But then he had turned away from her.
She had to know the reason he was compelled to turn his back on her and what they had found together!
"Shane!" Melanie cried, breaking into a run toward him. "You can't leave like this. You've got to tell me what's wrong." A loud, torturous sob tore from the depths of her being. "Shane, I couldn't bear it if you left. I don't know how it could happen so quickly, but I know that I love you! Do you hear me? I love you! Please don't leave me!"
Her words of love hit Shane with the impact of a fall off a horse at full gallop. His heart thundering wildly, he stopped and turned to Melanie just as she caught up with him. Bewildered, he looked down at her as she lunged into his arms and clung to him, her tears wetting his buckskin shirt.
"Shane, oh, Shane," Melanie sobbed. "Don't you see? It's as though we have known each other forever. Don't you feel it? It's such a wonderful, warm feeling that comes over me when I am near you. Tell me that you feel the same. Tell me you aren't going to turn your back on what we have found together."
Shane recalled how Melanie had embraced Josh. It had not been with the same enthusiasm as she was now holding onto him. If he recalled correctly, she had not even instigated the embrace and had stayed within Josh's arms for only a brief moment. With Shane it was different. She embraced him with the fierceness of someone in love! She did not love Josh. She loved Shane!
Shane dropped his blanket and cards. Twining his fingers through Melanie's hair he held her face back from his chest and gazed in rapture down at her. Melanie blinked back her tears and returned his gaze openly, fearlessly, lovingly.
Slowly, Shane drew her lips to his mouth, then kissed her with fire.
Melanie was catapulted into a world of spinning sensations that flooded her whole body. She was not even aware of being lowered to the ground; that Shane was still kissing her and holding her was all that mattered. Nothing could be sweeter or more beautiful. He was the world . . . the universe. . . . He was her every breath!
Shane held Melanie up with one arm while smoothing his blanket along the ground beneath her with his free hand. Then he lay her on the blanket and rose above her, his lips now sending feathery kisses along her face and then the hollow of her throat.
Watching Shane, loving him so deeply, Melanie caught her breath when he leaned partially away from her and untied her shawl and laid it aside, then reached behind her and began unsnapping her dress. Her pulse raced, realizing his intent. His burning need was in his eyes. His desire matched her own.
But hers was a desire never tested before. He was the first for her. Yet she knew that he had surely had many women. Would her inexperience disappoint him? Should she stop what she had begun here?
But she could not stop wanting him to make love to her anymore than she could exist without breathing. She wanted him. With all of her heart she wanted him, and not later.
Now.
Everything within her cried out to experience the ultimate feelings with him now.
Though her breasts were bare, Melanie was no longer aware of the damp chill of the morning air. A surge of tingling heat flowed through her breast as Shane's mouth found her nipple and drew it taut between his sucking lips. Melanie closed her eyes and heard someone making a whimpering sound, then realized that it was herself. Desire raged and washed over her as one of Shane's hands kneaded her breast while the other managed to get her dress and petticoat away from her.
Then Shane was suddenly everywhere at once. His lips and hands were caressing all of her secret places. She was becoming delirious with sensations, her entire body heating up, all of her senses yearning for the promise he was offering her.
Hardly able to stand much more, finding herself ready to reach a peak that was unfamiliar to her, frightening her, Melanie gently touched Shane's smooth cheek. ''Shane, my love," she whispered. "What are you doing to me? Oh, what are you doing to me?"
Shane framed her face between his hands and drew her lips to his mouth. He brushed her lips with soft kisses while he spoke softly and reassuringly to her.
"What am I doing?" he whispered huskily. "You told me that you loved me. I am showing you that I love you. I will ask for nothing myself this time, my love. Let me just give you pleasure. I shall wait. I was taught early in life the art of restraint."
"This is all so new to me," Melanie said, emitting a sigh when he placed a hand at the juncture of her thighs and began softly caressing her again. "Please don't think that I have done this before with other men. I am not a whore, Shane. I have only done this with you because it is you. Please believe me, Shane."
Shane slipped a finger up inside her tight sheath and felt her womanhood still intact. He smiled and eased his finger back from inside her and began caressing her again. She spoke the truth. No man had entered her. No man but he ever would!
Shane continued to move his fingers along her swollen mound, feeling it becoming tighter beneath his touch. He looked up at her. He could tell by the haze in her eyes that she was nearing that point of no return. He was glad to be the first to introduce her into the pleasures of a woman. He remembered the time he had been shown what it felt like to be a man. It had been with an older woman. She had known just the right moves to make with a boy of thirteen winters. When his insides had exploded with the first wondrous feelings of a young man, it had been as if every star had fallen from the heavens!
He wanted it to be the same for Melanie.
"Think of nothing but how you are feeling at this moment," Shane said, making his way down her body with his lips. "Enjoy this first time, Melanie. Remember that it is only the beginning. From now on I will be there for you to show you every way to make love. But for now, there is only one way."
Melanie's ragged breathing became slower as she felt Shane's lips and tongue travel lower than her belly. She gasped in shocked pleasure as he found her throbbing center and paid homage to it. She closed her eyes again and held her head back, going over the edge into ecstasy as a strange spinning sensation rose up and flooded her whole body. . . .
Chapter Seven
When Shane leaned over Melanie and drew her up into his arms and held her close, she clung desperately to the ma
gic of the moment, not wanting to let shame spoil what she had just discovered with the man she could not help but adore.
When Shane wove his fingers through her hair and drew it back from her brow, gently kissing her, she twined her arms around his neck and returned the kiss with a fierce passion. Then a sensual shiver raced up and down her spine as his hands moved downward and he again began smoothing his fingers across her flesh, stopping to softly knead her breasts.