One Bright Morning (39 page)

Jubal knew he was going to burst soon. His
hand left off teasing her hard nipples and moved to her precious
secret core.

When his finger began to stroke her there,
her reaction was so electrifying, she nearly bucked them both off
the bed. Her nails dug into his back, but Jubal didn’t mind. She
was sobbing even before her shattering climax rocked her this time,
and when she exploded, she clung to Jubal as if to life itself.

Jubal was sure his end had come when he felt
Maggie’s sheath tighten around him and she began to squeeze him
until he couldn’t hold back any longer. With one wild, reckless
plunge so deep he was sure he must have pierced her womb, his seed
burst from him. He knew the cry that tore through the room had come
from him, but he couldn’t have held it in if he’d tried.

He lay in Maggie’s arms, breathless and
weak, when his release was complete. He knew he must be heavy on
her, but she was clutching his back so tightly, he couldn’t have
moved if he’d had the strength, which he didn’t.

His breath was coming in ragged gasps and he
was only dimly aware that he was whispering into Maggie’s ear.

“
Oh, God, Maggie, it’s so
good. You’re so good. You feel so damned good.”

Maggie was crying. Jubal had expected that.
He still wasn’t entirely sure what, if anything, to do about her
tears, but when he was able to breathe again, he eased his body
away from crushing hers and peered down at her with real
tenderness. He had the feeling she was trying to stifle her sobs,
but was having no success. Her lips were ripe and swollen with his
kisses, her eyes were smoky with passion, and her expression, in
spite of her tears, was one of sated bliss.

He watched her sob for a few seconds then
lowered his lips to hers once more. She kissed him greedily, and he
smiled with satisfaction. He’d done this to her, and it made him
feel good.

Jubal smoothed the hair away from her damp
cheeks. “You always cry afterwards, Maggie.”

He didn’t want her to think he minded,
although it did confuse him some. But he sort of wondered why their
sexual encounters, which were so overwhelmingly wonderful for him,
made her cry. He caressed her tears away with a hand.

Maggie sniffled, swallowed hard, and covered
his big, warm hand with hers, holding it to her cheek. “I c-can’t
help it,” she confessed. “I’ve just never felt anything like that
before. It’s—it’s just so wonderful.”

Jubal’s grin began to take on a slightly
arrogant cast. “I think it’s wonderful too, Maggie.”

“
It was never like this
with—with K-K-Kenny.” Maggie began to sob again, and Jubal rolled
over onto his side and hugged her close. He hoped like hell she
wasn’t feeling guilty, like she was somehow betraying the memory of
that idiot she’d been married to.

He stroked her back, long, comforting
strokes that began at the nape of her neck and slid all the way
down her damp spine to her pretty round buttocks. She felt so good
to him. He tucked her head under his chin and let her cry.

“
It’s all right,
Maggie.

“
I h-hope so, Jubal,” Maggie
said. “I feel so funny about it. I never felt like this with Kenny.
It was never anywhere near like this.”

Jubal thought he knew the reason for that,
but vanity made him ask, “Is it better with us, Maggie?”

Maggie’s slender body shuddered with another
huge sob. “Oh, yes,” she whispered. “It’s so much better, it’s
almost like we’re not even doing the same thing at all.”

Jubal was positively gloating by this time.
He felt so good, he wanted to shout. “It’s all right, Maggie,” he
whispered. He tried to keep the arrogant satisfaction out of his
voice.

Maggie sniffled again. “But I feel so
guilty,” she confessed.

“
Guilty?” Jubal drew his
head back to look at her face. Sure enough, Maggie looked as though
she had stolen all the cookies out of the cookie jar and just been
found out.

She nodded. She had to swallow again before
she could talk. “Yes,” she whimpered.

“
Why do you feel guilty,
love? Do you think what we’re doing is betraying your marriage vows
or something?” He guessed he could understand that, although it
aggravated him a lot.

“
Well, kind of,” she
confessed. “But it’s more like—like—Oh, Jubal, I tried so hard to
be a good wife to Kenny. I really did. I tried and tried.” Her
voice had taken on a miserably unhappy tone, and it made Jubal feel
bad.

“
I’m sure you did, Maggie.
It’s your nature. I know you were a good wife.”

Maggie shook her head. “And, Jubal, I loved
him. I know I loved him. I really, really did. He was so sweet, I
couldn’t help but love him. But—but it’s not like what I feel now.”
Maggie’s unhappy wail was muffled in Jubal’s muscled flesh, and her
tears were making his golden-brown chest hairs uncurl.

Jubal’s heart did a crazy loop-the-loop and
he was sure it was going to rocket right out of his chest. He
rocked Maggie back and forth in his strong arms. He murmured sweet
hushes in her ear and stroked her tenderly.

“
It’s all right, Maggie,” he
whispered, emotion making his words quaver. “You gave him
everything. You know you did. You were the best wife that man could
ever have had. I know it.”

Maggie sniffled one more time. “I really
tried, Jubal. I really tried.”

By this time his eyes had shut tight and he
didn’t look arrogant anymore. He looked almost like he wanted to
cry himself, but he didn’t. He rocked Maggie for a good five
minutes before he dared to ask her what he wanted to know.

“
Maggie?” he whispered, when
he thought he could speak without his voice cracking.

She wasn’t sobbing anymore. Her eyes were
closed and she had snuggled her head against him. It felt so good
there, so solid and secure, that she didn’t want him to ever let
her go again.

“
What, Jubal?” she asked in
a breathless whisper.

“
Do—”Jubal stopped,
wondering if he should ask this. He was afraid of the answer. He
finally took a deep breath and just blurted it out. “Do you love
me?”

Maggie swallowed hard. She didn’t want her
love to be a burden to him. But he’d asked. She guessed she owed
him an honest answer.

“
Oh, yes, Jubal,” she
whispered. “I love you to death.”

Jubal felt as though all the burdens of hell
had been lifted from his shoulders. It took him a couple of minutes
to recover his composure, and when he did, he said, “Well, then,
everything’s all right, Maggie. Everything will be just fine. I
swear it.”

He squeezed her tight, and Maggie sighed,
and they both drifted off to sleep.

Chapter Sixteen

Maggie knew in her mind that they were in
the middle of a gruesome feud. But in her heart, she had never been
so happy. The next week was like a dream come true for her.

The morning after her confession of love,
Jubal had hugged her hard, kissed her soundly, and bounded out of
bed feeling like a new man. Then he made it his business, before he
even rode out to check his stock, to find out exactly what he could
do to make her happy.

Maggie stared at him in blank astonishment.
Nobody had ever made it their business to make her happy before,
not even sweet Kenny Bright. She blushed.

“
I—I don’t know, Jubal. I
guess I think it would be nice to fix up the patio.”

“
Done!” Jubal cried. He
threw on his clothes.

“
Now don’t you try to do
anything yourself, Maggie,” he commanded. “All you have to do is
think about it and tell Four Toes what you want done. He’ll see to
the work.”

Maggie was laughing by this time. “But,
Jubal, I’ve got to have something to do. You don’t want me to just
sit around and get fat, do you?”

As Jubal grinned at her, he remembered
something. He turned and stooped over to rummage around in his
bureau drawer for a second. When he stood up, he was holding a very
elegant enameled hairbrush. It had a black-lacquered back with
pretty flowers painted on it.

“
Here, Maggie. You can brush
your hair.”

Maggie looked at the brush
with a wide-eyed stare. “Oh, Jubal, how pretty,” she whispered.
“It’s just like the one I saw at that big mercantile.” She had been
staring at the hairbrush, but when she lifted her eyes to him, she
found him nodding with supreme male satisfaction. “It
is
the same one, isn’t
it?” she cried.

“
Yes, it is.”

“
Oh, Jubal.” Maggie flung
herself out of bed and into his arms. “Thank you so
much.”

Jubal couldn’t stand holding a naked Maggie
Bright without his body undergoing changes that were difficult for
him to control.

“
Don’t do that, Maggie, or
I’ll never get to work.”

Maggie let go of him, but she couldn’t stop
herself from reaching up with the pretty brush and running it
through Jubal’s thick, sun-streaked hair. The gesture was
incredibly sensuous. Maggie’s breasts stroked across his chest. She
had to stand on her tiptoes, and her belly rubbed against his
rock-hard erection and made him groan. He finally reached up,
grabbed her by the wrists, and drew her away from him.

“
God, Maggie, don’t do
that,” he growled.

Maggie smiled at him, a little embarrassed
at her own wanton behavior. Still, she was unused to this reaction
to her charms, and they pleased her.

“
Well, all right, Jubal.
I’ll let you get to work. But I still don’t know what I’m supposed
to do with myself all day long if you won’t let me work at
anything.”

“
You can help
Beula.”

Then he kissed her so soundly he nearly
didn’t make it out of the bedroom, especially when she began to
press herself against him as though she wanted him, too. But he’d
been away for a long time and had lots of catching up to do. So he
went out to fetch Four Toes for a consultation.

“
I want you to talk to
Maggie and find out what she wants to do with the patio today, Four
Toes. Dan and I will see to the cattle.”

Four Toes was delighted. “Great. I’d love to
see that place cleaned up. It could look real nice.”

Jubal smiled. “You sound just like
Maggie.”

Dan laughed. “I notice it’s Maggie now,
Jubal,” he said slyly. “This is quite a departure, isn’t it, you
takin’ a good hand away from cow work to play in the yard?”

Jubal couldn’t decide whether to take
offense at his oldest friend’s words or not. He finally decided it
wouldn’t do him any good. Dan knew him too well. He chuckled
softly.

“
You got me, all right,
Danny,” he said. Then he threw his hands out as though he were
giving up the war. “You’re right. It’s all over. I can’t help it.
She’s got me.”

“
It’s about damned time,”
Dan said. Then he slapped Jubal on the shoulder. “I told you so,
Jubal. I told you so when you were lyin’ on your damned back near
dead. I told you so.”

Jubal tried to frown. “I don’t
remember.”

“
Well, I did, whether you
remember or not. I knew it.” Dan turned to Four Toes. “Didn’t I say
so, Four Toes?”

Four Toes nodded. “He said so.”

“
Well, all right. You can
quit gloating now, Danny. We’ve been gone a long time and have a
lot of work to do. Four Toes, you and Maggie get me up a list and
when I take her into El Paso to pick up her eyeglasses, we can get
the materials you’ll need to finish the fountain and lay new tiles,
or whatever you need to do.”

“
Tell you one thing would
help right off,” said Four Toes.

“
What’s that?”

“
Cow shit.”

“
Fertilizer?” Dan
asked.

“
Yeah.”

“
Well, hell,” said Jubal
sourly. “I’m willing to do a lot of things for Maggie, but I’ll be
damned if I’ll carry a sack of cow shit around with me all day
while I ride the range.”

Four Toes laughed. “Damn, I’d like to see
that. No. I think I can get the Todd kids to help with that. I can
send ‘em out into the pasture with a couple of sacks and pay ‘em a
penny to fill ‘em up. Maybe even little Annie can help.”

The thought of little Annie Bright dragging
a sack of cow patties around was so comical, that Jubal couldn’t
help but laugh. He also couldn’t help but compare this
light-hearted conversation with the last one they’d had here on his
ranch, right after his brother Benny had died and they’d set out in
pursuit of French Jack. He shook his head in wonder.

“
Lord Almighty. Four months
ago when we left Green Valley did either one of you think we’d be
doing this today?”

Both of his foster brothers shook their
heads, too.

“
No,” said Dan with a wry
smile. “Four months ago things were pretty grim, all
right.”

“
Real, real grim,” amended
Four Toes.

“
Things were hell,” Jubal
said.

“
They’re a lot brighter
now,” said Dan punnily.

Jubal eyed him with a pained expression on
his face.

“
But I get the feeling
they’re going to be green pretty soon,” Four Toes said
innocently.

“
Lord above, you two are
really reaching now,” Jubal grinned. “Let’s get busy.”

This was to be the first time since he’d
been shot that Jubal would have to ride for any length of time, and
he wanted to start early and get as much done as he could before
his newly healed wounds could stop him. So he and Dan left for the
stables to saddle up and Four Toes went off to the kitchen to find
Maggie. She and Beula had fixed breakfast together and were now
taking care of the washing up.