Expecting his child(24)

His arms tightened around her. "Something I always need."

Martina kissed him with all the feelings in her heart, all the joy and  sorrow for her mother, all the love and desire she had for him.

Through the haze of that long, searching, scorching, wanting, needing  kiss, Martina heard the sound of an exaggerated cough. Noah reluctantly  drew away and Martina saw all three of his brothers standing in the hall  and staring.

"I take it she liked the piano," Jonathan said with a devious grin.

"Don't y'all have anything better to do than watch me?" Noah asked.

Arms crossed over his chest, Gideon looked at Adam. Chugging a canned  soda, Adam looked at Jonathan, who grinned hugely. Then all three of  their gazes connected with Noah's. "No," they said in cheerful unison.

Noah groaned. "Let's go," he said, urging Martina toward the front door.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"For a walk."

He led her a short distance away from the house to a small stand of  trees where they could enjoy the shade. He tugged her down in the grass  to sit between his legs. Martina had the strong, undeniable feeling that  she was where she belonged. Not wanting to fight it any longer, she  turned in his arms. "You have made it very difficult for me to leave,"  she told him.

"How?" he asked, his gaze intent.

"By the way you … " She hesitated, not wanting to use the word love  because he hadn't said he loved her. The knowledge still pinched a  vulnerable place deep inside her. But she had never received a more  loving gift than what Noah had given her this afternoon. "By the way you  care for me."                       
       
           



       

He ran his hands through her hair and down her arms as if discovering  her for the first time. "I will always make it difficult for you to  leave," he said, lifting her shirt and baring her pregnant belly to the  sun. "Always."

By unspoken agreement, there was no talk of leaving that night, and Noah  breathed easier than he had for days. He pushed aside the niggle of  discomfort that everything could fall apart in an instant and simply  inhaled Martina.

They took their dinner upstairs in his bedroom away from the prying eyes  of his brothers. Tonight he didn't want to share. Noah allowed himself  to drown in her blue, blue eyes. He drank in her laughter and couldn't  stop touching her.

When he read the next chapter of The Hobbit, he persuaded her to lift her shirt so he could read against her tummy.

She laughed. "Your voice is vibrating against my skin."

Her laughter was such a turn-on he had a tough time focusing on the  story. "I'm giving you a buzz?" he asked, meeting her gaze and wondering  how one woman could be so seductive.

"Yeah, you are," she said, the expression in her eyes cranking up his internal temperature.

Noah resisted the urge to toss the book and dive into her. Barely. By  the last few paragraphs he was stealing kisses at the end of every other  sentence. The book slid to the floor as he rubbed his hands over her  belly and felt the movements of the child they'd made.

Martina drew back breathlessly. "I do not understand your fascination with my belly."

"Well, you should," he said, taking her mouth and taunting both of them.  "There's a little bit of me and you in there, and it's incredibly sexy  knowing I helped put her there."

"Him," she corrected, sliding her hands over his shoulders and chest.

"Her," he argued, removing her shirt in one smooth motion. "I'm  fascinated with more than your belly." He unhooked her bra and lowered  his head to her breast. Her soft gasp was an intimate velvet stroke. He  cupped the turgid peak of her nipple with his tongue, savoring the  sensation of her delicate arousal.

He undressed her and dragged his tongue down her belly to her feminine secrets.

"What are you doing?" she asked in a shocked whisper, then, "Omi  …  ohhh."

He gently took her with his mouth until she was crying out his name. The  sound of his name on her lips made him so hard he wondered if he would  burst. Moving back up her body, he kissed her and she slid her hand to  his erection to stroke him.

Noah sucked in a sharp breath at the pleasure/pain sensation. He tried  to still her hands. "You're going to make it hard for me to-"

"That's the idea, isn't it?" she asked in a smoky voice that nearly undid him.

He growled and urged her onto her side. He lay behind her, with his  hardness nestled against her bottom, and stroked her breasts.

"What are you … "

Noah pushed against her swollen femininity and she moaned, shifting to  ease his entrance. He thrust inside her and they both made sounds of  satisfaction. She arched her bottom against him and he pumped inside her  silken recesses. "So tight," he muttered, holding on to her hips. "So  good."

She clenched around him, and his climax roared through him, taking him  by surprise. Her intimate shudders milked his release so that it went on  and on, robbing him of breath.

Finally she stopped and, utterly spent, he wrapped his arm around her.  After a moment, he felt her begin to cry. She was trying to keep it from  him, he suspected, and the knowledge clutched at his heart.

"Martina," he said, rising a little and turning her onto her back. "What's wrong?"

She closed her eyes, but tears still seeped from the corners. "It's  nothing. Darn, I've cried more in the last eight months than I've cried  in my entire life."

He wiped her tears with his fingers. "What is it?"

She gulped. "I am in such deep doo-doo."

Her distress tore at him. He wanted to fix it. He wanted to spend his life keeping Martina out of deep doo-doo. "Why?"

The power of her gaze shook him. "Because I love you."

Noah pulled her close, wanting to absorb the love she emanated, wanting  also to push away the glimmer of fear he saw in her eyes. He slept,  embracing her the whole night through.

The next day her smile outdid the sunshine and he told her so. The day  was so magical he allowed his brothers to share her only at dinnertime.

She surprised him when she talked cigars with Gideon. "How do you know so much about cigars?" Noah asked her.

She shot him a guilty look, but smiled. "I tried a few in college on a dare."

Noah did a double take. "I'm trying to picture this."

"Don't," she said. "I was about as smooth as gravel. Coughed the entire time."                       
       
           



       

"That's a nasty habit for a woman," Noah said, wondering what other surprises were in store for him.

"It's a nasty habit for anyone," she said sweetly.

"Touché," Jonathan said.

Gideon just threw him a grumpy look.

"I understand you're the best self-educated man in West Texas," she said  to Adam, who had been silent and watchful during the entire meal.

"I like to read."

"Did you know there are several programs where you can get a college degree on-line?" she asked.

"No," Adam said, perking up, despite his caution.

"There are several, and many are self-paced, so you can work them around  your schedule. I know of a man who completed his law degree in two  years."

Adam's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "What's the Web … " He paused, searching for the correct term.

"Web address?" she asked, and he nodded. "I'll write a few down for you and you can check them out."

She was winning them over, Noah thought, and took her hand beneath the  table. No surprise there, he thought, catching a private smile she saved  just for him. His heart squeezed tight at her revelation last night.

The doorbell rang, and Patch yelled that he would answer it.

"How was your first piano lesson?" Jonathan asked.

"This is going to take some work," she admitted wryly. "I asked her if she would mind fitting in two lessons when she visits."

Jonathan looked confused. "You want longer lessons?"

"No," Martina said with a sly smile. "I thought she could start teaching you."

Noah roared at the poleaxed expression on Jonathan's face. Jonathan stumbled over his protest, but Martina just laughed.

In the middle of her laughter, an angry male voice rang out. "Where's Martina?"





* * *





Chapter 12

«^

The sight of her brothers' angry faces stopped Martina's heart. "Brock,"  she said, standing, then wondering if her legs would support her.  "Tyler."

Brock glanced at the Coltrane brothers with undisguised loathing. "Get  your things," he said to her. "We're here to take you home."

"But-"

"But nothing," Tyler said, disdain oozing from his voice. "It's obvious  the Coltranes have tricked you again. You just can't see straight when  you get around them."