Hawke's Pride, page 17
Jeb and the children waited on the back porch, silhouetted against the lamplight shining through the kitchen window. Hawke reined in Captain and swung to the ground. A wicked gleam of amusement crooked his lips. He lifted the resisting Rue from the saddle and let her body slowly slide down his. When she felt his manhood stir and jump against her stomach, she gritted her teeth, pushing away the heat of desire that scorched through her veins. Her feet touched the ground, and after one little buck of his hips, Hawke released her.
She was grateful for the darkness that hid her flushed face as Jeb and the children rushed to greet her. Susie and Tommy threw their arms around her waist, and with an arm around their shoulders, she answered their questions about the wolf as they walked toward the porch.
"Isn't Josh brave, Auntie Rue?" Susie asked solemnly.
Before Rue could answer, Tommy was adding in awed tones, "Josh said he killed that wolf with one shot. He must be the best shooter around."
Rue heard Hawke's derisive grunt, followed by Jeb's dry chuckle. She grinned. Her father-in-law also knew that his son didn't like hearing Josh Malone being praised.
"You got anything to eat, Pa?" Hawke broke in, stepping onto the porch, putting an end to the lauding of his foreman. "Me and the kids heated up the stew that was sittin' on the stove. There's plenty left."
"Good. I'm starved." Hawke gave Rue a cool, accusing look. "Chasin' after a contrary female don't feed a man's appetite." Jeb gave Rue a broad wink, and she turned quickly to hide the amused twist of her lips.
Chapter Ten
The morning sunshine flooded through the kitchen window as Rue walked onto the small back porch. She leaned against the railing, gazing at the mist-filled day, and sniffed the sharp pine scent.
She shivered as a cool breeze blew against her. It was nearing the end of November and a hard frost had persisted for the past week. Winter would arrive before long, she mused. But for the first time in her life she didn't dread it. There would be no cold wind whistling through this sturdily built house and the snow wouldn't sift through cracks and broken windows. There would be no white drifts on her bed when she awakened in the morning. And the huge fireplace would keep her warm all day. When she had to go outside, she would wear a heavy jacket and there would be no holes in the soles of her boots.
A sharp gust of wind tugged at Rue's hair and she turned back into the kitchen, her red woolen dress swaying gently as she cleared the table of the breakfast dishes.
It was her favorite dress, she thought, stacking the dirty plates and carrying them to the dry sink. Hawke had bought it and two others for her.
Her hands stilled in the warm, sudsy dishwater as she recalled the day he had walked into their bedroom and tossed a brown paper-wrapped package on the bed. Giving her a lazy smile, he had drawled, "A gift from your loving husband."
Rue gave him a scornful look at his description of himself and bent over the package to untie it. When she pushed aside the wrapping, she exclaimed with pleasure as her eyes fell on a neatly folded, blue poplin dress.
"How beautiful," she whispered, holding the garment up, wondering if she'd ever have the nerve to wear it, the neckline was cut so low. Surely it would show half her bosom.
The next dress she lifted up was of black velvet, long-sleeved and just as daringly cut. It was the type of gown a city woman would wear to a ball. What had Hawke been thinking of when he bought it?
The last dress was the red woolen. It was full-skirted, buttoned to the chin, a white lace collar setting it off She smoothed her palm over the soft material. This one she wouldn't be embarrassed to wear.
She lifted her eyes to the watching Hawke. "They are very beautiful."
"For a beautiful woman." Hawke brushed his knuckles across her creamy cheek. "Aren't you gonna thank me for them?" he asked, a teasing twinkle in his eyes.
"Oh, I do thank you." Rue smiled back. "I thank you very much. I've never had anything so lovely."
Without warning, his arm snaked around her waist and pulled her against him. "I'd like something better than words," he murmured huskily, and before she could turn her face away, his head swept down and his mouth claimed hers.
Caught unaware, with no time to get her defenses up, Rue's body melted into his. His kiss deepened as her arms went around his neck, his tongue darting into her mouth. She felt his powerful erection press against her stomach and excitement shivered through her. Never had her heart beat with such thudding intensity.
But when Hawke freed a breast from the bodice she hadn't known he had unbuttoned, she stiffened. When he lowered his head and stroked his tongue across her nipple, she returned to reality. This man didn't love her and she refused to be used. Though her breasts ached to have his lips on them, and her body trembled from the desire gripping her, she pressed her palms against his broad chest and broke his embrace.
"Rue, please," Hawke whispered hoarsely as she wordlessly left the room, her fingers doing up the buttons he had freed.
It had been different between them after that, Rue now remembered, bringing her idle hands back to life, scrubbing away at a plate. Hawke was openingly courting her these days. He was full of compliments, the two of them taking long rides together, sitting before the fire, where bit by bit he told her about himself, leaving out, she was sure, all the women he had slept with.
And because of all that attention she was dreadfully afraid her defenses were weakening against him. Of course matters weren't helped any, as she lay every night listening to his even breathing as he slept in his bedroll only feet away.
She had given in to his demand to share the bedroom with him, simply because she didn't want to cause concern for kind Jeb Masters. It had worked out better than she had thought it would—at first. Hawke always came into the bedroom long after she had retired. But since the drugging kiss the day he had given her the dresses, he seemed to come earlier and earlier to their room. A couple of times she had barely climbed into bed when he quietly opened the door.
Rue looked down at the gentle tug on her skirt. "Are you about finished, Auntie Rue?" Susie asked impatiently. "You promised we'd go down to the creek today and have a picnic."
"We will, honey." Rue placed the last dish on the drainer. "Just as soon as I get the beds made."
"Can I wade in the creek like I did the last time we were there?" the little girl asked hopefully.
Rue laughed and ruffled the blond hair. "You silly goose, you'd freeze your feet. Didn't you hear Tommy say that the edges of the water have been frozen this past week?"
"But what can I do then?" Susie plopped down at the table, her small mouth drawn into a pout.
"Well, you can sail the little boat Tommy made for you. That will be lots of fun."
"Yes, it will!" Small hands clapped together as Susie scooted from the chair and followed Rue down the hall to the bedrooms.
Finally everything was in order and Rue went back to the kitchen to make sandwiches for their outing. A few minutes later she had packed two sandwiches, two pieces of cake, and ajar of water in a basket. "Susie," she said, "go fetch a blanket from the linen chest and we'll be off."
The sun had warmed as it rose higher and it was quite pleasant when Rue and her little charge arrived at the clear, running creek. She helped Susie launch her boat, found her a long stick to control it from the bank, then stretched out on the blanket, the unseasonable warmth bathing her face.
A peaceful hour passed in which Rue managed to keep Hawke out of her thoughts. She mused on her grandparents and Jimmy and wondered how they were, and if she would ever see them again. Maybe she would see Jimmy again. When he became a little older, he could make the trip to visit her. It would be wonderful if Hawke would give him a job. Of course she would never ask him to.
Susie brought her boat in and announced that she was hungry. Rue left off her daydreaming and set out the lunch. As bees buzzed lazily around their heads, the slices of beef between split biscuits were consumed.
While they ate the cake, Rue heard the hollow drumming of hoofbeats. When they stopped suddenly, she shaded her eyes against the sun and peered at a distant knoll. A horse and rider sat outlined against the sky. She frowned. She did not recognize the man as one of their hands, but the large bulk turned toward her looked vaguely familiar. Her heartbeat raced. From here, the man looked like Sly Burford.
Impossible, she told herself. What would her stepfather be doing in cattle country? He was too lazy to work on a ranch.
Nevertheless, she rose to her feet, folded the blanket, and picking up the basket, said, "It's time we get home and start supper, honey."
Thankfully Susie didn't put up a fuss at their short-lived picnic. As they headed toward the house a short distance away, Rue glanced up at knoll. The horse and rider were gone. Still, as she hurried along, Susie's short, little legs running to keep up with her, Rue couldn't shake the fear of impending danger to herself.
The sun was ready to slip out of sight, and long shadows were creeping down the mountain as Rue mashed a large pot of boiled potatoes. She was stirring a skillet of bubbling gravy when she heard the approaching sound of hoofbeats, then a moment later the straining of leather and the heaving of tired horses. The Masters men were home for supper.
She glanced out the window, her gaze unconsciously looking for Hawke. Her eyes roamed over him as he swung from the saddle, taking in the vest that swung open over a soft blue shirt, the checkered kerchief around his neck. As usual, his hard, handsome looks made the breath catch in her throat.
"Stop it!" she hissed under her breath and began to set out the plates.
By the time the horses were unsaddled and put out to pasture and son, grandson and father had washed up at the water trough, supper was on the table, with only the beef roast waiting to be sliced.
"That roast sure does smell good, daughter." Jeb sniffed the air as he hung his hat on a wooden peg on the wall beside the door. "You're a fine little cook." He took his place at the table beside Susie.
"That's why I married her, Pa." Hawke chucked Rue under the chin as he passed her to sit at the head of the table. Rue's lips moved in a derisory grimace. They both knew why he had married her. A rifle had been trained on him.
"Papa married Mama because he loved her," Susie piped up. "He always said so, didn't he, Grandpa?" She looked at Jeb for confirmation, her eyes large and serious.
"That's right, honey." Jeb patted the blond head. "And Uncle Hawke loves Auntie Rue too. He was only joking when he said that about her cookin'."
"I notice that you and Auntie Rue don't kiss like Mama and Papa used to do." Tommy looked at Hawke.
His eyes shining wickedly at Rue, Hawke answered, "Blame Auntie Rue for that. She doesn't like to kiss me."
"You don't, Auntie Rue?" Tommy looked at her in surprise. "Why not?"
"Don't pay any attention to what your uncle says, Tommy," Rue answered evasively. "He's teasing, just as he was about my cooking." She gave Hawke a look that said he was wasting his time.
Hawke's only response was a raised, mocking eyebrow at Rue. It grew quiet in the kitchen as their hunger was sated, the only sound the scraping of knives and forks. Conversation picked up when Rue placed a cake on the table. As she poured coffee for the adults, the wind moaned through the big spruce in the back yard and the kitchen was filled with cold air.
Tommy ran to slam the door, and as Rue sat back down at the table, Hawke looked at her with slumberous, teasing eyes. "It's gonna be a good night for cuddling if a person has a mind to."
Rue looked away from him, not letting on that she had noted his scarcely veiled hint.
Hawke studied her averted face from beneath his lowered lids for a minute then, rising, he picked up the lantern from its usual place beside the door. "I'm gonna stable my horses tonight," he said, striking a sulphur stick and holding its flame to the wick he'd exposed with a press of his thumb that released the glass globe. "That wind might bring rain, and it will be a cold one."
"He sure is particular about those horses, huh, Grandpa?" Tommy remarked after Hawke left the house by the kitchen door. "He sure is." Jeb grinned. "They're mighty special to him. He wants to build up a herd of thoroughbreds."
Jeb and Tommy continued to talk horses as Rue hurriedly washed the dishes and tidied up the kitchen. Something told her to go straight to bed tonight, not to linger in front of the fireplace talking to Hawke as was her habit. She hadn't liked that devil look in his eyes when he left to tend to his pets.
Thankfully Susie was tired from her busy day and didn't fuss at going to bed an hour early. Jeb and Tommy had moved into the parlor and were sitting in front of the fire when Rue told them good night and went to her room.
As she unbuttoned her dress, she walked over to the window and parted the heavy curtains. A full moon bathed the yard, throwing into relief the waving limbs of the spruce.
It doesn't look like rain to me, she thought, gazing up at the millions of stars twinkling in the sky. But maybe, she allowed, moving to the bed, rain clouds came up quickly in this region.
Rue stripped off her dress, then stepped out of the sheer lawn drawers trimmed with lace and ribbons. She was pulling the matching camisole over her head when she heard a low exclamation from Hawke's bedroll. She swung around and Hawke was beside her, stripped of his clothes.
"No," she gapsed softly, shaking her head.
"Yes," Hawke persisted gently, his arms coming round her, his palms caressing her back as he slowly eased himself against her trembling body. He caught his breath as they melded, then his mouth was on Rue's with a fierce urgency. Rue felt the powerful beat of his heart against her breast as his kiss deepened and his manhood rose pressing against her stomach.
"Do you know how you fire my blood?" he whispered hoarsely as he released her lips. "How I can't sleep at night from wanting you?"
His hands cupped her proud, jutting breasts, and rubbing his thumbs against the pink tips, he continued, "Do you know how I ache to taste you, to open my mouth over these beauties, draw the nipples into my mouth, and suck them?"
And as Rue stood rooted to the floor, unable even to speak, so weak from the passion his words had aroused inside her, Hawke's hands slid down to her waist and lifted her up. Her hands gripped his shoulders when he held her so that her breasts were even with his mouth. When his lips drew on a nipple, catching it between his teeth and tongue, she flung her head back with a little moan.
Rue's breathing became unsteady and her fingers bit into the bunched muscles of his powerful shoulders as Hawke's dark head moved from breast to breast, his lips dragging on the puckered nipples as though taking nourishment from them. Each one was rosy and swollen when he slid her down his body, pausing to hold her tight against his rigid, throbbing manhood.
He held her there, pulsating between her thighs a moment, then lowered her to stand on the floor. "Touch me," he whispered hoarsely, taking her hand. "Hold it," he urged, folding her fingers around him. "Caress it like I dreamed you would."
It seemed the most natural thing in the world to Rue, to close her fingers around the hard, though velvet, smoothness and gently stroke it up and down. "When his manhood moved and jerked in her hand, Hawke arched his neck and closed his eyes as though in pain.
"Oh, God, yes, sweetheart, that's the way. Stroke me, stroke me." His mouth came down on hers and his tongue moved between her lips in a darting action that synchronized with the movement of her hand.
Swaying from the force of desire, and weak from unleashed passion, Rue cried, "I need you, Hawke, right now."
"Not yet, darlin'," Hawke whispered huskily. "I've waited too long for this. I want it to last as long as possible, to be perfect."
He swung her into his arms and lay her across the width of the bed, her legs hanging to the floor. At last, Rue thought, then leaned up on her elbows to look questioningly at Hawke when he knelt on the floor and lifted her legs around his shoulders. "Hawke!" she exclaimed in a hushed whisper. "What are you doing?"
"I told you I wanted to taste you," he whispered back, a hand on either side of the curly vee between her thighs. "All of you," he added, and lowered his face.
Rue slumped back on the bed, hot liquid seeming to pump through her veins as his mouth covered that most intimate part of her, his tongue delving inside. She thrashed her head back and forth, making little mewling noises as his tongue flicked in and out, his teeth nibbling.
"Hawke, please," she finally begged. "I can't stand any more. Take away my pain."
Hawke answered her plea, rising to his feet, then kneeling between her legs. His eyes were glazed as he gripped her slender hips and raised them off the bed. "The pain will go away now, honey," he murmured, taking his large manhood in his hand. Holding her hips steady, he bent over Rue, guided himself to her pulsating opening, and plunged inside her.
Rue gave a painful cry as he broke the flimsy barrier within her. Mindlessly she struggled to get away from the punishing appendage that seemed to be splitting her apart.
Hawke's body stiffened and grew still. Surprise and wonderment were in his eyes as he stared down at her pain-pinched face. "God, I'm sorry, Rue. I had no idea you had never been with a man before. Why didn't you tell me?"
"I tried to tell you many times," Rue sobbed accusingly, "but you wouldn't listen."
"I‘m so sorry, honey." Hawke kissed her smooth forehead. "I have so much to make up to you." He gently wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes. "Had I known you were a virgin, I would have taken more care. I wouldn't have hurt you so." He smiled down at her. "Do you know you're the first virgin I've ever had? It's goin' to be most enjoyable teachin' you the things I like, finding out what pleases you."
Rue looked up at him doubtfully. "I don't think any part of coupling will please me. It hurts too much."
Hawke's lips curved in gentle amusement. "It only hurts the first time you're entered, honey. After that, it's pure heaven."
"Can we wait until tomorrow night then?" she asked hopefully.
