the door to Willow and Caleb’s bedroom.
Knowing he shouldn’t, unable to stop himself, Whip crossed the living room with a few swift strides, took the mending from Shannon’s hands, and lifted her without warning into his arms. He was rougher than he meant to be, because he was hungrier than he had known.
«Whip?» Shannon asked, startled.
«Don’t fight me. Kiss me and let me kiss you. Let me have you, even if only in this way.»
Shannon’s lips were still parted in surprise when Whip took her mouth. His tongue shot between her teeth and he groaned when he tasted the minty flavor and sultry textures of her tongue. She made a small sound in response and lifted herself toward Whip’s kiss, giving her mouth to him with a hot sensual honesty that made him ache.
Whip pushed deeper and deeper into Shannon’s sweet mouth, wanting all of her, wanting it here and now, hot and wild, burning him all the way to his soul. The sounds she made deep in her throat, the eager glide of her tongue against his, and the hungry arc of her body pressed against his erect flesh all told Whip that Shannon wanted him the same way he wanted her; hot and wild, here and now, no promises and no regrets, nothing but the driving rhythms of their bodies locked together in elemental hunger…honey and ecstasy and flames twisting together, burning.
With a low cry Whip tore his mouth free of Shannon ’s, knowing that kissing her any more was like throwing alcohol on a raging fire. But it was too late to stop the blaze that had been ignited. Already he was stretched upon a white-hot rack of desire. He was shaking, burning, control slipping from his grasp one savage heartbeat at a time.
«God, woman,» Whip said roughly, muffling his voice against Shannon’s neck. «You’re driving me crazy.»
«I didn’t mean —»
«I know,» he interrupted, his voice raw and low. «My fault. I should know by now that kissing you only makes it hurt worse. But when I’m not kissing you I can’t believe that anything can hurt worse than that.»
Shannon felt the raking shudder that went through Whip. She caught his tormented face between her hands and kissed him lightly, gently, repeatedly, wanting to take the pain and darkness from his face, from his body.
Whip shuddered again, fighting for control.
«Every time I look across the room and see your eyes watching me,» he said in a low, uneven voice, «I know what you’re thinking, what you’re remembering, what you’re feeling. Your eyes tell me that you would lie down and hold out your arms and give me everything I need. And I need you, Shannon. I need you until I wake up sweating and hard and aching from forehead to heels. But I can’t take you and I can’t stop wanting you and I’m on fire!»
«Hush,» Shannon murmured between tender kisses. «It’s all right, yondering man. It’s all right. You can take me and end the aching and not have to give up the sunrise you’ve never seen.»
Shannon’s brushing kisses, like her words, were both gentle and deeply beautiful to Whip, a stark temptation and an equally stark admission of her love. He knew he should stop the words and the kisses and the promises that could not, must not, be kept.
But Whip could no more turn away from the gentle, terrifying beauty of Shannon’s caresses than he could turn away from a sunrise softly condensing out of winter’s longest night, radiance calling his name in all the colors of love.
«Shannon,» Whip whispered. «Honey girl. Stop. You’re tearing me apart.»
«Then tell me what to do. I want to ease you, not hurt you more. Please, Whip. Tell me. Teach me.»
The thought of it almost brought Whip to his knees. A bolt of violent desire transfixed his body and dragged a raw sound from deep in his chest. He closed his eyes and grappled with a kind of hunger he had never felt for a woman. Like Shannon’s words and kisses, the depth of his hunger was an unimaginable lure and a shocking warning of his own frail hold on self-control.
«Whip?» Shannon whispered. «Please. Teach me.»
With his last shreds of restraint, Whip reminded himself that he was in the living room of his sister’s home. It was full daylight. Willow could awaken from her nap at any time and walk into the room.
«No,» Whip said roughly, setting Shannon abruptly away from him. «Don’t ask me. Don’t tempt me. Don’t —»
«But you were the one who —»
«— tell me that you would let me open those men’s trousers of yours and put my hand between your legs and feel your honey pooling in my hand like silky fire. Don’t tell me it would be all right to unfasten my pants and push all my need and my aching and my hunger deep into you. Don’t tell me you would let me take your maidenhead.»
Shannon tried to speak but couldn’t. The thought of having Whip so much a part of her made her feel hot and cold and shaking with a need she couldn’t name.
And Whip saw it, all of it, the hunger and the need.
«Hell, you wouldbegme,» he said, «because I can make you ache as much as I do right now. I can make the honey flow and the fire burn and —»
The sound of a door opening down the hallway cut off Whip’s seething words. He flinched as though a lash had been laid across his shoulders.
«Caleb?» Willow called softly from the hall.
«Just me, Willy,» Whip said, his voice low and rough.
Abruptly he moved so that Shannon was between him and the doorway where Willow would soon be.
«I was just talking to Shannon about that position you offered,» he said.
Willow appeared at the entrance to the living room. Her hair was mussed by sleep. She was rubbing her eyes and trying not to yawn.
«Oh, good,» Willow said, looking past Shannon to Whip. «Do you need anything?»
«No,» Whip said, smiling through his clenched teeth.
Willow yawned behind her hand.
«Wonderful,» she murmured. «I think I’ll sneak off to the bathhouse before I start dinner. Would you mind watching Ethan while I’m outside?»
«Not at all,» Shannon said quickly.
«Thank you,» Willow said, covering a yawn again. «I’ll hurry.»
«No need,» Shannon said. «I started the stew while you slept. If Ethan wakes up, I’ll hold him at bay with some cow’s milk from the well house.»
«You’re an angel.»
Shannon thought of what Whip had been saying to her and how she not only had listened, but had felt her bones turn to fire at his words. She had never wanted to feel a man’s body locked deep within her own until she met Whip.
Now she wanted nothing else.
«An angel?» Shannon asked with a bittersweet smile, looking with helpless hunger at Whip. «Hardly.»
But Willow had already vanished back into her bedroom. She reappeared a few moments later with a change of clothes in her hand.
«I won’t be long,» Willow repeated.
«Don’t rush,» Shannon said. «There’s nothing here that won’t keep for a while, including your son.»
Whip watched Willow leave, grateful that his sister was too sleepy and too hurried to notice the blunt ridge of his arousal thrusting against his trousers.
Thank God I’ve solved the problem of Shannon’s safety, Whip told himself savagely. I don’t think I can keep my hands off her any longer.
It’s time and past time to find a sunrise that is more beautiful than Shannon’s eyes when she looks at me.
«Don’t worry about your things,» Whip said abruptly to Shannon. «Cal or one of his men will help you fetch them when you go back for Prettyface. If you wait a week or two, that hardheaded son of a bitch will be able to walk on his own rather than being slung over your saddle.»
Shannon blinked and shook her head, feeling as if she had just awakened into someone else’s dream.
