So far. He’d come so far. Inside she was both furious and terrified over the situation with Mike Holt. The man’s release could end up destroying all of this. Jake Harkner was not going to rest easy until he knew where the man was and what he was up to…and he’d rest even easier if Mike Holt was dead. That was what terrified her.
Eight
“Lloyd Harkner, I am so embarrassed that your parents know why we came here.”
Lloyd grinned, helping Katie down from his horse. “What makes you think they wouldn’t have known anyway?” Lloyd jumped down and grabbed the blanket from the horse, handing it to Katie while he led his horse to a small tree and tied it. The day was warm, and he removed his shirt as he headed back to where Katie was spreading the blanket on the grass. She laid a towel beside it. “Get undressed, woman. We’re going for a swim.”
“Naked?”
“Of course naked.”
“What if one of the hired hands comes around?”
Lloyd unbuckled his gun belt. “I told them not to.”
“You mean they know, too?”
“Sure they do. What’s wrong with that? We’re married, aren’t we?”
“Lloyd!”
“Sweetheart, we don’t get enough chances to do this at home, what with Stephen being old enough to know what we’re doing when he hears all those sounds coming from the bedroom”—he tossed his shirt and dropped his gun belt onto the blanket—“and Tricia crawling out of bed in the middle of the night to come and sleep with us.” He bent down and removed his boots and socks.
“Oh, Lloyd, I can’t strip naked right out here in the daylight.”
Lloyd began unbuttoning the front of her dress. “Sure you can. You stripped naked up in the loft a few days ago. What’s the difference?”
Katie smiled, her cheeks growing red. “The difference is a roof and walls! A little privacy is better than none at all.”
Lloyd pulled the dress down over her shoulders. “No privacy just makes it more exciting.” Still, he paused. When she gave a shy nod, he continued pulling the dress down over her slips, until she could step out of it. He pulled off her slips and moved up to unlace her camisole. “Have I told you lately how beautiful you are in the sunlight, all white and pink and blushing red mixed with those blue eyes? You’re like a flower garden, Katie.”
She laughed lightly, moving her hands over his solid stomach and chest, up to his powerful shoulders and down his arms. “You tell me that all the time.” She kissed his chest. “And here you are looking like an Indian.” She reached up and pulled some of his long, dark hair over his shoulders. “Am I your captive?”
“You bet you are.” Lloyd met her mouth, tasting her lips eagerly as he pulled the camisole all the way off and threw it aside. He moved his lips to her breasts, kneeling in front of her as he gently massaged her breasts and continued kissing down her belly. He pulled her underwear down, kissing at the place he thought the sweetest he’d ever enjoyed. He felt Katie’s fingers dig into his hair as he moved his tongue between her legs to kindle the hot juices of desire he loved bringing forth from her.
“Step out,” he told her, his voice husky with desire.
Katie moved her feet to step out of the underwear, and Lloyd pulled off her shoes and stockings. He worked his way back up to her lips as he unbuckled his belt, then deftly removed his denim pants, pulling his underwear off with them.
“Lloyd, are you sure—”
He silenced her with another kiss as he lifted her. Katie wrapped her legs around him and he knelt down, laying her back on the blanket and kissing his way down between her legs again.
Katie made no more protest. She reached over her head and gripped at a tiny new growth of a pine tree, hanging on to it as Lloyd kissed along the inside of her thigh.
“When we first met, I never knew you had such beautiful, slender legs under all those skirts,” he told her, working his way back to private places no other man had ever tasted, not even her first husband.
“And I never dreamed I’d let a man do such brazen things with me.” She gasped with desire as Lloyd worked his magic. They hadn’t had a chance to get back to this since Lloyd had to leave her in the loft, and he was anxious to finish what they’d started there. He worked his way back over her belly, moving fingers inside of her and feeling the pulsation of her climax. He tasted her breasts again, moved to her neck. “I’m sorry I had to leave the other day.”
“You didn’t have any choice,” she answered softly.
“I felt so sorry for you. I love you for doing that, Katie.”