She released him, took his face in her hands, and forced him to look at her.

"Look at me," she pleaded. "I love you. I know you don't believe that, but I do."

Much to her surprise, that broke him. He put his hands over hers. "I know you do. I never doubted that."

"Then why are you sending me away?"

"I'm not sending you away. I'm leaving."

"It's the same."

"No, it's not."

"It feels like it. I'm not going to go back to my room. I'm staying right here until that feeling goes away."

He leaned his forehead down until it touched her own. "Do you know what you're saying?"

"Yes." Her voice was barely a whisper.

"You know I can't resist you any longer, don't you?"

"I don't want you to resist me. I want"

He put his fingers over her lips. "I know what you want. I've wanted the same thing ever since I met you."

Then he kissed her. But it wasn't the hungry, hard kiss of a man released from doubt. It was the lingering, savoring kiss of a man who intended to treasure each moment because it might be his last. Melody had every intention of changing that. Before the night was over, she meant to convince Chet Attmore that she was the one part of his life he couldn't do without.

Now that she knew he wasn't going to humiliate her by forcing her to leave his room, her body began to feel quite warm. She was in Chet's arms, he was kissing her, and he meant to keep her with him. That was all she needed to know at the moment. She still had a chance.

He was kissing her shoulders again. He had pushed her gown down her arms and was giving loving attention to her exposed skin. She surrendered to the sensation that made her bones feel as if they were melting. It was a wonderful feeling. It made her feel almost liquified, like rich, dark chocolate as the hard bars melt over heat. She felt like that. The heat came from inside her as well as from Chet. She felt warmed by it, suffused with it, overcome by it.

The feelings in her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, however, were quite different. As her body rubbed ever so gently against Chet's chest, her nipples grew increasingly sensitive, increasingly firm. And the more firm they grew, the more sensitive they became.

Between the two sensations, she was becoming quite distracted. Then Chet's hand closed over her left breast and all other feelings went into eclipse. The sensations were new and unexpectedly powerful. She flinched. Chet froze.

"Did I hurt you?"

"No," she hastened to a.s.sure him. To prove it, she leaned forward until her body touched his. "I don't want you to stop."

When he still hesitated, she reached up and kissed him. At the same time she struggled to undo some of the b.u.t.tons on his shirt. She wanted to touch him as he had been touching her. The feel of her hand on his bare skin seemed to release Chet from further doubt. His kisses turned hard and hungry. He cupped both her b.r.e.a.s.t.s in his hands.

Melody gasped from the shock of his hands against her soft, overheated skin. She tried to undo more shirt b.u.t.tons, but she found it difficult to concentrate on anything beyond her body, nearly impossible to summon the energy to do more than remain on her feet. Chet was kissing her deeply, teasing her nipples with his fingertips, rubbing his leg against her inner thigh. She felt as if she were under multiple a.s.saults, her defenses in retreat. Just about the time she felt certain her legs would give way under her, Chet picked her up and carried her to the bed.

The full reality of what was about to happen struck her with stunning force. Up until now all her thoughts had centered on doing anything in her power to make certain Chet believed she loved him pa.s.sionately, would endure anything for him, to keep him by her side. While her goal remained unchanged, she recognized more fully the cost to herself. She was about to offer Chet something she could give only once. If he rejected her, she might be a marked woman for the rest of her life.

She realized that wouldn't matter. If Chet rejected her, she wouldn't care what anyone else thought of her.

Chet hesitated, looking down at her as though he could see her thoughts. To rea.s.sure him, she smiled and urged him down next to her. She put her arms around him and pulled him close. This was where she wanted him for the rest of her life. She didn't know how she could ever have had a moment's doubt.

"Take off your shirt," she said. "I want to feel your bare skin against me."

He took off his shirt, removed his boots and socks, then lay down next to her and cradled her in his arms. Instinctively Melody's hands came up against his chest. It seemed an almost unbelievable experience that she should be lying next to a man naked from the waist up, letting her hand play over the soft skin of his chest. Touching him was equally strange. He was so soft and warm, yet so hard and unyielding at the same time. He made her feel small and vulnerable, and she wasn't sure she liked that.

Then he kissed her breast through the fabric of her nightgown, and she lost all interest in theories of equality. The soft moan that escaped from her did nothing to discourage him. In seconds he had opened her gown and exposed her bare flesh to his hungry mouth. The feeling of his tongue on her nipple was far more intense than she had antic.i.p.ated. Her swift intake of breath was noisy and involuntary; her muscles bunched and lifted her body off the bed. Her fingers clenched, digging into the hair on his chest. She felt him tense, but his mouth never left her breast.

When his hand moved to cover her other breast, she thought she might faint under the dual a.s.sault. Her body had never been subjected to such a barrage of sensations. Nothing had ever affected her so deeply. She felt as though each part of her body was sensually fused to the core of herself.

Even the feeling that had begun to grow in her belly seemed to have its origin in what Chet was doing to her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. It was a feeling unlike anything else that was happening to her. It seemed to spiral slowly outward, gradually growing warmer and bigger and more intense. As it gradually drew each part of her body into its grasp, Melody experienced a shift in the sensations exploding throughout her body. She became aware of a feeling of moist heat that centered in her loins. Simultaneously she became aware of a vague need somewhere deep inside her. Ill defined at first, it began to grow stronger and more insistent. When Chet moved his hand down her side, across her hip, and over to the inside of her thigh, the need abruptly came into focus.

Only Chet had the power to reach that need. Only he could satisfy it.

When his hand moved between her legs and entered her, her whole universe shifted. Before she had a chance to accustom herself to his invasion, he touched a spot that sent shivers racing through her entire body.

"Oh!" The sound was involuntary, its escape unintentional.

"Did I hurt you?" Chet asked.

"No," she managed to say, wondering if he would touch her in that place again.

He found the magical spot and began to rub it gently. Melody could hardly breathe. Her muscles tensed, arching her body. They relaxed just as quickly. She felt waves of sensation, pulsing, throbbing, increasing in strength and intensity until she heard herself calling Chet's name.

He swallowed her cries in a kiss, but that didn't affect the incredible magic of what he was doing to her body. Melody twisted and turned, pushing against him with all her strength until she thought she would scream from the sweet agony of it. Just as she was certain she could stand no more, the dam broke and moist heat seemed to flow from her like flood waters from a broken dam.

Before the waves had time to recede, Chet moved above her. She felt him enter her, stretch her wide.

"This may hurt a little at first," he said, "but I promise it will last only a second."

Before she could recover herself enough to ask what he meant, she felt a sharp pain as he plunged deep inside her. The receding waves helped mask the pain, but Melody was startled by its sharpness.

"It won't hurt anymore," Chet said as he began to move inside her.

At first the sensations were entirely different. The knowledge that she was joined with Chet, that their bodies had become one, seemed miraculous. It represented everything she wanted. He must understand that they belonged to each other from this moment on, that they could never be parted. She wanted to speak, to tell him how she felt, to hear him say he felt the same way.

But hardly had these thoughts entered her mind before they were driven out by a rebirth of the sensations that had driven her wild just moments before. She clutched Chet's shoulders, but he didn't seem to notice. He appeared to be gripped by a sweet agony fully as intense as her own. Melody didn't know if she could go through this a second time so soon after the first.

Chet gradually increased his rhythm, relentlessly driving her forward until there was no possibility of retreat. Melody forgot she wanted to tell Chet anything. She forgot he probably wouldn't have heard her. She thought only of the sensations that held her in their grip, teasing and torturing her until she reached the brink.

Then, as before, she felt all restraint vanish as the liquid heat flowed from her in wave after wave. She was only vaguely aware that Chet was experiencing sensations fully as strong as those gripping her.

Finally, when the waves had receded, she relaxed into the mattress, her body totally exhausted, her breath coming more easily. Chet lay next to her. She reached over and caressed his cheek. She smiled. He was hers now just as surely as she was his. They could never be apart again.

Not ever.

Chapter Nineteen.

"He's a gunfighter!" Lantz shouted at Melody. "You can't seriously consider marrying him."

"I love him," she replied, "and he loves me. There's nothing I want more than to be his wife."

"Can't you talk some sense into her, Belle? She's your daughter."

Lantz had forced his way into Belle's room as she and Melody were enjoying their coffee and talking over what to do with this last day in town. He'd found another man for them to interview for the foreman's job. He'd also come to renew his quest for Melody's hand. Melody hadn't wanted to say anything until she talked to Chet, but Lantz wouldn't take her refusal seriously. He seemed determined to go on believing she would marry him if he kept asking. Desperation had caused her to tell him about Chet. Now she wondered if she'd made a mistake. Lantz was furious. Belle looked more upset than surprised.

"She's not my daughter, Lantz. Even if she were, she's a grown woman, capable of making her own decisions."

"Not if wanting to marry that man is an example."

"Chet gave up gunfighting," Melody said. "He only put his guns on again to rescue Sydney."

"I suppose he wasn't wearing them when he stampeded my cattle and burned my barn." Lantz remembered his personal grievances. "It won't matter if you do marry him. You'll be a widow soon."

"How? Will you shoot him from behind the way Blade did?"

For a moment Melody wondered if Lantz might not be angry enough to hit her.

"He's twice as fast as you," she said. "We all saw that the first day you tried to draw on him."

"I'll have Luke do it. He's the fastest man in Texas."

Cold fear gripped Melody. "That would be murder. They'd hang both of you."

"No, they won't. Luke will find some way to make it look like a fair fight."

"How?"

"I don't know. He's a gunfighter. That's what he's paid to do."

It made her angry that Lantz could talk about killing Chet as though he was no more than an unwanted dog. That he could actually think of killing anyone without even the slightest qualm of conscience frightened her. Chet must be good to have been so successful, but not even Dan Walters claimed he was the best in Texas.

"You lay one hand on Chet, Lantz Royal, and so help me, I'll go to your house and shoot you in your own living room."

Melody was nearly as startled by her words as Lantz and Belle.

"Don't be silly," Lantz said. "Women can't shoot. You probably don't even know how to handle a gun."

"I know enough to shoot you," Melody replied. "And I will if you set that killer on Chet. Now leave. I don't want to have to look at you any longer."

Lantz sputtered, protested, even issued some threats of his own, but he soon left, promising she would be his wife yet. The minute he left, Melody jumped to her feet.

"I've got to talk to Chet."

"Are you really going to marry him?" Belle asked.

Melody stopped in her tracks. She couldn't tell Belle about last night. Her stepmother wouldn't understand.

"I intend to do everything in my power to become his wife."

"But Lantz is right, dear. He is a gunfighter."

"Was. He wants to find some place where people have never heard of him and start his own ranch. I intend to go with him."

"It won't be a thing like Richmond."

"I have no doubt I will be quite uncomfortable," Melody said, "but I love him. I couldn't think of living without him."

"If that's the case, I don't see the need for him to go anywhere. He can stay right here and run the ranch for us."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course. It would be the perfect solution. Besides, Sydney likes him."

"I'll ask him, but he's determined that sooner or later somebody is going to come looking for him, even shoot him in the back."

"Are you prepared to become a widow?"

Coming from Belle, the question was a shock. She was certain Belle hadn't meant to hurt her, but she had. "Lantz won't send this Luke person after him. He was just angry."

"If not him, somebody else."

"What can I do?" Melody asked. "I love him. I can't live without him."

"I don't know," Belle said. "I really don't know."

Melody remembered Lantz's threat. "I've got to tell Chet what Lantz said."

"You'd better wait until you get dressed," Belle said, smiling. "It'd be a terrible shock to the poor man to open his door and find you standing there in your robe."

Melody was more certain than ever that Belle would never understand about last night.

"Just a minute," Chet called out when Melody knocked on his door.

Melody decided that after last night there was nothing she or Chet had to hide from each other, so she opened the door and stepped inside without waiting. She saw Lantz's gunfighter climbing in through the window. She pointed at Luke and started to scream. Chet clamped his hand over her mouth, dragged her out of the doorway, and kicked the door closed. "Don't make a sound," Chet said. "I don't want anybody to know he's here."

Luke had climbed back in through the window, but he just stood there. He was wearing a gun, but he was staring at Melody, not Chet.

"That's Lantz's gunfighter," Melody said when she managed to free her mouth. "Lantz said he was going to kill you. He said he'd arrange it so it looked like a fair fight."

"He's also my brother," Chet said.

Chet might as well have hit Melody with his fist. The shock was so great, she was certain her legs would go out from under her.

"Your brother! But he was sent to kill you."