Page 96 of Texas Glory
“I wish you would.”
“If you want me to, I will. I’ll give you anything you want, Dee.”
Because she was carrying his son. Cordelia’s heart ached with longing as much as with joy. The bond that joined them would forever be a wall that separated them.
But walls could be breached, and tonight, she wanted—she needed—him to scale the wall for her.
“Make love to me. I know there’s no reason to now that I’m carrying your—”
He stroked his thumb over her lips as a wealth of tenderness filled his eyes. “I’m thinking there might be more of a reason to now.”
He lowered his lips to hers, and with a whispered sigh, she welcomed him, his warmth, his flavor, his gentleness as his tongue slowly swept through her mouth.
The urgency that had seemed to accompany all their lovemaking before melted away like frost upon the windowpane as the sun reached out to touch it.
The goal that had once brought him to her bed was now a spark of life growing inside her. Her breasts had already begun to grow tender, and soon her belly would swell.
With their purpose achieved, she had expected a chasm to widen between them as they waited for the birth. She hadn’t expected to bask in the glory of his appreciation.
With infinite tenderness, he touched her as though she were a rare gift, his fingers trailing over her flesh, taunting, teasing until his mouth moved in to satisfy.
She felt as though her body had turned to warm liquid, the sensations a swirling mist as they traveled from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. No matter where his mouth lighted, it felt as though he touched all of her.
She glided her palms over his shoulders, pressed her hands along his back, threaded her fingers through his hair, relishing the different textures of his body: the light sprinkling of hair that covered his chest, the hard muscles that rippled each time he moved, the warm breath that left a trail of dew over her flesh as his mouth continued its sojourn over her body.
Nothing they had shared before had prepared her for this: the ultimate joy of being wanted, of feeling cherished.
When he lifted himself above her and captured her gaze, her breath caught. When he entered her with one long, slow stroke, her body curled tightly around him.
She moved in rhythm to his sure, swift thrusts: giving, taking, sharing. His power. His strength. Her determination. Her courage. The life they had created.
Where once she had feared him, now she understood that she loved him.
Her body arched against his, and in his eyes, she saw reflected the glory and the triumph, and welcomed it as her own when he shuddered and buried his face within the abundance of her hair, his breath skimming along her neck and shoulder.
Lethargically, she lay and listened to his deep breathing.
Had he loved her in return, she didn’t think he could have given her more.
With his child growing within her, hope spiraled anew within her heart that one day he would come to love her.
CHAPTER
FIFTEEN
The cold winds whipped down Main Street as Cordelia hurried along the boardwalk, drawing Dallas’s sheepskin jacket more closely around her. He had given it to her when he’d noticed her two middle buttons were undone on her coat to accommodate her swelling stomach. He had pulled an older jacket out of a trunk for himself.
Lifting the collar, she inhaled Dallas’s bay rum scent. A definite advantage to borrowing his coat was that she always felt as though he were near.
She went into the general store, removed her gloves, and rushed to the potbellied stove to warm her hands.
“Thought you had one of them in your hotel,” Mr. Oliver said.
Cordelia smiled. “I do. I was warm when I left the hotel, but I got cold so I thought I’d drop in here. Besides, I need to see if my order arrived.”
“Sure did. Set of Shakespeare. Twelve dollars.”
Her Christmas gift for Austin, not only the books, but the reading of them to him through the next year. “I’ll pick it up when we’re ready to leave town.”
