Page 39 of Long Past Dawn
I rubbed my hands together and walked to the stove, ladling some into a bowl. “I’d love some. It’s chilly out there today.” I stopped talking long enough to eat the soup while she cleaned up their bowls. I set mine in the sink when I was done and washed it down with a drink of water. “I love your wild rice soup. It’s almost as good as the bison steaks Cece’s doing on the grill tonight.”
“Almost as good?” she asked, hip checking me. “Why is Cece cooking?”
I shrugged and leaned against the counter. “Blaze asked her to so we could sit with the folks and not be distracted. I would have rather done the grilling, but I know Cece will do just fine.”
Dawn leaned into my side and put her arm around my waist. “She will do better than just fine. She’s a professional. My question is, why would you have rather done the cooking? Don’t you want to spend time with Ash and Amity?”
“I do, but I also want Blaze and Heaven to have plenty of time with them,” I said, not meeting her eyes. Whenever she could stare into them, she always saw what my words didn’t say.
Her hand tenderly stroked my chest before she spoke. “Beau, you live with me now, which means they will have a lot of alone time with Blaze and Heaven. I know you are kind of nervous about seeing them again, but you shouldn’t be. They love you.”
Apparently, after making love to me a dozen times, she doesn’t even have to look in my eyes to know the truth. “I know you’re right. I’m struggling with their arrival today on the anniversary of Momma’s death. I don’t know how to feel, and it’s chewing me up something fierce. Will you come with me to dinner?”
Dawn let her arm fall from around my waist and gazed up at me. “Are you sure? Did you hear Heaven and me talking, and that’s why you asked? I don’t want to be in the way or make anything awkward for you with Mr. and Mrs. McAwley.”
I took her hand and brushed a kiss across her knuckles before I answered. “You won’t make anything awkward. I want you to meet them, and I want them to get to know you. You don’t have to come, but the invitation stands. I know that’s why Heaven was here, right? She was inviting you?”
She nodded and pointed over her shoulder at the door. “I told her I wasn’t going tonight …”
“Unless I asked you to come, right?” She shrugged, but it held a degree of guilty agreement to it. “I wasn’t over at the ranch for the last four hours trying to decide if I wanted you to come if that’s what you think. I was working and was just now able to sneak away. I want you there, and it has nothing to do with what I overheard between you and Heaven. Please.”
“I’m more than ready to come and meet the infamous Ash and Amity McAwley,” Dawn finally said, a smile on her face. “I even made …” She held up her finger and walked to the fridge, opening the door, and motioning inside.
The spread inside the fridge made my mouth water with one glance. “Oh, mercy me,” I moaned. “Dawn’s famous Wisconsin cream puffs.”
I reached for one, but she smacked my hand away. I barely got my head out of the way before she closed the door. “Not until dinner!” she exclaimed firmly.
I grabbed her around the waist and kissed her neck, suckling lightly until she shivered. “What were you going to do if I didn’t ask you to dinner?”
“Eat them all myself,” she moaned, another shiver darting through her when my tongue trailed its way up her neck.
“I doubt that. I bet you were going to give the cream puffs to Heaven and not even save me one.”
“I might have, but I did save extra cream. I figured you could have a Dawn puff once you got back tonight.”
I buried my nose in her neck, my hardness pressing into her thigh to make his presence known. “Woman, you’re going to make me come like a pubescent boy at just the thought.”
Dawn laughed, but the sound was so naughty I nearly did. I swung her up into my arms, and she squealed until I silenced her with my lips while I carried her to my room. I slammed the door shut with my boot heel and tossed her on the bed carefully, following her down so I didn’t have to break contact with her lips. My fingers were anxious and desperately tugged at the old worn buttons on her shirt until I could cup the warm flesh of her breasts, her sweet body driving me to the breaking point.
She moaned into my mouth, and the sound engulfed me, filling my head with fire only sliding into her center would extinguish. Our tongues, lips, and hands collided as we undressed each other until we were naked and panting.
“God, Dawn, every time. How can it be like this every time?” I asked into her ear before I had even buried myself inside her.
“Make love to me, Beau,” she begged, her nails clawing at my back until I thrust upward, filling her completely.
“Dawn,” I hissed as she lifted her hips and swallowed me whole again. She settled herself against my pelvis and braced her hands on my chest until she was sitting upright on me. My thumbs brushed her nipples, drawing out a shudder before she scooted back another inch, changing the depth and position just enough to drag a cry from my lips that was from somewhere deep within my soul. I held her hand on my chest, my body trembling and my heart beating in a way it never had before.
“I think I love you, Dawn Lee!” I cried when she started to come around me. Her cries were in sync with the waves of her body until we were both trembling and panting. When she relaxed against me, she gave me access to that soft hair on the top of her head.
I kissed it and rubbed my cheek in her locks, then buried my nose there until she groaned. “Not bad for a nooner, eh?” she asked, her usual Midwestern accent husky and sated. It sounded the same as mine, and I knew what emotion was clogging mine.
Love.
The word sent a shiver down my spine, and I wrapped my arms around her tightly. “That was pretty damn good for any time of the day, darlin',” I whispered. “I already want to do it again, but I'm holding out for that Dawn puff later.”
She chuckled at the thought, which broke the mood. She sat up and hurried to the end of the bed while my gaze trailed her naked body down and back up until I met her eyes. Hers were brimming with tears, and I didn't know what to do.
Dawn grabbed her clothes and pulled her shirt around to cover her creamy breasts I loved to suckle. “I suppose we better finish today’s duties before dinner tonight.” She cleared her throat and stood, inching toward the door. “Are you going back to the ranch?”
