Wedding Night With the Ranger by Lauri Robinson Page B

bent down, kissed her long and hard. “I couldn’t let another man marry the woman I loved.” He ran a hand up and down her arm, making her skin hum. “I’ll forever be thankful for what they did.”
    “For stealing your cattle?” she asked, somewhat dumbfounded yet overwhelmed with the knowledge of his love at the same time.
    “No, for making me take the step I was too afraid to take.” His kissed her again. “My cattle never left my land.”
    She frowned. “They didn’t?”
    “Nope. But your father doesn’t know that I know.”
    Propping herself up on one elbow, she stared at his handsome face. “Doesn’t know you know what?”
    “That I figured out his ruse. That he’s not in Oklahoma, and that he fabricated the whole rustling story just to make his daughter happy.” His tone grew serious. “You are happy, aren’t you?”
    “Heavens, yes,” she answered, her heart leaping to her throat. “Are you?”
    “Extremely,” he said.
    She smiled, loving her father all the more for finding a way to make her dream come true. Deep down she’d known he wasn’t capable of being a true cattle rustler and that he’d never have forced her into a marriage she didn’t want. A second later, Colt’s earlier statement settled in her mind. “What were you afraid of?”
    “That you’d say no.”
    She kissed his lips, whispering against them, “I could never say no to you.” Her father may have fabricated the plan, but Colt was the one who made her dream a reality.
    “Well,” he said, smiling broadly, “just for the record, when my boys brought your father into my office, I was trying to figure out a way to ask you to the dance next Saturday night.”
    Even though the only light in the room came from the two oil lamps, one near the tub, the other near the bed, Annalee’s world was as bright as a July day. “You were?” she asked.
    “Yes, I was,” he replied, lowering his face inches from hers. “Will you go with me?”
    “If you promise to dance only with me. Every dance,” she said, knowing she’d most likely use her shotgun on any woman who even thought about touching him.
    His deep, loving gaze sent away any fear of that happening. “Do you promise to dance only with me?”
    “Forever,” she vowed.
    He ran a hand over her shoulder, down her side. “Please, don’t ever doubt my love for you, ever.”
    “Never,” she whispered.
    His kiss was tender and filled with deep, sincere love. She accepted it, offering the exact same in return. When their lips separated, his head hovered just above hers and his eyes twinkled like stars in the sky.
    “I suppose,” he said with a sigh, “I should let you get some sleep.”
    She ran one finger down his chest, over the ripples of muscles and across the smooth skin all the way down to his hip. “Sleep?” she asked, “On our wedding night?”
    “Aren’t you tired?”
    “No,” she admitted, arching her back so her breasts rubbed against his chest. “There will be plenty of other nights for us to sleep.”
    A grin covered his face. “I must be the luckiest man on earth.” He grasped her waist and tugged her against his manhood, which had grown before her eyes.
    She bubbled with excitement. “Must be the penny in my shoe.”
    He wrapped her in both arms. “I knew that was one special penny.”
    “And the most precious gift I’ll ever receive,” she proclaimed as she devoured his mouth, ready to make their wedding night last until the morning sun proclaimed a new day.
    It wasn’t until late afternoon that they checked out of the Dodge House and loaded her belongings in his wagon. With her penny in her shoe and her husband at her side, Annalee, happier than an angel with new wings, waved goodbye to her friends lining the street in front of her little house on the edge of town. Planting a kiss on her husband’s cheek, she settled onto the wagon seat.
    “Do you have a bathtub at the ranch?”
    “Yes,” he said.
    “Big enough for