Wildest Dreams - By Rosanne Bittner Page 0,36

you."

He moved a hand to touch her breast, soft beneath her dress and camisole. "I've been afraid maybe I'd hurt the baby."

"I don't think you can hurt anything, not this early. Is that part of the reason you've worked so hard and kept yourself so busy?"

"Partly. Besides, I've seen you getting more and more lonely and depressed—figured it was all my fault and that you blamed me for it. I didn't think you'd want anything to do with me that way."

"Oh, Luke, that isn't true. All this time I've needed you more than ever, needed the closeness we shared when we first got here. I felt you pulling away, and it just made me even more lonely." She touched his hair. "Luke, we've got to tell each other how we're feeling, always. Here we've been needing each other so, and we've been pulling apart for all the wrong reasons. We should never let that happen, Luke. We're all we've got, just you and me and Nathan. We can't keep things inside and then blame the other for how we feel."

He sighed deeply, taking hold of her wrist and kissing the back of her hand. "I'm not used to letting loose of my feelings. After my father told me he didn't consider me his real son, I learned to shut off my feelings. It made everything easier, pretending nothing bothered me, ignoring the hurt."

"I don't want it to be that way between us."

Luke studied her green eyes, met her full lips. She responded almost desperately, and he knew that she needed to be touched, to feel alive, just as he did. Somehow it helped them shut out the howling wind and swirling snow and all the dangers that lurked just outside the door. He groaned when Lettie ran her hands over his chest, down to the hard bulge under his long johns. She massaged it gently, and he moved on top of her, straddling her as she sat up then to help him get her dress and camisole off. A little draft near the bed made her shiver, and her nipples hardened into ripe cherries. He leaned down and took one into his mouth.

It had been so long! Lettie gloried in the touch, grasped his hair and offered herself with the zest of a harlot. Tonight it seemed so necessary. She felt hungry for him. He pushed her back into the feather mattress, then grasped her drawers and pulled them off so that all she still wore were her knee-high hose. He pulled some blankets over them, and she spread her legs to let him settle between them as he came closer then to meet her mouth again in a deep, suggestive kiss. In the next moment he was inside of her, sliding himself over that secret place that made her forget all hardship, all loneliness, all danger. Now there was only the magic, this big, handsome man who was her husband invading her privacy in a most exciting, enjoyable way, warming her blood with a special kind of fire that made her arch against him, wanting more, more. Minutes later she felt the wonderful, gripping climax that made her gasp his name and work to pull him in as deeply as she could. He raised up to his knees, grasping her bottom and burying himself in rhythmic thrusts that reminded her why she had come to Montana... to be with this man who loved and needed her so, who loved Nathan like his own, who had a dream that must be her dream, too. He had turned this act she once thought ugly into something beautiful.

His life spilled into her, and he breathed deeply for a few minutes before buttoning his long johns and relaxing beside her. He pulled the blankets over them again. "Let's not get up just yet." He groaned, kissing her neck. "I just want to hold you, Lettie. I want to stay just like this."

Lettie nestled into his shoulder, the sweet comfort of his strong arms bringing on a much-needed sleep. When she awoke, she was surprised to realize that Luke was gone from the bed. When she sat up she saw that Nathan, too, was gone. A pot of fresh coffee sat simmering on the stove, and although she couldn't see the light of day because of the barrier of wood and snow in front of the cabin's only window, she realized it must be morning.

She quickly rose and washed, surprised that she had slept