Beverly Barton - The Outcast

"I had a lot to settle back in Newell," Reece said.

"Have you got it all settled now?" Margaret asked.

"Yes, ma'am, I do."

"Thought so, but I wanted to make sure." Margaret held out her hand in front of Elizabeth, motioning for O'Grady. The old man stepped forward, took Margaret's hand and led her to the delivery van.

Elizabeth waved goodbye to her aunt and O'Grady as they drove off down the road, then she turned back to Reece. They stood staring at each other, neither moving an inch.

"I've missed you, Lizzie."

"I've missed you, too."

MacDatho sat down beside Elizabeth, always her faithful companion. Why doesn't Reece say something else? she wondered when the silence between them dragged on for endless moments.

"It's a bit chilly out here. Would you like to come in?" She wanted to scream at him, to demand that he tell her why he'd come. Was he here to stay or just for a visit? Had he come to her or had he come for her? Or was he here to say goodbye?

"Elizabeth?" Reece took a tentative step in her direction.

"Yes?"

"Am I too late?"

"Are you... What are you saying, Reece?"

"I'm saying that I know what I want. I know what will make me happy, and it isn't running Stanton Industries or living in Newell in a mansion or lording it over Kenny that our father left me an equal share of everything he owned."

"What will make you happy?" Elizabeth's heartbeat roared in her ears. This was the moment she'd been waiting for, the moment Reece would come to her, his past behind him.

"Spending the rest of my life with you, Lizzie, that's what would make me happy." He took several giant steps, lifted her off her feet and whirled her around in the air.

She squealed with delight, drowning in the joy of being in Reece's arms. He slid her down his body, depositing her feet on the ground. She lifted her arms around his neck, gazing up at him with all the love in her heart glowing in her blue eyes.

Lowering his head, Reece took her lips in a kiss that took her breath away. She clung to him, responding with equal fervor as he deepened the kiss. He ran his hands over her back, her arms, her waist, her hips. She grasped his shoulder with one hand while she threaded her fingers through his hair at his neckline.

When they had kissed until they were spent, Reece lifted her in his arms and started up the steps, taking two at a time. MacDatho followed them inside the cabin, but stopped outside Elizabeth's bedroom and lay down in the hall.

With Elizabeth still in his arms, Reece eased his knees down onto her bed, the two of them clinging to each other. When she lay beneath him, he started kissing her again as he unbuttoned her blouse. With eager hands they undressed each other. Clothes flew into the air, landing here and there in the room. A shirt on the dresser, a blouse on a rocking chair, slacks on the floor, socks at the foot of the bed, briefs on the nightstand.

"I want you to marry me, Lizzie. I want to spend the rest of my life here in Sequana Falls with you." He kissed the hollow in her throat, his hands inching their way down from her waist to lift her hips. "I'll draw an income from my stocks in Stanton Industries, but I have no desire to be involved in running the company. You can teach me about the nursery business. We'll see if I have a green thumb."

Elizabeth reached up, grasping his shoulders. "You won't be bored living so far away from civilization?"

"I'll never be bored as long as I'm with you, don't you know that?"

"I love you, Reece. I love you so much." She gave herself to him, completely, wholly-her body, her heart and her soul. She was his now and forever.

Reece accepted her offer, thrusting into her with fierce possession, taking her completely, wholly, and giving himself in the same way. At long last he had found a home, a place to truly belong-in the arms of the woman who had been destined to save him from his past and give him a future he'd never dreamed possible.

Their mating was fast and intense, their passion having built to an almost unbearable point by six weeks of abstinence. Their bodies moved in unison, hot and raw and wild, their hands and mouths seeking and finding, giving and taking until fulfillment flung them over the precipice and into total satiation. They clung to each other, their hearts united, their souls forever one.

Elizabeth lay in Reece's arms. He petted her hip. He nuzzled her neck with his nose. She sighed with happiness.

"Elizabeth." Cupping her chin in his hand, he lifted her face. She smiled at him. "I love you. I love everything about you. Your blue eyes, your sweet lips." He kissed her quickly. "I love your body. I love the way it feels when I make love to you. like nothing I've ever known. And I love your good heart, the way you care about everyone and everything."

A teardrop fell from Elizabeth's eye, ran down her cheek and onto her jaw. One by one other tears followed. "We're going to be so happy."

"Are you looking into our future?" He kissed her on the shoulder.

"No, I... Aunt Margaret did, but she wouldn't tell me what she saw." Elizabeth remembered her aunt telling her to take Reece down to her great-grandmother's cottage today, that she'd planned a surprise for them.

"Well, she'd better have seen a wedding and children and a long, long life for the two of us together." Reece lifted Elizabeth up and over to lie on top of him. He traced a slow, seductive line down her spine.

"Before dark I want to take you to my great-grandmother's honeymoon cottage. I want us to spend our wedding night there."

"We'll go. Before dark." Reece rubbed himself up and down against Elizabeth. "That leaves us all afternoon to make love."

"Let's not waste a minute," Elizabeth said, situating herself to take him into her body.

Elizabeth led Reece through the woods to the small Victorian A-frame cottage standing in the middle of a tiny clearing. A picket fence enclosed the yard where tulips and jonquils bloomed in profusion.

"My great-grandfather built this little cottage as a wedding present for my great-grandmother. They spent their wedding night here and every anniversary for the rest of their lives together."

"I can see why you want us to start our married life here," Reece said, lifting Elizabeth into his arms.

He carried her up the walk, up the steps and onto the porch, MacDatho following. The front door opened to Reece's touch. He carried her inside, then set her on her feet. Mac stretched out across the floor, guarding the door.

Elizabeth glanced around the living room, but saw nothing out of place, nothing unusual. What had Aunt Margaret meant about a surprise for Reece and her?

"What are you looking for?" he asked.

"Aunt Margaret told me to bring you down here today, that she'd prepared a surprise for us." Elizabeth tugged on his hand. "Come on, let's look in the bedrooms."

She led him into the front bedroom, the one that opened out onto the porch. She gasped when she looked at the bed.

There lying on the antique, wrought-iron bed was a wedding dress-her great-grandmother's wedding dress, yellowed with age to a golden cream.

Reece watched Elizabeth as she touched the silk folds of the skirt, as she fingered the lace bodice. He came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her.

"I'd say Aunt Margaret sees a wedding in our future," Reece said.

Elizabeth turned in his arms, burying her face against his chest, breathing in the heady aroma of masculinity that surrounded Reece.

She felt a sudden intrusion into her mind. Smiling, she returned a message to her great-aunt, who had wished her happiness, then told her to take Reece into the back bedroom.

"Come on, I think there's more to our surprise." Elizabeth led him to the small bedroom at the back of the cottage. The last time she'd been in the room it had contained a cot, a cane-bottomed chair and a rickety table that sat by the window.