Discovering Daisy (4 page)

“I could awake to this every morning for the rest of my life,” she murmured and then gasped as she realised that she’d said that out loud.

He chuckled and moved to lie next to her. The tug of his penis pulling free of her pussy had her shuddering again. He leaned to her and kissed her brow. “I could too, wife,” he told her.

She was his wife. His. Would he always treat her like this? Would there come a time when he shared her with others while he lusted after some other woman? Would he be like her brother-in-law had been? She shivered and went to roll away but he held her to him.

“There are things that we need to discuss,” he said as he held her gaze. “Things that we must share with one another if we are to make this marriage work.”

“Work how?” she asked and she wondered if he could see all the questions and doubts swirling in her eyes.

“If we are to build something to last a lifetime,” he said and ran his fingers down her cheek until he cupped her chin and lifted her face to his. His lips were soft and gentle as he kissed her sweetly. “I would love for us to create the bond that my parents share.”

“What is that?” she asked.

“We’ll talk all about this and other things soon,” he promised as he shifted from their bedroll to stand beside her unashamedly naked. He looked gorgeous from head to toe. His muscles bulged and rippled as he stretched and she could have watched him for hours. But he bent back down and with a squeal she found herself lifted high against his chest as he rose once more. “But first I think we should wash.”

She looped her arms around his neck and held tight to him. He walked into the trees and soon she saw the pond that lay before them. The water looked crystal clear and beautiful. He stepped in with her still cradled in his arms. She didn’t expect the cool of the water against her flesh and squeaked as her feet hit the water followed quickly by her legs and bottom. Her husband laughed as he waded further out until the water was to the middle of his chest. She clung to him as the water washed around them.

“You could have warned me that the water was so cold,” she told him and he laughed again. His face seemed to soften and look almost boyish when he laughed and she hoped that he did it often in their life together.

She felt the bulge of his swollen cock between them and squirmed closer to the heat it emitted. He groaned as he lowered his hands to cup her ass and pull her snug against him.

“I thought we were here to wash away all of this,” she said but wrapped her arms around him tighter. She loved the slide of their wet flesh together, the way her nipples rasped against his chest. She wrapped her legs around his waist and felt the nudge of his erection against her bottom.

“I want you again,” he groaned as he held her tight. “I can’t imagine not wanting you.”

She smiled at his words and hoped that he meant them. “I didn’t see you put your name in the drawing,” she whispered. It was a tiny thing that had bothered her from the beginning.

“I didn’t,” he said as he held her. “Duckett set it up. He said that you needed me. That I was exactly what you needed to heal.”

“What?” she leant back and looked into his face. “Why would he say that? Why would he do that?”

“Duckett tends to do a lot of things that don’t make sense at first,” Jacob said and she sensed that he knew the sheriff well. “But the man is usually right.”

“How did he know that you would be stopping through then?” she asked the next question that came to her mind.

Jacob laughed. “He sent me a wire at the Rangers office before I left for home. Said that he had something very important for me that couldn’t wait.”

“Me?” It was a whispered question.

“You,” he agreed and bent to kiss her lips softly again. “And I’m glad that he did.”

“Why were you at the Rangers office?” she asked.

“I’ve spent that last six years riding as a Ranger, just like my father and older brother before me,” he said. “And once we reach the ranch house my youngest brother will take up where I left off and head to the office to sign up. It’s sort of a family tradition.”

“So will you be gone a lot?” She had to know if he would be leaving her for long periods of time. Where would he leave her? What would she do?

“No,” he answered and bent to brush his lips over hers again. “My time is done. I’m heading home to stay, work the land, and breed horses, the best horses in the state.”

“So you won’t be leaving me?” She asked and hated the neediness in her voice.

“Not for a while,” he vowed. “But there will be times when I might need to spend a night or two out on the range. Days when I’ll need to travel to deliver horses or check on things.”

“Can’t I go with you?” she asked and he seemed to pause for just a moment. “I won’t get in the way. I’m a quick learner and maybe I could even learn to help you.” She rushed to add these before he could say no.

“I’d like that,” he said and she could see on his face that he meant it.

She lifted higher and felt his cock slide in towards the opening of her pussy. She was sore but she wanted him again. It was as if he had awakened something inside her that only he could satisfy.

He groaned as she pressed down so that he lodged in the flared opening of her pussy.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” he groaned but he didn’t pull away from her.

“Just once more,” she begged. “Here with the water cradling us.”

He moaned again as he gripped her hips and helped her slide down his length until he filled her once more. She leaned her head back and arched her body closer to him taking him all the deeper. It was incredible the way his body made hers feel. She was soft to his hard, smooth to his rough, flame to his fire.

He cupped her buttocks and helped her to rise and lower on his flesh. His lips found one of her nipples and sucked hard at it drawing the tip against the roof of his mouth as he seemed to feed on her. Their rhythm was soft and slow. It was a loving that she would always remember. A loving. That is exactly how she looked at it. They may not know all there was to know about one another but she already felt a strong physical link to him. As if he was the real reason she had come west with her sister.

The thought of her sister sent so many conflicting emotions through her. She held tight to Jacob as a storm raged inside her. Hope, fear, loss, love, anger, resentment, confusion. The emotions that raged inside her were diverse and intense. It felt as if she were swimming in a lake of her own making, trapped beneath the water. But then Jacob was there. And his every touch centred her, brought her back to the moment with him. His flesh against hers, inside hers. His touch both soft and hard at the same time. The sheriff was right. Jacob Donavan was exactly what she needed, who she needed.

They came together and she relaxed against him as the orgasm washed through her, slow and soothing to her raw nerves. She shuddered and at some point her ragged breathing gave way to wrenching sobs. Why couldn’t this have been the way her sister’s life had gone? Why couldn’t Amelia have met a man like Jacob? Why did her sister have to die? Why?

Jacob held her to him soothing her hair from her face, running his hand up and down her spine as she sobbed. When she was too exhausted to do much of anything he slid free of her body and, holding her like a child, he dipped her beneath the water so that only their heads remained above. His hands brushed over her, stroking and soothing as he helped the water to wash over her skin.

When they were both as clean as only water could get them he waded out with her once more held high and tight against his chest. He carried them back to the campsite where the fire was just embers and, standing her on the bedroll, pulled a cloth from his saddlebag and briskly dried her before easing her arms once more into his shirt.

“Lie back down for a bit,” he urged her as he helped her lie once more in the bedroll. “Rest while I get the fire going and get some food. You’re safe here,” he vowed and ran his hand over her cheek in a soft caress.

“Safe,” she whispered and realised that she did feel that way with him.

“Rest,” he said again and stood once more. She watched as he pulled his clothes on. He was truly the most beautiful man she had ever seen. His dark skin, the black hair that was unbound and spilled around his shoulders and face. The high cheek bones, the hard contours and bulging muscles. And yet there was tenderness in his touch, a comfort in his soft smile. She let her eyes flutter shut, let the exhaustion take her off to a deep, dreamless sleep.

Jacob glanced down at the woman sleeping so soundly. His heart gave a tug as he took in the dark shadows under her eyes. It had been easy to miss them when her gorgeous eyes were open. But in sleep she seemed so fragile and broken. The way she had come apart in his arms, the sound of her sobs had nearly killed him. All he could do was hold her and offer what comfort he could.

He wanted to go back and find her before whatever had happened. He wanted to erase whatever pain she had known. He wanted to kill the men that had dared to hurt her so deeply. He would wake her as soon as the food was done and after he fed her it would be time for her to talk, time for her to quit holding back and tell him exactly what had happened. It was just as important for her to share it as it was for him to hear it. She needed to unburden herself, to understand that what happened was not her fault and that she had done everything that she could.

He didn’t know yet exactly what had happened but he did know that there was no way that Daisy was to blame for any of it. What had she seen? What had she done? What had been said or done in the time before the sheriff was brought to that place and found Daisy surrounded by dead men? Sheriff Duckett had said that Daisy was cradling the body of her pregnant sister at the time he arrived, that it had been hard to pull her away. He had also said that she seemed like a shell of a person and that she had claimed to have killed them all. Three dead men and a dead pregnant woman. It was a lot for anyone.

She murmured in her sleep and he reached out to sooth her brow. She whispered his name and seemed to settle once more in sleep. It touched him in ways that he couldn’t explain to hear her call his name in her sleep. They had only just met, still had so much to learn about one another and yet it seemed as if she was the person he had waited his entire life for. There had been other women, here and there, but never more than a moment was spent indulging his sexual need. And he’d been sure to never be with a woman more than once as he didn’t want to mislead them into thinking he was a forever type of man.

But Daisy was making him into a forever type of man. He wanted to wake every morning with his wife in his arms. He was delighted that she wanted to be with him always, even when they were out sleeping under the stars. She made him think of forever, of children and growing old, of seeing her face soften in a smile meant only for him. At last he knew why his dad had given up being a Ranger and settled with his mother. He understood why both of his grandfathers were still alone after the deaths of his grandmothers. And it was all because of one woman. As he learned more about her he seemed to learn more about himself and his family as well.

He let his glance fall to her face again and was loath to wake her even though he knew she needed to eat. He had decided that they would spend the evening here and head on to his family’s home in the morning. There were things they needed to discuss before he introduced her to his family and had to share her with them. The men would adore her and see her as another woman to protect. His mother would love her and see Daisy as another source of strength to bind the Donavan men together. Daisy would also be used as the example for his brothers as his mom spoke of the grandkids she longed for. He grinned and barely held back a laugh. None of their lives would be the same once Daisy took her place at his side.

But first he had to know everything about the night that had led to her being with him. He knew that only by discovering what had really happened that night would he gain her full trust. And according to his mother there could never be love without trust. More than anything he wanted his wife to love him as he could already feel love for her building in him.

Chapter Four

Daisy awoke to a soft caress and smells which had her tummy rumbling in hunger. She opened her eyes to Jacob. His hair was dry but still loose around his shoulders and she liked it that way. Without thought she reached out to run her fingers through the strands and sighed at the softness.

“I love your hair,” she murmured and he laughed.

“I love yours too,” he said. “Especially the wild mane it becomes after we love.”

She blushed but felt a pull at her heart the way he called what they shared an act of love. She wondered if her sister had ever once known a moment like this with that scumbag she had married. She felt the tears inside her but was honestly too empty to cry them.

“Let’s eat,” he said helping her to sit up and handing her a tin bowl with something that looked and smelled delicious. “Then it’s time to talk, Daisy, time for you to tell me the truth.”

She nodded as she took the first bite. He was right. If they were to go forward he needed to know what she came from, what she was capable of doing. She had killed a man and Jacob was a lawman. He deserved to know that his wife truly was a murderess.

They ate in silence but it was comfortable atmosphere and it helped her focus on what she needed to say. But before she could start he did.