Diana Palmer Long Tall Texans 06 Connal

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when he'd barely touched her, he could hardly imagine how it would be in bed, with her naked body
under his, her long, elegant legs enclosing him, holding him, welcoming him as a lover.
"Connal," she whispered shakily. Her lips touched his forehead, his closed eyes, trembling. "Connal,
please.
Please."
"I can't," he bit off, lifting his head. He could barely speak, his lean hand unsteady on her breast where
it rested like a brand of fire while he looked down at his handiwork. "Not here."
"No one would see us," she moaned.
"I can't take the risk," he said heavily. He pulled her to him, wrapping up her bare breasts against the
silky fabric of his dinner jacket, rocking her. "Anyone could drive up here, including the county
police," he murmured at her ear. His lips brushed her earlobe. "I don't want anyone to see you without
your clothes except me. And when we go all the way, I want it to be in a bed, not the front seat of a
car."
She shivered, nestling closer. "Does it feel like this, when you go all the way?" she asked huskily.
"Yes," he breathed at her ear. "But it's much more intense." He bit her earlobe and his hands smoothed
over her bare back with slow sensuality. "Has Hale seen you like this?" he whispered.
"No," she whispered back. "Nobody has, except you."
He lifted his head and looked down at her, making a meal of her bareness. He touched her nipple,
very gently, and watched it harden, felt her shiver. His eyes caught hers. "Much more of this," he said
roughly, "and I'll take you sitting up, right here. We'd better go home."
Her body exploded with heat as he lifted her back into her own seat. "Could we do it, like that?" she
asked hoarsely.
His face tautened and for one insane instant, he was tempted. "Yes, we could." He banked down the
fires. "But we're not going to. We're married. We don't have to make out in cars. Here, sweetheart, let
me help you."
He forced himself to control the singeing need in his body as he put her bra and dress back in place,
delighted with her headlong response and the certainty that their marriage had a chance after all.
"I don't want to stop," she whispered.
"Neither do I. But we'll wait a while, all the same," he said curtly. He searched her face. "Before we
both get blinded and sidetracked by intimacy, I want a little time for us to get to know each other. We'll
go see my family and we'll do some things together. Then we'll sleep together."
She was stunned. That had to mean he cared a little, it had to! "I'd like that, Connal," she said.
He smiled at her. "Yes. So would I." He started the car and waited until she fastened her seat belt to
drive off. But he held her hand the rest of the way home.
Chapter Ten
Pepi and C.C. left the next morning for Jacobsville. Ben waved them off, muttering something about
not knowing how he was going to keep from bursting with all that freedom and being alone with the
apple pie Pepi had baked him that morning.
She hadn't been sure what to pack, so she put in her finest clothes and hoped for the best. None of her
things were very expensive. She had a feeling that where she was going, they'd look like rags. But she
didn't say that to C.C.
He was suddenly very distant as he drove.
"You're not having second thoughts, are you?" she asked hesitantly. "About taking me to meet your
mother, I mean?"
He glanced at her, astonished. "Why should I?"
She shifted and glanced out at the flat horizon. "Well, C.C, I don't know a lot about fancy place settings
and etiquette, and I stayed up half the night worrying about what would happen if I got flustered and
spilled coffee on her carpet or something."
He reached over and found her hand, entwining her cold, nervous fingers with his strong, warm ones.
"Now, listen. My mother is a ranch wife. She's as downto-earth as your father, and she doesn't have
one of those houses that get featured in the designer magazines. If you spilled coffee she'd just point
you toward the kitchen and tell you where she keeps the spot remover. Fancy place settings aren't
necessary, because Jeanie May cooks such great meals that nobody cares about formal etiquette once
they get to the table. The only real hazard is going to be my brother Harden, who'll go off into a black
study at the thought of having to help entertain you."
"Who hurt him like that, made him so bitter?" she asked.
He glanced at her. "Well, you'll hear it sooner or later.
Better you hear it from me. About a year after Evan was born, my mother and father got a separation.
During that time, she met and fell in love with another man. There was a brief affair. Her lover was
killed in Vietnam and she came back to my father finally because he kept pleading with her. She was
pregnant with Harden, so Dad adopted him. But Jacobsville is a small town, and inevitably, Harden
found out the hard way that he wasn't Dad's son."
"And he blames your mother."
"That's right, he does. Despite the fact that she's a pillar of the community now, Harden can't forget
that she took a lover while she was still legally married. He can't forgive her for making him
conspicuous, an outcast as he calls it."
"But your father adopted him, doesn't that count for anything?" she asked.
He shook his head. "Harden has the most rigid views of any of us. He's an old-line conservative with
Neanderthal principles." He glanced toward her with a rueful smile.
"I'd bet you that he's still a virgin. I don't think he's even had a woman." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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