Miss Murray on the Cattle Trail(32)

What would she do?

On impulse she splashed into an upright position and turned to face him. For a long minute he didn’t move, just stood at the edge of the river and stared.

And then he started toward her.

* * *

She looked like some kind of water nymph, a magical creature right out of a Tennyson poem, and Zach had to remind himself to keep breathing. Water sheened her pale skin, making it look so shimmery she looked like something from another world. She was the most beautiful thing he had ever laid eyes on.

For an instant he wondered if he was dreaming. No, he sure as hell wasn’t dreaming. This was Dusty Murray, Charlie Kingman’s niece from Chicago. He swallowed hard.

His Dusty. Oh, God, she was beautiful. He took another step forward, half expecting her to dive into the deep part of the river or vanish into thin air to escape his gaze. But she didn’t move. Instead, she stood motionless as droplets of water slowly rolled down her shoulders and her breasts. The only sound was an insanely happy evening sparrow twittering in the branches above his head. Yeah, maybe he was dreaming.

He realized she was watching him, and his chest tightened until he couldn’t draw a breath. What was she thinking? Did she know that he...?

Yeah, she knew. She had to know. And she wasn’t afraid.

Very deliberately he stepped deeper into the stream. Heedless of his boots and his trousers, he strode toward her until the water came up to his thighs.

She waited without speaking. When he was close enough, he dipped his knees, lifted her into his arms and splashed toward the bank. “Where are your clothes?” he whispered.

“I don’t know.” She raised her head from his shoulder and looked into his eyes. “I don’t care, either.”

He blinked. “You know, if I live to be an old man, I’m never gonna understand you, Dusty.”

“Good.” She breathed the word in his ear, and it was all he could do to keep on walking.

“You know what you’re saying?” he murmured.

“Yes.”

“I mean, are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

She hesitated. “Y-yes, I think so.”

“Damn right.” He found an area of thick, soft grass, dropped to one knee and laid her down. Then he toed off his boots and stretched out beside her.

“Your jeans are wet,” she whispered.

“Yeah. Keeps my blood from overheating. You want to tell me why you’re not kicking and screaming?”

“You know why, Zach. Because I’m in love with you.” She pulled his head down until her lips met his.

“And,” she said after a long, delicious minute, “you’re in love with me.”

He jerked in surprise, not because it wasn’t true, but because she said it so calmly, so matter-of-factly. “Yeah,” he murmured. “Damndest thing.” He kissed her until his body threatened to explode, and then he kissed her some more. He knew it was risky. Dangerous, even. He didn’t care.

She looked up at him, her eyes soft as a summer morning and her mouth kiss-swollen. “Zach,” she breathed, “show me what comes after kissing.”

He swallowed hard. “You don’t know, do you.” It wasn’t a question. She shook her head. “You sure you want me to show you?”

She gave him a smile that melted his insides. Hell’s bells, here she was, warm and willing in his arms and eager for more, and he was hesitating. What is stopping him?

“I know we have no future,” she whispered. “And I don’t care. I just want to know what it would be like with you. You know, to...to...”

“Make love with a man,” he supplied.

“Not just any man,” she murmured in his ear. “I want it to be with you.”

He groaned deep in his throat. “I can’t, Dusty. I can’t make love to you and put you on the train back to Chicago and never see you again. Can’t do it.”

“It will be hard anyway, Zach.” She began to unbutton his shirt. “So kiss me, and then show me what comes next.”

“Wait.” He cupped her face between his hands. “There’s something I want to say to you.”

“Yes?” She tugged his shirt free of his jeans and spread it open across his bare chest. “What is it?”

He caught her hand to stop her, but not soon enough. She bent her head and ran her tongue over his nipple, and he sucked in his breath.

“I’m getting light-headed,” he said with a chuckle.

“Hush, Zach. I want to touch you.”

He gritted his teeth. “Dusty, I gotta say this. You’re the most exasperating, wonderful, maddening, admirable bundle of woman I’ve ever known. And, dammit, I’m in love with you so deep I can’t see straight.”

“Well, then,” she breathed. “I’m in love with you, too, and I...I want you to make love to me.”

He brought both hands up to cup her breasts, and when she made a small sound he bent and very slowly ran his tongue over one nipple.

“Oh.” She sighed the word and he smiled against her soft skin. “Oh,” she said again.

“You like that?”

“Yes.” She licked her way across his chest. “Do you?”

“Oh, God,” he groaned. “Don’t ask. And don’t stop.”

She laughed softly, pushed his shirt off his shoulders and ran her lips down to the waistband of his jeans.

He caught her hand. “On second thoughts, you’d better stop.”

“May I not touch the rest of you?”

Zach shut his eyes and fought for control. “In a minute.” He set her apart from him, got to his feet and peeled off his jeans and his drawers. It was pretty obvious he was aroused; he wondered what she would think about that. He dropped down beside her.

“Show me,” she murmured.

“Yeah. I will, in a minute.” He got his breathing under control, then trailed his lips from her breasts to her navel and then moved lower. She caught on quicker than he was ready for.

The little sounds of pleasure she made almost undid him. He licked and sucked her flesh the way he’d thought about doing for weeks, and after a while he didn’t care about anything other than the woman moving under his tongue.

He kissed the soft skin of her belly, and he heard her breath hiss in. He dragged in a shaky gulp of air and pressed slow kisses on the back of one knee, then ran his tongue over her inner thigh.

“Oh, my.” She sighed.

“Good?”

“Yes. It makes me feel...funny inside.”

He drew back. “Funny, huh? Funny bad or funny good?”

“Funny good,” she said.

He couldn’t help smiling, and kissed a path across her belly. Then he moved lower.

“Funny very good,” she murmured. “I have never before wanted a man to touch me, but...”

He lifted his head. “But what?”

She breathed out a long sigh and tangled her fingers in his hair. “But now,” she said, her voice quiet, “I want it very much.”

“Yeah, me, too,” he breathed. “I want it a lot.”

He ran his tongue over the most intimate part of her, lingering just long enough to tantalize, and she stretched her arms over her head and smiled up at the stars. “Your breath stirs me there.”

“Where?”

“Anywhere,” she whispered. “Everywhere.”

He spread her slick inner lips with his tongue, and when she drew in a quick hiss he dipped one finger inside her.

“Yes,” she breathed. She moved against him. “Yes. Yes.”

“Dusty, are you sure about this? I can stop now.”

“Don’t stop, Zach. Nothing has ever felt this wonderful. It makes me want more. It makes me want...everything.”

He rose over her and nudged her legs apart. “You sure about ‘everything’?” he whispered.

In answer, she reached her arms around him and pulled him closer.

He probed gently at her entrance, and when she moved her hips to meet him, he slowly entered her part-way, withdrew and then thrust deep. She didn’t cry out, just gave a quick gasp, and then she was moving with him and he was kissing her, her tongue sweet in his mouth and hungry at the same time.

He couldn’t stop, couldn’t get enough of her. Until the day he died he would never forget the feel of her body under his, the hot silky sheath that enveloped him, inviting him deeper. He’d never known anything like this. Part of him was singing with delight; part of him was scared to death.

She was murmuring something, his name, he realized. Suddenly she sucked in her breath, and then her body went still and she cried out. He buried himself deep and held on as spasms racked him and his breathing turned into a sob.

He wondered what the hell was happening. He’d never felt anything remotely like what he was feeling now. He wondered if she felt it, too.

When he could talk he turned his head and put his lips near her ear.

“Dusty?”

“Yes, Zach?”

“What just happened?”

She gave a soft laugh. “You don’t know?”

“Hell, no. Never felt anything like this in my life.”

He could tell she was smiling because the skin of her cheek moved under his mouth.

“Is it always like this?” she asked. Her voice sounded drowsy and soft.

He shook his head once and kissed her slowly. “No. It’s never like this.”

He kissed her again, and all at once he felt like crying. “It’s never like this.”