Page 12 of Rough Hands on the Prairie
This is like lightning.
It starts at my core and rips through me like wildfire. My body clamps down around him and I shatter, moaning into his mouth, gasping his name like a prayer.
He follows.
We stay like that, tangled and trembling.
His lips on mine, tongues lazy and slow, like we’ve found a language all our own.
And in that moment—our bodies spent, our breaths shared—I realize:
I may be hundreds of years out of time… But I have never felt more at home than I do right here in his arms.
CHAPTER 5
Elias
Ilift the axe and bring it down with a thud, splitting the log into a few pieces that I pick up and toss into the dented tin bucket I use to store firewood.
Now that the storm has cleared, I need to make sure I have everything in hand for the next one.
Because it’s not just me I have to worry about any more.
I glance back towards the house, where I left her sleeping an hour or so ago. I can still smell the scent of her on my skin, that intoxicatingly feminine aroma that made it impossible for me to keep my hands off of her last night.
Yes, I should have kept my damn hands to myself, but when I saw the milky expanse of her body, I did what any red-blooded man would have.
It’s not just because she’s beautiful, though that’s part of it. There’s something about her that’s...different to anything or anyone else I have encountered before. Her sharp tongue, her wit, her strange language.
I might not be able to put my finger on it, but I’ll be damned if I let her get away now that she has come stumbling into my life like a water nymph fresh from the river.
She’s from somewhere else, of course. That much, I don’t have to second-guess. But where? Is she allowed to tell me? She hasn’t come clean about it yet, even as I held her in my arms and stroked her hair till she fell asleep last night, and I can’t imagine her being any quicker to tell the truth now that the storm has passed.
Hell, she might be on her way before I know it, hitting the road again to get to wherever the heck she’s headed...
"Good morning."
I lean on my axe for a moment and glance back towards the cabin, which is dappled with sun pouring between the trees. The air is still cold, but the hear rises as soon as I lay eyes on her, standing there with that pretty little grin on her face like there’s a million possibilities shooting through her mind.
"Good morning," I reply, tilting my head low for a moment to show her my respect. She giggles as she makes her way towards me, arms wrapped around herself, my sister’s dress hanging from her body. It looks different on her than it ever did on Amy. It suits her. Looks like a second skin, the way it hugs the curves of her body, those curves that felt so right beneath my hands the night before.
"I thought you’d run off on me," she remarks, as she points back towards the bedroom. "You should warn a girl before you pull something like that, you know."
"Didn’t want to wake you," I murmur. "You looked so peaceful asleep like that."
"Yeah, well, you kept me up last night," she teases, her cheeks sinking into a soft, tempting pink. I want to grab her right then and there, but I don’t know if she’s up for a repeat performance, at least so soon.
"With good reason-" I begin. But before I can finish what I am saying, she moves towards me, pressing a kiss against my lips. It silences me on the spot, the axe falling to the ground andmy hands come to her waist to pull her against me properly. I let my teeth catch against her lip, gripping her thighs and backside through the dress, and when I pull back, her breath is a little fluttery.
"I-"
"You think I’m going to let my woman stay in bed all day?" I murmur, pushing her hair back from her face and gazing at her for a moment. Being this close to her, it feels nigh-on impossible to keep my head on straight. I want to back her into that cabin and lift her off her feet, push that dress back and take her right then and there.
But for all this place might be quiet, I don’t want to risk us getting caught in the middle of anything. She bites her lip for a moment as she looks at me.
"Your woman?” she murmurs back, testing the words on her tongue. I lift my chin to look at her.
"Got a problem with that?”
