Free Mackinnons #02 For All the Right Reasons by Elaine Coffman Page A

gun down and place it against my breast and pull the trigger.”
    When he had started to speak, she had taken his hand and led him outside to stand on the porch. “Look out there, Alex. Look as far as you can in any direction you desire, and tell me what you see.”
    “I see the land.”
    “You see? We are so different, Alex. You look out there and see the land, but when I look, I see the stars.”
    Had anything changed for her? He found himself wondering if she still saw stars. He wondered if she had thought much about him all these years he’d been away. He hadn’t written, but there had been no chance, not when he was always on the move, fighting a war in Mexico. At least that offered some consolation. With the war going on, there weren’t many eligible men around. Not that he was interested in whether or not there were any men left in Limestone County, mind you, but it did mean that Karin, more than likely, hadn’t found a star to hitch her wagon to.
    He was still a bit uneasy, though. A woman as beautiful as Karin—as beautiful and determined. He wouldn’t put it past her to marry some old fool in his dotage, as long as he had money. No one around Limestone County had much more than the Mackinnons or Simons—another point in his favor. Maybe, just maybe, if his luck held, she might be waiting for him, just as she had been that night he had come by her house to say goodbye.
    His thoughts spun backward to the last time they had been together. He had asked her to wait for him, to give him a chance to prove himself when he returned. The moment he had spoken those words, he wished them back. Karin hadn’t said anything.
    She had simply looked at him, her eyes meeting his. For some time they had looked at each other, her beautiful blue eyes snared for a moment by his and unable to look away. He had known even then that her heart must be hammering as fiercely as his own, had known that the blush that stole to her cheek spoke for a woman full of yearning.
    Well aware of her hesitancy, of her love for him on the one hand, of her long-held desire to better herself on the other, Alex had moved in swiftly. His arms had come around her, drawing her small-framed body hard against his, as his mouth sought and found hers. Lord, he remembered just how soft her mouth was—soft and responsive, and he had parted her lips gently and easily, his tongue surrounded with her warm sweetness. Even now, he could feel the way her fingers had moved swiftly to the back of his head, digging into hair that was a little too long, her nails raking his scalp. His hands had been so frantic to press her closer, as if by doing so he could mold her against him and bind her to him forever; flesh to flesh, bone to bone, woman to man, mate to mate.
    As it always did whenever he was around her, he had felt himself growing rock hard, knowing too that she had felt the rise of his desire, firm and strong, against her belly. His hands had moved from her shoulders to the small of her back, rubbing, caressing, learning the shape of that which he held so dear. His body straining for fulfillment, his mind reeling with need, his hands had come around to caress her breasts. It was as it had always been, that night being no different from all the others—first the talking, then the kissing, the touching, the wanting, and for Karin, the fear. She had broken away. “Alex, please. We can’t…”
    “Why the hell can’t we?”
    “Please, Alex. It’s our last night together. Don’t let’s be angry with each other. Let us both have something more to remember than anger, or…”
    “Or what? Go on, say it.”
    “I wasn’t going to say anything.”
    “The hell you weren’t. You were going to say the groping , weren’t you?” He shook her. “Well? Weren’t you?”
    “All right, damn you! What if I was?”
    “Thank you, at least, for your honesty.”
    “It isn’t like you think, Alex.”
    “No? Then how is it, sweetheart? Tell me how it is for you