Virgin Seduction

that constraint only because of him.

He felt heavy, suddenly. And his heart hurt, as if the heaviness was right there, pressing in all around it.

'I did not expect you until later.' Her voice sounded breathless, although her face remained pale and calm.

He shrugged that aside. 'Hunting was lousy and the power went out at the ranch, so we decided to leave early.' He nodded his head toward her. 'Looks like you've been having fun.'

It had just occurred to him that she was wet, under the loose oversized T-shirt she was wearing. Her hair hung in a thick, sodden braid down her back, except for tiny spikes and tendrils around her face and neck that had begun to dry. The T-shirt clung to the dark wetness of the bathing suit, outlining her breasts in bold relief, and it came to him with a small sense of shock that until that moment he'd had no idea what her body was actually shaped like. That one glimpse made him feel the way he did when he was good and hungry and smelled Betsy's bread baking in the oven.

'I have been, yes.' Leila said, responding to something he barely remembered saying, and she was nodding earnestly, obviously completely unaware of the direction his gaze-and his thoughts-had been taking. 'Betsy and Rueben have such a nice family, have they not? They have been very kind to me, all of them. Even though,' she added, showing him a brief glimpse of dimples, 'I do not think I will remember any of their names.'

'I see you've been swimming,' Cade said bluntly.

Her eyes flicked downward toward her own chest, then jumped quickly back to his. Her lips parted in dismay. Letting go of her plate with one hand, she plucked the shirt away from herself as color blossomed slowly in her cheeks, going almost imperceptibly from delicate to sublime, like a sunrise.

'Yes-with the children. In the creek. Was this all right?'

'What? Sure, it's all right.'

'You do not mind?' Again her voice sounded breathless.

'Why should I mind?' His voice sounded angry, though he wasn't. And damned if his heart wasn't beating too fast again. As if they were having an argument. Which they weren't, not as far as he was concerned. He wasn't so sure about her.

'I am very glad you do not.' Her head was high and her eyes seemed to flare and blaze like coals, with something that looked like defiance-though he couldn' t think what she might be in defiance of. He'd never told her she couldn't go swimming-or anything else, for that matter. And he had no intention of ever doing so. He was her husband, dammit, not her father, even if she was ten years younger than he was.

'Because I liked being with the children,' Leila went on. 'Very much. I like children. I would like-' She broke off and looked away, and her throat moved with a swallow. He knew she'd meant to say more, but had no idea what it might be.

I want to have children. A lot of children-like Betsy and Rueben. I want to have your children, Cade Gallagher.

A little shudder quivered through Leila as she realized that she had almost said such a thing out loud. Perhaps, she thought, it is wrong for a wife to be too proud with her husband. But she was not only a wife, she was a princess, and she could not-she would not say such a thing to a man, husband or not, who did not seem to want to make babies with her at all.

'Have you been to this place where the children swim?'she asked after a moment, watching him from under her lashes. 'Did you swim there also, when you were a child?'

'What?' Cade was staring at her with that fierce, rather puzzled frown. 'Oh-no. I only bought this place about six years ago. Rueben and Betsy came with it-Rueben had worked for the previous owner forever. Most of their kids grew up in this house. But no, I never swam there when I was a kid.'

In spite of the photograph she had seen in his study, Leila could not imagine Cade as a little boy, with knobby arms and legs and a lean brown body, golden hair dark and slick as a seal's, leaping and splashing and squealing with pleasure, like Betsy's grandchildren. Not this man, with a face so rugged and shoulders so broad, in his cowboy hat and blue jeans, and whiskers beginning to show on his chin. What was it Samira had called him? Oh yes. Imposing. It would be hard, she had said, not to be intimidated by such a man.

But Leila Kamal would not be intimidated, not by any man.

'You do not have to be a child to enjoy this swimming place,' she said with a lift of her chin. 'I am not a child.'

He did not answer. For a long moment he just looked at her, and she realized suddenly that her mouth and throat felt dry. She saw Cade's throat move as if he had swallowed, and then she wanted to swallow, too. She felt hot in spite of the wet bathing suit she wore under her clothes, a peculiar heat that filled all her insides in ways that even Rueben's famous Texas chili had not.

'Hey, Cade, come on, man-better get yourself a plate, before it's all gone.'

Leila jerked as if she'd been roused from a daydream. Rueben was coming toward them across the grass, carrying a long fork with two prongs and leather strips hanging from the handle. He looked younger today, she thought, less shy than he usually did.

Cade put out his hand and shook the older man's. 'Ah, thanks, Rueben, but I better take a raincheck.'

Rueben looked at him as though Cade had gone insane. 'What, are you kidding me? We got plenty- steaks, chili…come on, you gotta eat something.'

Cade was laughing, but also shaking his head. 'No, really-I had a sandwich at the airport. I just came to collect my…wife.' Leila glanced at him curiously. His smile seemed as though it had been carved from wood.

Rueben nodded toward Leila. 'Hey-she tell you already?'

'No…tell me what?' Then Cade caught a breath and snapped his fingers. 'Suki had her foal.'

'Yup,' said Rueben. 'Nice little filly. Think she's gonna look just like her mama.'

'How is she? Everything go okay?' This was man-talk, and Leila saw that Cade had already turned toward Rueben, automatically excluding her.

Leila was used to that kind of treatment. But before she could even begin to feel her usual frustration and resentment, Rueben had begun to back away. 'Hey, let hertell you about it,' he said. 'She was there.' Then he glanced over at Leila and, to her complete amazement, winked. 'Lucky she was, too. Suki couldn't of done it without her.

'Well-hey, I gotta get back to my burgers-see you in the morning, boss.' And he hurried off to join his family, agile in spite of his funny disjointed walk.

Leila looked at Cade, who was frowning at her as if she were a strange creature, perhaps in a zoo. He cleared his throat. 'What the hell did he mean by that?'

Leila smiled, showing her dimples. 'Oh, I think he was making ajoke.' But pleasure was flooding through her, warming her insides the way a hot drink does when the weather is cold. 'I helped a little-but only a very little. I only spoke to her-in Arabic. I think she liked that-'

'Who, the foal?'

'No, Suki-the mare. And I petted her while Rueben pulled on her feet-'

'Suki's?'

Leila gave a little crow of laughter. 'The foal's. Then, after she was born, I had to wipe her nose and mouth so she could breathe. And later I fed her with a bottle because her mother did not have milk for her right away. But she is fine now. And-oh, Cade-she is so beautiful. You must see her. May we go to see her now?' And she checked in surprise, because they were standing in front of the pasture gate and she had not even realized that they had been walking.

Just then someone noticed them leaving. Many voices called out goodbyes, and Leila waved and answered with thank-yous and promises to come back and visit again some time. Cade waved absently as he opened the gate and held it for her.

'Maybe you'd better tell me about it,' he said gruffly as they started up the gentle slope, walking together, side by side. His feelings were mixed, and very confusing.

He kept glancing at her as she talked, stimulated in unexplainable ways by that little burr of roughness in her voice, entranced by the way her dimples came and went, like a baby playing peek-a-boo. His heartbeat had quickened again, and he knew it was not from the exertion of the climb. He told himself he was glad to see the color back in her cheeks and the bounce in her step. He told himself he was happy to see the dimples again, and hear the musical peal of her laughter. But there was a place inside him…a kernel of disappointment… a leaden little