A Season Beyond a Kiss (17 page)

Jeff growled in mock anger. “You, madam, are definitely an imp.”

When he sat back upon his heels, she immediately followed and, bracing up on her knees, gave him a kiss that fairly fanned his imagination, encouraging him to reach out to take her to him again, but, with a mischievous little laugh, Raelynn wiggled away. Catching her bottom lip between her teeth, she peered at him with eyes sparkling with delight as she doffed her bonnet and tossed it aside. Then she promptly presented her back and began unpacking the basket.

“You little tease,” Jeff accused, reaching out to pinch her buttock.

“Ouch!” she cried and tossed back an exaggerated pout. “You bruised me.”

“Let me see,” he urged and sought to lift her skirts. A swat on his knuckles drew nothing more than a deep chuckle from him. It hardly discouraged him. Reaching out, he drew his wife back upon his lap and cupped a round breast possessively. “Now I have you, vixen, and this time you won’t get away.”

Raelynn tilted her head aside accommodatingly and closed her eyes in sublime pleasure as he nibbled at her neck and brushed his fingers across a nipple until it grew taut beneath her gown. Deftly he plucked open the fasteners at the back of the garment and began pulling it over her head.

“What about the food?” she breathed in a trembling sigh as his hands slid upward from her waist to encompass the swelling mounds.

“We’ll eat later,” he whispered near her ear, unfastening the tiny buttons running down the front of her chemise. Her undergarments followed the way of her gown, allowing his hands to roam unhindered. In the bright, scintillating flashes of light reflecting off the water, her naked breasts looked unusually pale beneath his darkly bronzed fingers, much as they had done earlier that morning, yet they warmed readily to his attention. He grew bolder still as his hands wandered downward, snatching her breath in pleasurable gasps as she yielded herself in rapturous awe to his whim.

They finally went on to savor other things, the food that Cora had packed and, some time later, the nearby stream into which Jeff led Raelynn. They approached it as naked as the day they had been born, but he was a lot more comfortable about that fact than Raelynn was. She had never ventured past the doors of a bedroom in a state of nudity before and was timid about going into the open areas surrounding the stream. Yet when Jeff swam away from her, leaving her safely near shore, she waded farther out into the deeper water.

“Come, love,” he bade from the middle of the stream. “The water is nice out here.”

“I can’t swim,” she confessed, never having imagined herself being devoid of clothes outdoors, much less being naked in a pool of water.

Jeff’s lips curved in a devilish grin. “Well, I guess I’ll just have to throw you out into the deep and see how quickly you can tread water.”

“You wouldn’t dare!” she gasped and, seeing the knavish glint in his eyes, quickly turned toward shore, not at all willing to trust him. She squealed in sudden distress as she heard him swimming rapidly toward her and glanced back to confirm her fears. He was definitely approaching a lot faster than she could trudge through the water. In growing anxiety, she renewed her efforts to reach dry land, which to her horror now seemed an ocean’s length away.

Suddenly Jeff’s arm swept around her waist, and she was dragged back against a long, muscular body where she was snugly imprisoned by an encompassing arm. His hips and thighs formed a chair for her buttocks as his free hand moved over the tempting curves of her body. “Now I have you, wench.”

Raelynn was nearly frantic. “Please, Jeffrey, don’t throw me out into the deep water. I’ll go under for sure, and what will all the servants think when they see me with my hair dangling wet around my ears? They’ll be suspicious, for sure.”

“Never fear, my love,” he breathed, nibbling at her ear. “I just want to hold you again for a while. It isn’t often that I get to see you stripped bare in the full light of the sun.”

Laughing in relief, Raelynn jabbed him in the ribs with an elbow. “Beast! What you really wanted was to see me panic.”

“Aye, I like the way your breasts bounce when you’re trying to run through water,” he teased with a chuckle. “But I really would like to teach you how to swim. . . .”

She stiffened apprehensively. “Jeffrey Birmingham, if you throw me in, I’ll never forgive you.”

“I don’t intend to, madam. Just lean back and relax in the safety of my arms,” he coaxed. “I won’t let you go until you know how to float on your back. Then I’ll see about teaching you how to swim.”

“My hair will get wet,” she fretted aloud.

“We’ll sneak into the house when no one is looking.”

Relenting, she leaned her head back against his shoulder. “You can be very sly when you want your way, sir.”

“When I want you, my love, I can be downright devious,” he breathed, nibbling at her ear.

Cautiously she gave herself over into his supporting arms and allowed him to hold her as she floated on the surface of the water. Jeff’s grin became increasingly lecherous as he perused the sights. Never before had he seen such a delectable view, two ripe melons and an island of reddish brush floating in a calm sea beneath a bright sun. Until now, the like of such scenes had been strictly evoked in dreams, not right beneath his very nose. It was not to say, however, that he hadn’t indulged in a few fantasies of his own creation in his lifetime.

It wasn’t long before Raelynn actually began stroking through water without aid. Jeff hovered near for the sake of safety, at least until he realized the fair skin was taking on a pinkish cast. Then he began scrambling toward her in anxious haste.

“We’d better get you dressed, madam, or you’ll be howling your head off in pain. I only hope it’s not too late.”

“Call a carriage,” Raelynn groaned, feeling weighted down by iron bands as she waded out of the water. “I don’t think I can get back into the saddle again for a whole month. My backside definitely feels as if it has turned to stone.”

Jeff swept her up into his arms. “No need for a carriage, madam. I’ll drape the quilt across in front of me to provide some cushioning for you and take you home on the back of Stargazer.”

Raelynn smiled contentedly as she pressed her brow against his cheek. “You can attend me, sir, anytime you wish to.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

Raelynn was already wincing by the time they arrived home, but not necessarily from the aftermath of the sun, rather from the hours she had spent in the sidesaddle. She refused to call Tizzy to help her bathe, envisioning the shame she’d suffer once the girl became aware of her problem. Without a doubt, every part of her was tinged beyond her normal fair coloring. Thus she relied upon Jeff to assist her. He did so tenderly, first bathing her in tepid water, rubbing a soothing balm over her skin, and then, afterwards, massaging her aching muscles and the bruised posterior.

“I suppose this means I won’t be taking you to the Sunday social,” he mused aloud in droll humor as he plied her backside with a cooling ointment. He fought a battle to subdue his laughter. “By then, you should be able to pass as a brown-skinned Mohican or perhaps even a toad with all the freckles that are bound to appear. You know, you should probably resign yourself to the fact that your once flawless skin won’t ever be the same.”

Jeff could restrain himself no longer, and his laughter burst forth as if with a will of its own, prompting Raelynn to toss a glare over her shoulder. “Jeffrey Birmingham, you’re making light of all this, despite the fact that I’m simply mortified by my present predicament. I can neither stand, sit, nor lie down with any reasonable comfort, and yet you’re guffawing like you’ve never seen anything funnier. Believe me, sir, if I had my wits entirely together, I’d find some way to leave your chambers and seek seclusion in mine.”

“Preen your feathers, my pretty dove,” he cajoled, leaning near to nuzzle her cheek. “I’ll still love you no matter what color you are or how spotted you may get.”

At that, Raelynn seized a pillow and swung it with all her might into the grinning face of her husband who stumbled back in uproarious mirth. Diligently she tried to curb her own amusement, but it slipped out until she was laughing as hard as he. Never had the house rang with such merriment before, but Jeff had every hope and expectation that in the months and years to come, there would be much more of it to nurture their hearts and minds.

6

“Unc’ Jeff, yo’ wanta see my frog?” the youngster whispered confidentially, his blue eyes searching the face above his own as he thrust a small hand into the pocket of his linen jacket. “I gots it hidden where Mama can’t see.”

Clasping a hand to the boy’s back, Jeff leaned forward and grinned at his sister-in-law, whose expression grew increasingly perplexed as she tried to determine just what was going on. She recognized that particular gleam in her brother-in-law’s eyes only too well; she had seen it numerous times. Mischief was brewing, she had no doubt.

In the next instant, her sapphire-blue eyes widened in horror as her son thrust a frog beneath his uncle’s nose. To make matters worse, it croaked rather loudly, drawing the attention of the whole congregation. Twittering laughter quickly erupted from the onlookers who, in amused curiosity, craned their necks to see what would follow. Seeing the need to intervene, Heather promptly readjusted her lace shawl in an effort to conceal her child-bearing state and sought to push herself to her feet.

By now, Brandon had become apprised of the situation and, laying a large hand upon his wife’s arm, gently urged her back into the pew. “Never mind, love,” he soothed with a soft chortle. “I’ll take care of the frog
and
our son.”

After making his way around the front pews, Brandon approached the end of the bench where his brother sat with the boy. He leaned near Jeff’s ear to whisper, “I should let you handle this matter since you’ll probably be needing practice in the not-too-distant future.”

“Shouldn’t I be instructed by example first?” Jeff inquired mutedly through a grin as the other lifted Beau from his lap. “I’ll grant you, there’s a lot to learn, but you should be an expert by now.”

Brandon offered him a grin. “If this next one is a girl, I’ll have to start learning all over again. Hatti swears boys and girls are as different as day and night.”

Reflectively Jeff pursed his lips until he nodded. “That’s good to know. Just think of the confusion it would create if we weren’t able to tell male from female at birth. Life would certainly prove boring after that.”

“Dear brother, I wasn’t referring to the differences in our anatomy,” Brandon corrected with a pained grin. “I was talking about dispositions.”

The younger flicked a forefinger back and forth between the two of them. “You mean the difference between our personalities?”

Brandon heaved an exaggerated sigh. “Has anyone ever told you how exasperating you can be?”

“Well, as a matter of fact, you have, on a regular basis.”

“Obviously my complaints have never settled down into that hard head of yours,” the elder quipped.

Jeff grinned puckishly. “Are you talking about mine?”

“Who else’s, Wart?”

Held in the child’s tenacious grasp, the frog croaked all the way down the aisle, drawing applause and hilarious laughter from nearly everyone who was aware of the happenings. Raelynn giggled behind a handkerchief and glanced aside at Heather who could only smile and shake her head.

Once order had been restored, the service began with Reverend Parsons making an effort to appear unaffected. He cleared his throat and glanced around until silence prevailed. “We’ll be singing a hymn now,” he announced with a measure of calm, “but before we do, I would suggest that the one who was making an effort to sing, kindly restrain himself so the rest of us can find some enjoyment in the song. I’m afraid he sounded like an ol’ bullfrog.”

Uproarious laughter filled the church as Brandon muttered jovially, “Amen!”

Once the sermon had been concluded and the congregation was dismissed, folks began gathering outdoors. The elderly Mrs. Abegail Clark made her way across the yard with the help of her long parasol, which she used primarily as a walking cane.

“Jeffrey Birmingham,” she called, commanding his attention, “I’m dreadfully put out with you for not bringing your lovely bride over to my house and making us acquainted. And here I thought you loved me.”

“Oh, I do, love, I do!” He swept off his top hat and placed it over his heart as if to swear an undying truth. “You’re the light of my eyes, the nurturing warmth of my heart. . . .”

“Fiddledeedee, you young whippersnapper!” she retorted with a chuckle and lifted the tip end of her cane to indicate Raelynn. “Now introduce us before I grow even more vexed with you.”