He slid his lips down to her wrist. “I’ve lived in Catelow most of mine,” he said. The taste of her soft skin was making his own heart race. He couldn’t remember a woman whose touch gave him so much pleasure.
She was finding it harder and harder to breathe. She looked up into his eyes and felt her heart shoot up into her throat. The look in his eyes was hungry, predatory.
“I’ve missed you,” he whispered. “The whole world went dark when you left Skyhorn.”
“I’ve...missed you, too,” she said unsteadily.
He got to his feet and leaned over her, one big hand leaning beside her head on the pillow, his eyes looking directly into hers. “You’re not leaving me again,” he said under his breath, tempting her mouth with his, lightly brushing her lips in a silence so full of tension that she felt she might explode. “I’ll never give you reason to run, Meredith, not ever again.”
She couldn’t speak. Her whole body felt swollen, heavy. She reached up and touched his hard cheek, fascinated with the look on his face.
“Words can’t convey what this can,” he breathed, and he bent to her soft mouth.
It was a kiss unlike any he’d ever given her. It was tender, slow, full of respect and caring and wonder. She closed her eyes and her hand slid to the back of his head, to his strong neck, and dug in, holding his face to hers while he explored her soft mouth with his.
She moaned softly, and his mouth became demanding. The door opened suddenly, and they broke apart.
“Time for meds,” the nurse said with pursed lips. “Sorry,” she added when she noted the flushed looks on their faces.
Ren stood up, reciting multiplication tables in his head, because what he felt was very noticeable.
He cleared his throat. “I’ll get coffee and be right back,” he told Meredith as he went out the door.
Merrie was still catching her breath. She took the cup that held her pills from the nurse, but her hand was very unsteady.
“He’s very good-looking,” the nurse teased. “Have you known him long?”
“All my life. Well, not really, but that’s how it feels,” Merrie corrected with a sheepish smile.
“It was that way with my husband and me,” the nurse said. “I knew him when I first saw him. I never understood how.” She grinned. “We have three sons. I never knew it was possible to be so happy.”
“I’m hoping to discover that for myself,” Merrie confessed, and laughed softly.
*
REN WAS BACK a few minutes later with a cup of black coffee. He dropped into a chair, and grinned. She looked delightfully flustered. Still a little disheveled, too.
“Caught in the act,” he mused, laughing at her blush. “We’ll be the talk of the hospital. I expect they’ll be sending in chaperones soon.”
She grinned back. “I don’t care.”
He laughed. “We’d better keep it low-key until you heal,” he mused. His black eyes slid over her body under the sheet. “Things might get too intense for you. Right now, anyway.”
“Too intense?” she fished.
“You’ll see.” He just smiled.
*
THEY TOOK MERRIE home Friday in the limo. She was still unsteady on her feet, and a little sore, but so much better that she felt like a new person.
When the limo pulled up at the front door of Graylings, Ren got out first, lifted Merrie gingerly in his arms and carried her inside.
“Ren, I’m too heavy. There are stairs...” she began.
He chuckled. “Honey, I heft loads twice your weight every day,” he told her, smiling into her face as he walked up the staircase. “You hardly weigh anything. You need to eat more.”
“Just what I’ve been telling her for years, Mr. Ren,” Mandy called from the kitchen door. “Welcome home, Miss Merrie!”
“Thanks, Mandy. It’s nice to be home!”
“When you’re settled, I’ll bring up lunch. I made you oyster stew!”
“My favorite!”
“I know,” Mandy said, grinning as she went back to work.
“She spoils me,” Merrie told Ren. She studied his hard face with loving, soft eyes.
“Looking at me like that will land you in trouble,” he murmured.
“Will it, really?” She brushed soft kisses on his hard cheekbone, down to his nose, over to his chin. It was exhilarating to touch him, to kiss him. She clung to his neck. “How much trouble?”
“The kind where I lock the door behind us, and don’t come out for a week,” he murmured as they reached what she indicated was her room.
He balanced her on one hard thigh while he turned the doorknob and carried her into the room. He closed the door behind them before he carried her to the bed and put her down, gently, on the quilt.
“Home at last,” he said huskily.
“Yes.” She didn’t let go of his neck. He didn’t seem to mind. He eased down on the bed beside her and bent to her soft mouth.
She relaxed into the covers, loving the slow, expert way his mouth explored hers. He was tender and hungry. So was she. She sighed under his mouth and tugged at his neck.
“Is this what you want?” he asked softly as he eased down against her, one big hand sliding up her rib cage.