Resurrection (11 page)

Emmeline had been transformed from woman to she-wolf, and she turned on her hands and knees, offering herself to her mate. Gil opened his trousers, found the passage that waited to receive him, and thrust himself inside her with a fierce, almost anguished cry. She was ready, and set a brisk pace for him, whimpering low in her throat while he fondled her breasts and moved hard against her.

Just when she would have hurled back her head and groaned in satisfaction, he slowed himself, and dipped his head to plant light kisses along the length of her backbone. Emmeline shuddered and drew him back into the age-old rhythm that would appease them both. She reached back into his trousers and tickled him with her fingertips, and after that, they were both lost.

Their bodies collided hard, then harder, then harder still. Finally, with a great, mingled sob, they climaxed together, flexing and straining against each other until the last tremor had subsided. Then they fell into the hay, exhausted, to gather their strength for another bout of lovemaking.

After some time, Gil raised himself onto his good elbow and surveyed Emmeline’s breasts greedily. She pushed him onto his back and straddled him, and they both laughed at her audacity. The laughter stopped, however, when Emmeline
guided Gil inside her, and had him as thoroughly, as mercilessly, as he had had her. She was relentless, and rode him until he lay tamed beneath her, and then was seized by her own pleasure, and uttered a long, gasping shout as she came.

When at last it was over, Emmeline fell to her husband’s chest, and he held her, murmuring words of love as she drifted slowly back from ecstasy. In time they were strong enough to untangle themselves and rise from the lush cushion of hay. Emmeline found her clothes and put them on, but her hair was spiky with straw, as was Gil’s, and her hat had disappeared entirely.

Gazing at Gil, Emmeline felt suddenly shy. She’d been wanton, flinging herself into their lovemaking the way she had, behaving like some primitive creature and carrying on wildly enough to scare the cattle away.

She looked down, shaking her skirts with both hands.

Gil cupped her chin in his palm and raised her face. “I love you, Emmeline,” he said, clearly and with purpose, as though speaking to someone who might not hear or understand what he was saying.

She stood on tiptoe and kissed him. “And I love you,” she responded.

Gil took her hand and led her out of the barn and across the wide yard toward the cabin. Inside, sitting in the middle of the table, was a small box. “I couldn’t afford to buy you one of these before,” he said as Emmeline raised the lid and found a simple golden band inside. “Will you stay with me, and be my wife?” he asked. “ ’Til death do us part?”

“Longer,” Emmeline replied, holding out her hand so he could slip the ring onto her finger.

It was a perfect fit.

Pocket Star Books

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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright C 1995 by Linda Lael Miller

This title was previously published in the anthology
Everlasting Love
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First Pocket Star Books ebook edition January 2013

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ISBN: 978-1-4767-1099-0