Badland Bride (Book 2 - Dakota Hearts) (7 page)

“Leave these,” Keith said, pulling her from her thoughts and making her jump. He was a lot closer than she'd realized. She could smell the crisp scent of him, all male and one hundred percent appealing. “You came over so I could feed you, not so you could wash dishes.”

“It's fine,” Regis smiled. “It's nice to be doing something so simple. Gets my mind off of things.”

“You’ll have to tell me about those ‘things’ later. But to be honest, I’m starved, so we might as well start those pizzas or we’re never going to eat.”

“I have a better idea,” she said, turning the faucet off.

“What’s that?”

“Leftovers. Your mom just said she left you some leftovers in the refrigerator. They’re probably still warm and if they’re not we can just heat them up quickly.”

“That's cheating.” His answer brought a bubble of laughter from her. “My mom made that, not me. This was supposed to be something special.”

“Look, I’m starved, too. I don’t know if I can wait for pizza when I know your mom’s home cooking is on the other side of that door. And you and I both know her cooking is good. We can do pizza another night.”

“Another night, huh? Thinking ahead. I like that.”

“Well, let’s get through this one first.”

Keith pulled her into his arms and gave her a warm hug that made her head spin. When he released her he said, “You’re a woman after my own heart. I’ll get a fire going in the living room if you want to heat up some of that food.”

“That sounds like a plan.”

Keith pulled two dishes out of the cabinet and put them on the counter. Regis waved him away with her hands.

“I can find everything we need. Go make that fire.”

Twenty minutes later, they were sitting cross-legged on a blanket in front of the floor to ceiling stone fireplace eating the dinner Kate had made. There was a corked bottle of wine resting against the sofa next to Keith and a half-full glass of wine that Regis was drinking with dinner. If not for the food she was eating, the wine would surely be going to her head and making her sleepy.

“I don’t know how your mom manages to feed so many people like this.”

“She doesn’t do it alone. There are whole lot of people who are working round the clock trying to set everything to right around here.”

“Like you.”

Hawk shrugged, embarrassed. “After the flood, there were so many families that lost so much. The need grew, so I just helped fill in like everyone else. It’s the least we can do.”

“How bad was it?” Regis asked.

“I watched the water coming down off of the higher points.” Hawk looked down at his hands, lost in a memory that must seem so vivid to him. This was his home. It wasn’t just some other place that he saw on the news. “This part of town is high enough that I wasn't in any real danger, but Logan’s place is on lower ground and he was there alone with Keith when the flood waters came in fast and furious. It covered most of his pastures. He’d moved his animals so his damage was minimal. But it managed to get all the way up to the barn, which was close enough.

“When the rain stopped, I went out with a lot of others to try to help rescue people who were stuck. It's weird the images that stick with you during something like this. I saw the Hardwick’s rowing a canoe across their field. The Joyner’s boy was in a tree for almost two hours before rescuers could get to him.” Hawk took a deep breath and tossed his paper napkin into the fire. “I think over the following week, I set a dozen broken bones, sewed up hundreds of cuts and gave tetanus shots to half the town.”

“This is one of the worst disaster areas I've seen,” Reggie said. “Definitely the worst flood. Thank you again for helping me the other day. I’m not sure I could have gotten through all the properties I did without your help.”

Regis looked up from her plate and her stomach clenched. Keith was finished eating and was leaning against the sofa with a beer in his hand. The heat in his eyes was unmistakable. It had been a long time since a man had looked at her like that.

“What are you looking at?”

His smile widened. “You. I like looking at you.”

She put down her fork. “I can see that. What I can’t understand is why?”

“You have little hook nose. Did you know that? And there is one little cluster of freckles that are bunched up high on one of your cheeks.”

Her hand immediately went to the place he spoke of. Usually she spent time to cover up that spot. It had plagued her when she was a teenager. But she was so busy these days she hardly noticed it.

Keith leaned over and pulled her hand away. “I like it.”

She giggled. “And you’re strange, Keith McKinnon.”

“And I like very much the way you say my name.”

* * *

She was blushing again. It amazed Hawk how easily he could get Regis to blush about the simplest things. The woman loved to put up a tough front, but inside she was as smooth as silk. She had a big heart and he wanted so much to know that heart in every way.

“Why doesn’t anyone but your nephew call you Keith? Even your mother called you Hawk.”

“There’s no real mystery really.”

“Then tell me the story. Why does everyone call you Hawk?”

“It goes way back,” he said. “I was on a scouts camping trip with my brother Wade. I must have been six or seven at the time. My dad was one of the scout leaders back then. Anyway, we’d gone on what seemed like a long hike down in the Black Hills. When we got back up to base camp, the other scout leader noticed he wasn’t wearing his wedding ring. Anyway, we all looked around the ground at camp for about an hour and no one could find it. But I’d remembered seeing something when we were hiking so I decided to investigate.”

“You all went back out on the trail after being there all day?”

“No. Just me.”

“At six or seven? On your own?”

“Seemed like a good plan at the time. Anyway, I hiked down the trail and went back to the place where I’d seen the sun was hitting this shiny thing below and sure enough, it was a wedding ring. I felt like I’d struck a vein of gold. I didn’t realize they’d sent a search team out to find me. And when we all got back to base camp, my father was ripping mad. But I told my story about how I’d seen the ring up from high on the trail. Then I proudly pulled the ring out of my pocket and gave it to the scout leader.”

“Aw, he must have been so happy to get his ring back.”

Hawk couldn’t help but laugh. “It wasn’t his.”

“What?”

“It was someone else’s wedding ring. We found out when we got home that the other scout leader found his ring at home on his nightstand.”

“He’d never even lost his ring?”

Keith shook his head as he thought of how Wade tried to defend him. “Wade used to tell the story about how I had eyes like a hawk to find that little wedding ring from high up on the trail and if anyone was missing anything, they should come to me first because I’d find it. The nickname stuck with my friends and eventually with my family. I think my mom just gave up calling me Keith because it was easier to get me to answer to Hawk. Not even my teachers called me Keith. It was usually, ‘Mr. McKinnon’ in response to something I was getting in trouble for. I’m surprised I ever made it out of high school. Even my patients call me Hawk since most of them have known me my entire life. And if they haven’t, they call me Doc.”

“And with your nephew?”

His chest filled with pride. “Well, that’s special between the two of us.”

She shifted in place and shrugged. “I didn’t realize I was treading on sacred ground.”

“But I like the way
you
say my name,” he said. “Your eyes sparkle when you say it.”

Her mouth dropped open. “They do not.”

“And your voice changes.” A tiny voice in the back of Hawk’s mind wondered what it would be like to hear Regis say his name when they were making love. And the two of them making love was something he’d thought a whole lot about ever since he’d kissed Regis the other night at the mill.

She was looking at him intently and he wondered if his thoughts were giving him away. And yet, she didn’t look away or blush. She just studied his face and then…there it was in her eyes. The sparkle.

“Come here,” he said, moving closer to her until he could feel the heat of her body more than the heat of the fire. “I like having you close by.”

“Oh, really?” she teased with a smile.

“I like you. A lot.”

She drew in a deep breath and looked into his eyes. He reached up and touched her hair, pushing a few silky strands away from her forehead. He let his hands trail down the side of her cheek until he found that adorable cluster of freckles that had consumed his thoughts for days. He brushed his thumb over it and then bent his head to place a soft kiss on her cheek. But before he could do it, Regis lifted her face to him with her mouth slightly parted.

“Not yet,” he said, when it was clear her mouth was seeking his. “I want to look at you. Discover you. Know all of you.”

The flame of fire that lit her eyes sent sparks flying through him, settling deep in his chest and lighting a fire below his belly. He wanted her more than he wanted his next breath and couldn’t think of anything else.

As Hawk moved to give her what she wanted, what he wanted, Regis shifted closer to him and then winced. He pulled back quickly. “Did I hurt you?”

She reached up and wrapped her arm around his shoulder as if she didn’t want him to move too far away. “I just pressed my leg against the ground. Forget it.” Then she lifted her face to him as she did earlier, wanting him as much as he wanted her. His mouth claimed her instantly, playing, teasing, tasting and then devouring until he thought he’d lost his mind.

As he wrapped one arm around her waist and placed his hand at the nape of her neck, Regis’s hand made a slow journey from his stomach and up his chest until she abruptly stopped.

Pulling back he saw her confused expression as she touched his chest. Not wanting the distraction, he reached inside his shirt and pulled out the chain and medallion he always wore.

“Is it going to bother you?”

She shook her head and touched the cross and medallion with her fingers. “I just wondered what it was.”

Relieved Hawk went back to the very thing that was driving him crazy. As he kissed her check, he breathed in the sweet scent of her and made a trail of kisses along her face until he nestled his face against her neck and kissed her there. He heard her soft moan of pleasure and it only surged him on.

“Keith?”

With a ragged breath he dragged himself from the source of his pleasure to look at her. He couldn’t remember the last time he was out of his mind wanting a woman, and now, he realized he’d never wanted a woman more than he wanted Regis right now.

* * *

She was coming completely unglued by Keith’s every touch. Regis couldn’t think. She couldn’t breathe. She dug her fingers into his shoulders and for a second, she questioned whether she should even be considering getting involved with Keith McKinnon, much less making love with him. And she hoped with every fiber of her being that this was leading to that because she couldn’t think of anything other than getting gloriously naked with this man.

As he gazed at her with the same desire that was like a drug to her, his eyes were questioning. There were no more questions in her mind. With her fingers, she pulled at the buttons of her shirt. He watched her attentively as each button slipped out of place until her shirt was fully free and she pushed it aside. He freed her the rest of the way by slipping it off her shoulders and dropping it to the floor. She undid the front clasp of her bra under his watchful eye and marveled at the blaze of fire that ignited in his eyes as her breasts fell free of their restraints.

“I don’t know how much more of this I can handle,” he said, slipping out of his shirt and tossing it somewhere else in the room. Regis giggled as they rid themselves of the rest of their clothes, pushing them aside so they had the full spread of the blanket Keith had laid out in front of the fire free for them to lay on.

And when they lay next to each other, hot flesh against hot flesh, Regis thought she’d lose her mind again. His hands were everywhere, stroking her skin, touching her in places that made her throw back her head in pure pleasure. And then he explored her more, this time with his mouth. He kissed her leaving a moist trail down her neck, to her breasts as he stroked one breast with his wide palm and then driving her crazy by flicking her nipple with his tongue.

“Oh, I want you inside me,” she said, not sure where she’d had the strength to even utter the words aloud. She reached between them and stroked him and wrapped her leg around him. He threw his head back with a gasp, breathing heavy, and then with determination, he kissed her with such passion and fire that she lost all sense of where she was. All she knew was their two bodies entwined, touching each other, loving each other.

And when he entered her with such force and hunger, all it took was a few strokes to lift her higher until she reached her peak and tumbled over the edge. She was still feeling the incredible pleasure he’d brought her when he rocked his hip harder. He buried his face in her neck and breathed harder until he reached his orgasm with an intensity that had him gasping for breath and clinging to her.

In his arms, Regis closed her eyes and wrapped her arms and legs around Keith, not wanting to let go of the beautiful connection they’d created. And as he pulled away from her and gazed into her eyes with such longing, she wondered if it was possible to ever get her fill of Keith McKinnon.

# # #

The fire was warm against her naked skin. Keith’s body nestled up against hers made it all the warmer. He’d pulled a small blanket that had been draped over the chair by the fireplace and loosely placed it over them. Content, she watched the changing colors of the fire licking the burning logs as she rested her head on Keith’s shoulder. With his arm wrapped around, he held her close.

She played with the gold medallion and cross he was wearing.

“Where did you get these?”

He glanced down and took the medallion between his fingers. “This was Wade’s. Remember that ring I found in the canyon?”