Stands a Calder Man (Calder Saga 2)

The tantalizing nearness of his mouth was more temptation than she could bear. She shifted her arms to curl her hands around his neck and bring his head down while she lifted herself on tiptoe. This small display of aggression sparked his, and the driving pressure of his responding kiss forced her lips apart. When his invading tongue mated with hers, Lilli shuddered at the igniting impact on her senses.

There seemed to be no right or wrong in what was happening. It was all too inevitable. Having Webb kiss her, hold her, and caress her seemed to be the reason she was born. When his lips began exploring the lobe of her ear and the curve of her throat, chills raced over her skin, awakening her already aroused flesh.

While his nibbling and intimate kisses on her neck arched her backward, his fingers made short work of the little buttons on her blouse. Some thin undergarment barred him from her flesh, but it was like a second skin. When his cupping hand closed on a tautly rounded breast, he felt the hardened point of her nipple in his palm.

Lilli moaned silently with a need she couldn’t express. All this kissing and touching had not been part of her experience, and certainly she had never been aroused like this before. With Stefan, he had merely expressed a desire to mate, then mounted her with few preliminaries, and even those had been tentative. She was beginning to understand that this hollow ache she felt in her loins was a direct response to the virile hardness of Webb.

“I love you.” His mouth rocked over her lips as he murmured his declaration, “God help me, how I love you.”

Those were words she’d heard from only one other man in her life, and that was Stefan, her husband. A sense of guilt invaded her, bringing with it the first resistance she’d shown to his embrace. Lilli averted her head from him and brought her hands down to his shoulders.

“Don’t say that.” She was all tangled again in confusion.

“I love you,” he repeated and cupped her face in his hand to turn her toward him. “Not saying it won’t change the way I feel.”

The gleaming darkness of his eyes seemed to draw her into them. He almost made it seem possible, but it wasn’t. Despair began to deaden her senses.

“When this storm blows over, we’ll leave here together,” he began in a low, urging voice. “We’ll go away somewhere and find a place of our own.”

“I can’t.” She slowly shook her head. “I’m married. This is my home.”

“Leave him and come away with me,” Webb persisted. “You don’t love him, not like this.”

“No, not like this,” Lilli admitted, only half-aware that she was admitting she loved Webb. “But I am his wife.”

“Only as long as it takes to get a divorce. Then we’ll be married and you’ll be my wife,” he stated.

“Divorce Stefan?” She looked at him with a sad anger. “On what grounds? That he’s kind to me and good? That he trusts me?” The acknowledgment of her betrayal pushed her out of Webb’s arms. “I can’t leave him. I couldn’t hurt Stefan like that.”

“What about me?” His features darkened in a frown. “I love you. Do you have any idea of the hell I’m going through? The physical pain of wanting you? The agony of loving a married woman?”

“What about what I’m going through?” she stormed in anger, near tears. “I made a promise before God. At the dance, you claimed your word meant something. I gave my word to Stefan, and that means something to me! And you want me to forget that.”

He straightened, pulling back from her, his features hardening into a mask. Lilli faced him, rigid and proud, hurt by his lack of understanding for her position. When Webb pivoted sharply away from her, something splintered inside. It was a full second before she realized he was putting on his hat and coat. By then, he was striding to the door.

“Where are you going?” She blinked her eyes in bewilderment. “You can’t leave in this storm.”

“I’m going to sleep in the shed with the horses,” Webb snapped.

“But—” She never had a chance to finish her protest as he cut in.

“Don’t ask me to sleep in here, because if I do, it will be in that bed with you!” he declared thickly. “As crude as it sounds, this thing between my legs doesn’t have any conscience and I’ve only got a scrap left of my own, so allow me this one act of decency.”

Then he was out the door, slamming it closed behind him. Lilli trembled, feeling suddenly very cold, but it was an inner cold, not one caused by the icy draft and swirling snow that had managed a brief invasion of the shack.

The black gelding turned its head and whickered a curious inquiry when Webb stalked into the shed. After the lantern was lit, the horse snorted its disapproval for the noise its rider was making. Brisk and grim, Webb kicked more straw into the pile along one wall, then hauled the saddle and blanket over to it to serve as pillow and pad. It was cold in the shed, but he’d slept in colder places. And the cold was what he needed to freeze out his desire.

With his straw bed as comfortable as he could make it, Webb walked to the lantern. The door burst open and he swung around to face it. He went rigid at the sight of Lilli, the shawl slipping off her head.

“What are you doing here?” he growled and immediately didn’t want to know, “Get out!”

“I brought you the quilt.” She smoothed her hand over the folded bundle in her arms. “I thought you’d need it.”

Lowering her gaze, she crossed silently over to his straw bed and knelt down to lay out the quilt. Webb swayed like a man caught between two conflicting forces. Then he finally moved to take over the chore.

“I’ll do that.” He didn’t want Lilli making his bed.

“I’m almost through,” she protested, then sat back on her heels to watch him finish it. Her gaze lingered on the harshness of his features, knowing she had caused it. “Webb. I am sorry.”