as the pleasure built within her. When the time came he clasped her to him, holding himself deep within her while she turned her face into the pillow to stifle the sounds she made, then he thrust deep and hard and shuddered with his own release.
