Midnight Flame (48 page)

Sliding toward Tony, Laurel was soon pulled into his strong arms. He wrapped her in an embrace of steel tempered with tenderness. Lips of fire and velvet joined in an all-consuming kiss. The beating of their two hearts sounded as loud as the thunder overhead, and their desire glowed in brilliant sparks, competing with the lightning that flashed across the heavens.

The beauty of the moment shook them with its intensity of feeling. His tongue parted her lips, and a low moan of pleasure broke from Laurel. Threading her arms around his neck, she pulled him closer to her as a deep burning ache grew within her. They kissed for a long moment before Tony’s hand slipped beneath her shirt, and then he broke away.

“You’ll come home with me, Laurel. Tell me you will,
chérie.

“Yes, yes, I belong only with you.”

Pure love and desire shone within the depths of Tony’s eyes. His hands moved deftly along her rib cage to seek the aching fullness of her breasts. Each breast filled his palms when he cupped them, nearly driving her mad with his touch. Laurel wanted all of him and needed him quickly. It had been so very long since they made love that just to imagine such pleasure was enough to rouse her passion.

With trembling fingers, she reached for his shirt, already open, and removed it from his broad shoulders. Her fingers trailed a wanton path filled with fire and promise along his shoulder blades to the taut muscles of his upper arms before snaking across to the hairy expanse of pectoral muscles. He grabbed her wrists before she could move lower.

“I think it’s my turn to take off your shirt.”

His words sent shuddering spirals of delight down to her toes. Deftly he unbuttoned her blouse, and within seconds it lay beside her. His mouth then sought the valley of her breasts and gently placed a kiss there before moving to the target of his passion. Each coral-tipped nipple was gently laved with his tongue in endless circling motions. Laurel held onto Tony’s shoulders as rapturous waves built within her.

His kisses upon her flesh were like a heady wine and set her body aflame. Never had Laurel felt so feverish to have him inside her or know of such ecstasy building within her that she thought she would burst before he took her completely. Her lips trailed answering kisses along the side of his neck and across his shoulder blade. She thought she would die if he stopped kissing her breasts, but she knew she couldn’t wait much longer for him.

With a husky moan on her lips, she broke away and kissed his forehead. “I can’t wait much longer, Tony. I want you now.”

Tony’s dark head lifted from the creamy globes. His eyes filled with amber lights when he looked up at her. Without a word he began removing his pants, and Laurel followed suit, fumbling with the buttons on her own pants until both of them were naked and clasped in each other’s arms. By some unspoken consent Tony sank onto the bedroll, taking her with him. Laurel’s hands stroked his thighs and wantonly moved to the warm, hard shaft of his manhood. Tony’s groan of pleasure told her that he enjoyed her touch and would have welcomed more, but Laurel needed his length within her now, needed to know that he was as starved for her as she was for him.

Moving from his embrace, she straddled his thighs. Her fiery fingers reached for his hardened desire and sheathed his manhood within the silken folds of her body. He filled her eagerly, holding her hips in place as she rode him, her dark head thrown backward in ecstasy. The lightning flashed around them like a million fireflies, and Laurel resembled a silver goddess, naked and uninhibited as she took her pleasure. Finally in one swift and searing plunge, Tony arched toward her and drove deeply within her. She ceased moving and her eyes grew wide, almost totally unprepared for the undulating waves of intense rapture that lapped through her as Tony spilled forth his love.

Their moans of completion were smothered when Tony pulled her head down and their lips met in a molten kiss. It seemed that hours passed before their hearts stopped their erotic beating, but their hands were never still on each other’s bodies. Once more they were in passion’s paradise, somewhere above themselves in the heat of the storm.

“The rain’s stopped,” Laurel mumbled, feeling saddened that their time together had come to an end. By nightfall they would have returned to the ranch, the rain having washed the rustlers’ trail away. She felt certain that their earlier passion would ignite again when alone in their bedroom. But would Tony hold her to their agreement to return home with him? She had more or less agreed in the heat of desire. Yet she didn’t know if she could forget Simone.

Somehow reading her thoughts, Tony gently turned her face away from the open doorway. He gazed at her with troubled eyes. “You’re not certain any longer that you want to come home with me.”

“Yes.”

“I told you that I hold nothing against Lavinia now. She’s safe from me. I was stupid to try to hurt her, to hate her as I did. I can’t change the way I felt, but believe me when I tell you that I’m sorry—”

Her fingers on his lips stilled his words. “It’s not Lavinia. It’s Simone. I don’t want to take second place in your heart, Tony. I don’t think I can live in the woman’s shadow. You told me her child wasn’t yours, but can you be sure? I read Jean’s letter to you, and apparently you’ve been grieving over her death … and the child’s. If Simone and her baby meant nothing to you, then why do you care so much?”

Tony sat up and rested his elbows on his knees. His hand raked through the thickness of his hair. His eyes were filled with such pain that Laurel shivered in the belief that he had loved Simone.

“I should have told you sooner about what happened the night Simone died, but I couldn’t talk about it. In fact I’ve spoken only once to Jean and even then, I couldn’t find the words to say how awful I felt, how depressed.”

Laurel didn’t know if she wanted to hear more. “You don’t have to tell me.” She made a move to get her clothes, but Tony stopped her.

“Nothing’s as you think, Laurel. Hear me out.”

She became quiet, and satisfied that she wouldn’t leave, Tony continued, a frown marring his forehead.

“The night Simone died, a very bad rainstorm passed through the area. It was late, and Jean and Denise had dined with me. They were getting ready to leave when a pounding started on the door. It was Simone. She’d ridden from Clermont in a fragile buggy and was drenched and chattering from the cold. I offered her some tea, but she refused. In front of Jean and Denise, she accused me of taking my responsibility lightly as far as she and her child were concerned.

“I was dumbfounded and aggravated with her lies. Up until this night I wasn’t certain whether I had fathered the child or not. I believed I hadn’t, but she kept insisting I had made love to her. I had been so drunk I didn’t remember, yet I knew that if I had been that drunk, I wouldn’t have been able to make love to her or any woman. I attempted to reason with her, but she became enraged and acted like a mad woman. She threw an expensive vase at my head, called me all sorts of names. I truly think she wanted to embarrass me so much that I’d have admitted to anything just to shut her up.”

Tony took a deep breath here, almost unable to go on. He clasped Laurel’s hand and stared ahead, lost in his own memories.

“By this time, the rain had stopped. I had had enough of Simone’s ravings. I asked her to leave, and she wouldn’t. She planted herself on the sofa in the parlor and refused to budge. She said that if I didn’t seek a divorce soon and marry her, she’d drag my name through the parish and would cause such a scandal that no one would associate with me. I told her to go ahead, that I owed nothing to her and that the child wasn’t mine. This angered her more, and before Jean’s and Denise’s terrified eyes, she lunged at me with a knife she pulled from her reticule. I forced it from her, and then I picked her up and bodily hauled her from the house to her buggy.

“She was wide-eyed with loathing and hatred. I’ve never seen such a wild, crazy person. It was as if Simone had lost her good sense. Jean begged me not to cast her into the night like this, but I didn’t care. I wanted her gone from Petit Coteau and out of my life. Jean, as you know, is a kind and caring man. He jumped in the buggy beside Simone as she whipped the horse into action. They literally seemed to fly down the mud-slicked road. It was half an hour later that a servant came for me and told me he’d found the buggy overturned on the road. Jean had been injured, and Simone lay unconscious.”

“How terrible for all of you,” Laurel said and squeezed his hand.

Tony nodded, only vaguely aware that she had spoken. “I rode to the spot where the accident had occurred. Jean was taken back to the house and later found to have two broken legs. Simone was in horrible shape. She was bleeding everywhere and lost her baby that night. Doctor Fusilier told me he didn’t have much hope for her. She woke for a few minutes and asked for me. In Doctor Fusilier’s presence she told me that the baby wasn’t mine. She wasn’t certain who the child’s father was. It might have been Seth’s child for all she knew. She begged my forgiveness for what she’d done by trying to trap me. She admitted that she and Seth wanted you to think that I was the child’s father. If not for Seth’s involvement with the whole plan, you’d not have lost our child, Laurel. I can’t forgive Seth for how he conspired to get you away from me. I forgave Simone because I realized she had no one to love her. However, I can’t forgive myself for putting her in that buggy, for speaking to her the way I did. I caused her death as surely as if I’d shot her.”

A sob escaped Laurel’s lips, and she threw her arms around his neck. “Don’t blame yourself. Simone was wild and destined for unhappiness. Her death was her own making. I just thank God that Jean will be all right.”

Tony hugged her fiercely and buried his face within the sweet scent of her hair. “I love you, Laurel. I’ll always love you. But if you want to stay here, I won’t force you to come home with me. I only want you to be happy. I want that more than anything.”

“Oh, Tony! You make me happy. I love you, too. I can’t stay here without you, can’t imagine living without you now that we’ve found each other again. I’ll go home with you to Petit Coteau. I don’t want to be anywhere but within your arms.”

‘‘Then that’s where you’ll be,
chérie
. Forever.”

Their lips met again, and the kiss was filled with the promise of a new beginning, the start of their life together without deceit. From this moment on, both of their hearts overflowed with happiness and love and trust in each other. Each felt that nothing could mar their joy.

“We better get dressed and head back to the ranch or we’ll never leave.” Tony grinned and stroked her breasts. “Unless you’d like to stay here a while more.”

Laurel made a pretense of pondering this suggestion. “Hmmm, that’s a tough decision to make.”

“You hard-hearted vixen.” Tony playfully nipped her ear. They dissolved in laughter, but Tony made a move to start dressing. “We better go back. Jim will wonder what happened to us.”

Laurel sighed. “I suppose we should. “

After they had dressed, they kissed and embraced again, then headed outside into the quiet dusky evening with arms around each other’s waists, oblivious to everything but their delight in being together. They moved to their horses, but Tony suddenly stopped in his tracks and his head shot up. Laurel’s did also, and in that instant, Tony was roughly pulled from her by two Mexican men who seemed to appear from nowhere.

Another man reached for her, and in one fell swoop, she was hauled onto his horse and perched before him. She struggled and screamed for Tony, aware that Tony called her name and attempted to pull away from the men who held him. A long scream dissolved in her throat when one of the men raised a gun and hit Tony on the back of his head, knocking him unconscious.

“Tony! Tony!” she screamed as she saw him fall to his knees and pitch face down onto the muddy wet ground.

“Quiet,
chica,”
the man behind her whispered into her ear. “Your man can’t help you now.” He made a nasty-sounding laugh, chilling her to her soul. “Don’t forget the note!” he yelled to one of the other men. Quickly he turned the horse around and spurred the animal in the other direction and rode into the fast descending gloom of night.

The sun blinded Tony’s eyes when he woke. The golden orb beat upon him, rousing him from his unconscious state. For a few minutes he lay still, unable to think, feeling only a sharp pulsating pain in the back of his head. Finally he sat up, trying to orient himself. A distance away, his horse grazed peacefully, but something was wrong, very wrong.