Читать книгу Lone Star Kind Of Man - Peggy Moreland, Peggy Moreland - Страница 9

Prologue

The Kerr Ranch, Temptation, Texas 1986

Cody squinted against the darkness in the hayloft. “Regan?” he called softly.

“O-over here,” came her muffled reply.

Quickly Cody climbed the last few steps and hurried to the pile of hay where she lay sobbing and dropped down to a knee at her side. “Honey, what’s wrong?” he asked as he gathered her into his arms.

“She burned them,” she cried, curling her fingers into fists against his chest. “She burned them all.”

Cody knew without asking who “she” was. Susan Kerr, Regan’s sister-in-law, her stepbrother’s wife. He’d known as soon as he stepped into the barn and heard Regan’s sobs coming from the hayloft above him that the two had had another fight. More often than he cared to think about, Cody had found Regan just so, crying her heart out after crossing swords with Susan.

“What did she burn?” he asked gently.

“Everything in Mother’s trunk. Her pictures, her wedding gown, m-my christening dress.”

All the memories of the mother she had lost. Hugging her to him, Cody felt her pain as if it were his own. “I’m sorry, Reggie. So sorry.”

“Why does she hate me?” she cried helplessly, clinging to him.

“I don’t know,” he murmured, trying his best to soothe. When she continued to cry, he sat down on the scattered hay, pulling her to his lap.

Regan curled against the warmth of his chest, accepting his comfort as she had so many times in the past. “You’re all I have, Cody,” she said, her breath hitching.

Because he knew what it was like to be alone, Cody tightened his arms around her. “That’s not true, sweetheart. You’ve got Harley.”

She jerked free of his arms. “No, I don’t,” she cried angrily. She scrambled to her feet and crossed to stand before the hay door that opened from the loft to the outside. Moonlight limned her shape.

She stood, arms folded beneath her breasts, staring out into the darkness in silence for what seemed like an eternity to Cody. He wanted to go to her, but knew that no matter how many reassurances he offered her, she wouldn’t believe him. Not when she was this upset.

He watched a sigh shudder through her. “You’re all I have, Cody,” she said again. The anger was gone, but her voice was still thick with tears. “And all I need.” She turned then, holding out her hand to him. “Make love to me, Cody,” she whispered.

Cody rose, his gaze fixed on hers, his conscience warring with his own needs. “Reggie, we can’t. You don’t know what you’re saying. You’re only seventeen. You’re—”

“I’m a woman,” she told him, lifting her chin defiantly. With trembling fingers she reached to free the top button on her blouse. “And I know what I want. And what I want, what I’ve always wanted, is you.”

Cody took a step nearer, thinking to stop her. “Reggie, don’t,” he murmured. But she ignored him, freeing another button, then another, until her fingers all but raced down the length of her blouse. When she reached the last, she shrugged out of the shirt and tossed it to the hay.

Cody stopped, frozen by the sight of her bare breasts, full and ripe, rising and falling with each heaved breath in the shaft of moonlight coming through the hay door.

“Tell me you don’t want me,” she dared him, reaching for the snap of her jeans. Without waiting for an answer, she kicked off her shoes and peeled the jeans down her legs. She straightened, lifting her chin in challenge. “Tell me you don’t want me as badly as I want you.”

Cody swallowed hard, trying to form the words to voice the lie she demanded of him... but he couldn’t. He wanted her, had wanted her for more than a year. But he was three years older, supposedly wiser, and had kept his needs in check, knowing that he had to wait until she was of age...until he had something more to offer her than what he had now.

Sensing his hesitation, Regan took a bold step, closing the distance between them. With her gaze on his, she lifted a hand to his chest. “I love you, Cody. Tell me that you love me, too.”

Though he tried his damnedest to remain unaffected, the pressure of her fingers burned their way through to his heart, weakening his resolve. He closed his hand over hers, holding it against his heart. “I do love you, Reggie. You know I do, but we can’t do this.”

She took a step nearer, pressing her naked breasts against his chest and wrapping her arms around his neck. “Make love to me, Cody. Please,” she begged.

The wall of control Cody had managed to keep between them crumbled at the feel of her body pressed against his. “Oh, Reggie,” he moaned, gathering her tight against him. “We shouldn’t do—”

Regan silenced his arguments by crushing her mouth over his. Boldly, she kissed him, showing him in the only way she knew how that she was more than ready to take this final step into womanhood.

Though Cody tried to keep a grip on reason, on sanity, the tender bites on his lips, the stab of her tongue into his mouth, the rake of fingernails down his back, slowly robbed him of all rational thought.

“Regan—” But before he could say more, she pulled him down with her to the hay.

They rolled, both fighting at the buttons on his shirt, the snap on his jeans, until Cody was as naked as she. Bracing himself above her, he looked down at her, his heart beating violently in his chest. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes glazed with heat as she reached for him, drawing his face to hers.

He knew it was wrong, knew that he should do something to stop this before it was too late... But he was powerless to do anything but give in to the needs that had been escalating for months, leading to this moment. Stolen time alone, kisses that had started out innocently enough, but ended leaving them both breathless and wanting.

He’d dreamed of this, even prayed for it, but nothing had prepared him for the reality, the beauty of Regan, his Reggie, lying naked beneath him, the burning heat that raged through him at the seductive pressure of her body flattened against his.

On a ragged sigh, he claimed her mouth, teasing it open with his tongue as he guided her thighs apart with his knees. Slowly, he lowered himself over her. At the first touch of his hardened manhood, she arched away, moaning against his mouth. He withdrew slightly.

“This might hurt a bit,” he warned, knowing it was her first time.

“I don’t care, Cody,” she whispered breathlessly. “I want you. All of you.”

Easing down again, he slipped a hand between them, wanting to prepare her for what was to come. Teasing the folds apart, he dipped a finger inside. She bucked against his hand.

“Oh, Reggie,” he groaned, trying desperately to hold on to the thin threads of his control.

But she wouldn’t allow him that slim hold. She lifted her hips, stretching her arm to meet him and guided him inside.

At the first thrust, she gasped, sinking her nails into his back. Fearing that he’d hurt her, Cody pressed hot kisses across her face. “I’m sorry, Reggie. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“No,” she murmured, wagging her head in denial. “You didn’t. Please,” she begged, “just—” The plea dangled uncompleted between them, for Regan, in her inexperience, didn’t even know what to ask for.

“I know, sweetheart,” he soothed, and began to slowly move inside her. “Just follow me.”

Regan did follow him, mimicking his movements until they took on a life of their own. Passion built, dampening her skin in a fine mist of perspiration, hardening into a tight knot of frustration low in her abdomen as she raced along with him. Squeezing her eyes shut against the mist of pain/pleasure that threatened to smother her, she strained, reaching for that elusive flood of pleasure she somehow knew awaited her.

Instinctively, she wrapped her legs around his waist. “Cody,” she cried. “Cody, please!”

Gathering his arms at her back, he rose to his knees, bringing her with him, and buried himself deep inside her. She arched hard against him, throwing back her head. The explosion was simultaneous, rocking them both to the very core of their souls.

Breathless, his heart pounding against the wall of his chest, Cody braced an arm at her waist and a hand on the loft floor and lowered her, following her to the hay. Rolling to his side, he gathered her close, smoothing her damp hair from her face. She lifted her head to look at him, and amber eyes softened by passion met his in the moonlight. The trust and love he saw there squeezed at his heart.

My Regan. My Reggie. The thought swelled in his chest. A man fragmented by a solitary life suddenly felt whole.

“I love you, Reggie,” he whispered as he pressed his lips to her forehead.

“And I love you,” she whispered in return, snuggling against him.

He held her, one hand knotted in the coal-black hair that curtained her back, while with the other he traced the curve of her waist, the gentle rise of her hips, the slope of her thigh.

Regret came then, sneaking up on him like a ghost in the night. He’d taken Reggie’s virginity, robbed her of her innocence. He’d allowed lust to overrule common sense. He tightened his hold on her, knowing full well that what he’d done was wrong, but knowing, too, that if he had it all to do over again, he’d do the same thing.

Worries crowded his thoughts, one piling up on the other. What would they do now? He couldn’t marry her. Not yet. She was too young and he too old. She was the boss’s sister and he was nothing but a wrangler on her family’s ranch.

“Cody?” she murmured.

“Hmm?” he murmured, distracted by his troubled thoughts.

“Run away with me.”

Startled, Cody lifted his head to stare at her, sure that he had misunderstood. “What?”

“Run away with me. We can get married and have a place of our own. Please, Cody,” she begged, sinking her fingers into his arms. “You’re all I have.”

Though it broke his heart to do so, carefully, Cody set her away from him. “No, Regan. I can’t.”