Midnight Rider (24 page)

“I will tell Don Ramon that you are ready.” Backing away, she silently slipped from the room, leaving Carly alone in the silence that rang louder than a death knell.

*   *   *

Ramon lifted his heavy crystal snifter, a family heirloom brought to the New World from Spain, tilted his head back, and drained the last of his brandy. Fury still pumped through him, as it had for the last three days.

He couldn't believe he was married. That he had been trapped like a naive schoolboy. Mostly he couldn't believe that the woman who had done it was Caralee McConnell, Fletcher Austin's niece. Worse yet, she was a
gringa.

He felt like wringing her soft white neck.

His smile felt cold and bitter. At least she would finally warm his bed. He meant to take her as he had wanted to since the moment he had met her, hard and deep, pounding into her until his lust was sated. His loins swelled to think of it. His arousal pulsed stiffly against the front of his breeches, his blood pumping, growing thick and heavy, pooling low in his belly.

Carly had forced this marriage. She had meant to use him to save herself. Well now she was his wife, and he would be the one who used her.

He set the snifter down on the table, hardly aware of the driving rain that had begun to fall, and jerked open the door leading out to the patio. A cold wind knifed through his clothes, but he was too angry, his body too aroused to feel it. He didn't knock when he reached his room, just lifted the wrought-iron latch and jerked open the heavy oak door.

She was standing beside the bed, wearing the white silk nightgown his aunt had fashioned as a wedding gift. Her hair was down, gleaming like burnished copper in the light of the lamp on the dresser. A faint tremor rolled through her as he stepped through the door, and her big green eyes swung up to his face.

She looked so beautiful his breath caught, seemed to freeze inside his chest. Something warm slid through him, softening the barrier around his heart. He had seen the white silk gown when his aunt had sewn it. He knew it was exquisite, but he couldn't have imagined how beautiful Carly would look when she wore it. He couldn't have guessed the way her hair would shimmer across her shoulders, how the white of the gown would illuminate the paleness of her skin and the emerald of her eyes.

He couldn't have known the way her soft ruby lips would tremble with uncertainty, even though she kept her chin held high.

An odd pain rippled through him, a tightness that expanded and made his throat feel dry. He didn't like the feeling, didn't like the fact that just looking at Caralee could affect him in such a manner.

He forced his gaze downward, over her womanly curves. He paused at the dark aureoles at the tips of her breasts and the swelling in his groin began to throb. He assessed her tiny waist, the shadowy triangle of down between her legs, and the throbbing grew more intense, the blood pulsing thickly through his veins.

“I see that you have accepted what is to be. That is good.” She said nothing as he unbuttoned his shirt and stripped it off, nothing as he sat down on the chair and pulled off his boots. The rain thrummed hard on the red tile roof, but it seemed no louder than the pounding of his heart.

He came to his feet and started on the buttons down his fly.

“Ramon?”

His fingers stilled. Just the echo of his name on her lips sent desire blazing through him. It was stoked by the heat of his anger … and his unwanted emotions.

“The time for talking is past.” He popped the final button at the front of his breeches but didn't take them off, just crossed to the place before her. “It is not words I now wish to hear, but the sound of your small woman's cries as I drive myself inside you.”

A soft sob rose in her throat. It sounded so fearful, so totally out of character, his gaze swung up to her face. Her bottom lip quivered and her eyes were glazed with tears.

“I'm sorry, Ramon. I wish I could change what has happened.”

“I told you, I do not wish—”

“I know how angry you are … and that the fault is mine.” She blinked and the wetness began to roll down her cheeks. He remembered how much she hated to cry. “I have suffered your anger,” she said softly, the sadness in her eyes touching him as nothing else could. “I have also known your gentleness. I beg you, Ramon. Show me that gentleness now.”

His heart squeezed, clenched inside his chest. One moment the anger was there, fighting to break free, threatening to overwhelm him, the next it was gone. In its place were all the feelings he felt for her he had forced himself to ignore. His hand began to tremble as he wiped the tears from her cheeks. Her skin felt like silk beneath his fingers.

“Do not cry,
querida.
” He pressed his lips against her temple, felt the faint tremors running through her. “Even should I wish it, I could not hurt you again.”

“I'm sorry, Ramon. So sorry.”

He tilted her chin with his fingers, stared into those sorrowful eyes, bent his head and brushed her lips with a kiss. “I am the one who should be sorry. We have all of us made mistakes. I am the last one who should forget it.” He cupped her cheek in his hand, stroked his thumb gently along her jaw. Leaning forward, he captured her mouth, tasted the soft lips quivering under his.

“Do not be frightened,” he whispered, his fingers gently coaxing, easing away her fears. “I have wanted you since the first moment I saw you. Now you are my wife. You must trust me in this as you trusted me once before.”

Carly stared at him, swallowing back the tears. There was tenderness in his expression and something more, something that made her heart expand inside her. She reached for him, slid her arms around his neck.

“I do trust you.” This was her Ramon. The man who had saved her life. He had returned to her and she was no longer afraid.

Lightning flashed outside the window as his mouth skimmed over her cheek and along her throat, his lips insistent and so incredibly warm. His tongue flicked over her skin, making it tingle, and her body seemed to melt into his tall hard frame. Through the sheer white silk gown, his bare chest pressed against her breasts and her nipples strained toward the heat of his skin.

He took her lips in a ravaging kiss that sent spirals of heat lancing through her. His tongue swept into her mouth while his hands slid inside her gown to cradle a breast. He teased the nipple with his finger, plucked it into a hard, taut bud, and a tide of fire blazed through her. Unconsciously, she leaned toward him, her hand moving down his shoulders, irresistibly drawn to the curly black hair on his chest. It felt soft and springy, seductive against her skin. She traced a pattern in it, felt the thick bands of muscle bunching at her touch, and heard him groan.

He kissed her again as he slid the gown from her shoulders, leaving her naked, the white silk pooling around her feet. He paused for a moment, drawing back to look at her, standing naked before him.

“So beautiful,” he said gruffly. “But then I always knew that you were.”

Outside the window, the wind whipped through the trees, and the sky opened up, the rain coming down in a thunderous roar. His fingers encircled her waist, pulling her against him, letting her feel the hard ridge of his need. His mouth ravaged hers, his lips hard-soft and burning with heat, his tongue thrusting deeply, rhythmically, igniting sparks of flame that licked through her body. He slanted his lips over hers, kissing her fiercely, the hand on her breast molding it gently, making it tighten and swell.

Lightning flashed and thunder roared, as if he were the one to command it. She gripped his shoulders, ran her hands along the muscles across his back. She felt the heavy cords tighten, move sinuously beneath his skin. His hands skimmed over her flesh, ringed her navel, then spread over the flat spot below. Long slim fingers laced through the burnished hair at the juncture of her thighs, eased her legs apart and slipped inside.

Carly moaned.

“Easy, Cara.” He brushed her mouth with a fiery kiss. Moving his finger in and out, he nudged the swollen bud in the folds of her sex, sending hot damp shivers along her spine. She moaned and arched upward against his hand.

“You like this, no?”

“Y-Yes.” She should have been embarrassed, but all she could think of were the sweetly burning sensations, the pleasure sweeping through her, and the deep plunging rhythm of his hand. Then he was lifting her up, resting her in the center of his bed, pausing only long enough to strip off his breeches. She could hear the howl of the wind, feel the coolness of the petals on the mattress beneath her, pressing against the hotness of her skin.

Trembling all over, she watched in fascination as he joined her on the bed, all sleek muscle and smooth, dark skin. Below his navel, a thick, hard ridge rose up against his flat belly. She had seen men naked when she had helped to nurse them in the mine patch, but they had looked nothing like this.

“Ramon?”

The windows shuddered against a rush of wind. He angled his body over hers, took her mouth in a savage kiss. He nibbled the side of her neck, gently sucked on the lobe of her ear.
“Si, querida?”

“You're so … big.”

A soft chuckle came from his throat. “All men are this way, Cara, when they are making love.”

“All of them? All of them are so big?”

Another soft chuckle. “Well, perhaps not quite so big. But we will fit together … you will see.”

Fit together? She wasn't exactly sure what he meant. For the first time it occurred to her exactly how little she knew of such things. “How will you—how will we…?”

“Hush,
querida.
No more talking. I will show you how it is done.”

His hand stroked over her breast, making the hard bud throb and quiver. Then his lips followed his hand, taking her nipple into his mouth, and Carly forgot her uncertainties, thought of nothing but the flames shooting through her body. Heat skittered over her flesh, seared through her veins, sent a wave of dampness into her core.

Ramon's long fingers were stroking her again, sliding deep inside her, making her arch up off the bed. Lightning speared across the sky; the crack of thunder shook the room, and the lamp beside the bed flickered and dimmed. Carly whimpered softly, began to toss her head. Ramon's mouth seared her lips, his hands scorched her flesh, making her burn out of control. He cradled a breast, laved it with his tongue, bit gently on the nipple, and a hot flood of desire washed over her.

“Ramon…” she whispered, trashing wildly, dragging a hand through his hair. It felt like black satin against her skin.

A second long finger slid in, stretching her, gently preparing her, sending shivers of heat running through her. Tiny ripples of flame licked over her flesh and she squirmed on the bed, her body silently pleading for something she could not name.

Then he was looming above her, easing her legs apart with his knee, stroking her even more deeply. Her body shuddered, tightened, drew into a hard, hot coil that begged to be sprung.

His fingers slid away, replaced by his long, hard shaft. Then he was easing himself inside, stretching her, filling her with his thick, heavy length.

Dear God, she couldn't have imagined …

For a moment he paused, his breathing fast and ragged, then he bent his head and took her mouth in a deep, tongue-thrusting kiss. Carly arched upward at the same moment Ramon drove forward. Something tore loose, she gasped at the pain that shot through her, and Ramon's whole body went still.

“I am sorry, Cara. In a moment your first time will be over.”

She could feel his powerful muscles straining, shaking with his effort at control. “But I don't want it to be over. I want…”

A corner of his sensuous mouth curved up. “
Si,
I know what you want, Cara. I was worried that I might have hurt you.” He started to move very slowly. “Let us see if I can give you what you want.” His hardness slid in, then gently eased out, rubbing against the part of her that he had touched before. He started moving faster, thrusting deeper, setting up a rhythm that made her trembling grow more fierce. The small house shuddered with a heavy gust of wind, the storm's fury building like the fires that raged inside her. The driving rhythm increased, his narrow buttocks flexing, forcing him deeper, pounding faster and harder, matching the tempest outside.

The tightness sprang to life, the coil of tension that had been there before, knotting low in her belly. Her nails dug into the muscles across his shoulders as the spiral of heat coiled tighter, making the blood roar through her veins. The tension mounted; a sheen of perspiration covered her skin.

Then the hot, tight coil snapped free, flinging her violently out of control. She was soaring, soaring, gliding on silver wings to a place of incredible sweetness, a world of pleasure unlike anything she had known.

“Ramon!” she cried out, her body arching upward, taking him deeper inside while golden pin dots flashed behind her eyes. Pleasure rushed through her, liquid heat and spirals of delight so sweet she could taste them on her tongue.

Ramon's body tensed. Pumping into her hard and deep, he threw back his head and groaned out his release, telling her he traveled to the same place she had been. Carly clung to him as if she might not find her way back without him.

She felt his lips on her forehead. He kissed her eyes, her nose, her mouth. Outside the wind seemed to have lessened. The rain on the roof became a steady patter, the wind a soothing rush among the trees. Rolling onto his side, he pulled her against his chest, his body still melded with hers.

Gently he smoothed back locks of her hair. “I am sorry I hurt you. But the pain comes only once.”

She smiled at him softly. “You didn't hurt me. There was just one instant of discomfort. I would gladly pay the cost again.”

A flicker of movement where his body still joined hers. His eyes turned dark and his hand returned to her breast, skimming over the roundness, urging her nipple to life. The hardness returned to the length of him still inside her, and a fresh round of heat slid through her limbs.