Page 17 of Rough Hands on the Prairie
"Tell me," I command her, voice throaty and low from the rush of emotion. "Tell me what you want."
Her eyes widen. But I need to hear it from her, I am not willing to settle for anything less. She thought the river might carry her away and I need to know that she wants to be here with me, even in the midst of all of her doubts.
"Tell me," I repeat myself, and her lashes flutter for a moment. Her skin, so perfectly soft, seems to quiver with anticipation as she waits for my touch, but I pull back, unwilling to gift that to her until I know that she needs it as badly as I do.
"I...I want you, Elias," she whispers. And the sound of my name on her tongue is intoxicating in ways that I didn’t know possible. I move on top of her, sliding my hand down to my hardness through my trousers, watching as her eyes trace the movement of me like she is craving me more than anything in the world.
"What do you want me to do?" I demand, as I bring my hand between her legs, resting my fingers against the crease of her thigh. The puff of dark hair on her mound is the only mark of color on her skin, and she lifts her hips again, trying helplessly to find some relief from the desire throbbing inside of her.
"I want you...I want you..." she gasps, her words catching in her throat before she can finally force them out. She flicks her tongue over her lips, and then hits me with that defiant stare, the one that I have come to recognize from her – the one that has come to signify her, and only her.
"I want to feel you inside of me..."
That is all the invitation I need. I move down to kiss her again, this time sliding off my pants as I draw myself into my hand. She pulls her knees back to allow me even closer, asthough she can’t imagine ever finding her way near enough to me. I know exactly how she feels. Even as I press myself against the warm embrace of her folds and move inside her, I feel as though I am not close enough, as though I want to crawl inside her skin so that the two of us can never be pulled apart again.
She whimpers as I bury myself inside of her, letting my face come to rest in the crook of her neck as I breathe in the scent of her. Lying next to her every night, I’d thought that I would grow used to this smell, but it’s just as intoxicating as it was the first time, if not more so. The more I uncover about her, the more I get to know her, the more I want her. Her mystery might have been what intrigued me in the first place, but it’s the woman who lies beneath it who has kept me hooked.
She wraps her legs around me, ankles linking behind my back as she rises up to meet me, right there on the riverbank. She makes no effort to hide herself, like she did the first time I saw her, offering herself up to me entirely.
Our bodies come together over and over again, falling into a pace that matches the rush of the river behind us, and I gaze into her eyes, drinking in the slow rise of pleasure as it builds inside of her. I can tell when she is getting close, the way her body starts to tense as her breath comes harder and faster than before.
"I want to feel you finish," I tell her, my voice more a command against her ear than a statement. She lets out another soft moan, her hips rolling back against me over and over again, her eyes blurry as she tries to find her focus on me, and then-
And then, I feel it, her sudden submission, as her body explodes into a wave of pleasure beneath me. She cries out, the sound guttural and all-consuming, almost animalistic. To know that I can draw such a sound out of someone so sweet and so feminine is impossibly erotic to me.
And as I push one last time to the hilt inside of her, I reach my own release, spilling my seed deep within her, marking her as entirely and completely mine.
I hold her there for a few more moments, my arms wrapped so tight around her I am not sure the two of us will ever be able to pull ourselves apart. But I don’t want us to. I don’t want to let her slip through my fingers, not ever again. God only knows that I have lost so much over the course of my life, and she will not be another to add to the long list.
I kiss her again, and, though neither of us say it, I know we can both feel it. The love. The love that fills the air like the sound of birdsong in Spring, a sign of something new, of something starting over. Her eyes glisten as she looks at me, trailing her finger along my cheek, like she is seeing me for the very first time.
And then, I realize that she is trembling, and it strikes me that we are out here in the cold with nothing to keep her warm, right after I pulled her from the river. I wrap my arms around her and scoop her against my chest, as she makes to grab the dress splayed on the ground below her.
"You need to warm up," I tell her. "Promise me you’ll never pull anything like that again, you hear me?”
"I promise," she whispers, as she nestles into my chest. And, as I start on the way back to the cabin, I know that she is telling the truth. Something has changed between us. Something we can’t take back.
And something I never want to lose, not as long as I love.
CHAPTER 9
June
Imake my way outside, clutching a cup of warm coffee in one hand as I wander from our tiny kitchen to where Elias is hard at work outside. The sunshine pours through the trees, dappling golden color on the ground below, green shoots starting to poke up from the ground, a reminder of the new life that is coming with the season ahead.
"How are you getting on?" I call out to him, as I round the cabin to see him hunched over something I can’t quite make out from here. He’s been up early every day this week, working on something he’s said is for me. I’ve tried to coax it out of him, just what he has in mind, but he has ducked the question at every turn, and I know better than to push for an answer before he is ready.
"You going to keep your nose out of this?” he teases as he straightens up – but then, he shrugs.
"Well, I’m just about finished anyway," he concedes, as he reaches for what he has been abandoning me in bed for every morning for the last few days. "Here – what do you think?”
He steps aside – and when I see what is waiting for me on the makeshift worktable he threw together out of a few plants anda couple of well-placed tree stumps, my eyebrows nearly vanish into my hairline.
"Is this...?” I murmur, as I make my way towards it. He nods.
"You said you needed a brush," he remarks. "So I spoke with Mrs. Yumi down in town about what else a girl would need to keep herself lookin’ pretty out here in the woods, and she gave me some pointers. You think this’ll do...?"
I press my lips together as a beaming smile threatens to overwhelm me. I nod.
