Give Me Tonight

made a slow excursion around her nipple. The sweet ache of it rippled all through her being. Writhing closer to him, she tangled her fingers in his hair and pulled his mouth harder on hers. Their tongues slid together and mated in delicious thrusts, their lips clung until they were completely sealed.

After a long time Ben lifted his head and took a deep breath in an effort to master the powerful urgings of his body. The need to take her, here and now, was almost impossible to contain. She was his obsession. He wanted to know her most private secrets, explore her until he knew her body and soul as intimately as his own. With all his experience he'd never felt so drawn to another human being, or craved to know and be known so completely. He tugged briefly at her hair, his agile fingers hunting for pins and pulling them out. The locks that had been bound up and pinned away from others' sight and touch were now his, freed and loose.

Addie wound her arms around his neck as she felt his body move over hers, settling until they were molded together. The layers of clothing that separated them did nothing to disguise his desire and her softness, the hardness of him and the yielding woman's shape of her.

Trembling, she felt him ease her gown down, lifting her breast out of its confines, his hot mouth descending to her nipple, covering, pulling, sending streaks of lightning down to the pit of her stomach. Blindly she reached for his shoulders, gripping his hard-muscled flesh as she sought to tell him without words how it felt… don't stop … don't ever stop. His tongue feathered over her lightly, learned the tender hard texture of her.

'Adeline,' he whispered, moving back up to her lips and kissing her without restraint. 'Don't hold yourself back from me. I won't hurt you.' She shivered in his arms, her breath rapid and hot against his neck. His hand wandered down her body, beyond her waist, underneath her pantalets. She tensed as his fingertips searched her gently.

'No… I shouldn't be letting you-'

'But you are,' he said into the curve of her shoulder. 'And I shouldn't want you. But I do.'

'Ben,' she gasped, 'Please-'

'No one will ever know you like I'm going to, Addie. You can keep the rest of the world at bay, but you're going to let me inside. You understand what's happening between us. You know nothing is going to stop it, no matter what either of us may do.' She moaned as he found the tender spot he had been seeking, as he brought her to the fine edge between pleasure and madness. 'I want you to remember this,' he said, crushing the words against her mouth. 'Remember every time you think of me.'

She clung to him tightly, her hips arching upward. 'Much as I'd like to, I'm not going to take you here,' he muttered, burying his face in her hair. 'If for no other reason than because he would have.' Sighing tautly, Ben withdrew his hand from between her thighs, bestowing a longing caress on her abdomen before pulling her skirts back into place. He looked around the shadowy little building as if noticing their surroundings for the first time. His lip curled with disgust. 'A blacksmith shop.'

Aching and frustrated, Addie shifted underneath him, her breath ragged. Ben smiled, pulling her into his arms and pressing her head against his shoulder, holding her until her quivering had stopped. The unsatisfied wanting was just as painful for him.

'I have to go back to Sunrise tomorrow after the wedding,' he said, trying to sound casual. 'Someone has to look after the ranch, and right now I don't trust it out of my hands more than a day or two. If you don't want to undergo a repeat of Jeff's performance tonight, then stay close to your father and your family. '

'What if…' She paused and gulped hard before continuing, 'What if I don't want a repeat of your performance?'

'What if you don't?' He sounded interested by the idea, and he nibbled lightly at the juncture of her neck and shoulder as he gave it due consideration. 'I guess we'll find the answer to that when we're both back at Sunrise. '

He was humoring her. She knew he had no doubt she'd still want him later. Even now she had to fight against the urge to nestle against him. Instead she wriggled in protest, pulling her shoulder away until he stopped nibbling.

“And don't be surprised to find some of the Sunrise hands keeping an eye on you. Before I leave, I'm going to make sure they understand there'll be hell to pay if he comes within a hundred feet of you. If I find out he's done so much as look at you, I'll make him regret it sorely.”

'Even at the risk of starting a range war?' she asked in a muffled voice, and he smiled grimly, amused by her feeble attempt at sarcasm.

'That's right. And if it has to start over you, darlin', you're looking at the man who 'll fire the first shot.'

After Addie had restored her appearance as best she could, she spoke to May privately and pleaded a headache in order to avoid the rest of the evening. She couldn't face anyone right now, not when her thoughts were in a whirl and her head aching with confusion. Having gone to bed early, she lay in bed on her stomach with her arms clenched around a pillow, staring blindly at the wall. The Fanins' house was comfortable but hardly as elegant as the ranch house at Sunrise. The rooms here were small and plainly furnished, the beds lumpy and even a little musty. Leah was asleep in the bed against the opposite wall. They were sharing the room next to the one Caroline and Peter occupied.

Addie didn't want to think about what had happened that night, but she couldn't wish it away, and she couldn't forget about it. She kept hearing Jeff's voice, and what he'd said about Russell. 'He's riding too high these days, honey. He has no right to hide you away from me … don't you worry, it won't be long …'

What had he meant by that?

'A little-boy threat,' she whispered. 'A frustrated little boy who wasn't getting his way. It couldn't have been more than that.'

She sighed and rubbed her forehead, moving down to the comers of her eyes and pressing the pads of her fingers there. She closed her eyes and her mind continued to wander. Slowly the darkness behind her eyes became endlessly deep, and the echo of a husky voice came back to torment her.

“Addie, don't hold yourself back from me. I won't hurt you. ' A warm mouth sliding over her skin, a hard body promising ecstasy as it fitted close against hers. 'No one will ever know you like I'm going to. You can keep the rest of the world at bay, but you're going to let me inside. '

Addie writhed and sat up with an indrawn breath, her heart thumping. 'Stop it,' she whispered tightly. 'Stop it.'

Ben was her enemy. She wouldn't let him kill Russell. She couldn't let him tear her defenses down. Russell was her father, her real father, and his life was her responsibility. It was time to start doing something about it.

She would have to warn Russell. Somehow she'd have to find away. Addie stood up and paced back and forth across the room, her nightgown billowing out behind her. She tried to imagine Ben plotting to kill Russell, waiting until the new will was signed, and then creeping up to Russell's room and committing the murder. It was almost too logical and obvious a plan, and it bothered Addie. Ben would have to know he'd be the first one everyone suspected. Surely he'd be more subtle than that.

And then there were the Johnsons, who hated Russell. A lot of outfits would like to get their hands on the Sunrise Ranch, tear down its fences, and take possession of its livestock and water rights. Just about everyone around, in fact. But more than anyone else, the Double Bar did. Maybe the Johnsons were in on the murder.

She stopped in her tracks as she remembered Jeff's words again. 'He's riding too high these days, honey … don't you worry, it won't be long …'

That was a threat, plain and simple. There was little doubt in her mind that Jeff and Big George wanted Russell out of the way just as much as Ben did. Were they all planning it together?

'No.' She shook her downbent head in confusion. 'Ben hates the Johnsons. He'd never plan anything with them. And he loves Russell. He wouldn't kill him. I can't believe he would.' She didn't want to believe it.

But Russell would have to be killed by an insider, someone who knew about his sleeping