“Hi,” Maddie said, throat tight.
“Hi,” Boone answered. “Can’t sleep?”
She shook her head. “You?”
He gestured with a nod toward the stall. “Full moon tonight. I’m betting Dancer goes into labor.”
Silence ensued. Maddie dug one toe in the dirt as she searched for words. “I’m sorry I did a bad job of delivering the news. I never wanted to hurt you. It’s clear how much you loved your mother.”
Boone shrugged. “There’s no easy way to say something like that. I didn’t handle it well. I just—I don’t know how to feel about that. The woman I knew wanted a dozen children.”
“In those days, she was bound to feel she had no choice. If you weren’t married, you gave your child up or had a back street abortion. I can’t imagine your mother doing that.”
Boone shook his head. “No, she would never end a child’s life.” He stared hard at Maddie. “And it wasn’t fair for me to blame your father. You’re probably right. Maybe he never knew.”
“My grandmother’s diary said she left town for seven months before she came back and married your father a few months later.”
“Just long enough.” Boone shook his head. “I can’t imagine that my father had any idea.”
“Do you remember the part of his letter that said that there was always a sadness in Jenny?”
Boone nodded.
“Maybe it wasn’t losing my father, as Sam thought. Maybe it was the baby.” She saw a shadow cross his face. “What is it?”
“Nothing.” He shook his head, then suddenly he stopped. “No. That’s not true. I accused you of holding back secrets, but I’ve held back my own.”
“You have a right to your secrets. We all do.”
Boone studied her, then seemed to make up his mind. “My wife was pregnant when she died with her lover in a sailing accident. She never even told me about the baby. I didn’t learn about it until she was gone, when her mother announced it to me after the funeral.” The shadow fell across his rugged features again. “I don’t know why it hits me so hard. I never knew that child, never held it in my hands. But it still hurts.” He looked up. “How much more painful was it for my mother to bear a child and have to give her up?”
Oh, Boone… “I’m so sorry. You would have been a wonderful father.”
“I’ve done a lot of things wrong in my life, but I sure would have tried.”
Tears welled in Maddie’s eyes, tears for children lost and children unborn, for this son who had lost his father the day his mother died. Tears for a missing brother, a lost sister. So many tears needed, and so little she could do.
“Don’t cry, Maddie.”
She swiped at her cheeks. “Sorry.”
“Nothing to apologize for. You have a tender heart.” Then Boone’s arms surrounded her and held her close. Maddie nestled into his embrace and knew a moment of such piercing longing that she could barely breathe.
No words passed between them, but words weren’t needed. Too often, words had driven them apart.
Maddie slid her arms around Boone’s wide chest and clung. Then the need for comfort melted like candle wax under the heat of a desire too long denied.
She lifted her head and saw her yearning mirrored in his eyes. “Boone…”
“God, Maddie…I don’t want to fight this any longer.”
“Then don’t,” she murmured.
Still he hesitated, so she took the leap for both of them and rose to her toes. Touched her mouth to his.
His caution burned to cinders.
They tumbled into the landscape of their dreams, the forbidden territory they’d skirted for long days and endless nights. Every shadow that separated them faded under the bright glow of one heart’s need for another.
Her eager hands joined her eager heart, and she welcomed Boone to all she had, all she was.
Boone thought his own heart would burst as he deepened the kiss, as Maddie’s fingers clutched at his back. Body to body, Maddie’s curves fit him like a second skin.
He craved to drive into her sweet flesh and lose himself. Grasping for control, he sank his fingers into the heavy silk of her hair. The other hand gripped the tender curve of her hip. When Maddie moaned, he slid his teeth down the long, slender column of her throat, longing to brand her, to mark every inch of her skin. At the tender juncture where pale throat met shoulder, Boone used his mouth to seal Maddie as his.
His. Boone didn’t stop to think, to reason out how or why he would make it so.
He simply wanted her, body and soul.
Maddie thrilled at the passion of Boone’s strong grip, his fierce possession. She met his hunger, measure for measure.