One From The Heart (19 page)

“You feel so good to me,” he told her. “I want to touch you. I want to taste you.”

Her breasts were heavy, aching with desire, the nipples taut, and once again she moaned with pleasure as he touched and tasted. He reached down, lifting her leg over him so he could explore her more intimately.

“Oh,” she whispered, writhing from the sheer pleasure of his hand sliding between her thighs, his fingers edging closer, touching her, not touching her, boldly yet gently parting, gently invading the very core of her desire for him. And she desired him. She was restless again, empty again. She wanted to be touched, filled as only he could fill her. She closed her eyes, giving in to his intimate probing. Her breathing grew more and more shallow, and her listless fingers trailed over his chest. She pressed a kiss against that patch of curling hair at his throat that had intrigued her so the night they met, her body suddenly arching at the exquisite sensations that stormed through her body. She clung to him desperately as the pleasure increased.

“Hannah—” he whispered, and she opened her eyes.

He was rolling onto his back, bringing her over him. His penetration was swift and deep and made them both moan. He held her tightly, and she rested her head on his shoulder for a moment, savoring all of it: the warm, clean smell of his skin, the rasp of his beard stubble against her face, the taste of his hungry kisses, the hot, aching feel of him inside her. But there was more to this than just a fitting together of bodies, so much more. He loved her and she belonged to him. Everything he did made her feel it. Perhaps there were things that couldn’t be measured by time, she thought. She lifted her head to look into his eyes. Elizabeth wasn’t here with them.

“I love you, Hannah Rose,” he whispered, thrusting deep.

She wanted him deeper, and his breath caught, his fingers clutching at her hips as her response to the pleasure he gave her intensified his.

“I love you,” she said, meaning it even more than the first time she’d said it.

“Tell me again.”

“I love you, Ernie. Love you—!”

He was both gentle and fierce, and the surging tide of passion quickly overtook them. Soft murmurings of love gave way to impassioned cries of release, and then there was only the quiet, the gentle ebbing of a sweetness she would never forget.

She woke up because Ernie had cried out in his sleep. She called his name, but he cried out again.

She raised herself up on one elbow. “Ernie!” she said, shaking him hard.

“What? Wha—” he muttered, trying to wake up.

“You were having a bad dream. You were yelling in your sleep.”

“I was … yelling?”

“Yes,” she said worriedly. She wrapped her arms around him and held him close.

He chuckled in the darkness.

“Ernie?” she said, raising her head.

He chuckled again, pulling her around so they were lying spoon fashion, his arms and legs around her and his hands on her breasts. He kissed her on the neck and ear. And he laughed.

“Ernie—”

“I wasn’t having a bad dream, Hannah Rose,” he whispered, nibbling at her ear. “I dreamed I was making love with
you
.”

When she woke a second time, the sun was up and Ernie, already showered and dressed, was sitting on the side of the bed.

“Hannah, get up,” he said. “We have to go.”

“Go?” she said sleepily. She tried to burrow deeper under the Hudson Bay blanket, but he wouldn’t let her.

“Hannah, come on. Honey—”

“Where are we going?”

“Back to Dallas. We’ll stop by the ranch to see Libby before we go.”

Hannah sat up, awake now. “I thought she was in Tulsa.”

“No, she came back home. She’ll be going to Tulsa twice a week. We’re going to see her and Petey. And your daddy,” he added.

She sat up, the blanket sliding off her bare shoulder. She covered up again, and she looked into Ernie’s eyes. “I don’t want to see Jake. We—had words.”

Ernie grinned.

“He said
you
had the words.”

“I thought you and Jake didn’t get along,” she said in exasperation. “Do you two tell each other
everything?
”

His grin broadened. He was so handsome this morning, freshly shaved, his mustache trimmed, his hair still damp and slicked down. “Well, not everything, Hannah Rose.”

“You told him I didn’t think he was my father,” she accused him.

“Yeah, I did,” he answered, clearly refusing to be put on the defensive. “That’s what he wants to talk to you about.”

“Ernie,” she protested, but he kissed her on the nose and was up and heading for the door.

“I’ll be back in a minute, Hannah. Put on your clothes, will you?” He looked around at her, turned away and sighed, then looked around at her again. “Well, maybe I’m not in
that
big a hurry,” he decided, coming back to the bed. He tipped her backward without ceremony and threw a leg over her, making her laugh. “Don’t hurt my knee,” he warned her, a peculiar command, to her way of thinking, because he was definitely in the dominant position. His eyes were full of the devil again.

“How is your knee, by the way?” she asked just as his mouth was about to brush over hers.

“It hurts. Kiss me.”

“Are you always this impetuous?” she asked, dodging his mouth again.

“Hannah, I don’t even know what that means.”

“It means—”

“Hannah!” he said in exasperation. “Do you want to get any kissing done here or not?”

“Yes, I want to get some kissing done here,” she said. Among other things. She slid her arms around his neck and smiled into his eyes. Lord, she loved this man!

“Well, all right, then—oh, you better not look at me like that, Hannah Rose,” he said, giving her another ominous-sounding warning.

“Why not?” she whispered, her mouth tentative, then insistent against his.

“Because—” he managed in the little breathing space she gave him.

“Because, why?” She reached down to pull his shirt-tail out, working until she could run her fingers over his bare back.

“Becau—”

She slid her tongue into his mouth to stop him from talking, and he gave a soft moan. She pulled the front of his shirt out as well, sticking her fingers as far inside his jeans as they could go.

He was laughing now, and she undid his belt and unsnapped his jeans. “Hannah, what are you doing!” She pulled the zipper down to give access to her inquisitive hands.

“Oh,
I
see what you’re doing,” he advised her.

“You did that on purpose,” he accused her, his eyes closed, his clothes in disarray, their bodies still joined. He groaned. “Hannah, you are hell on a man with a bum knee.” He tried to move, but only managed to groan again.

“I love you,” she said by way of explanation, and he lifted his head to look deep into her eyes, kissing her mouth in a way that threatened to put his knee in jeopardy again.

“Hannah, Hannah,” he whispered against her ear. “I thank God every day for it.”

He suddenly laughed. “Woman, you didn’t even let me get my clothes all the way off!”

“You didn’t want your clothes all the way off,” she reminded him.

“This is true,” he admitted. He suddenly hugged her tightly, rotating his hips into hers. “God, I love you! Oh! You’re going to have me on crutches!”

“Better me than some bull,” she informed him, kissing him again and then helping him sit up.

“You’re going to have to go see Jake,” he said as he worked to disentangle his clothes.

“I know it.” She looked up at him, giving him a funny lopsided smile, and he reached out to touch the side of her face.

“It’s going to be okay,” he told her.

She looked into his eyes. “He doesn’t much like either one of us, Ernie.”

“That’s his loss, Hannah.”

It was just the right thing to say, and she hugged him for a moment, then showered and dressed while he went on some errand in Tahlequah—breakfast, as it turned out—steak and eggs with biscuits and hot coffee and orange juice.

She was nervous about seeing her father—and Elizabeth for that matter—and she took a long time to get ready, fussing with her hair and makeup until Ernie finally intervened, putting his arms around her and holding her tightly and telling her the same thing he’d told her earlier. “It’s going to be okay.”

She looked up at him and forced a smile. “How bad can it be?” she decided.

“Damn right, Miss Hannah. Let’s go.”

She was looking forward to seeing Petey. She’d missed her chatter and her quiet but merry ways. She’d never seen the Browne ranch in person, just on occasional Christmas cards signed only by Elizabeth.

“Lord, it looks like—Southfork,” she said as they turned into the broad paved driveway.

“Almost,” Ernie agreed. He squeezed her hand once before they got out of the truck, then escorted her directly to the front door. He glanced at her as he rang the doorbell. “What?”

“Maybe I ought to use the service entrance.”

“You’re too uptown for that, Hannah Rose,” he said, giving her a wink.

She smiled in return. It seemed to take a long while for the bell to stir up some activity in the house, but one of the great double doors finally opened.

“Mim!” Hannah said in surprise, gratefully accepting the hug Mim offered her. She had that familiar sense of recognition again—that Mim somehow smelled like her mother.

“See what a good idea it was to be strong and wait?” she whispered into Hannah’s ear.

“I didn’t expect to see you here,” Hannah said.

“I didn’t expect to
be
here,” she said. “But thanks to John Ernest, our Elizabeth is going to live at home for now. And Petey. So it seems the Browne ranch needs a nursemaid again. Come in. Everyone’s waiting.”

This was precisely what Hannah dreaded. She glanced at Ernie as he followed Mim into the house, pressing her cheek into the hand he rested on her shoulder for a moment. The foyer was huge, with a slate floor and a chandelier. She wondered if the house had looked like this when her mother left it.

“Dear sweet Anna-Hannah!” she heard behind her, and Petey leaped at her almost before she could turn around.

“Dear sweet Petey!” Hannah cried in return, hugging her tightly. “I missed you!”

“I missed you, Anna-Hannah.” They covered each other with real and fake kisses, laughing together at their mutual silliness.

“Hey,” Ernie said, tapping Petey on the shoulder with one finger. “Remember me?”

“Dear sweet Ernie!” Petey said, growling at him the way he sometimes did when he was teasing.

“That’s me.” Ernie beamed at her, and she reached out to lock one arm around his neck, holding them together in the familiar three-way hug.

“I kiss
you
and I kiss
you
,” she said, kissing them both on the cheek. “Want to see Rufus?”

“What’s a Rufus?” Hannah asked. “Is he anything like a Cowpoke?”

“No, Anna-Hannah!” Petey cried.

“What is he, then?”

“He’s a
cow
!” she said, wiggling to get down.

“He’s a cow,” Ernie advised Hannah, too. “Where’s your mama, Pete?”

“I’m here,” Elizabeth said from the doorway. Jake was with her. She looked tired, but much less so than the other night. And she was, as always, exquisitely beautiful. “If you’ll all excuse us, I’d like to talk to Hannah alone.”

She swept forward, locking her arm in Hannah’s and leading her to a sun room off the foyer. It was a beautiful room with wicker and glass furniture, ceiling fans, and a forest of indoor plants. She let go of Hannah’s arm, sitting down on a small sofa and patting the place beside her. “Ernie tells me congratulations are in order,” she said as Hannah sat down.

“Elizabeth, don’t.” She looked into her sister’s eyes until Elizabeth glanced away.

A gardener was trimming grass with a pair of hand clippers outside the tall glass windows, and Elizabeth stared in his direction.

“Daddy doesn’t like for them to use mowers near the house when he’s home,” she said idly. “The noise gets on his nerves.” She looked back at Hannah. “Are you in love with Ernie?”

“Yes,” Hannah said quietly.

“It’s a little—quick, isn’t it? Not for me, of course; but then I’ve always been impulsive. But you, Hannah. You’re supposed to be the one with her head on straight. You know a man two weeks, and you’re in love with him?”

Hannah didn’t answer.

“Well. Serves me right, I guess. I put the two of you together. I knew both of you would do about anything in the world I asked you to. Funny, though. I never even considered it—that you might … fall in love with each other.”

She abruptly stood up. “I want you to be happy together, Hannah. I do. Don’t let Daddy do anything that will ruin it for you. Don’t get upset if he cuts you out of his will or something like that.”

Hannah smiled. “I’m not in his will, Elizabeth.”

“Yes, you are. Years and years ago. I saw it.” She frowned. “Didn’t I tell you?”