Jonah's Bride

pulsing with the strident need to bury every inch of his shaft inside her. Now. He could wait no longer. She was woman-hot and bewitching as he pressed into her, into the first welcome gloving of her body.

'Is this better than you expected?'

'Aye. How you're stretching me.'

'And filling you up.'

Slowly, now. He closed his eyes tight, determined to fight the thrumming pleasure daring him to plunge deeper, to take all he could from her. Aye, how he wanted to be sheathed completely in her silken heat. 'I can feel how you like this.'

' Tis so wondrous.' Her words were broken, low and throaty. 'Oh, Jonah.'

Her head lolled back and he felt her body lift, her hips drive up to take more of him. Something gave and she gasped, and it was too late to take back control. He drove deep as she rose up to meet him. Sensation gripped the base of his spine and every inch she clenched within her. Pleasure that cut as sharp as a blade's edge made him call out, made him drive into her again and again.

She rose up to meet him with bold thrusts of her hips. Her hands snaked around his back to settle on his buttocks, clamping him to her as her ankles locked behind his hips. She moaned his name over and over again, and he could feel how close she was, the hard clamping of her muscles, the tremulous tension in her body. And then her release. Her head braced against his throat, her hips lifted, her body clenched in one wave after another.

He could not hold on. Tight punches of release struck low in his back and pulsed through his shaft, through every muscle and bone. He clenched his jaw, trying to keep in the cry of surrender, but he could not. His surrender, his possession of her was complete.

At the last pulse of his seed, he collapsed. All at once he was aware of her arms around his back, cradling him close, and her gentle kisses at his throat and chin.

'How you move me,' he admitted, and then wished he could pull back the words.

Her smile became a kiss, and they started all over again.

Chapter Ten

Morning dawned with the weakest of light Tessa watched the darkness thin until a pale gray light played at the edges of the curtain. 'Twas so comfortable here in this big soft bed, and so warm with Jonah at her side.

Ah, to look at him took her breath away. He lay on his back, his long dark hair tumbled across the pristine pillowslips, his face relaxed in sleep, but the masculine intensity remained in the cut of his jaw and cheekbones. The covers puddled half way down his chest against bronzed skin faintly dusted with dark hair. How wide that chest was, and his shoulders too. One arm rested on his waist, the other somewhere beneath the blankets.

She lifted the covers carefully and then slid across the sheets quietly so as not to wake him. Sore muscles reminded her of last night's lovemaking. She blushed remembering how she'd responded to him, how thrilling it felt to be joined with him. How on earth did married people manage to look so dour faced and serious all the time? She felt like laughing out loud.

She changed into her favorite work dress, a light gray cotton she'd made herself. Tepid water that had once been warm sat in a pitcher on the corner commode. She washed her face, careful to keep the splashing to a minimum, but Jonah did not rouse. He lay still, his magnificent chest rising and falling with each breath.

She brushed out her hair quickly. She'd been a regular slug-a-bed this morning. Look, the sun was already rising. A rooster crowed somewhere, intent on announcing the arrival of the new day. Why, she had a house full of men to cook for. Between somber Thomas and terrified Andy, she wondered what they would think of her waltzing downstairs so late.

'Trying to escape me?' His voice came raw and husky from sleep. He smiled, low and lazy, and the warmth of it wrapped around her like a hug.

'Aye, I'm late already. I must check on your father and see to the chores.'

'We have a servant for the outside work.'

'Then I have breakfast to prepare. I can't believe your brothers would think well of me if I let them starve.'

'My brothers know how to fend for themselves.' Jonah sat up in bed, the sheets gliding down his body to rest dangerously low at his hips. Dark hair gathered there and drew her gaze. 'Are you remembering last night? Remembering how you liked it?'

'You are a devil, you are. I was right about you all along.' Heat stained her face at the remembered images hardly decent in the light of day, or even in the first scattering of daylight

A brow quirked. 'I'm too big to push into a mud puddle, as you did when we were children and I pulled your braid.'

'Aye, but not so big that I can't shove you out of that bed.'

' 'Tis because you want to see me naked and aroused. I can oblige.' He rolled back the covers, revealing bronzed skin and powerfully built man and a jutting hardness that he seemed so proud of. 'Forget the chores. Forget breakfast. I want you, Tessa.'

'Goodness. 'Tis after six o'clock in the morning. 'Tis not decent.'

'And was it decent last night?' He unfolded his big body full length. 'You were more than eager in the dark. Let us see how wild you can be in the daylight.'

'Go ahead and tempt me. 'Twill not work.' In truth, her blood nearly boiled in her veins at the sight of him. Why did it have to be him? She had always prayed to find a nice man, a quiet one, maybe bookish, decent, and kind. But not one of those words could be used to describe this man towering before her, brash and bold and naked.

So very naked. She could hardly ignore that thick stiff length of him, staring right at her. Her knees felt shaky. And her entire body melted.

'Admit it, Tessa. You want me.' His bare feet padded on the wood floor. How close he was. She took a step backward. ' 'Tis there in your eyes, as dark as desire. You enjoyed making love last night'

' 'Twas not too terrible,' she admitted. And lied boldly. Terrible? 'Twas indescribably heavenly. 'But already the day has begun and we can't lie about when there's work to be done.'

'There will be time enough for work.' A slow grin stretched his mouth at one corner as he wrapped both hands around her wrists, holding her captive. 'Come, back to bed with me. I'll let you be on top.'

'On top?' Humor and a devil's light sparkled in his eyes, so deep and rich she could lose herself in them. 'You're naught but a rogue, a wicked man through and through.'

'Guilty as charged.' A dimple etched into his cheek. He was enjoying this too much.

'See? You admit it. You were entirely responsible for my behavior last night'

'Me?' He crooked one brow, 'I was responsible?'

'Aye, you. A proper wife lies there dutifully, but you, you made me-'

'A proper wife? Oh, that's a stretch of the truth. From our first kiss you were a wicked enchantress with that fiery mouth of yours, and in the forest, offering me your breasts the way you did-'

'Offering you? You did as you pleased.'

'And you moaned the entire time. Just like last night.' His lips grazed her knuckles, and his tongue flicked out to lave the sensitive skin of her inner wrist. 'Come, let me make you moan again.'

'A decent husband would not know how to make a woman moan like that.'

Dark eyes snapped, crackling like fire in a hearth, intense, dangerous. 'I never said I was a decent man. Or husband. I know how much you liked it, Tessa. And how much you are tempted now. Your eyes are naught but black, your breath comes fast and light in your chest, and your pulse skips beneath my touch. Admit it'

'I can plainly see how tempted you are.' She tried to joke, but there was nothing humorous in his rock-hard shaft, or in the desire plain and naked in his eyes, and all for her. 'But your brothers will think-'

' 'Tis none of their business what I do with my wife.'

His mouth claimed hers in a storm of heat and fire. Like a flame, she felt burned by him. Burned by a fast crackling want that snapped through her veins and sizzled in her very bones.

He backed her up against the wall until there was no space between them. She could feel the hard wall of his