One Tiny Miracle: Branded with his Baby / The Baby Bump / An Accidental Family

By the time they rounded the counter, rain was driving against the old walls with a shuddering force. Behind them, water began to pour through the cracks in the roof and pelt the food they’d left lying on the table.

“You stay here by the stove,” he ordered after he’d dealt with the coffeepot. “I’ll gather up our food from the table.”

“No!” she cried, clutching his arm. “Please. Stay here with me. We don’t need the food!”

Seeing she was becoming really frightened, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her tightly against his chest. “All right, Maura,” he said close to her ear so that she could hear him above the deafening sounds of the storm. “I’ll stay right here. Close your eyes, honey. Imagine you’re somewhere nice and sunny. Like on a beach. In a bikini. With me rubbing oil on your back.”

After a moment her shoulders began to shake and when he eased his head back and looked into her face, he could see she was trying to laugh through her fear.

“That’s a wicked thought, Quint Cantrell.”

He kneaded her back while the heat of her body snuggled up against his was a damn sight hotter than the crackling fire in the stove. Even hotter than the lightning crackling around the old building.

“Hmm. A very nice one, too.”

Her head tilted back from his chest and as he looked down into her eyes, he felt something sweet and hot and protective sweep through him all at the same time.

“I—The lightning, Quint. A bolt of it hit too close to me once when I was out riding with my brother Brady. I was knocked from my horse and wasn’t breathing. If he hadn’t known CPR—”

She broke off with a shudder and he didn’t ask her to finish. He didn’t have to. He understood her fear and admired her for not falling completely apart.

“I’m not going to let anything hurt you. I promise.”

Her arms slid around his waist and clung tightly, her face buried into his shirt. The fact that she trusted him, that she was seeking him for comfort and security, swelled his chest and touched his heart in a way that it had never been touched.

“I know,” she said, her voice muffled. “Just hold me.”

Quint gladly obliged her request and after a few minutes, the lightning began to subside, even though the rain continued to pour. With the thunder drawing farther and farther away, he could feel Maura began to relax in his arms.

And then everything suddenly began to change. Her hands started to move against his back, her head tilted backward, her lips parted. Something deep and hot and primitive began to beat inside him, and with a needy groan he dropped his head and covered her mouth with his.

Quint didn’t know if the storm had charged the air around them, or if the desire between them was setting off sparks. Either way, the fire inside him had already ignited and he wasn’t about to try to extinguish it.

The kiss he gave her was long and hungry and by the time their mouths finally parted, they were both breathing heavily and staring at each other in shocked wonder.

Finally, Maura lifted her hand to cup the side of his face. “Oh, Quint,” she murmured. “Being with you—like this—is.special. So special.”

Feeling raw and naked and unexpectedly emotional, Quint thrust his fingers into her hair and against her scalp. Then holding her head motionless, he lowered his lips back to hers.

This time he gentled his searching mouth and took his lazy time drinking in her sweet taste, while an ebb and flow of desire rushed through him like a high tide threatening to drown everything in its path.

When he finally broke the kiss and lifted his head, his insides were shaking with a need like he’d never felt before. “I want to make love to you, Maura.”

Apparently his kiss had already told her what he wanted, because there wasn’t so much as a flicker of surprise to be found on her face. Instead, her green eyes were dark and smoldering, telling him that she needed him just as badly. The notion left him drunk with anticipation.

“I want that, too, Quint.”

He didn’t question her a second time. He didn’t want to give her the chance to change her mind, to turn away from him and the consequences this might bring upon them tomorrow. Loving her. Being inside her was all he could think about. It was all that mattered.

Groaning with need, he swept her up into his arms and carried her the few steps over to the cot. After lying her gently atop the blanket, he immediately joined her on the narrow mattress, then reached for her.

With a sigh that was lost in the sound of the rain, she moved into his arms and their lips united over and over in a swarm of kisses that grew deeper and bolder with each passing minute.

Eventually their clothing became an annoying barrier and Quint reached for the buttons on Maura’s shirt. Once it was out of the way, he quickly followed it with her jeans and boots, then stood to deal with his own clothing.

Peeled down to nothing but two lacy scraps of lingerie, Maura sat on the side of the cot and as she watched Quint fumble with the buttons on his shirt, there was only one thing on her mind. And that thought had nothing to do with the right or wrong about making love to this man. Instead, she was wondering what he was thinking as he looked at her.

No doubt he was accustomed to having far younger women than her in his bed. And even though her body was firm and curved in all the right places, she felt self-conscious as his blue eyes slid slowly over her.

She swallowed as his jeans dropped to the floor, then tried to speak as he shoved them and his boots out of the way. He was all long, lean muscle, a man in the prime of his young life.

“I—” Heat bloomed pink on her cheeks as she unwittingly touched a hand to her messed hair. “I must look horrible,” she said huskily. “I’m sorry.”

Groaning, he knelt before her and drew her into his arms. “Oh, hell, Maura. You’re the most sexy and gorgeous woman I’ve ever laid eyes on.”

Her head twisted back and forth against his bare shoulder. “There’s no need for you to go overboard.”

A low chuckle rumbled from deep in his throat. “I went overboard that first night I kissed you. I haven’t been able to think of anything else since. I’ve been wondering, imagining how it would be to make love to you. And now—”

Cupping her face with both his hands, he looked into her eyes and Maura felt her heart swell with a longing that had nothing to do with physical desire and everything to do with an emotional bond.

“I don’t want to make love to an athletic body, Maura. I want a flesh-and-blood woman, who’s all soft and lovely and feels just right in my arms. I want you.”

By the time he uttered the last word, his lips were against hers and Maura’s doubts had flown through the cracks in the wall.

Quint wanted her. Really wanted her. And that in itself was enough to send her senses spinning, to make her forget everything, including the storm outside.

With his lips fastened hungrily to hers, he eased her back onto the cot, then stretched out beside her. Tiny shivers of pleasure raced down her spine as their bared skin touched, the heat of their bodies melded together and his hard arousal burgeoned between them.

Whirling in a foggy haze, the kiss continued until she was completely starving for air. Yet when he did finally tear his lips from hers, she wanted to cry at the loss. But her disappointment was short-lived as he quickly began to nibble at the sensitive spot beneath her ear, then followed that with a trail of moist kisses down the side of her neck.

By the time he reached the valley between her breasts, her fingers clenched against her palms and her body arched toward his, toward the mindless magic his mouth was playing across her skin.

One by one, he slipped the straps of her bra down her shoulders, unfastened the hooks, then tossed the garment to the floor.

She sucked in ragged breaths, while beneath a veil of lashes, she watched his gaze settle hungrily on her breasts. The desire raging in the pit of her belly twisted into a fiery ache and with a low groan, she clutched his shoulders and urged him down to her. Amidst the sound of the storm, she heard the sharp intake of his breath and then his mouth was against one nipple as he took the tight bud between his teeth and laved it with his tongue.

Inside Maura, something snapped like a twig and all the pent-up hunger she’d been trying to contain flooded through her like the downpour outside. Suddenly she couldn’t touch him enough, taste him enough. Her hands raced over his hot skin, exploring the hard muscles of his arms and back while her lips scattered broken kisses along his collarbone and up the side of his neck where her mouth tasted the wild beat of his heart.

She was barely aware of him removing her panties and his shorts. A sea of sensation was washing over her, tugging, smothering, begging, wiping away all sense of perception. And when he positioned himself above her, she reached for him with a fierceness that frightened her.

“I hope you’re protected,” he mouthed against her ear, “because I have nothing with me.”

Closing her eyes, she turned her lips into the side of his face. “I am,” she whispered, then with a choked groan, added, “I want to feel you inside me, Quint. I want to feel us together. That way.”

“Oh, Maura. My lovely, lovely, Maura.”

The raw huskiness in his voice, the tenderness in his blue eyes, pierced her chest and sank straight to her heart. Suddenly her throat was burning and her eyes were stinging, and before he could guess at the emotions he’d evoked in her, she buried her face against his chest and wrapped her arms tightly around him.

And when he entered her, the pleasure careening through her body was so great, so all-consuming that she was totally unaware of the stream of tears marking her cheeks.

Chapter Seven

Much later, as Maura lay curled against Quint, her cheek pillowed by his chest, she listened to the even rhythm of his breathing, the slow beat of his heart, and knew they were sounds that would be with her for the rest of her life.

He’d taken her on a passionate trip the likes of which she’d never experienced. Even now, when she thought of how her whole body had exploded with pleasure, she was shocked and fascinated, dazed that he could have turned her into such a wild, uninhibited woman.

Oh, my, what had had happened? Making love to Quint had only shown her how much she’d done wrong. She’d not known that her ex-husband had been a selfish lover. Because Gil had been her first and only lover, she’d not had anyone to compare him to. But now, after Quint had touched her, lifted her to the sky and back, she realized she’d been missing so much, had wasted so many years on a one-sided relationship.

“I think the rain is letting up,” Quint murmured against the top of her head. “But who cares? I could stay here all night. Just like this.”

Moments ago, he’d pulled the Navajo blanket over them and now that the cooler air from the storm was filling the old storeroom, the warmth from the woven wool was welcome.

“Mmm. I’m thinking I could stay here forever,” she said drowsily. “But something or someone would eventually show up to interrupt us.”

She could feel his sigh ruffle her hair and then his hand was alongside her cheek, tilting her face up to his. When she looked into his blue eyes, her heart squeezed with bittersweet longing. Would he ever want to be with her again like this? Was she crazy to want to snatch what pleasure she could, whenever she could?

“Maura, before we leave here … I wanted you to know that this thing that’s happened between us—I hadn’t planned. Just in case you thought I’d calculated all this—”

He broke off as the upper part of her began to shake with soft chuckles.

“What’s wrong?” he asked. “Am I funny or something?”

“Oh, Quint,” she murmured, then scooting her whole body upward, she planted a kiss on his cheek. “For as long as I live, I would have never thought any such thing. You planning this with me? It’s funny.”

His expression sober, he arched one brow at her. “Really? What’s so funny about it?”

Seeing he wasn’t amused, she pressed her cheek against his. “I’m sorry if that didn’t sound quite right. It’s just that you—you can have any woman you want, Quint. The idea that you’d purposely pursue me is … well, ridiculous.”

With his hands in her hair, he eased her face back from his. “Maura, I think I need to set your thinking straight about a few things. I’m not a playboy. I don’t go after women.”

“Of course not. You don’t have to.”

He groaned with frustration. “Okay, let me put it this way,” he said. “Since the breakup with Holly, I’ve tried to date, to get interested in other women. And yes, I’ve had a few females deliberately try to catch my attention. But none of them sparked anything in me. Until now. Until you.”

Could she believe him? Yes, she decided. Because he was talking about sexual desire, about that special spark of chemistry between a man and a woman. He wasn’t talking about love. That was a whole other thing. A thing that he would never likely bring up. Nor would she.

Swallowing at the thickening in her throat, she said, “Then I’m very flattered, Quint, that you were attracted to me.”

One corner of his rugged mouth turned upward. “And I’m very flattered that you wanted to get this close to me.”

Her hand settled on the curve of his shoulder, then slipped down the hard, corded slope of his arm. Oh, yes, she thought, she wanted to be close to this man in a thousand, million ways.

“When you take a woman on a ride, you really take her on a ride,” she teased softly.

He looked at her with faint disdain and then suddenly he was laughing, twisting her beneath him, and lowering his face down to hers. “You’re good for me, Maura. You make me laugh. And that’s not easy. Just ask Jake what I’m really like.”

Her fingertip traced heart-shaped patterns upon his face. “I’d rather ask you.”

He looked at her, his eyes gliding hungrily over her flushed cheeks and swollen lips, the tangled hair hiding one green eye.

“I’m not an easy man to like, Maura. I’m quiet and moody. And small talk mostly bores me. I’d rather be with my horses. I don’t particularly like money and I hate crowds.”

Her lips curved into a sexy little purse. “Mmm. You sound like a terrible sort of man. Anything else I should know?”

“Yeah. I don’t know anything about being romantic and even if I did, I wouldn’t bother.”

“Why?”

“Because romance is looking at the world through rose-colored glasses. And when a woman looks at me, I want her to clearly see the flaws she’d be getting.”

In order to keep her away? Maura decided the answer to that question didn’t matter. She was looking at him and the future with clear eyes. Quint was a straightforward guy. She’d gone into his arms knowing not to pin any sort of hopes and dreams on the two of them being together permanently.

“Don’t worry,” she replied. “I won’t be expecting flowers.”

He stared at her for long moments and then his mouth crushed down on hers in a kiss that wiped everything from her mind and stirred the want in her all over again.

“Maybe we’d better stay here a little longer,” he whispered huskily. “Until the rain stops.”

Almost a week later, Quint found himself driving up the narrow dirt road that led to his grandfather’s ranch house. For the past few days, he’d fought the urge to return to Apache Wells. He didn’t have the time or energy to make the forty-mile drive often. Hell, he didn’t need to remind himself that he had a ranch of his own to run. With cattle to buy, fences to build, feeders to erect and horses to move from the Chaparral to the Golden Spur, he hardly had time to draw a good breath. But here he was anyway, he thought wryly. Because, in spite of his work and exhaustion, he desperately wanted to see Maura again.

Maura. With her wine-red hair and sea-green eyes. She’d bewitched him. That’s what she’d done. He could scarcely close his eyes without thinking of her naked, her hips arching up to his, scattering his senses like bits of grass in the wind. He’d expected to enjoy making love to her. After all, she was pretty and sexy; a combination hard for any man to resist. But he’d also expected the incident to be a brief encounter to enjoy for the moment, then sweep entirely from his mind.

Face it, Quint. The woman turned you inside out. She shot you straight to heaven, then let you fall back to earth with the slow rocking motion of a drifting feather. You’d never felt anything like it. And now you’re beginning to wonder if she’s something special. The sex was special, you fool. Not her. Get over it.

The cynical voice that had followed Quint around for the last six years tormented him until he braked his truck to a halt in front of the house and climbed out. Yeah, it probably was pure sex that had pushed him to drive forty miles this evening when he should have been taking an early night at home, he thought. But what was wrong with that? He was a man after all. And a man had needs.

To his surprise, he found Abe in his recliner, the television off and a Bible lying open on his lap. Maura wasn’t anywhere to be seen.

“Hey, Gramps,” he greeted.

Looking up with surprise, Abe carefully folded the book together. “Well,” he said mockingly, “the long-lost grandson has finally decided to honor me with a visit.”

Quint grimaced. “Don’t give me that bull. I was just over here last week. You expect me to come over here and hold your hand every day?”

Abe wiped a hand over his drooping white mustache. “No. After one or two days your smart lip would get mighty tryin’,” he countered.

Quint took a seat on the end of the couch, while looking and listening for signs of Maura. The house seemed exceptionally quiet and he couldn’t smell any sort of cooking coming from the kitchen.

“What are you doing in the house?” Quint asked him. “I thought you’d be down at the bunkhouse, playing cards with Jim and having coffee.”

“If you thought that, what are you doing in the house?” Abe parried.

Quint was shocked to feel his face flushing with heat. There was no point for him to hide his interest in Maura. Abe was too crafty for that. “I wanted to talk to Maura.”

“Well, you should have called first. She ain’t here.”

Quint had called three days ago. His conversation with Maura had been pleasant but brief, during which he’d told her he’d see her in a few days. The few days were up and here he was feeling like an idiot for presuming she’d be sitting around his grandfather’s ranch, waiting for him to make an appearance.

“Where is she?”

Abe placed the Bible on the end table next to his chair. “She’s at the hospital.”

It was all Quint could do to keep from leaping to his feet. “Hospital! Has something happened to her? And you didn’t call me?”

Beneath his bushy brows, Abe leveled a disgusted look at him. “Hell, boy, if something was wrong with Maura you think I’d be sitting here?”

Relief pouring through him, Quint rubbed his palms down his thighs. “No,” he conceded gruffly, “I guess not.”

“Damn right I wouldn’t,” Abe stormed back at him. “I’d be right by her side. That’s how a man shows his love.”

Caught by those last words, Quint’s brows arched with dismay. “You love Maura?”

Abe snorted as though Quint’s question was absurd. “Of course I love her. I’ve loved her from the first moment I laid eyes on her.”

Hell. That’s exactly what Quint had feared all along. “I see.”

“No, damn it, you don’t see. You haven’t seen much of anything about women since that silly little Johnson gal threw you over the fence for another man. You think they’re all like her, that they’ve all got their claws out for you. Well, if you’d take the time to look, you’d see that Maura doesn’t have any claws. That’s one of the reasons I love her.”

Dear God, Quint hadn’t driven for nearly an hour to get this sort of preaching, to hear his grandfather admit that he loved the same woman that Quint had taken to his bed. This was insanity.

“Okay. You’ve made your point, Gramps,” he said wearily. “You’re in love with the woman and I should realize that she’s an angel.”

Abe’s boots banged loudly against the footrest as he positioned the chair upright and got to his feet. “Quint, I didn’t say I was ‘in’ love with Maura. I said I loved her. There’s a difference. Sometimes a man has to know his limitations and I can see that she’s too young for me. So,” he said with a shrug, “I just have to settle with havin’ her company. Until she gets tangled up with a man who’ll give her a family.”

Quint let out a pent-up breath. “She’s told you that she wants a family?”

“Not in so many words. But I can just tell when a woman is ripe for that sort of thing.”

If that was the case, then Abe knew a hell of a lot more than Quint knew. From what Maura had implied to him, she wasn’t ready to jump into a serious situation with any man. That was one of the reasons Quint had been drawn to her in the first place. He didn’t have to worry about her getting all clingy and demanding.

“Tell me, Gramps, did Granny know that you were such an expert on women?”

“‘Course she did. She taught me everything I know.” He motioned for Quint to follow him to the kitchen. “C’mon. Let’s find us something to eat. And maybe Maura will show up before long.”

A few minutes later, when Maura arrived and spotted Quint’s truck parked near the front gate, her heart leaped into a dizzying speed. Even though darkness had just now settled over the ranch, daylight savings time made the hour late. Had he made the long drive to see his grandfather? Or her?

After parking her car beneath a covered carport at the back, she entered the house through the kitchen door and discovered both men sitting at the table, eating leftovers from the day before.

As soon as Quint spotted her, he immediately rose to his feet and Maura felt something melt inside as her gaze connected with his blue eyes.

“Come sit with us, Maura,” he invited. “Gramps was just telling me that Brady was involved in some sort of scrape.”

Brady was Maura’s youngest brother had worked as the chief deputy to Lincoln County’s sheriff, Ethan Hamilton. Earlier this afternoon, when Maura had gotten the call that he’d been wounded, she’d left the ranch at breakneck speed and with a litany of prayers passing her lips, sped to the hospital. The ordeal had drained her, but now, seeing Quint was refueling her with happy pleasure.

Shoving a hand through her hair, she pushed the disheveled strands away from her face. “Yes, unfortunately. Some of the men in the department had set up a drug sting and things went amiss when one of the dealers smelled a rat. He pulled out a gun and began shooting. Brady’s arm was hit with a small caliber bullet, but thankfully it was a flesh wound and should heal in a short time.”

She walked over to the table, where Quint already had a chair pulled out for her. As he helped her into it, his closeness shook her, reminded her that she’d spent the past several nights lying awake thinking about him and the way he’d made love to her in such a thorough, precious way.

“That’s good to hear,” Abe said. “Lord knows that brother of yours earns his money the hard way.”

Maura smiled at the old man. “Being a deputy is what he loves to do. Like I love nursing you.” She reached across the table and squeezed his hand. “Have you been feeling okay while I was gone?”

He grinned at her. “If I felt any better I’d have to go out and jump a fence. And Quint here showed up to keep me company. That’s somethin’ that don’t happen every day.”

At the opposite end of the table, Quint cleared his throat. “We were just having a little supper, Maura. Would you like a plate? Something to drink?” he asked.

She wanted none of those things. She simply wanted to be in his arms, to feel herself all wrapped up against his hard body, his lips moving against hers. Oh my, oh my, what had this man done to her? She was sex-crazed, but only one certain man would do.