Outlaw Hearts(99)

Miranda set the bread on the table. “I have to admit, Jake, I never thought you’d take to farming and ranching quite this well.”

He came around the table and pulled her into his arms. “You should have more faith in me, woman.” He leaned down and met her mouth, giving her a long, deep kiss. He moved his lips to her eyes. “I’m hungrier for you than I am for that food,” he told her.

“Jake, it’s the middle of the day! Someone could come, or Lloyd could wake up.”

“Nobody will come and you know it, and Lloyd wouldn’t know what we were doing.” He swept her up into his arms. “Hell, Randy, I’ve been so busy getting in the crops and worrying over that mare and her foal that all I’ve done is collapse into bed at night and hardly given you any attention at all.”

“Jake Harkner, put me down!” She liked to use his real name in private, felt he should hear it and learn to be proud of it. She made a mild protest when he dumped her on the bed and moved on top of her, but her weak objections vanished when his lips covered her own again in a penetrating kiss. This was so like the man she loved, spontaneous, gently demanding, sometimes a little wild and unpredictable. “Jake, this is crazy.”

He moved his lips to her neck and ran his hand under her dress. She wore the dress alone today, except for a camisole and drawers. It was warm, and she hadn’t bothered with slips. “Just a quick little sign of affection, mi querida,” he said softly. She felt the drawers coming off. “Maybe tonight we’ll do this again, take our time.”

Just the words brought on a surge of hot desire. When Jake Harkner “took his time” with a woman, he had the most exotic ways of taking her to a world of ecstasy. She never dreamed she could let a man do such things, or that there were so many ways to make love. With Jake it always seemed so right and natural.

For now there would be this quick but sweet sign of affection, clothes still on, pants unbuttoned. He moved into her, the penetration hot and hard, and she remembered how glad she was to know even after the baby that they could still get so much pleasure out of this. His thrusts were deep and stimulating, and he patiently held back until she arched up to him in her own climax. She wondered if it was like this for other women, or if she was simply lucky to have found a man who knew all the right ways to arouse her, to bring out this wanton desire. She could not quite understand why some women complained about this, acted as though allowing their husbands their pleasure was such a chore. Perhaps they would faint if she told them all the things she had let this man do to her. There was not an inch of her body that had been left unexplored. It was the nature of the man to have a woman completely at his command when she was in his bed, and she had never minded one bit. He carried a deep and amazing passion for a man who at one time thought he could never love, and never once had she felt used or dirty. Every touch, every taste, every joining was filled with sweet pleasure and grew out of a desire to express their love.

He moaned with his own throbbing climax as she finally drew the life from him. He let out a deep sigh, and stretched out beside her.

“This is not the way to get chores done, Jake.”

He grinned, rolling to his side and tugging at her honey-blond hair. She’d brushed it out long and straight today. He liked it that way. “Maybe if you’d put your hair in a bun and wouldn’t wear this yellow dress, I’d just come in to eat.”

She touched his lips. He smelled of sweat and leather and out-of-doors, but it was a good smell, the smell of a man who worked hard to make a good life for his family. She supposed there was a time when he smelled only of liquor and smoke and cheap perfume…and maybe blood. “When you have a need, I doubt it would matter what I was wearing or if I was bald.”

He laughed lightly, then noticed Lloyd standing in the doorway to the room staring at them. “Hey, you, what are you doing out of bed?” The boy grinned and ran on chubby legs to the bed, tugging at Jake. “Wait a minute!” Jake rose and quickly washed. He tucked in his shirt and buttoned his pants, then whisked the child up, holding him in the air so that he giggled. “Come on, let’s walk around outside a minute while your mommy washes.”

“Daddy pooay,” Lloyd said, grasping Jake’s nose.

“Yes, Daddy play, but we also have to eat.”

Miranda watched them walk out of the bedroom, her heart full of a sweet joy. It had been just as she had suspected between Jake and his son. The man doted on him every free moment he had. In fact, the child had been a source of a few arguments when it came to the subject of discipline. Jake would not lay a hand on the child, and around his father Lloyd got away with any naughty thing he wanted to do. Since he had started walking, he got into endless trouble. He was spirited and daring, everything his father was. The older he got, the more he looked like Jake—dark, wavy hair, snappy, black eyes, a winning smile.