Twin of Ice (Montgomery/Taggert 6)

“Is that the reason you hate Mr. Fenton?”

He looked her in the eye. “No, it ain’t. I just learned all this today. The point of all this storytellin’ is that Pam’s come back to Chandler to live, and with her is her thirteen-year-old son who also happens to be my son. And accordin’ to Pam, he looks enough like me to set a few tongues waggin’.”

Houston took her time in replying. “If everyone will know this shortly, it’s not really a secret, is it?”

“It was damn well a secret to me until a matter of hours ago,” he said with some anger in his voice. “I didn’t know I had a kid somewhere.”

When needed, Houston’s stubbornness could match his. “I asked for a real secret, not something that next week everyone will know and be discussing over tea. I want to know something that only you know about yourself, something that even Edan doesn’t know about you.”

“How come you wanta know about me? How come you can’t just put the furniture away and sleep with me?”

“Because I’ve come to love you and I want to know about you.”

“Women are always sayin’ they love you. Two weeks ago you were in love with Westfield. Damn it! All right, I’ll tell you somethin’ that’s none of your business, but you’ll probably like hearin’ it. This mornin’ Pam came to me and told me she’d been in love with me all these years, and she wanted me to leave with her, but I turned her down.”

“For me?” Houston whispered.

“Ain’t you the one I married? With no thanks to that idiot sister of yours, I might add.”

“Has something happened between you and Blair that makes you two snarl at each other?”

“One secret to a weddin’ day,” he said. “You want another secret, you gotta work for it. And the best way you can work is to get that food off this bed and take that blanket off and come rub up against me.”

“I’m not sure I can stand such torture,” she said, as she frantic

ally removed food and tore the blanket away at the same time.

“I like obedient women,” he said, holding out his arms to her.

“I have been trained to be the most obedient of women,” she whispered, putting her lips up to be kissed.

“As far as I can tell, you ain’t obeyed me once yet . . . except maybe here in this cabin. Damn it, Houston, but I never thought you’d be like this. Maybe you’re more like your sister than I thought.”

She pulled away from him. “You thought I was an ice princess, too?”

With a smile, he pulled her back to him. “Honey, what happens when you apply heat to ice?”

“Water?”

“Steam.” He moved his hand down to her firm backside and pulled her between his legs, covering her body with his.

Houston loved the sensation of being close to him, of feeling his skin against hers. She’d been warned that the wedding night was very painful, but this night had been all the joy she’d hoped it would be. Perhaps it was Kane, and the fact that she felt approval coming from him, rather than the criticism that she’d always received from the other men in her life, but now she felt free to react in any way she truly felt.

Kane began to stroke her body, her legs, the back of her, and his touch made her feel beautiful in a way that no compliment or pretty dress ever had. She closed her eyes and gave herself to the lovely sensations of the darkened room, the sound and warmth of the fire, and this man’s big, wide, hard hands going up and down her body, curving over surfaces that she’d not even been aware that she owned until this night. He stroked her hair, spreading it out on the pillow, running the back of his fingers along her cheekbones.

When she opened her eyes to look at him, she saw a softness in his face that she’d never seen before. His eyes were dark and hot-looking.

“Kane,” she whispered.

“I’m right here, baby, and I’m not about to go away,” he said as he began touching her again.

As she closed her eyes again, his hands became more insistent as he clutched her hips, burying his thumbs in her soft flesh. Her breath came faster as he moved to put one of his big, hard thighs across her smooth soft ones. His hands were on her breasts as his mouth sought hers and she opened to him like a flower to a bee.

Crushing her to him, his mouth clinging to hers, he put his hands on her buttocks and raised her to meet him.

Houston gasped at the first thrust, but there was no pain as she began to move with him. He pulled her closer and close, until their skin was as one person’s, fusing them in this act of love.

Instinctively, Houston wrapped her legs around his waist and clutched his neck as he lifted her from the bed, supporting her weight with his arms and on his knees.