“What things?” she asked breathlessly.
“What I promised I would, when you were seventeen.” His mouth brushed her lips as gently as a breath, lingering, tasting, arousing. “Don’t you remember, Natalie? I said that, when the time came, I was going to teach you how to make love.”
Chapter Ten
Natalie couldn’t believe she’d actually heard him say that, and in a tone so tender that she hardly recognized it. It was difficult to think, anyway, with his hard mouth making little tingles of excitement everywhere it touched her face.
“Do you think I’m joking?” he asked when she didn’t answer him. He bent, his breath whispering against her parted lips. “All the teasing stopped when Dr. Hayes called me and said you were at the point of death,” he added tautly. His head lifted, and he looked into her eyes. “From now on, it’s totally serious.”
She didn’t understand. Her expression told him so.
He brushed his mouth softly over her lips, careful not to take advantage of the situation or cause her even more pain. “I should never have let you leave Medicine Ridge in the first place,” he said gruffly.
“You told me I wasn’t welcome at the ranch ever again,” she admonished, her lower lip trembling.
He actually groaned. He kissed her with something that felt like utter desperation and visibly had to force himself to stop. His hand was faintly unsteady as it pushed back her disheveled hair and traced her oval face. “I thought you went from me to him,” he confessed huskily. “I couldn’t bear the thought.”
Her expression lightened. Her heart seemed to lift. For the first time, she reached to touch his hard mouth. “As if I could,” she said with wistful sadness.
He brought her palm to his lips and kissed it hungrily. “Weeks of misery,” he said heavily, “all because Vivian and I jumped to conclusions.”
“It’s hard to trust people. I ought to know.” She searched his one beautiful eye slowly. She was uncertain with him, hesitant. The medicine was still affecting her, and she was wary of his sudden affection. She didn’t trust it. Worse, she was remembering her past. There had never been a person she loved that she didn’t lose. First her parents and then Carl; even if Carl hadn’t been in love with her, he’d been her first real taste of it.
“Such a somber expression,” he said gently. “What are you thinking?”
“That I’ve lost everybody I ever loved,” she whispered involuntarily, shivering.
His head lifted and he looked straight into her wide, worried eyes. “You won’t lose me,” he said quietly.
Her heart ran wild. Now she was certain that she was hearing things. She opened her mouth to ask him to say it again, but just as she did, the nurse came in to check her vitals. Mack only smiled at her frustration and went in the hall to stretch his legs.
When he came back, it was as if he hadn’t said anything outrageous at all. He started outlining travel plans, and by the time he finished, Vivian and the boys were back and conversation remained general.
Natalie’s lungs were clear by Friday morning, and the surgeon, Dr. Hayes, released her for travel home in the Learjet. Mack lifted her out of the wheelchair at the hospital entrance and into the hired car, which they took to the airport. Less than an hour later, they were airborne, and by late afternoon, they were landing in Medicine Ridge.
The foreman had driven the Lincoln to the airport and had another ranch hand follow him in one of the ranch trucks. That made enough room for the Learjet’s weary passengers to ride in the car to the ranch house. There, Mack picked Natalie up in his arms and, holding her just a little too close, he mounted the front steps and carried her over the threshold.
He glanced at her with a faintly possessive smile as he stopped just briefly in the vestibule to search her soft eyes.
“You don’t have to carry me,” she whispered, aware that the boys had headed straight for the kitchen and Vivian had gone ahead of them upstairs to open the guest room door for them.
“Why not?” he mused, bending to brush her mouth lazily with his. “It’s good practice.”
Practice for what, she wondered wearily, but she didn’t question the odd remark. She moved her arm and grimaced as her whole side protested. The wound was still painful.
“Sorry,” he said gently. “I keep forgetting the condition you’re in. We’ll go right on up.”
He carried her easily up the long, graceful staircase to the guest room that adjoined his bedroom. She gave him a worried look.
“I’m not having you at the other end of the house in this condition,” he told her as he passed Vivian and went into the airy room with its canopied double bed, where he gently put her down. “I’m going to leave the connecting door open, as well. If you need me in the night, all you have to do is call me. I’m a light sleeper.” He glanced at his sister with a speaking glance. “Something I can’t say for anybody else in this family.”
Vivian grimaced. “I do eventually wake up,” she said defensively.
“I’ve got your pain medication in my pocket,” he added. “If you need it at bedtime, I’ll make sure you get it. Vivian can help you into a gown.”
“Something nice and modest,” Vivian murmured, tongue in cheek, with a wicked glance at her brother.
“Good idea,” he said imperturbably. He paused at the door and that good eye twinkled. “And I’ll wear pajamas for a change.”
Vivian chuckled at Natalie’s flushed cheeks as Mack left them alone. “You’re in no condition for any hanky-panky,” she reminded her friend. “So stop
