Page 60 of West Wind

She forgot about the parcels. “Your arm does bother you, doesn’t it?”

“A little,” he conceded.

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

She kissed him softly, his face, his neck where a vein throbbed, his lips again.

“You won’t.”

He rolled onto his back and brought her with him, his hands on her waist guiding her.

She followed his lead and straddled him. “You want me on top?” She smiled and lightly bit his lower lip.

Her smile broadened as she ran her hands over his body, coming back to his face. He really was handsome without his beard. Strong jaw, full, firm lips, smooth cheeks she loved to kiss.

“I should’ve shaved a long time ago.”

He caressed one breast and then the other, and she rained kisses over his body until neither of them could find words anymore.

She lowered herself slowly, taking in every silken inch of him, then she raised herself gradually, every nerve in her body exposed, on fire. When she and Shelley were together nothing else mattered. Not the past, not the future. Not his other women, not her uncertain fate.

She forgot everything but Shelley as she moved faster and faster, raising and lowering herself with gradually increasing rhythm.

He raised to meet her, his own breathing as heavy as hers, his eyes open so he could watch her. Her head tilted back; her eyes closed. When she reached her climax she ground her hips against his and bit back a scream, and then he shared that release with her.

He brushed back a dark lock of hair that hid one brown eye from him. How had he allowed this to happen? Jesus, he was like an eighteen-year-old kid when Annie touched him. He should’ve tired of her by now, but he only wanted her more.

“Shelley,” she whispered as she lowered her face to his and kissed him ardently. “I…” She hesitated, then kissed him again.

“What, darlin’?” He wrapped his good arm around her and she rested her head against his right shoulder.

“I’m glad you’re all right, and I’m glad you shaved your beard.” She didn’t look at him as she whispered into his neck.

“I should get shot and shaved more often,” he teased.

She lifted her head then and looked into his eyes. “At least for the next couple of weeks, right?”

He dismissed her reminder of their limited time together. “I bought you something.” He kissed her forehead as he gently set her beside him and reached to the floor where his packages had been scattered. “Let’s see…”

The first item he showed her was a brand-new shirt to replace the one that had been destroyed. Then he threw everything on the bed. Coffee, beef jerky, dried apples, beans. He grinned and asked her to close her eyes. As soon as they were shut he began dropping heavy things between her spread legs, one after another, ordering her to keep her eyes closed until he said she could open them. Finally he told her she could look.

Canned peaches, a dozen cans, were piled on the bed between her legs. Annie squealed and grabbed one can and then another as he tossed a can opener into the middle of the pile.

“You’re the most wonderful man I’ve ever known.” She gave him a girlish smile that threatened to break the heart he claimed not to possess.

“I seem to remember you said a can of peaches would buy me anything I wanted,” he said as casually as he could manage. “I did wonder what a dozen cans would purchase.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck. “Everything you want. All you have to do is ask.”

He smoothed her still-damp hair with his hands. This was getting dangerous. Two weeks. Maybe a day or two more, maybe a day or two less. She was working her way into his heart, with her voice and her heartfelt smiles, with her innocent blushes and her bold advances. He’d shielded his heart from the feelings she threatened to stir for too long to relent now. He remembered their pact. Just Shelley and Annie. Just two more weeks.

“Umm,” he mused. “I think I’d like you to rub my back and feed me a can of those peaches.”

She obliged him with a smile, feeding him peaches and dutifully kissing away the syrup from his lips. In spite of her contented smile, her unexpected joy, she wished he’d ask for something more. Her heart, her love, her body by his side forever. Those were wishes he’d never make; they were burdens he didn’t want. It should make her love him less, but it didn’t.

It was becoming harder and harder not to tell him how she felt.

Leaving him when they reached San Francisco would break her heart, so she pushed that thought out of her mind. There was only here and now. Shelley and Annie.