Free Bombshell by Phyllis DeMarco Page B

calm his fears, flashed him her most vampish smile. “Best be careful, Sheriff. I get my energy back, there’s no telling what I might do. I’ve been looking forward to a good ravishing since I first laid eyes on you.”
    ****
    Penelope gave up scratching at the bedroom door once Calaway tossed out her favorite rag doll. “Can’t have her peekin’,” he said with a laugh. “Might ruin her for life.”
    Annalee unbuttoned the first few buttons of her dress and pulled down the window shade. The sheriff cocked an eyebrow at her.
    “Ain’t nobody can see.”
    “I’m shy.”
    “I reckon you’re a lot of things, Annalee, but shy ain’t one of ’em.”
    His soft laughter filled her heart to brimming. Her kisses were joyful and light, butterfly kisses that soon brought a terrible urgency to his need for her. Calaway pulled her so close she could feel the thunderous pounding of his heart and the growing desire between his legs. He nuzzled the swell of her breasts and gently nipped at the hard nipples, still half-sheathed in the material of her dress, until Annalee was sure she would go mad with delight.
    “Too many buttons,” he whispered, and pulled at her dress until at long last it gave way and revealed the warm, alabaster flesh beneath.
    Annalee let what remained of her dress fall to her waist, and for a long moment he could do nothing more than drink in the beauty before him. He studied the loveliness of her face, took in every detail as if he feared he might never see its equal again. Her breasts, perfect and full, beckoned him. He pulled her close, so close that she straddled his hips, and kissed the tiny, dark beauty mark that lived just below her breast.
    She fell into bed alongside him, laughing and moaning at the electric thrill his warm lips sent coursing through her body. His hot breath tingled in her ear; and as they made love, she pulled him deeper, deeper inside her until she knew for certain they were truly one, until all the joys and passions of their lives came bursting forth in one tremendous explosion that left them both trembling and spent.
    Annalee fought for the breath she was sure she would never quite catch again. Her legs yet entwined with his, she leaned in close and gave him a gentle kiss. “My goodness.”
    Calaway closed his eyes and broke into laughter. “Is that all you can say?”
    “How about ‘wow’,” she purred. “Is that better?”
    “Much.”
    She propped herself up on her elbow and gazed into his face, into those magnificent blue eyes, and thought for certain that her soul would burst, for it was filled to overflowing. She gently traced her finger along his cheek, to his lips, and smiled as he kissed her fingertip.
    “Remind me to thank Miss Katie Belle Calaway for bringing you into the world.”
    “Aw, she’s gone on to glory—gone ten years now,” he told her.
    “Well, when you get there, send her my thanks.”
    “Don’t you think you’ll get to Heaven one day, Annalee?”
    She couldn’t resist one more kiss. “After what we just did, and liking it so much, I’m not so sure.”
    He pulled her into his powerful arms and brushed her platinum hair from her eyes. “Like silk,” he murmured. “I never felt a woman’s hair as soft as yours. I could get used to it.”
    “And then you’d be spoiled rotten, wouldn’t you?”
    “Tell me you won’t leave.”
    “But I have to,” she said. “I’ve got to get back and hand out the pay...and see what Sully’s up to.”
    “I mean don’t go back to California.”
    Annalee fell back against the pillow and hoped he would not notice the glimmer of panic she was certain had crept into her eyes.
    Calaway rolled onto his back and let out a soft laugh. “You know, I was thinkin’ about when we first met, how we both figured romance was for saps. Remember that?”
    “Mm-hmm.”
    “And I was thinkin’ about the night at my house...and the night that no-count hobo tried to hurt you and how scared I was that he