Page 45 of Texas Destiny
He touched his tongue to hers and heard her small sigh. She scraped her fingers up the side of his face and wove them through his hair. He’d lost his hat as well, and for the first time since he’d been wounded, he welcomed the absence of the shadows.
She smelled of the river, but still he caught the slight scent that was hers and hers alone. He longed to give his mouth the freedom to warm all of her, to kiss every inch of her.
She stopped trembling from the cold, and he could feel the intoxicating warmth as their bodies pressed together. Another tremor passed through her body, a tremor that had nothing to do with the cold. He deepened the kiss, his hands bracketing her face, turning it so he could better the angle and touch her mouth with the intimacy of a long-time lover.
Kiss her as he’d never kissed another. Kiss her as he had no right.
Drawing away, he gazed at her. Her eyes were dark with passion, her lips no longer blue, but red, a deep red, swollen from his kiss.
“I shouldn’t have done that,” he said in a low voice.
Hurt plunged into the depths of her eyes. Gingerly, he removed his fingers from her tangled hair. “I’ll get a fire going.”
He struggled to his feet and staggered to the place where she’d left his duster. He snatched it up, returned to her side, and spread it over her as she lay there staring at him. A coldness seeped through his flesh and wrapped around his heart. He went in search of something—anything—with which he could build a fire.
Amelia sat up and slipped into the duster, drawing it tightly around her. It carried his scent of horses and leather.
She touched her fingers to her trembling lips. She had always imagined that Dallas Leigh would be the first to kiss her. But she had never imagined the kiss would be like the one she had just received, would make her feel so warm, so scared, so safe. All the feelings jumbling around inside her made no sense.
She watched as Houston built a fire nearby. She waited until he’d brought the fire to life, just as he’d brought feelings to life within her.
She rose to her feet, walked to the fire, and knelt beside him. “I suppose I shouldn’t have kissed you back.”
“No, you shouldn’t have,” he said, tersely, never taking his eyes away from the smolderingfire. “But I figure you were probably just scared and not thinking.”
“Were you scared?”
Houston felt his stomach clench. By God, he was terrified, more now than he had been when he’d seen her rushing into the river. That kiss had him shaking clear down to his boots.
He’d expected her to be sweet. He hadn’t expected her to be everything he’d ever dreamed of when he was younger and deserved dreams.
Damn Dallas! Damn him to hell for wanting women in addition to cattle, land, and wealth. Damn him for wanting this woman, for earning the right to have her.
Houston shoved himself to his feet. “I need to round up the mules. You stay here and dry off.”
His long strides couldn’t take him far enough, fast enough. Her flowery scent followed him like a shadow. The lingering taste ofherlips taunted him, made him hungry for more. He could still feel the soft swells of her breasts shifting beneath his chest. His fingers ached to hold them, shape them, and caress them with a tenderness he’d never known existed.
He released a shudder as he skidded down the muddy bank. He needed a sporting woman. He’d gone too long without spending himself on a woman. That was the reason he found this journey so damn difficult, the reason he wanted to hold Amelia close. He just needed to purge his longings. Maria would help him. She always did. She would douse all the flames, and in total darkness, he’d take her without passion, without love, without hope. And in the darkness, she couldn’t see the ugliness that made him the man he was.
He didn’t want Amelia to see the ugliness, either, but she would. Sooner or later, she would.
When night fell, Amelia eased as close to the fire as she dared and wrapped the horse’s blanket around herself. The wind came up off the river, damp and frigid. She shuddered.
“Cold?”
She lifted her gaze to the man sitting on the other side of the fire. He’d found the horse and three of the mules. She had a feeling that he’d found the fourth mule as well. She’d heard a gunshot, but he hadn’t brought any food back to their small camp. Tomorrow, they would comb the banks of the river to see what they could recover.
“A little,” she said, hating the way her teeth clicked together as she spoke. She hadn’t been able to regain any warmth since he’d ended the kiss.
Watching him, if she didn’t know better, she would have thought he was having an argument with someone. His brow furrowed deeply, his jaw clenched, and with his finger, he drew something in the dirt. Then like a man who had lost the battle, he shoved to his feet and walked around to her side of the fire.
Curiosity getting the better of her, she scrambled to her knees so she could see what he’d written. The light from the flames danced over Dallas’s brand.
Houston sat beside her, and she met his gaze. “Why did you draw that?”
“As a reminder that he has a claim on you.” He stretched out on the ground and opened his duster. “Come here.”
She hesitated, her heart pounding. As an unmarried woman betrothed to his brother, she knew she should suffer through the cold, shouldn’t welcome the warmth his body could provide. She closed her hand around the watch, her gift to Dallas that was still hidden in her pocket, and lay next to Houston.
