Shadow Walker (11 page)

“I want to make you feel so much more,” Cole whispered earnestly as he swept her from her feet and followed her down onto the bed. He searched her face in the dim light, then touched her cheek with his fingertip. “Your face is nearly healed and you’re as lovely as I knew you’d be.”

“I’m not really lovely.”

“To me you are. Is your back still sore? I’ll try not to hurt you. If I do anything you don’t like, you’ve only to tell me and I’ll stop. I want you to feel only pleasure this night.”

“My back is nearly healed,” Dawn said, more than a little bemused by his words. She found it difficult to believe that a man could actually care about the pleasure and needs of the woman he bedded. It was a concept that boggled her mind after her experience with Billy.

“I’m going to kiss you, Dawn,” Cole said, smiling into her eyes. “Open your lips for me.”

He took her into his arms and lowered his face to hers. Dawn parted her lips, dimly aware that his chin and cheeks were shadowed with rust-colored stubble. His beard looked soft, not bristly like Billy’s unshaven jaw, and she ran her finger tentatively down one side of his face. She shivered with awareness. Touching him was pure magic.

Cole’s mouth covered hers. Little tongues of fire licked at her flesh as his kiss deepened. She felt his hands on her body, cupping her breasts, his fingers plucking her nipples, making them hard. She groaned in disappointment when his hands left her breasts, then gasped as they moved lower, dancing teasingly across her skin, pausing to explore her navel, sending fingers of raw flame across the sensitive flesh of her stomach.

For the first time in her life Dawn wanted to please a man, but she didn’t know how. She wanted to make him feel the same wonderful things she was feeling. Almost shyly she used her own small hands to caress Cole’s flesh, ringing his flat male nipples, running her fingers through the soft red hair on his chest. His body differed from hers in so many ways. His stomach was ridged with rippling muscles, and her exploring fingers discovered bulging tendons on his smooth back.

Dawn knew she must be doing something right, for Cole lifted his mouth from hers and groaned. There was a rough note in his voice as he bent to kiss her breasts. “Oh, God, love, your touch drives me wild.”

A thousand glittering sparks ignited inside her as his mouth tugged gently at her nipple. She closed her eyes, savoring the moment as Cole coaxed indescribable sensations from her body. She arched against him as his burnished head moved from one peak to the other, lavishing them with the rough wetness of his tongue.

“Do you like that?” Cole asked as Dawn writhed beneath him.

Heat enveloped her from head to toe. “Oh, yes, it feels … wonderful.”

“There’s more, love, much more.”

As if to prove his words, his hand slid lower down, into the thatch of dark curls at the juncture of her thighs. She stiffened, but relaxed again when he kissed her, letting the heat of his mouth soothe her fears. She had barely recovered from his kiss when she felt his finger slide inside her, traveling on the slickness of her desire. He pierced her so deeply she began to tremble all over. His mouth sucking vigorously at her breasts and his fingers moving inside her drove her mad with wanting.

Firm, warm lips moved restlessly over her body, his mouth and tongue creating havoc wherever they touched. Her breath came in harsh, panting gasps. She could think of nothing but Cole and the wonderfully arousing things he was doing to her.

“You’re hot and wet for me, sweetheart,” Cole whispered against her lips as his hands tested her hot center. He found a place she hadn’t known existed, a place where a single touch produced exquisite pleasure. She shuddered and cried out. “You’re ready for me, love.”

“I didn’t know it could be like this,” Dawn whimpered between gasps.

“It gets better.” Cole slipped a second finger inside her, and she moaned so loud he went still.

“Did I hurt you? You’re awfully tight.” A vague warning nagged at him, but he shook it off.

Dawn shook her head. “It’s not pain I feel but something … something that defies words.” She wet her lips, wondering if she should tell him she
was still a virgin. She was ignorant when it came to sexual matters. Would he know? Or even care? Her thoughts became distracted. She couldn’t think while Cole’s hands and kisses fueled the fires of passion inside her.

His stroking grew more frenzied. Dawn jerked and panted. His palms and fingers brushed her between her legs again and again, his fingers piercing her, his hands wet with her sweet essence as he brought her to the pinnacle of some great discovery.

A brilliant explosion wracked Dawn. Her body arched off the bed. Moans fell from her lips.

Intensely caught up in the very first climax of her life, Dawn was barely aware when Cole removed his trousers, parted her legs with his knee and rose above her, his face stark with need. She clenched her teeth when she felt his sex probe between her legs, demanding entrance into her tight sheath. He cupped her buttocks, raising her high off the bed as he thrust inside her. Dawn bit her lip to keep from crying out as his fullness stretched her. She feared he would break her in two.

Cole encountered resistance and frowned. Something was wrong. It was almost as if Dawn was a … but no, that couldn’t be. Dawn had been a wife for five years. He pushed harder, shoving himself deeper inside her. She stared up at him, her blue eyes stark with shock and pain.

Cole went still. But Dawn wouldn’t permit him to stop now, before she found the answer to all her questions. The pain didn’t matter. Cole had given her a taste of heaven and she wanted more.
Wanted it badly enough to endure the brief pain of his entry into virgin territory. Grasping his buttocks, she urged him to continue, refusing to let him withdraw.

Cole appeared confused. “Dawn, I don’t understand.” But the heat of her exploring hands and the walls of her tight sheath squeezing him produced feelings too overwhelming to question. Nothing but sudden death would prevent him from forging ahead, thrusting himself inside her sweet warmth and bringing them both to a pleasurable conclusion.

Flexing his hips, Cole thrust forward. His body was hugely aroused; a fine sheen of perspiration beaded his forehead. He reached the barrier of her maidenhead and went still, staring down at her, his eyes hard, stark, determined. Her face contorted with pain, Dawn stared back, offering no excuses, no explanations.

“Sweet Lord! You’re a virgin! It’s too late to stop now, love.” His words were strained, as if speaking was an effort.

Then he plunged into her, breaking through her maidenhead, stretching her with his thickness and filling her with a single powerful thrust. Dawn whimpered, gripping his shoulders as pain exploded through her. Cole soothed her with tender words until she quieted. Then slowly, carefully, he began to stroke inside her. Dawn felt herself stretching to accommodate him, the pain lessening with each successive stroke. Soon her body became accustomed to his size and hardness and she moved her hips experimentally. It was all the invitation Cole needed.

He thrust once, then again, one after another, until Dawn found herself meeting him stroke for stroke, pushing her hips upward against him as he rode her hard and deep. Release came abruptly, plunging Dawn into a chasm of blinding pleasure. It was more intense, more shattering than what she had experienced a few moments ago when he used his hands to send her over the edge. Cole drove in and out relentlessly, one pounding thrust after another as wave after wave of rapture engulfed her. Never in her wildest dreams had she expected mating with a man to be like this. Then she felt him go rigid, heard him cry out, felt his seed splashing hotly inside her, and still he continued.

Finally his frantic thrusting movements ceased and he collapsed against her, his arms holding her as if he’d never let her go. Several sweet moments passed before he moved off her and onto his back. Once his heart slowed, he rolled onto his side and propped himself up on one elbow. His eyes narrowed as he stared intently at her.

“You owe me an explanation.”

Dawn pretended to misunderstand. “I … don’t know what you mean?”

“I think you do.” He rose abruptly, lit a lamp and brought it close to the bed. Then he spread her legs, staring at the smear of blood staining her thighs, then at his own sex, still wet with her virgin’s blood. “You were a virgin, lady. You’re not a wife. You’ve never been a wife. Why in the hell didn’t you tell me?”

Dawn cringed beneath Cole’s accusations. “I didn’t think it mattered. You said you’d show me
pleasure and you did. Forget the virgin part.”

“I wish to hell I could.” He set the lamp on the bedside table and settled back down beside her. “I’m waiting.”

Dawn sighed, reluctant to bare her shame to Cole but unable to prevent it. Billy had accused her of being inadequate, but Cole had just proven him wrong. She had responded explosively to Cole, received pleasure and given pleasure. At least she thought Cole had enjoyed what they’d done together.

“Billy was never a husband to me,” Dawn blurted out. “He blamed me for his inability to perform. He said I wasn’t woman enough to please him. But the blame lay wholly with him. Once, when Billy was roaring drunk, he told me he had been wounded during a bank robbery. It happened a long time ago. He was wounded in a place that made it impossible for him to …”

Cole was stunned. “I get the picture. Cobb couldn’t function sexually.”

Dawn flushed and looked away. “There were certain things whores did to him, but I refused to do them.”

“So Cobb beat you when he couldn’t bed you properly,” Cole assumed.

“He took his anger and frustration out on me. He beat me when he wanted sex and couldn’t perform. He beat me if I so much as looked at one of his men. He lied about what we did in bed to make it appear as if he bedded me regularly. The only reason he didn’t share me with his men was because he feared they would learn I was a virgin.
He didn’t want his reputation as a virile lover ruined.”

“Why in the hell did he marry you if he couldn’t use you like he wanted?”

“I was so very young,” Dawn said slowly. Memories of the naive girl she’d been made her eyes grow misty. “Billy hoped my youth would invigorate him, but it didn’t. His men didn’t suspect he was half a man. He kept me around as proof of his virility. He lied about what he did to me in bed, but I was grateful he refused to share me with his men.”

The more Cole heard, the more he wished he could resurrect Billy Cobb and give him the beating of his life. He wanted to crush Cobb like an insect, pull him limb from limb, inflict excruciating pain.

“Why didn’t you leave during one of Cobb’s absences? You could have gone to the law.”

Dawn gave a snort of mocking laughter. “I was fifteen. Billy terrified me. I was afraid of what he’d do to me if I left and he caught me. Besides, I had nowhere to go. I feared the law would jail me simply because I was Billy’s wife. If I ran to my father, he would return me to Billy or sell me to someone just as brutal. As I grew older and wiser I realized I had to escape or risk death beneath Billy’s fists. I tried to run away a few times. I didn’t get far. Billy always found me and beat me so viciously I couldn’t move for days.”

Cole couldn’t bear to hear another word about Dawn’s suffering under Cobb’s harsh treatment. When she started to sob softly, he pulled her into his arms, cradling her against him.

“Don’t cry, love. Forget Cobb. He’ll never hurt you again. He’s planted in Boot Hill, exactly where he belongs.”

“But there are others like him,” Dawn hiccupped. She was thinking of her future. Once Cole left, she’d be stalked by scum every bit as evil as Billy. Sam and Spider were still out there somewhere. Where could she go to escape them?

“They won’t get their hands on you,” Cole promised. He’d already decided he couldn’t leave Dawn alone and unprotected. He hadn’t worked out the particulars, but an idea was forming in his brain; an idea that would place Dawn far from harm’s way. All he had to do was to get her to agree. And even if she didn’t agree, he’d do whatever was necessary to insure her safety.

Dawn wanted to believe Cole, but she knew how men operated, and there were more Billy Cobbs in this world than Cole Websters. Besides, what could Cole do to protect her once he moved on to another job? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

“Trust me,” Cole said, observing Dawn’s skepticism.

“Trusting doesn’t come easily when I’ve experienced the vile things men are capable of.”

She rolled away from Cole and felt a twinge of discomfort between her thighs. The tiniest of groans escaped her lips. Cole heard and suffered a pang of guilt.

“Are you sore? You should have told me you’d never been with a man before. I could have been gentler.”

“Technically, that’s not true,” Dawn said, recalling Billy’s hands on her and the things he’d done
attempting to stir his manhood to life. She’d hated every second of it.

“It’s true as far as I’m concerned,” Cole said, rising abruptly. “Lie still. I’ll see what I can do to make you more comfortable.”

Cole poured water from the pitcher into a bowl, found a soft cloth in the cupboard and returned to the bed. “Spread your legs, love.”

Dawn hesitated too long for Cole’s liking. He knelt between her thighs and held them open with his knees while he brought the wet cloth against her center. He cleansed her with gentle thoroughness. Then he washed himself, aware of her eyes upon him and the redness staining her cheeks. When he’d finished he set the bowl aside and smiled at her.

“Better now?”

Dawn nodded, shifting her gaze away from that part of him that had suddenly and quite visibly grown larger. Not only was she comfortable, but his touch had created a wanting inside her. Now that she knew the kind of pleasure Cole was capable of giving her, she couldn’t help wanting it one more time before he left her forever.

Cole slid into bed and gathered Dawn against him. His hands went to her breasts, covering them possessively, then pushing them up to accept his kisses. Dawn felt her nipples swelling as Cole tugged them between his teeth and sucked them, first one then the other into his mouth. She moaned. She felt as if her body no longer belonged to her. Cole had awakened her to passion and she was eager to experience that wondrous feeling again. She held his head against her forcibly as he
suckled her, listening to his hoarse groans, answering them with small breathy sighs.