CHAPTER TWELVE
She couldn’t believe she had fallen asleep in the middle of the day. But she felt great. Better even than she had felt that morning after her good night’s sleep. She obviously had some catching up to do. After all she was sleeping for four. Surely her jeans would be dry by now? She padded off to the lean-to, because after all she was also peeing for four.
As soon as she opened the front door she saw him. A big male black. She knew it was Patrick right away. Although she could not have said why. He looked larger than she had remembered him being. Blacker. More muscular. Huh.
His fur looked a little bedraggled. As if he’d gone swimming and then not known how to groom himself properly. Could she get around him and get to her jeans before he woke up? His round ears were swiveling like radio receptors and his eyes opened while she was still dithering on the porch in her panties and bra. He yawned and made a mating whine. Before her eyes he began to take human. She retreated into the cabin and snatched up the blanket she had left behind.
He stalked into the house stark naked. She hadn’t remembered him having so much hair. On his chest. On his belly. On his legs and arms. And there. There where his dick was a fully armed missile threatening her. Taking bear seemed to have turned him from a hairless boy into a proper man. She pulled the blanket more tightly around herself.
“Are you okay?” he growled.
She nodded. “Where are your clothes?”
“I had to leave them downstream. Do you have a towel or something?” But he didn’t look like he wanted a something. He looked like he wanted her. His big hard face was grim, but his mouth was soft and sensual.
“There may be something in one of the closets.”
“Or I could have one of the sheets behind you.” He pointed. This time he used his finger.
She handed him one of her precious sheets. And watched as he wrapped it around himself. He did his best, but he still looked very happy to see her.
“I’m just going to go see if my clothes are dry.” She tried to push past him to get to the door.
But he snagged her arm and pulled her against his chest. “Are you okay?”
“Better than okay.” Why was her voice so husky and sensual?
His mouth crashed down on hers, needy and demanding. He kissed her as if he was returning from combat to his faithful mate. And she kissed him back as if he was her returning warrior. When he broke the clinch, her breath was coming hard and he was panting as hard as she was. Red bars marked his broad high cheekbones that were so like his brother’s. So like her cousins’.
“Were you alone all night?” he demanded.
“On my wedding night.”
He stroked her cheek. “I’m sorry. I took so long to get here. Your cousins gave me a map, but it didn’t make a lot of sense to a stranger. I wasted a lot of time looking in empty cabins.”
She couldn’t help it. She giggled. “These woods are full of hunting camps.”
“I found that out.” He kissed her again. Less fiercely this time. But with just the same amount of neediness.
Her blanket undid itself and slipped to the floor. His sheet joined it. What the heck. They were married. She was already pregnant. Wasn’t she entitled to a little happiness once in a while? And he was certainly equipped to make her very happy indeed.
“What are you giggling about?” he whispered as he carried her to the bed.
It was nothing like that episode by the river that she had dreamed about so often. He laid her down reverently and stroked her as if she were precious. He tussled a little with her old bra until he got it off. And then he palmed her breasts and weighed them carefully as if they belonged to him. He kissed the tips reverently. Deliciously. And then he tasted the undersides and left little nibbling kisses as he nuzzled his way along the lower curves and back to her nipples.
She stroked his chest. The black curls that had sprouted there were tangled and silky. His flat brown discs were puckered as tightly as her own nipples. She wanted to lick and suck as he was licking and sucking hers, but she didn’t have the right angle. Hmm. This wasn’t something you could do in tandem. Not from this position. She contented herself with petting him all the way down his furry six-pack to his navel and then daringly beyond to where his dick was long and thick and dripping.
As suddenly as he had shown up on her doorstep, he abandoned her tingling breasts and lifted her by her butt, discovered her panties, and had them dangling from one foot. Before she could squeak he was inspecting her sex. Let him look. She spread her thighs and squirmed a little closer to him.
“Guide me in, sweetheart.” He kissed her. Just a soft brush of lips against hers and a little taste of tongue.
She wasn’t sure exactly what to do. But she was never going to learn any younger. She grasped him firmly with one hand and aimed him at her throbbing, soaking passage. He wouldn’t fit.
“You take it easy, darling,” he groaned. “That’s the only one I have handy.”
She tried again. This time his big hand spread her folds and he slipped inside as if he belonged there. This was no furious pounding, just a gentle rocking that made her feel all quivery inside. She felt an electric current running from her clit right into her butt.
Her thighs squeezed him as tightly as they could. But he didn’t pick up his pace. If anything, he pulled back so his thrusts were shallower. Every stroke pulled at her folds and tugged at her clit and made the sensitive entrance to her vag spasm with delight. Every stroke made her heart sing.
Overcome by sensation, she let go of his shoulders and relaxed back into the mattress. He let her feel more of his weight and spread his arms so that his hands grasped her outstretched ones. His fingers entwined with hers. His kiss tasted of man. Of love. Like her fricking fated mate. He thrust more deeply. “Come for me, sweetheart,” he begged.
And as her whole body splintered and flew off in a million directions, she felt his hot gush gluing her back together. Briefly, he collapsed on her before rolling off and tugging her on top of his damp and heaving chest. She was such a fool. He felt like home, but he was nothing but a holiday.
* * *
He was still sleeping when she woke up. She slipped out of bed and found her underwear and dragged it on. She didn’t know whether to be pleased that they were so well matched in bed, or mad at herself for leaping on him as if they really were married.
Her stupid body – her stupid heart – kept acting like he was the one. Her fated mate. As if she didn’t know better. The only reason he hadn’t insulted her today was that they hadn’t done much talking.
This time she took the blanket with her when she went to fetch her clothes. Even though the sun had moved away from the branch, her jeans were pretty much dry. Her shirt was crispy. Only her socks were damp. She left them hanging up.
She took the rest back inside and dressed in the bedroom with the door closed. Which was shutting the barn door after the horses had bolted. Patrick slept on even though she made a racket heating up her soup. She should go and see if she had managed to capture supper. Otherwise she would be eating more canned stew. She had a feeling her husband had never eaten dinner from a can.
She was glad she had brought both water buckets to the river. There were so many fish in her trap that she had to pick and choose. With no refrigeration, she could keep only two. She put them in one bucket and let the others go.
The trap she left by the riverbank. Sadly, sooner or later, some of her cousins would come roaring up the hill, howling with laughter and slapping their knees, to collect the happy couple. She wouldn’t need any more fish.
Going back to town was inevitable. But it wasn’t what she wanted. She plunked down on a rock and thought. They would disrupt her pleasant holiday. Now that the joke was over, they would expect her to go off with her new husband as if everything was all right and the shivaree had made the match. She didn’t want to go back to French Town. She sure didn’t want to go to Denver. What did she want?
She picked up her buckets and headed back to the cabin and her sleeping husband. He was making little bubbling noises and his eyes moved under the lids. But not even the noise she made getting the big enamel tub out of the lean-to woke him. If she was going to stay up here, she would need twice as much water. The fish would have to swim in the tub on the porch, and she would have to go to back to the creek for a bath and more drinking water.
Patrick was still asleep when she got back with the second bucket of water. She sat on the porch steps. Sunshine poured through a gap in the canopy and she turned her face up to it. It wouldn’t last long. The crows must have agreed with her. They lined up on a dead branch to enjoy a few rays too.
When the company showed up, the only surprise was that it was Lenny Benoit’s pickup not Logan’s or Uncle Bobby’s. He pulled up and tapped once on his horn. That was an old country custom designed to prevent you from walking in on unprepared people. Patrick slept on obliviously. She stood up and waved. When Lenny got out of his pickup he had a big duffel in one hand and a bigger grin on his face.
“How are you doing?” He bent to give her cheek a kiss.
“I’m doing fine. I don’t know why you didn’t stop that foolishness.”
“Do you mean the wedding or the shivaree?” he asked.
“The shivaree. I didn’t expect you to face down shotguns.”
Lenny shook his head. “I had enough to do making sure they didn’t get Patrick so tangled up he never could find you.” He chuckled. “It took Joey and Gideon and Asher and Uncle Pierre, all four, to stop your Uncle Bobby from leading the whole shooting match up mountain to wake you up in the middle of the night. They had Kazoos, Aunt Sally’s washtub, whistles, and I don’t know what all else to make a real racket outside your windows. Drunker than skunks the whole boiling lot of them.”
She rolled her eyes. “I know it’s traditional to root the happy couple out of bed while they’re trying to have a little peace and quiet on their wedding night, but Patrick didn’t arrive here till today.”
Lenny’s grin got even wider. “I found the map your cousins drew for him. Might as well been drawn by my dog.” He produced a damp and crumpled piece of paper.
Heather held it by one corner. “Is this supposed to be a map to tell you how to get here?” She began to laugh.
“I reckon so. He didn’t do too bad for a greenhorn if he got here at all. Where is he?” He waved the duffel. “I brought you some clothes. Him too. Maddie packed yours. He will have to make do with mine. I didn’t like to ask Zeke, because I had all I could do last night to keep him from following Patrick and showing him the way. And I didn’t think you wanted two city boys.”
Heather greeted this with another eye roll. “It’s not like Patrick would give a dang if my cousins thought he was a sorry, useless son-of-a-bear.”
“I’d care. Can’t have my cousin married up to someone too boneheaded to work out how to find his own bride.” Lenny looked around as if he expected to see Patrick strolling out. “So, what have you done with him?”
“He’s still sleeping.”
“Well, wake him up. Tell him to put some clothes on. I’ll take you back to the Inn – or to my mom’s if you prefer.”
Heather folded her arms across her chest and shook her head. “I’m not going anywhere. I like it here. I want to stay. You can come back in a day or two.”
For the first time, Lenny looked uncertain. “I’ve got strict orders from Jenna. She wants to see you. She was worried when I told her how pale and faint you were yesterday.”
She patted his arm briskly. “You tell Jenna, she was right all along. All that was wrong with me was a lack of fresh air. Ever since I came up here I’ve felt wonderful. No morning sickness. No lightheadedness. No contractions. No symptoms at all. I don’t intend to leave just yet.”
“What about Patrick?”
“What about him?”
“Important fella like that – is he going to want to hang out here where there’s no running water and no food?” Lenny looked sly.
She shrugged. “It’s up to him. I like it here. There’s water. There’s fish. I don’t say I’d enjoy it as much if it was the winter time and I had to break ice to fetch water. But it’s high summer. The blackberries are ripe. The sun is shining. I like it here just fine.”