Outlaw Hearts(152)

The kiss was long and delicious, the most wonderful kiss they had shared yet. Both of them fantasized about what it might be like to be together, like a real man and woman. He moved a hand from her slender waist along her ribs to a breast, and she left his lips and kissed at his neck, whimpering his name. Their lips met again in a groaning kiss, and he lowered her to a pile of hay on the floor, leaning her back into it and kissing her wildly then, enjoying the feel of her breast, the way her aroused nipple was raised so that he could feel it through the material of her dress.

He had never wanted her so badly. Maybe it was because of the news that they would be apart for so long. He wanted to touch her everywhere, to see and explore every part of her. He moved his hand down to catch the hem of her dress and push it up so he could run his hand along her leg. It was slender and silken, and he thought how beautiful she must look naked. He felt himself growing hard with an ache for her, the same thing that happened when he dreamed about this in the privacy of his bed at night and he had to rub himself to relieve the terrible need. He moved his hand to pull at her bloomers, but she pulled away from him slightly then.

“Not here,” she whispered, her face flushed. “There are too many people here today. Father might bring someone in her to see the palominos.”

Lloyd ran a hand over her breast again, kissed at her neck. “Where then? When?”

Beth shared his excitement. It was understood what they needed to do. She wanted him as badly as he wanted her. She couldn’t imagine how it could be wrong, when they knew each other so well, loved each other so much. It seemed the only right thing to do. She smiled and snuggled against him. “Father lets me ride alone down to the pond behind the house. He knows I like to sit there and read, and write my poems. I could go there tomorrow, only I could ride a little farther south, meet you at Fisher’s Creek. It’s secluded there.” She sat up and faced him. “You’d have to come up through Devil’s Canyon to get there without being seen. Can you get away tomorrow?”

He studied her beautiful face, tried to argue it was wrong, but the temptation was too great, her willingness too impossible to deny, his love for her too strong. “Pa says I can have a few days off, now that the roundup is over. I’ll tell him I want to go hunting alone.” He frowned, pulling her close. “You sure, Beth? What if I hurt you?”

“You know how happy your parents are, and I know my mother and father were happy. It must be wonderful, Lloyd. I’m not afraid of it. I just want to be as close to you as I can get. I want to love you completely, to know you belong to me and will never forget me when we’re apart. If it was anyone else, I’d be afraid of it, but not with you. And I know you understand why I want to do this and won’t think less of me for it.”

“I could never think less of you for anything.” He kissed her hair, thinking how he ought to talk to his father about this, but sure the man would tell him it was wrong. He loved his father as much as he could love anyone, but it seemed like sometimes the man worried too much about things. He’d find some reason why he shouldn’t make love with Beth, and he didn’t want to hear the reasons. He was old enough to make his own decisions now, and this was as right as it could be.

“We’d better go back before we’re missed,” Beth told him.

He met her mouth again in a long, hungry kiss that made him wonder how he was going to wait another whole day to be one with her. “I love you, Beth,” he said softly when he left her mouth. “I’ll meet you tomorrow, one o’clock down by Fisher’s Creek then.” He quickly rose and helped her up, sure if he stayed here one more minute with her, he wouldn’t be able to wait until tomorrow. “You go out first, mix with the others for a few minutes. We’d better not be hanging on each other too much the rest of today or your pa or mine might get suspicious.”

She shook straw from her dress and turned to let him pick more out of her hair. “I’ll dream about you tonight, Lloyd. Will you dream about me?”

He wondered how he was going to get rid of the fire under his skin. “You know I will.”

She turned and stepped back to study him, wondering if a more handsome young man existed in Colorado. She didn’t care that he wore denim pants and a plain cotton shirt and leather vest. That was part of what she loved about him, his brawn, his ruggedness, the smell of leather. She took a deep breath and smiled. “Tomorrow then.”

She hurried off, and Lloyd watched after her, studying her tiny waist, wondering how her bottom looked bare, how her long, blond hair would look hanging over her shoulders and caressing her bare breasts. Tomorrow he would know. He would be a man, and she would be a woman, and they would be one. After that, nothing could change the fact that she belonged to him. Nothing could take her away from him, and no other man could say he had been the first to claim Beth Parker. He would be her first man, her only man.