This time, she did cry out softly, her teeth clamping lightly into his shoulder. He moved very slowly, letting her take him all before stroking into her again, holding, moving, holding, moving again. Her fingers gripped his back.
“I can’t…” she whispered.
“You will,” he promised. She tossed. He kissed her throat, her breasts. Moved. Rocked. Hungered. Rose higher. Her fists slammed against his chest.
“Can’t, can’t…” She inhaled on a ragged sob. She seemed to jackknife into a paralyzing constriction, gasping, shaking. He smiled to himself and let the floodgates within him free. Mindless moments of thundering rhythm racked him until he climaxed explosively within her. He fell to her side, then rolled upon an elbow to look into her eyes, laughing. “You can’t, my dear, but you just did.”
To his amazement, there were now tears in her eyes. “Bastard!” she cried, slamming her hands against his chest. “You bastard!”
He caught her hands firmly. “I don’t care how perfect you look. You’re never going to make a living at this, behaving the way you do. For one thing, your typical miner is going to want you to arouse him, not the other way around.”
“Oh!” she shrieked, wrenching her hands free. She leaped up, hugging her mussed, once elegant white robe around her. He came up on an elbow, watching, puzzled, as she tugged at thebolt. He rose, walking around the bed to the door. Her eyes met his. Swept up and down the length of his naked body. Focused in panic on the bolt again.
He pulled it for her and stepped back. “Come again,” he said politely, and opened the door.
“Never! Never in this life, you arrogant oaf!” she charged.
And she was gone.
He shook his head. Strangest damned whore he had ever come across. She’d never make it.
Yet even as he turned away from the door, she was haunting him. And to his amazement…
Her image remained within his mind. His bloodstream. His being. And he wanted her again.
Impatient with himself, realizing that he had the thud of a hangover beginning to pound in his head, he went over to the room’s pitcher and basin, and started to wash and dress.
CHAPTER 24
Meggie made their homecoming warm.
Meggie—and little else.
Skylar wasn’t sure just what had snapped within Hawk, but he kept his distance from her. Upon their return, he left her with Meggie and retired to his own room.
He didn’t visit hers.
She woke listlessly the next morning, looking about at the beauty that surrounded her. Mayfair was very fine. She had returned to comfort and luxury.
She still loved Mayfair, but everything had changed. Her surroundings didn’t matter. She had discovered that comfort was more than crisp, clean sheets. Comfort lived in the soul. It was the warmth exuding from the body of…
The man she had accidentally married.
And then fallen in love with. Not because of the circumstances but despite them.
She rose, determined to find him. She didn’t know what answers she could give him about the attacks. She didn’t have a long-lost relative who had killed half the Crow Nation. She wasn’t related to anyone responsible for massacres. She didn’teven have a distant cousin who might have dishonored a Crow maiden.
But she could make every attempt to tell him what she had been running from. He might not believe her. The bond between them was incredibly delicate and fragile. He might think her as insane as Dillman had told her he could convince people she had become. He might not understand. But they had both made mistakes. Half of them through miscommunication. She hadn’t expected a living, healthy, vital husband when she had come west, but she had discovered that she wanted him. And she wanted her marriage to work. It was time to put some trust into the relationship that had grown between them.
She rose, washed and dressed quickly, and wondered with a growing excitement if Sabrina might nearly be here. Sabrina would be able to corroborate a lot of what Skylar meant to tell Hawk. But she was actually just as glad that Sabrina hadn’t arrived yet. This was something she wanted to do on her own.
Skylar walked to Hawk’s room. She tapped firmly. He didn’t reply. She realized then that it was late in the morning, that he had probably been awake for hours.
She started along the upstairs hall toward the stairway and then froze.
She heard voices. Several voices. Meggie’s voice.
And one male voice in particular. One she knew all too well.
