Page 116 (2/2)

Lorna realized she was unashamedly naked, but there wasn’t an inch of her that he wasn’t intiain at the fra

“What does that have to do hat I asked you?” She lifted her glance to frown

His sraph froentle hands were fir her onto the th on his side, facing her, as naked as she was His fingers reached for the face she turned toward hi the tendrils of silk-brown hair aside

“I thought I hadand happy When I discovered on our wedding night that she was also passionate, I was that much ers continued to trace over her face, touching her nose and following the line of her cheekbone “I thought I had a wife I could safely love”

“You aren’tsense” Lorna searched his velvet dark eyes and the warular features The little scar near his eye stood out as a white line on sun-bronzed skin

“Yes, I a ht you would You argued, you defiedinside me Instead of a tame little wife, I had a stubborn little rebel oreinvolved in htly over her lips “Lorna Calder was a handful that I didn’t kno to handle You can be very irritating”

“Not half as irritating as you can be”

“That’s because you were de too much You started to mean too much to ave you too much of mys

elf, ould I have left? So I tried to keep so the wire”

“Benteen Calder—building fences?” she chided the absurdity of the idea that an open-range man would put up wire “If it’s a fence you want to build, then build it around us Put both of us inside it, then I won’t have any reason to tear it down”

“Not even to get out?” he asked quietly

“I never should have threatened to leave you,” Lorna adirl’s foolishness All I ever wanted was for you to love me—and to let , feeling, or drea” His hand was on her throat She took hold of it and carried his palm to her lips “I know your body almost as well as my own, but you haven’t let me knohat’s in your heart”

“I love you, Lorna One way or another, you’ve ed to leave room for little else,” he declared huskily “God help me, but I love you”

When he kissed her, the world was filled with light She ainst his hard lips They were equally strong in spirit, pride, and will, forged by a land and a tith, but love made them unconquerable

Elaine studied her son with a keen interest There was a new ease about him, a freeness of manner that hadn’t been present before He had always projected the ie of a man sure of his purpose, but now there was an added confidence