Harlot at the Homestead Page 3

  He rubbed his eyes. Of course she hadn’t disappeared. He wasn’t mad, hadn’t invented her return. She’d merely climbed up to their own secret space where they’d spent many summer days and nights wrapped around each other, pleasuring their bodies in every way they could imagine. He grew hard at the memories and hurried toward the ladder.

  Chapter Three

  Catherine moved away from the trapdoor and crawled across the upper floor. When she reached the point where the ceiling was highest, she got to her feet and waited.

  Just moments ago, as she’d looked down on Kenan, he’d appeared lost, his face blanched, his expression one of terror. She knew because she’d seen it upon her own face whenever she’d looked in the mirror during her time in New York. But why was he afraid? Did he believe that she had left him again? Her heart ached for all that he had suffered. For the things she’d put him through.

  He had warmed to her during the course of the evening but she wondered how much. He needed her comfort, to be near her physically, and she could give him that much at least. Lord knew, she wanted it, too. But she doubted that she’d ever be able to mend him completely. She could see it now, even more clearly than before. He had loved her as much as she’d loved him and being separated from her had ripped him apart.

  The light from the lamp reached the hatch then flooded the upper section of the barn. It threw shadows across the room, which increased her longing to be held in his strong arms. She wanted to feel safe again. She had dreamt of this reunion, yet never believed that it would really happen. She hadn’t even known if she would make it back here or if he would be here if she did. The far off rumble of thunder brought a faint smile to her face. The storm had passed, for now. She leaned over and pulled off her wet, muddy boots, savoring the feel of the straw beneath her soles.

  Kenan crawled toward her then stood. He had to hunch over, even at the roof’s highest point and he looked so awkward. It reminded her of how he’d been when they’d first consummated their love. He’d been gentle, tentative, almost reverent in his perusal of her body. Though he’d not been totally innocent, he’d acted like a man making love for the first time and she’d appreciated it because she’d given him her virginity and wanted to feel that he was doing the same. He had admitted afterwards that he had lain with another woman but it had been different, not an act of real desire but a perfunctory act, a rite of passage.

  “Why don’t you sit?” She gestured toward the floor.

  He put the lamp down then opened one of the blankets and flicked it out across the straw covered wooden boards. He lowered himself onto it and sat cross-legged, his hands on his knees.

  Catherine summoned her courage. She would seize this moment and savor it. She might not get another chance. Kenan had been so angry with her earlier and she knew that once his tiredness cleared and his desire was spent, it could well return. Grief worked in strange, irrational patterns and she didn’t want to give it the opportunity to claim him again just yet.

  She pushed her wet hair over her shoulders and began unbuttoning the front of her housedress. She fumbled with the buttons because the wet material clung to them but the eagerness she saw in Kenan’s eyes drove her on.

  When she dropped her dress to the floor, he shifted his position and she could see the tell-tale bulge at his groin. She was exciting him and it thrilled her. She slipped down her petticoat and stood before him in her flimsy chemise, corset, bloomers and stockings. He was breathing heavily now and had shifted to his knees.

  She froze.

  “Please…keep going.” His voice was husky with need. “Don’t stop…”

  “Of course not,” she shook her head. She would not stop until she had eased his sorrow and hers. Temporary relief was better than none at all. They would live in the moment, be together for now.

  She bent to peel off her stockings, but he pushed her hand away.

  “Let me.”

  Catherine straightened up and stretched out a leg so that her foot rested upon his groin. She rubbed his crotch. He moaned and gripped her ankle, grinding against her toes.

  When he slid his hands up her leg to her stocking top, it was her turn to gasp at the shivers his touch sent through her. Heat flickered between her legs. He peeled down the stocking then did the same with the other one.

  “Nearly naked,” he growled, as he slid his hands up to her waistband.

  Her bloomers were stripped from her body in a flash and her corset soon followed. She had forgotten about this talent of his for removing clothing. His hands were skilled and dexterous. It amazed her that a man who was such an expert with a lasso and at delivering a trapped calf from its mother’s womb could also be such a gentle yet masterful lover.

  Kenan rose to his knees in front of her and pushed his face into the thin material that covered her stomach. She held him there, running her fingers through his thick hair and relaxing into his hands as he circled them over her back. He slid them lower then, to her buttocks where he squeezed and cupped her until she moaned with need. He pressed his fingertips between her buttocks and massaged toward her thighs, delving between her increasingly wet folds. She opened her legs and moved with his touch, eager to feel him inside.

  When he pulled away, she bit her lip in frustration.

  “Let me see all of you, Catherine.”

  She shrugged her drying chemise from her shoulders and allowed it to float down her body like a frothy white cloud to the floor. The air was cool as it met her skin but his hands were fire as he caressed her body.

  “I missed you, Catherine.” He stared at her, entranced, and she shivered under the intensity of his gaze.

  “I missed you too, Kenan,” she replied but swallowed the utterance, though I doubt that you will ever really believe me.

  A frown passed across his face and she held her breath, afraid that she had ruined the moment, but it was quickly replaced with a look of desire and she let her breath out in a sigh.

  He pushed his hands higher and she froze as he cupped her breasts. He fondled the heavy mounds and lifted them as if amazed at their weight.

  “You have the most perfect tits, Catherine,” he muttered, before covering them with hot kisses. “I have never seen their likeness.”

  Her heart sank as she realized that he had likely been with other women during her absence. She had hoped to keep him exclusively for herself but then she hadn’t exactly been true to him. The disturbing images of faceless women were soon banished as he ran his calloused palms over her bosoms. It heightened her own longing and she surrendered to the need welling up within her. There would be time for worries and regrets tomorrow, but tonight was for pleasure and comfort. He suckled her nipples, rolling his hot tongue over each of them in turn, taking her eager flesh into his mouth. She could sense that his need was raw, that he wanted her as she did him.

  “Touch me?” she asked.

  “Of course.”

  His experience led him straight to the apex of her thighs where he rubbed and teased the soft rounded flesh of her legs. He brushed the back of his hands softly against the red curls at her groin and the gentle pressure made her bud swell in anticipation. She shivered as a knuckle grazed her clitoris making it tingle.

  “Do you like that, sweetheart?” He leaned forward and kissed her navel, poking his tongue into the shallow hole. His hot breath fired her lust and she grabbed him by the hair then pushed her hips toward him to urge him to caress her fully. When his fingers parted the damp curls and met her silken folds, the sensation made her gasp. It had been so long since she had felt such tender cherishing. The summit of pleasure rose before her and she flung her head back and rode the waves that his delicate circling and massaging encouraged. Stars appeared then burst before her eyes, and she was catapulted through darkness then flung gasping into the light.

  As her shuddering slowed, she loosened her grip on his hair. She had come so quickly under his knowing caress. It seemed that her longing for him had heightened her arousal, quickened he
r climax.

  “You ready to ride a cowboy?” he asked. He slid a finger inside her, causing her to tremble with an aftershock of her climax then he added another, stretching her slightly, and she opened her legs to encourage him.

  “Oh yes, Kenan…yes!” She gasped. The image of his thick hard cock filling her almost pushed her over the edge again.

  When he withdrew his fingers she groaned with disappointment.

  “Don’t fret, Catherine.” He chuckled. “I’ll fill you up in due time.”

  He stripped off his clothing, and she eyed his lean, male body. His torso was golden from his time outdoors and his arms and shoulders rippled with his movements, displaying the well-honed muscles beneath the skin. His chest was broad, his stomach flat and his thighs large and muscular. And attracting her attention more than any other part of him, teasing her in the lamp light, was his thick, hard cock.

  He lay back on the blanket and she realized that it was as if none of the bad things had ever happened. Things were as they had been and they would share their bodies, hearts and minds in this explosive union of man and woman. Their flesh would mold, their hearts would beat in time and they would become as one. They would know each other as only lovers could.

  “Come here!” His voice was harsh with carnal thirst.

  She lifted a leg across his body to straddle him then lowered slowly to perch upon his thighs. When she took hold of his erection he tensed. She gripped him in both hands, marveling at the sheer length and girth of him. He was a man amongst men and she had forgotten how magnificent he was.

  She ran her hands up and down, stretching her fingers to circle his steel hard shaft. He moaned when she rubbed the thumb of her top hand over his tip to smear his thick juice. She licked her lips hungrily, aware that this fluid would ease his passage into her. As she fondled him, he lifted his hips and closed his eyes, giving into her hands and letting them guide him toward ecstasy.

  She shifted down his body until her head was directly above his groin, then she lowered her mouth and flickered her tongue over the tip of his penis. His familiar taste filled her mouth and senses and she plunged him deep into her throat, yearning to join her flesh with his. Kenan cried out as she repeated the movement again and again and she felt his cock tensing and twitching against her lips and her tongue.

  “Catherine, please.” He suddenly stopped her. “I need you now. Be with me.”

  She needed no further encouragement. She lifted her head then shuffled forwards, pressing her labia onto him and guiding him toward her opening. He pushed against her and she sat upright, contracting her inner muscles to accentuate his sensation upon entry. He felt so big that she wondered for a moment if she could take him.

  “You’re so tight!” he exclaimed, gripping her hips and slipping into her inch by delicious inch, until she felt him stretching her inner walls, his bulging cockhead throbbing against her cervix.

  “I’ve missed how you fill me, Kenan.”

  “I have missed your warmth around me, Catherine. And now I need to take you.”

  He began to move slowly in and out of her, gently at first so that he never left her completely. Each time their bodies met again, she felt the tingling in her sensitive bud increase. As their need grew, his thrusting increased in pace and he seemed to lose control. She cried out as he pounded relentlessly into her and sent waves of sharp sweetness cascading through her belly. It ached, yet it didn’t, and she wanted him more and more.

  The delicious sensations drove her onwards and she rode him fiercely, wildly, leaning her head backward so that her hair hung over his thighs. She pulled his hands up over her breasts, yearning to feel him squeezing them as she neared her climax.

  “Catherine?”

  “Please my love, don’t stop!”

  He obeyed and Catherine moved as one with him, their bodies united in a mutual goal. She had been thirsty as a woman lost in the desert but now she had found a mountain spring. Kenan was here, beneath her, and she was full of his cock, full of his need and full of pleasure.

  They rolled over into the abyss together and she grasped at his hands, forcing his fingers to pinch her hard at her nipples. She bounced on him furiously, feeling his hot seed filling her depths and she kept moving until her climax slowed then faded away like a retreating thunder storm.

  “I love you, Kenan,” she spoke softly then raised his hands to her lips and showered them with kisses.

  “I know,” he replied. “I love you too.

  As her own slick juices trickled down her thighs, mingling with his, she realized that he had just reopened her heart.

  Chapter Four

  Kenan awoke in the pale light of dawn and rolled over. He blinked hard as he stared at the beams above and tried to ascertain his whereabouts. Then it all came flooding back. He was in the hay loft. He’d come out here last night with Catherine and they’d experienced an explosive reunion.

  He reached out for her, yearning for her warmth, but he found only the imprint of her body in the blanket covering the hay.

  He sat up and looked around.

  She was gone.

  He leaned over and buried his face into the rough outline of her form. Her sweet fragrance made his breath catch in his throat. She had been here. It hadn’t been a cruel dream. So where in the hell was she now?

  He grabbed his clothes and crawled over to the ladder then hurried down to the barn.

  A loud whistle when he reached the bottom rung stopped him in his tracks.

  “Well whadda we got here?”

  Kenan turned slowly, covering his groin with the bundle of clothing, to meet the smiling hazel eyes of his brother.

  “Morning, Matthew.” He offered a bashful grin.

  “You been out here all night, brother?” Matthew frowned but Kenan could see that his lips were twitching at the corners.

  “What of it?” Kenan dropped his clothes to the floor then began dressing.

  “Nothing.” Matthew grinned. “Nothing at all!”

  “Have you…?” Kenan bit his lip.

  “Have I seen Catherine?”

  Kenan inclined his head.

  “Sneaking into the house not half an hour ago, hoping to climb in beside Rosie before she notices.” Matthew rubbed the nose of his mare as she poked her head over the gate of her stall.

  Kenan pulled on his boots and hid a smile, imagining Rosie lying there feigning sleep whilst Catherine snuck into bed. At least he knew she’d been there with him all night. He’d slept so well, for the first time in two years, that he’d not even stirred when she’d risen.

  “You know what you’re doing, Kenan?” Matthew moved closer. “I mean…”

  Kenan shook his head. “I really don’t. It’s just…I’m so…I wish I…” He held out his hands and shrugged. “It just felt so good to be with her again. I believed I’d never see her and I just wanted to hold her.”

  “I understand that, Kenan, I really do.” Matthew squeezed his shoulder. “Did you manage to find out what happened to her? Where she’s been all this time? She was in a bit of a mess last night.” He looked down and scuffed the toe of his brown boot against the floor.

  Kenan frowned. His empty stomach churned as the sense of calm he’d felt on knowing Catherine was really alive evaporated at Matthew’s words. Matthew was right to question him. Last night, he hadn’t found out where Catherine had been for the past two years. He’d become too emotional then got carried away on a wave of passion and need. He sighed.

  “It’s obvious she’s been through something but when I asked her about it last night I got mad and she just clammed right up. It’s gonna be hard to get her talking.”

  “Well, why don’t you two take off somewhere today—get away from here and take her somewhere you used to go.”

  Kenan chewed his lower lip. It was a good idea. They wouldn’t get much privacy if they stayed round the homestead and he couldn’t leave things to simmer. Something was wrong and he had to know what it was, even if he didn’
t like it. The truth could be real tough on a man and he knew that if his suspicions about Catherine being with another man were right, it was going to tear him apart. But he had to know. Ignorance was worse. After all, hadn’t he been ignorant of the fact that she’d actually been alive all this time? If he’d known she was still living he’d have continued hunting high and low for her. But he’d eventually given in and believed her uncle’s tale.

  Her uncle. He clenched his hands into fists. That man had allowed him to think that Catherine was dead, raped and scalped, buried in an unmarked grave or eaten by wild animals as her flesh had rotted quickly under the Montana sky. He had to get out to the old man’s farm and speak to him, give him a piece of his mind, so that the old goat didn’t think he’d gotten away with his deception.

  “I’ll get right on it, Matthew. Thanks!” Kenan smiled and ruffled his brother’s hair then dodged out of reach. It was an old trick he used to remind his brothers that he was the eldest and could still show them a thing or two. Matthew laughed as he turned back to his horse, seemingly unaware that despite Kenan’s jokey demeanor, his gut was churning and he was torn between dread and excitement at what the day held in store.

  * * * *

  Catherine held out her arms to Kenan and allowed him to lift her into the saddle then she swung her left leg over the horse. Matthew had been kind enough to let her take his mare so that she could ride out with Kenan. He’d told her that they were going out to check the surrounding land for possible expansion of their homestead but she knew better. The quick smile that had passed between Kenan and Matthew had told her enough. This trip was about her and Kenan having time alone.

  Her stomach flipped. She wanted to be with him, more than she had ever wanted anything, but it also made her nervous. Last night had been wonderful but it had been a time for need and comfort. They had lost themselves in waves of passion and desire and become like wild animals intent upon reaching physical fulfilment. Today would be about honesty and confession and that concerned her. In Kenan’s arms in the barn, she’d been able to pretend that all was well, to forget, even, what had been. But she knew Kenan and his solid belief in being forthright and just. His integrity held him firm like a solid stone pillar and it would crumble for no man or woman. There would be no more pleasure without pain.