Читать книгу Diana Palmer Christmas Collection: The Rancher / Christmas Cowboy / A Man of Means / True Blue / Carrera's Bride / Will of Steel / Winter Roses - Diana Palmer - Страница 19

Physical therapy seemed to go on forever. The days turned to weeks, the leaves began to fall. The cows grew big with calves. Rain had come in time for some of the grain crops to come to harvest, and there would be enough hay, hopefully, to get them through the winter. Maddie’s legs were growing stronger. Little by little, she made progress.

Odalie and Cort were still around, prodding her, keeping her spirits up during the long mending process. She didn’t let herself get discouraged. She created new fairies and Odalie shipped them off, carefully packed, to a man named Angus Moore, who acted as Maddie’s agent and sold her dainty little creations for what amounted to a small fortune for the artist.

The developer, sure enough, left town and left no forwarding address. Gossip was that the authorities wanted to talk to him about several cases of dead cattle on properties he’d tried to buy in several states. Maddie hoped they caught up with him one day.

Meanwhile, Cort came over every night for supper. He brought his guitar most nights, and serenaded Maddie on the porch until the nights got too cold for that. Then he serenaded her in the living room, by the fireplace with its leaping flames while she curled up under a blanket on the sofa.

From time to time, when Sadie was occupied in the kitchen, he curled up under the blanket with her.

She loved his big hands smoothing her bare skin under her shirt, the warmth and strength of them arousing sensations that grew sweeter by the day. He was familiar to her now. She had no fear of his temper. He didn’t lose it with her, although he’d been volatile about a man who left a gate open and cattle poured through it onto the highway. At least none of the cattle was injured, and no cars were wrecked.

“He was just a kid,” Cort murmured against her collarbone. “He works for us after school. Usually does a pretty good job, too, cleaning out the stables.”

She arched her back and winced.

“Damn.” He lifted his head and his hands stilled on her body. “Too soon.”

She looked miserable.

He laughed. He peered toward the doorway before he slid the hem of her T-shirt up under her chin and looked at the pert little breasts he’d uncovered. “Buried treasure,” he whispered, “and I’m a pirate…”

She moaned.

“Stop that. She’ll hear you.”

She bit her lip and gave him an anguished look. He grinned before he bent his head again, producing even more eloquent sounds that were, thankfully, soon muffled by his mouth.

But things between them were heating up more every day. She had his shirt unbuttoned just before he eased over her. Her hard-tipped breasts nestled into the thick hair on his muscular chest and one long, powerful leg eased between both of hers. He levered himself down very gently while he was kissing her, but she felt the quick, hard swell of him as he began to move helplessly on her, grinding his hips into hers.

“Oh, God,” he bit off. He jerked himself back and up, to sit beside her on the sofa with his head bent, shuddering.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered shakily.

He drew in short, harsh breaths while his hands worked at buttoning up the shirt. “Well, I’m not,” he murmured, glancing down at her. He groaned. “Honey, you have to cover those up or we’re going to be back at first base all over again!”

She looked down and flushed a little as she pulled her shirt down and fumbled behind her to do up the bra again. “First base.”

He laughed softly. “First base.”

She beamed at him. “I’m getting better every day. It won’t be long.”

“It had better not be,” he sighed. “I think I’ll die of it pretty soon.”

“No!”

“Just kidding.” He turned on the sofa and looked down at her with warm, dark, possessive eyes. “I talked to a minister.”

“You did? What did he have to say?”

He traced her nose. “We have to have a marriage license first.”

Her heart jumped. They’d been kissing and petting for quite a long time, and he’d insinuated, but he’d never actually asked.

“I thought we might get one with flowers and stuff. You know. So it would look nice framed on the wall.”

“Framed.”

He nodded. His eyes were steady on her face. “Madeline Edith Lane, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?” he asked softly.

She fought tears. “Yes,” she whispered. “Yes!”

He brushed the tears away, his eyes so dark they seemed black. “I’ll love you all my life,” he whispered. “I’ll love you until the sun burns out.”

“I’ll love you longer,” she whispered back, and it was all there, in her eyes and his.

He smiled slowly. “And we’ll have beautiful kids,” he said softly. He pushed back her hair. “Absolutely beautiful. Like you.”

Now she was really bawling.

He pulled her gently into his arms and across his lap, and rocked her and kissed away the tears.

Sadie came walking in with coffee and stopped dead. “Oh, goodness, what’s wrong?”

“I told her we were going to have beautiful kids,” he said with a chuckle. “She’s very emotional.”

“Beautiful kids? You’re going to get married?” Sadie exclaimed.

“Yes.” Maddie smiled.

“Whoopee!”

“Oh, dear!” Maddie exclaimed.

Sadie looked down at the remains of the glass coffeepot and two ceramic mugs. “Oh, dear,” she echoed.

Cort just laughed. But then, like the gentleman he was, he went to help Sadie clean up the mess.

They were married at Christmas. Maddie was able to wear an exquisite designer gown that Odalie had insisted on buying for her, as her “something new.” It was an A-line gown of white satin with cap sleeves and a lacy bodice that went up to encase her throat like a high-necked Victorian dress.

There was a train, also of delicate white lace, and a fingertip veil with lace and appliquéd roses. She wore lace gloves and carried a bouquet of white roses. There was a single red rose in the center of the bouquet. One red rose for true love, Cort had insisted, and white ones for purity because in a modern age of easy virtue, Maddie was a throwback to Victorian times. She went to her marriage a virgin, and never apologized once for not following the crowd.

She walked down the aisle on the arm of Cole Everett, who had volunteered to give her away. Odalie was her maid of honor. Heather Everett and Shelby Brannt were her matrons of honor. Four local girls she’d known all her life were bridesmaids, and John Everett was Cort’s best man.

At an altar with pots of white and red roses they were married in the local Methodist church, where all three families were members. The minister had preached the funeral of most of their deceased kin. He was elderly and kind, and beloved of the community.

When he pronounced Cort and Maddie man and wife, Cort lifted the veil, ignoring the flash from the professional photographer’s camera, and closed in to kiss his new bride.

Nobody heard him when he bent, very low, and whispered, “First base.”

Nobody heard the soft, mischievous laughter the comment provoked from the bride. There was a huge reception. John Everett stopped by the table where Cort and Maddie were cutting the wedding cake.

“So, tell me, Cort,” John said when the photographer finished shooting the cake-eating segment, “if I’m really the best man, why are you married to my girl?”

“Now, a remark like that could get you punched,” Cort teased, catching the other man around the neck, “even at a wedding.”

John chuckled, embracing him in a bear hug. “I was just kidding. No doubt in my mind from the beginning where her heart was.” He indicated a beaming Maddie.

Cort glanced at her and smiled. “What an idiot I was,” he said, shaking his head. “I almost lost her.”

“Crazy, the way things turn out,” John mused, his eyes on Odalie as she paused to speak to Maddie. “My sister, Attila the Hun, is ending up as Maddie’s best friend. Go figure.”

“I wouldn’t have believed it myself. Odalie’s quite a girl.”

John smiled. “I thought it would be you and Odalie, eventually.”

Cort shook his head. “We’re too different. Neither of us would fit in the other’s world. It took me a long time to realize that. But I saw my future in Maddie’s eyes. I always will. I hope Odalie finds someone who can make her half as happy as I am today. She deserves it.”

John nodded. “I’m very proud of her. She’s matured a lot in the past few months.” He turned back to Cort. “Christmas is next week. You guys coming home for it or not?”

“Oh, we have to…my folks would kill us, to say nothing of Sadie.” He indicated the older woman in her pretty blue dress talking to some other people. “Maddie’s like the daughter she never had. They can’t have Christmas without us,” he stated. “We’re just going down to Panama City for a couple of days. Maybe later I can take Maddie to Europe and show her the sights. Right now, even a short plane trip is going to make her uncomfortable, much less a long one to somewhere exotic.”

“I don’t think Maddie will mind where you go, as long as she’s with you,” John said. “I wish you all the best. You know that.”

“Thanks, bro.”

“And when you come home, maybe we can crack open some new video games, now that my sister won’t complain about my having you over,” he added with a sigh.

Cort just grinned.

The hotel was right on the beach. It was cold in Panama City, but not so cold that they couldn’t sit on the patio beyond the glass sliding doors and look at the cold moonlight on the ocean.

Predictably, they’d barely made it into the hotel room when all the months of pent-up anguished desire were taken off the bridle for the first time.

He tried to be gentle, he really did, but his body was shivering with need long before he could do what he wanted to do: to show his love for Maddie.

Not that she noticed. She was with him every step of the way, even when the first encounter stung and made her cry out.

“This is part of it,” he gritted, trying to slow down. “I’m so sorry!”

“Don’t…sweat it,” she panted, moving up to meet the furious downward motion of his hips. “You can hang out…the bedsheet in the morning…to prove I was a virgin…!”

“Wha-a-at?” he yelped, and burst out laughing even as his body shuddered with the beginning of ecstasy.

“First…base,” she choked out, and bit him.

It was the most glorious high he’d ever experienced. He groaned and groaned as his body shuddered over hers. The pleasure was exquisite. He felt it in every cell of his body, with every beat of his heart. He could hear his own heartbeat, the passion was so violent.

Under him, her soft body was rising and falling like a pistol as she kept pace with his need, encouraged it, fanned the flames and, finally, glued itself to his in an absolute epiphany of satisfaction that convulsed both of them as they almost passed out from the climax.

She clung to him, shivering with pleasure in the aftermath. Neither of them could stop moving, savoring the dregs of passion until they drained the cup dry.

“Wow,” she whispered as she looked into his eyes.

“Wow,” he whispered back. He looked down their bodies to where they were joined. They hadn’t even thought of turning out the lights. He was glad. Looking at her, like this, was a joy he hadn’t expected.

“Beautiful,” he breathed.

She smiled slowly. “And to think I was nervous about the first time,” she said.

“Obviously unnecessary, since I have skills far beyond those of most mortal men…oof!”

She’d hit him. She grinned, though. And then she wiggled her eyebrows and moved her hips ever so slowly. Despite the sting, and the discomfort, pleasure welled up like water above a dam in a flood.

“Oh, yes,” she whispered as he began to move, looking straight into her eyes. “Yes. Do that.”

He smiled. “This,” he murmured, “is going to be indescribable.”

And it was.

When they got back, in time for the Christmas celebrations at Skylance, nobody could understand why, when Cort whispered, “first base,” Maddie almost fell down laughing. But that was one secret neither one of them ever shared with another living soul.