Sudden Storms by Marcia Lynn McClure Page A

her gaze downward. “I guess I was just tired out or something.”
    “Yep. My kisses can have that effect on some women,” he chuckled.
    She looked up ready to do battle, but smiled, relieved as she saw the twinkling mirth in his eyes. “I don’t think you’re as tough as you like to pretend,” she whispered.
    He smiled. “Ya got me by the gills there, girl.” He lowered his voice again and whispered, “Tell ya what. Double or nothin’.”
    She rolled her eyes and sighed heavily. “I’ve learned my lesson about betting with you, Paxton Gray.”
    “Now, just hear me out. Double or nothin’…you let me kiss ya one more time, to make up for that mean thing I did in the hallway earlier, and I won’t go teasin’ ya beyond what ya can handle any more. Deal?”
    Rivers looked up into his dazzling smile. She shook her head nervously. “No, no, no. That’s all right. I understand. Really, I do. I provoked you before.” She began to back away.
    He ignored her answer and reaching out took hold of her arm. As his head descended toward hers, he whispered, “I just wanna make sure ya know there’s somethin’ besides playin’ the harmonica that I do ‘beautifully.’ Even if I don’t use curlin’ rods in my hair.”
    Then Paxton’s lips touched hers so tenderly that if it hadn’t have been for the pure tremor of titillation moving through her like thunder echoing in a mountain valley, she wouldn’t have felt his kiss at all.
    He gently pulled her into his arms. The beads of water still clinging to his body united with the warmth of his skin, moistening her nightdress like a hot, sweet, summer cloud burst.
    His mouth began discovering hers once more. Now, the uncompromising, powerful, thrilling kisses they had shared under the sweeping boughs of the willow returned. Rivers was bound helplessly in the confusing yet ecstatic thrill the feel of his mouth toying with her own sent resounding through her.
    “Now,” he whispered as his body seemed to unwillingly separate itself from hers. “I clean forgot to keep hold of my towel. So, unless you’re wantin’ to see me bare neked…ya better…”
    Rivers gasped and, without waiting for him to finish his sentence, turned and fled across the hall to her own room. She could hear his mischievous chuckle as he closed the door behind her.
    Climbing back into her own bed, a contented smile donned her beautiful cherried mouth. The knowledge he had forgiven her the cruel words she’d spat at him earlier sent her off to a peaceful, if somewhat dreamy slumber—dreams dominated by the perfect kisses of the man who, in fact, held her heart captive.

CHAPTER FIVE
     
    After the night Weston Warner came to supper, Jolee lost some of the extreme nervousness that had previously enveloped her in his presence. Weston spent more of his time visiting with Jolee when he dropped by now and again and even escorted her to one of the church socials in town.
    Yet as Rivers watched Weston and Jolee becoming more familiar, her own anxieties deepened. She knew she could no longer stay in the Gray home once Jolee married Weston and moved to his farm, as she had no doubt she would. But returning to her grandparents seemed a dismal prospect. Furthermore, Rivers knew she could not continue to hop boxcars from town to town, living the existence of a drifter. She’d grown beyond posing as a young boy to find work—grown beyond the lonely, unsafe life of an orphaned girl. She was a woman and longed for a home, a life, to be loved and to love in return.
    Trying to push the necessity of leaving to the back of her mind, Rivers attempted to go about her existence each day happy for Jolee and Weston and yet selfishly hoping their engagement, when it was announced, would be a long one.
    Rivers tried in vain to push other thoughts to the dark recesses of her mind too. Thoughts of a strong, handsome, untouchable man whose kisses still burned through her memory! Paxton had become increasingly less