Texas Moon TH4 (50 page)

She eyed him dubiously as he approached the tub naked, but she only emitted a breathless squeal when he swept her up and settled himself in the water, bringing her down on top and facing him. Water sloshed over the sides, but he didn't even notice, much less care.

"Peter..."

He didn't know what she meant to say. He stopped her words with a kiss that seared his insides, scalding him as if he bathed in boiling water.

There were simply too many words to be said so he didn't say any of them. He kissed her, soaped his hands with the bubbles on her breasts until she gasped, then slid his hands over and beneath the generous curves of her hips, lifting her to where he needed her.

She gave a cry of ecstasy that almost caused Peter to lose it right then and there. Forcing himself to go slowly, he tried to take her gently, but she was beyond that already. With his own groan of joy, he followed her lead, driving himself deep inside over and over until the water churned with their frenzy.

By the time they achieved satisfaction, there was more water on the floor than in the tub and someone was banging on the door in protest. Peter grinned and pressed a kiss to his wife's reddened cheeks before climbing out of the tub and wrapping a towel around himself to chase away the intruder.

By the time he placated the hotel manager, Janice had toweled herself dry and was wriggling into a long nightgown. Peter grabbed the cloth from her hands and jerked it back over her head, flinging the gown to the far corner of the room.

"I have to make up for lost time," he murmured when she protested. Lifting her, he carried her to the bed.

Janice grabbed the covers and rolled up in them, glaring at him as if he had suddenly turned into the devil himself. "Not until we talk," she informed him coldly.

Peter didn't bother drying off. He dropped to the bed, rolled over until he had her legs trapped beneath his, then methodically began removing the covers from her grasp. "We can talk anytime. We don't often have this much privacy to do what I want."

"At least tell me where you're taking me. I have a right to know where we'll be living." She grabbed the sheet away from him and pulled it back over her breasts.

"I'm taking you back to Mineral Springs where you have friends. You said you didn't want to go back to Ohio. I'll build you a house there and buy you a new bicycle." Peter peeled the sheet back again and filled his hands with her deliciously scented flesh. He couldn't resist tasting, and he felt a surge of satisfaction when she wriggled and moaned with pleasure beneath him.

But Janice wouldn't be put off. She grabbed a handful of his hair and jerked until he had to look at her. "And how do you mean to earn the money for all these wonderful things?"

"The same way I always have, by hard work. Despite what you've seen, I am capable of keeping a wife." Peter turned to nibble at her ear while his hands sought the pleasures of soft curves.

Janice caught his biceps and tried to shove him away. "I don't doubt your abilities in the least. Just tell me how and where you mean to do this work."

Growing a trifle angry at this continued resistance, Peter pushed himself up and glared down at her. "What difference is that to you so long as I provide for you as I promised?"

She tried to scramble out from under him but his legs and the tangle of sheets and blankets held her trapped. She pushed herself up by her elbows and glared back at him. "I'm your wife, you stone-headed idiot! You can't just pretend I'm one of your employees not deserving of managerial secrets."

Her hair had fallen from its knot and now tumbled in glorious disarray across her breasts and shoulders. He had loved that hair from the first instant he'd seen it. Peter filled his hands with it now as he sat back on his haunches and forced himself to say what he would have given a fortune to postpone.

"I'll be going back to Ohio to help Daniel run the business. He can use the help. The pay is good. I'll have us out of debt in no time."

With a cry of rage, Janice slammed both hands against his chest and shoved him off the bed.

For the second time in as many weeks, he fell with the loud crash of a tree toppling.

Chapter 41

"Who the damn hell do you think you are?"

Janice raged above him, kneeling naked on the edge of the bed, her waist-length hair rippling down her back and over her shoulders like some Viking Valkyrie.

Peter lay on his back, looking up from the floor in more astonishment than anger. This was his mild-mannered schoolmarm?

"This is a marriage, not a business!" She grabbed a pillow and flung it at him.

He threw up an arm and shielded himself from the bombardment, knocking the pillow aside. He was rather too aware that he was naked and relatively defenseless, but his astonishment melted into the anger. "I keep my promises, dammit!" he yelled back. "I promised to make you happy and to take care of you, and I damned well mean to do just that. I don't own a ranch. I can't keep you here without making money somehow. So I'm doing it the only way I know how."

He jumped up and grabbed the next pillow she meant to fling at him.

"By leaving me here! Damn you, Peter Mulloney, what do you think I am? A liar? I told you I love you. Didn't that sink into your thick head?"

The noise they created had someone pounding on the door again, but they both ignored the intrusion.

"Love hasn't got anything to do with money! Hell, for all I know, it won't even last longer than it takes to say it. It sure as hell won't last if you're shivering in some log cabin watching the babies we make starve. I told you I'm not going to do that to you, and I mean it!"

The pounding at the door was now accompanied by shouts to open it. Janice grabbed the pillow from the floor and slammed it against Peter's head.

"I... love... you... lunkhead," she screamed, beating him with the pillow in time to her words. Peter ducked, dodged, and scrambled for the second pillow. Janice continued bringing her pillow down upon his back and shoulders. "I'm your wife! Where you go, I go. If you're too ashamed to take me back to Ohio, just say so. Don't give me this other nonsense."

Peter gave up on his weapon and grabbed hers instead. The struggle tore open a seam, sending feathers flying in a snowy blizzard. The pounding at the door escalated.

"Ashamed! Hell, Janice, I don't know what you use that brain of yours for, but it sure ain't for thinking. I didn't marry you out of shame! I married you because you were the best damned woman I would ever find. I'd be proud to show you off. You're the blamed fool who won't go back with me. A man wants the woman he loves by his side, but I don't mean to keep you where you won't be happy."

Janice was so startled by his admission that she let her side of the pillow go. Peter found himself grasping just the pillow cover as the casing flew out of his hands, scattering the remaining chicken feathers high in the air. They both stared in distraction as feathers settled everywhere, covering the bed, their hair and shoulders, the floor, lighting on the dresser and washbasin, blowing in the draft from the door.

The door. Peter grabbed Janice in his arms and held her against him as someone's shoulder bounced against the solid wood. Tyler's curses followed, and Janice turned a wide-eyed look up to Peter's taut jaw. As someone else slammed against the panel, Peter began to grin.

"I think we're being rescued, my love. Who do you think will be embarrassed most if they succeed?"

Janice looked down at their nakedness, at the feathers coating their arms and torsos, not to mention the room and her shoulders began to shake.

"You're not crying, are you?" Peter asked anxiously, catching her arms and staring worriedly down at her bent head.

Janice whipped her hair back and forth and tried not to let the laughter erupt, but it was more than she could control. Everything was more than she could control. He whole life was totally out of hand, and she was laughing so hard that she couldn't keep from shaking. The sound of her merriment pealed above the shouts and curses outside the door.

Peter's laughter began as a grin at the absurdity of their situation. It grew with the infectiousness of Janice's mirth. Aside from the fact that they were both quite certifiably insane, he had never felt better in his life. Guffaws welled from deep in side of him. He wanted to roll on the floor with happiness, but he retained sufficient sense to grab a sheet to wrap around Janice. He wanted to shout his love to all the world, but he wasn't about to share her with anyone. He hadn't changed that much.

But they had changed. As the hotel manager unlocked the door and Tyler and Daniel stumbled in, that much was obvious. The stoic pair who seldom smiled, who always planned ahead, who never had a moment for nonsense, were standing in a snow cloud of feathers, stark naked, and laughing. When they saw the faces of their would-be rescuers, the couple erupted in renewed peals of hilarity.

The manager broke into Spanish curses and threats at the destruction around them, but Tyler and Daniel merely exchanged glances, grinned, and shoved the man out o the room. The only rescuing needed here was their sanity and that was probably dispensable.

Epilogue

"Just because my mother gave you those damned things doesn't mean you have to wear them." Whipping the oxen to a faster pace, Peter glanced down at the offending article showing in a tantalizing ruffle beneath Janice's skirt.

"They keep me warm. Besides, I'm wearing a skirt over them. It's not as if I'm wearing them as pants. And besides that, you don't need to look at my legs. You already have what you want." Janice rested her hand on the curve of her stomach, just beneath her breasts. She lifted her ankle to admire the ribbon threaded through the ruffled anklet of her stylish bloomers. They would look very nice when she was allowed to ride a bicycle again, but she wouldn't tell Peter that.

Peter gave a smug grin as he noted where her hand rested. "I'll admit that the thought of you carrying my baby tickles me no end, but that isn't all I want. I've made inquiries, and we have plenty of time for what I want."

A hint of color stained Janice's cheeks as she turned her attention to the rough road ahead of them. "I won't ask to whom you made your inquiries. You come from a family of real rapscallions, you realize. I don't know how your sainted mother has endured it all these years."

Peter snorted. "My 'sainted mother' has become a true harridan in her later years. If I didn't know him so well, I'd pity my father."

Janice smiled and watched Betsy ride her pony up the trail ahead of them. "He's only getting what he deserves for keeping her under his thumb all this time. And your brothers are learning to follow Daniel's example and let his tirades go right around them. In a few years, they'll be able to run Mulloney Enterprises without any help at all."

Peter shot her smile a suspicious look. "Just because I made a little profit on that stock sale doesn't mean we have enough to live on for very long. We might be back there by winter again."

The mountain they were riding up didn't seem to have changed much from the inclement winter weather. The coming of spring had brought a renewed green that she didn't remember from the prior autumn, but the smell of the pines was the same. Janice drank it in happily and leaned back against the wagon seat to give the child inside her more room to move.