Tallchief for Keeps (24 page)

Alek lost himself in the scent of her
hair, in her body taking his, the drag of her breasts against his chest, nipples taut. He suckled hard, surging deeper into her, so deep he lost himself and gave himself to her. Poised in the heat, skins aflame, bodies locked, Elspeth pried his head from her breasts and forced him to look down at her face.

Elspeth was flushed, hot, ripe, succulent…sweet, tender…necessary Elspeth.

“Say my name, Alek Petrovna. Say it,” she demanded unevenly, her body rippling beneath his, quivering with the effort of holding the heated flight away, until she got her due.

He tried to focus, his arms trembling with the effort of giving her what she wanted…what did she want? If she wanted the world, he’d give it to her. “Elspeth. Elspeth. Elspeth. Love…my love.”

She clenched him with her legs, claiming him, her hands wrapped in his hair, her breasts shining damp and peaked in the sunrise. Alek allowed himself a quick look downward, to her stomach quivering against him, to the pulse of her straining against him. Then there was no time for thinking, for taking images into his mind, for dissecting the whys and the whats. Passion came curling out of him, squeezing him, and still he kept hold of Elspeth, caught the dimming of her eyes as she loosed her desire, caught it, held him, their bodies, heartbeats raging, rushing as one.

Alek cried out her name,
pledged himself to her and poured himself into her.

The rippling constrictions had already begun deep within her, and they went flying into the dawn, pitting their strength into the ultimate release. He quite simply shattered, giving her everything. He watched, fascinated, as she took pleasure into herself, her eyes bright with it, riveting him, until his eyes closed in his own pleasure.

When Alek could force his eyes to focus, to see Elspeth drift lightly back to him, to go wonderfully, beautifully limp and damp against him. She managed a weak kiss when he offered it, allowed herself to be caught close and fast. Alek listened to the beating of their hearts slow. “Elspeth,” he whispered against her damp brow, and smoothed the curve of her hip, keeping her near, their bodies joined.

“You watched.” Her voice dragged like velvet on him, warm and rich with lovemaking.

“You were beautiful.” Again,
another treasure to tuck in his memories when they were old and rocking their great-great-grandchildren on the front porch.

“You didn’t swoon,” she stated slowly in a tone that made him grin. Elspeth Tallchief was a very satisfied woman. “My brothers bet each other that you wouldn’t swoon with my kiss. I wanted a really good swoon.”

“I’ll try when I can see again,” Alek promised with a kiss. “Talia told me about the famed, mind-blowing Tallchief kiss. I’d say you’ve got it.”

She grinned up at him. “Just the kiss?”

His hand skimmed appreciatively down her hip, squeezed her softness. He wouldn’t give her what she wanted; she’d have to take it from him. “You’re a fast learner. What if I were delicate or sensitive and you came at me like that? Why, I’d be shocked.”

The lift of her eyebrow mocked him. Her hand
flopped from his shoulder and slowly, slowly slid to his ear. “You’re wearing my mark, Petrovna. Remember that. You said Elspeth.”

“Elspeth-mine.” There were rules to this game; he was no easy lover, nor one to walk away. “I’m sorry about the first time.”

She traced the earring thoughtfully. “I understand now what happened to you. You’re a passionate man, Alek. Not one to give himself lightly. When we met, you were hovering between two worlds.”

“Something like that. They got tangled at the wrong time, and I hurt you.”

“Now that we’ve got that
straight…” She smiled and skimmed her hand downward until he sucked in air. She touched him just at the spot of their joining, and Alek surged, desire renewed. Elspeth lifted, braced her elbow across his chest and touched him again, smiling enchantingly down at him.

He toyed with her hair, fragrant upon him. “Be careful, little girl.”

She laughed at that, startling him. She bent to flick her tongue over his nipple, and Alek caught her chin, brought her curved lips to his and whispered, “Elspeth. Elspeth. Elspeth. Have I told you that I love you?”

She tensed against him, and he held her tight, lodged deep in her body, their passion humming gently, ready to ignite or to die. Her eyes flickered, wary, her fingers digging in his shoulder. “You don’t have to say that, Alek. It isn’t necessary.”

He took her mouth, dragging her against him, fighting for his dreams. “But it is. I’ll probably pay dearly for saying it, for loving you, because when it comes right down to it, Elspeth Tallchief, you are a greedy, greedy, savage woman. I didn’t stand a chance.”

He let her chew on that tidbit and held himself still when he wanted to make love with her.

She toyed with his earring and shot him a challenging look. “You’re saying that I enticed you. That I gave you little choice but to make love with me. Here. Now.”

He nodded. “Little choice. You’ve run me down. There was little I could do but let you have
me after all your effort.”

“Petrovna, you’re half
the size of a house. Don’t tell me I’ve winded you.” She grinned, teasing him. The sight dazzled him; he fell into it, wallowed in his sheer joy.

“Not quite,” he said, satisfied that she wasn’t denying him. Or that something more than desire could be moving through them. Then, just to keep the balance right and in his favor, he began loving her all over again.

In the midst of the daisies, Alek stood, sunlight flowing over his bare shoulders and making Elspeth catch her breath as it spread across his chest. She’d awakened without him, groggy from lack of sleep and high on the lovemaking that had crept into her very bones. She awoke craving Alek, moving her hand upon the empty, wrinkled blanket, awoke to Una’s shawl covering her.

She’d panicked, icy with fear. Could she trust herself? While Alek seemed to know exactly what he wanted and was ready to declare his love, she moved at a slower pace, needing to sift through her emotions.

If she gave herself too freely and gave too much because Alek pushed her, would she ever be certain that the choice was really hers? There was the heaven of the past hours—lying with Alek, challenging him, meeting his passion and her own—and then there was fear that her hurried decision could harm them both. At dawn, she’d trusted what moved between them. But would it last when put to the test? He’d walked away before—

In a frenzy, Elspeth tossed away the shawl. She’d dressed hurriedly, ready to run Alek into the ground if needed, and then to give him the lesson of his life. She surged out of their bed, ready to hunt, and then she saw him picking flowers, and her knees went weak.

Of course, he’d had her twice the night before she tracked him to the mountain and twice more as dawn became morning. No wonder her thighs quivered and her knees almost buckled. No wonder her heart raced at the sight of him.
I love you….

Love had happened to her brothers and would
come to Fiona when the time was right. The Tallchiefs were bred for loving families. But she’d never imagined Alek loving her. Elspeth fought for the visions that would come to comfort her, and all she could see was Alek standing in the morning sun, holding a bouquet of wildflowers out to her. She blinked, waiting for an image to tell her what to do. She felt the thumping of her heart, racing against her breast, the softness of her body where Alek had been and a light, flowery, lacy sense that she was a woman, all woman, and desired.

Alek looked as if he’d been
rumpled, steamed, and had during the night. The look suited him, she decided.

As if to test her mood, Alek held out the bouquet of wildflowers shimmering with morning dew. “Good morning, Elspeth-love. You’re thinking hard enough to scare me.”

“You could use a good dose of scare.” What was he doing?
Trust me…I love you.

Then Alek smiled, a whimsical little smile as if he were wishing something from her, and her fears went tumbling into the wildflowers. There he was, everything she wanted. Cocky, irrational at times, grumbling, laughing, passionate—a huge, tender, delectable morsel. Her heart sailed out of her, desire slamming into her, tightening her throat, dancing along her skin. Elspeth began to run toward him. Her T-shirt landed in a patch of bluebells. She hopped on one foot, tugging off one moccasin, ran two steps and tugged off the other.

“You’re on my land, Petrovna.”

Who did he think he was to leave her alone in their bed, the scents of loving snaring her before she woke fully? Oh, he’d have to pay for that one, she decided. She unzipped her shorts on the run and shimmied out of them.

The sunlight glinted off his teeth, this huge bear of a man she’d come to claim.

“Pay for being on your land, am I?” He stood there holding his bouquet and grinning like a boy who’d just won the prize.

She flew across the meadow. She wanted to plunder and take; it was her right, she’d run him down.

“You know you
are. You
know exactly where you are and what happened here. You’ve researched the Tallchief family. You knew everything.” Elspeth leapt upon him, and Alek grunted with the impact and caught her close as he reeled backward. They went down in the field of flowers.

She pinned him beneath her. She straddled him as she had before and knew that he’d let her take him down. She sat on him, her palms on his chest, and studied him, this new Alek that she’d captured.

“You’re full of yourself, Tallchief. What are the rules on this one?” Alek asked as he tucked a bluebell into her bra.

“You’ll have to pay the price for being on my land and for stealing the Kostya place from under me.” She tugged a whorl of hair on his chest. “And that awful contract.”

He brushed the hair from her cheek, his expression tender. “I want a long-term contract with you. One that says you’ll be waking up beside me every morning.”
Elspeth…!love you.

Unable to dance along that dangerous dream, Elspeth slid
back into reality. “You really shouldn’t have bought the Kostya place, Alek. I wanted it.”

She was glad he let her change direction.

“It looked like home to me.
You can bring me a blueberry pie or come milk the cows—” He sucked in his breath as her fingers went to his jeans snap. The angle of his jaw hardened. “Watch that.”

Too bad. She had her own agenda. He’d stepped over the enticing line and looked as necessary as the wildflowers strewed across his chest.

Elspeth ripped away her lacy bra; she arched and stretched and looked down to see what she wanted—the heavy hunger shadowing Alek’s face, the taut, carved edge of his cheekbone and firm dip of his mouth as he fought for control.

She skimmed the flat of her hand down his chest, following the V of hair lower, until Alek’s hand gripped her wrist, staying her. “Take it easy, Elspeth-mine. I’m feeling sensitive this morning.”

She fell upon him, fused her mouth to his and gasped as his arms came around her, hard—just the way she wanted. She wanted Alek to hold her as if he’d never let her go.

He rolled her over, unzipped his jeans and sprawled heavily upon her.

She was waiting, eager, locking her fingers to his hair as she dived into the kiss, the hunger of his mouth, feeding upon it, nipping his lip.

Alek groaned unevenly, tore away the scrap of lace separating them—she didn’t give him a chance to pause to reconsider. Elspeth reached to glove him, to bring him to her.

Later, when her bones had melted from their passion, Alek
smoothed her body, gentling the after-shocks of their lovemaking. “Elspeth-mine, you’re seriously denting my ego. I’ve just made love for the first time with my boots on and my jeans around my ankles. To pay for that infraction, you’ll have to go out with me in my Chevy. We can neck—”

She tensed, rummaged for enough
strength to lift herself. “You mean a date, Petrovna?”

“With my best girl. I’ll pick you up. We’ll cruise Main Street, stop at the drive-in for burgers and shakes, cruise some more and then neck ourselves blind.”

They were lying in the meadow, the morning sun bright overhead, and at any minute all of her brothers could appear on horseback.

“Just neck?” She grinned before his hand cupped her breast and his tongue laved the hardened tip. She skimmed down to taste his nipple.

After a quick lurch of his body and a groan, Alek reached
to bring her lips to his. “You’re getting really good at this, Elspeth.”

Eleven

“M
y Russian is definitely shaky, but Alek studied it and he’s always correcting me. Alek never speaks Russian to you?” Talia asked, her tone incredulous. Seated at the same table, Lacey and Sybil looked at Elspeth, waiting for her answer.

“Not to any of us,”
Sybil offered. “He’s a complex man.”

“Hmm. No more than the Tallchiefs.” Talia tapped her fingers on the table. “Let me think about this.”

At Maddy’s Hot Spot piano, Patty Jo Black sang a husky, sensual rhythm-and-blues number after a day of canning green beans. A sign hung over the door on Tuesday night—No Husbands Allowed Or Males Of Any Kind. No Boring Smart-Children Stories Allowed. Maddy’s luscious-nude paintings had been properly covered by sheets. Maddy had placed paper doilies beneath the tables’ bottles of plastic roses, some with price tags dangling in the breeze from the air-conditioning.

Maddy buzzed by with a tray of iced-lemonade glasses. He sidestepped Miss Loretta Mulveney of the pioneer Mulveneys and owner of Amen Flats’s only bookstore. Miss Loretta had wanted Maddy for years, since his first wife left him, but he was wary of aggressive women. He jumped; lemonade glasses clinked as Miss Loretta sneaked him an appreciative pinch on his backside. She batted her lashes at him and he flushed. A beefy ex-football player, Maddy pirouetted away from Loretta on one toe like a ballet dancer. To his credit, he never lost one glass on his tray. He plowed righteously forward to the protection of his bar. Miss Loretta picked up her lemonade and sashayed to him, decked out in a gauzy new number that looked like a drifting tropical bouquet.