The Kansas Lawman's Proposal Read online

  Then he entered his room to shave with the razor he had picked up at the dry-goods store. He decided to remove the beard and mustache he’d worn the past six months in Kansas City.

  I’m starting fresh, Nate reminded himself. Besides, summer temperatures were soaring and a clean-shaven face was much cooler. He was anything if not practical. Something his father and older brother had difficulty understanding.

  Nate was halfway through shaving when someone knocked at the door. One of the young boys hauling water opened the door and Nate saw Rachel standing in the hall, holding a tray of food. She gaped at him when she noticed the beard on the left side of his face was gone.

  He inclined his head toward the end table. “Thanks for lunch. Set it down over there, please.”

  She waited until the second attendant exited, carrying an empty bucket, before she walked inside. Something about the way she fidgeted around the room and darted uneasy glances at him made him frown curiously.

  “Is there a problem?”

  She smiled a little too brightly. “No. Of course not.”

  Nate didn’t believe her, but he couldn’t imagine what might have happened the past hour since he’d seen her. “Is Doc okay?”

  “He’s dining.” She paced the confines of his room. “He decided to start the show late this afternoon so we can rest.” She stared pointedly at the whiskey bottle on the end table. “That better not be for Doc.”

  “It isn’t.”

  It was the substitute for what Nate really wanted—Rachel, naked and yielding in his arms. If she knew what he was thinking, she’d leave his room—at a dead run—right this very minute.

  She must have read his mind because she whirled toward the door and disappeared from sight.

  Nate finished shaving, then stared at his reflection in the mirror. He looked more like his old self—the lawman he’d been before he’d rushed to Kansas City to be sucked into his father’s scheme to marry him off to a wealthy socialite.

  The poor woman wouldn’t have survived a day traveling with the medicine show. Rachel, on the other hand, seemed capable of adapting to almost anything.

  “Stop making comparisons,” he scowled as he plunked down on the edge of the bed to eat lunch.

  Nate had told his father and older brother the previous month that he wasn’t interested in settling down—and certainly not with Lenora Havern. Furthermore, Rachel Whoever-she-was didn’t need him to make her life complete.

  And he didn’t need her, either.

  It was the wanting her that tormented him to no end.

  Nate intended to fulfill his duties as a U.S. marshal, just as he always had. He liked the challenge of solving mysteries and problems. He liked being on the move.

  “So there you have it,” he told himself between bites of fried potatoes and steak. “This is the life you designed for yourself.” Even if his father objected strenuously to Nate working in law enforcement when he didn’t have to work a day in his life.

  “So don’t be like Dad who thinks he should have a say in how you live your life. You don’t get to decide what Rachel wants for herself.”

  Still…He wanted to insist that she accompany him to Dodge City. He wanted her to want him, too, because he enjoyed being with her. She intrigued him. The thought of leaving her behind disturbed him.

  Nate shook his head in amazement. How could a woman he’d known for a week make such a vivid impact? Why was he compelled to invite her to travel to Dodge City while he conducted the investigation?

  He supposed it was the combination of her striking appearance, her indomitable spirit, the mystical sound of her voice and the enticing feel of her lush body meshed to his that had him rethinking his decision to leave her behind.

  He barked a laugh. “Must’ve been the aftereffects of that brain-numbing potion she gave you that first night you met her.” The thought made him frown pensively. Not that he believed it for even a moment…and yet…

  Nate scoffed at the ridiculous thought, then munched on the potatoes that had an under taste. There was something vaguely familiar about the flavor. Where had he noticed it before?

  After finishing his meal, he poured himself a tall drink and downed it quickly. Then he shed his clothes and stepped into his bath. Strange sensations streamed through him as he lathered himself with soap. The frustrations that had tormented him since the previous evening faded away, leaving him amazingly relaxed. Exotic memories of kissing and caressing Rachel skittered across his mind.

  Suddenly, wanting her exploded with killing force.

  He wondered how she would react if he marched down the hall to her room, naked as the day they had met, and took up where they had left off last night. The impulsive thought hammered at him as he grabbed the towel. When he stood up to dry off, the room tilted sideways and a fuzzy haze clouded his vision. Yet nothing curbed the ever-present need that gnawed at him. Instead, the ache intensified.

  “Another drink,” he mumbled as he wrapped the towel around his waist and padded over to the end table.

  He pivoted around when the door swung open. He reflexively reached for the pistol that usually hung in a holster on his hips but he grabbed nothing but towel. His gaze widened when Rachel stepped inside the room, then closed and locked the door.

  He appraised the low-cut green satin gown that he’d never seen her wear before. The diving neckline exposed the tempting swells of her breasts. She dazzled him as she walked toward him, her dark eyes riveted on his barely clad body. Need coursed heavily, hungrily, through him.

  “This is not a good time for you to be here,” he warned.

  She halted less than an arm’s length away. “No? Why not?”

  “Because I want you too much,” he told her flat-out. “I also think I’m going to miss you like crazy when I leave.”

  Damn it, the drink he’d ingested all too quickly must’ve loosened his tongue. Think before you blurt out comments like that one, he criticized himself.

  “I’m going to miss you, too, Nate.” She stepped closer to glide her arms around his neck. Then she studied his face for a long moment—while the feel of her luscious body brushing provocatively against his drove him another step closer to crazy. “I like you clean shaven. You are incredibly handsome. But I’m sure dozens of women have told you that before.”

  “None that mattered,” he mumbled before he yielded to overwhelming temptation and kissed her as if she were the dying wish granted a condemned prisoner.

  Lord, he loved the taste of her. He reveled in the feel of her body molded familiarly against his. “Just one more thing, though,” he whispered against her cheek.

  She chortled softly and the appealing sound went through him, touching every fiber of his being. “With you, there is always one more thing. What is it this time?”

  “Your dress is stunning,” he complimented.

  “Thank you. I made it myself.”

  He grinned roguishly as he reared back to appraise her again. “But as much as I like your dress, I’d rather you were wearing nothing but me.”

  His straightforward remark made her breath stall out. But Nate didn’t retract the comment. What he wanted was right there between them. He waited anxiously, expecting her to turn around and hightail it from his room. When she didn’t retreat, he stared into those dark, hypnotic eyes through the cloudy mist that teased his vision. Before his eyes blurred completely he reached down to unfasten the delicate buttons on the bodice of her green satin gown.

  “Last chance, angel face,” he said hoarsely. “If you don’t leave now I—”

  She pressed her forefinger to his lips, then stepped back to remove the dress. Nate swore he was drooling all over himself as he drank in the titillating sight of Rachel standing before him in a lacy chemise that extended a few inches past her hips. His appreciative gaze roamed over her full breasts and trim waist, then settled on the silky flesh of her thighs.

  Desire hit him like a rock slide. He managed a smile when he noticed her attention
had shifted to the towel he had fastened around his hips. His arousal couldn’t have been more evident.

  He held his breath when she unfastened the knot in the towel and let it drop to the floor. When she traced his hard length with her fingertips, he stopped breathing altogether.

  “I don’t want you to wear anything but me,” she said as she guided him to the edge of the bed, then knelt between his legs.

  Chapter Seven

  The instant her lips skimmed over his throbbing shaft Nate swore he was going to pass out. Pleasure sizzled and burned through him and he braced himself on his hands before he collapsed beneath the onslaught of blazing sensations.

  “Rachel, don’t—”

  “I want to know you as well as you know me,” she insisted as she brushed her lips back and forth across his aching flesh. “I want to know what pleasures you, what drives you wild with need.”

  “You do,” he rasped.

  Another tidal wave of fiery sensations buffeted him. He clenched his fists in the bedspread to steady himself when she took him into her mouth and suckled him. Then she nipped playfully at him with her teeth, causing his overworked heart to slam into his rib cage so hard he swore he’d cracked another rib—and didn’t care if they all shattered.

  “Damn,” he said on a hissed breath, and fought like hell for control.

  “That bad?” She looked up at him while she continued to hold his pulsing shaft in her hand.

  “That good. But I swear you’re killing me.” His comment made her smile impishly so he added, “I can’t think of a better way to die—”

  His breath fizzled out completely when she stroked him repeatedly, tenderly. Another round of indescribable sensations blazed through him. His vision kept fading in and out, leaving him swearing that he was floating in a dreamlike trance. If he’d had the slightest reservations or inhibitions before now, they had fled in the holocaust of fire that scorched him inside and out.

  Rachel was giving him such tantalizing pleasure that he surrendered without the slightest objection to her intimate kisses and caresses. When she urged him to sprawl on the bed, he obliged willingly. He watched, entranced, as she removed her chemise and tossed it aside. Seeing her in the darkness the previous night had aroused him, but it didn’t compare to marveling at every exquisite inch of her body in the light of day. She was feminine perfection and he wanted her like hell burning.

  “Lord, you’re incredibly beautiful,” he whispered roughly. “Come here.”

  “Not yet.” She pulled the pins from her hair, then let the rich raven strands tumble over her shoulders, concealing the tips of her breasts. “I’m not finished becoming acquainted with you, Nate.”

  He sighed in utter defeat when she set her hands upon him again. He craved her touch with mindless obsession. He savored the riveting tingles of pleasure she called from him. His breath came out raggedly when her silky hair drifted over his chest and belly in an erotic caress that sent his mind into another dizzying spin. His body shuddered when her hand drifted over his abdomen to sketch the muscles of his inner thighs.

  Unholy torment engulfed him when her feathery caresses skittered ever closer to his arousal, then drifted away. He was shameless—and desperate—to feel her fingertips and lips on him again. He had never granted any other woman access to his body, but Rachel could do whatever she wanted to him, for as long as she wanted, however many times she wanted. He was at the mercy of her tender touch and his ravenous need for her.

  When she traced his hard length with her tongue, then flicked at him, he heard a wobbly groan that must have been his. Then her hands began to move over him and the burning ache intensified. Flames licked at his body and the room went completely out of focus.

  This better not be a fantasy, he thought as mind-boggling pleasure vibrated through every nerve and muscle. He was a little dizzy and a lot out of breath. This helpless condition became worse when she cupped him and suckled him until he arched toward her in frantic abandon. He quivered with so much unappeased need that he groaned again.

  Urgently, he reached for her, but she pressed him back to the bed and she continued to work her passionate magic on him. He wasn’t sure how much more pleasure he could endure before he exploded. Already he swore the top of his head was about to blow off. His body was completely sensitized and need pummeled him, making it nearly impossible to draw breath.

  “Enough,” he panted as he buried his fingers in the long silky strands of her dark hair and drew her head up to his. “I want you, Rachel. I swear I’ve never wanted anything more.”

  Despite the shimmering haze floating around him, he noticed she was smiling down at him. “I want you, too, Nate.”

  That’s all he needed to hear. He hooked his arm around her waist and rolled over so that she was beneath him. He wished his vision would clear up so he could see every detail of her face, every thick strand of hair that fanned out on his pillow. Yet feeling her soft flesh beneath his hand was enough to satisfy him for the moment.

  Hearing her quick intake of breath when his fingertips skimmed the taut peaks of her breasts pleased him immensely. He was rewarded with the sound of her quiet moan when he skimmed his open mouth over her concave belly to spread a row of kisses up and down the satiny flesh of her inner thighs.

  When he lifted her hips to his lips to taste her warm essence she cried out his name. And when he suckled her, and then probed her heated flesh with his tongue, he felt the fluttering tremors of passion assail her. He vowed to offer her the same intense pleasure she had given him before he buried himself deeply inside her. Rachel had driven him as close to desperate urgency as he had ever been but he swore he’d hold himself at bay—even if it killed him, and there was a very real possibility that it would—until she was consumed by the maddening sensations that dragged him to the crumbling brink of self-control.

  “Nate—?”

  “I’m here,” he whispered against her skin.

  “But not close enough. You’re driving me cra—”

  Her voice broke on a shuddering sigh when he traced her softest flesh with his thumb, then glided his finger into her shimmering heat. He stroked her slowly, deliberately, and felt her come apart in his arms.

  He’d never spent so much time pleasing a woman, but he dedicated himself to drawing Rachel to the edge of mindless oblivion and making the last of her inhibitions flit off in the wind. When he took her, he wanted her clutching frantically at him as they tumbled into breathless ecstasy together.

  To that dedicated end he pleasured her, aroused her over and over again. He smiled triumphantly when she grabbed him by the hair on his head and pulled him above her.

  “Make the empty ache go away,” she demanded shakily.

  He settled exactly upon her and whispered, “Whatever you wish, Rachel. Whatever you wish…”

  Rachel couldn’t name a time in her life that she’d felt so wildly frantic and out of control. The pleasure Nate had given her with his skillful kisses and caresses defied description. It was even more intense than the sensations she had experienced with him the previous night. He seemed to know how and where to touch her and make her shiver with so many astonishing feelings that they converged to overwhelm her. Her body was so attuned to his kisses and caresses that she responded intensely, wildly, wholeheartedly.

  When he moved intimately toward her, she clasped her hands on his hips and urged him ever closer. Even the unexpected pressure of his masculine penetration didn’t prevent her from urging him deeper and arching shamelessly toward him—anything to satisfy the burning ache inside her.

  When he stopped suddenly and looked down at her, as if he was seeing her for the very first time, her body begged for more, begged for something that he withheld from her and she needed desperately. She couldn’t imagine what that something was because the passion he had summoned from her already was enough to stop her heart and make her swear she had died twice the last few minutes.

  She was still arching toward him when he mumbl
ed something she couldn’t interpret—and she was too impatient to ask him to repeat. Then he began to move inside her, satisfying her with each gliding stroke. The wild, sweet crescendo built until indefinable pleasure burst over her like fireworks streaming down from the sky. He drove into her, harder, faster, and she gave all that she was to him, desperate to satisfy the insatiable need clamoring for release inside her.

  Her eyes flew wide open and she stared at Nate in baffled astonishment when the most phenomenal sensation she had ever experienced claimed her mind and body. Pleasure expanded, vibrated, through every part of her being until it consumed her completely. She swore she was spiraling weightlessly through time and space, soaring directly into the sun. She held on for dear life when even more incredible sensations bombarded her.

  When Nate clutched at her, then shuddered above her, she understood the meaning of wild, splendorous ecstasy. Nothing seemed as important as holding on to him, feeling his heartbeat hammering against her breasts, while her accelerated pulse beat in perfect rhythm with his. The tumultuous pleasure of passion poured over her, through her, draining her energy and strength. She was locked in Nate’s sinewy arms but she didn’t feel restrained or imprisoned. She felt as free as an eagle soaring with the wind beneath its wings.

  For that timeless moment, all was right with her world, and she never wanted to forget how amazing it felt to be here, like this, with him.

  Nate nuzzled his chin against her neck and she felt his smile of satisfaction—the same silly smile she suspected was curving her lips.

  “You are absolutely incredible,” he mumbled drowsily. “But you should’ve told me it was your first time, sweetheart. I would’ve been gentler with you.”

  She pressed an affectionate kiss to his forehead. “I’m not complaining.”

  “Good. Didn’t want to disappoint you.”

  “Never that,” she confided softly.

  She felt him sag heavily against her and she decided she had better scoot away before the potion she’d mixed into his fried potatoes took full effect.