"Michael?" Angela turned around and tugged on his sleeve to get his attention. "Michael, I think it's time for us to leave for a while."

  He glanced over his shoulder. "Is Tess dressed yet? You said you'd let me know when she was, so I could turn back around."

  "Uh... well, she's partly dressed. But I don't think she's going to stay that way."

  He cocked his eyebrow. "You mean...?" He glanced down and saw Stone unrolling the bedroll and Tess almost floating across the ground as she walked toward him.

  He chuckled. "Well, it's about time."

  "Let's give them some privacy," Angela insisted.

  "Right. Where would you like to go?"

  "How about I surprise you? Close your eyes and let me lead this time."

  She lifted an inquiring eyebrow, and he nodded, shutting his eyes. He felt her grasp his hand and then, her wing tip brushed his nose.

  "AAH... AAH... Angie, I'm gonna... AACH..."

  Angie whipped around and clapped a hand over his nose and mouth. "Don't you dare, Michael!" She kept a firm grip on him until he nodded his head and reached for her hand. Watching him closely, she released her hold.

  "Are you sure you're not going to sneeze?" she asked.

  "Aachoo." He ducked his head to avoid Angela's hand and danced away from her.

  "Just teasing." He chortled gleefully. "Just teasing."

  "Oh, you!"

  Twenty-Seven

  Tess extended her arms and Stone rose to his feet, taking her hands in his own. She tilted her head back to look at him. His eyes smoldered a deep mahogany as he returned her gaze, and her lips parted, her breath escaping in a quick tempo. Sensation crept up her arms when he slowly caressed the back of her hands with his thumbs, and the tips of her bare breasts pebbled in response.

  "I want you," he murmured in a voice laced with desire. "I've wanted you to be totally mine since the first moment I saw you."

  "Yes," she replied in a barely audible whisper. She tried to pull her hands free to wrap them around his neck, but he held them tightly.

  "If we make this commitment," he growled, "it's a forever thing. For today, tomorrow, and the rest of our lives."

  She drew her bottom lip between her teeth and worried it. She had no doubt he meant what he said, despite the strong waves of need she could sense he kept dammed behind his rock-hard countenance. His face remained stoic as she searched it, his eyes centered on her, his lips set grimly. Everything about him told her this was entirely her decision, yet warned her what the result would be should she take that next important step.

  With him so near, his lips so close, his presence sending the heat of desire through her body, her thoughts jumbled until all she could feel was the deep emptiness not having him would give her. She yearned for him with an intense, physical need but knew satisfying their lust would never be enough—for her or for him, either.

  They had so much more together—or could have, if she wanted it. Stone offered her not only his body but also his love. And not just love for today—a forever love.

  "I love you," she said. "I want you, too, but it's more than that. I want to be part of your life—always have you near. I want to be totally yours, Stone. Forever."

  He dropped her hands and gathered her fiercely into his embrace. With a deep growl, he claimed her lips. She was crushed against his chest, held against him so tightly, she could hardly breathe. She gloried in the closeness, the hardness of his body, and parted her mouth willingly to the thrusts of his tongue. She clung to his neck, aching to be even closer, though their bodies touched completely.

  Still plundering her mouth, he cupped her hips and pulled her feet from the ground. Her whimper grew into a moan when he thrust against her, and she wrapped her legs around his waist, straining and rubbing herself against him, creating stronger cascades of pleasure through her.

  He wrenched his lips free with a gasp and stared down at her. His hands clenched in rhythm with her movements, and she threw her head back, unable to stop, lost in her need. She felt his lips sip at her breast, his tongue barely graze the nipple. Then, with a moan he sucked her breast into his warm, wet mouth, and nothing mattered except this incredible crescendo of pleasure. She cried his name, over and over.

  Too sated to maintain her grip on his waist, she felt herself sliding down his body as her senses slowly returned. She opened her eyes as her feet touched the ground and reached up to caress his face.

  "I love you," she murmured. "I want to make you feel as wonderful as I just did."

  "That's only the start of it, darlin'. There's going to be lots, lots more."

  She gently dragged her fingernail down his cheek and neck until it caught in his bandanna. Raising her other arm, she untied the knot and tossed it aside.

  "Promises, promises," she murmured as she started unbuttoning his shirt.

  "That's not a promise—it's a guarantee."

  In one quick movement he unbuttoned and unzipped her jeans, shoving them partway down her legs, then bending down to kiss her while his fingers worked on his own jeans. Her fingers fumbled with his shirt buttons, and he pushed her hands away. He jerked the fabric and the final button tore free. With a shrug, he shook off the shirt and let it fall behind him.

  She broke the kiss herself this time, pushing against his chest and stepping back just far enough to see him. She sucked in a gasp of heated desire as her eyes wandered over his broad shoulders and muscular chest. When her gaze touched the jutting evidence of his need, he groaned loudly and sat down on the bedroll.

  Two brisk jerks and his boots were off, followed instantly by his jeans. He held his hand up to her, trapping her gaze in the hungry depths of his own. She took his hand and knelt beside him.

  "You're magnificent," she breathed. "It should be a sin for you to be so gorgeous."

  "I'm glad I please you, sweetheart, but I'd be willing to bet you please me even more. Let me show you how much you please me."

  He pulled her to him and kissed her again. Slowly he lowered her to the bedroll and covered her body with his. He traced a path with his tongue down her neck, then lower to her breasts. He kneaded one while he suckled the other, and she whimpered and tossed her head as the heat of need surged inside her. She buried her hands in his hair but lost her hold when he moved lower.

  He rose briefly and tugged her jeans free from her legs.

  "I wanted to take this slowly," he growled, "but I've been wanting you for so long."

  "Not any longer than I've wanted you, my darling," she murmured. "Please. Make me yours."

  When he bent again, he curled his tongue into her navel, swirling it, then licking back and forth down the lower part of her stomach. Ever so gently he pushed her legs wide, then opened her with his thumbs. A low, keening moan escaped her when his tongue began swirling again against the hard button it found.

  She arched, and her stomach tightened as the glorious spiral toward culmination began again. Somehow she managed to cry out. "Stone, please, be with me!"

  He covered her and thrust against her. Her legs went around his waist. Suddenly he stiffened and stared down at her in surprise, but she gripped him tighter, bucking upward. With a deep groan he covered her lips with his and drove into her, capturing her gasp of pain in his mouth.

  "Mine," he murmured in awe a second later, his breath mingling with her own as he held himself still. "Only mine."

  "Yes, yours. Only yours, Stone."

  The pain receded almost at once, leaving her with only the pleasure of him filling her emptiness so precisely. She tightened her legs and nudged upward, stroking herself against him. His hiss of indrawn breath sent a deluge of sensation over her as he slowly withdrew, then entered her again.

  She dug her nails into his back, her hold sure enough to allow her to urge him into an ever-increasing rhythm. She wanted it to last, but she wanted it to peak.

  "Oh, my God!" he groaned, giving one final, powerful thrust, and she reached her own fulfillment. She could only gasp his name in echo to his guttural mutters of hers while wave after wave of unbelievable pleasure carried her ever higher, until it shattered her very consciousness.

  Always, though, she was aware that Stone rode with her, his gratification intensifying her own.

  Twenty-Eight

  Stone nuzzled Tess's ear and whispered, "Why didn't you tell me?"

  "What?" She stretched and slid her leg up and down his thigh. "That I'd never made love to a man before? That I was saving myself for that one special man, like Granny warned me to do? She was right, you know. Every minute of the wait was worth it."

  "God, I hope so," he groaned. "I hope it was half as wonderful for you as it was for me. I never realized what a difference being in love with the woman I was with would make."

  She leaned back and frowned at him. "And just how many...?"

  "Shhhh." He gently laid a finger on her lips. "As far as I'm concerned, this is the first time I've ever made love, too. This time it was really making love."

  "I love you," she whispered. "With everything in me and then some. I love you so much, I ache with it, and it scares me to death. Nothing could ever mean as much to me as my loving you does, unless it's knowing you feel the same way about me."

  "I love you," he replied. "You've captured a part of me I didn't even know existed until I saw you. You' re the most beautiful woman I've ever seen."

  "Ummmm." She brushed her breast tips against his chest. "Then it's just my body you love, not my mind, huh?"

  He propped his head on his hand and ran his eyes over her nude body. "Well, I might have to think about that for a minute." He feathered a finger over her eyelashes. "I love those green eyes that remind me of new leaves on the trees after a spring rain. But they wouldn't be half as beautiful if they weren't yours."

  He skimmed his finger down her nose and caressed her lips. "I love those wine-tasting lips, but I love them more because of the way they kiss me."

  His fingertip ran down her neck and traced her collarbone. "Your skin's so soft—I can't believe it doesn't melt on my tongue, like cotton candy at the fair."

  "S... Stone," she said with a muffled groan.

  "I'm not done thinking yet," he murmured. "I love this." He gently lapped her breast. "And this one, too." He suckled her other nipple, then released it.

  Running his hand over her flat stomach, he continued, "But none of those would mean a thing if they weren't all part of you. Of Tess, the woman I love. And every time I hear you say you love me, too, I can't believe how lucky I am."

  "I love you, Stone, my darling."

  Another hour passed before they fell into an exhausted slumber, their minds too tired to continue the delightful game of I-love-you-more-no-I-love-you-more.

  Lying on his stomach, Stone woke first, frowning at the sun climbing up the sky and the pink tinge on Tess's skin. He gently shook her shoulder.

  "Tess, darlin', you'd better get on some clothes. You're getting sunburned."

  "Hum?" She lazily opened her eyes, then glanced down his back and giggled. "You are, too."

  "I don't burn," he denied.

  She ran a fingernail over his hip and he flinched.

  "You probably don't usually lay out in the sun with that part of you bare, either," she said. "You've usually got it covered up with your pants. But it's awful pink right now."

  He craned his neck to glance at his rear, then flopped over onto his back. "Then maybe I'd better bake this side for a while to even things out."

  "I don't know," she mused. "You don't really want to get a sunburn down there, do you? I know I'd rather you didn't."

  He roared with laughter and got to his feet. Reaching down, he pulled her up into his arms. "What have I unleashed?" he asked. "An insatiable wench who's not going to be able to keep her hands off me?"

  "You wish," she said, standing on tiptoe to flick her tongue over his bottom lip. "Remember, I've got a lot of years to make up for."

  "Nope," he said, shaking his head. "You can't ever make up for opportunities lost. You just have to make the new ones count that much more."

  "And when will another one of those new opportunities come around?"

  "Maybe after we get a bath," he said. "And that cold water will stop this sunburn from getting any worse."

  "Okay." Tess wriggled out of his arms. "I've got some lotion for sunburn, too." She walked to her backpack and bent over to dig in it.

  Stone stood with his hands on his hips, his eyes glued to her rear end, which was sticking up in the breeze. Tess glanced back over her shoulder, and a flush crawled up her face. She grabbed a towel out of her pack.

  "Uh..." She wrapped the towel around her. "I'll get the lotion after we bathe."

  "I'll help you put on the lotion if you'll put it on the places I can't reach," he said, leering.

  "You've got a deal." Tess turned and started for the creek.

  The next morning, long after sunrise, Tess stood at the log gate, her arms resting beneath her chin as she watched the mares and colts. They stayed well down the canyon, shying away even farther when they caught sight of her.

  Except for that black mare. She pricked her ears and took a half-dozen steps toward Tess, a faint, inquiring nicker sounding on the morning air.

  "It can't be," she muttered. "There's no way."

  Unable to resist the temptation, she held out her hand and snapped her fingers. "Here, Sateen," she called. "Come on, girl."

  The mare cantered up to the fence and nudged Tess's hand. She instinctively rubbed the mare's muzzle, then scratched that spot under the chin that her horse always enjoyed her paying attention to. The mare tossed her head briefly before she stretched her neck to allow Tess access again to the spot.

  "What's going on here?" Stone asked as he led his saddled horse up to the gate. "Did you already tame one of those mares?"

  She turned excitedly to him. "Stone, I think this is Sateen. It has to be! Somehow she came through that time warp, too, and now she's here with me!"

  "Tess, darlin', calm down. This mare might look like yours, but she probably belonged to some rancher who had trained her already. She couldn't possibly be your mare."

  "I know my horse!" She stamped her foot. "And I didn't see a brand on either one of her hips when she came up to the fence. If I could travel through time, why couldn't my horse come too?" Without waiting for him to answer, she continued, "You just watch this!"

  She slipped through the gate. The black mare stood quietly, and she wrapped her arms around its neck, rubbing her cheek against the soft muzzle.

  "It is you, Sateen," she whispered. "I just know it is."

  She stepped back and raised her hand. The mare reared, pawing at the air.

  "Get the hell out of there, Tess!"

  "Oh, shut up."

  She dropped her hand, and the mare's hooves fell back to earth. Then the horse lowered her head and arched her neck, pawing at the ground.

  Tess lifted her hand three times in succession, and the mare's front hoof pawed the ground in time to her movements. When she stopped moving her hand, the mare stopped pawing the ground.

  "Now watch this." She tossed him a smirk before she looked back at the mare. "Sateen, how much is two plus two?"

  Tess lifted her hand four times in succession and the mare pawed out the answer.

  "See?" she said in a delighted voice. "It is her." She threw her arms around the sleek, satin neck and buried her face in the mare's mane.

  "I'll be damned," Stone breathed.

  "Let her out, Stone," Tess said after she raised her head. "She'll stay with me—we won't have to tie her."

  "All right. She'll be company for you and the dog while I'm gone."

  Stone opened the gate and Tess walked through, with the mare following, her nose near Tess's shoulder. After swinging the gate back and looping the rawhide thong over the post, Stone turned to her.

  "I wish I didn't have to leave you here alone, but I think this is the best way. You sure you aren't afraid to stay here by yourself?"

  "Of course not. Someone has to make sure that stallion doesn't come back and steal our mares while you're gone. And I've already promised you that I'd scare him off with the rifle if he's dumb enough to come back."

  "That horse isn't dumb, Tess. You remember that. I didn't have any idea we'd be able to get this many horses away from that stud, or I'd have made other arrangements. The best thing for me to do now is ride into the Cherokee camp and hire some men to deliver them to Fort Sill for me. Silver Eagle will pick out men I can trust—and they'll get a cut of the money for the horses they deliver."

  "And we'll be free to go visit the kids, instead of having to spend a week taking these horses halfway across the state."

  "Oh, yes," he said, "we'll visit the Cherokee camp."

  "Well, you'd better get going," she said with a final pat on Sateen's nose.

  Stone swung into the saddle. "Where's the rifle?"

  "Right here." She walked over and picked up the rifle that was leaning against a gate rail. "I'll keep it with me all day, I promise."

  "I'll be back by nightfall. Soon as the Indians get going with the herd in the morning, we'll ride out for the camp."

  She stood on tiptoe and offered him her mouth. He leaned down and brushed her lips, then grabbed her around the waist and pulled her up for a harder kiss. Setting her back on the ground, he frowned down at her.

  "You be here when I get back, you hear?"

  "I hear you, darling. And you be careful. I love you."

  "Love you, too."

  After Stone rode out, Tess puttered around the campsite for a while, washing their breakfast dishes and rolling up her sleeping bag and Stone's bedroll, which they had spread out and shared the previous night. When the camp was tidy, she saddled Sateen with the tack she had used on the gray gelding and rode her around the valley for a while, keeping a sharp lookout for the white stallion.