Once she finished one bout of spasming, he settled himself deep inside her and said, “I love you, chère.”
“I love you, too,” she said, caressing his face gently. Then, she added with what she hoped was a chuckle, “Prove it.”
He proceeded to with slow, excruciatingly pleasurable strokes. Filling her. Then almost pulling out totally. Filling her. Then almost pulling out totally. Repeatedly. Forever.
Charmaine once had a client, a sex therapist, who claimed that in the average sexual encounter the man thrusts 125 times. She’d believed then that the woman had been pulling her leg.
Now, she believed she’d been telling the truth.
In the end, she screamed and raised her hips high, forcing him to go faster. “Harder,” she demanded.
“Like that?”
“Faster… dammit… faster!”
He laughed, a raw masculine sound of satisfaction, “like that?”
She couldn’t speak, so intense was the grasping and ungrasping of her inner folds around him.
He couldn’t speak then, either.
Except in the end when they both gasped out, “I… love… you!”
Chapter 17
Then the cow you-know-what hit the fan.
“I didn’t know the sun rose this early,” Charmaine said with a wide yawn.
Raoul was driving them back to the ranch, relishing the feel of her fingers laced with his… an oddly innocent and yet appropriate end to their wild night. He hadn’t wanted to leave their love nest, corny as it had been. It was only four-thirty, but he needed to be back at the ranch when work started for the day. There was too much for Clarence and Linc to handle on their own, even with Jimmy’s help, after yesterday’s holiday.
But what was that about sunrise? He looked over to the horizon where Charmaine pointed. Then did a double take.
“That’s not the sun. It’s a fire. And it appears to be at the Triple L,” he said, trying unsuccessfully to control the panic in his voice. He pressed the accelerator to the floor.
Charmaine held tightly to the roll bar as they sped down the single lane road. “Oh, my God! A fire? And Tante Lulu is there all alone… assuming everyone else has gone home. And my mother and Dirk, of course. Oh, my God!”
When they screeched into the front yard, Clarence, Linc, Jimmy, and, yes, Tante Lulu, were watching the barn being consumed with flames. On the porch stood Fleur and Dirk, their Winnebago having been moved to the back yard. One fire truck was already there wielding its water hoses in hopes of confining the blaze, the barn itself being an obvious loss. Other fire trucks with squealing sirens could be heard approaching from neighboring towns.
“Anyone hurt?” Raoul yelled out to Clarence before he even turned off the ignition.
Clarence shook his head. “Everyone’s safe.”
“The Thanksgiving guests left soon after nightfall,” Linc elaborated. “The old lady’s the one who first discovered the fire… ’bout 2:00 a.m. Said she got up to go to the bathroom and looked out the window. No one knew where you were, so we couldn’t call you. Anyways, we got all the stock out. Except for singed hides on some of the horses, they all made it out in time.”
Raoul released the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. The veterinarian in him would have been especially horrified at all those animals suffering so.
“Arson, I assume?” Raoul was addressing Clarence once again.
Clarence shrugged. “Too soon to tell, but that would be my guess.” Clarence had seen a lot in his time, but his hands shook now.
The whole time they talked, Jimmy stared fixedly at the fire. He was probably scared to death. Someone would have to take him aside and talk down his fears, as soon as things calmed down.
Charmaine was hugging Tante Lulu and crying. Tante Lulu chattered away excitedly, explaining what had happened and when. While she certainly wouldn’t wish a fire on him, the old lady must certainly be revved up by all the commotion in their lives, compared to her normally mundane life. At least, there had been commotion ever since Charmaine had arrived. And, actually, chaos seemed to follow Tante Lulu, too, from what he’d heard.