“I will treat you like royalty,” he said, his words whispered in her ear before he began kissing the skin of her neck, making shivers race up and down her entire body.
“I’ve been so afraid this can’t last forever. But isn’t everyone unsure of that same thing? It doesn’t matter, though, because for now this is exactly what I need and if we don’t finish tonight, surely I’ll melt away into nothingness.”
“Alyssa, I guarantee you will finish many times over,” he said before taking her nipple into his mouth and making her lose her ability to speak.
All that mattered right now was that this felt real. It felt better than real. When his mouth trailed a line of kisses back up her neck and then he was once again leaning over her, looking into her eyes with passion and . . . love, she knew she was his forever, or for as long as he would have her.
“Take me, Jackson,” she panted, overcome with emotion as he slid against her.
His next kiss was soft, gentle, incredibly tender. He’d never kissed her that way before, and it brought a sheen of tears to her eyes. She closed them to hide her emotion. He was holding nothing back from her, and she was falling irrevocably in love.
When his knees pushed against the insides of her thighs, she didn’t fight him. Opening willingly, she gave him her body—along with the rest of her heart. His tender kiss turned urgent as he pressed the tip of his arousal against her heat.
This was the man she knew; she knew the hunger rippling through him, impatience burning in every pore. He wanted her, and she wanted to be wanted this way. The fires within her ignited again when with one sure thrust he buried himself deep inside her aching core.
As her body tensed, as the fire built, Alyssa gripped his arms. She opened her eyes and looked up with greedy fascination at him, at the strength of his muscles flexing, at the pure hunger etched into his features.
He began to move, making her body sing. When his eyes opened, and their gazes connected, Alyssa was stunned to see so much raw power capturing her. When he shook and gave a groan of release, she held him tight and joined him in an awe-inspiring orgasm, wave upon wave of rapture.
When their passionate tremors finally ceased, he collapsed, half on her and half beside her, his breathing still heavy as he cradled her to him. How had she lived her whole life without this man? Without the pleasure he brought? Without the passion he ignited? And how would she ever be able to let him go?
“Jackson . . .”
She needed to tell him, had a burning need to share with him the fact that he was going to be a father again in just a few months.
“It’s okay, Alyssa. I know it’s overwhelming, but it will all be okay,” he said, and then he kissed the corner of her mouth.
As he held her, touched her, began stirring the hormones in her needy body yet again, she lost her courage to speak. She fell under his spell and allowed herself to just feel.
Tomorrow. Tomorrow she would tell him . . .
For two days straight, Alyssa had been content to do almost nothing but lie in Jackson’s arms. They made love, ate, showered, and made love again. Neither of them spoke of the future. Neither of them spoke of anything more than this moment, this time they’d carved out for themselves in what felt like paradise.
Late the night before, a thunderstorm had blown through, knocking out their power, but it hadn’t slowed them down even a bit. Instead, Jackson had turned on an old battery-operated radio, lit some candles, and then pulled her into his arms as the two of them danced naked in his den.
She’d refused at first, horrified that someone might show up. But she was powerless against his pursuit, and soon she’d surrendered, needing the feel of his hands against her body. No one else would ever be able to pleasure her again, not after these uninterrupted days with Jackson.
“We should eventually climb from bed,” she said while her hand lazily drew patterns on the hard contours of his chest.
The bedding was in shambles, only partially covering them now, but Alyssa didn’t mind. She was still hot from the last time they’d made love.
“Why leave? I very much like this bed.”
“There’s work to do, and people who are probably worried about us. My parents are most likely ready to gather a search party.”
“Nah. They love me.”
What confidence! It was probably one of the things she loved most about him.
“Hmm. I don’t know about that,” she told him. Admit to him how much power he wielded in this relationship? No way. And she wasn’t such a fool as to think they weren’t in a relationship now.
Not after the last couple of days. For that matter, from the moment he’d set foot in the saloon, they’d been in a relationship. If she really wanted to get technical, she hadn’t even thought of another man since their plane ride—since making love in New York.
Jackson had owned her heart and soul from that night on. And wasn’t love exactly what he was showing her right now? Maybe he was incapable of saying the words, but weren’t actions much more real, much more meaningful, than the words slipping from his mouth?
“I know for a fact that both of our families would be thrilled if we stopped fighting against this attraction we share. My brothers think the world of you. I’m sure my father does as well, since every time I talk to him, he asks me how I’m treating you.”
“But they know I’m pregnant.”
There was a pause before he spoke. “Yes. That doesn’t change how they feel.”
“And how do they feel about that?”
She held her breath as she waited for him to speak. “You realize how I came to be with my family, right?”
“Yes,” she answered, not understanding what this had to do with anything.
“If we are together, do you honestly think they would love your child any less just because it doesn’t share my blood?”
“I haven’t really thought about it,” she said, squirming beside him as she always did when he brought up the parentage of her unborn child.
“My dad is my dad because he loved a child enough to give him a chance—loved three of us enough, actually. He wouldn’t hesitate to claim your baby as his grandchild. It nearly destroyed him when Olivia was lost.”
His voice tightened with his last words, and Alyssa melted against his side, not wanting him to feel that pain all over again.
“Tell me about your family, Jackson. I only know bits and pieces,” she said, hoping to turn his thoughts from sorrow to a better time in his life.