Authors: Debbie Macomber
Cain weighed his response carefully, knowing it could well sway her decision. “My heart. Children. As for the future, it doesn’t come with any guarantees. Linette’s probably more aware of that than either of us. So I can’t and won’t predict what could happen there.”
Buddy boy frowned. “Frankly, that doesn’t sound like much.”
“It isn’t,” Cain agreed readily enough. “All I can offer her is my love. It’s taken me nearly twelve months to figure out what I should have recognized from the first. I need her. You’re right, I’m no prize. Linette would be a fool to marry me and move to some cattle ranch with a man who doesn’t know a bloody thing about being a rancher.”
“We’d live in Montana?” she asked.
He nodded.
“Children?” This word quivered as it left her lips.
“As many as you want, but you should realize I don’t know any more about being a husband and a father than I do about ranching.”
“You’ll learn,” she said confidently, and then frowned. “What about Deliverance Company? You’re through with fighting?”
“Never again.”
Linette laughed softly and kissed Phil Duncan on the cheek. “You really ought to take up acting, Phil. You gave an Academy Award performance. Thank you.”
“Who said I was acting?”
“Laura might take exception to your becoming a bigamist.”
Cain frowned and looked from one to the other. “What’s going on here? I thought you said you were divorced.”
The other man grinned broadly. “I lied, but you know what they say about love and war. I figured this was as good a way as any to have you spell out your intentions.”
Frankly Cain didn’t appreciate Phil’s efforts and told him so with a menacing look.
“Be good to her, McClellan, she deserves a man who appreciates her.”
This was exactly what Cain intended to do. “I will,” he promised.
Phil stood and addressed Linette. “I suppose this means you won’t be joining Laura and me for dinner?”
Linette laughed and nodded. “You’ll forgive me?”
Phil answered her with a dramatic sigh. “I suppose. Just make sure we get an invitation to the wedding, understand?”
“You’ve got it,” Cain promised. The men shook hands a second time, and Phil left shortly afterward.
No sooner had the door closed than Linette was back in Cain’s embrace. “Did you mean what you said about children?”
“Every word.”
“How soon can we be married?” Linette wanted to know. She asked this as if she were afraid he would change his mind. Quickly she added, “Soon, I hope. I’ve waited a long time for this moment.”
“I’m not going to change my mind.” He felt as though her love would heal him faster than any doctor. The
emotional wounds had marked him far more intensely than the physical ones.
His arms linked around her waist, Cain pulled her close. “We can apply for the license first thing in the morning. Where would you like to spend our honeymoon?”
A twinkle came into her eyes as she lifted her mouth to his. “Bed.”
Nancy and Rob agreed to stand up for them, and Linette was grateful for their love and friendship. If it hadn’t been for her brother-and sister-in-law, Linette would never have met Cain McClellan.
Linette knew Nancy had her doubts. Perhaps Rob did, too, but neither voiced them. It was hard for Nancy to hold her tongue. All Linette wanted was for her former sister-in-law to be happy for her. Marrying Cain was what she wanted, what she’d dreamed would happen. She might be a fool, but she was grabbing this opportunity for happiness with both hands and holding on as though her life depended on it.
Bonnie was a godsend in the days before the wedding. Linette swore she was more nervous as a bride the second time than she had been with Michael.
When the time arrived, the church was filled with a party of nearly fifty people. Her own family and Michael’s parents were there. Linette was touched to find that Cain’s foreman and wife, John and Patty Stamp, had flown in for the ceremony from Cain’s cattle ranch in Montana.
Linette held a bouquet of pink rosebuds and proudly took her place next to Cain at the altar. In her heart she
recognized that she would be content to spend the next fifty years beside this man. Love was like that.
Following the short reception, they left in Cain’s vehicle, heading north.
“Where are we going?” she asked, her head resting against his shoulder.
“To bed,” Cain teased, and kissed the crown of her head. “That was where you said you wanted to spend our honeymoon, but you omitted saying exactly where that would be, so I took matters into my own hands.”
“Frankly, I wouldn’t care if it was on the moon as long as I could be with you.”
“Wife,” Cain said, as if testing the word on his tongue. “It has a nice sound to it.”
“Trust me, so does husband.”
For a long time they rode in silence, content to be close to each other, eager to be closer and more intimate. After a while Linette traced her fingertips down the side of his face and over the rigid line of his jaw. She swore Cain stopped breathing.
Linette experienced a rush of love at the sensual power she had over him. No more than a moment passed before he captured her hand and entwined his fingers with hers.
“You’re making it difficult to concentrate on driving.”
“How far do we have to go yet?”
“Too damn far if you continue touching me.”
“I was hoping on doing more than that.”
“So was I.” He mumbled something more under his breath that she didn’t understand. “Fifty miles,” he said. “I promise to make it worth the wait.”
“I should hope so,” she said, loving the freedom to
be close to him. She placed her hand on his thigh and gently dug her nails into the hard muscle of his leg.
“Linette,” he said between his teeth. “You’re playing with fire.”
She laughed softly. “Fire always did intrigue me.”
Cain pulled off to the side of the road, and the tires spat up dirt and gravel. He set the car into park and reached for her. Linette barely had time to recover before his mouth swooped down on hers. He kissed her deep and hard, his hands expertly finding their way to her breasts, cupping them in his palms.
Her nipples beaded instantly under the manipulation of his fingers, and she moaned softly.
“Do you have a clue of how difficult it’s been not to make love to you these last few days?” he asked, trailing kisses along the side of her neck.
“Yes.” She knew exactly how hard it had been on them both, but she felt cherished and adored that he’d insisted they wait until after the wedding. She loved him all the more for his patience.
He kissed her again slowly, with restraint, using his tongue to show her what he’d like to be doing to her body. What he would soon be doing.
When he dragged his mouth from hers, he rested his chin on the top of her head. “Much more of this and we could be arrested.”
Linette smiled softly to herself. “The way I feel right now, it would almost be worth it.”
Cain drove fifteen miles over the speed limit for the rest of the trip, then stopped in a small seaside town. Apparently he was familiar with the area because he
drove directly to a house perched against a windswept hillside that overlooked the Pacific Ocean.
“Is anyone home?” Linette asked, noticing the light shining from inside the huge house.
“I certainly hope not,” was all Cain would say. He helped her out of the car, lifted the suitcase from the trunk, and led the way up a brick-lined pathway. “This place belongs to a friend of mine.”
“Have I met him?”
“No. Fact is, until just a few days ago, I hadn’t talked to him in over ten years. He told me that if I ever needed a retreat, I should give him a call. I phoned last week.”
“Ten years, and he still remembered you?”
“He remembered. I saved his life.” After digging the key out of his side pocket, Cain inserted it into the lock and pushed open the door. He propped the suitcases against the door to hold it open and then effortlessly lifted Linette into his arms. Their eyes met, and he smiled meaningfully.
Linette linked her arms around his neck as he carried her over the threshold. They kissed long and passionately. The wind howled behind them, and reluctantly Cain set her feet back on the floor and dealt with the luggage.
While he was tucking away their suitcases in the back bedroom, Linette explored the house. Huge picture windows looked out over the churning Pacific Ocean, but night blocked out the majority of the view.
Hearing movement behind her, Linette turned to discover Cain standing on the opposite side of the room. His hands were buried in his pants pockets.
“I imagine the view’s lovely in daylight,” he said.
If Linette hadn’t known better, she would have thought her husband of less than four hours was nervous.
“I’m sure it is.”
“Are you hungry?” he asked, glancing toward the kitchen. “The refrigerator’s stocked with enough food to last us a week or longer.”
“I’m famished.”
“Great.” Cain moved eagerly toward the other room. “I’ll see to dinner.”
“My appetite isn’t for food, Cain McClellan,” she chided him, her voice low and breathless. “It’s being your wife that strongly appeals to me.” Anxious herself, Linette could have sworn her heart beat like cymbals crashing against each other.
Cain smiled, and Linette was certain she’d never seen a man look more relieved. “I wondered how I was going to manage to sit through a meal and not ravish you.” He ate up the distance between them in two giant strides. He reached for her and brought her into his arms.
Cain swore he’d never known pleasure this profound. Over the course of their wedding night, they’d made love twice. Linette had wept when she’d viewed the thick, still pink scars that marked his body. Not wanting anything to distract her, he’d turned out the light.
Cain glanced toward the digital clock on the nightstand. It was almost four. Dawn was hours away yet. Linette breathed evenly and snuggled up against his side. He urged her head onto his shoulder, and she
draped her hand over his abdomen. In that moment Cain would have rather died than move.
He’d never experienced contentment like this. Physically he was sated, but it was his emotions that he found himself analyzing. So this was what it meant to love someone so much that it brought a physical ache just thinking about it. So this was what it meant to give your heart completely to another.
Cain had been afraid. He’d been terrified commitment to Linette would mean surrendering a part of himself. He’d been wrong, very wrong. Only now did he realize how deeply he’d cheated himself in the last year. In loving Linette, he’d realized he was the receiver. Her love had made him whole. Her tenderness had wiped away the pain of a bitter childhood, the need to prove himself, the drive to gain the attention and approval of an alcoholic father—a man incapable of giving either. A father long dead and long buried.
“What time is it?” Linette asked in a husky whisper.
“You’re awake?”
“Not really. I’m just curious about the time.” She remained exactly as she was, her ear pressed over his heart, her arm draped over his middle.
Cain grinned. “About four.”
“You couldn’t sleep?”
“I woke up.”
She started to pull away. “You’re not accustomed to sleeping with anyone, and I—”
“No,” he interrupted, stopping her. “Don’t move.”
Linette went still. “So you are accustomed to sleeping with someone?”
He chuckled. “No. You sound jealous.”
“Should I be?”
He weighed his words carefully. Heaven would vouch he was no saint. Never had been and probably never would be. “There hasn’t been another woman from the moment I met you.”
Linette’s body relaxed against his. “I love you, Cain McClellan.”
He closed his eyes and kissed the crown of her head. “And I love you.” He stroked her bare back and was surprised at the ready way his body fired to life. His one concern before he’d asked Linette to marry him had been his health. The doctors had claimed it would take a good deal of time to recover from the gunshot wound. It embarrassed him to inquire about his sexual stamina, but his questions had been greeted with professional ease. The doctor didn’t know for certain, but he speculated that in light of Cain’s injuries, his physical endurance would be limited.
His physician, however, wasn’t married to Linette. To Cain’s relief and delight, he discovered his recovery time from lovemaking was amazingly quick.
His hand descended lower and cupped her bare buttock. “Linette?” he quizzed softly.
“Humm?”
“Just how asleep are you?”
He felt her smile against his bare chest. “What makes you ask?”
“I don’t know,” he hedged. “Idle curiosity, I guess, and the fact I can’t seem to keep my hands off you.”
“I like your hands on me,” she assured him. Edging upward, she slid her glorious body over him, tantalizing him until she located his earlobe and caught it between her teeth.
Two could play that game, Cain decided, and rolled his head to one side to capture her nipple between his lips. His hands bunched her breasts, and he slid his moist mouth between the two extended nipples, creating a moist, slick trail between the peaks. He paid equal attention to the two and smiled in gratitude when he realized Linette had gone still.
“I love your breasts,” Cain told her before capturing one and sucking deep and hard.
Linette squirmed. “I love what you do to them,” she said in a husky whisper.
Cain eased his hand between her thighs. She parted her legs to grant him easy access and eased her weight onto her side. Cain rolled so that they were facing each other.
“I…we just, I mean…”
“Sh-h,” he said, and lifted her leg and placed it over his hip, urging the lower half of her body closer to his rigid staff, which throbbed in readiness.
Linette rolled her head back and sighed as he linked their bodies. Cain swallowed a deep moan. It wasn’t supposed to be this good. Pressing his hand against the side of her hip, he braced himself against the onslaught to pleasure. He moved without the haste and urgency that had ruled their previous lovemaking.