He sighed, removing his Stetson and lying back. “Yeah, well, you’re right. I want this thing with Holt over with. I can’t help wondering what he’s up to, and I’m worried about Lloyd. Evie, too. If that man gets anywhere near her, I don’t know how Lloyd will react…or how I will react. I want this to be a nice trip, Randy. We’ll go to the Cattlemen’s Ball and maybe the theater, and you can shop for some new clothes and whatever supplies we need.” He pulled her down beside him and rolled to his side, moving a leg over her and pulling her close. “I just want to do something extra nice, because in a few days we’ll celebrate our thirtieth anniversary.”
Randy smiled. “You remembered!”
“Of course I remembered.” He moved on top of her, leaning down and kissing her softly. “Thirty years of too much hell for you.”
Randy touched his hair, thinking how thick it still was, with tiny streaks of gray that only seemed to make him more handsome. “Nobody loves like you do, Jake. That’s all I’ve ever needed, and few women can say they’ve been adored and cared for in all the ways I have. Yes, it’s been hell sometimes, but not because of you, and never because of how you’ve treated me. And as far as Mike Holt, there are laws now that will take care of him if he makes trouble. You remember that and let the law deal its justice. He’d be sent right back to prison.”
He kissed her again, this time deeply, in that way he had of disarming her. Randy knew his worry about trouble had brought this on. Jake Harkner was a man who was not good at handling any kind of threat to those he loved. Whenever he sensed such things, he always turned to her in a need to prove to himself that she was right here in his arms and everything was all right. And whenever he kissed her this way…touched her this way…needed her this way…
“My boots are still on,” she groaned as he moved a hand under her dress and pulled at her underpants.
“So are mine.”
She closed her eyes as he sat up slightly to yank the underwear off and over the boots.
Randy ran her hands over the hard muscles of his upper arms. “Have I told you how handsome you look in this blue flannel shirt?”
“Yes.” He moved a hand back up under her dress. “And you wore your yellow checkered dress today. You know what yellow does to me.”
Randy gasped when his fingers moved inside of her. “Why is that, Jake?”
He worked his magic. “I don’t know. Yellow just looks so beautiful on you, and you know how I like it. You wore this dress deliberately, just to drive me crazy.”
“I never gave it a thought,” she said softly.
“The hell you didn’t.” He leaned closer to nuzzle the soft cleavage that showed at the square neckline of the dress. “I still love these breasts. They are perfect. Have I ever told you that?”
“Practically every day.”
Amid deep kisses, he fondled the right places.
“You’re a devil,” she whispered.
“Who do you belong to?”
“A man who insists on embarrassing me by”—another kiss; Randy felt the intense ecstasy of an orgasm building—“taking me off in the woods when the whole family”—another kiss—“probably suspects what we’re doing.” She cried out in an intense climax, one that came on more quickly than normal because of the hint that trouble could be around the corner. The silent fear of being torn apart again always made their lovemaking more fiery and commanding than it normally would be for two people together for so long.
“Jake—” She moaned his name.
“God, I can feel your climax,” he told her, pressing his fingers hard against her to help increase the intensity of the moment.
“Keep touching me there,” she whispered.
He kissed her deeply as he kept his fingers pressed tightly to satisfy a climax that hung on longer than normal. He let go to unbutton his pants and long johns, then moved his hand under her bottom, pushing himself inside her while the pulsations of her climax continued pulling at him. “You still make it feel so good,” he groaned as he licked and kissed her neck.
He found her mouth again and moved deeper. Randy buried her face against that part of his chest revealed by a few open buttons on his shirt. She enjoyed the feel of his weight on her, the hardness of his body, the ecstasy of his fullness pushing deep inside her, a man still able to make love in every way a woman needed. His concern over her only made her love him more…want him more. No matter how intimate they were, there was always that feeling of respect and adoration that only made him more desirable and irresistible.