My Angel (64 page)

Before she could do anything but nod and try to hide her shock, he scooped her into his arms. The bed was a few steps away. He stole a kiss as he strode toward the welcoming embrace of the blankets and the soft bed he'd sculpted out of fabric remnants from the box her mother had deposited in the wagon.

For a few seconds she did nothing more than close her eyes and listen to the wind rustle the pine needles and the sounds of the night animals singing their songs. When he set her down on the blankets, she opened her eyes, drinking in the sight of him and thinking it had been too long. Her gaze traveled over him in fascination, lingering on his mouth, his hands, his long legs. A potent feeling rose strong and hot in her. The first time she hadn't felt quite this way. Now the sensations were stronger, more intense, and much more heartrending. She wanted to do what he'd asked.

Show him.

She didn't want to ask him how.

His body gave a sudden jerk of surprise when she took his hand in hers and pulled him down beside her. His smile was rakish.

Her hands roamed restlessly over his face and shoulders, exploring. She pressed his mouth open to delve deeply inside, stroking wetly along its roof, over his tongue, across his teeth. Her manner was aggressive, with a singleness of purpose. She felt as if they were involved in a contest she was determined to win.

"I want this time to be different." His voice sounded raspy.

Reminded of the hated accusations that stood between them, she stiffened, waiting for his words proclaiming her a harlot. They didn't come, and he looked suddenly as if he knew what she feared.

"I believe in you," he told her. "And I want you to trust in me."

He'd read her mind and answered her question without speaking of the incident.

~ * ~

Inwardly he cursed himself. He'd learned from Stephan's mother that her virtue should not have been questioned, that sometimes women didn't carry inside them proof of their chastity. He should have listened to Angela. She had been so innocent and so trusting. His instincts had homed in on her lack of experience, but he'd been too blind to realize it. He watched and was enthralled with her.

Her eyelids fell to a sultry half-mast, beneath which passion glittered like hot jewels. "I do trust you."

Having been so long away from her, he didn't know what to think of her words. It should have been enough, but he wasn't exactly in a clear-thinking frame of mind. He was drawn back to her soft, sultry lips again and again.

He wanted to know if she wanted him as badly as he did her. Without knowing his question, she answered him.

"I want to see you. All of you," she murmured into his kiss. "Take off your clothes."

Part of him reacted with shock. For all his experience, he had always led and expected the female to follow. No one had ever demanded anything of him before. But another part of him responded to the strange urgency in her voice and had him tearing at the buttons of his shirt. She was touching and kissing each portion he uncovered, worshiping him with innocent appreciation until he stood sleek and dark before her. The palms of her hands rubbed up from the flat of his belly and over the swell of his chest to sweep over his shoulders, her gaze heated and admiring.

"You're beautiful. My dark warlord." She moved closer, so that her face nuzzled the center of his chest. She inhaled deeply, the scent of him filling her, touching her heart, and making her think it had been too long.

Her praise was an aphrodisiac. Needing the same closeness, his hands moved up the front of her shirt, seeking the small fastenings. He paused. "I would see you the same way."

She nodded, still pressed against him. He felt her smile.

He worked down the row of buttons until fabric parted, and he pushed the material from her shoulders. She wore nothing beneath.

"You're just as I remember you," he murmured as his hands skimmed over smooth skin.

He lifted her and helped her slip her denims off. Even as he sank into her upraised arms, she was melting with him. She was aggressive, bold in her desire, and he knew he'd always remember the moment. She was like no other.

Her boldness meant only one thing to him: she trusted him and believed in him. There was no reason to hold back. With one swift move he was sheathed inside her.

"Let's forget the past," she said breathlessly against his ear. She wanted him to believe in her and trust her. "I want to create something new and beautiful."

And so he meant to, with hard, fevered thrusts that had her arching up for more, crying out in soft little pleas until her body responded to his, guiding him to a fulfillment that defied time.

He pulled the covers around them, kissing her gently about
the face and throat and breasts. She shifted languidly beneath him, holding his head, her eyes closed. She was so beautiful; she'd given herself so completely, he wanted to weep with the fullness of his love for her.

"I don't ever want you to regret this, Angela." He meant forever.

"I don't." She trembled. Then she shifted so they were side by side, and she nestled against him with soft little purring sounds of contentment. He was lost.

"I love you, angel," he said.

But she was already asleep.

~ * ~

Alexi didn't sleep. He was awake all night, knowing he still had to convince Angela that his reasons for coming back for her revolved around her alone, that until he had ridden into the clearing he didn't even know he had a child.

Words alone wouldn't be enough.

There would be no easy way. But when he looked down at the sleeping woman snuggled next to him, he knew in the end the struggle would be worth all his efforts. If he had to, he meant to bury his pride.

He'd always had everything he'd ever wanted--until Angela had walked out on him. Those months had been the hardest of his entire life, living without her, wondering if she'd ever forgive him. He should have fallen down on his knees and begged her forgiveness the moment he saw her. But he'd been too awed by the child even to think of begging. Then he'd been angry and hurt.

Now he could make up for the hurt he'd inflicted upon her. He would make sure that from this moment on she'd have everything she wanted. He'd die for her. He'd go down on his knees for her. She was his world. He'd tried so desperately to put her in a place where she couldn't touch his heart, because he'd always known there would come a time when he could no longer live without her. That time was now.

Toward dawn he finally drifted off into a light sleep, only to be awakened by the gliding of Angela's fingertips, swirling
over his abdomen, playing about his navel. He was instantly alert, firm and pulsing eagerly in anticipation of her touch.

Without so much as a "good morning," she slid over him, engulfing him with her snug heat, accepting him again and again without reservation, until their hard, driving motion had them gasping in unison, straining for the reward they both knew awaited. With Alexi's hands on her hips to direct the rhythm, their climax grew nearer. He lifted his upper body to fasten his mouth upon the taut peak of one breast, sucking hard, biting down without gentleness, and she went wild above him, her body bucking, dissolving into a series of frantic quakes that pulled him over the edge of expectation into ecstasy.

After that she stretched over him, sighing lazily as he tried to prevent his total collapse. They needed to talk, and he couldn't afford to let this companionable time between them pass.

"Angela?"

"Hmm..."

"I've bought land in
Wyoming
. Cattle, too. My people are starting to build a ranch house. Ivan came with me, as well as some of his people who were left homeless and uprooted." He wanted her to like the arrangement. "All that was left in Ivan's homeland was pain and sorrow. I convinced him that
America
was heaven on earth."

She smiled up at the lightening sky overhead. "Anything else?"

"Do you have a problem with all those people underfoot while we're honeymooning?"

"We can go to higher ground, or perhaps to Trey's cabin in the
Black Hills
," came her firm reply.

He smiled. "I'd like that."

"Which?" She raked her fingers through his hair.

''Either one--both. If we take long enough, the house might be finished by the time we get back."

"You won't miss your home land?"

He shook his head. "This is my home."

"If you dare take a mistress, I'll take her to the top of the highest peak and leave her there."

"One woman is more than enough challenge for me."

He reached to draw out one of the sapphire earrings she wore then did the same with the diamond he wore. For a long moment he held them in his hand; then he exchanged earrings, slipping hers into his ear and the diamond into hers. The morning light caught the prisms of color. The sapphire stood out against his swarthy coloring as he came up on his elbow above her. It gave him a wild look, a dangerous air. She liked it.