Page 48 of The Cowboy's Secret Babies

Ryder had married her. The woman who had haunted him from the start. The mother of his children. The only woman he’d ever come to know well, and thoroughly, and not only in bed.

That sure felt like a sacrament, no matter where they’d happened to tie the knot legally.

And so, here in this room that must have seen more relationships than anyone could count, Ryder set about making love to his wife for the very first time.

He was the one who undressed her, piece by piece, carefully and reverently. When he was done he kissed her everywhere, until she was clinging to him, her skin warm and soft. He picked her up again and lay her out in the center of the big bed.

Then he set about shrugging out of his own clothes, glad that he’d dressed up a bit for the occasion and even more glad that her eyes got that hot, glazed look as he shrugged off every last bit of it.

And when he was finally as naked as she was, he crawled up onto the bed and stretched out beside her. They both stayed there a moment, smiling so wide that he thought he couldn’t be the only one whose jaw began to ache.

This time, it was an ache he liked.

He would never know, looking back, who moved first.

At first it was all reverence, all worship.

Sacramental devotion, sweet and perfect.

But this thing between Rosie and Ryder had always been a firestorm, and soon enough, they began to blaze.

They couldn’t help it.

Ryder was pretty sure that it was always going to be like this for them.

The first time, they let it run hot and wild, and finished in a rush that had them both shouting so loud it made them laugh, thinking security was going to come crashing in the door.

“This can’t be the first time…” Rosie managed to say, her face buried in his shoulder.

“Pretty sure you have to be selectively deaf to work in a place like this,” Ryder agreed.

Rosie kept laughing until she had to wipe at her eyes. Only then did they explore the little suite they had for the night. They ate the snacks they found, sitting together on the bed, as if they’d been starving for weeks. Then they took a shower together, making each other laugh because the stall was so narrow.

Then sigh, because narrow had its uses.

The fire built again.

And the next time they found themselves stretched out in the bed instead of cramped into the shower, they took their time. The fire was there but they kept it at a simmer, and everything seemed slow. Achingly new.

When he finally let Rosie fall over the edge, she had tears in her eyes once again.

This time, not from laughter.

The next morning, he woke up to findhis wifecrawling her way down the length of his torso, tasting everything along the way. She kept going until she found the hardest part of him, and when she looked up at him, the way she smiled nearly made him lose it there and then.

He managed to hold out a while, because it was the principle of the thing. But when he was finished, he thought it was a great idea to return the favor. And Ryder might have previously defined his life in increments of seven seconds, but not when it came to Rosie.

When it came to Rosie, he had all the seconds in the world, and then some.

By the time they finally stumbled out of their hotel room into a bright, cold morning to find some breakfast, they were both a little too giddy.

“Call it sleep deprivation,” Rosie said when she nearly tripped over absolutely nothing as they sat down to eat.

Or something stronger, Ryder thought.Something much stronger.

They drove back down to Marietta, then took the road up and over Copper Mountain. It was particularly stunning today. The snow on the hills and the sky with layered clouds that let the sun shine through. Ryder couldn’t help but take it as a good, Montanan celebration of their marriage.

“It was so much fun to take a night away,” Rosie said with a happy sigh as they wound their way down into Cowboy Point, also looking its prettiest in the late-March sun and clouds. “But it’s amazing how much I missed the boys.”

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